Firstly, we decided that we aren’t moving for another year. We just want to have more time to find the perfect home to buy, and that was proving to be more difficult than we thought.

Secondly, we are starting to make some improvement with baby A. Quite some time ago his pediatrician recommended we get him some speech therapy because he just hasn’t been talking much. At his speech evaluation they recommended an occupational therapy evaluation also, because they thought he may have sensory integration dysfunction. After that the pediatrician also recommended we get him tested for autism. Our autism test has gotten pushed back until the end of April, but we have done all of the other things. The good news is that I really don’t think he is autistic. The reason his doctor wants us to check is because speech disorders (they think he has receptive and expressive language disorders - I don’t think he has any trouble receptively though) well the speech problems and sensory problems are a big part of autism, although he doesn’t seem to have any social impairment which is the defining factor in an autism diagnosis. Getting too medical for ya? Well, I must explain what sensory integration dysfunction is also.

Your senses are like a scale, if you get too much with one you don’t get enough with some others. My son A is very visual. Because he is constantly processing so much visual information his body is lacking in what he gets through touch, or just how his body responds to his movements. Basically, when we would start to run for example our body would feel that pressure and exercise. His body has a hard time feeling that, so he continually is in motion, always trying to push himself further so that his body gets the stimulation it needs. With occupational therapy his body will start to get what it needs (through lots of rough and busy active play). Already I have seen that once we get his body satisfied with movement etc. he clams down so much and is able to pay more attention to books, toys, and speech. It’s funny that it’s such a cascading effect, because he is so visual, his body feels less, which constantly keeps him searching for stimulation for his body, which keeps him from being able to focus on things like speech.

So, I am hoping with this therapy, and working with him on speech, and helping him to do the right activities to get his body on track, all his problems should work themselves out. I do hope we can improve very soon. I would love for him to not have to deal with this once he gets into school. Finding the right school for him will also be more difficult.

So much to say. Have you ever seen a dust cloud or a sandstorm? Here in Georgia this week I have seen clouds of pollen blowing across the landscape. Before living here I had no idea that there were places in this country where you were warned not to go outside if you have allergies, or worse warned not to leave home when the city pollution is so bad that you have smog warnings. Thank goodness we kind of live in the country anyway.

Soon I will be getting back to normal here. There are SO many things I have been wanting to post, so many photos and videos to show everyone. I will be updating my websites also in the next few weeks and get my photography back on track. Anyway, I apologize for the downtime and hopefully it won’t continue much longer.

Hey, I almost forgot - it was just our 4 year anniversary!

Celebrity gossip juicy celebrity rumors Hollywood gossip blog from Perez Hilton

I promise I will be posting some updates here soon, so much is happening, and I have a lot to do.

“The last time Jaeyaena Beuraheng saw her seven children was in 1982 when she left south Thailand on one of her regular shopping trips across the border to nearby Malaysia.

She never returned, and police later told her family that she had apparently been killed in a traffic accident.

In fact, Jaeyaena had simply taken the wrong bus home — an error that would have been easy to fix except that she only speaks the local dialect of Malay known as Yawi, according to officials at the homeless shelter where the 76-year-old has lived for two decades.”

Thai woman tells of 25-year detour after catching wrong bus - Yahoo! News

Squidfingers / Patterns

I suppose I have delayed enough, so far in one whole paragraph and I haven’t really said anything about the zoo. We had a great time. At first, we were weary (wow isn’t that redundant) about our trip. A hadn’t gotten his nap (days without naps can be pure evil) and things didn’t start out too well. We somehow managed to park our car in a lot near the zoo, but we never did find the correct parking place.

We did manage to get A inside the zoo where he was very excited upon seeing the first attraction, the flamingos. I don’t remember what came next but we quickly made our way to the children’s area to get some of his energy used up. I really don’t like him playing on jungle gyms. He is so much younger than the other kids usually that it’s hard to make sure he is safe. He can climb the ladders and net things there so incredibly well, 5 year olds were being careful but he just goes up with ease. A isn’t around other kids much so when he is he just gets excited and wants to play with everyone. He went to spin some thing in the play area while a much older (6 years old at least) was playing with it. The other boy said “No, I am playing with this” and pushed A out of the way, almost making him fall backwards off of the second story of the play house. I never know what to do in those cases, sure I personally think that kid was a jerk but they may have never played with smaller kids, and not known to be gentle with them. I wanted to say something like “Please don’t push him, he’s much younger than you and just wants to play” but would the other child even listen? Anyway, I still get a little mad just thinking about it.

After that we rented a zoo stroller and bought a huge bag of stale popcorn (See photos in the sidebar) and A was happy. He sat most of the rest of the time just eating popcorn. It was nice. We did take him out to see the gorillas and the reptile house, which he loved. He doesn’t speak a whole lot but pointed at every snake/turtle/lizard and said “that”. It was cute.

Well, that’s pretty much our day. We did make sure to stop in the gift shop where we bought overpriced toys that are already broken. Ah yes, and A peed through his diaper soaking his pants, so we had to get back to the car without pants on him (he did get a clean diaper though, just didn’t have that spare pair of pants when I needed them). Here is a movie of baby A eating crap popcorn and saying “Hi” and “Daddy” although his voice does sound eerily low, sorry the quality sux too.

Enjoy!