The trust in my heart.
None.
Winter is long. Sunlight is scarce. The house and all who live here have a serious case of the midwinter blahs. J-man in particular has been restless, itching to have action and activity. And Mommy's energy level is not helping matters. A little bit too much TV has been watched. A little bit too much IPad time. Not enough to do, and not enough energy to do it.
So, as you may already know, we decided to start OT again.
We took an OT break for about a year and just focused on speech. It was a good plan. And it saved Mommy from having to deal with two sets of therapies at the same time. But with the long, slow winter creeping along, OT would help J-man work on some of his motor issues, endurance issues and play skills. And... let's face it... OT is FUN.
The trade off is time. My time. And miles on the car. My car.
Because I have some pretty solid opinions on philosophy and approach for therapy (ahem), I ended up choosing a OT clinic about 30 minutes away from our home. And, ironically, it is also 30 minutes away from our speech therapist.... who is 30 minutes away from our home. Think of it as a perfect triangle. Or the Bermuda triangle. Whatever.
And since we essentially have back-to-back therapy twice a week, I am getting to know this triangle very, very well. Add in one additional speech therapy day once a week. And preschool twice a week. And at home therapy time, J-man and Mommy style, all the time (at least it is suppose to be!). And work (mostly evening shifts, 3-11:30p) two to three times a week and every third weekend (12 hours shifts no less!)... which is also (you guessed it) 30 minutes away.
I wonder why I am tired? And my house is a wreck? And I don't have friends? Or a life?
But I will say that I think the sacrifice of my time, sanity, and re-sale value of my car might just pay off.
On Monday, Miss OT suggested that we try some aquatic therapy with J-man at the next session. I was excited and nervous at the same time. J-man would either LOVE IT or HATE IT. Since he has trust issues (just like his mom), I wasn't sure how he would feel about going into a scary pool with a new person. J-man loves water... sometimes... but has a healthy anxiety about it. That, coupled with the "new person" anxiety might be too much for success. Or not.
Never know until you try. So we tried.
It took him about 10 minutes to get him near the stairs where he threw lot of ducks and fish and balls and lizards into the water to be fished out. And slowly but surely, he creeped further in. Trust grew. Pretty soon complete joy ensued. By the end, he was jumping into Miss OT's arms from the side and into the water full force.
When we got home, I showed J-man and Daddy the pictures. J-man was riveted to the photos. "Water" he said (with sign). "Wimming" he said (with sign). Over and over. Later that evening he pulled the photos up on the IPad again. He said water and swimming and go as he pulled me to the door... to go swimming.
Ah, no.
Let's try the tub.
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