It has definitely been a week of both relaxation and running around. But I think that is always the way. My Aunt has very generously offered to let us use her house at Point Pleasant while she is away this week, so Tim, the kids, and I have been going back and forth between the shore and home. We came down Sunday night, and spent all day Monday on the beach. Mac LOVES the ocean, so she and Tim spent hours in there on Monday. Oli is less enthralled with the water, more enthralled with the sand, so he and I spent our time going between dry sand (blanket) and wet sand (waterline). There is a cool cafe/restaurant near the house/beach, so we had lunch there. Lesson 1 of the week: mid-day beer at home = drinking problem, mid-day beer at beach = relaxing (at least that is my interpretation. Who knows, maybe mid-day beer at beach also = drinking problem?)
Tuesday, Oli had a neurology appointment at CHOP. He has been episodes where he tenses up and looks around, or sometimes gets tense and waves his arms around for quite a while now. I have gone back and forth between thinking they are problematic and thinking they were just "baby excitement." So, finally, I made an appointment and took him in. I hate adding yet another doctor to our repertoire (this was neurology, not neurosurgery), but I felt it had to be done.
Oli had an EEG in the morning and an neurology appointment in the afternoon. We had about 3 1/2 hours in between. However, we are very good at passing time at CHOP. We spread out lunch (ice cream for Oli, thank you very much) and then went to the lobby. The lobby is pretty cool and has some large mechanisms in which balls are shuttled and -- a fish tank! Oli loves fish -- they have a cool tank at Children's Specialized, where he gets his PT. We spent over a half hour just at the fish tank -- Oli played peek and really talked to the fish.
In his appointment, we learned that he is not having seizures, but rather, self-stimulating behaviors. I have always heard this terminology paired with autism-related behaviors, but the dr. said this isn't necessarily the case. He might be expressing the extra energy that other kids bounce out or run out, but he can only really use his upper body. They said that if he is still doing these behaviors at 4 or older, it could be more of a problem b/c he should be better able to articulate what is making him do it by then. They also mentioned, almost as a throw-away, that his eeg was "slow" but that should be expected b/c of his diagnosis. Um, huh? As always, they said this may or may not mean anything. At that point, I was just so happy that nothing was wrong that I let it go at that.
Wednesday: a tour of the kids' new school (can't wait for september), color belt testing, and dinner with aunt beth at the Rainforest Cafe. Even our down days are fun!!
Thursday: Back to the shore! Our friends Dana and Matt met us there with their girls, Emily, Sarah, Megan, and Chloe. What was suppose to be a full day on the beach was sidelined by some bad weather, but we had a great time! We spend the whole day on the boardwalk -- the rain held off just long enough for us to ride some rides, play some games, eat some snacks, and finally go on the beach. Just as Dana and Matt were packing up to go home, it started to pour. So we ran the few blocks back to their car. Funny how we will spend a whole afternoon in the pool or ocean, but the run from the rain.
The sun came back out just 2 hours later, and we went back to the boardwalk for dinner. A great day and night! Today is beautiful, so we are off to the aquarium and then the beach. Although the locked-up fish make me kind of sad, Mac has been begging to go all summer. And it is an educational experience, so it is hard to say no.
I may not be getting much work done this summer, but I shore am having a good time :)
