Where the Deer and the Antelope Play - Living in the USA (visitors welcome)

[SuperBunny]

East Coast
MaNanny - Boston
Twinmommytobe - Boston
MuminCT - CT
Greatgooglymoogly - NY State
Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
Brooklynmom - NYC
alarkaspree - NYC
MKG - New Jersey
Mummimamma - PA
Poetmum - PA
Twirl - MD

South
Earlybird - TN
jabberwocky - AR
Sunchowder - Florida
Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
Tinpot - NC
MadameDeathStare- AL

Midwest
SuperBunny- Chicago
Dodgykeeper - Dayton, OH
Chocchipcookie - Ohio
MonkeyLover
KickAssAngel - Ann Arbor, MI

Rockies
Alipiggie - Boulder, CO
Ribena

Northwest
AnnieLaurie - Seattle, WA
Dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR

California
SittingBull - nr San Francisco
Califrau - Milpitas
loopsngeorge - Brentwood, LA
Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
SofiaAmes - LA
LATyke - Redondo Beach

Texas
Texan - Dallas
Tiggyhop - Houston
Vixie78 - Houston
BananaPudding - Austin
Cosmicdust - East Texas

Canada
Hellish - Ottawa
Shouldlistenedtomymum - Hamilton
Nooka - BC
Jacksmama - Langley

Exotic Islands
Anorak - Bermuda
cp - Trinidad
Barefeete - BVI

Brazil
Albert

we've had eyes & ears tested, there is no physical problem. she just seems to 'tune out' & completely disappear into her own world. i started thinking there was something different about 2 years ago, and everyone just told me not to worry. this is the third class teacher who, after a while, thinks there is more than just being shy (which she isn't).
on one-to-one, she's fine, but if tired, hungry, unsure, it can be almost impossible to get through to her. one time, i was putting on a pair of gloves, looked round, dd had disappeared. another woman had walked past, left the shop we were in & was crossing the road. dd thought it was me and was running to catch her up, across the road. no amount of screaming & trying to catch up penetrated dd's consciousness, even though every other person in MI could hear me. and yes, ther was, of course, a car coming (slowly). i actually decided it was safest to let her cross, rather than turn round again, then i raced across the road & had a complete fit. dd had never even noticed there was a problem, she was just rying to 'catch' me up

also, if hungry, she can go totally loopy & hyper. i.e. physical restraint is necessary.

it sounds like the kind of thing most kids do from time to time, but with dd it just seems to be more than that. i've agreed with class teacher we're going to really focus on a few things, then i will go to the doctor to see if there any 'thing' it may be, like probs with sensory processing. she's also EXTREMELY hands on & HAS to touch things, climb them, touch people etc. basically, it's like having a very active toddler with you.

sorry, long post, but dh is having a crap time in UK, so i won't bother him with this til he gets back, it has been discussed enough times chez angels already.

We have an unspoken rule in our house. If the chocolate is purple...it's mine

Yes, definitely sounds like some sensory issues. The Out-of-Sync Child, Sensational Kids, Highly Sensitive Children and Raising Your Spirited Child are all excellent references.

An OT is who to go to for a sensory diagnosis. But at the risk of being too redundant, if she was not examined by a developmental optometrist then vision and sensory integration was not fully evaluated. (Can you tell this is what I do for a living )

thanks for all your replies, btw (sorry, should have remembered my manners)
mumof... you're not that far away, i can prob sniff out that choc from here, y'know.

sb, i get my teabag fix on mon, when dh returns.
good idea about school counsellor thing, there is one, i just am a bit wary of dd being labbelled as a prob child cos she goes there, especially by herself

I agree with Jabber - DS goes to a playrgoup with children who have sensory integration issues and their behaviour can be similar to how you describe DD. It could well be that there is nothing wrong but it may be worth looking into. There is a lot of help available (if you know where to look and have the $$$)

There I was Skyping with my parents today. Some crazy ass bill trying to pass Texas State Congress to pay off credit bills of up to $40,000 for people to buy houses.

Like that had a snowball's chance in hell of passing!

Hell, that made Houston sound appealing to even me and I left Houston in August, 1989 and Denver in April, 2001.

ok, so jabber, have you any idea how i get this sorted? i'm assuming my first stop is our regular doctors, where there are some paediatricians. dd has had normal eye check & hearing tests, which is why i'm sure this sin't physical, and she can make eye contact when made to, she just doesn't seem to want to. hearing or listening seems to be the main prob. you can be right next to her & say something, using her name at start & end of sentence to focus her & it just doesn't go in.

however, watching her when i help out in class, she was sitting on the mat, when the class wasn't listening. although she wasn't even looking away, i could tell from the expression on her face that not one wrod was going in, then the word 'chocolate' was mentioned, and she was 'there'. she heard about the chocolate all right, even thought nothing else had gone in.

sometimes later (minutes or days) she'll comment on soemthing that she apparently blanked earlier, it does all go in, eventually.

in a way i'm not too bothered, this is hardly life threatening, and making a big fuss & making her too self conscious could be worse. however, the class teacher said other kids have already noticed that it's always dd that they're waiting for

Hello ladies I know I never post here, and I should do so more.

kickassangel-- I couldn't help but read your post. Ask your doctor about Sensory Integration Disorder. My nephew has it and your dd's behavior sounds similar to his.

hi, expat, didn't mean to ignore you, just x-posted.
i'm one of those people who has just never got into debt, even when my income was way below the poverty line, so whilst i'm quite kindly towards people in need, i'm not sure i like the idea of dh's taxes paying off their credit cards, specially as we're not even allowed a cc over here.

so, bizarrely, i'm living 1000s of miles from the uk, but closer in real life to any mner than i have beofre (that i know of), and getting the US news from someone in scotland. dontcha just love the global village?

thanks for all the support, i am feeling much happier, just sort of needed to 'say it' to someone. next week is very busy, and the class teacher is going to try some more strategies in school, so i think i'll wait until the week after, this is hardly life threatening. then ishall start persuing this properly.

need to go & have a quick scamper on the treadmill, whilst watching 'sex & the city'.

now i just need to get my head round the whole tax system and my life will be sorted!

'speak' to you all later

Sensory Integrations Disorder is now called Sensory Processing Disorder. Your dd may just be highly sensitive or she may have SPD. You should be able to get an appointment with an OT by setting it up on your own or you may have to have your pediatrician set up a referral depending on your insurance. The nurse would be able to do this for you without an appointment. Vision and Sensory integration is a much more complex thing than most people (including doctors) realize. Ds1 has SPD and I have just started him in vision therapy. He has shown definite improvement. He has also done occupational therapy, listening therapy and we did a round of play therapy just to rule out any other issues.

I was talking about this with a mum from DS's playgroup today and I had no idea how much vision comes into this. She was telling me how she has to do lots of visual tracking activities with her 3 yr old - she isn't able to follow bubbles when they blow them and can't wheel cars around - she just picks them up and puts them where she wants them to be. I had never considered what a complex thing pushing a toy car is but it really is quite involved.

Good luck Kickass.

It's truly amazing. Working with ds1 completely changed the way I practice. I went back for more classes and now do this as the primary part of my clinic.

Sorry to change the subject but does anyone have a fool proof recipe for Hot Cross Buns. Delia has failed me.

I know the Gruffalo conversation is a couple of pages ago now but ds's preschool took them to see the play here recently. It was a British theatre company doing it. None of the children had ever heard of it so ds's class (mostly 2.5-3.5) were all bemused and scared.

I enjoyed it though and ds was reading the Gruffalo in the womb so he was fine.

We've also just been introduced to Skippyjon Jones. It is fab. The rich vein of new picture book talent is one of the joys of having moved here.

Oh, I forgot - I looked in my lovely toy store today and they had The Gruffalo and Charlie Cook's Favourite Book (so I put them at the front of the shelf). And, this afternoon, we went to the huge library downtown and checked out The Gruffalo's Child. I'd love to see the theatre production!

I've never had a hot cross bun, but the King Arthur Flour blog had a post with a link to a recipe for them a few days ago. While I haven't made it, I put pretty much complete trust in their recipes.

Oh, and hi Expat. Good to hear from you. I've noticed you not being around nearly as much.

if you know of a place that sells sultanas & currants let me know, all i can find are raisins, and some bizarre 'Ye Olde English fruit mix' which is supposed to be suitable for mince pies etc, but just tastes WRONG, unless you add a load of brandy to it
do americans not have hot cross buns?

oh, dooney, do americans have 'butterfly cakes'? i've promised to make cupcakes for something at school on fri, and don't have any US recipes (cupcakes here, like everything, seem slightly different), will they know what they are? do they know what butter icing/frosting is? will i look a complete freak? (or cooly european)

No, a butterfly cake is a cake shaped like a butterfly.

Save yourself the worry, and go buy a stupid boxed cake mix and follow the directions to make cupcakes. I don't know how many kids there are that don't like cupcakes unless they taste like processed nothing. I have twenty-something cupcake recipes, and the little buggers prefer boxed cake to good cake almost every time. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

A lot of frosting here is buttercream, which is mostly powdered sugar, butter, some vanilla and a little high-fat milk product.

You can get away with baking things and taking them into school? You are only allowed to bring things bought from a bakery or store to public schools around here.

Kickass, golden raisins are sultanas - you can get them in Trader Joes & I'm sure SunMaid do them too so you should be able to get in supermarkets. No idea about currants - I looked them up on wiki and they seem to be a British things.

I think butterfly cakes would be cool. Buttercream would be fine - I've always used it on DS's bday cakes and no-one has complained.

Oh, and for future reference, if you don't have a peanut allergy in your house, we think that these cupcakes kick some major ass (ha ha, play on your name intended). At least in our house. The recipe is in both American and rest of the world, too.

dooney, you're not allowed to take inhome made? how on earth can you all oh-so-subtley-but-so-determined-you-will-kill-the-the-other-mothers show off you cake baking prowess?
we're allowed home made, but has to be nut free, so i've checked the ingrediants already.
mine will be the BEST cupcakes on sale. i'm telling you ladies, bree van-der-kamp/hodge has nothing on me.

Sultanas are just golden raisins? I have those sitting in my cupboard. I guess I should have asked the other day. My grandma used to make a bread with currants in it. She got them from the bulk bins in the health food section of a supermarket.

I think butterfly cakes look awesome.

I haven't had to worry about showing off my baking prowess, because both mine are still in pre-school that isn't state run, so I can bring in whatever I want. However, baking prowess isn't well received, and I know I'm looked at as somewhat of a lentil-weaving make your own yogurt (which I haven't told anyone I actually do) kind of hippie. I've gotten some really strange looks the past few weeks, as they're studying food groups, and have to tell what they eat for the day, so it can be classified into food groups.

It freaking snowed here again. Fortunately it is melting off the roads, but, seriously? It is almost March.