Do You Ever Relax?

Interesting question huh?

I'll explain why I'm asking. Yesterday we decided to head up to the mountain to a beautiful lake that we've camped at in the past. Part of our extended family was up there camping and even took my middle son up with them. We thought we'd stay for a few hours, let Derek play in the lake and just "relax".

I think relax was the furthest thing from my mind, and as we drove home and I listened to my husband rave about how wonderful it was up there, and how he had such a great time, I realized how opposite that was for me.

The mountain and lake are beautiful, and I love camping. I can deal with the dirt, no showers and cooking over a fire just fine. I've resisted camping though since we've had Derek, and the last time we were camping was 5 years ago. I have visions of Derek walking off, drowning in the lake, getting burned on a burner or the camp fire. Just don't see how it would work.

In a way he showed me that camping with him is just not possible. He was happy to play in the lake, he loves water. He tried to go out deeper once, but the lake is full of rounded rocks and makes walking really hard, and since his body isn't the same as other four year olds, it shows. Still he was happy staying by the shore in about 6-8 inches of water, he pretty much played for a couple hours and we had to drag him out.

The entire time though I didn't feel like I could take my eyes off him, just fear of what he could or would do. He did start walking off at one point and we had to coax him back over. He kept picking up large rocks, nearly missing his toes, picking up big sticks and nearly missing people with them.

Then we went back to the family campsite, and this was the defining moment. We were there for only an hour and I was not relaxed at all. There is a 1 year old and 3 year old cousin camping with them, so the camp is semi childproofed. As you sit there and watch Derek and the two cousins you see the differences, and I don't mean speech and communication type, but just the way they handle themselves.

The one year old cousin sat on the ground and ate cookies, hung out pretty much and didn't try to take off, or sat in mom's lap.

The three year old cousin sat in laps of relatives, ate cookies, watermelon and cantalope, and pretty much stayed pretty still for that hour.

Derek though, couldn't sit still, was pacing back and forth between the chairs in a 5x8 area. He was eating cantalope and watermelon, but he had to touch EVERYTHING that he walked by. The sides of the camper, the table, the propane grill that was set up (but not on thankfully). The sides of the camper had little metal vent areas that said "Caution Hot" and he was just running his hands up and down everything.

I just couldn't imagine even one night/day camping with him. I don't see how it would be possible, there would be no way to relax.

I then started thinking about how I am with him versus my older two. We stopped at a little play place in a mall on Saturday, and I don't think my eyes left him, and if I lost sight of him I stood up to find him. With my other two, at age four I probably would have brought a book to read while they were playing!

Its just SO different, just one of those things that I think other parents don't realize and maybe take for granted.

So, my blog friends, Do You Ever Relax?

Mystery Rash Part II

Rash is still here.

Aaaahhhh!! Can you hear the frustration?

Thankfully, not as bad, and not all the time, it seems to be going away. Slowly. I've learned more about hives in the past weeks than I care to know.

Right now it seems to show up when he's active or stressed, but in researching that, those type of hives don't usually occur in young children.
Of course I suppose it could still be some sort of food, but what I don't know, he's back to a very basic gf/cf diet.

On a good note we've put him in a weekly social skills class that his consultant runs, I hope that it will be helpful, of course insurance won't cover it and it requires me to drive an hour away each week for it.

Our EYS start up next week so that routine will be good. That and mommy getting a break, which she intends to haul herself into a gym, so the word "break" is subjective :)

My favorite thing though is his new preschool decided to do a 1.5 hour free play every Friday! That means he'll get to meet and hang out with some of his new classmates, and hopefully I can meet some moms who would be willing to do some playdates.

Lastly, I've decided to give myself another project. Of course I have a ton of free time (don't you all too?) to work on this. I'm going to start a website for Oregon trying to connect all the other websites, support groups, services.....everything.... together. Its going to be an interesting undertaking.

That's all the update for now.