I'm still alive!

Wow, has it really been over two MONTHS since I last updated?? I'm not sure what happened there. Now that we are all settled in to the new place and kind of finding a new normal, I thought I would try and start this blog back up. I will probably not be going in to a whole lot of detail about certain things going on around here because I just think a lot of it is too personal to put out there, but I'll see what I can do ;-). In a nutshell here is what has happened in the last 2 months and how we've all been doing (I suck at summarizing, so bear with me):

Things have not gone as smoothly as I would have hoped/thought as far as the kids seeing their dad goes. I'm hoping that will change. Soon. But we'll see. He went 7 weeks without seeing them. Now tomorrow it will be another 2 weeks since he finally did see them, although he might be taking Ryan bowling Saturday. He's supposed to let me know tomorrow.

Ryan had an evaluation for behavioral services on September 16th. He was approved for a BSC (behavioral services coordinator) and they are working on getting him a TSS (therapeutic support staff) for him for school and home/community. Eventually (hopefully SOON) he will be starting an after school program for kids on the autism spectrum where they work on things like socializing, sensory issues, etc. It's one afternoon a week. I think he'll like it!

He also had an appointment with rehab medicine at Children's for an evaluation. He was evaluated by an occupational therapist, speech therapist, and physical therapist. Overall they were EXTREMELY pleased with how well he is doing, considering his history and being a 23 weeker. The only suggestion they had on top of the therapies he's already receiving in school is that he go to outpatient OT once a week, so we've already started that with him.

School is going pretty well. Academically, as far as I know, he's doing really well (his conference is Tuesday, so I'll know more then). He had a few rough weeks there last month and was acting out a bit, which was a first for school. In 3 years of preschool he had NEVER been the least bit uncooperative. But there have been a lot of changes since the beginning of the school year AND this is his first year in school full time. The last couple of weeks have been much better, so I'm hoping that continues :-). Again, I'll know more details next Tuesday. I know the school is really wanting a TSS for him to help with transitions and socializing and coping mechanisms and things like that. Hopefully he gets approved for one. Right now the autism support teacher has been spending the bulk of each day with him, from breakfast up until at least lunch (he definitely needs help in the cafeteria), but that can't really continue.

On to Brooke...oh my, that girl is giving me a run for my money :-P. Really she is not any different than a typical almost 20 month old, but Ryan was NOT a typical baby/toddler (even now he is not a typical 6 year old) so this is allllll new to me! She is talking up a storm and it's so cute. Her favorite word right now is "yes", but she sort of drops the "y" and she always almost whispers it and she draws out the "s". It's so cute. Her new thing is stripping. She doesn't like to wear clothes and will try to take them off. She either gets mad because she can't get something off or she'll get mad because she can't put it back on. She LOVES books and will sit for a half an hour or more looking through them and jabbering away. She loves dolls and dresses and her favorite "food" is ketchup ;-). She loves to bat her eyelashes at you and say "hi" when you're scolding her :-P. There for awhile the stinker would stand on things she wasn't supposed to, like the furniture while saying, "Sit. Sit. Sit." LOL. She is a sassy, stubborn, spunky little thing!

As for me, I'm doing well :-). Things were going really smoothly right after moving in here and I was just waiting for reality to set in and it did and I had a bit of a rough time there for a little while...ok, it was more than a "bit" rough. But I got through it and I'm hoping that is all in the past for the most part. Just gotta keep on truckin' ;-). I am actually seeing someone...a really great guy. I never thought I would date so soon, but we were friends first and well...it just felt right. "Soon" is a relative term anyway. I may have just moved out a little more than 2 months ago, but to be completely honest the marriage was over L-O-N-G before that.

Well, I think that's enough for now. Hopefully I can get back in to the swing of this blogging thing! I'll post some pictures soon!