My Child Feels Things "More"

I just haven't felt like making the time to come upstairs and blog. We've been pretty busy. We went out of town last weekend, came home and went to the beach two days in a row, laid low for a bit, and then got social again. Philip had a sleepover with a new friend and I, to compensate for allowing his big brother to go on a sleepover w/out him, for goodness' sake!, took Tyler (and Evan) to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Suffice it to say, Tyler can't stop quoting me as we were driving away from the theatre: "Mom why did you say 'man that was freaky, I'm gonna have to write to George Lucas about the ending on that one!'?" LOL. I said that cause it was such a freaky ending! We've seen 3 movies in the theatre in the last month and a few more at home. I'm really getting into it, but as usual, once you get excited about going to the movies, they start becoming duds! Prince Caspian was awesome, Kung Fu Panda was perfect, and Indiana Jones and the Search for the Crystal Skull was weird, but humorous. At home, we've watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the first installment of Planet Earth. And I, by myself, watched Paycheck. I think I watched another one while sweeping and mopping the very excessive mess of dog hair that Allie has been shedding like crazy lately, but can't remember which movie it was. Something I'd seen before I'm sure. In between seeing movies, and after the sleepover, we, and I include my husband in this, went to a pot-luck get together at a friends house, here in town. This is the second time the boys and I have been over there for such an event, and it's very nice! The family has a home-made (read:husband-made) jungle gym that all the kids really enjoy, a fire pit for making S'mores, and we get along well with the other families that were invited. All in all, I think we are finally beginning to mesh with some people here and things are good. (yes, Lynn, I know we were already meshing, and i love ya muchas, but you're MOVING, so I have to get to know other people now, LOL). We went to the beach again today, where we all (except the very conscientious husband of mine!) got sun burned. We did reapply, I promise, but I do believe we were using OLD sunscreen. I've heard you can get a burn worse with old sunscreen than with none at all, and my body can vouch for that! My kids were laughing, not understanding the pain, because I am literally red and white right now.

I can't remember if I've talked about this on my Blog before, but if you lovely readers could keep us in your thoughts and send us some positive vibes, I am having a hard time gathering up my resources and keeping my wits about me while parenting my middle child lately. I have known there are problems, and yet refused to seek help outside of the normal friend to friend support, and now I have hit a rut. I believe Tyler is suffering from Sensory Processing Dysfunction, particularly Sensory Modulation Disorder. This is a neurotransmitter problem, and on the Autism spectrum. Tyler is far from Autistic, but this issue, and lots of help for it, happens to be hugely found in Autistic children and in books about how to help them. I have a HUGE stigma relating to mental illness, and I am already being treated for depression and having a hard time, feeling as if I have somehow failed myself and now my child. Logically, I KNOW this isn't the case, but it is how I feel. Currently, I am talking with supportive friends, reading lots of recommended books (some for the second time) and remembering to keep my cool and to be "a soft place for him to land" when things get out of control. We are scheduled for our yearly physicals in a couple weeks, at which time I will ask the very natural-minded family practitioner what his recommendations are and try to get referred to someone who can determine if Tyler needs to be officially evaluated. The more I read, the more I see that most of what we do on a daily basis (letting him jump on and off of beds, wrestling with his brothers, carrying the groceries in, giving him specific tasks to focus on, etc., etc.) is already helping him to cope with his issues, but it would certainly be useful to have someone outside looking in tell me what more I can do for/with him. His triggers seem to have multiplied and changed over the last few months, so that it seemed he had "outgrown" a lot of the sensory problems, and now it's like they've doubled over night! It is ridiculously hard to predict what might upset him and to what degree and when! Some days, dog hair on his clothes can throw him over the edge of hysteria, while other days I can hand him the lint roller and off he goes to whatever else he had planned. That is just ONE of the many things that we deal with on a daily basis. I just recently decided to admit that I have chosen a hard task in homeschooling these three boys, and now I am willing to admit that it is all the harder with a child with sensory issues. Please don't believe that I am slipping into a victim role here, I just needed to let you know what we are dealing with so you can keep us in your thoughts and send on whatever suggestions/advice you might have. I know some of you deal with similar issues. Thanks for reading! 'Night!