Sears Photos

We went a got photos taken at Sears this week. Thanks Groupon. Kaitlyn was a champ. Hailey was hungry (thanks Grandma for helping and feeding her). We got some good photos but the after stuff took FOREVER. We'll have to try somewhere else next time.

Never Gets Old

The picture on the left is me... The right is Kaitlyn (from our Tuesday night photos from Sears)

Autism

Today we had our follow-up with the Autism Community Network. The appointment was a similar evaluation to our first. Kaitlyn was more cooperative this time. That is, until they tried to sit her in a specific chair that had a tray (basically a high chair that was low to the ground). Our girl marches to her own drum and if she doesn't want to do something she just shuts down. The OT was a guy and didn't seem to have a great bedside manner. She loved the behavioral therapist, who was also a guy. He was really fun. We were there past 12. Long day.

The diagnosis: Mild to moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder.

They assessed her development in each of 7 areas in order to determine her developmental age - gross motor, fine motor, self help, problem solving, social emotional, receptive language and expressive language. Her strength was gross motor. Her weakest area this time was social emotional which is spot on with her daycare teacher's concerns. She also scored low on fine motor which surprised me. Perhaps that was more about her not being cooperative and us not knowing all of her skills.

She was given a 31 on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). A minimum score of 30 is the cutoff for a diagnosis of autism on the mild end of the spectrum. Down from a 34.5 last time.

Her DSM-IV-TR (standardized criteria to help diagnose) was a 8 (up from a 5). A score of 6 or more is considered on the spectrum.

The most surprising thing of the visit is that they want us to do more than we are already doing. In addition to the school PPCD program, they want us to do additional speech therapy two times a week. She currently get speech therapy at school two times a week. They also want us to add behavioral therapy two to three times per week. I need to explore our options with our insurance and look for a place that can visit her daycare. Never a dull moment around the Aitken house.

Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

It was a fun, relaxing Thanksgiving holiday with the family. Here's what the cuties were up to:

Pictures Galore

 Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks. Hailey is still sleeping a ton.  Here she is catching some zzz's in the swing.

 

 

Here she is in the car seat.  Looks like she is saying "I surrender!"

 

 

Sleeping in the Nap Nanny

 

 

And we're starting to see some smiles from our sweet girl.  Here I attempted to put a headband on her.  I think she looks like Baby Work-out Barbie!

 

 

All wide-eyed and alert

 

 

Working on more smiles while at grandma's house

 

 

I bought Kaitlyn and Hailey matching shirts but her was my only successful picture with them both.  Mom needs to work on that!  Needless to say, this will be the last time they wear those shirts.  They seemed to be mis-sized.  We struggled getting them over their heads!  This picture was at a (relatively) new restaurant near our house, 54th Street.  We were feeling brave and decided to see how the kiddos would do there. We had no intentions of sitting on the patio but Kaitlyn insisted.  I was pretty embarrassed because she pushed the hostess!

 

 

Here is Kaitlyn swinging in the backyard.  Eric made the structure for this swing.  It's already a little small for her but she doesn't seem to mind.

 

 

And here is Kaitlyn at grandma's.  She is so proud and protective of "sister".  "Waley" is so lucky to have her.

 

PPCD

When Kaitlyn turned 3, the Easter Seals program ended and she qualified to attend PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities) at Rahe Bulverde Elementry.  The program is Monday - Friday from 11:30 to 2:30.  So far she loves it!  It is a bit of a challenge because she misses her nap, but the very first day she came out holding another girl's hand and was all smiles.  Here she is walking in one day with the teacher's aide.  So cute and grown up!

 

House framed

Kaitlyn's Well Visit - 3 years

Last week we took Kaitlyn to the doctor for her well check up.  She is 50% for her weight and 75% for her height.  Not sure where she gets her height from!  It was a pretty good visit.  It started out a bit rocky because our doctor moved into a new building.  She had gotten used to the old one and was less than thrilled to go into the new office.  I had forgotten how she didn't like to go to new doctors.  It got a little better when she saw the nurse was familiar.

We had a few firsts at this visit.  They measured her height by her standing up against the wall.  At first she wasn't interested but we convinced her to do it.  She is a pro at standing on the scale now.  And this time they wanted to do her blood pressure (ugh).

We got an "atta boy" from the doctor for keeping up with all the therapies, etc.  She says we are doing exactly what we should be.  She gave us the name of a good developmental pediatrician if we are interested in going that route.  The doctor is in Temple - not sure how we will pull that off - but since there is a 9 month wait, we probably she get on the list just in case.  The other "to do" is to get her eyes checked. One of her eyes gets a bit lazy from time to time.  Her old OT kept pointing it out to us so we ought to get it checked out.

Never a dull moment in the world of doctors visits!

Kaitlyn's Birthday

We celebrated Kaitlyn's 3rd Birthday at Morgan's Wonderland.  We couldn't have asked for a better venue.  Kaitlyn had a blast.  I don't think she ever stopped running.  Her name was on the marquee out front:

 

 

They had a ton of swings. Kaitlyn's favorite way to swing is on her stomach so she can do it by herself.

I think she rode the carousel at least 20 times.  But as you can see, she loves it!

 

And don't forget the train!  We had to wait a long time for the train to get going, but once it started she was all smiles.

 

I think her favorite area was the water.  Too bad I didn't bring her a change of clothes!  She got soaked but was happy.

 

 

 

This was at the pavilion we rented.  She's not one to pose for pictures - I've got to just catch her in the moment!  All in all, it was a wonderful day for her.  Hopefully she will have this much fun at her next birthday!