Kiss Therapy and Omega 3

I am having a really hard time blogging... I keep reading other people's blogs, but no time for mine.. After a bit more than 3 months, life is still quite busy here...

As you know, Diego is walking now! Thanks to two steps we have in the whole house (we have a sinking family room) he asks for my hand every time he wants to go down or up the step, so he is not totally "independent" yet! So, I came up with the idea of asking him for a kiss every time he asks for my hand or every time we stop at a door, or whenever he stops! He learned about kissing several weeks ago, but it would be pretty much asking him to let us give him a little kiss on the lips. Now, it is more like asking him to kiss us! And you know what.. it's working!!! I am making him look at my eyes and then kiss. I am now trying to introduce a hug in the mix, but he gives me another kiss when I say hug! I am very very happy about this "therapy" with Diego!

Tonight we also tried something different for his night time sleep. Since we came home with Diego, Mark and I decided to split the sleeping times; I would do the naps (I am the one at home) and he would put him to sleep at night. As you know, Diego has been having night terrors (wakes up screaming and crying usually within the first hour after he falls asleep) almost every night, and it is really sad for us. Well, lately Diego seem to get very agitated when I leave the room, and he has also been waking up around 2 am, calling us (at least not crying) and it takes about 1 hour until he falls asleep. It has happened 4 times, during nights when there were no night terrors. After reading several chapters of "Parenting the Hurt Child" and "Attaching in Adoption" I am leading to think that Diego is entering the Phase 2 of his emotional development, when he will be forming an exclusive attachment with us, his caregivers. Giving the fact that he spends most of his day with me, tonight we decided that I would stay in the room and together we would put him to sleep. Well, Diego thought it was "party time" with us, so after a little while Mark left and I stayed with Diego. Once again, this is trial and error, and there are many variables, but we are REALLY hoping this will help him and that at some point his sleep will get better.

I am also back with carrying him in the Ergo for couple of hours per day. Yeah, I stopped a month or so ago... I don't know why! And thankfully he still likes his jumpy horse, so between the holding time and the vertical movement I hope his brain is able to get "rewired" and develop in the right way... Oh, I also started adding some organic cold grounded flax seed with Omega 3 to his avocado... Anything to help...

In the meantime, I am not sure if he is still teething, but Diego is back to SUPER picky eater... Oh well, we just load ourselves with patience and hope he is getting enough nutrition... Next week I am taking him to the doctor to check if he got rid of the last ear infection (yeah, he got a cold after going to the "wonderful" water park), and do blood work again to make sure he is not anemic anymore. Diego will receive his first immunizations in August and I want him to be in the best "shape" he can and hope the shot don't mess up his system (a bit freaked out with all the vaccines and Autism controversy).

As usual, I leave you with few pics.