Mr. Popular

Last night was curriculum night at Taylor's school. We were late of course and the room was pretty full with kids and parents sitting at the tables. Brooks sat with Jasmine on the rug and went to work on her coloring book while I tried to listen to Mrs. Gregory.

"Mom, do you see blue? Blue is my favorite color"

"Shhh, Taylor. Please don't talk when your teacher is talking."

"Okay mom. But did you know that--"

"Shh! Can you please wait to tell me after she is done talking?"

"Okay mom."

And then we were done. Brooks asked if that was it, and I guess it was. We waited to talk with her after the room had pretty much cleared. I didn't know we really had anything new to share with her, but since Taylor was sent home the day before with a yellow note on his behavior I thought for sure she might have something to tell us.

She said he had a great day, and she was sure his behavior the day before was because he had made the choice not to behave versus something sensory related, like I worried. She also told us the best news ever- that Taylor has a lot of friends and that the other boys really gravitate toward him. "Really?!" I asked. "Oh yeah! He has the best sense of humor and I think the kids notice that." Then she told me that two of the boys in the class were calling Taylor their best friend.

Phew! We have been so, so worried about Taylor making friends. That concern has been at the top of our list for such a long time. Aside from wanting him to appear as normal as possible, we want to make sure he is making friends and kids are being nice to him. And of course that he is being nice back.

Taylor in the House

I was looking through some pics this morning and could not help posting this one. Taylor is so darn cute and if I do say so myself we have one good-looking kid. I love this picture, it is so hard to get pictures of him anymore and I get so sad sometimes when I look at his baby pictures when he had such light in his eyes. But, here it is in this pic, and I love it!

Girly Girl

Jazz discovered Mama's lipstick. 'Nuff said.

...and the quest for speech continues

I was reading some old posts a while back and when we first began to worry about Jasmine's speech one of the initial fears we had was Autism. How ironic (?) then that Taylor is the one who ended up with the diagnosis and our little Princess is now singing "You've Got a Friend In Me" in the background as I type this. Little Miss Jazz is quite the talker these days. She loves to sing, but is just a chatterbox in general. She can also be quite sassy...I certainly don't know where she got that from.

So here we are one year from Taylor receiving the PDD diagnosis and 8 months from him receiving the Autism diagnosis and we are still waiting for speech therapy. I think I found the place, but I won't believe it until September 2nd at 5pm when the paperwork is in and the session is done. I have to be grateful because we do have really great insurance, but unfortunately many insurance companies deny speech for Autistic kids. Yes, I plan to appeal and once I have a copy of the evaluation he received last week I plan to do that.

As we started down this path with Jazz, I went ahead and self referred to DDD to try to get coverage that way. While he was determined to be medically eligible for DDD services, he was denied by ALTCS who provides the funding. Basically DDD will cover treatment for certain disabilities/diagnoses. It's much easier to get help for kids 3 and under, over three are usually referred to the school district. Five and over gets really tricky. I keep wondering what if I would have realized sooner what was going on and how things might be different now. But, I didn't so here we are.

Yes, Taylor gets therapy at the school, but it is not enough. Any services provided by the school district are only for the child to be able to function in an education setting. I don't know any condition that limits itself to Monday-Friday 8-3. We have so many issues at home it wouldn't be enough for us to rely on the school to address everything. Plus, I learned last year his therapist had over 100 kids on her caseload! That's crazy! Gotta love Arizona and our fabulous emphasis on education.

So anyway, I have been trying to get speech. I tried through insurance. I tried with DDD/ALTCS- which took over 7 months by the way for the whole paperwork/interview process. Finally we gave up and figured we'd have to pay out of pocket. Regular price is $300 a session, but there was a cash discount where he received his other private therapies of just $90 a session. We waited two more months for the evaluation only to have the therapist tell us that Taylor needs more than what they could offer. I broke down and cried in front of the therapist. I couldn't even explain why, I just was done. "But, he is really high functioning" she said. Which is great and I get that. But because he is so high functioning getting any help is a constant battle. High functioning for a kid with Autism does not equate to able to function.

So I went home and Googled the clinic she mentioned. Then called them and immediately they emailed the paperwork over. They offer group sessions every other week for the bargain price of $50 a session. This is cheap compared to everything else. So I've got the forms filled out and we'll be starting him on September 2nd. I know I should be optimistic, but I still have this feeling something else will happen. Maybe these sessions won't be a great fit, maybe after a full day at school and an hour drive he won't respond like he should.

...or maybe this is it. Really it and we've finally done it.

Toy Story Mania

Little Miss Jasmine is Toy Story Crazy!

We watched the Toy Story 3 at the theaters during the sensory-friendly showing, which was great! The sound is not as loud, they don't dim the lights as much and best of all, all of the kids are noisy and walking around- not just ours! Great experience and we would see all movies this way if we could ;)

Well, since then Jazz has become Toy Story crazy. Thank goodness we had 1 and 2 at home, as they now play non-stop on the TV in the playroom. And I mean NON-STOP. Even if Jazzasaurus is in the other room she'll flip out if she can't hear it in the background. The only time that poor TV gets a break is when she is asleep.

By now she has quite a collection of the toys as well- Woody, Bullseye, Jessie, Slinky, Rex, Zurg, Buttercup and of course the Barbies. When we go somewhere, she'll load them all in her Kai-Lan backpack and off we go! These pics are of the gang watching what else- Toy Story, while hanging out in a Barbie carriage.

Welcome to Holland

When we received the Autism Diagnosis from Dr. Blitz back in January, we were given a packet of information. I didn't actually look at the packet thoroughly for probably four months, I was in the thick of therapies and when I had first glanced through it noticed there wasn't a comprehensive list of "to-do's" like I'd hoped for. There was a list of books to read, websites and excepts from those websites to check out but not a list- which is something it seems a lot of us are looking for. A good list that says "If your child has/does this is might be this", "here are gluten free foods ASD kids will actually eat" - definite answers are what I, and probably many other parents want. But since that was not in this packet, I figured I was no better off than if I didn't even have the packet since I was trying to figure everything out seemingly from scratch anyway.

So I ignored the packet for a while and when Taylor's folder in the file cabinet finally broke because there was so much stuff in there (medical bills, reports, other "helpful" printouts of info we'd gotten, did I decide to sort and organize and look through the packet. I found this poem in there, called "Welcome to Holland". I do like the poem, sort of. I mean it helps to make the point that Autism just sort of happens- it is not something we expect or plan for. So it brings comfort in that sense. When I went to Google the poem this morning to post in on here, I found another blog post from someone saying that she did not like "Welcome To Holland", and I guess I see her point too. This mom of another ASD kid thought this poem put parents of special needs kids on a pedestal, and gave the impression that having these kids is a blessing and we should forever be grateful and didn't have the right to feel frustrated or complain. I guess I understand that too. It's almost like when someone dies and everyone comments that they are at peace or they are with God now and that should give comfort to the family. It still hurts and that family still has a right to feel sad for themselves.

Don't get me wrong, having a child with Autism, and more so Taylor having Autism is not at all like him dying. He is such a wonderful and amazing little boy- but it is still HARD. Some days it is really, really hard. And of course some days everything is great and anyone who didn't know would never be able to tell something was "different" about him. But some days he is falling all over the place, won't eat his food because there is a speck of overcooked brown on it, he'll melt down over every little thing, won't be able to take his own clothes off and pees himself, runs into everything and everybody and then melts down again when we tell him to be careful or take away the plastic he is chewing or try to stop him from banging his head. I could go on and on. These are usually the days when I have a ton of phone calls to make, or Brooks needs me to do something and then email it to him or we are supposed to get out the door to an appointment or meeting. So I get "Welcome to Holland" and I get the lady who can't stand it. I don't want pity or high expectations. I love Taylor and wouldn't trade being his mom for anything.

But, I would also love to go to Italy.

We're back...

OK, so FOR REAL this time blogging is on like Donkey Kong! I feel like I have been saying forever that I needed to get back into this. Apparently I need a lot of signs sometimes before I "get" it. I love blogging and have been blogging about bridal stuff for the ABA, but have avoided this site mainly because with everything that has been going on I felt like I was constantly in it and didn't want to then talk about it again, but now I get how cathartic it is to deal with it all. I have been mentally overloaded and have had some pretty serious epiphanies lately. Like light bulbs going off constantly. I don't know how many times lately I have said to myself, "Oh now I get it!" "Oh that makes sense!" I also keep thinking about the phrase that God gives you only what you can handle, which is perhaps the understatement of the year. Thank God he didn't dump all this past year on me at once- I seriously would be in the looney bin.

So, looks like the last post was in March, way too much to go over all in one blog but I am sure it will all come up at some time, in due time. But, we are back and man have we been busy! Big plans, lots of new things have been learned and we keep on chugging.