Routines and Ruts

I think most kids are routine oriented. Consistency is very secure and comforting. When you are trying to figure out the world, too many surprises can overwhelm a young mind. I have always been a big proponent of a daily routine, and I, myself, am very routine oriented, too. But Garrett takes routine to a whole new level. Things have to be almost exactly the same everyday, or he gets upset. For example, Good Night Moon has to be read to him every nap time and every night or he starts screaming "Goonite Moooooooon!!!" We can read other books, too, but we have to read Good Night Moon.

When he gets home from school at 11:15, he has to listen to the CD with "Hokey Pokey" on it. I'm figuring out that one activity has to lead to another. I used to think that eating lunch triggered the CD, but now I see that coming home from school is the trigger. We were on Spring Break all last week and no Hokey Pokey music was required during lunch. What blissful peace and quiet I enjoyed during lunch. Today was the first day back to school, and when Garrett came home, the first thing out of his mouth was "Hokey Pokey."

Garrett's playtime is also very predictable. He has a limited number of toys that he plays with regularly, and he plays with each toy the exact same way each time. For example, this dump truck:

I bought that dump truck for Garrett on his second birthday, a year and a half ago. He loves to push the dump truck and feel the clicking sound the wheels make.

He has been playing with the truck the exact same way for a year and a half. Talk about a great value in a toy. How many toys do your kids play with from a year and a half ago?

Actually, Garrett likes any toy that he can push. I think it has to do with his Sensory Integration Disorder. Pushing something gives him a better sense of where his body is in space. Here he is pushing a toy vacuum cleaner. Too bad he can't push the real thing!

And here he is pushing a toy lawnmower. I'm sure Daddy would love for him to push the real thing, too.

This past Christmas, Erin got a Hannah Montana guitar from her cousin. She played with it for a few weeks and then moved on. Well, Garrett got a hold of that guitar and made it his very own. The guitar has buttons on the front that play Hannah Montana songs when you push them. And Garrett loves toys where you push a button and music comes out. But this guitar also has an On/Off switch on the back. If the switch is in the off position, the buttons won't work. This concept is completely amazing to Garrett. Here is Garrett pushing some buttons on the guitar.

When Garrett's playing this game, the conversation goes something like this:

Garrett pushes buttons, "Working."

Garrett turns guitar over and turns the switch to off.

Garrett turns guitar back over, pushes buttons (no music comes out), "Broken."

Mommy, "The guitar is broken, go throw it in the trash."

Garrett quickly turns guitar back over and sets switch to On, "Working!!!"

Mommy, "You fixed it."

Turn guitar back over and set to Off.

And the game continues like this for up to 15 minutes, over and over again.

His sister's Hannah Montana "MP3" player (What can I say? This Christmas was dubbed the Hannah Montana Christmas) has a similar on and off button that enables/disables the other buttons. Garrett is holding it in his hands.

The toy is "broken" and suddenly "fixed" or "working" with the click of one On/Off switch.

This is over 50% of his playtime. He has a few other games, but they're pretty similar to these I have described. I guess this is Garrett's way of feeling secure in the world, knowing that some things are very predictable, when the big bad world can be so unpredictable for a little guy.

Garrett's Story Part 4 (Tickle Time)

All kids love to be tickled, but for Garrett tickling is almost a requirement. He really craves tickling when he is sitting quietly in my lap, especially when I want to watch something important, like Oprah, or the news. I used to think that it was just him manipulating me to get some attention when I was least likely to give it, but now I think that he really does need it. Just a deep fingernail massage into a bony area sometimes does the trick. Like if I dig my fingernails into his scalp and move the skin around under my nails, he really enjoys that. Or a couple fingernails into the ribs and moving the skin around there is good, too. It's the kind of stimulation that sends chills down my spine, but Garrett is a sensory seeker, so for him, more is better. But you can never beat a good old fashioned tickle session. Here's Daddy tickling Garrett.

And here's Daddy tickling both Erin and Garrett.

When Garrett thinks he's going to be tickled or gets excited in any way, he draws his arms up to his neck and shrugs his shoulders. He kind of contracts in, very much like a young baby does when he stretches or gets tickled. This is another one of Garrett's quirks (like gagging himself) that nobody can explain.

A lesser version of the full arm/shoulder contraction is the fingers behind the ears contraction. When Garrett is just a little excited he will put his index fingers behind his ear lobes and push into his neck. Again, some kind of pleasurable sensation that only he can explain.

Pee Pee on the Potty!!!

Garrett went pee pee on the potty for the first time today, not once but twice. The first time was just a dribble. I took off his diaper and sat him on the potty seat (that goes over the regular toilet seat) and told him to put his pee pee in the potty. He thought about it for a minute then pushed out a few dribbles. I haven't started potty training in earnest yet, just getting him used to the potty seat. But he may be more ready than I thought. He's been interested in watching all the rest of the family pee in the potty for a while, so I thought I'd give it a shot. He did great, but I'm not fooling myself. A few dribbles in the potty does not constitute a potty trained kid. Here he is showing me where his pee pee went.



I let him go without a diaper just to let him get used to being diaperless. When I was ready to put a diaper on him, I said, "Let's put your diaper on." To which he replied, "No, playin' wee wee." And he was "playin' wee wee" the whole time the diaper was off.



And then at bath time, I took off his clothes and put him on the potty seat, and then turned on the bath water. That caused a lot of pee pee to go into the potty. Of course, Garrett had to stick his hand in the urine stream to see what that felt like, something he tries to do when Daddy goes pee pee. But I didn't mind because Garrett got right into the bath, pee pee hand and all. Hopefully all will go just as well tomorrow on the potty training front.

Garrett's Story Part 3 (Sensory Perception)

Garrett was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder when he was one year old. See Garrett's Story Part 1 and Garrett's Story Part 2 for background). He is a sensory seeker, which means that he needs more stimulation in certain senses to feel "normal." This causes him to engage in behaviors that I haven't noticed in other children.

Sense of Touch

He has always craved more sensation in his sense of touch, even when he was a baby. I remember when he was an infant, maybe 6 months old or so, if anyone was holding him he would feel around the top of your hand until he felt a vein or tendon. He would then push that tendon back and forth as hard as he could so that he could feel it moving under his finger. It could get quite painful because he would sometimes dig his fingernail into the tendon to get more sensation. Believe me, his fingernails got a regular clipping at that age. As he got older and got more coordination in his hands, he "graduated" to pinching a piece of skin from the back of my hand with his thumb and middle finger and scratching it with his index finger. He would often scratch an area raw and it would leave a scab. He would then look for a scab to pinch and scratch open. The backs of my hands would be covered in little scabs, some not healing for a month or so because he would scratch the scab off. Both of these behaviors were most common when he was tired or stressed. The pinching and digging in my hand seemed to relax him. There seemed to be nothing I could do to stop him. Moving my hands out of the way or covering them would only make him mad, and he would go to any lengths to get at my skin. He hasn't done this in several months now and I hope he's grown out of it, but I've learned from some of his other unusual behaviors that, just when it looks like he's outgrown a behavior, it comes back with a vengeance. I'm not really sure why.


I have learned through his OT and books to give Garrett extra sensory stimulation for his hands. We play with play dough, shaving cream (see previous post), sand, water, and whether I like it or not, food.

Gagging Himself

From the time Garrett was able to get his fingers down his throat, maybe at 10 or 11 months, he has stimulated his gag reflex, sometimes to the point of throwing up. I remember Erin went through a phase like this when she was 8 or 9 months old, but once she caused herself to throw up one time, she decided this game wasn't fun or pleasant, and quit doing it. Garrett, on the other hand, got some kind of enjoyment or sense of satisfaction out of this and continues to gag himself even now. He used to gag himself more when he was hungry, thirsty, or craving a pacifier, but sometimes the gagging seemed completely random. And it never failed when we were getting ready to go somewhere, everybody was bathed and smelling good, Garrett would gag himself and get vomit all down his shirt, and smell like puke. Then I'd have to change his clothes and give him a sponge bath to get the smell off. Now, he seems to be able to get a gagging sensation by just pushing the back of his tongue toward the back of his throat, but he still puts his fingers down his throat occasionally, although he hasn't caused himself to throw up in a long time. This is one behavior I can't wait to go away completely.

I don't like creating posts without pictures, so I've just chosen a couple random pictures of Garrett from when he was a baby. I don't have any pictures of him gagging himself or picking the scabs on my hands. Sorry. Both of these pictures were taken around Christmas 2005 when Garrett was about 3 months old.

I just love this picture of Garrett and Daddy asleep together. They look like two peas in a pod.

Garrett's Story Part 2 (Learning to walk)

This is a continuation of Garrett's Story Part 1. See here if you haven't read part one yet.
At 13 months, Garrett started Occupational Therapy (OT) and Physical Therapy through ECI (Early Childhood Intervention). The OT and PT came to our house once a month, checked on Garrett's progress, and gave me exercises or activities to do with him daily to help him improve. His OT, Irene, was especially helpful. She diagnosed him with Sensory Integration Disorder, which is a catch all term for kids who don't process the input from their senses correctly. Click on this link for a more complete description of Sensory Integration Disorder. http://www.kid-power.org/sid.html

Garrett is a sensory seeker, who seeks additional stimulation like swinging, tickling, getting dizzy. His vestibular system was especially underdeveloped. The vestibular system is in the inner ear and controls balance, but also regulates how much pressure your muscles should apply to the ground to walk, where your body parts are in space, even some behavioral aspects like impulse control and reasoning. The therapy for stimulating Garrett's vestibular system was spinning him around in a laundry basket that was sitting on a lazy susan. Once he was good and dizzy (your eyes shift back and forth when you are dizzy), I would have him follow an object with his eyes from side to side, up and down, and far and near. Almost immediately after beginning this therapy, I began to notice a big difference in the way Garrett interacted with the world. Before, he was content to sit and watch everything happen. After just a few spin sessions, he started trying to reach for things, attempting to crawl, just generally more of a go-getter; trying to do things instead of just watching. In addition to the spinning, he did a lot of swinging at the park and I would throw him up in the air or spin him around, anything to get his inner ear moving around in space to help develop his sense of balance.

By 18 months he was crawling, and he was a power crawler. People used to comment on how fast that boy could crawl on all fours. He was trying to keep up with his older sister on all fours, while she was on two legs. By 21 months he was taking his first steps. Learning to walk was a very slow process for him and he continued to fall frequently for almost a full year after taking his first steps. At almost 3 and a half, he can now walk without falling and run well, but there are other coordination milestones he is behind in, like climbing stairs with alternating feet. I can see a difference in him when we go to McDonald's Playplace. Other kids his age have mastered a lot of the climbing skills required to play at McDonald's, where Garrett still struggles.

Here is Garrett at 23 months, fighting to keep his balance.


But he loses the fight and falls.








He used to love (and still does) pushing thing, especially if they are pretty heavy. I think holding on to something to push helps him keep his balance and the pushing increases his awareness of his body in space. Here he is pushing his sister, Erin. Of course, Erin loved being pushed.

He also used to love this rocking horse. More vestibular stimulation with the rocking motion. Ride 'em, Cowboy!!! Yeeee Haaaaa.

Garrett's story Part 1

I want to tell Garrett's story from birth to present for a couple reasons. First, he isn't getting much blog time. Secondly, since he has some special needs, his story may help others in a similar situation. Garrett has developmental delays which are not too severe, but worrisome enough to wonder if he will lead a completely independent life as an adult.

Garrett was born on Sept. 16, 2005. He weighed 7 lb. 11 oz. and was 18 inches long. He was conceived in the normal way, no fertility treatment, and was born after 38 weeks of a mostly uneventful pregnancy. Here he is right after birth.

His APGAR scores were normal, and we were thrilled to finally hold our beautiful baby boy after waiting 38 weeks. He was beautiful. Here he is after they cleaned him up a little. The scratches on his face are from his long fingernails in the womb. One of the first things I did after he was born was to cut his fingernails.

The only things we found unusual right after he was born was that he shivered a lot. I kept calling the nurse to tell her that he was cold, but she would take his temperature and say he wasn't cold, that the shivering was from an immature nervous system. I didn't think anything of it at the time since he seemed otherwise normal. The other unusual thing he did was suck a lot. As soon as I put him to my breast for the first time, he sucked for an hour and a half. Every time he would breast feed, he would suck for over an hour. The hospital discourages pacifiers because they want the baby to use that sucking to eat, but after one day I begged for a pacifier because Garrett was making me so sore with all that sucking. A stark contrast to his sister who would suck 10 or 15 minutes, max, and then go to sleep. She still eats like a bird.


We brought Garrett home after 2 days and we all adjusted to having a newborn in the house again. Here are Erin and Garrett. Garrett was a week or two old.




He still shivered sometimes, but that diminished over time. He also twitched a lot when he slept, so much so that it would wake him up. So I swaddled him for every nap and at night. It helped a lot. When he was about 4 months old, I tried to put him down without swaddling and he would wake up every time. I continued to swaddle him until he was at least 6 or 7 months old. He also wasn't rolling over at 4 or 5 months like his sister. He rolled over for the first time just days before his 6 month doctor's appointment. I spoke to the doctor about him not rolling over and she said to just wait and see. Some kids are just more laid back than others and don't hit all their milestones at exactly the same time. So we watched and waited.

Garrett wasn't able to sit up unassisted until he was about a year old, consequently he spent a lot of time in the johnny-jump-up and excersaucer so that he could look at the world from an upright position.

We noticed that he liked to spin himself around in the johnny-jump-up and make himself dizzy, but we really didn't know what to make of that. He also liked to roll around on the floor and make himself dizzy that way, too.

Finally, by the summer of 2006, when Garrett was about 10 months old, he was able to sit unassisted. It was a big milestone!!

Notice how the dark brown hair has given way to soft golden locks.

At his 12 month appointment, the pediatrician decided that it was time for Garrett to get some extra help with his development. She referred him to ECI, a government agency that provides services like Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy to children under three years old who qualify (to qualify, you must be at least 3 months behind on several milestones). Garrett qualified for PT and OT. The ECI website in Texas is http://www.dars.state.tx.us/ecis/

The pediatrician also referred him to a neurologist to see if there was something going on in his brain that was causing him to miss his milestones.

To be continued..................