Day 4, right?

I checked my iphone and it is the 4th so Day 4 it is. Today I'm thankful for modern textile technology. Yep, that's right. I'm also thankful for cotton today. This may sound super trivial to you. If it does then you are a person who can wear wool. Or angora. Or any other clothing made from furry creature product.  You are also a person who does not have what we like to refer to as 'issues'. Occupational therapists like to call it other names. The combination of Tactile Defensiveness & allergies is deadly when it comes to scratchy animal fur clothes. My Mom will tell you that I was not a cuddly baby. She says that even nursing, I didn't cuddle. She can tell you about the Sock Wars that she had with my sister before she realized that it really wasn't worth it. (and they found a brand of sock that they could agree on) I like soft t-shirty material. Anna likes crisp. Polar fleece kind of makes me want to pull out my touch sensors. And have you met Chloe?

In terms of a broader conversation, I'm thankful for Sierra Preschool's use of an Occupational Therapist. Teacher Linda comes to the class, plays games with the kids & helps screen those kids for 'issues'. Teacher Linda gave Chloe's issues a name. When she did, she handed me a huge file of paperwork to read & said "While you are reading that, think how it applies to Chloe. And then think of how it applies to you." Our curious addiction to certain fabrics and violent aversion to others, explained. Our HATE of tags, seams, socks, "weird" feeling whatevers, explained. Many of Chloe's idiosyncrasies, explained. Even better than the Label was the fact that Teacher Linda gave us ideas and tools to help Chloe work around  and through the way her sensory system worked differently.

Here is a link to a pediatric OT blog. I quickly read through this post and I think it has useful insight in to how it feels to have your sensory system out of wack.
http://pediatricot.blogspot.com/2011/04/treating-tactile-defensiveness.html

I went shopping today for sweaters. I had bday money to burn. What did I find? Wool. Cashmere. Angora. Cowl neck everything. (Can you say...feels like strangulation!!!) Itchy, itchy, itchy!!!!!
I am thankful for cotton. I'm thankful for the fact that we don't have to wear scratchy homespun wool or even coarse linen. I'm thankful for cotton jersey & even for cotton/poly blends. For socks without seams at the toes. For kid t-shirts that are tagless. For anything tagless. I'm thankful for Teacher Linda and for others who have looked behind the 'weird' kids to see what was going on physically.

Thank you, modern world & all of your soft, non-itchy, non tagged, non animal fur stuff to wear.