31 for 21 - Normal Life

Tonight I thought I'd share with you how we incorporate therapy and medical treatments into our day with Violette. You'll see how stressful it is (not!)

So tonight, Steve went to pick his mom up at the airport.

The girls wanted to go to Sonic Burger for dinner, and they decided to watch Toy Story in the car while we ate. I decided it would be a good time for some OT (Which is occupational therapy for those of you not parenting a child with DS.) Violette sat in her seat, drank her milk, put it in the cup holder on her car seat when she was done with it, ate a grilled cheese and french fries. Then she gobbled down a banana. I read the paper, and a magazine. That is what I call OT.

Next up was the medical portion of the evening. We went home. I had picked up some Nordic Naturals DHA Supplement for Violette to take today (DHA is basically fish oil, and this particular brand has a pretty good reputation with the other moms of kiddos w/DS) so I gave 1/2 a teaspoon of that to Violette. She took it great. Then she got her reflux medicine - she gets a 1/2 a teaspoon. Nasty tasting stuff that she loves. Again, she took it great.

We then moved into the PT portion of the evening (PT = Physical Therapy). She and Lilianne watched the Backyardigans. I ran upstairs and checked the computer. During that time, Lilianne and Violette danced in circles, and Lilianne pinned Violette down on the floor of the family room. Vivianne yelled at her to stop, and Violette fought her way out of the hold. It was a very active PT session.


I came back down stairs. Got her bottle together (a little more Dr. Mom - I carefully slop about a half a cap of Miralax into the bottle to keep her "regular".) Grabbed her to take her to bed - she kissed Lilianne goodnight, and came upstairs and kissed Vivianne goodnight.

Then more OT. We went in the bathroom and she brushed her teeth. And then I helped her brush her teeth. And then she spit out what was in her mouth, and I gave her a little drink of water.

Next up? Speech Therapy. We went in and changed her into her jammies. Then she signed "Book" to me. We went over to the rocking chair, and I read her two books. She LOVES looking at and listening to books. She's pretty cute in that she signs a lot of what she sees, so she's really following right along with it.

I then put her in her bed, turned on her music (Sounds Like Fun from Discovery Toys is what she listens to every night.) And then I left...

Then I heard her crying, which usually means one thing. And it did. The Miralax that keeps her regular, kept her regular yet again. I can set my clock by her poops, lol! While changing her I asked her all her body parts. She knows head, hair, eyebrow, eye, teeth, ear, nose, lips, tongue, arm, elbow, fingers, fingernail, heart, belly, tummy, belly button, bootie, legs, toes, toenail and knees. We are working on ankle.

So I changed her, and then she wanted to rock with me. She loves getting silly at this time of day, and seems to do the most of her talking then.

So we take advantage of this very active and alert time of day for Violette (when she should be sleeping, lol) with our most intense speech therapy of the evening. I usually will prompt her to say all the words that I know she can say. Things she can say include boat, more, mom, eyes, MINE!!!!, done, Dora and quite a few more. I'll ask her to say something, and she'll repeat it, or show me the sign. I'll try to sneak different words in to see if she comes up with the approximation. Now the whole time we are doing this, we are rocking back and forth, and usually she is standing on my legs, doing back bends, patting my hair, looking at my teeth, and just being silly and giggling.

Tonight I put a new twist on the game by asking her a bunch of words I knew she knew. Then I said, OH, Violette, I know an EASY word for you to say. She looks at me with big, expectant eyes. Then I said "Can you say Snuffaluffagus?" Her eyes got wider, and she shook her head NO!. I said "Come on, I bet you can say it! Say Snuffaluffagus?" To which she responded with the most hilarious belly laugh you can imagine. We did that about 10 times, with me feeding words she knows to her, followed by "Hey Violette, I know an easy one. Say Snuffaluffagus!" Each time she shook her head NO!!! Followed by both of us laughing harder and harder and harder each time I did it.

Finally she went to bed and was down for the night!

Phew. That therapy stuff really wears me out!