RAISING JOEY

Welcome Back to Holland…

Yesterday was Joey’s autism evaluation. The guy came to our house along with Joey’s EI teacher and the evaluation took a little over 1 hour. Afterwards he sat for a few minutes going over everything he wrote down, adding together numbers off the paper. I was so nervous as he was doing this but I knew deep down what the results were going to be.

Joey is on the autism spectrum, a lot of the lingo the guy was using, I still don’t know what the heck it all means. Once I get the typed out evaluation in the mail, I’ll read up on it all. It appears Joey is on the spectrum but barely.

He did suggest getting Joey re-evaluated in 3 years to see if the results might change a little. Still, hearing that word, autisic.

So, yesterday I boarded another plane, thinking I was going to Italy but ended up in Holland once again. But Holland is beautiful and I’m grateful that I’ve now been there twice.

This obviously doesn’t change the way I feel about my son, or who my son is. Joey is Joey and nothing can change who is he. It’s just hard knowing that Joey now is considered having a duel diagnosis of Down syndrome AND autism.

*If you’re wondering what I mean when talking about Holland, click here.

More pictures from Ohio!

One afternoon we went to the museum in Cincinatti and checked out the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. It was pretty cool. Joey actually liked most of it except for the t-rex, LOL.

A couple days later, we went to the Newport Aquarium which BOTH of the kids had a blast!

My parents!

Joey watching the sharks get feed.

The ray shark eating. Too cool!

My brother, Terry with Leah!

So many pictures, so little time!

We made it back from Ohio safe and sound but unfortunatly, Joey picked up a double ear infection, sinus infection, and a croupy cough. Poor little guy… I had to take him to the ER in Ohio on Saturday because the antibodics he was given the day before at the urgent care were making him vomit so he had to get an antibodics shot in the ER. Never a dull moment, LOL!

Besides Joey being sick, we had a great time. We got to see family & friends we hadn’t seen in almost one year! I wish we could have seen more people, hopefully the next trip, Joey won’t get sick!

Anyways, I’m going to post pictures from our trip in a few different posts.

“Cheese!!”

Waiting at the airport…

“Mommy, an airplane!”

Joey & his PahPaw!

Joey, PahPaw & Joey’s cousin, Joey!

Ohio, here we come!

Well, we’re off to Ohio for a week to see our family and friends! I hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s Day and we’ll be back soon!

So proud!

I have just a little Joey brag…

I was sitting on the floor changing Leah’s diaper & finished up, when I looked at Joey and said, “Joey, can I please change your diaper?”

And wouldn’t ya know it but my big boy, walked over to me, laid down on the floor and put his legs up in the air for me to change his diaper?!

It’s things like this that, that make me smile!!!

Award time!

Awwwww, I feel so honored and blessed to have recieved this award from TWO fellow bloggers that I am proud to call my friends, Melissa and CJ!

So, here’s the deal. I pass these on to ten other bloggers, who in turn, pass them on to ten other bloggers. Once I dole out the award, I go to their blogs, let them know they’ve been awarded and then THEY get to award others. See? Fun!

1. Melissa at Banana Migrane

2. Leticia at Cause of Our Joy

3. Michelle at Elliot’s Expeditions

4. Shannon at Gabi’s World

5. Maureen at Penny, The Baby Girl

6. Jennifer at Pinwheels

7. Christina at Prince Vince Meets The World

8. Stephanie (my sister in law!) at The Blonde Chika

9. Tara Marie at Emma Sage

10. Amy at Life According to Emma and Joseph

Busy, busy, busy!

Holy cow! With Joey’s 3rd birthday coming up along with starting school, it seems like almost all of his annual specialist doctors appointments are within the next month!

2/9- ENT
2/11- dentist
2/14- 2/22- OHIO
2/23- GI
2/25- autism evaluation
3/3- eye doctor
3/9- PPT
3/11- pediatrician
3/26- genetist

And don’t forget those 4 weekly therapy visits from his PT, OT, SLP and teacher!

AND, I can’t forget my OB appointments, CDSC board meetings and parents night out events!

Can I clone myself??

TGIF!!!

Phew! That was one long week! While I’m waiting on hold with Joey’s new ENT to make sure everything is in order for Monday’s appointment, I thought I would give y’all an update!

This morning, Patrick and I took Joey to his new school for an in class observation with his new teachers & therapists. I can’t believe in one month my little boy will be starting school! Everything went a lot better than what I was expecting!

Joey is such a creature of habit, and HATES changes, I didn’t think he would. In the past whenever a new therapist would come to our house, he would FLIP out. Well, today, he proved me wrong! He walked into that classroom and charmed all of his new teachers only like Joey would!

I’m so proud of my little man and how good he did!

The school psychologist said she’ll be calling me to set up another observation (or two) before Joey’s PPT in March.

Onto the next Joey news… his therapy team and I had been talking about the possibility of him being on the autisic spectrum. He’s been doing a lot of “stimming” with different objects and at times is obsessive with it.

He will take a piece of cloth and wave it around like a mad man and the minute I try to stop him or take it away, he flips out. He does this with other objects too. Many times, it takes more than saying his name to get him to stop doing this.

And I’ve noticed other signs there’s a possibility that he’s on the spectrum that I brought up to his therapists so they went ahead and did an initial screening. That testing brought up some concerns so now they’re sending out an autism team to meet with us.

We know if he does have autism, he is more “high functioning” (I can’t believe I just used that word), since he is verbal and makes eye contact, but there’s just something else. We’ll see, hopefully when these people come and observe Joey (or whatever they do), we’ll get some answers.

Did I mention that I was just on hold for 11 minutes waiting for the ENT office to pick up?! Anyways, I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

My favorite type of article!

Student With Downs Syndrome Scores For Greely High

CUMBERLAND (NEWS CENTER) — Like many of us, Patrick Thibideau has dreamed of being a star athlete. On Tuesday night, Patrick, who has Down’s Syndrome, saw his dream come true when he went from team manager to starting player.

NEWS CENTER

Quick update

I went for my first ultrasound on Monday and everything looks GREAT! The baby has a nice strong heartbeat and is growing right on time. But it figures that my scanner is not working so I can’t share our first pictures of Baby Bean.

I’ve been feeling like I’ve been put through the ringer several times lately. The nausea has been unbelievable. I wish I could just vomit sometimes! Everyday in the late afternoon it hits me and doesn’t go away until bedtime or until I can lay on my back completely still. I hope this doesn’t last much longer…

Joey has been very clingy lately. I think he knows that something is going on. He’s been cuddling with me more than usual (not that I’m complaining, LOL).

And Leah, well is just being Leah. We’re working on weaning her off her bottles and onto sippy cups, which she is NOT happy about. She’s also about ready to start potty training. She’s been pulling her diapers off whenever she gets the chance!

Unfortunatly, my sister in law lost her baby over the weekend. She was due the week before me. I just want to drive down to Washington DC and give her the biggest hug ever. When I lost our baby, Kiera, in November 2006, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through. My heart goes out to Steph and CJ. At least Kiera and her cousin are playmates in heaven.

I knew it!!!

Gee, the prenatal test that was “suppose” to replace amnio and CVS isn’t as accurate as first thought. I knew it!

Sequenom falls on Down syndrome test data revision
Associated Press, 02.03.09, 07:03 PM EST

Shares of Sequenom Inc. fell Tuesday after the company revised data on its SEQureDx Down syndrome test, saying it was not as effective at identifying the condition as previously reported.

Separately, UBS (nyse: UBS - news - people ) analyst Derik de Bruin removed a “Short-term Buy” rating on the stock. He set that rating on Nov. 11, saying the stock would keep rising until Sequenom reported the next batch of SEQureDx data. Shares rose 28.5 percent between Nov. 11 and Wednesday.