Just the good stuff

Carver cracks me up. He wanted to be like Daddy after his bath and kept making "gang" signs. Then he wanted to see himself standing on our bathroom counter. cute, cute.

Carver is OBSESSED with gum and fruitsnacks (only Tree Top brand from Costco, though). Speaking of Costco... last time, he was watching a car chase scene from some adult-type movie: "Car moving... CRASH!" Of course, he loved it. Big sis was freaking out that Carver was watching a scary movie and he was in heaven. Another highlight of the trip was seeing a forklift up close. He wanted to stay and watch it. We follow it sometimes. :)

Routine is helping a lot. Mostly it's in pieces like "lunch-movie-school bus" and typical bedtime routines. I've been trying to run errands right when we drop the girls off at the bus stop since it follows the same pattern as speech or swimming days. I think it helps. It doesn't break up the morning as well, but it's worth the routine.

Have I mentioned that we are crazy busy? Speech is Mon/Tues and it pretty much takes the whole morning (but it absolutely worth every minute of the drive). Swimming lessons are Wednesday mornings and a little bit closer/shorter. Today the morning felt so LONG. It's weird to be home so long. Nice, too! :)

We're getting back to swinging almost every day outside. The weather has been fabulous this winter, which helps a LOT. I think it's time for me to suck it up and take them on a "wander" down the trail as much as I can. If you don't think about like a regular walk, it's not so frustrating.

Carver is the king of burps. I don't know how he can have such control and force! They are HUGE. And I'm pretty sure he's passing gas on demand when I'm drying him after a bath. What a BOY! Those are also the little clues to me that we will someday potty train him. That's an exciting feeling! :)

Carver loves to be tickled. Especially on his armpits. Today I got him to practice some speech words with the promise that if he's say "tuh-tuh-tuh" I'd tickle him again. It was MAGIC!

He ADORES his plastic tools. He uses them on boxes we'd ordinarily recycle and fixes the play fridge a lot. Something about those pipes just isn't right! He loves to be a worker, see workers and be a fixer. It is always motivating to him if I ask him to bring his strong muscles and do a special job.

OH!!! Carver has been SO afraid of bounce houses. He's sure they are going to pop and he doesn't like the noise they make. But we went to a friend's birthday party at a bounce place and he finally conquered his fear and LOVED it. It is a perfect fit for his sensory needs and I'm excited that we'll be able to do drop-in times now and then for him. He also got brave at a restaurant after the bounce house success and wanted a balloon. Wow! He's really growing up.

Going Private

Not the blog - just speech therapy. :)

We finished a two part evaluation with a speech language pathologist (SLP) about 35 minutes from home and so far, I really like her. Carver is excited to go, cooperates as well as could be expected. The first visit was really great as far as behavior goes. I was so impressed with how well he sat and said words for her. :) But he's starting to learn where the toys are and is anxious to try them all. She gave us a detailed evaluation that I'll try to include details from later. But the long and short of it is that she recommended talking to the school about upping his therapy time there and probably going to twice weekly therapy with her. It seems on track to me because he certainly needs the time and practice. A couple of the interesting things I learned so far:

Carver has the physical capability to make the sounds for words, just not the muscle control to plan and execute them on demand. All the age appropriate sounds are there. Even L.

He can move his tongue up and make a clicking sound on the roof of his mouth, but if you ask him to touch his tongue to his top teeth, even with a mirror and example - he can't do it. It's a perfect example of his lack of motor planning ability.

He has a hard time with words that switch position in the mouth. "Muddy" ends up sounding like "Muu-ee" or "munny." "Gate" or "Kite" are tricky because it shifts from the throat to the teeth.

Making sounds in a row on purpose is hard. Sequencing is a challenge for sure.

I'm encouraged. I'll be able to listen to books on tape to and from speech... :) Okay, maybe not. It's a great time to practice conversations with Carver. So far, I need to leave Grace at home. Hopefully we'll be able to work up to taking her with me. I don't want to use all my babysitting swaps in one place!

Wake-up call

Lately, I've faced a lot of reality. I exchanged emails with Carver's preschool teacher and SLP -a speech language pathologist, formerly known as a "speech therapist." :) It turns out Carver's not speaking much at school. I had figured that his IEPs and progress reports reflected his ability to perform in structured, formal testing situations and didn't worry too much about the low age equivalencies given. But I wanted to be sure. I was really surprised to find out that he's NOT talking at school. Strings of 3 words at BEST. Mostly single-word utterances. WHAT?! He's talking volumes at home. Granted, articulation is a major hurdle. But he's not letting that stop him. He speaks in paragraphs at home, disjointed sentences strung together with semi-colons or ellipses. So this is a major discrepancy. And it has me concerned for MANY reasons:

1. How can speech therapy be effective at school if he's not talking?

2. Why isn't he comfortable enough at school to talk? He used to talk up a storm at school - last year, different classroom, different teacher and therapist. What's happened?

3. I can't count on the school system. I've been coasting and it's time to get back in the driver's seat.

4. The clock is ticking and we're just under 2 years away from kindergarten. I'm kicking myself for wasting so much time.

SO... I'm diving into the search for a private speech therapist. I'd been on a waiting list and didn't know what else to do. Now we've been accepted to the local therapy center, but I'm not just taking whoever I get. Next Monday we meet with the first recommendation from my pediatrician. (HELLO?! Why didn't I ask him sooner? He's fabulous and knows an awful lot more than I realize.) I'm willing to drive about 30 minutes for therapy, the local place is 15 minutes. I'm hoping we're looking at every week. I've resisted the cost ($25 co-pay each visit), but how can I NOT do it?

But more importantly, it's good for me to have these moments where I get myself back on track at being Carver's #1 advocate. It's exhausting to worry all the time about him, to be constantly teaching and coaching him. I have 3 other kids, laundry, dishes, meals, church responsibilities, a husband and so many more parts to my life. It's a sticky balance between feeling guilty that I'm NOT doing more for Carver and letting myself relax to the point that I'm not doing much at all.

Whew. Add to all that the fact that I keep looking at my sweet 4 year old and wondering when he'll use the toilet and I want to throw in the towel completely!

Lesson #5: A Boy and His Thumb

Once upon a time there was a baby boy of squishy leg rolls and chubby cheeks. His mother gave him a pacifier when he cried, to soothe him to sleep. He loved his pacifier and began to call it his "yum-yum." This mother liked the yum-yum because it calmed him down when he was frustrated, which was often. And she liked that it was something they could eventually wean him of. They were a family rich in yum-yums, hidden in many places around the house and used for bedtime, car rides, movies, and late afternoon grumpies.


Then one day, this baby boy grew up into a preschooler. And his mom decided that it was a good time to say good-bye to the yum-yum. He missed it, but learned to sleep without it. They coped with disappointments and frustrations without it's help. But he wasn't ready to give up the soothing feeling of something in his mouth. They tried gum and a chewy tube, but they weren't the same at all. At long last he found the perfect thing for his mouth - his thumb. His mom didn't think it was perfect at all. How would she ever help him stop?


As I wrote this little tale, I realized again how much of it is about ME rather than CARVER. Interesting. I am a control-freak of various degrees and naturally like the security of pacifiers, that I get to choose when it's used and where it hides, when it's time to outgrow it. I'd asked some of Carver's OTs and SLPs and gotten recommendations to take away the yum-yum, but ultimately it was my choice. And he wasn't ready at all. He may have learned to sleep without it, but he wasn't ready to LIVE his life without it. I resisted that thumb, but in the end realized that it was my own fault for taking the yum-yum away too soon.

Then I made an even greater realization: Carver needs his thumb and that's OKAY. It's not my issue, it's his. I've even learned that it's a wonderful thing that Carver gets to choose when and when not to suck on his thumb. I see patterns - when he watches movies or listens to books, when he rides in the car or sits at church, when I tickle him, when I snapped at him this morning from the shower because he was playing in my jewelry box after I JUST told him not do. He sleeps with the yum-yum because it is still his favorite, but he doesn't get it any other time and he doesn't mind at all. He is learning to self soothe and that's an important skill for anyone. He won't suck his thumb his whole life - at least not in public, right? :)

So the lesson of the day is to accept your kids as they are. I never wanted a thumb-sucking child. EVER. But Carver needs his thumb and I take him as he is. We don't get to choose what our children like and don't like. We don't get to choose their personalities or sense of humor. I am learning to let go of my control issues, to honor my children's individuality and even let my 8 year old part her own hair.

Vision Therapy?!

Okay, I've been slacking. I'll have to talk about IEP's later, but this story needs a bit of a preface. At our IEP meeting a couple weeks ago, Carver's OT suggested we consider having him evaluated for vision therapy. She works with his fine motor skills and one day used kidney beans as part of their therapy. One fell on the floor and he tried to pick it up, but instead of grabbing the bean, he fixated on a red stain on the carpet and repeatedly tried to pick THAT up. So she started wondering about depth perception, etc.... I loved that she was thinking about the whole picture, considering how we might help him. I welcomed the suggestion. She gave me a few places to try and I set up a free screening for today at place in Bellevue with a certain Dr. (OD). I have to admit I was a bit skeptical going in. Vision therapy isn't exactly mainstream and I'm mostly a mainstream kinda girl. I'm going to try to be fair to him as best I can, but when I can't help myself, I'll switch to italics.

It was in a nice enough office in a medical part of town, near the hospital. The staff was friendly, there were toys, the doctor was exceptionally friendly. He asked questions, looked at Carver's eyes with lights, watched how he "tracked" a ball on a stick. Or, in Carver's case, how he did NOT "track" the ball on a stick. The dr. turns to me and says, "this is huge. see how he can't even follow the movement of the ball?"

Hmmm... my skepticism is growing by the minute. The room is fascinating, full of crazy optometry equipment, a video screen, files, books, computers, monitors, chairs, lights, the whole gammet. Everything I've read on SPD tells that in such a stimulating environment, they have a hard time focusing.

He asks him to name things on the screen, which Carver can do. He puts special lenses over Carver's eyes, follows them with a light and determines that his vision is unimpaired. I figured as much. But he also said that Carver has a hard time focusing on things up close (bringing his eyes together) and probably sees double. I think he ascertained that from the two tries he gave him to look at that same little ball on a stick. But the dr was between me and Carver and I'm not exactly sure where that conclusion stems from. The doctor demonstrated for me what it might be like to look at a written page and see double (not that I couldn't imagine this.)

He asked about our insurance, who it's through. I told him Blue Cross and he said, but what company? I told him Derek's employer and he said confidently, "oh, then it'll be fine."

What?! It's a small company. How does he know? Weird.

He kept pressing me to say that Carver doesn't want to look at books, that he prefers to do other things. But Carver loves to be read to. He asks questions, points to things, wiggles around on the couch like crazy - yes. But books haven't been an issue for him in a long time.

So he recommended an addition full evaluation ($290 out of pocket) and then personalized vision therapy. They'd look into insurance costs for us for that. I asked him what vision therapy might look like for Carver. He said that they do a lot of it at home now, downloading therapy homework on the computer and then submitting it back to the office. We don't have to come in all the time.

HELLO! Carver is 4!! He can't use utensils or pencils with consistency. He's supposed to do homework on the computer!?!?

Also, they do pictures that they can only see one part at a time without using both eyes together, using games and whatnot. That made more sense, but it's still pretty nonspecific.

He said a lot of crazy stuff that I won't be able to remember accurately. Here's the gist, without any of my commentary thrown in, I promise. He's been doing this for 40 years and can always figure out what is going on with kids. If he just thinks about it long enough, he can find the reason for their behavior. Sensory motor processing issues (he called it something like that) is really just that the kids are stuck at a lower form of development and they haven't reached vision yet (since it generally comes later in the developmental process). If you do vision therapy, it'll fix all the other stuff because essentially it'll fix his SPD. He gave the example of sitting on his stool. He relies on vision to keep himself there, but if you're wiggling all around to find the edges of the stool and understand gravity, that's just socially unacceptable. It's not wrong, these kids are born obnoxious, they just need to be taught to use vision to understand the world instead of their tactile senses. He recently went to a workshop where someone taught him that speech is related to our thought process because it's like talking in your head! (He said this was great enthusiasm, certain that he was enlightening me on this point, as well.) Vision is integral to this process. I'm still unclear how he connected that. Oh - maybe it was because if we could see what was really going on around us, we'd be able to communicate about it. I think that was it. On our way out, he asked about Carver's eating and said that we crave what we're allergic to and we should really consider switching to soy or eliminated wheat if that's what he likes. Talk about random, although food issues aren't to be ruled out. I just didn't think OD's were nutrionists or gastroenterologists. I asked how attention span played into it and I think he said that vision therapy would help him focus on things longer, that his behavior would drastically improve.

WHOA. I don't know what to say to all that!! Seriously?! He downplayed the importance of language, assured me that vision therapy fixes SPD because we just need to give Carver a new way of gaining information. It was absolutely crazy. I've NEVER met a doctor so completely uneducated in SPD - EVER. It was mind boggling.

Even with all my inward rantings and my outward struggles not to look at him like he's crazy while he's talking to me, I think there could be a grain of truth mixed in all of that mumbo-jumbo. I get the idea that helping Carver focus and track things with his eyes would help his ability to do fine motor skills. It might even help him learn to take in his environment in a more organized, controlled way. But we are not going back there. I'll look into another place or two and see what comes of it. Sheesh! What a waste of time. At least it was free.

Dr. Glass, pediatric neurologist - Part 1

Okay, I'm starting to get paranoid that I'm going to forget stuff and then I'll get the paperwork and he won't have mentioned things I cared about. I just like to worry. I'll fill in the holes later.

We talked about Carver's basic history, timeline.

We talked about how we handle temper tantrums - how often, what they are about, etc... He recommended using parental "mechanical arms" to restrain Carver during a tantrum and using the words "I know you are upset. When you are ready, we'll play/go back/finish up." No arm rubbing, no pacifier, no calming words or rocking. The point is that he learns to calm HIMSELF and I really like that. I've already started using it and I feel so much more in control because it's NOT in my control anymore, if that makes sense. I don't have to figure out how to talk him out of the tantrum because that's not my job. Good feeling. He said that essentially, we don't want to rescue him from his frustration/tantrum and send a message that he can't do it by himself, that he needs us to do it.

(I've been trying to give him LOTS of opportunities to do things himself because it builds self confidence and besides, it keeps him happy. Nothing as fun as moving garbage cans on garbage day!)

Also, tantrums may start out about something in particular and then turn into "mad because I'm mad" and certainly they feel remorse for anything they did when they lost control. And it's a definite loss of control. He recently hit a friend when he was upset about the friend needing to go home and I knew he felt bad afterwards, but he didn't really mean to. I guess he did because he aimed and everything, but it was such an impulsive action that it wasn't intended. It must be terribly frustrating to not know how to handle negative emotions.

I loved what Dr. Glass said about temper tantrums. Carver learns throught them. It might be appealing to avoid them, to give in to what he wants. But it doesn't teach him anything. It's in learning to manage that anger and disappointment that he makes progress. Great perspective.

On a related not, he said that kids learn more from watching how other kids are disciplined and treated than how they themselves are disciplined. So as we respond to Grace can teach Carver powerful lessons. And vice versa. Which should help with some of her imitations of his less appropriate behaviors. Interesting to consider. AND praise is nice, but what you hear people say about you to another matters the most. I think that's true of adults, too, and the reason gossip is so destructive.

We talked about quiet times. I confessed that I lock him in his room every day for quiet time, he cries and usually falls asleep on his bed. He was a HUGE fan of this (whew!) and said that kids need more downtime, especially after a long day at school. He said 30 minutes of screen time can really work, as well, so long as it really ends at 30 minutes. The fact that Carver is often climbing in his bed and going to sleep is also a good sign because he's listening to his body and solving his own problem. Usually I hear him play for a minute or two and yesterday he only played, but honestly - it's 4:30 by the time we're back from the bus stop and finished with our quick snack. He's exhausted. And it gives me a chance to decompress school with the girls - do homework, review backpacks, hear their important news.

We talked about his anxiety the night before and he said it was absolutely related. So is Carver's recent sleep walking. He said night terrors are common, too.

Basically, Sensory Processing Disorder is broken down into 3 parts.

1 - AROUSAL:

A normal state of arousal varies between a lower level (think of someone easily distracted at a cocktail party, talks to lots of people, doesn't concentrate on one thing at a time, doesn't maintain good eye contact) and a high level (think of someone that walks into that same cocktail party and immediately observes what everyone is wearing, how the furniture is arranged, where the food is, where the exit is, who is talking to whom and probably doesn't even want to be there. Also more likely to have good eye contact in conversation). Derek and I are on that end! :)

Beyond that lower end of normal you have ADHD. They have such low levels of arousal that they have a hard time functioning because they are so neurologically drowsy. Stimulants bring them up into the normal range. I'm guessing that it's distracting to be so under aroused, maybe the world seems abrupt and hard to figure out?

Above the high end of normal, you get SPD and beyond that is the Autism Spectrum. So SPD, whether over-sensitive or under-sensitive is a higher state of neurological arousal. It's complicated because there are all these overlapping issues, right? Definitely! Carver's always so tuned into what's going on around him - the sounds and sights - that he just wants to touch it all, be a part of it all. (Other kids might be trying to avoid all those things.) We try to calm him with sensory therapy to offset that over-arousal. It's hard to focus on filling out all those school emergency forms if your kids are pulling at you, the oven is beeping and it's a really hot day. That's the feeling of over-arousal.

2 - SENSORY ISSUES

Carver is over sensitive to sounds. He is scared of thunder, garbage trucks, sudden applause, yelling children, etc... He is under sensative to touch and oral sensations. He craves things in his mouth (gum, yum-yum, toys, crocs! and strings - food, too!) He also seeks physical touch, swinging, crashing into stuff, my arms, hair, etc...

3 - ANXIETY

It's not hard to imagine that a world like Carver's is overwhelming. That's why routine is so important, why it helps keep things in order. Disruptions to his routine are often causes of tantrums. Dad had to go help with a move instead of finish our family bike ride. A sudden change of plans is very difficult. Or giving stuff to people, things he's gotten to associate as part of his life. For example - the zucchini. Dr. Glass said that while he may not like zucchini, he's realizing where it fits in his life. It grows in the backyard, we cut it off, put it on the counter. When I give it to a neighbor, it's distrupted from our regular routine. I'm thinking that if the regular routine was to wrap it up and take it to someone, that would be no problem. Unforunately, life is full of unexpected events. I can't really avoid all of them.

I think he said that we treat the sensory needs to help regulate his over-arousal. Swinging and crashing, tickling and spinning in a chair gives good steady sensory input to minimize the "cravings" and give him a feeling of order and balance to accomplish other tasks.

We also talked about his dyspraxia or apraxia. He rated him about a 7 1/2 on a scale from 0-10, 0 being no dyspraxia and 10 being most severe. Carver really didn't talk much for him, so I might bring that down a notch. Still, it was a good reminder that his delays are significant. He recommended speech therapy in addition to what he gets at school. The wait list is probably til around January at Children's Therapy Center but we're on it just the same. I might see if I can find another place to go, although if we stick with CTC, it makes my appointments with Dr. Glass more legitimate (we got to see him because our previous therapist pulled some strings).

He talked about language (grammar, usage, etc...) as a wall and how delays are like bricks missing from the wall. You can add them in later, but those holes affect ability to communicate effectively. He said that often with dyspraxia there are language holes. It is hard to know which came first, but there are clearly gaps in what Carver understands and communicates. We're filling them in, though, little by little.

He thought that we'd be better off tackling rumination later when Carver has more language skills.

I asked about potty training, if I can wait for the same signs of readiness of typically developing kids and he said yes. He will get there and in the meantime, make it a non issue. That's hard, but I've been trying already. I'm sure our pressure on him relates to his withholding issues right now. It'll be awhile. He recommended TRIPLE underwear when we're ready or undies under the pull-up. Maybe NEXT summer? :)

His wife does behavior counseling and he is going to give us her contact information. I guess she is one of the few in the area to meet with families and help them tackle behavioral issues. I mentioned that I was on the OT list because I wanted more help with those sorts of things. Really, he doesn't think that OT is as important as developing language skills. And OT wouldn't solve all those issues. I'm curious to see what his wife does.

He warned that reading might be hard, but that's hard to predict. He thought that writing would definitely be a challenge. I'm so mature I'll worry about that later.... Okay, okay - I am so full of present day worries, I don't have room for those!!

He listed a bunch of qualities that these kids have, here's the few I can remember:

charming
kind
empathetic
inflexible

He was right on the money. Carver is really delightful. And exactly like that poem about the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead -

when she was good, she was very very good and when she was bad, she was horrid.

He played with Carver, talked about flashcards:

"what's this?"
tree
"what falls out of a tree?"
people
"people fall out of a tree?"
yes
"what goes on the ground under the tree?"
people

okay.... moving on....

"what's this?"
sun
"is the sun hot or cold"
cold
"the sun is COLD?"
giggles, yeah
"Carver, is the sun hot or cold?"
cold

Hmmm... I think these illustrates the kind of language gaps that we're dealing with. Sometimes I wonder if Carver thought it was a game to tease Dr. Glass, but really he answers crazy like that to all sorts of things.

He had him push the button on a small measuring tape with his pointer - Carver LOVED that game because Dr. Glass made a funny sound and zipped it back up. I also think Carver laughed and laughed in part because he was SOOO tired and because it was a release from the anxiety of being in this small room with only a few toys and 3 adults talking about him. It was adorable.

He checked reflexes, looked in his eyes and mouth. Carver loved that little hammer. He had him chase the measuring tape down the hall and as soon as he brushed next to him, he dashed off to another classroom. A constant challenge for me, too.

He said that SPD kids really respond to reaction. Facial expressions, tone of voice, body language. They are super receptive. Keeping a blank face can really help "win" battles. I think Carver feels like he wins when he gets any reaction at all -positive or negative. Unfortunately, he wins all the time around here!

I wish I'd asked about flax seed oil. Anyone know what he thinks of that sort of thing?

Okay, that is a lot of stuff. And really, I'm SURE I left out more. 90 minutes is a long conversation. But I'm worn out....I bet you are, too! More later when I have those doctor notes.

Back to Preschool 2009

HURRAY! The day we've been waiting for has come. And oh - what a day. What a night before the big day...

We told Carver last night that we were taking him to a doctor in the morning, then play with Grace, eat lunch and hop on the bus to school. It's kinda routine to go through these main events ahead of time. I also use a velcro strip and pictures on the fridge to illustrate each day, at least SOME days. :) Anyway, he went to bed okay but woke up sometime... (Daddy got him first, I'm a little slower to hear things at night) and he tossed and turned and whimpered for hours. He didn't have a fever, his cold is gone, his stomach wasn't making churning noises. He just couldn't sleep. Sometimes he said that something hurt, but it wasn't clear if anything really did. We did drinks of water, a change of pjs and took turns sleeping in his bed. He seemed to calm down when we talked to each other, rubbed his arms and back and head. I began to believe that he wanted to sleep but couldn't - that he had anxiety about today. And I still believe that.

He'd asked questions about the doctor - "look tummy?" No, not this time. "Look ears?" Nope. I didn't know how to explain pediatric neurology to him. Guess I should've thought of that sooner. He asked if the doctor was nice and I had assured him he was. Daddy was coming, too, which probably triggered something unusual to him. Also, it was his first day with a new preschool teacher and the room hadn't been set up completely at the open house. It was new and different, even though we'd done it before. Preschool was after lunch instead of after breakfast. Looking back I think it was a lot to worry about. And we probably should've surprised him with the doctor part. He doesn't mind going to see a doctor and doesn't really need prep for it. I thought he might even be excited. I'll blog about that another day, but it was a really great visit. The office will send us notes from the appointment in a week and I can use them to "remember" all we talked about. It was right about 90 minutes, we got home with time for a little swingset time, some lunch and the Letter Factory as a transitional, calming time before hopping on the bus.

About 12:40 we start waiting for our 12:45 pick-up time. I shoulda known better. Buses are ALWAYS late on the 1st day.

Carver stuck a screwdriver in a random piece of Styrofoam and pretended to paint the house with a terrible squeaking noise.
Then he goofed around with Grace for awhile...

Until it was now 1 pm and I called transportation to make sure we hadn't been forgotten. Nope. Just slow buses.

Grace and Carver were yelling and hitting each other so off to her nap she went. This is actually Carver running to rescue his precious bag of school supplies - Wheat Thins and Kleenex.


And it was just the two of us. And the camera.

He swept the driveway.

He inspected the sewer. He even yelled down there a bit.


Finally, FINALLY the bus came about 1:15. Whew. It was a long wait. He was hesitant, he wanted to wait til it had stopped making those sounds buses make when they brake. Then he climbed on and waved good-bye.


And then it was VERY quiet standing in my driveway. I was a tiny, tiny bit sad about that silence. But mostly happy that we'd made it. I loved the peace and quiet that afternoon - I just need to learn how to manage my days to take the most advantage of it. I should've napped! What a concept!

I worried about how afternoon preschool would be, but Carver came off the bus happy as a clam and didn't melt down until AFTER we'd picked up the girls at their bus stop (another story for another day, but it turns out the school district thinks I can be in 2 places at once) and got in the house. A little quiet time-turned naptime and we survived. I can't let him sleep too long, but he needs a break from everything by 4:30. This just might work.