Xavier Meets His Speech Therapist
Greetings and hello to everyone.
Xavier had a busy day today. Beginning about 04:30 AM, he was up and ate, then fussed until he went down about 05:30. Up again at 07:30, he played and ate. Come his 09:00 nap time, he wholeheartedly refused to sleep, and stood in his crib squawking for :45 minutes.
After having about :20 minutes of nap, he was awakened, dressed, put in his bucket and driven to meet Robin, his speech therapist. This meeting was very encouraging (unlike the feeding clinic meeting a month ago). Robin was excited about his food skills (apparently, she sees children with far worse habits such as not wanting to touch food at all because it's too messy).
She gave us some pointers on how, when and where to feed Xavier. She also took down our goals we want her to help us accomplish. We will actually get Xavier into an eating regime, which will also help settle him down she believes, even to the point of sleeping better. She did warn us that it will take two or three weeks of endurance for us parents as Xavier will rebel against the changes of eating whensoever the spirit moves him. Of course, we will be working him into the schedule rather than cannon balling him into it overnight.
Two other interesting things came from this morning's meeting. I asked Robin why a speech therapist was chosen to help Xavier learn to swallow and eat. She explained that speech therapists are the only specialists who study and work with the mouth, so they get the problem eaters also.
The second item we discussed was the connection between eating solid foods and speech development. She told us that when children begin eating more solids, their speech skill progresses faster in proportion to their taking in solid food. She told us there are no studies backing this up, but it is well-known in the trade.
Overall, we are excited to be working with Robin. Xavier will meet with her once a week for some time.
Not only did Xavier meet his speech therapist, but Rebecca signed him up for mother-child swim lessons at the pool just up the street. Rebecca has been thinking about this for a while and today went into the rec center to ask about classes. As it turns out, the last class of the season began today, and they had one opening left. Rebecca signed up.
After leaving the rec center, Rebecca had some shopping to do. A new suit for her, swim trunks, a sun hat and special diapers for Xavier.
Xavier shows off his special swim diapers. He has a set of swim trunks he wore over this diaper. They sport caricature shark prints.
Xavier loves baths, so he should love swimming in a pool, right? Wrong! He tolerated it up to the point the class did the dip under the water maneuver. After that, it was cries, tears, frustration and a generally disagreeable demeanor. His sun hat mom bought him, however, made all the parents coo and aah when she put it on him. It has two eyes and a little shark fin on top.