Firsts

This week we have many new things happening. We will be consulting a councilor who specializes in autism. She will walk us through and help us understand things about TJ. She will be assessing him and answer any questions we may have. If we choose we can continue with "counseling", as in help with changing the way we handle him. They also have sibling classes for siblings who have a brother or sister on the spectrum. They can help us in keeping our home a home not so surrounded around TJ that we don't continue to live. I have four children, not just TJ. We are on a tight budget. Some things that some people to we will not be able to do as much or as often, or at all. We have to decide. She will also be suggesting other ideas for us, like occupational therapy, which we are hoping for.

An autism lady came out from EI and she got to see TJ in our home environment. I will admit I shed many tears after she left as I felt so overwhelmed with the "tips" she was giving me. Not with parenting but so many things to do and ways to say things that will make things easier for TJ to understand. I just got very overwhelmed. I get overwhelmed at the thought of knowing when he is really having a "sensory" issue or when he is choosing to be bad. It's a lot and I don't want his issues to be an excuse. She suggested after all said and done that we make it a priority to take time out to do the things TJ loves. Like going swimming.

I will be looking into either swim lessons again or just family swim for us so we can take him to swim daily. We would love for this to work out in our favor. We are looking at getting him a little mini trampoline for the living room. Maybe a good punching/kickboxing bag would be nice too. LOL!!

TJ also has speech appointments and evals this week. I knew I bought my pretty new calendar/planner for a reason. It's pink and brown too. Two of my favorite colors together. But it's filling up fast. EEK!