The Fair and Derby, 2009!

Ok, it's obviously been too long since I've posted since I have to start with fair pictures, and the fair was a month and a half ago! BUT - we had a BLAST at the fair this year (as usual), and of course we also loved cheering on my brother Linsey in the demo derby! Trevor stayed with Geoff's mom while I took Jaylen to the derby. I was a little nervous taking Jaylen, since it's SO loud, and there are just so many people, not to mention a totally new place. But, Jaylen surprised me. He had so much fun, and was so excited to see all these cars crashing in to each other! We used Geoff's shooting earmuffs to help deaden the sound (we've used these before and they are a life-saver with Jaylen!), which really helped. We ended up getting tickets to the evening derby, so we took Trevor along for that. He also thought the derby was great, and both boys cheered along with the rest of us. Since Geoff was busy all day Monday helping with the derby car, the four of us went back on Tuesday to see the fair together.

Geoff and Jaylen with the car before it was destroyed

#2 - Linsey! Stuck already...

Jaylen, happy with his earmuffs and cotton candy

Trevor loved the little chicks...

and the excavator, too!

More to come...

Well, we had a great time at the fair, and just got back from a WONDERFUL vacation in Seaside, Oregon. Now my sister is here from Arizona with her family, so we're busy spending lots of time with them. So... I will be posting some pictures on here at some point! I just make no promises as to when. :)

Happy Friday!

OK, how cute is this little boy?! Love this little guy...

And this one too!

A Morning at the Movies...

The theatre here at our mall plays movies for free during the summer, and I've been wanting to try it out with Jaylen. This week they were playing Alvin and the Chipmunks, and I figured he'd get a kick out of the little chipmunks with there funny voices. So last night, Jaylen was getting pretty excited about it... until this morning about the time we left the house he said he didn't want to go because it was too scary. The whole way there, he was not wanting to go. I fugured, well, we'll at least go to the mall, and if nothing else, play in the play area. Once we got there, he wanted to go in the stroller (he never wants this!) so I let him. As soon as we walked into the mall, he took one look at the arcade games in the theatre, and another at the candy, and he wanted in! So just like that, we got our popcorn and went straight in, no problem! He sat in the stroller for a few minutes, then wanted to sit in the "cool chair" that almost folded in half on him. But overall, a very good experience! Sometimes I have to push Jaylen a little out of his comfort zone, I think it's good for him! Trevor was with us, by the way, and didn't seem to mind it... although he didn't particularly enjoy it either. I guess you could say he tolerated it. :)

Chuck E Cheese

Last Saturday we took the boys to Chuck E Cheese for dinner... Oh, did they have a blast! Jaylen couldn't stop talking about it, and Trevor was so excited when we got there, he was just vibrating!

After dinner there, we had to stop by Krispie Kreme, where we got doughnuts and the boys got the cute paper hats. Trevor loved his so much he wanted to wear it to church the next morning!!

Artist's Point

A few weeks ago, on a hot Sunday afternoon, we took the boys for a drive up to Artist's Point. It was beautiful! They, of course, got a kick out of playing in the snow (in 80+ degree weather, no less), and really loved going for a little hike. We ate our picnic lunch in the back of the van to get out of the sun, and threw a few snowballs around. Fun day!

PDDNOS

Last week Monday we had Jaylen's appointment with Dr Zinner (the pediatric developement specialist who is an expert on autism and works at the University and Seattle Children's I believe). How did it go? I have mixed feelings. Dr Zinner himself was not an overly friendly person, he seemed to just want to get through the appointment, and didn't really interact with Jaylen a whole lot (although sometimes you have to push Jaylen to get him to interact with you). The appointment itself was not really what I expected. I was expecting questions about Jaylen's behavior, the odd things he says or does, his interaction with others... but it was mostly family history and Jaylen's medical history. Maybe that's because he had enough info from reports from the school and Jaylen's visit with Dr Harle last month, I'm not sure. Dr Zinner explained that in 2012 the diagnostic standards will be changed so that any child with symptoms that fall under the autism/PDD umbrella will be labeled with PDD (Pervasive Developement Disorder) and then the symptoms will be specified. I guess this kind of makes sense, like he said, you can have 10 children with Aspergers in a room, and every one of them will be different with different symptoms. He (and Dr Harle also mentioned this in his report) feels that Jaylen would clearly not have Aspergers, because Jaylen had a speech delay and that automatically disqualifies that diagnosis. Dr Zinner gave Jaylen a "provisional" (meaning it will help him qualify for services for now, although it is not specific) diagnosis of PDD NOS (Pervasive Developement Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified).
So, while we were going to this appointment hoping to get a more definite diagnosis of what it is Jaylen has, we were given a much more general diagnosis. I think the idea behind this is, work on the symptoms since that's all you can do with autism anyhow. Instead of a specific label, give a general label, and zero in on the specific symptoms. I guess this really doesn't change much, after all Jaylen is who Jaylen is, and no label (correct or incorrect) will change him. It just wasn't really what we were expecting!