Check off another one, or two, maybe three...

Got the bag today. It's absolutely beautiful! Thanks again Gwen!

Another link I want to throw out there is this extremely touching speech that Niksmom posted. Here is the transcript if you don't have time to watch the video, though the video is well worth the watch.

Also, thanks Karen for my award. I promise I will get to passing it on asap...

Now for that long laundry list of things I need to journal about....

Let's talk about the TEIS meet since I will be meeting with The Teacher tomorrow. Remember this conversation? and then this victory? Well, I met with the TEIS lady on the 11th (2 Mondays ago) and she interviewed me, a pretty standardized interview. Based on the results she agreed that she should send someone to the house to do an evaluation. I got a rush on the appointment because The Younger is having his Trigger Thumb annihilated on March 8th so we had to have it set before then (it was changed from Feb 15th to March because The AP has gone back to Brazil for 2 weeks to visit and renew her license and visa. Hey, I got to check off another one on my list! "The AP has left the building.") Well, this is the rule. He must be 25% delayed in 2 areas of development OR 40% delayed in 1 area in order to receive services from them. When i first heard that I got a little panicky and started to doubt myself and the need to actually have him evaluated. But the lady reassured me again that I was doing the best thing to get him checked out.

What surprised me was that from her interview, she found 2 areas of delay. I was pretty shocked because neither one of them was sensory processing - which in all fairness was not really a category. But he had delays in communication and fine motor skills. If you know my child, this was a huge shock to me. It must have shown on my face because she immediately started to explain why the results turned up that way. It is the fact that she doesn't form proper phrases until he is repeating a phrase he has already learned and that he tends to perserverate when he is anxious, hurt, or scared. A popular phrase is "I want mommy." Now to someone outside of our family that appears very normal, but he will continue to say this even when I'm clearly in site or even holding and comforting him. Hopefully that is just a phase.

(By the way, The Elder was jamming with some complete, sensible sentences, both questions, statements, and responses to questions....he got his IEP interim report today and it was the first grading period that he showed improvement!! He has already met the majority of his goals all in one interim!! And it only took 5 interim periods!)

The second delay was in fine motor which really threw me off. Mainly because it was his motor skills that pretty much sealed the deal for us to realize that The Elder was delayed in his motor skills - because The Younger was running circles around him, literally and figuratively, for example with feeding himself, opening water bottles, etc. Her explanation was not that he couldn't color, draw, cut, etc, but that he uses his fine motor skills inappropriately. He will break every crayon and peel the paper off of them, but won't color with them. He will take apart pens, flashlights, remote controls, and anything that he thinks he can take apart and sometimes successfully put them back together. He will crack open pistachios and mussels on the shell even though the taste of them repulses him. He just wants to open them for us to eat.

So once she explained all that I sat there with a "Hmmm!" look on my face. Not sure if I had caught on to any of that. And I was supposed to be paying attention! The only things that really got my attention was his anxiety and sensory issues. So we have his evaluation scheduled next week, thanks to the Trigger Thumb surgery. Else it might have been a month!

Would really like other people's input on this or their experience. I don't think he has ASD. I have another meeting with The Teacher tomorrow.

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The Need for Routine

There were actually a whole series of these but I could never get Picasa to upload them all. (Note to self: See your C: drive for the rest of these videos...)

If you click on the link above you will see a mighty hilarious show. What you would have gathered from the series of videos is that The Elder had created a little routine to the video. In the one video here it looks like just random "dancing" but it actually was a rather evolved routine. He even told me later, "when the pink lights come, I do this." and he struck a pose (the one where he kinds looks like superman about to take off). It was adorable. In each video there was an new step added to the routine somewhere in there. My favorite? The Jazz Hands (which actually looked like he was waving good-bye).

The more intriguing fact of this event, was that music video he was dancing to was on an informational DVD that directors receive early for the upcoming product launch. We are coming out with a very cool customizable compact (not trying to give myself a plug here but it really adds to the hilarity of this story) with interchangeable products. I guess the mechanical nature of the commercial really fascinated him. He kept telling me that he wanted one. Well, I got a free one when i was in Houston and he stole it from me!!! I gotta figure out how to get that back!

In previous videos if I can get The Hub to post it, you can see The Younger playing his "guitar" using a DVD. It is pretty funny. He said, "I play 'tar.....Daddy play cheese." He was using his camera to video it all. Get it? camera? cheese? Har har har!!

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Saw The Super Doc again today solo. I totally love her. How could I be so incredibly blessed to have resources in my life that I click with and truly have my best interest at heart. Keep in mind she is The Hub's Doc, but she wants to make sure that I am sane! I love it! Well, I'm one step closer to trying some treatment for ADHD. Sounds ridiculous to some but I am of the thought if I don't try it, I will never know if I need it or can live without it. So I have about a week until I see the Drug Doc.