A typical day

I am so sick of people saying to me that Dacotah is just experiencing terrible 2s and he is just a late talker and he's fine.

Perhaps my definition of fine is wrong, or perhaps the late nights of constantly being woken up is normal, or when we make it a day without mommy and daddy being at their wits end from exhaustion

Here's my typical day:

First and foremost making sure that he doesn't come in contact with milk or eggs, an unknowing child or stranger touching him sends me in freak out mode and here comes the baby wipes when they aren't looking in hopes of not ending up in the ER or using his Epi-pen. Or let's not forget the awesome trip to the kids museum with grandma and grandpa we had a blast and absolutely loved it. They served ice cream in the foyer and this little boy who had ice cream running down his hand followed Dacotah to the point that after every single station I wiped his hands off, no it's not OCD it's preventing a trip to the ER. Thankfully it worked!

Shopping trips are nonexistent unless there are two of us. When we stop to get what we need he screams. He doesn't want in the buggy he doesn't want out, he wants to be held, but then he doesn't instead he screams, cries, and arches until we move to the next section of the store. Repeat above. If I have to go by myself it's less than 15 minutes 5 minutes of calm kid, 5 minutes of trying to distract him, and 5 minutes of sheer screeches By the time we get to the checkout he is a screaming mess, mommy is darn near in emotionally breakdown as I try to pay while keeping him from running out the door because he is done.

Car seats suck, yes I know they save countless lives. He hates them. He arches his back and screams not wanting to go in. Instead mommy holds on to him until he relaxes just a bit so I can have him safety strapped in. Hurry turn on the DVD player to snatch his attention so he forgets he is strapped in. (The DVD player had been the best investment for trips). Day trips seem to be better, but at nighttime watch out. Oncoming car lights freak him out and he screams and scratches himself, you can put a blanket up and he still screams because the pole lights lighting the side of the road are coming in the side window. Try calming him with toys that are thrown as he yells no no no....

The lack of talking, it's not that he can't, it's not that he won't, this one I have no explanation for... You see he use to say words lots of them, not perfect but he said words he use to say daddy, he use to say sissy, he would say ow, and beep beep, and then he stopped. In the past two months he may have said da da twice, but looks at his daddy and says mommy when he wants him to follow him, despite Travis constantly saying daddy, you want daddy to come with you.

Pain, it's as though it doesn't exist, he cut his foot the other day on a nail, all he said was mmmmmmmm ma, and turned his attention back to what he was doing. He has hit his head so hard on the wall at night it makes me cringe and it's as though nothing has happened.

Strength I have seen strong kids but when Dacotah has a freak out. Things get thrown. Heavy things up to 4 pounds that I know for sure of the weight are sent across the room like they are a sheet of paper. train tracks "granted they were merely nailed down" came up in a matter of seconds. Blocks can't be stacked up against the wall when we are done as the first thing he does is tear them back down again. We wait until he goes to bed to attempt to clean up the tornado sized mess.

So while yes on the outside Dacotah looks like the normal shy 2 year old that turns his head and turns his body toward mommy or daddy when someone approaches him. If you didn't know him you would think he's just a child suffering terrible twos when we are out in town. But until you live in our shoes please do not tell me you don't see anything wrong with our son.

I never asked for your opinion... In fact I ignored it for a year when someone (a doctor) mentioned he may have some sensory issues. My husband said I think he's fine, he will grow out of it. But when he walks into things repeatedly as though they aren't there, smacking his head against the way, or screaming when you touch his head it makes you second guess the him being oaky. So I took him to the peds office who saw him smack into the chair trying to get to the other side... Not once, twice, but multiple times. Took him to the eye doctor his vision is fine. Took him to the speech therapist he has obvious delays. Took him to OT yes we see this in sensory kids their vestibular system doesn't connect the brain connectors the way his brain should. So at this point with two physicians, two speech therapists, and two occupational therapists all in agreement I have to say no he isn't normal for his age, but that's okay, he has a strong support system and each day we will take it one step at a time and in the meantime I will come up with a nicer way to handle "he seems fine to me" comments so I'm not up at 4 am with it brewing through my mind.