A day with Macie

I guess I should preface this post with telling you that I love my kids more than anything in this entire world. There are no "easy" days with Macie lately, but I wouldn't change her for the world. I love her just the way she is, and that is why she is "The Face". What I would change is what she is going through. She has daily struggles with sensory issues, and communication. She gets frustrated very easily because she can not tell me what is bothering her, or what she needs. I wish I could change the fact that we do not get out of the house very often for many reasons (tons of therapy, and some situations are difficult for Macie and frankly I hate exposing her to ignorant people who can't take a minute to think that something might be wrong with her, and it's not that I am a non-caring, ignorant parent that can't control my children).
Sorry, I digress a bit.....
Every once in a while I feel the need to document a "rough" day with Macie. It's either to inform others of our daily struggles, or to document for her therapists some of the things they may not see all the time.
Yesterday was a particularly "eventful" day.
I pulled her off the edge of the back of the couch 16 times. While I was changing Emma's diaper, one of the times she lost her footing and tumbled to the ground and gave herself a rug burn/black eye. She cried for 2.2 seconds, and climbed right back up there.
She now moves her play kitchen and climbs over the gate to go upstairs and climb on my nightstand so she can jump on the bed. She did that 6 times yesterday.
We had 3 "standoffs" because she wanted to watch "Guba Guba" (Gabba Gabba), and I would not let her until she played for at least 1/2 hour....with toys!
I told her 22 times to stop rocking on the couch, and gave her options to have a foot rub, read a book, or bounce on the ball with me.
After lunch, it took 13 minutes of screaming until she finally signed "all done" and said "all done".
I got kicked in the gut and the girls 9 times while struggling with her to put some clothes on. She's in the "nakey is better" stage. She HATES getting dressed, but once the battle is over, she is fine.
I told her 5 times to be "gentle" with her sister while she bitch slapped her, and sent her binky flying across the room!
During one of the "standoffs" instead of trying to talk to her and reason with her, I decided to imitate her. I whined and cried like she was, she stopped and started laughing. I tried to explain to her that I can't understand her when she cries and she needs to stop and use her words. I'm fairly sure if she did use her words they would have been some colorful 4 letter ones!
So, that's a day with Macie. Somewhere in there I managed to shower, and change diapers, read to them, and run a mile in the living room trying to wear them out (er um.....I mean entertain them).
Some of the behaviors above are "Sensory seeking", and others are just plain behavioral. I'm in the process of trying to distinguish between the two, and it's not an easy task. You don't want to "punish" the sensory seeking behaviors since she can't help it- we need to redirect her, but you want to make sure you are punishing and redirecting the correct things. Make sense? Probably not, but I feel better "talking" about it!
Anyone up for babysitting? Don't all call at once.......