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!

VBS

Jaylen has been going to Vacation Bible School at the CRC here in town, and last night they had a program. The video I got is of Jaylen singing the one song that he did pretty good for. Before this song (his favorite) he refused to go up on the stage. After the song he was all over the side of the stage... jumping off of it, laying on it - you know - all THAT kind of stuff that none of the other kids are doing?! Yes, that's my kid. Oh, this little boy... he's keeping me humble. I guess God has a way of doing that with all of us! But hey, it's an improvement from his preschool program when he wouldn't even go near the stage... :)
(Jaylen is on the far right - with the circle on his shirt)

Bathroom pictures!!!

The bathroom is finished! Yay! Here are some before and afters...

BEFORE.....

and.... AFTER!!!

The latest in paradise...

Just an update on a few things... Trevor is doing really good with potty training. He's still working on the communicating when he needs to pee, and holding it, and he hasn't pooped on the potty yet, but overall I think he's doing pretty good! He seems to have somewhat of an allergy or something with milk. So we're trying rice milk and so far it has helped a lot. No more diarrhea! (At least when I remember I can't give him milk - seems so simple to remember but somehow I forget every once in a while...) He's also talking a lot more - complete sentences most of the time, like "I don't want to go potty" or "I don't want to hug." (Can you tell we've hit the terrible two's?!) Moving on... Jaylen's appointment with the psychiatrist went good... at least I think it did. He (Dr Harle) will be sending us a letter with his impressions, and he agreed that Jaylen seeing Dr Zinner (the autism specialist) is a good idea. That appointment is coming up in July, so we shall see what that brings.
Jaylen has been going to VBS here in Sumas this week and is having a lot of fun. The singing was a bit rough for him at first (couple songs where the kids shout really loud), but he seems to have adapted and actually likes it now.
Tomorrow is Sumas Community Days, so we'll have a fun day going to the parade and the park with lots of fun activities for the kids, and then a great fireworks show tomorrow night.
I'll be flying solo with the kids next week starting Wednesday while Geoff takes a motorcycle trip with his dad for a few days. It should be fun... We might keep Geoff's mom company for a bit - she just had a knee replacement on Monday and will spend most of the summer recovering.
That's all for now, I'll be posting some pictures and hopefully a video if I can get it to work. :)

Tip of the day...

Make sure you check a pull-up for poop BEFORE pulling it down to take the child potty... you could end up with poop on the bathroom floor... at McDonalds. Yuck.

Just a few pictures...

Here's Trevor with his cousin Jessica, in their cute camping chairs, at Silver Lake

Jaylen in my Curious George apron, helping me bake...

The boys in their Easter suits... (nice look, Jaylen!)

And taking a bath! (This was a bath that Daddy gave them; for some reason,

the baths Mommy give just aren't quite as fun :)

Back home...

After a great time in sunny Arizona, I am back home! I flew in on Wednesday and Geoff and the boys met me at the airport with a balloon and flowers! It was so good to see them again - I missed them all so much. I wondered what Jaylen would do when he saw me... When he first saw me, he started to say, "But I don't want you to come home yet." But then he gave me a big hug and seemed excited to see me... Trevor was too. He was all smiles to see me again. :)

I had a lot of fun with Wendy and the kids... Samantha gave me the silent treatment the first day and a half, but once she got used to me we had a great time together. It was fun to play with a little girl - so different then my rough-and-tumble boys. I took the kids to Burger King and the park to feed the ducks one night, and Zion especially loved that. We got to swim at Wendy's in-laws' place (Zion loves it - that kid is like a fish!), go to the zoo, do a little shopping... but no baby yet. My mom is down there now to help out, hopefully the baby will be here soon - before she leaves!

It's good to be back in my own home now... Jaylen got me right back into the swing of things last night. He was having such a meltdown he ended up going to bed at 7:20 (VERY early for him!) with no dinner. Then spent another half hour crying in his bed. Whew! Was I glad he slept the whole night and woke up in a good mood!

Zion with his fly at Burger King, and me with Samantha at Bass Pro Shop...