Evaluations, Observations, Diagnosis

My daughter is beautiful.  My daughter is brilliant.  Sometimes she is a princess.  Sometimes she is not.

My uncle watched her during our trip to Arizona last April.  "Someone dropped the ball," he said.  We came home, and I watched.  Carefully.  I didn't know what I was looking for, or what I would find.  Slowly, the pieces fit together.

On a trip to meet Grayson's new pediatrician, he mentioned that he wanted to send a speech therapist to our home to evaluate him.  I was not concerned, but they came.  The attention shifted to Claire.  She screamed when this woman entered our home.  She spent her time playing alone, as she does most days.  Questions were asked.  Answers were given.  Appointments were made.

For the last month, I've shuttled Claire twice a week to the local primary school for evaluation, allowing time once a week for a home observation.  I've moved appointments, grocery shopped later than I liked and got dinner on the table at a slightly later hour than I usually do, while the knot in my stomach tightened and loosened with each passing day.

And then it came.  Result Day Thursday.  January 26th.  Answers.

We sat down at a long table in a conference room surrounded by her evaluation team.  Findings were shared.  And then the diagnosis.  Autism Spectrum Disorder.  I wasn't sure what to do with it.  It jumped around my brain for a bit, trying to find it's place.

The diagnosis is really not much of a surprise to me.  Throughout the month, as I watched her, I knew.  She barely speaks, and when she does it's one word or a repeat of the TV, the iPad, my own words.  She has fleeting eye contact and detests physical contact that isn't initiated by herself.  She prefers her diaper to clothing.  She prefers to play alone and direct her direction of play over playing with other children.  Routine is a must and she become upset when it's shaken.  While Grayson is friendly, curious and outgoing, Claire is reserved.  Strangers say hello and she screams.  Family say hello, and she screams.  Frustration in her runs deep and tantrums are fierce and long.

My uncle explained the diagnosis as a big umbrella that she falls under.  From here, we need to make an appointment with Minneapolis Children's Hospital.  We need to find her services.  She needs help, and we are going to embrace her every step of the way, frustration and all.  We'll get there, one step at a time.

Sometimes

I feel like it's been a very long, and very stressful month around here.  Soon, I can share more about this.  Sometimes, I feel like I haven't slept much, because I've been worrying.  Sometimes I feel like I might have forgotten to take a breath, because I have.  Sometimes I felt like the stress might eat me alive, but I didn't want it to win.

And sometimes, I just had to sit back and play Hide And Seek with my baby in the curtains.


Because sometimes that's all it takes.


To help the worry wash away.

Sneaky Snacker

Thursday's are typically grocery shopping days.  I load up Claire and Grayson and we hit the store.

Shopping with two toddlers is not my idea of a good time.  Sometimes it goes surprisingly well.  Everyone is happy and listens.  Other times, Claire is rolling around on the floor, sometimes screaming and almost always I have to drag her away from the packages of lunch meats and sandwich cheeses because she's stacking them like they are blocks.  That's always fun.

But, today, shopping hit a whole new high!  It was a mix day.  There was some happiness mixed with a little of Claire's floor rolling.  Even with the floor rolling, we got our shopping done in a relatively short amount of time.  We got our meats and headed to pick out our veggies, where, good day or bad day, it's always a war with Claire.  I have to constantly tell her to get her hands out of the packages of strawberries and the bags of grapes.

I was picking out my vegetables and trying to distract Claire.  She likes to put my veggies in the baggies, so I turned my back to the cart for a couple of seconds and opened the bag to distract her so she'd put the veggies in.  Once we got the vegetables I needed, I said, "Let's go home!"

As I was putting all of our groceries up and double checking all of my price checks and coupons, I heard the cashier talking to Grayson.  When I was done.  I looked at the cashier and told her what I was price matching and then she looked at Grayson and said, "You are so cute!"  Then she looked at me and said, "Aww...He must be hungry."  I had no idea what she was talking about because he had a snack cup full of goldfish.  Then she said, "Kind of reminds me of my daughter trying to eat whole potatoes."  I was like, "Huh?" and then I looked down and there was Grayson, sitting happily, eating a whole tomato like it was an apple.  I said, "Oh my gosh!  Where did you get that?!"  And all of the cashiers around me started laughing and Awwwwing at the cute little blue eyed boy who had managed to sneak a tasty tomato snack.

So, note to self.....Stand between the cart and the vegetables to prevent future sneaky snacking.

Trains And Snow

It's been a really wacky winter.  Our high today?  Almost 50.  I think it was in the neighborhood of 45 or 46 degrees.  This is not weather we are used to in January.  Last year it was below zero and we had over 5 feet of snow on the ground.  This year, we've probably had a collective amount of 1 to 2 feet of snow, and it isn't evident at all.  It hasn't stuck around for more than a day.  In fact, this is what it looked like at my mother's last week, in northern ARIZONA.

And this is what it looked like here, in MINNESOTA.




My mother has had more snow in Arizona in a two day period (just over 4 feet she tells me!) than we have had all winter.

Last week, we did get a small snowfall.  It wasn't much.  We got to see what our neighborhood looks like covered in snow.




And Ethan got to play in it a little while I watched from the kitchen window and got the hot chocolate making supplies ready.





And now, the trains!  Our house has a train track that runs behind it.  Our town does not have a quiet zone.  We live right by the crossing.  This means that the trains roll through several times a day/night and blow their horns.  You're probably thinking, "Wow...Annoying!".  Actually, not really.  We're used to them.  The small ones sleep right through them.  No problems.  We now sleep through them as well.  During the day, when the train horn sounds, Claire and Grayson both yell, "A train!" and rush to the window to watch.




They find it wildly entertaining.  I find it entertaining to watch their little legs in a full run and frantic couch climb to see the train before it passes.

You can't see it in the picture, but there is a chain link fence separating our yard by 3 feet from the tracks.  We're looking forward to spring.  We're having a fence built.  Then we'll be able to enjoy some backyard fun!

Merry Christmas And Happy New Year!

I'm late...I know.  But better late than never, right?...Right?

I still have a few old posts to catch up on, but let's talk about Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we usually load the kids up in the car and head over to my sister in law's house to spend the evening having dinner and spending time with her family.  We chat, have a meal, watch the kids play and exchange gifts.  It's always a lot of fun.  This year, they decided to come out to us.  I wasn't really sure what to make for dinner, so David and I decided that we would make our Christmas meal a day early.  Ham, potatoes, stuffing....All of it.  And, if I do say so myself, I did a pretty good job.  Then there were presents.







At one point, Claire was literally buried in paper.


And Grayson deemed himself the "opener".  He literally took a gift my father in law was opening from his hands and finished opening it for him.  After that her pretty much just handed them over to Grayson for opening.



Later that night after everyone went home and our small ones had gone to bed, we stuffed stockings.


And put everything under the tree.



In the morning we all got up.  Eyes lit up.  Presents were grabbed.  It was the first time that all 3 small ones were excited about Christmas at the same time.  Presents were opened.






And stockings were torn into.



Later that day, I found some of Claire's stocking stuffers in the curtain.



I think it was being sympathetic to the scene of the after.


It took a LONG time to clean up.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!