It's 9 o'clock and all's well. . .

. . .except that Finn just got out of bed for about the third time to tell me that the fifth graders are coming to read with his class tomorrow. Great excitement. This right after he told me school is too long. I recall feeling the same way in my youth. Now I find that school really isn't long enough, quite frankly. Or perhaps I have signed up to do a few too many things.

The Swinging Before School strategy seems to be holding. Our plan is to keep it up until the snow flies. Which actually could be pretty soon.

Finn had his first occupational therapy session yesterday and it was pretty cool to watch. Megan, Finn's occupational therapist, started by swinging him on a portable swing she hung in the doorway of our mud room. It was a basic swing like you'd see at a park (except it had a nylon seat as opposed to a rubber one. Or are they plastic?). Then she switched the swing to a big net, which Finn though was hilarious. She wrapped him in a blanket to act as strong pressure, which is soothing to him, and then swung him like that. These activities were to calm him before therapy. Still using the net she had him get on his stomach and swing. His arms were out and he had to hold his head up and catch a ball--good core strengthening activity. I could use some of that myself.

Over the course of the session, it was interesting to watch how Finn went from the calm activities, to ones that got him more stimulated from a sensory standpoint. The one that got him most excited was when he got to feel around for plastic animals in a giant bin of macaroni. After several more activities, Megan calmed him back down again with more swinging and some quiet music. Again, the science behind all of this is mind boggling. His next session is next Tuesday morning. We're waiting for a permanent time slot as other kids finish up their therapy, but we're grateful for what we can get right now.

Declan went back to school yesterday. I'm still trying to get caught up. Some day. Perhaps instead of sitting here watching Karate Kid II I should be working. I used to think Ralph Macchio was such a hottie. He's actually kind of wimpy in these movies. And wasn't he about 43 when he made them? Then when he hit puberty at 46, they had to stop. And that's why there are only nine Karate Kid movies instead of 10. Hormones.