Lazy Bones...

Mia woke up today and was very tired. I think all of her somersaults last night wore her out. She had a horrible OT session. OT is new to us and this was Mia's 3rd visit. I do like the homework she gives to Mia, but I don't like that she calls Mia girlfriend, but the one that really gets me is when she calls her lazy bones. I know that she doesn't mean anything by it and when she said it last week I just ignored it and let it roll off. Today it bothered me. I know the therapist was frustrated with Mia because she would not cooperate, but she is trained to work with children and I know that there is no way that Mia could be her most challenging patient. When Mia wouldn't do the work she kept calling her lazy bones. I know sometimes Mia does not want to do things, but I don't think she is lazy, I think it is hard for her and sometimes when work is hard we don't want to do it. Mia needs her core strengthened so much, she is so weak. My goal is to do my best and having Mia do her homework at least once a day this entire week. It will be a challenge, sometimes I just don't want to do the therapy, I just want things to happen for her.

We went to My Gym for a free play today. It was interesting. It is kids of all ages so it was pretty wild. Mia really enjoyed it there. I let her take me to whatever it was that she wanted to do. She jumped on the trampoline, climbed up the stairs, played in the ball pit, crawled up and down the ramp, went down the slide and her favorite thing was this little stair thing that looked like a piece of therapy equipment. It had 3 small stairs, then it had a flat area and 3 more small stairs, it had 2 bars, one on each side. Mia got up there and climbed up the stairs but when it came to going down the stairs (which are very small and close together) she didn't know what to do. Her palms were so sweaty, she was nervous. She figured it out though! I couldn't get myself to talk to her, but there was one other SN mom. Her child was older and more advanced than Mia. I knew by the way the mom played with her that this was no ordinary child, she was much more than ordinary. She was very cute, sweet and friendly. I could tell by the way the mother spoke to her that she has been in those therapy sessions so much that the words "nice crawling, or good balancing" came to her like second nature. When I first heard her talking I thought, well, maybe my interactions and therapies with Mia aren't much different than those of a *typical* child. I knew I was wrong though. A short time later I overheard her speaking to the director about her child's issues with physical development. I wanted to speak to the mother, but it just never was appropriate, but maybe I will see her again.

I really don't like Dr. Phil, but I often watch his show because it gives me an hour of comedy. Today before we left for My Gym he was on and I saw a brief clip of a little girl who was born prematurely, she weighted less than 2 pounds at birth. This was her adoptive mother speaking about the child and music therapy. I missed part of it, but basically this child was not supposed to see, walk, talk or hear. She spoke her first word at 3.5 years old during music therapy. She is able to not only walk but run and she does speak. I need to get on Dr. Phils website and see if I can find out more details on this child. It was so inspiring and gives me even more hope for Mia's future. I wish TLC or Discovery Health would start a series on children with CP or developmental delays. I would so tune in, Jon & Kate + 8 is getting old, time to switch it up a notch. Show day to day life of a special needs child, therapy sessions, mobility issues, feeding issues, the emotional wear and tear on the parents, how hard we work to find answers, to find doctors, etc. Ok, I am going on and on. I do wish that they would though. Not that anyone who has not walked in our shoes could fully appreciate what it is like, but it would certainly give insight.

One last thing, back when Mia had her hearing appointment in February I was on the way to the hospital and I was talking on the phone to my mom. I told her that Mike was meeting me there because I could not be there alone if they told me again that she had *borderline hearing loss*. I said I could not handle it. She said: Well, that's why you are going. If she needs hearing aids, well, then you will get them." That really irked me. I replied: "Yeah like you would have wanted your little 1 year old wearing hearing aids. Of course if that is what she needs I will do it but that is not what I want." And of course she still doesn't get it and comfort me she responds: "Well, you think I want that for my granddaughter?" It was pointless, she will never get it, I am not saying that as the grandmother Mia's *issues* haven't made her heartache, but she had 4 children, all healthy, her grandmother pain isn't the same as mine. I don't care what she thinks, it's just not. Well, the other day she was venting to my older sister about my younger sister and something that was going on that was bothering her and my sister replied: "Well, so." My mom said, well, when you have a daughter and if this goes on with her then that is what I will tell you, well so. Later on I asked my mom what that was all about and she told me about my my older sisters response to my mom when she was venting. I said, well now you know what it feels like to have someone discount your pain. I reminded her of the conversation we had on the way to the hospital and how even when I tried to give her insight on my pain she still turned it around and made it about how she felt. She didn't apologize, I didn't expect her to, but she did say, well I guess it is true, you can't fully understand what someone is going through unless you've gone through it yourself.