Holidays and Updates

I know I've really been slacking at this blog thing but life has been busy busy busy for us ever since the beginning of December. Austin will be 3 on Monday which meant eval after eval after eval for after 3 services and the school district. The good news is that we will still be keeping some hours of in home ABA after school. Also his academic skill are at a 3 year old level for the most part as well as his receptive language skills. To us, it is just the expressive language and behaviors that are still a concern but he is getting much better. He has many labels now and will at least give an approximation of a word when asked anything. I was happy with the school that I chose and Austin will be receiving ST, OT, and APE during school hours. We also were able to finally get an education consultant who was really happy with the IEP. I did my research, attended a seminar hosted by a special ed. attorney, and wrote up our own goals which ended up being almost identical to the IEP team's goals so we are going to sign it this Monday and Austin should be in school at the end of the week or the beginning of the next week. It is very difficult for us to leave him somewhere for a few hours a day but we hope that this is going to be very beneficial for him.

As for other news, Christmas was nice. For the first time ever, Austin opened most of his gifts. He would get distracted and want each toy opened right after but the fact that he opened them was just wonderful. Any other time he's had gifts, he hasn't shown interest in opening them.

We are still researching biomed information. I have needed to go get Austin's blood drawn for a while now but the place the dr. requested we use usually only has one staff member on site and it is incredibly difficult for me to take Austin to do that and also taking Kaitlin. DH has been off on his ship most days but he is taking vacation right now so we will be doing bloodwork next week. Also for Christmas, I received "The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook" which imho is turning out to be a good resource for going GFCF. There are several recipes that seem to be quick and easy and it also shows if the recipe is free of other main allergens such as eggs, soy, corn, and nuts. I assume we will be going GFCF again in the near future and I plan to do much better at feeding Austin a more nutritious and natural diet.

I guess that is all for now. I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday!