Dean’s EI Week 1/2/18

Once again, Dean’s OT cancelled one of her sessions with him. I keep saying that I’m going to do something about it and I don’t. Dean really likes her a lot. I’m going to just pull her aside and ask her if she can really handle him in his schedule. He needs consistency. Maybe, she just needs to hear it from me. I’m hoping I can get a second OT person for when she can’t make and keep appointments. I hate that he’s missing out so much on much needed sessions.

1/2/18 – Speech

Dean’s sleep has gone back to normal. Dean was seen at home during part of his HMEA session. He is starting to understand that he works to complete a task and then break. He works well for 1st hour. Dean made nice eye contact, more sounds during play, turned pages and watched signs for animals and more. Dean is getting a cold again and was tired by end of session.

• Continue to name animals and animal sounds while looking at animal books.

1/2/18 – OT

Dean had ABA this am 8-9:30. He gets ABA services Tues – Friday 8-9:30. Lisa (Speech) comes on Mondays. Dean did well today despite having a busy morning of ABA 8-9:30 and speech 9-10. He is more socially connected when I came in, he gave great eye contact and ran right over today. He did well transitioning to working chair. He was able to consistently exert enough force to pull apart pop beads 5/5 times. He also enjoyed swinging and bouncing today.

• Continue to intersperse sensory play with movement, bean bucket, etc with time to work chair
• Continue to try to have him point to objects

I am happy to report that we have flipped through the book a few times, but no animal noises since my throat was scratchy from a cold. I have him chose and point to what he wants. I let him run around and free play before doing 5 to 10 minute activities in his work chair 2x a day.

With Love,

Advertisement

A Hair Of Excitement

I just realized yesterday that it has been 1 years and 7 months since I last colored my hair. It seems like it was just yesterday that I had bleached my whole head with my 5 month old in my arms. I have had an interesting hair journey. I was blonde growing up until the age of 12 when my hair turned a darker blonde. I would say that my hair is a dark blonde to a light brown. My stylist calls it dirty blonde. I say it is darker than dirty blonde playing on the edge of brunette.

I never colored my hair until senior year of high school. I colored my hair blonder and kept on coloring it. Freshman or Sophomore year of college, I added purple extensions.

I then went through a red stage, which I have no photos of. I dip dyed my hair purple, again no photos of that. The next ones I have is when I went black and really dark brown.

I then had my blonde moment:

Now my hair is like mostly natural looking:

As you can see (ignore my greasy AF roots that are super flat), The blonde has mostly grown out. It is more of an ombre and it is so brassy. I am looking to do something colorful. I’m thinking rose gold or purple or pink or blue. Like IDK. I need help! I want to do something fun but still professional looking. I figure that I would just do my blonde ends to spice them up. I am considering doing my whole head rose gold though. Oh, and I’m talking TEMPORARY. The kind of color you mix with conditioner and rinses out in a few shampoos. What do you think I should do?

With Love,

❤ Selena Hannah ❤

Dean’s Weekly Recap 11/14

It’s so much easier to get out week days posts during lunch at work instead of prescheduling to go up during the week. I don’t have the time on the weekends anymore to be able to do this. So, in this series, I will be sharing my son’s progress reports and my to do list for the week. Oh, and all of Dean’s sessions were cancelled this week. I won’t have an update next week because of that.

11/8 OT Therapy Written by Jen:

Dean was slightly more irritable today. He did not respond well to swinging. He enjoyed visual simulation of blanket waving and sitting in beans. He was okay to sit to work and did good with pulling pop beads apart and pushing items into shape sorter. He got frustrated when I didn’t let him spin it. More shrieking noted today. Worked on pointing to snacks.

1. For snack time have him sit in booster or high chair and point to items he wants.

11/8 Speech Written by Lisa:

Dean was seen w/Mike. He already had a visit with OT this morning and no nap. Dean was in constant motion and very giggly today. Left 3 pamphlets. Referral can be made to 1 or all 3. You also have the right to call and ask any questions. Once you decide, I will send referrals out and have you sign authorization to release info form.

11/9 OT:

Dean had an excellent session today. He transitioned to his working chair very well today. He attempted to pull apart pop beads and he remains good at placing items back into container. He tolerated hand over hand assistance to place items into shape sorter. Even though fleeting he has short bursts of eye contact. He gave great sustained eye contact when drinking from a bottle and being sung to. Worked on pointing to snack.

1. Continue to have him sit in working chair for short bursts to play with shape sorter.
2. Try to have him point to bottle/food.

11/10 OT:

Dean did great again today. The play he has been able to do like pushing shapes into shape sorter and pulling pop beads (with help) apart to place into bucket he can do. Today, he was able to pull apart bead 1X on his own. He said “More” with the sign for bubbles. He also attempted to sign “all done” 1X.

1. Continue to try to have him point to milk/bottle/food
2. Try to have him play with rice bucket before meal time. Try not to let him pull food out of mouth if he continues have meal time be over.

Overall, my assignment is to work on pointing to food and drinks and have him have quite time in his chair to work on sorting shapes into his bucket. I love having some tasks to work with him during the week and weekend. It’s always something different, so I enjoy that aspect to it. I’m not there during his sessions, since I work. I love getting these report cards and knowing what he did and what he needs to work on.

With Love,

The Day My World Stood Still

Honestly, I thought that Monday the 6th of November was going to be a relatively normal day. I got up at the usual time and took my time getting ready sipping on my coffee before getting up my son, Dean. I got him changed and dressed for the day. I had pulled an outfit out the night before and now, I don’t even remember what he was wearing. At around 7, we left the house to drop of the car for repairs (My poor Taurus got smashed up during the storm. I only had that baby for a year and a half.) and pick up the rental car: a 2017 Toyota Camry.

Sitting in the cold breeze with Dean tucked into my coat, I waited for my dad to figure out to install the car seat in the rental so we could get going. I didn’t realize what this day would bring and if I would have, I don’t know what I could have done in that moment to make it better. I was poorly prepared.

After fiddling with the radio knobs, we ended up at the hospital and checked Dean in. As luck would have it, Dean got his flu shot first before his evaluation and the evaluation appointment was late by 45 minutes. After stuffing Dean full of animal crackers, Gerber beanies, and Cheetos along with a couple of baby bottles of water, he fell asleep peacefully on my chest. I sat in the most uncomfortable position where my feet and butt fell asleep, so I could watch him sleep while waiting for his appointment.

45 minutes later, I carried him into the evaluation room and prodded him awake with a bottle of milk that he barely touched, too excited after seeing all of the toys to drink. I held the bottle in my hands warming it up for him as he played with the Nurse Practitioner who would ultimately diagnose him with something that I wouldn’t have thought possible for my precious boy. He played hide and seek, peekaboo, and took the baby out of the bathtub (trying to judge his pretend play skills). He kicked a ball around and shoved EVERYTHING in his mouth just to taste it or chew on it a little.

The sparkle of happiness never left his eyes. My boy has always been a happy bubbly thing. I like to think that he takes after me in that way. After playing for an hour, the nurse said that she would have the report ready in a few weeks and proceeded to her computer. What she said next really shocked me. She said Dean has autism, which I knew. I knew he must be on the high functioning side of the spectrum. That really wasn’t news to me. Then, she started talking about all the programs that would help me and SSI. I was like, “Wait, what about SSI?” She started talking about how his autism is disabling and how it was interfering in his daily living.

I was shook. I asked her where did she think he was on the spectrum and she said that Dean is disabling autistic, severely autistic, and more on the low functioning side. I didn’t know what to say. I teared up a little. It came as an absolute shock knowing that my little boy was locked inside of his head and couldn’t communicate with me. It wasn’t for lack of trying or that I wasn’t good enough at teaching him. It’s just who he is.

The most shocking thing to me is: I haven’t really cried yet. Teared up: yes. But a good cry? Not yet. It isn’t real. It can’t be. It can’t be my boy. This isn’t happening. And the worse part? Knowing that me having an epidural and pain medication during labor could have caused his autism. Oh, and they want to do genetic testing on him to see if his DNA is mutated. He has a 20% chance of having a genetic disorder. No, I can’t do that to him. He’s almost 2. Maybe when he’s older.

And there’s so much rushing, rushing through my head. I can’t even hear myself think. Fell myself feel. I can’t feel. I have to be strong. If I feel, I might break down. If I feel, I might be no more. I can’t feel it. Not all at once. It’ll tear me apart. So, I put on a smile, pretend my life is okay, and move on.

Time doesn’t stop. It just keeps rushing forward. I can’t stop. It’ll just go on without me. My little boy is everything to me. All I can do is be the best mom that I can be. I cut up his fruit and help him brush his teeth. One day, I’ll be okay with this. But today…… I just keep my head up and sniffle back the tears.

With Love,

Autism Talk on Beauty Blog

Hey guys!

I am trying to gauge your reaction to me introducing a new topic on my blog instead of creating a whole separate blog for it. My son Dean was just diagnosed with disabling autism. Yes, my son isn’t even 2 and is mentally disabled. It’s tough and emotional and I want to take you guys on this journey with me. I just want to make sure that this is okay to mix in with my beauty stuff. I know that this is my blog and all, but I don’t want to turn my followers away. Don’t worry! There will still be PLENTY of beauty posts to keep you going through the week, but I thought once or twice a week, I can write about my journey dealing with my son’s autism. The first post I have planned will be about the day that I found out, which was this past Monday. Depending on your response, I could do posts on any topic of autism you guys want. Feel free to give me ideas about what topics to post about like when I first thought he had it and dealing with tantrums. Whatever you guys want. Let me know that you would be fine with this new content change. Like this post and/or post a comment to show your support. My man bean man Dean thanks you. 🙂

Thank you for reading as always.

With Love,

 

Planner Madness

Heya Aspiring Gurus!

This will be a quick post for today with loads of pictures. I haven’t been updating you about my planner, so here is a ton of pictures from the last month or so. I will try to be better at it, but no promises. Next week, I will be uploading a Luxury Pamper Night Routine and a Morning Skin Care Routine. You can look forward to those posts. I also want to do an Evening Skin Care Routine, Basic Pamper Night Routine, and a series of my makeup collection! I figure that will be really fun and some diverse posts. What do you think?

With Love,

Don’t Hate Me

Heya Aspiring Gurus!

My post is late again! And I swear, it won’t get the last. lol. I HAVE MY CAR! Yup, I have Pearl in the driveway right now and yes, I named her Pearl after her color: iridescent pearl. I am going to have a post tomorrow or Sunday dedicated to her. I have a lot of posts going up this weekend, so here is the breakdown: Birchbox unboxing video, Birchbox haul, Pearl post, Entertainment Monthly, and my thoughts on the January Ipsy Bag. I’m hoping to get the both Birchbox posts done and the movie post tomorrow. The car post and the Ipsy review will be Sunday. So, lots to read this weekend to make up for all of the craziness this week. I’m also looking for a lease or rent to buy home that I want to move into by the end of the summer. I am going to two showings this weekend. There is so much going on in my life right now, but I love that I am so busy with so much stuff to do. I’m organizing my closet for Spring and I’ll probably post before and after photos.

I also wanted to see how you guys felt about some upcoming changes on my blog. Yes, the time has come where I think that I can finally check out on my own and move away from wordpress. With my growing success and platform, I have decided to move to my own little real estate on the internet. My own url and I will be designing my own blog as well. I think this is a month to three months ahead. I will be moving and I hope you all will join me and subscribe to my new site. I will let you all know when I will be moving and I will stop posting on this site. I will not be deleting this site. I am going to be keeping it up. I’m not disappearing from WordPress. I will still be reading all of your posts and discovering new bloggeristas to follow. I am going to be adding a store to my blog as well. I make the cutest things like this,

 

that I am sure people will love to buy.

Let me know your thoughts and concerns!

With Love,

Update Thursday

Heya Aspiring Gurus!

Okay, so a quick life update for all of my readers. My beauty buying ban is still underway and I have decided to only splurge on one non-beauty item for my birthday. I have decided that I will be in the market for buying clip in hair extensions for fullness. I don’t know what brand or anything yet, so if you know of any good ones, let me know in the comments. I will of course pop into Lush for one of their fresh face masks, go to the movies, and go out to dinner for my birthday. Don’t worry! You will be spending the day with me [post goes up after the fact]. Shadow’s results can back from the blood test. Her counts are lower, but the vet wants to see them even lower. Her kidney indicators are still high. Her blood will be retaken in four months to see if that changes. The vet says that so far so good and to keep up with just feeding her her Prescription Diet wet and dry food. My toe still looks beaten, but there is no more pain. I cannot trim the nail though, so it is crazy long. It hurts if I finagle with it.

I also wanted to give you all an update on what I am doing in regards to writing. Most of you probably do not know, that I am a published author under an assumed name, a nom de plume if you will. I am working on writing a second installment of poetry and short stories under the name of Selena Hannah. It will be a short collection of poems from the first book [which I am considering pulling from the market but I’ll probably leave it as is for now], a selection of new poetry, and a collections of excerpts from the four novels that I am currently working on. Would you guys like to know more about this, along with status updates? I’m not trying to plug in my goods [I never even told you the name of the published book]. I’m just to share more of what I love, which is writing.

With Love,

The Weekly Update

Heya Aspiring Gurus!

I have survived my first week at Maphre Insurance Company (more commonly known as Commerce Insurance) and it’s pronounced MAH-free, a little fyi for you. I learned so much from my mentor and he is just AMAZING! (You know who you are, if you are reading this. And if you are….snooper.) I learned a lot of new stuff and cannot wait to learn more. I also received an email saying the I am getting the Dean’s List Voxbox from Influenster, which is always exciting. The last time I won from them was a year ago. I also got my Ipsy in the mail this week, so you should be seeing that post soon. I also received my Splendies, which I’m trying to get a hold of customer service, because the underwear was damaged and all falling apart when I opened it. I am so disappointing to tell you the truth. I will probably cancel. I have a few nomination awards to be posting to my blog soon as well. I might be posting two posts on Saturday and Sunday depending upon how my weekend goes. I got so many samples in the mail that I have to try and blog for you guys. I just have so much going on and I don’t have much time during the week to really do anything but eat, exercise, a little blogging, and watching a couple of episodes before passing out. How did your week go? And Happy Friday.

With Love,

Selena Hannah xoxoxo