Shocked again

Friday we had a visit with a child psychologist who we expected to give us the diagnosis of autism or possibly PDD. She took us back to her office and gave Avi one of those toys where you pull the beads along the wire tracks. He was pretty underwhelmed by it and started looking in the cupboards for something else. He eventually found a box full of cars and immediately turned to me, looked me in the eyes to make sure I saw and signed, "play." His smile was huge at his accomplishment of finding the cars. He kept signing the color of the cars or the word car or fire truck or whatever he found. The doctor kept her eye on him while talking to us about him and the things he did and does. She went over his entire medical history and his last visit and finally gave us her opinion. First she said, "He is very complex." She said that there are several things that he used to or now does that make her think it could be autism, but there are several more things that he does that do not fit autism. One of the things that she noted was he was teasing her, signing spontaneously, was very social and he maintained good eye contact with her. She also said his playing with cousins and neighbor children and other things we told her about would be very atypical for a child with autism. She said if she was hard pressed, very hard pressed she might give him the diagnosis of PDD, but she felt like it was almost certainly something else. She suggested to see a geneticist and a developmental peditrician and I asked about getting an MRI of his brain. She believes that the most likely cause of his hand flapping and not speaking is genetic. If the MRI results are in line with the hypoperfusion idea then we'll most likely persue treatments with the doctor that gave us that as a possibility. We still don't know what is going on but the main message has not changed, Avi is a great little boy.

So we left feeling elated. Everything we had hoped and prayed for happened. Not only was the diagnosis changed, but Avi changed in positive, meaningful ways. We feel so blessed to have even witnessed all of this. So we've started on a new journey. We thought we knew where we were headed, but we are off on a whole new direction.

This morning Avi peed in his little potty for the first time. This is just another step on his journey. Our sweet little preemie growing up and learning so much.

We went to Avi's play group today. It was different. Avi's old teacher is gone and the new teacher is a little. . . well different. He's much less animated than the other teachers and doesn't seem as attentive. It didn't seem to bother Avi at all. He loved the swings, the ball pit, and everything else. After play time we went to the work room and some of the kids were sitting at the table. Avi pulled up a chair and sat down with them. The teacher reminded them that it wasn't time to sit at the group table, but at their private tables to do the learning box. I was really surprised to see Avi following the lead of the other children. He has become such a social little guy lately. We seperated but Avi was eager to join back up with the other children. He played with the playdough, even though he HATES it and even played with the rice/beans box. He started off not wanting it to touch his hand but eventually was putting his own hand into the box and feeling the rice and beans. He did really well. Then we sang our songs and he started doing the wheels on the bus by himself. We left and he was so sad. I'm sure he'll be excited to be back at the playgroup on Thursday.

The weekend and the Monday were amazing. It turns out that Avi loves fireworks almost as much as he loves his cousins. He loved playing with them and begged to go back to them when we came home. Then yesterday we went to play with the other children who live in our complex. Avi normally plays around them but yesterday was different. I will never forget the image of him standing at the box where the other children were playing. He looked up at them and smiled and laughed and really played the game along with the other children. It was amazing. I've never seen him so social! Little things really give you a lot of hope.

We saw a "biomedical" doctor yesterday too. It was interesting but I'm really confused now. He suggested a few different diagnoses that he believes we should look into. It doesn't come cheaply. I'm not sure what to do, but i want the very best for my little Avi.

I hope that Avi knows that I love him, that nothing he does can change that. I hope he learns to believe in himself as much as I believe in him. I believe hat he is fully capable of anything. I hope he knows that Autism (or whatever it turns out to be) is a diagnosis, not an excuse. I believe that he can over come any obstacle placed before him.

Fireworks and other explosions

I was lucky enough to get this weekend off. Independence Day has always been a favorite holiday so we were excited to spend it together. We went to have lunch with Debbie's mom. Avi showed off his signing skills with his flashcards and then showed her how well he does his "learning box" activities. It was a good visit. After that we drove to my parents to have dinner and do fireworks. We never would have guessed how much Avi would love it. He spent much of the time with his cousin. She would hold him until her arms were too tired then she would set him down. He held her hand and carefully followed her lead. She took good care of him and he really enjoyed playing with her. When it was time to leave he kept signing "more," but it was late and he hadn't had a nap. Once we got home his crying was quickly replaced by snoring. He slept until late morning then took a very long nap later that afternoon.

We decided to try a video with new signs. He has already started mastering the new signs. Whenever he finds something he knows the sign for he insists on getting our attention and showing us the sign. Its nice to see another signing explosion. . .or maybe its still the same explosion, it's hard to say.

Today we're having a fast for Avi. My family is participating. I think he'll be excited to see his cousins at the break the fast dinner we're having. While we were in Las Vegas and I was struggling with the concept of homeopathic medicine I decided that I believe in things like fasting and prayer I can believe in homeopathy. Since then I have seen the efficacy of homeopathy. Like I said I believe in fasting and prayer and I believe that this will help Avi, and us as we try to navigate through this complex time.