Life and Times of The Johnston family: Bunny Day Party, Devin's Wellness Check And More!

So this week was a very busy one! Monday was a typical school and theater class day. Tuesday I once again forced Devin to preschool, and when I picked him up we discovered that he and another boy with the same backpack had switched them. Devin was devastated because Doggie was in his backpack, but his teacher promised to get it to him on Thursday, and he calmed down a bit and we went home. That afternoon I dropped Liz off with Mary and took Devin to be re-evaluated for OT through Primary Children's. He seems to be crossing over from a sensory avoider in all senses to actually becoming a bit of a seeker in a couple. He of course qualified so hopefully we'll be getting him more help in a couple weeks. She suggested we get him into feeding therapy again too. When we picked up Liz from Mary's I had a good visit with her and my Aunt Ellen, and Devin begged me to ask Mary if she'd watch him on Thursday and to his great delight she was able to! Wednesday was another typical school and Bravo day. Thursday Devin was actually excited to go to preschool to see Doggie again! I took Elizabeth to the homeschool co-op and I helped in the nursery class. Unfortunately I completely lost track of time and ended up being 20 minutes late picking Devin up from preschool! I felt awful!! I brought him back to the co-op where one of my good friends was keeping an eye on Liz. We waited for her to finish up her business then we went to her house and ate lunch with her while our kids played and we visited until it was time to drop Devin off with Mary while I took Liz to OT, which once again went very well. OT is such a great thing for Liz! Friday morning Devin had his 4 year well check. He was 43 inches tall which is the 95th percentile. He weighed 41 or 42 pounds, can't remember, but it was like the 80th percentile! Pediasure works people! I filled out his "Autistic 4 year old" evaluation papers and he seemed to be doing pretty good. still some obvious motor delays, but his speech is good(comparatively to an Autistic child not a typical four year old). His receptive language has come a long way which is good. He was even pretty good socially! She was quite impressed with him! Then she checked his reflexes, which is something I've never even given a thought too. They're just reflexes right?! Well as she tapped his knee we watched as Devin's leg distinctly popped up twice, then she tried the other knee and the same thing happened. She asked me if I saw it too, and I asked her if she meant that his leg was bouncing up twice instead of once, then yes I saw it too. She went on to check all his other reflex points and each of them responded with a "double bump". I asked her what that meant and she looked kinda grave, which made me feel very uneasy. She told me it was a sure sign of neurological damage. And since Autism has no connection to reflexes, it is something more than just the Autism. I was quite scared at this point, despite her telling me not to worry and making me promise not to Google it. She said they'd order an MRI right away, and I'd need to get him into his Neurologist as well. As we talked about other things, she saw some typical Devin and Elizabeth behaviors and asked if I'd gotten Liz into Cognitive Therapy yet, which I told her I hadn't. She also strongly suggested we get Devin into ABA(behavioral)therapy as well as it's most effective before the age of 6-8. She too strongly urged me to get Devin back into feeding therapy. Oh and since both our wonderful kiddos have an array of Neurological disorders, she's sending us for genetic testing on both kids as well. To say I came out of that appointment overwhelmed and worried would be an extreme understatement! I want to do all I can to help my kids, but to help them Liz needs to be in OT, PT(physical therapy) and cognitive therapy and Devin needs to be in OT, PT, ST(speech therapy), FT(feeding therapy) and ABA therapy(which is intensive, 3-4 hours a day, 3-5 days a week). How do you find the time and money to do it all? So what do you NOT do, and who doesn't get to do what? Or who does get to do what? Answers I just don't have. I came home let the kids have lunch while watching a show, and I called Tony, nearly in tears to tell him all that. Then the kids and I set out to meet Tony at a Trax station, but we didn't get far when I saw lots of break lights up ahead, a Jeep whizzed past me, going WAY too fast, and obviously didn't see the break lights and caused a four or five car accident right in front of us, I kinda saw it coming and was able to bring an end to the pile-up. I rolled my window down and talked to the guy in the service van in front of me to see if I should stay and witness, but he said there were plenty of people and I would be fine to go. A half hour later in more stop than go traffic there was another accident that was getting close to being cleaned up. Once we got past that it was smooth sailing. I called and told Tony what was up and we decided to meet in SLC instead, which worked out much better. We took the kids to Build a Bear and let Devin get a new soft black and white dog and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pj's to put on him, and Elizabeth got a Frozen blanket and pillow for her Elsa bear. We used Devin's birthday coupon to help pay for it. Then we went to Applebee's for dinner, then headed home. Saturday morning my dad and Tony worked in the backyard. That evening Jen and Daniel came up and we had a Bunny Day party with my parents. My dad and I set up a fun little egg hunt for the kids, which they really had fun with. Tony and my dad picked up Tony's birthday dinner from Famous Dave's to eat at home, as going out with out kiddos is just too much work sometimes(we learned this at Applebees the night before!). The food was delicious! After dinner the kids played in the backyard with our neighbor's two kids, who are also 6 and 4 in a couple weeks, while we visited. Sunday Tony took Elizabeth to his cousin Robbie's ward as he was blessing his son. That afternoon we switched the kids rooms up. You see our kids have insisted on sleeping together every night for over a week, so we decided it would be easier to just move Elizabeth's bed into Devin's room, making it a beds only room(their books and couches are in there too) and all their toys are now in Elizabeth's room, that we now call the toy room. They love it! And when they inevitably stop loving it, it's easy to change back. We watched Cars 2 for family movie night and that was our week! Oh and I just have to mention that on Monday I saw on KSL's Facebook page they teamed up with Read Today and Papa Murphy's Pizza to do a Pizza Pledge where your child reads for 20 minutes a day for two weeks and then turn in the paper and get a free pizza. Well reading and Pizza are two of Elizabeth's most favorite things, so when I showed it to her it was no surprise that she was super excited about it. She exclaimed "I can PIZZA just for READING?!!!" Then she proceeded to do a happy dance! Then she started calculating. "So I usually read at least 2 hours a day, 60 plus 60 is.....12 and a 0.....120 minutes! 20..40..60..80..100..120...(putting up a finger for each number), that's 6 slices a day(you mark one slice for every day you read 20 minutes), she counts the 12 slices on the pizza.....I can be done, and have my pizza in two days!! It's one of those moments where I'm not sure if I feel more proud or manipulated! I strongly commended her math skills, but then burst her bubble saying she gets to sign off one slice of pizza a day....the point is that she read everyday for the next 12 days. She was a bit disappointed but agreed that it would be simple enough, since she already reads plenty everyday. ;) She then challenged herself to read 6 chapter books to get the pizza. So far she's read, "Meet Caroline", Mummies in the Morning" and "Magic Puppy, The Perfect Secret". So she's off to a good start!

Easter Egg Hunt!