First grade!

Nathan started first grade yesterday.

He got a kiss and off he went! And Cianna continued to say bye long after he was gone.

Little helper

Here's our little helper washing dishes and taking out trash. Somehow drafted this post months ago and never published, but here it is. Cianna still likes to help, but only on her own terms now! She also likes to say "no"!

ASD

We visited the autism spectrum disorders clinic, and after a 4 1/2 hour appointment plus processing paperwork that took me hours to complete and reviewing the comprehensive records I sent, they did make a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder secondary to Down syndrome. So, Nathan has this diagnosis and it may net him some additional services now and in the future. We've been approved for an assessment for applied behavior analysis (behavior therapy) and have an appointment also with a speech therapist and occupational therapist tomorrow-- Nathan already receives these therapies at school but it is possible our health insurance will offer additional therapy due to the additional diagnosis.

I'm actually doing okay with all this. Didn't even cry when they told me. I guess I had already come to terms with the idea when I scheduled the evaluation. It's just a label to describe symptoms that are already present, and since its a label that is the focus of lots of attention and treatment right now, it's a label that may allow for more services to help Nathan.

Cianna dancing

I keep trying to record Cianna dancing. Seems like she always stops dancing when I get out the camera, but here's a short video I did manage to capture.

DSIA BBQ

Some pictures from yesterday's annual Down syndrome information alliance BBQ. The kids had fun. Nathan spent lots of time in the bounce house, sitting and enjoying the bounce. He also threw a ball back and forth with friends, without adult assistance to encourage him to play with peers.

Nathan has known some of these kids since they were all babies. It's neat to see how big everybody is getting!

Summer

I haven't written much in a while, mostly because we've been busy, and because a certain active toddler is fairly demanding of my time and attention. 

In July, we made a road trip north to visit family.  We also spent a couple days at Lake Tahoe. Cianna is still not a fabulous car traveller, unlike her brother who has lots of patience for sitting and playing with his toys or listening to music.  Cianna demands a lot of attention in the car. A portable DVD player helps for a little while.

Cianna has thankfully gotten over her fear of water and has enjoyed lakes, rivers and pools this summer, as has her brother. Nathan enjoys sitting in the kayak with dad, and while Cianna likes to talk about the boat and look at it she doesn't have much interest in sitting still in it for long. But she enjoys the water and digging in the sand with her shovels and bucket.

She's talking up a storm, many many words and phrases. "Help open door". "Milk, mama share" (this morning, in regards to my cereal), "Daddy be back?", "Nay doing?" (What's Nathan doing?), "Nay, mama back" (Nathan, mama will be back), "Mama, Nay juice" (mama, Get Nathan some juice), "Where's Daddy?", "Daddy seeping, shhhh", "Mama food? Daddy food?" (after I put her plate on the table). I've heard appropriate plurals and possessives and the use of "and", all of which blows me away. She can request books by name ("apples top", "apples top 'gin!") and "book again" is a favorite phrase. She's sometimes accurate about colors although not about numbers just yet-- she will pretend to count, most things are two, sometimes she counts "two, two, two", and more recently she's started to do "two, three, four". Last night we watched thousands of bats fly out at sunset. First she said there were two, but then she counted "two, three, four". Her daddy said she's not doing the Christmas bird count with him just yet.

Nathan has been engaging in playing with his sister some, and we've had a few recent occasions where he plays with other children at a park or beach or pool, throwing a ball back and forth without much adult management of the game. He has always engaged with adults but not other kids, so this is a really positive step for him.  He's been out of summer school since July and I'm sure he will be happy to start first grade later this month-- Nathan likes school and all the positive adult attention he gets there.  Hopefully it will go as well as kindergarten did and he can keep working on peer interactions too. We ran into a little boy the other day who said hi to Nathan and greeted him by name. He told me he knows him from kindergarten-- the regular kindergarten classroom where Nathan spent part of his morning. He should continue that push-in time in the regular classroom this year, with an aide to help him, so that he can continue to meet and interact with more of his peers.

Until then, we've got a few more weeks of summer left, likely more adventures and trying to stay cool!