Happy Birthday!

My baby boy turns 5 Monday! We had his birthday party today, the first ever with his peers. Three little boys from his preschool class came and everyone had a good time! Pizza, playtime, paper plate snowman craft, presents, cake, and it was all done! I am so happy that everything went well!

ABA

How to decide on where to get ABA? One place that was referred is almost 2 hours away. Other places are closer... but I trust the dr that referred us. Hmmm...

An update...

I will try to keep it brief. lol My daughter is now 8. Her dx include Asperger's, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Anxiety-NOS, and Mood Disorder-NOS. She has a very hard time controlling her emotions, be it crying uncontrollably or screaming in anger over the littlest thing. She also struggles with friendship and social situations. She does have 3 friends right now, one that she gets along best with, 1 that she has a lot of conflict with but still spends a decent amount of time with, and 1 more that she sees now and then. We have discovered that if she has more than one friend over at a time, it is very difficult for her to manage and there ends up being arguing, or my daughter getting upset over whatever. A while back, I decided to share my daughter's diagnosis with some women I thought were my friends, who were around my daughter frequently because this group of women and their children were always together. The response I got was quite shocking - from "it's really none of my business and we don't see it anyway" to "she just needs more love" to "I just hope you aren't medicating her for no reason", yes, I am serious. These people literally told us that the only thing wrong with our daughter is that we don't love her enough. Medication was not even mentioned, not like it was any of their business, but she was not on any. There is no medication for Autism. Along with all of this, they stressed how much they adore our daughter and would like to include her but they just really don't like us, though they would never take that out on our daughter. Needless to say, from the moment I shared the information with them, they began excluding our daughter from things. All of the girls would get together and go into one of the houses with their sleeping bags. There would be parties next door. My daughter would sit at the window and cry. At the age of 6, she had to learn what it meant to be excluded, along with learning to be different. No concern was ever given for how she was dealing with things. Because of all of that, I have been very hesitant to share information with anyone that does not absolutely need to know. One of my daughter's friend's Mom noticed some things and mentioned them to us. Our daughter was struggling to maintain her relationship with this girl, because of the problems caused by her difficulties. My husband and I made the decision to talk to this Mom, because this friendship is important to our daughter and we really like this girl and her Mom. So far, it has only been a couple of days, but she seemed very understanding and very grateful we had told her, as it explained some of the things she had seen. She even asked for suggestions on how she can help when our daughter is over there! Such a completely different response, and so much what I expected before - I guess you just have to be sure someone is actually your friend and actually cares about your child before you share. My son was recently diagnosed with Asperger's as well. He does not fit the mold quite as well as our daughter does though, so we are hesitant to accept the diagnosis right now. When he is a little older, he will be re-evaluated under the new DSM-V coming out, and that should give us some more concrete answers. He does have severe ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, and an Articulation Disorder (speech). He is in speech and occupational therapy weekly and has made great progress with his speech. I still question my sanity on a regular basis, but I would not change my kids for anything. They are my life, my heart, and I would do anything for them.

It's been a long time!

Wow, I am so happy I can finally do this again! I lost my log in information and then for some reason blogger or whoever would not accept my stuff to prove my identity. I decided to try a few new combos today and it worked, I got back in! Is there anybody here? Well, if not, I don't mind talking to myself, I do it all the time! lol I will come back and do an update soon!