Emmett John has been all over the place. All he does is scream. He is still sick a bit but there is no consoling him. He just flings himself backwards with no regard for hurting himself. He has been doing this the past few months or so. This could just be typical 2 year old behavior, right? Lizze and I have been discussing what we need to do now. We are using words like "early intervention" and "nonverbal". We never knew about this stuff with Gavin because he wasn't diagnosed till he was 5years old. And my biggest fear is that he will go down the same road Gavin did. But the reality is that Gavin's bio-dad is bi-polar and a sociopath. I always tell Lizze that the parts of…

Well as far as victories go we never have many. Yesterday though Gavin had a perfect day at school. Even after forgetting his backpack. This almost never happens and it happened on aday we really needed it to. The rest of the day with Gavin was good until after dinner when he really struggled but in fairness to Gavin the emotional level in the house was very high. So all things considered he had a really good day. He went to school this morning with a good attitude and said he was going to have an awesome day. Here's to hoping.. LT

As the day is wearing on reality is setting in. We most likely have 2 autistic children. How does that even happen? We're barely surviving Gavin how are we going to have what Emmett John needs? How are we going to have what Elliott Richard needs? Will Elliott Richard ever have a "normal" life? Does there ever come a point where we have been given enough challenges in life? They say that God never gives you more then you can handle. I sometimes think that's ridiculous. I think people say that because they don't know what else to say. The truth is that we were crumbling under the pressure before. How do we maintain anything now. No one understands Gavin now and I know where that has gotten us. Will…

Lizze and I are still shocked at the test results today. I don't know that we have even begun to process anything. Emmett John's hearing is perfect but he doesn't talk and he doesn't respond to noise. He is going to see the pediatric neurologist as soon as he can get in to rule out whatever else it could be. What they told us is that the most likely cause is autism. We have to keep talking to him and using words and they said it may just click one day. Now we will probably be going through the autism clinic at the children's hospital to if/where he falls on the spectrum. I honestly don't know if this is better or worse then being hearing impaired. Either way has its…

Well as you know Emmett John was at the Children's Hospital this morning. What you don't know is that I got the flu last night. I had to stay behind. This was to important to reschedule. Lizze called her mother and she came and took her and Emmett John to the Hospital for the tests. I just heard back from Lizze and they said Emmett John's hearing is perfect. Lizze asked why he doesn't respond to us talking to him? They said because they think he is autistic. They said he doesn't make good eye contact at all and the speech delay is typical. Right now thats all I know. LT

As you may or may not be aware Emmett John has an appt. at the Children's Hospital in the morning. It appears that Emmett John is profoundly deaf. He has been to the audiologist and failed the test. Although he wouldn't let her but anything in his ears. He didn't respond in any, way, shape or form to ANY of the test they did complete. She said he can't hear anything 45db of lower (human voice) and most likely couldn't hear anything below 65db. She said he was at least moderately hearing impaired but probably profoundly deaf. However, because he wouldn't go along with the rest of the testing she couldn't say for sure. In the morning he is scheduled for an ABR test. He will be sedated and they…

Today has been a really long day. We had our ups and downs. Gavin really struggled today. He had earned himself oatmeal for lunch. He had also earned it for dinner for throwing another massive meltdown and choosing not to get control of himself. He did very good during quiet time and never snuck out of his room. He didn't ask to come down a million times either. I told Lizze that he did so well I felt he had earned a reprieve with dinner. After dinner was a different story. He really pushed the limits. I think he took the removal of oatmeal for dinner as get out of jail free card. But today could have been worse. Everyone is sick but me. Lizze came down with it this…

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