Willow: Something evil-crashed to earth in this. Then it broke out and slithered away to do badness. Giles: Well, in all fairness, we don't really know about the "slithered" part. Anya: No, no, I'm sure it frisked about like a fluffy lamb.

'Never Leave Me'


Spike's Bitches 28: For the Safety of Puppies...and Christmas!  

[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risque (and frisque), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.


Cass - Dec 15, 2005 6:28:18 pm PST #141 of 10001
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.

Nice to see them all working together - does not happen often.
Awwww, that is nice.
WindSparrow (and I) will likely suggest Rescue Remedy, a herbal calming potion for your cat.
I also rec this for people. But some in the water has been a good thing when I have tried it for the cats. I live by my Rescue Remedy though.


beth b - Dec 15, 2005 6:40:48 pm PST #142 of 10001
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!

Wow a lot of hugs needed today {{{bitches in need}}}

CJ will learn. After all - he is only in 3rd grade (I thought he was older). The whole situational behavior thing is one of the harder things to learn.


DavidS - Dec 15, 2005 9:19:58 pm PST #143 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I asked Susan if I could share this information on Bitches, and she said I could. I think she would welcome support in email, and not everybody here has LiveJournal. It also just seemed relevant to this community. This is what she posted on LJ today.

*********

Dylan took Annabel to the speech pathologist this morning. I was fully expecting good news--either that it was the tongue tie or something else physical, or that she's obviously a perfectly normal kid of the sort who doesn't speak until she's ready for complete sentences.

That's not the answer we got, however. We have a 20-month-old, and an obviously intelligent one at that, whose communication abilities are on a par with a typical 9-month-old. It's too early to make a definitive diagnosis, but she's showing early warning signs of apraxia (a disorder where children understand speech well, but have trouble mastering and coordinating the motor skills necessary to speak themselves) and/or an autism spectrum disorder (and sometimes the two are correlated).

She's given us some suggestions to try to encourage her to communicate and interact more (that's the big obvious problem--she's just not interactive enough, verbally or otherwise), and she's recommended an early intervention program for us to start as soon as we're back from our holiday travels.

I'm having a hard time not crying my eyes out at work. I may try to finish up one or two urgent things and go home.

*********

When I emailed her, she added this.

*********

Please do share the information on Bitches, but stress that this isn't yet a diagnosis--just a case of a knowledgeable specialist seeing enough red flags to recommend intervention now rather than continuing to wait it out. She's known cases of kids presenting with patterns similar to Annabel's where early intervention works beautifully and they catch up and develop normally from there. And that while Annabel does have enough warning signs to make her concerned, she's clearly aware and engaged with the world, just insufficiently engaged with other people. So our job for the next few months is to try to model interaction for her and encourage her to respond to us more, along with taking her to a child development program that can help us along. When we see how she responds to that, we'll move forward from there.


Stephanie - Dec 16, 2005 1:24:41 am PST #144 of 10001
Trust my rage

I don't know if Susan even reads here anymore, but as I said in LJ, any problem with your kids is very scary. I wish a quick diagnosis and fantastic care for Annabel and wisdom for her parents. No matter what the diagnosis, I think Annabel will be okay.


Stephanie - Dec 16, 2005 2:23:06 am PST #145 of 10001
Trust my rage

Where is everyone this morning? Ellie and I are headed to the gym shortly.

eta: Should I have cake for breakfast? I made one yesterday and it is calling me. I am on my way to the gym, after all.


vw bug - Dec 16, 2005 2:49:10 am PST #146 of 10001
Mostly lurking...

Stephanie, absolutely have cake for breakfast. It will make me feel less guilty about all the Twizzlers I've eaten since I got up.


Laura - Dec 16, 2005 3:14:21 am PST #147 of 10001
Our wings are not tired.

Mmmm. Cake and twizzlers for breakfast. I had some yummy tea, celery, and sharp cheddar cheese. Stupid no carbs.

I'll pop in LJ to send my best wishes to Susan. It sounds like they have a good specialist that can help them bring Annabel along.


Calli - Dec 16, 2005 3:34:57 am PST #148 of 10001
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

Should I have cake for breakfast?

Absolutely!

{{Cass and Cass's Grandmother}}


SuziQ - Dec 16, 2005 4:42:26 am PST #149 of 10001
Back tattoos of the mother is that you are absolutely right - Ame

Timelies!

I dragged CJ to work with me again. We wanted to make today different from the upcoming 2 week vacation, so we figured having to be good and quiet and deal with MOM all day at would should do the trick. I did let him bring some books to read and some puzzle books to work on.

Ok, I'll shut up about him now.


Stephanie - Dec 16, 2005 5:03:53 am PST #150 of 10001
Trust my rage

MG, sounds like a good way to handle it. I always wondered about the suspending where the kids get to go home. I think at our school they still had to go to school, but they had to sit in a room all day.

I did have cake for breakfast (with cream cheese frosting) and it waws really yummy.

Ellie has developed separation anxiety this week. If she is awake and I'm not within 2 feet of her, she is crying. That's a slight exageration, but not by much. I try to get regular stuff done but it's hard to ignore a screaming baby - especially when she looks at me with these big eyes, saying "I need you!" I alternate between not wanting to give in to her, feeling sorry for her, and being tired of hearing her. I hope this is a short phase.

eta: Where is everyone today? 4 posts while I was at the gym.