Just the Cutest Thing

Even though she is really difficult at times, Raquel still is one of the cutest things I've ever seen in my life. Mike took these pictures from his cell phone tonight at the dog park. They were too cute not to post!

Today Karin came for occupational therapy. OT is a lot of work - for both Raquel and myself. I always feel I have the most "homework" from Karin compared to all the other therapists. She is also very technical and uses terminology that I don't understand and usually cannot translate it well enough to be able to google it later, which I'm getting pretty good at these days! Elizabeth says that most OT's talk this way and that I just need to keep asking for clarification. Karin still talks about how her "wirery movements" continue to improve. I have no idea what she is talking about - and she doesn't refer to them as that - but I'm just happy she's seeing improvements. She was also very pleased with the fact the Raquel now bounces herself on the exercise ball and requires little support while doing so. This means her core is getting stronger, which has been a goal for not only OT but PT.

Raquel worked very hard today with Karin. She had her doing many exercises to strengthen her arms and shoulders, by stretching and reaching in awkward positions on both the exercise ball and bean bag. She wasn't very cooperative with the wheelbarrel walking, but Karin wouldn't let her give up and kept going. She was visibly frustrated but easily redirected and I can only recall one time that Karin took her to the ball to blow some energy to prevent a tantrum from occuring. This is good news. She also had her sitting on a pillow during floor exercises. This forces her to sit up straight and, again, works on strengthening her core muscles.

I also spoke with Karin regarding the gluten-free, casein-free diet. She said that she has several autistic kids that have implemented this diet and she has seen huge improvements in them. Karin says that one child in particular seemed to be released from a "food coma" after starting the diet. Karin has bad allergies and is also on this diet herself. She encouraged me to keep doing it and says it gets much easier. When she was leaving today, I started boiling Raquel some Quinoa for lunch (corn pasta noodles) and she was giving me some pointers on how to cook it. I'm going to look for a cookbook and start meal planning. It appears that the whole family will need to go on this diet for it to be 100% effective. It's too hard having the things Raquel can't have in the house. And if she sees Gabby eating a graham cracker, let's just say it's not pretty!

Wendy didn't come today, which I think was a good thing because Raquel was very tired after the OT session. She plans on coming for a longer session next week.