Aquarium

We're going to the Aquarium of the Pacific tomorrow evening for the first time (here's the special event info). I told Nate about it last week, and he has been mentioning it several times a day since then. I hope the kids love it!

Nate's neuro appointment today

The appointment today went very well! I went in with expectations on the low side since I'm not extremely impressed with this doctor's view of biomedical treatments or with how much she talks (a ton). (This isn't the actual neurologist but the nurse practitioner, Teri, who follows all of the neurologist's original diagnosis patients.) She spent some time talking with us and observing Nate. Although she didn't officially redo the CARS test (bummer), she did have some great things to say about Nate.

• She thinks he would be OK placed in a "regular" preschool.


• She says she can just "hear" autism when a child with autism speaks--something in the inflection, the stilted meter, the way the child speaks; she can't hear it in Nate. She used the words "best I've ever heard" about Nate's language.


• When I asked specifically if it would be beneficial for us to have an updated CARS test on Nate, she said no. Then she said, "If I did the test again on him now, there is a high likelihood he would not place on the autism spectrum at all. Perhaps I could find some tiny thing here or there to put him on the spectrum, but I really don't think so." This was awesome! So although we didn't get a new CARS number, we essentially got the neurologist nurse practitioner to say that Nate probably wouldn't qualify for a diagnosis.

The subject of one-to-one aides also came up, when I said I thought maybe the school could place Nate in a "regular" preschool class this next year with an aide. Teri gave us her opinion of aides in general (a negative one), which was good to hear. Perhaps I don't want an aide for Nate. Teri's opinion was that parents use aides as a crutch in order not to let their children possibly fail or flounder on their own; in addition, aides aren't properly trained.

All in all, the NP was very impressed with Nate and his progress. She also had some nice things to say to/about us as parents and how we interact with him. I left the appointment feeling energized, excited, and proud of our awesome little boy!

Pics and dates

We've had a normal but busy week around here! Here are some cute pictures.







Some upcoming dates I'm sure I'll blog about:

March 27: Nate going to the neurologist for a follow-up and updated CARS test
April 2: Lucy's 2nd birthday
April 16: Nate's IEP with the school district
May 1: Nate's 4th birthday AND Mimi is visiting for the weekend

New bed, no pressure

We got a toddler bed (from Craigslist) for Lucy last week, and I took apart her crib bumper to turn it into a comforter/blanket. I made the pillow with the leftover chenille. So far, Lucy has only taken one nap in the big girl bed and has wanted her crib, which is still set up in her room awaiting Levi in a couple of months, the rest of the time. No pressure--I figure if she thinks the bed is her idea, she's more likely to transition well. She's the type who will resist doing something just because she knows we want her to, so I'm acting ambivalent about it now since it really doesn't matter at this point anyway. (Levi is still in the bassinet in our room.) If she's still choosing her crib in another couple of weeks, I will begin choosing the bed for her.





And speaking of Levi, here is our little business man:

Kids

Nate at 3 and a half months


Levi at 3 and a half months


At first I was just going to put pictures of the boys, but here's Lucy too! I don't have many of her around 3.5 months because that's when we were moving...

Pics

New videos

Both from today: