12.11.2003

For Dedicated Fans Only

Today was a good day for both kids. Even though Leelo's been sick and having severe separation anxiety for the last month, he's still making steady progress. We are pleased.

Example: Last night he perfectly followed every direction to remove each item of clothing and put them in the laundry hamper. He then asked for help with his diaper, and he himself put it in the trash. Most parents of three-year-olds would probably say "big fucking deal," but keep in mind that we are describing a boy who, as little as six months ago, responded to exactly one direction: hold my hand.

And there was more diaper excitement today! Maybe he is ready to toilet train. I emerged from my personal pit stop to find his personal pit stop lying on the ground thankfully contained within a diaper, and arranged next to his pants. He was galloping around the living room, swinging free, with that energizer bunny power he exudes so frequently.

Not so great things for Leelo today: I'd forgotten how good he is at spitting out undesirable foodstuffs until I found myself sprayed with lemon-lime Cod Liver Oil this afternoon. He's stopped grinding his teeth, but has replaced that behavior with hand-biting. AIIIGH! Also, he had many bouts of the uncontrollable laughing fit crazies this afternoon. They drive me nuts, as he's almost impossible to reach when he goes into this mode.

These crazies are one of the reasons we're trying to get him seen by the good folks at Stanford. Though he's been seen and evaluated by many people who deal with subsets of his autistic symptoms (speech therapists, ABA therapists, occupational therapists, DAN! doctors), he's never had a thorough clinical, psychological evaluation by autism experts. The GGRC evaluation was brief and by-the-books. It lit a fire under our butts and got us working, and qualified him to have his small-group language classes funded, but it didn't give us a comprehensive picture of where Leelo is compared to where he should be, and what symptoms he might be exhibiting that we aren't noticing. Couldn't hurt, anyhow.

My conference with Iz's teacher went well, surprisingly. She's still a little shit, but less of one than in times past. She is paying attention more, and while she still needs encouragement re: follow-through of tasks she dislikes, it's not the wrestling match it used to be. Mostly we need to work on not torturing vulnerable children like poor Merlin. She had some interesting things to say about local schools, and suggested that I may want to visit some local K-2 classes before jumping straight into the Spanish immersion school. More work, great. Big sigh.

Sorry this is so dull but I'm just blogging away on this one as a record of where we are today.

And one for the shameless bragging file: Iz's teacher says that our girl reads "like an adult" (i.e., fluid sight reading plus enunciation and in-character voices), that she's one of the best readers she's ever had, and that putting her in kindergarten next year would be a complete waste of time. Which means even more research work for this lazy mom. Dammit.

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