A Good Day

Today turned out better than I expected. The evaluation went as expected, but I was pleased to see that Steven's developmental age range has gotten higher. He still has obvious gaps in his skills, but his functional skills were improved from the last eval.

He also officially has autism per Texas. It's official. I guess we can be one of those parents who say, "My child wasn't diagnosed until he was 12." haha!

Tonight, we tried a church based respite program. The church is located in the historic district of Grapevine, Texas which is about 20 minutes from our house. The program runs from 6:30-9:00, one Friday night per month, and provides respite for caregivers of special needs children. It is held in the gym of the church, which has rooms around the perimeter of the gym. These rooms include a nursery, a quiet room, bathrooms, a kitchen, etc.

We were a little bit leery of trying a program that wasn't home based, but Steven rocked! He had a 1:1 attendant the entire time, and they rotated attendants about every 20-30 minutes. The consensus is that Steven is "a highly mobile and energetic little man." Steven played catch with the balls, participated FULLY in snack time, explored every room along the perimeter and laughed and laughed. The director, Joyce, told me that Steven is welcome to come back next month as long as they have the appropriate volunteer ratio to monitor him. As a sidenote, they also said they don't know how we keep up with him all the time!

While he was having fun at respite, Troy, Megan and I went to Old Town Grapevine. We wanted to be close by .... just in case. We found a great little Italian restaurant and the food was fabulous! Megan devoured a full plate of manicotti. I had enjoyed "Lisa's Pizza" with sausage, mushrooms and black olives. Troy munched on the mozzarella sticks and marinara. I think it's a new fave for our family!

When we went to pick Steven up at 8:10, he was happy to see us and was ready to come home. He said his goodbyes. AND WE MET HIS GIRLFRIEND!!! Yes, he's a ladies man! His girlfriend is Stacey. She is 13, blond hair and blue eyed. She appears to have autism and does some sign language as well.

Steven said, "Bye."

Stacey said, "Bye." and gave Steven a big hug.

Steven hugged her back and even stroked her hair !

So, yes, indeed, we will be going back next month!

A good day overall.

B