Another Quilt, another gift finished just in time

I finished this quilt on 5pm the night before we would see Maude, Evan's music therapist right before Christmas. I didn't think I would make it. Maude is a very special person, always helping us fight to get the best for Evan. I wanted to make her something very special to show her how much she means to us. Thank you Maude for all that you do to help Evan.

Merry Christmas and fun in the snow

Merry Christmas to everyone. Emma and Evan had a really fun day. We wish you all a very Happy New Year too.

Evan's Surgery Today

Evan had surgery early this morning to cauterize his nose and also to clean his ears from wax that had decreased his hearing significantly. Well, things went well in the nose but the ears I think will always be a problem area.

Evan's right tube had to be replaced and the doctor noted that there was a great deal of scar tissue so he didn't know how much the tube would help to improve the hearing in that ear. Should I mention that this is his good ear! The left ear has a major perferation, or rupture. He did not replace the tube and is willing to give his eardrum upto a year to heal itself before he would do a skin graft to repair it with surgery. That just seems like such a long time for a non-verbal four/almost five year old to wait to hear better. The doctor wants to see us in a month to check how the hearing is. He thought hearing aides might be an option if it doesn't look good. UGH! I feel like we have just stepped back in time by two years since back then we thought he might need them.

Evan does seem to be in good spirits and is playing nicely after a long nap this afternoon.

Sue

PS, I forgot to mention that they drew blood to see if Evan has a clotting disorder with the severe nose bleeds and how much his ears bleed after surgey each time. Please pray that this is not the case. This poor little boy doesn't need any other issues.

Emma's Second Meet

Emma had her second gymnastics meet this past Friday. She did well but still did not qualify for State, but the third time will be the charm. We are so proud of her. One of the other mom's on our team is a professional photographer and took this cool shot of her and many more. Thanks Jennifer. I have tried several times to upload some of the short videos of her routines with out success. Maybe someday.

Emma's Scores:

Beam: 7.10
Vault: 8.80
Floor: 7.90
Bars: 8.05

Sue

The Diagnosis

Lately this cute little boy does not want to be upstaged by his big sister. These are just a couple of the shots in which Evan didn't want me to take pictures of Emma with out being included. He loves to run in front of the shot. As is saying "what about me?".

These last few months have been very difficult for our family. Evan's behavior has been even more challenging. We have had several doctor's appointments in the last few weeks and all the doctor's agree. Evan is AUTISTIC! He now has a diagnosis. While it is very upsetting, it is nice that it is finally out there and almost three years of stepping around that diagnosis is over. Four doctor's have agreed. Yesterday we went to Shriner's for a behavioral exam and IQ test. The doctor thinks that Evan is a mild to moderate Autistic and has a borderline mental retarded IQ. She also mentioned that she thought if we could get him to sit longer to work on the IQ test that he would have scored higher. He just struggled to keep focused for the two hour exam.

This is still good news. Last week at Evan's parent teach conference I was told that Evan will be tested at school and would most likely be labeled as severely mentally retarded since a good portion of the testing is verbal. As you can imagine, I was DEVISTATED! Now I am only mad at the schools inability to administer a test for a non-verbal child that doesn't take that into consideration. UGH! This information will determine his Kindergarten placement. Again I was told that he would most likely be put into a Life Skills class since he won't probably be a functional adult so it was more important to teach him daily skills. What do they think that I am working on everyday at home.

I am hoping that U46 will now look at the testing that Shriner's took yesterday and at least consider it for Evan's placement next fall. I am now looking into other options even if that means moving into a better school district. Not the option I want to consider monetarily but if needed we will seriously consider it.

I will keep you updated as more information comes our way.

Sue

Emma's first Gymnastics Meet

level four team with coaches

team leo
team warm up

stretching before the meet

the hardware afterwards

A few weeks back Emma had here first gymnastics meet. She did such a good job. I was so very proud of her. I have waited to post in hopes that someone got some good shots of her but I don't want to wait any longer. Here are her scores.

Beam: 7.0

Floor: 7.4

Bars: 8.4 - 4th place

Vault: 9.0 - 6th place

Way to go Emma!

Here next meet is on December 4th. I will let you know how she did much sooner.

Sue

Happy Halloween

Halloween started off a little scarier than we had planned. After a week with two kids having H1N1, trick or treating was to be our first outing since the previous Saturday.

At 8:35 while I was on break at Target, Emma called and told me that there was blood everywhere and Daddy is laying on the floor. I asked her if she called 911 and she hadn't so I told her to do that and I left work immediately. Once getting home with the ambulance only two minutes behind me I arrived to find Evan on the bathroom floor with a nose bleed. Doug who is very nervous around blood was white as a sheet but feeling better. Evan had a nose bleed for almost a half an hour and had lost quite a bit of blood. He and Daddy were very scared. The parimedics decided to take Evan to the ER to be sure that his palate hadn't ripped and also to help stop the nose bleed. Doug and Emma would come later to pick us up. The parimedics did offer to have an ambulance come for Doug since he was so very white and shaky but he declined. Evan and I were only at the hospital for an hour. Hopefully he will not have this happen again. Our house looked like a crime scene and can never be luminoled or we will be in big trouble. :) What a big girl Emma is. I am so very proud of her.

Trick or treating was much more laid back. We did a few practice runs with Evan since he still doesn't really grasp what this is all about. I think after the first six houses he finally got it and enjoyed it. Shaking the bucket was also a big hit. Emma and her friends Nick and Daniel had a great time. Bedtime came early (7:00 pm with the time change).

Evan's practice run. "Hey what's going on?"

the pumpkin and gymnist on their practice run

Nick, Daniel and Emma

hot chocolate after is a real treat

Emma and Daddy