It's been a long time

Things have become so crazy over the last couple of weeks that I haven't had a chance to post. I pretty much go right to sleep after putting the kids to bed. Our days start at 5 am sharp now and are non-stop until 9 pm. It's exhausting.

Elise is beginning to adapt. She became sick after my last post and had to go on antibiotics. She had strep. She ended up missing Mon & Tues of her first week in the UCLA program. By Weds, we sent her back. She was still not feeling great, although she was no longer contagious. She was not having anything to do with the program. She was full of tantrums for them. Apparently some went as long as one hour. On Thursday morning I took her in for our research study play session. She threw such a violent tantrum during the session. I'd never seen her like that. It was seriously disturbing. She was throwing herself backward to the hard ground. I thought she would crack her head. She was thrashing and swatting so much, that I got swatted a few times. She was taking off her shoes and throwing them across the room. It was violent. I left her in her classroom. Good thing they're trained professionals and know how to handle those sort of things even better than her own mother does! They have a big turtle toy filled with air that they lay her on top of when she tantrums. They've since discovered that if they ignore her, she stops much quicker. We've been ignoring much more at home and the attention getting part of the tantrums is improving dramatically. She is incredibly stressed overall.

We have noticed some improvements at home. In general though, she's so stressed and exhausted by the time that I see her, I mostly just see increased tantrums and odd behaviors. She now regularly gives us hugs. She is more interested in greeting and saying goodbye to others. She has been practicing pointing at things. So far, it's mostly indiscriminate, but I think the idea is starting to register. She has added some words. I've heard her say her brother A's name - it's short and easy to say. She now calls only 3 people by name, mommy, daddy & A. She said lemon while pointing to the lemon tree in our yard. She said toes while holding her toes after singing the head, shoulders, knees and toes song. There have been a couple of other new words, but I can't think of them right now. Oh yeah, she sometimes points and says "Dat" when she wants something. That makes me so happy! She's been learning to kiss. Her teacher plays with a doll with her and kisses it. Then she hands it to Elise to kiss. I didn't know this was anything she'd been doing in the program. I was kissing her and exaggerating the "MMMM" with my lips pursed. She started imitating my lips. It was so cute. A kiss will probably not be far behind.

Things are just really hard right now. It's so important to do this, but I just can't even begin to express how hard it is. It's hardest on Elise who is working so much everyday. The drive is killer. The time committment while working full-time is difficult. It's just difficult on all of us. The boys are having a hard time not spending as much quality time with us. It's hard. I think it'll all be worth it if we and Elise learn how to work best with her. Her teacher and the researcher I work with have both commented that Elise is obviously very smart. That makes me proud and makes me think that maybe they do get her. Lord knows that her previous speech therapist never picked up on that and had a tendency to act like Elise was slow. Perhaps that was why she had no luck getting good progress from Elise?

More later.