Labor day weekend

Despite Moe coming down with croup, this has been a pretty exciting weekend. A couple of interesting things happened.

First, we've been working on drinking from an open cup, so Moe was sitting at the table with a dixie cup of water. I gave him a graham cracker for snack. He took the cracker, dipped it into the water, and said "dip dip!" We're not quite sure where Moe picked this up, but it was great - and now he's enjoying dipping all sorts of foods (chicken nuggets in ketchup, pita bread in hummus). Unfortunately, he doesn't actually want to eat anything that has been dipped, since the food has now clearly been contaminated with whatever it was dipped into.

The second thing that happened really surprised us. I'm not sure if it is because he has been sick, or just because, but over the last few days Moe has been even pickier than usual about eating. So while I was trying to get him to eat something, I gave him two crackers. He took one in each hand and said "one two." We couldn't believe it!

In general, Moe has been starting to really imitate a lot of words that we say as well as other actions that we do. He said "pita bread" during above dipping exercise. Yesterday, when Jeff told Moe it was time to say goodnight to Mommy, he ran right in to me with a huge grin and lots of eye contact. We see progress, though it is sometimes slow and inconsistent.

On the heels of all of this great progress, however, we have the second half of the ADOS assessment on Thursday. After that, we will have our official diagnosis. At this point, we don't expect any surprises. We are coming to terms with the word "autism" and realize that this diagnosis is going to help us get the services we need. It is also a little bit of closure for me - we know, at least in part, what is going on with him and will have a path to move forward. Then it is back to the regional center to once again adjust our IFSP.

Finally, I want to wish a happy labor day to all the stay at home moms out there. We may technically be unemployed, but we work harder than anyone else I know.

Deep breath

I've been working on a post for several days now, the gist of which is this: as someone who has experienced great personal loss, I should be more thankful that Moe is healthy and happy. But even though I know that, I can't help but feel sad for what Moe's future may hold, and that just being alive and well isn't enough. I want him to have everything.

Then on Friday night, Moe woke up crying, struggling for breath. He was wheezing and as I held him I could feel his chest pulling in deep as he tried to take in air. Jeff took Moe to the emergency room, where they gave him a steroid and had him breathe in a fine mist. He is fine - just a case of croup.

But what a wake up call! I've been feeling so down lately, worried about all of the bumps in the road ahead. Of course, I still want Moe to have everything, and it is hard to know that things may not go as smoothly for him as for other kids. But he's going to be just fine. Now that he is breathing easier, I am too.