The Good and The Bad

The Good
Since Avery has been done with her speech therapist from Early Intervention she's been a vocal little girl.
Now she's not talking up a storm but she's using her sounds.
She's trying to imitate the sounds of songs in movies. She loves music and dancing. So guess what we watch a lot of? Tangled, The Princess and the Frog and new to the rotation Gnomeo and Juliet. Swear it's better than that Leonardo Dicrapio one.
I've gotten her to say "hiiiiii" when I walk into her room in the am when I say it.
I've gotten her to say "Bye Bye" when getting out from the table when I say it to her.
She transitioned well to the new OT center. Which is a glorious now 5 minute drive from my house.
I got the school district to agree to giving us copies of a service log weekly of what they are working on with Avery. They were more than willing. 
At her birthday party with her Grandpa she did great with the cake. She laughed and smiled when we sang "Happy Birthday" and her face lit up when the candles where lit. Awesome she loves fire. LOL.

Her Grandpa bought her a tricycle for her birthday and I got her a helmet at the store the other day. She wore the helmet through out Walmart and had a colossal meltdown when I pried it off her that day.

Testing out the new wheels today. She just sat and played with the ribbons. 

Then well the helmet stayed on for awhile. I think she likes that more than the bike.

The Bad
In the last few months she's developed this really neat habit of sucking up her milk, swirling around her mouth and if you don't catch her she'll spit it out.
At first it was a little bit. Each time we caught her we would take the milk away.
She's on Almond Milk and that stuff is like liquid gold it's so costly. So she stopped for awhile.
Then she started up again this time being sneaky about it. She would hide in her room and do it.
So we know keep her at the kitchen table while she drinks the milk. It's helped but you can tell she's not happy.
She was so use to walking around with the sippy "her crutch" that she now pushes herself away from the table to get some space.
Another joyful thing she is doing is similar to the milk deal and that's just spitting. She spits anywhere.
Her hand, the table, the floor, the cart at Target. blech sorry but use those wipes!
I brought this up to her OT and I really can't remember what she said we should do but of course when I picked her up from therapy the OT said she never did it for her. little stinker. Have I said how much she LOVES her OT? Loves her more than me I bet.

We had a birthday party we were invited to that I decided to just go with my oldest daughter.
It was last year at this little girls birthday party (she's two weeks younger than Avery) that the differences were very noticeable. At this party Avery spent her time tossing the cans out of the bucket of ice water OR digging under the stairs for potted plants. Seriously. The rest of the kids running around like lunatics playing with all the games, toys, little bikes and my kid fixated on the cans.
I remember driving home from that party and just realizing we were dealing with much more than a speech delay and being upset about it. It was just another party that we couldn't walk out of without a meltdown from someone. It just sucked.

This year it was still hard to see a little girl who is adorable as all hell, potty trained and a talkative little one knowing she's two weeks younger than your little girl. Last year it made me upset, this year eh I was just wistful.  We know why now. Last year we were sitting on the edge of the diagnose.  Just waiting for the official stamp of Autism. 

I of course was by myself last year like I would be this year. My husband you see works a second job on the weekends. Some time's he's busy sometimes he's not so this weekend he sacrificed some sleep to hang out with Avery. I was almost to the party when he texted me asking where Avery's weighted vest was. Oops. It was in the bag in my truck since she had it at therapy on Friday. My bad. Apparently she was having a hard day. Lot's of redirecting from Daddy and she was not happy Mommy was not home. So my husband figured out to use  the weighted blanket my friend made her:

Then things got better but as soon as I got home I heard it from her. She squawked until I got her a snack and we sat down to watch Gnomeo and Juliet. Life was good for her when Momma got home. 

If you are asking me why didn't we all just go to the party well there's a few dynamics that work into this decision for me to just bring the oldest. My oldest is a Daddy's girl. If we were all to go together somewhere she would be glued to her father and not play with the other kids. I still would have to contend with Avery and she would be into everything. For me to just go with my oldest it's something just for me and her and Daddy get's to spend time with little sister. Tag teaming parties like this is working for now and while I HATE that Avery is missing out on things right now. I know it's not fair to bring her somewhere where she gets into sensory overload and we can't calm her down.

It's our life with Autism and that's how we are dealing with it this week. In a little over a week she steps onto a yellow bus for her first day of school and that my dear friends in Autism land will be a wild week.