Seeing Changes

After spending a lot of time with Elise this weekend, I'm finally seeing some of the changes others have been seeing. She seems to be developing a desire of sorts to be part of our world on a more consistent basis. She also intiatied a hug with 3 kisses for me this afternoon. Her communication is slowly improving, but the desire is where I notice the biggest difference. It's pretty amazing to see and provides me with a lot of hope for her future.

That said, there is still a long way to go. The weekend was very hard for her. We were regularly in loud crowded places (Chuck E Cheese & a festival). I had a chance to start working on her wandering behavior. We put both A & B in shopping carts and tried to let Elise walk at the grocery store. It took all of maybe 3 seconds for her to dart away from me. That convinced me that the reason I've not seen this as a huge problem is only because we pretty much confine and control her in public by carrying her and/or strapping her to a stroller or cart. I've been "playing" with her a lot now where I let her run ahead at the park or out front of our house and then step in front of her with my arms outstretched and say "Stop!". I'm trying to make it a game, but where she starts to learn that stop means she needs to stop. This was her teacher's suggestion and I think it'll work well, with patience, consistency and determination.

I think Elise really enjoyed her birthday. She turned 3, of course, but her development is definitely way behind 3. She reminds me of an early 2 year old. It's strange because physically she's 3. She kicks a ball awesomely, strings small beads, colors circles, climbs difficult play structures, can stop herself when sliding down the fireman's pole at the park, and other difficult motor tasks. Yet, she speaks like a new 1 year old and socially acts like a new 2 year old. It's odd to see how her development is so stalled in some areas and above average in others.

Hubby spoke with our clinic coordinator last Thursday. Apparently, Elise has been her usual non-compliant self for their testing. They didn't think she could kick a ball or stack blocks. She's a champion at both and has been for at least a year. She just refuses to do what she doesn't want to do. It seems they are very understanding of this and know that obtaining compliance is key for her development.

Elise did great in our research study session last Friday morning. She stayed actively engaged in play with me for nearly the entire 30 minutes and only had one very small tantrum. It made me feel so much better. I think she was happy there. I'm learning a lot about how to play with her.

Saturday, the whole family went to Elise's last OT session. Her therapist brought birthday / goodbye cake for us to celebrate together. It was sad to say goodbye. She helped us a lot with Elise and has been a great support. I get a bit emotional with all the goodbye's we've had lately. Today B was saying how he wanted to tell Elise's floor-time therapist about what he did on his birthday. We had to remind him that she wouldn't be coming over anymore. :(

In early December, we start our ABA parent training course with the agency we've selected to provide Elise services after we finish the UCLA program. We'll also probably use a private speech therapist on top of whatever speech services Elise gets from the local school district. Depending on her needs, we may obtain some OT services also. Hopefully the school district will provide some OT for her.

Things continue to be insane. We have a plumber arriving tomorrow (hopefully) because we have sewage coming up in our front lawn and we're not able to use one of our toilets and the other is on its last leg. We can't use the dishwasher or washing machine either until the plumber gets here. The tire we repaired last week on the family car is super flat now. We somehow have to manage to get that fixed. Grandma & Grandpa fly back to their home tomorrow. It'll be quite a continued balancing act to get everything done this week. Reinforcements in the form of another grandparent visit arrive on Saturday, thank goodness. To top it all off, this is my busiest week of the month at work and promises some overtime. With the birthday celebrations, we didn't manage to get our normal weekly grocery trips done. It'll be interesting working in shopping trips to such a busy week. We'll survive, it'll just be a struggle. I forgot to mention that my back spasmed yesterday. I spent the day in a quite a bit of discomfort. Today has been much better, but the muscle is still quite tight. Then, my acid reflux flaired in the evening. Stress definitely takes a toll on one's body. I noticed today that my roots are showing pretty much all gray now. Time to try to squeeze in another salon appointment - too much... Oh yeah, the battery in the family car died yesterday also. Fortunately we were in our driveway, so not a huge deal. We jump started the car and took it in for a new battery. It's becoming sadly comical to see what inconvenience will next befall us.

Signing out and going to bed. It should be one hell of a week. I'm just going to focus on the goal at hand - continued improvement for Elise.