My Lord, it's been a long time since I've updated this blog! Lot's has happened. We moved to Decatur, so we could register the boys in a better school district. This meant renting our house out, putting lots of stuff in storage and renting an apartment. It's small and dated, but it's in a great neighborhood with lots of parks and awesome schools. I'm so excited about it. The boys and I have been loving the nice days and the chance to get out and walk to parks that are full of children and fun things to do. We also have a great (not quite New York great, but almost) pizza joint on the corner. It's like Heaven!In August Gary will be in pre-K, and Will is going to be in a Head Start program for 3 year olds in the same school with his brother. I'm not going to know how to behave with all those kid-free hours on my hands. I'll be busy, but it's going to feel like such a vacation not being on referee duty ALL DAMN DAY!
To update on the boys: Gary's speech is coming along nicely. He has a really great vocabulary, but he's still having issues with articulation. He will continue to get speech therapy in school. He has been self-correcting quite a bit lately, so he's aware that he's not pronouncing things correctly. That's a start. Will has added a few words or word approximations. Here's his list: Mama, boo!, go!, up, kirka (for circle), ba for ball. I'm still convinced he has apraxia of speech, but that hasn't been diagnosed yet. He has been given a diagnosis of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified). It's too confusing for me to try to explain at this late hour. Google PDD-NOS if you're interested. Evidently, it's on the Autism Spectrum, but it isn't autism. Confusing, I know. Anyway, the diagnosis is ongoing. It could very well turn out to be wrong as we watch him grow and mature a little bit more. It is also entirely possible that a severe speech and language disorder along with some sensory integration problems are the crux of his problem, and that it's not anything close to autism. Next on the agenda for Will is a sedated ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) test April 20 to rule out any sort of hearing deficit. After that he will be seeing a Developmental Pediatrician for a second evaluation and opinion. I'm hoping he can refer me to a speech and language pathologist with experience with PDD's for a speech evaluation.
I can handle whatever this turns out to be, but I want to know what exactly we're dealing with, so we can go about getting the appropriate therapies. Stay tuned for further updates.
We are going to the tiny but famous (childhood home of Oprah Winfrey) town of Kosciusko, MS for Easter. We'll be driving 6 hours tomorrow, staying in a hotel tomorrow night, visiting quickly Sunday with family and then driving back to Atlanta. Gary should be nice and tired to have to go into work on Monday. The boys and Ree Ree and I can sleep in.
