Updates on JT and Evie

I got JT's occupational and speech evaluations back yesterday. I hate getting evaluations back... It's so easy to go day to day and see progress, and be so proud, and completely forget that he's not 'developmentally appropriate' age-wise.

So, it's never an easy day when I get the evaluations back. Even though they have always been so sweet... Saying what a supportive family he has, what a cutie he is, how sweet he is... It's hard.

These were new evals - so the third type of evals of each - that JT has been through. I start wondering exactly how many different evals they have for kids, and why they don't standardize them... But, that's a whole different story.

To simplify, JT scored at a 3 month equivalent for receptive language. Folks, that's a 90 percent delay. That hurt. His expressive came in at a whopping 7 month equivalent, which is between a 70-80 percent delay. Ouch. Overall, his language delay is around 80 percent (a combo of the two). Occupational was not that much of a delay - but keep in mind most of his 'occupational' issues are sensory - not delay - related. I think he scored around 17 and 20 months for those... And he's 30 months now. So, enough to be considered delayed, but nothing like the speech. Of course, the therapist noted that JT was sensory seeking (jumping off things, running into things, etc), and that he has a VERY short attention span. New from this report - JT has low muscle tone. Weird. He was explaining it to me during the eval - hypotonia is VERY common in autistic kids. Basically, JT's body doesn't know how to idle - his proprioceptive sense is 'off'. So, he's either going ninety to nothing or sleeping pretty much! The occupational evaluator - Rob - is going to be our therapist. He is so awesome - he gave me great ideas that The Hubs and I have been using with JT... Putting his hands on our face to get his attention, signing important words as we talk... I really look forward to working with him. JT loved him, too, which is the most important part! Hopefully therapy will start soon - I'm assuming in the next few weeks. I can't wait for him to start getting the help he needs, and to get ideas to help him here at home. He is so smart, I know that once someone who knows what they're doing starts working with him, he will respond so well!

On to the kitty... Evie is progressing, albeit slowly. She is eating very small amounts on her own (turkey, her favorite, and high in protein, which she needs). I am still syringe feeding her, and she really hates it now. I get yelled at every time the syringe comes out - or she smells the food. 'Mee-yah, mee-yah' while she's eating... Kind of comical, actually. She doesn't want to drink on her own, so I'm still giving her the sub-q fluids. She follows me in bed when I go to sleep, so she can get under the covers and snuggle. Jumping on the bed on her own... She is awake more now, so I assume the jaundice has the sleepy effect on her that it has on infants (both mine were jaundiced at birth, so they slept their first few days!). She is vomiting much much less, keeping down over 90% of her food! The only times she's thrown up is when I stuck her two days ago, and when I fed her too much yesterday... Oops. So, stress and too much food - which would make me cringe, too. She is much more vocal, back to her old 'yelling' at anyone and everyone. The Hubs is already complaining about how spoiled she is now... And he has noticed her acting much better also! So, still yellow, but yelling...

We are going back to the zoo on Sunday for Father's Day - The Hubs's choice of activity for the day! We LOVE the Nashville Zoo, it will be fun :0)

Hope all is well with everyone!