Porcelain Goddess

There are a lot of things that have changed about me since becoming a mother. Some due to lack of time, some due to lack of money, some due lack of a clue, but the one change I have seen the most is my personal relationship with toilets in public restrooms.

More specifically my new level of intimacy with toilets.

I mean up close and personal.

I was the girl that would hold her pee so long that there would be a serious risk of kidney infection or the need for catheterization because I would do ANYTHING in the world not to need to pee in a public place.

After potting training twin boys I can honestly say I have spent more time with my face mere CENTIMETERS from public toilets in every venue imaginable. I am strangely familiar with the rim, the interior shape and can tell you unless you are that close to any toilet you can see angles of it you never could otherwise.

I used to open every door in site with paper towels, yet I can’t count the hours I have spent with my face basically in a toilet, STARING at my son’s penis – praying for just a DROP to come out so I could leave the bathroom with piece of mind that he actually went and I would not be pulling over in another 20 minutes to either  deal with the mess a urine soaked child in a car seat brings, or stare at YET another toilet in another public restroom 2.3 miles down the road.

And the funniest part of all….is the amount of time and intensity I would stare into that toilet…Heaven forbid I MISS the small stream of urine that would come out and then spend even more time WAITING for him to pee, because I missed it and was waiting for what would appear to never come.

It makes me uncomfortable to think about the fact that I am staring at my son’s penis so frequently, and so intently.

Seriously there may some therapy in future.

And I may need some too.

I just hope the doctor’s office has a REALLY nice bathroom.

Study Allows Early Autism Detection by Age 2

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/838145

We have some children in our extended family whom I believe have undiagnosed mild autism. They exhibit the classic signs and behaviors such as inability to make eye contact, extreme focus on particular toys to the point of being unaware of other people in the room, inability to form relationships and/or bonds with others, mood swings and more. They are unlike any other children I’ve known or been around. It almost seems like the joy of being a child has been taken away from them. I feel terrible for them.

I found this article on CNN about some new breakthroughs gained on the fight with Autism in this country. As the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the United States, Autism is newly diagnosed in 67 children EVERY DAY! The average age for diagnosis 3.

According to some new research done by lead study author Dr. Joseph Piven at the University of North Carolina, “children with autism have normal-sized brains at birth but at some point, in the latter part of the first year of life, it [the amygdala] begins to grow in kids with autism. And this study gives us insight inside the underlying brain mechanism so we can design more rational interventions.”

In people without Autism, a normal-sized amygdala helps a person process faces and emotions, behavior commonly known as joint attention.

“When you see a face, you scan it, identify if it’s friend or foe and make a decision about whether to move forward or avoid it,” said Dr. Barry Kosofsky, chief of neurology at Cornell Medical Center, who was not affiliated with the study.

“Many studies have observed the brain grows too big in kids with autism, but this study finds that by age 2, the amygdala is already bigger and stops growing,” said Kosofsky. “So it tells us the critical difference has already developed. It now poses the question: Are children born with autism or does it develop in the first two years of life?”

“By tracking the behaviors and brain volume growth from birth in high-risk babies, we can pinpoint when the brain first begins to grow larger than normal and provide therapy or medications to limit the growth or symptoms a lot earlier than we are doing now,” said Piven.