Obsessions and thanks.

I love this picture of Jaiden - Jenny, his EIU teacher took it the otherday. I feel bad that love it mostly because he looks so perfectly normal. It lets me forget my obsession with Williams Syndrome for 5 minutes - of course he doesnt have it... look at those eyes big and wide, no puffiness at all -only a slight twinkle of the cheeky-ness that comes with being 3 1/2.
I would like to give a special thanks to Jenny. Jaiden loves her - his whole face lights up when you mention its a pre-school day and he says "we go see Jenny?" 100 times before breakfast just to confirm!
I have never mentioned the Williams Syndrome thing to Jenny - Since there is currently no diagnosis then there is no real point. - The GP only gave me the geneticist referral to shut me up i think - since the echo came back clear she is less convinced, another GP reckons he is Autistic (there's no way) and the Paed wants to evaluate further but the appointments not til August.
Jenny said to me the other day on the way to the Play Scripting thing how much she adored him and how much he suprised her - the other kids in the class are all quiet and not very social mostly ASD kids. She said he is so musical, the only one to know all the songs and so social he will just run up and hug people -and tell them he loves them, Yet at the same times can totally lose the plot for no reason or if there are too many people in the bathroom washing up for lunch (the noises echo )
Despite his talking skills he seems to miss alot of whats going on...
When she said those things i almost mentioned WS, but didnt. I dont know if i should or not now - i could just say i googled over-friendliness and WS came up so i read it.
I guess i look up to Jenny ( she has done alot of great work with alot of disabled kids ) and part of me doesnt want to look stupid if it turns out he doesnt have WS after all.
Thank god i have you lot! WS or not, he has the same issues and characteristics and you guys help me out with so many things - like tips on anxiety.
So Thank you fellow bloggers and the WS websites for your support and information. I greatly appreciate it.

"puss, puss..."

I am an animal lover, i work in a pet shop and i have 3 tortoises, a lizard, 8 cockateils, a rabbit, a gorgeous dog, a large fish tank and 2 lovely cats. So when i was walking back into the house after hanging out washing earlier i was suprised to see a cat crouched next to my kids play gym.
Foreign cats dont usually make it into the yard which is feircly protected by Bowie the border collie and the two felines..
As i looked at the cat it twitched a bit strangely and i was concerned it might be hurt. i crouched down and called "puss puss puss" a few times, the cat just twitched a few times - i eventually decided i should walk right over to the cat and make sure it was ok. Upon closer inspection the cat appeared to be yellow... Very Yellow... oh hang on... its not a cat at all its an upside down Tonka truck! I certainly hope none of my neighbours were peeking over the fence watching me call "puss, puss, puss"to a Tonka truck! It seems that the twitching must of been the light catching every time a car passed by.
Maybe its time for those glasses after all.

Play Scripts

Last night i went to a seminar about "Play scripting" for children with special needs. Jaidens wonderful EIU teacher told me about it and kindly gave me a lift there!
Basically "play scripting" is a bit like a communication board.
You have a series of pictures on an A4 Sheet of paper.
The pictures usually include Facial Expressions- to indicate how the child is feeling , Choices - this might include pictures of Painting, Drawing, Dress Up.. whatever is on offer really.
Say the child indicated they wanted to paint, you could then show them a colour choice board and they can pick the colour they want to use by pointing to the board.
Ok. That was a terrible explanation. Basically Allison (lady running the session) showed us how to extend the play sequences with children by offering them a select number of choices, Say Jane sees a doll, picks it up cuddles it and puts it down, you could encourage Jane to keep playing by asking "whats next?" and pointing to the play script which might have choices like feed the baby, dress the baby, put the baby to bed etc.

You modify the choices depending on the childs level of play skills. Allison teaches a Special Ed class with 6 children with a range of disabilities, from sitting in a chair only able to feel different objects and interact by the odd grunt through to one girl who was playing imaginary games in pirate costume (im not quite sure why she was in that school actually - she looked, talked and played quite "normally". )

All in all although i cant explain it very well i learned alot and im very glad i went.

On a funny note - Jaiden just came up to me and said "mum, its ok. maybe i have a new nose" - the reason for this comment is because he has had a sore on his nose for weeks, its still there because he keeps picking at it and making it bleed. I told him to stop or it will fall off. So now i think he feels it would be easier to have a whole new nose than stop picking the sore on the old one! LOL

The Terrible Twos..

~apologies in advance for the long post~
Jaiden and Lachie are both reaching the terrible twos at the same time...
At 3 1/2 Jaiden likes to lie down on the floor of the supermarket and scream because he wants something or just because he can, and at 17months Lachlan likes to Scream constantly at the supermarket because he wants somthing or he is bored. (i am sure he would lie on the floor kicking and screaming if he wasnt strapped to the shopping trolley!)
As i went to pay for my groceries the otherday the cashier was watching my oh-so-lovely children screaming and i said "im obviously a great mother" and she said that i am obviously not a bad one as i havnt abandoned them in Woolworths!

Lachie has a new repitoir of words including : More, All Gone, No, Mine, Milk, Yes, and 'Ouch!' (this one is usually followed by an evil giggle as the little bugger hits you!)
I am really enjoying Lachie at age - it seems strange to me how much he understands and the way he can answer yes/no questions so definatly.
He enjoys colouring-in and has already pretty much stopped putting small objects in his mouth.
It hits home just how different it was with Jaiden - i knew things wernt quite right, but i had sort of forgotton what Liam had done at what age and everyone told me 'Liam is really bright, dont copare them.' But now i can really see it. Lachlan is doing at 17 months what Jaiden didnt do till closer to 3.
While that makes me sad, its also wonderful to see how far Jaiden has come over the last 8 months - He said his very first sentance at 2years 11months and now he never shuts up granted he echos alot and repeats topics but i never imagined how far he would come over such a short space of time! Im really proud of my little man :)

The Boys

I never put pics on so i thought i would for a change - Jaiden hates posing for photos so liam is telling him to smile for mummy!

This is about as close to a smile as i could get!

good news!

Well, that Echo couldnt have gone any better!
There is NO HOLE!!!
Jaidens valves are all proportionate and at the moment his heart looks great! So thats the best news we have had all year! However the Cardiologist is still concerned about the swelling and tiredness - we had bloodwork done and his kidneys seem fine so unless he gets rapidly worse, we just moniter him.
Also - to add to the good news, The Ear Nose Throat man has decided to leave the Gromits for now and to review in 6months - i really want to avoid anesthesia where possible so this is wonderful :-)
We are heading back to the Paediatrician in August to review development etc and Geneticist Appt in November...