What a Nightmare!

For once the nightmare doesn't involve anything with Elise - hooray for that. She has been having a pretty good week so far. Today, she went to a park with her nanny and had a picnic lunch. She spontaneously pointed at a dog and said "dog". Then, she pointed again and said "big dog." Then, she pointed at a tree and said "Tree". This is huge not just because she said words without prompting but because by pointing and engaging with her nanny, she also shared an interest using both verbal and nonverbal cues. Crazy that I know this and don't take any of it for granted. Having a child with autism gives me a whole different perspective on the world.

We're calling the lawyer tonight to see what we can do with the whole occupational therapy thing. From what we understand when we read our agreement, we are to have a non-public agency provide her therapy. When I call this therapist that Elise was supposed to see, her phone number calls into a school district office and she is titled "School Occupational Therapist" on her voicemail. She sure doesn't seem to be part of a non-public agency. I think they're playing another weird game with us - sigh...maybe someday she'll receive the therapy we agreed to receive. Hopefully before she turns 4!!!

The reason this week has been a nightmare is that our dog was poisoned on Monday morning. He was on a walk and picked up something to eat from the grass before we could stop him. About 10 minutes later, he became unable to move well. I took him to the vet and he has been in the hospital since. He's improving some, but is still unable to walk or sit and has not wanted to eat. He was and possibly still is very near death. We all love that dog so much and are devastated by this. The pain he's been in is horrible to see. I pray that he's not going through these horrible days only to lose his battle in the end. We miss him so much! On the other hand, it has been strange not to focus only on Elise these past two days. I just wish our focus wasn't on a worse situation than our usual obsession with Elise's healing.