Park Day

Just a lovely Sunday at the park for my sister Bella's birthday. Aden played, and Ava ate, the entire time! Aden took this first picture of Daddy with my big ol' camera all by himself! I think it's frame worthy :)

The Big Bill

All of Aden's testing at Rady's Children's Hospital came to a grand total of $1,736.

After insurance, we only have to pay $16.83.

God is GOOD!

Strides!

Hi all...we're all still here and ready to blog again :)

December flew by (as always). Ava turned two on December 27th. She is talking so much! I can't think of a single word that she can't say. She's so feisty too. She continues to be the most beautiful little girl I have EVER seen :)

Aden is in preschool now, on Thursdays and Friday, from 8:45-12:00. He loves it! He has a shadow with him while he's there, and that's been great. Miss Emily and Miss Renee are his own personal helpers that love on him and help him to understand the social situations that he's in. He's also at speech therapy 2 times a week. Right now we're working on answering "wh" questions. Who, what, where, when and why. It's not as easy as it looks for a 3 year old! We're working on potty training....it usually takes autistic children much longer to potty train because they are so stuck in their routines. We're not too worried about it, he'll get it in his own time.

I recently spoke at Mom2Mom about Aden's Dx and the journey that's it has taken us on over these last 5 months. We are in such a good place now. I feel such a peace about it all. It took a long time for me to "let go and let God", but now that I have, it's amazing! Aden is engaging us so much lately, inviting us into his world instead of us pushing our way in. He says, "Mommy look at this!" "Daddy watch me!" "Mommy let's go outside!" "Daddy let's build!". He's always asking us if we "wanna play?!" and we are all to happy to oblige. It's so wonderful to have my boy look at me and ask me to be with him! I didn't realize how much of our relationship was me loving on him and making the effort. He is surprising us all.

Hiding

I feel like all of my posts are going to be about Autism now, so I don't want to write. I'll get over it eventually and start talking again...I know my Grandma June reads my blogs and it makes her happy when I write about our days. HI GRANDMA :)

First Playdate since the DX

Today a few of us Mommies have a little playdate at Holly's house. This will be the first time Aden will go into a playdate with a diagnosis. I know that all of the mommies love me, and love my babies as well, but I can't help but feel like Aden is going to be watched or judged, just a little bit. I know the girls will want to know about everything that we learned in SD, and how I feel about it. I know that everyone will watch him if he starts to throw a fit, or doesn't speak when spoken to, or repeats. Maybe I'm just being a paranoid and protective Mommy. If people are curious about him, I had better get used to it. We decided not to keep his diagnosis a secret so I should get used to the small amount of attention it might bring. I hope that he will have an interest in talking to his friends, and not just an interest in Tyler's motorcycle :) I just feel so jittery this morning, like I need to prepare him or something. Maybe try to get some eggs into him! LOL I never used to be this way before a playdate. It seems like the initial numbness of that rainy day in San Diego is wearing off, and a sadness is quietly creeping in...

Prayers

Every night, we say the same prayer with the kids before they go to bed. Yesterday it was time for Ava to go down for her nap. Aden and I took her into her room and she crawled into bed. We knelt down by her and Aden folds his hands and leans right next to her face. Heclosed his eyes and said, "Dear God, fank you for dis day. Pwease bwess Mommy, Daddy, Aden and Ava. In Jesus name we pway, amen". Then he kissed her head and said, "Good night Ava, I love you. You a good girl". It was so sweet!

An Answer

Yesterday we spent four hours with a pediatric psychologist at Rady's Children's Hospital in San Diego. Aden was such a trooper. We were able to have 2 breaks, during which we would ride the glass elevator up and down. The skies were black and it rained all day so Aden couldn't play outside at all. I thought the rain was fitting. At the end of our long day, we sat with DR Bental and she gave us our answer. She diagnosed Aden with Autism. On the DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria form, there are 12 possible boxes that can be checked. A child must have 6 boxes checked in order to be formally diagnosed with autism. Aden had 9. Of course, he doesn't show these behaviors all of the time, but he showed each of them enough during our 4 hours that she had to check those boxes. Obviously I half expected him to have some sort of diagnosis, since we were having him tested, I knew there was a reason. I was just a little shocked. I expected something that wasn't as "heavy", I suppose. She made it sound so easy and lighthearted, telling us that his situation was "ideal" since he is so "high functioning". His diagnosis is not "high functioning autism" though, it is just "autism". She said that the best thing we could do for him is put him in preschool right away, so that he can be around good "models"...that's when I cried. I'd rather drive him to 5 therapies a day than drop him off to be in the care of someone else. I had always planned to send him to part time pre-k next year, but this just seems too soon. Anyway, we have a lot of work ahead of us. People keep telling me that he is still the same little boy he was, and that he will be fine. Of course I know this. I couldn't even count how many times I have heard this, like everyone thinks I'm going to forget how amazing he is. Now we go on, loving him, and begin to push him everyday to be the best boy he can be. I'm glad it's over, but it's just the beginning.