Journal Entry from June 4, 2008

I think I have just about figured out the school situation. First of all, the school district evidently was letting too young of kids in the autism preschool so that is no longer an option. So after them pushing and pushing it, he can’t start until January at the earliest. I figured out what private school I want him in. They only do 3 days a week max at this age, but she thought he’d be able to get in there in August. So it will be three half days. She gave me a list of transportation companies too. I am trying to figure out how the parental fee works for TEFRA. If they go by last year’s tax return our parental fee would be $200 per month. If they go by our current income (which has gone up from last year) it would be $400 per month. I have found some papers that say they go off current income, and others that say they go off last year’s taxes. It’s a huge difference. If we do end up with a $400 monthly fee, then I think we will just wait until our insurance runs out. We have a $300 deductible and then $20 co-pay (which would be 3x per week). I would like to keep the extra hour of speech as well, along with the EI speech. I think that would be a good mixture of services for him without being overwhelming to him. We should keep our monthly charges under $400/month so I think we will wait for TEFRA until our number of visits runs out. We are also going to keep M from the PLAY Project coming once per week over the summer, although it is now private pay, since the program is over for the year and the grant is up. I thought about starting TEFRA to cover that, but I think if we just use our insurance it will end up being cheaper. I think I have it figured out anyway. I feel much more at peace about it.

I think that I’ve decided that the OT is irritating. The first time she went 2-3 weeks ago now, she went slightly overlapping the time that the ST and DT were there, but was able to get in a separate session. Then last week, when she said see you next week, she did not go at the same time, she showed up in the afternoon instead of the morning (without telling anyone about the change in time, which was overlapping the appointment with the new speech therapist (the private speech therapist that I have added on). I was so irritated. Well, angry is more the word. The ST said it was just a little overlapping (which doesn’t make sense if the OT was there at the times she said, they would have been 45 minutes overlapping), and the OT helped with a couple things. I think the OT was…..inaccurate about the times she was there and the length of time she was there. I trust the new ST and the daycare said that she was there from those times and was very professional. Anyway, I think I am back to just irritated and am not expecting too much from OT in the future. I’ll just work on some of those things myself. I shouldn’t do that, because she’s getting paid to do it, and I am not a therapist. I don’t think I am a good therapist for my son. I can do the “therapy though play” but I am not a therapist. Some parents can do that, but I don’t think I am one of them.

We’ve made a bit of progress in the last couple weeks. First, we’ve put the milk back in Thomas’s diet and all is well. It makes cooking so much easier. Melted cheese makes a lot of food more appetizing which is extremely important since he’s gotten so picky lately. It’s been 1 ½ weeks now with no side effects from the milk, so I think we are safe there. I am more convinced that the gluten is an issue. I decided to try it myself and I just went a couple days with no gluten. Today, I’ve eaten gluten all day and I feel like crap. I think that our entire family needs to eat better. I enjoy cooking so I’ll be trying to cook more from scratch and use less with preservatives in it. I also cooked some gluten (and casein) free lemon cookies that are phenomenal. You wouldn’t know they were gluten free. I used the flour mixture from glutenfreemom.com. It is an awesome flour mix that has a great consistency. I also tried a recipe for GF granola bars and they are awesome. Unfortunately, when I was looking at the ingredients of rice crispies, I missed the “malt flavoring” which has gluten, so they technically not GF. It seems to be a very little amount, since Thomas has not had any problems with them, but next time I will be more careful.

Anyway, the other good thing to report happened on Saturday. We were watching a movie as a family and I said “Thomas, look at the doggie” and he said “woof woof”. It was more like “woo, woo” but it was really cool. Then a minute later, I said, “Thomas, what does the doggie say” and he said “woof woof”. It was so cute. He knew what I meant and he knew the answer. He looked so pleased with himself too. We, of course, were clapping and congratulating him. It was awesome. When I was talking to M from the PLAY Project the other day, I was telling her about him giving me kisses. He concentrates so hard, and you can see him working out in his head how he is supposed to move his face before he kisses me. She said that it shows he has motor planning issues, which makes sense. It just takes a little longer for him to figure out how to make his body do what he wants. It was the same thing with saying “woof woof”. His lips were puckered for several seconds before he added the sound. You could tell he was really concentrating on that. It’s good to know because his therapists can work on that with him. Over the past month or so he’s been imitating our faces when we make different sounds or say different words, but he hasn’t really added the sound, and that is probably why. He’s concentrating so hard on how to make his face and mouth the right way that he doesn’t get to the part where you make the sound.

We went swimming last night and it was a lot of fun. He’s really getting good. He was jumping from the sides into the pool and was doing really well. He likes going under so we would just let him stay under for a couple seconds and he would start paddling and kicking just like he should. He was really doing such a good job. I was so proud. And when he has hold of the edge, he can get himself out of the water too, which was a bit of an issue as he ran off a couple times while we were stuck in the water, but I’m still very proud. I’m going to try to remember to bring the camera next time so I can get a couple pictures and a short video.

I also am going to be changing offices for work. I was thinking about asking if I could transfer, and then suddenly my supervisor asks if I want to work on a new project over there. We’re not sure if it will be perminant at this point, but that’s cool. I will miss the people I work with in this location, but I think it will be a good move. It will cut out at least an hour of my daily commute (not to mention save a whole bunch on gas), and I will be closer to be able to occasionally sit in on a therapy session or something like that. I’m excited.