Beach Therapy

Daniel absolutely loved the beach. It also triggered something in his brain (seriously) and he started interacting a ton more. He walked up to his new baby cousin and looked at her and said, "Baby". And he didn't try to throw anything at her when he did it. Our early intervention coordinator said that it was probably the stimulation he got....he basically just stood in the water and stared at the ground, watching the waves go in and out. She asked me how he slept, which was a great question, because he did not sleep at all. Instead of sleeping, he laid awake for hours of the night going "hahbee, hahbee, hahbee, hahbee", "yaaaayy" and clapping. She said this was also normal in a child with the same 'challenges' as Daniel has. Apparently, he was so stimulated, his brain couldn't process everything. Whatever it was, praise the Lord! God knew what kind of therapy that sweet baby needs more than me, or anybody else (including doctors that take ages to get into). He is not cured, but he is certainly different, and in light of the bad news we received last weekend, we have much hope.

Thanks for your prayers. Keep them up if you can. Mainly for me right now, because it is getting overwhelming...I have resorted to (gasp!) using a calendar and (gasp!) organizing papers and such. I have done such amazing feats before, but it has never mattered so much that I keep it up.

Oh, and if anyone figures out what "hahbee" means, let me know. (Maybe it means, "This is better than pouring large bottles of cooking oil in the floor or throwing baseballs at therapists' heads!")

Grade school all over again.

Has it occurred to anyone else that facebook is a lot like grade school, or even worse, middle or junior high school? I am sure it has ocurred to all of you and you are thinking, "Gosh, amanda, you are not really with it, are you?". But let me analyze for a second...you are not going to comment anyway, so what does it matter (insert guilt trip)?

As I have been doing facebook, I have been wondering, what is the point? Anyone that I communicate with on a somewhat regular basis, I email. Yes, it did help me get in touch with some long lost friends. But after that, then what? I know there are actually lots of other fun uses for facebook, but bear with me for a second. First of all, you have this profile which is all about you and how interesting you are. The other big part of your profile is your list of friends. So you look at people's profiles and you think, "Whoa, Miss Popular has 500 friends. Not surprised." And of course you also look to see who those friends are...anyone I know? anyone super cool? Finally, (and this is the clincher), in order to get friends, you have to send a note to say "Will you be my friend? Check yes or no."

So now, I go to my facebook and I look at all of my pretty friends. And the list grows, and I get more prideful. And then I feel like i really should add some more facts about myself. Maybe I should change my picture to a more flattering one...because someone with this many friends has to look cooler than that. Oh, and don't forget THE WALL. Now there is something that only serves the purpose of proving to the world that I am IMPORTANT. It is like signing a yearbook. And seriously, if you really wanted to communicate, wouldn't you just email?? Why do we write little things for the whole world to see that we could just SAY or WRITE to the person themselves.

I still love it, though. And I do have some pretty cool friends. The book application has a lot of potential if I ever find the time to put books on there.

OK people, I lied...

...comment already, will ya? I can't go on like this. I know you are reading, so SAY something already.

I'm going public (and I need a better title)

For some crazy reason, I have only told one friend about this blog...up until now. And that one friend has been a very good reader....she has commented even when I didn't write anything new. I don't know why I have done this. I guess because I don't want to assume that anyone gives a rats a** about what I think about life. And also, I don't want to be vulnerable and say "Hey look at me!"

But all this is about to change...slowly. I am going to start letting people know that I'm here and all of the pressure will be lifted off of sweet Stephanie to think of new and wonderful comments. Not that you have to comment, dear hypothetical friend.

One thing you do have to do, though, is help me come up with a better title. When I first started this, I stupidly forgot the address. So I searched for my title plus the word 'blog'. Apparently many, many people are relying on others to forgive their laziness and assume that if they had just tried, they would have come up with the most amazing title. Well, not me. I am repenting of my laziness and pride in thinking that no title is really good enough...and I am asking for help. Anybody got any suggestions? I thought about something to do with parenthesis (because, have you noticed how I love (love) to put those lovely punctuation marks around everything?). (I don't know why I do that). I tried to think of something very deep and meaningful that would give you a glimpse into the beauty of my soul...but I don't think that exists. All ideas are welcome.