Susan, the occupational therapist, had Michael for about 90 minutes today and felt that his major and minor gross motor skills are more or less on target (maybe slightly delayed, but nothing too troubling) but that he has a definite "block" when it comes to... how did she put it? Coming up with an idea and executing it. He would longingly look at the slide, but wouldn't go up it, for example. He also has "gravitational insecurity." She said she saw "lots of good things" though; he is very engaged and curious, makes good eye contact and socializes pretty well, and gets over "traumas" easily. She contrasted it with some kids who come in and wander around the room, disengaged the whole time. She thinks he'd benefit greatly from therapy. She's going to speak with me more in-depth after she writes up a formal evaluation and takes into account the forms I filled out.
He's also been seeing a speech therapist for about two weeks, Christi ("Miss Kiki"). Right now she is just trying to teach him to "turn his voice on," i.e. that if he speaks, he can get what he wants. So if he wants more of something, he needs to verbalize it somehow (even "mmmm").
Michael loves going to therapy, and I love it too, because they play with him and engage him for an hour and I can just relax. And after we met our deductible for the insurance, it isn't too much money. I see it as an hour of babysitting. ;-)
We are also in the middle of moving. This is our overlap month; that is, we closed on the house and are living at the apartment still, but our lease here is up at the end of June. We are having movers come and haul our stuff next Tuesday, and we've been doing some work in the meantime. Ben's parents kindly spent a weekend helping us get ready (sealing the grout and kitchen backsplash, installing the garage door openers, and installing ceiling fans). My job has mostly been to keep Michael out of the way.
Ben spends most of his "free time" getting the house in order, so I have been getting loads of Michael time, which can be exhausting. I also spend a lot of time making phone calls these days (to insurance companies, to doctors, to house subcontractors, etc.).
There aren't enough hours in the day, especially when it takes two of them just to get Michael to take a nap. Lately he has been very, very difficult to put down for his afternoon nap. Two hours is not an exaggeration. He'd skip it every day if he could... and sometimes, when I don't want to deal with it, I let him. Ben is able to get him to sleep easier (so nights are much easier to get him to go down). Michael now crawls onto Daddy when it's time to sleep. This morning after I came back from the gym, I found Ben asleep on his stomach, and Michael on top. Apparently, Michael woke up at some point in our bed and plopped onto Ben's back to fall back asleep.
