I designed 2 more WordArt packs, and was all done working by 11am. We loaded up the kids, and took them to free lunch. Here's some pics.
It was fish sticks, and yeah, it didn't go over well. Who knew that my kids didn't care for fish sticks. Or maybe it was just those fish sticks? I don't know. Or maybe they had a big snack right before we came? Whatever it was, lunch didn't go over well :) At least it was free.We came home, and Jake and I got ready for his doctors appointment.
OK, I'm loathe to blog about this, since certain negative "anonymous" people seem to chime in with their opinions, but this is my blog, and I'm not gonna change who I am because of them, or they win, right?
So I took Jake to the doctor. Captain America came with me too. I'm gonna be frank about it. The child is odd. hehehe. Don't get me wrong, he's a WONDERFUL kid. Very grown up in some ways. Very responsible in some way. Trustworthy to a tee. But odd. Socially awkward. Some repetitive actions (tapping things) that annoy me quite a bit. Doesn't always say the right things in social settings. Kind of a loner. Has a hard time staying on task as school.
So I took him to the doctor to see what was the deal. I just always figured that he'd grow out of it. Well, he's almost 13, and he didn't seem to yet. Anyway, they referred us to a child psychologist, thinking it was ADD. So Captain America and I and Jacob went today to meet with him.
After an hour and a half worth of chatting with us and Jacob and filling out a TON of papers and questionnaires, the doctor thought he might know what was going on. Autism Spectrum Disorder (or something like that). He was like, now don't freak out and think severe AUTISM. Think VERY mild autism.
From what he was telling me, it seemed that they'd come up with a "label" for "Socially Awkward". hehehe. But, that's Jake. HERE's an article I found that kinda described it. The doctor said that at most schools, there's three or four kids that act kinda like Jake. We set up another appointment to come back as a WHOLE family with all of the kids and meet with the dude.
Anyway, I didn't really learn anything that I didn't already know. The doctor was concerned that we'd go home and stress about it, or feel guilty, or something. Jake's still the same loving, responsible, great kid that he always was. I just know now that he's gonna make annoying noises, whether I tell him to stop or not. And that he's not gonna be good in social settings, so he'll need a little bit of help and encouragement.
He's still a great babysitter for my kids. He's still a good student at school. He's still capable of doing the things he was doing before. We just need to learn some tricks for helping him do better as he gets older. Anyway, I'll keep you updated as we know and learn more :)
We stopped by Subway on the way home so Captain America could get a salad, then Jake and I headed home, and Captain America went back to work. I'm SO glad Maddie was there to watch the kids so Captain America and I could both go to the doctor with Jacob.
We cleaned up the house a bit when we got home, and got ready for dinner with the missionaries. I cooked Lasagna bake for dinner. Yeah, most of the kids hate it, but it's easy to make and goes a LONG way. And I guess that's good - hehehe.
The elders showed up at around 6pm, and Captain America got home at about the same time. We ate real fast, the Elders left us with a short spiritual thought, and 30 minutes later they were on their way to their appointments.
We cleaned up, kids went back to their various evening activities. It's now 7pm, and we're hanging out as a family. Not sure what we're gonna do for the rest of the evening :)
Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!
13 comments:
Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, under the Page 7 post on Jul. 30, 2010. Thanks again.
thanks for the wordart.
we have autism (aspergers) in the family and my daughter showed alot of the behaviors of her cousins. she's very intellegent but gets stuck in patterns and was becoming violent. we took her to neurologists, autism specialits, developmental pediatricians. and were told she's on the autism spectrum, but were given a diagnosis of OCD.
the dr's asked us if we'd consider changing her diet but wouldn't give us a recommendation on how to change it and they just recommended antidepresents (for a 3 year old geeze).
we eventually found a dr that could help us with the food stuff and my daughter's not on antidepressents. We've found that when we removed the wheat and dairy from her diet, she's much much better. removing artifical sweeteners and food dyes also has helped, but the biggest thing was the wheat and dairy. her autistic cousins are now on this diet also and benefiting.
you might want to check out some cookbooks for adhd & autistic kids, they have great glutenfree/casein free recipies. It's an expensive diet, and it doesn't help all the kids but for some of them it's amazing. it's made miraculous improvements in my daughter's speech & behavior.
best of luck to you on your journey with your son.
mcmartian
Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave in the DigiFree category today [30 Jul 12:00pm GMT]. Thanks, Maria
It's great that you pay such close attention to your children. I know so many kids that have had issues that their parents never saw because they didn't care. :( I love this word art. It's super cute, so thank you for that! And I'm sorry if people are making you feel bad on your blog, I love coming here! Reading about your day makes mine feel a little more normal! ;) (And that's not a bad thing, just that I always thought no one else saw things they way I did, but you seem to think along the same lines as me!)
I ahve a 17 year old son with severe (diagnosed as profound) Autism. He doesn't speak, refuses to learn sign language, is VERY OCD and that really aggravates all of us, trust me :) But this is who he is.....I don't love him any less, and truth be known is there EVER a time when something one of our childen does DOESN'T annoy us?? Like you, I have 5 children....so I already know that answer to that....LOL. Matt will never be normal.....normal for him yes, but not normal to society. Everyone always asks me if he is like "rainman" Uhhh NO!! I am just glad you don't have to go thru what I have had to.....Bless you and your family :)
Thank you for freebies. Link on your post was added to Lori's freebie list
I love the word art you produce. Also love the way you blog so openly about life as it happens to you. I wish I could, haven't done a post on mine for a few week. With regards to you son, don't let unthinking people who have the temerity to write negative things on you blog to upset you. It's great that you recognize problems and are willing to deal with them. And I know that having faith in God will see you through any difficult periods.
thank you!!
Very clever word art! Love it! When i was growing up, my family played a lot of board games. When my kids were just learning to read, i started teaching them to play Scrabble - not the kids' version, the real deal. i modified the rules so they could master it (no words longer than 3 letters), and as they got older, i further modified the rules. i played competitively with them - never "let them win" but just kept the rules modified so they each had a fair chance at winning. To this day, they love playing board games. This WA brings back wonderful memories for me! Thanks!!
Ok....now this is more then once that you have mentioned "some anonymous people" tend to get their nose all bent out of shape with something you blog, and ya know what...that ticks me off about them people! If they don't like what you blog....then they DON'T have read it, DON'T have to subscribe to it and can STOP leaving negative comments....they can just go away already!
This IS YOUR blog! And unless you are committing a crime (hehehe) then you have a right to say what you dang well please!
I enjoy reading your blogs and getting to know you! Sp please don't stop! And I enjoy your cute pictures!
BTW....awesome job on the weight loss! Something I battle daily!
Hugs!
PS...thank you for all the great goodies! You have your own folder in my computer!
Good luck with Jacob. :) It's great that you are all coping with this so well and not freaking out about it. I love that you are treating him the same as before. :)
Thanks so much for the fun word art! :)
Post a Comment