We've been lax with the pics lately - mostly because we've been busy and sick and not very interesting. Debbie was away for about half the week on business, I came down with a nasty head cold, we had appointments galore and we spent most of our free time getting ready for today's yard sale (purge! purge! purge!).
One thing of note this week was Luca's OT evaluation. When we visited with his teacher awhile back, she mentioned to us that she noticed Luca seemed a little behind on some fine motor stuff, balance and coordination and that he didn't voluntarily "cross his midline". We had no idea what that meant, of course - but after consulting Dr. Google
and my sister - we decided to call the pediatrician about a referral. Basically, we assumed that Luca - a seeming Lefty - was a bit ambidextrous. What we came to understand - after doing some reading and observing him more closely - was that he did, in fact, have trouble "crossing his midline". Instead of reaching from right to left or left to right when drawing or eating or playing - he stopped in the middle and switched hands.
Crossing the midline, which relies on good bilateral coordination, means using part of one side of the body in the space of the other part. Some examples of crossing the midline include sitting cross-legged on the floor or drawing a horizontal line from one side of the paper to the other without switching the pencil to the other hand.
Why is bilateral coordination and crossing midline important?
Having efficient bilateral coordination enables both feet or both hands to work together. This allows you to play and work with fluid body movements. Bilateral coordination and crossing the body’s midline also support a child’s development of fine motor skills, ability to use tools, and ability to visually track a moving object.
We were already aware of some of his fine motor issues (pencil grasp, pincher grasp) but we assumed that - with a little extra work on our parts - it would come in time. As it turns out, all of the issues that we noticed and that his teacher mentioned are related. So - off to an OT eval we went. The good news is - there are no major issues and he is on target with most things. The other news is - he's very behind on certain fine motor skills. Crossing the midline didn't seem to be as big of a problem that we thought it might be - but he is definitely lacking in that area, as well. So - he'll be seeing Julie the Occupational Therapist two days a week until the baby comes and then we'll cut back to once a week after that. She'll also give us some things to do at home. Julie thinks she can have him working up to his age level in a relatively short amount of time. We'll keep you posted.
In other news - our yard sale this morning went well. I was worried that Luca would be upset when he saw all of the (useless) kid stuff we were getting rid of, but he was more interested in people watching, muffin-eating and having much more screen time than usual. A neighbor across the street came over and gave him a bunch of old VHS tapes that had belonged to her grandchildren (decent ones, too - Little Bear, Berenstein Bears and an older one with a Carly Simon soundtrack). So - he was loving life while he ate his snacks in his little chair and watched his new videos.
We made over two hundred dollars AND got rid of a ton of stuff. Anything that was left over got driven straight to Goodwill - leaving us much lighter than we were a day ago. I love that.
Otherwise - we are still slowly getting things prepared for the baby. The yard sale / donation purge is a part of that, as well as our weekly birthing class at the birthing center. Now we're facing the task of switching some furniture around, moving new bureaus (thanks, Dad!) and book shelves (thanks, Mom!) into place and getting the baby's room ready. I've made an appointment to get the carpets cleaned, Debbie has a bit more painting to do and then we'll be just about there. I've already sorted all of Luca's old clothes and my sister has sent a huge box of Max's things - so they'll all get washed and put away once all of the furniture is in place.
Suddenly it seems like this baby is going to be here VERY soon. And he will be. But, I think we'll have everything done in time. At least, I hope we will.
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