Disneyland Paris with Big G/First OT Appt.

We had a blast!  I am so glad that I got to spend some one on one time with my Biggest.  I didn't tell her anything about it until I woke her up at 0230 to leave the house.  We drove to meet the bus and of all things, she thought I was taking her to a movie!  haha!  I checked us in and they gave us a map of Disneyland before we got on the bus and I handed it over to her to look at.  It clicked when she saw Mickey on the cover and she was so happy that she squealed! 

It took us 6 hours to get there since German buses can only go a certain speed, so a 4 hour trip took 6 with a mandatory 45 minute stop for the driver.  We ended up stopping for breakfast at 0600 in France and Big G chose a double chocolate muffin and I got one of the most awesome fruit croissant that I have ever had.  Amazing.  We slept most of the way on the bus and that's why my migraine hit.  It seems that every time I take a nap, I get a migraine.  Thankfully I brought my migraine meds along but it only kept it from getting bad, so I still felt pretty lousy all day long.  blah.  I didn't let it ruin our day, though.  I don't even think she noticed that I had one, thankfully. 

We got there around 0930 and she wanted to go right to the Buzz Lightyear ride, her most favorite ride of all time.  I was so surprised to see how long the lines were this time of year.  Major bummer.  We had to choose our rides wisely to try to maximize our time, and we still got to ride a lot!  She really enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and we both would have loved to have done that one again.   She had cotton candy for lunch, which she thought was just awesome.  I really spoiled her and she loved it!

I really enjoyed just being able to talk to her with zero distractions!  It was so wonderful and special.  I told her that we may not be able to do these kinds of trips often, but we can definitely make more time for mommy/daughter dates.  It's so hard to find the balance and I think that's what I struggle with the most.   By the end of the day, we ended up at the parade at the most perfect spot, by chance, and a lady saw her trying to see above the crowd, took her by the shoulders and moved her so that she was standing in front of her at the very front of the crowd.  So, so kind!  She had a perfect view.

She slept all the way home... we left the park at 9:00 pm and did our mandatory stop at 1:00 am...then headed on home.  By the time we made it to the truck, I was so sick with my migraine.  As soon as I made it home, I was very sick, so much that I crashed on the couch at 4:00 am for a 2 hour nap before having to wake up to take the little ones to their initial Occupational Therapy (OT) appt.  I felt a bit better, thankfully... I hated waking Big G up but there was no other choice.  We got out the door with time to spare, actually.

Their OT is going to be at an off base German office and I am so impressed with them!  The minute he saw Griffin, his eyes lit up!  It was so obvious that he loves working with Ds and we had an in depth conversation with what Griffin has been through and he was just so encouraging and knowledgeable.  Then he evaluated my Little G and is ready to help her, too.  He gave a lot of insight into her issues and explained to me that I can't parent them in the same way, which I've been trying to do.  I've been told to treat them equally, which I do...and he says that I will still be parenting them equally, but just in different ways, different approaches.  Does that make sense?  lol.  He said that Little G needs strict structure and firmness to deal with the stubbornness... Griffin needs less strictness with his stubbornness because with Ds, if they are pushed too hard, they can just stop or give up, that I have to be super encouraging, which I feel that I'm already doing with both.  So it looks like I have changes that need to be made with my Diva. lol.  They both are super stubborn but I will just have to deal with it differently for now...

I don't think I've discussed my Little G's issues on here.  She doesn't speak well, yet.  She only says a good 3 solid words regularly and she's almost 2 years old.  A lot of this happened because she had fluid in her ears for a very long time before it was discovered.  She has had tubes placed in March but they are already falling out.  She is having her hearing tested mid-Sept. and will be starting medical speech at the hospital, too.  Because she has such a hard time communicating, she bangs her head, bites her hands, hits, and pinches herself.  She doesn't really even try to speak and relies on the 3 signs that she knows, 'more', 'milk', and 'please'.  She will come up to me and sign 'more' and I have no clue what she wants 'more' of.  I'm hesitant to teach her more signs because I don't want her to continue to rely on signing.  But today, the OT suggested that I continue teaching her signs and that it won't keep her from speaking when she is ready.  I'm on the fence with this.  However, I do know that Griffin needs sign language because I feel that it will be a very long time before he speaks.  I hope I'm wrong...but realistically, he needs it...  If I teach it to him, though, Little G will be right there learning it, too.  hmmmm.

But anyway, he is excited to start doing OT with each of them for 1 hour each on Mondays... so we will be there at 0900 for Griffin and 1000 for Little G.  Looking forward to it!  I'm so ready to get inside these little ones' heads and figure them out!  To begin with, he's going to work with finding out what motivates them and using those items to try to prompt them to do things.  Oh, and the OT suggested that I start a journal for Griffin so that I can watch the progress. LOL... I think I've got that covered. :-)

Something interesting- The OT told me that Griffin's feet need to be grounded at all times in order to improve his hand/eye coordination!  His feet dangle in his highchair so we are going to have to start using a booster seat/tray in a regular chair in order to have a solid place for his feet.  I had no idea that it even mattered!

Oh, for those of you wondering how Chris did with the little ones yesterday, LOL, bless his heart, he said they had a rough day!   He said he would blog about it tomorrow!  Stay tuned. 





Love and Hugs!