Things Keep Happening....

...it's amazing how things change over time....in all possible ways.

I have begun writing this post about 3 times this week, decided to go to bed, and then deleted what I wrote the next day. Maybe this one will end up actually making it onto the blog....

I know it's been a few weeks since my last post. The kids and I spent a week with Kevin's family, which was, I think, a welcome change for everyone -- it was nice for the kids to spend time with family they don't get to see often, and it was great for me to have the help and the break. However, Kevin was still working and was only there for the weekends. But, this is the 2nd year we've done this, and it's worked both times, despite our missing him. And the vacation ended with my 20-year high school reunion which I was (at least tangentially) involved in planning. I'm not really sure why the reunion was so important to me since I wasn't in ANY way popular in high school and very few of my high school friends were going to attend -- probably because it was something so distant from "autism" for me to focus on....

The timing for this vacation was actually very good. Daniel's camp(s) were ending (by design), the twins' school was ending for summer break (we only missed a home visit) and my class was on it's 3 week hiatus (although I did have a home taping session that needed to be scheduled, but we did that after we got back). I knew that we were preparing to start CSAAC shortly after getting back, so a break was definitely welcome for me (will talk about them in another post). Little did I know what was yet to come....

We arrived home this past Monday afternoon. On the calendar for the week was the taping session for More Than Words, gym class for the twins (having missed 2 consecutive weeks and done with Daniel in tow), and a hearing test for Simon (which was an unqualified disaster in April). Rachel will also be having a repeat hearing test later in the month (her attempt in April was only slightly better than Simon's) and so their teachers worked with them a bit getting used to having something put over their ears, which will hopefully prepare them for this testing. It's important to know if there are issues with their hearing which will lead to issues in language development. However, I truly don't believe that they have any hearing issues and I refuse to allow them to sedate either of them. But if this testing doesn't work this month, I will probably have little choice.

KKI has been weighing on my mind a lot over the last few weeks. I have been feeling some regrets not taking the "cancellation" appointment that was offered to us in July, mainly because I just wasn't hearing anything from them, despite KNOWING that we really couldn't have done it. My mother knows someone who is related to someone there, and I have been given this person's phone number in an attempt to get an appointment quicker. But it's hard to call an elderly women who I haven't spoken to in YEARS to ask her to contact her nephew (or cousin or someone) so that my kids can get bumped up the waiting list at a Kennedy Krieger. I just wasn't sure how to do it, and was putting it off....

So, when we got back from Connecticut, I called KKI to ask what our status on the list was at this point in time. I was informed that, even though the twins are "fast-tracked" since they are under 3 years of age, the typical wait time is 4-6 months (this is what I learned after a couple of phone calls to them this week). It's been 3.5 months and we are still waiting. Then today, I have a voicemail from them -- they have appointments for BOTH of the twins on August 24 in the morning -- would we be interested in booking these times. The first thing I think of is, "HECK YES!!!!!!!!!!!!", but I answer far more civilly than that. We did have a previously scheduled appointment for that morning, but we will reschedule that since it should be easier to do that than to find a better time with KKI.

So, it's been a crazy week, and, as I titled this post, things keep happening. But hopefully this will give us the information that we need to understand what's happening to our family and will make it easier to deal with everything.....