Seriously, people, where is the summer going? I am already deep in the mad scramble to assemble some sort of delicately balanced child care program for the fall. Our beloved afternoon nanny is leaving us at the end of next week to move back to Milwaukee. Both kids are going to be in school 5 mornings a week starting in September, so that takes care of the mornings more or less. After a couple of weeks of searching/panicking, I think we have someone pretty good lined up to cover the afternoons.I've definitely noticed a change in myself when it comes to CF and child care. In our first few searches, I always brought it up very early in the process, if not during that first phone conversation then definitely during the interview, and it was a big serious thing. Now, I'm bringing it up at the very end. Like, here's the job offer, and oh, by the way, one of my kids needs medication every time he eats and I hope you love hand sanitizer. I guess it would be different if I were hoping the person would do his therapy or something, but I'm not, and at this point I feel like I want him to just be treated like a regular kid as much as possible. I don't want to form an impression in someone's mind that he's anything other than a curious, lively almost-four-year-old boy. Also, having been around the block a few times, I've discovered that pretty much anyone, including a college sophomore who frequently leaves his house keys in our living room, can manage to give enzymes accurately before every snack. So why make a big production of it?
I'm trying to decide whether I want to continue "food school" in the fall. It was easy enough during the summer--I only signed Lemon up for 4 days of camp instead of 5, and took him to food school on the free day. During the school year, though, he's booked with school every morning. So if we were to continue, it would mean squeezing it into the afternoon somehow. If we're still fitting a nap in there, which at the moment we are at least most days, it's pretty tight. A couple of weeks ago I had to take him in the afternoon instead of the morning because of his therapist's schedule, and I have to say it was pretty pointless. I woke him up from a nap to go, and all he wanted to do was sit in my lap and sulk once we got there. Really not the best use of time.If I felt like he were making consistent progress, it would be a no-brainer to continue. But, I'm honestly not sure whether we're making progress or not. Every so often, I'll hear him mimic the language they use at food school. Or see him do something with food that the therapist there does. The thing he does most consistently that he learned at food school is to spit things out. And I totally get it, being able to spit things out makes him feel safe and in control and gives him an out if he gets into a food situation that he can't manage and all that. But OMG I am sick of dinner being spit on the floor. Especially because Lime has clearly picked up on the idea that spitting is somehow now OK in our house, so as soon as he sees Lemon do it, he does it, and the whole thing kind of devolves from there.
To further complicate matters, I feel like right now we're in one of those funks that we go through from time to time where Lemon is clearly working on some serious cognitive development and as a result is eating basically nothing. He definitely can't do two things at once in this respect. So, maybe I just need to let things play out for a little while longer. You'd think by now I'd be used to not knowing if some treatment was working or not, but it doesn't seem to get any easier!
