I got a new camera for Mother's Day and I LOVE it! See for yourself.

Could he be any cuter? I don't think so. This boy melts my heart on a daily basis. I love how much he needs me and relies on me. He has this funny attatchment to my arms and has to hold them multiple times during the day. I am going to be one sad mama when that phase ends. We are BFF's.

Easter in San Antonio 2011

Since Ben moved away to go to med school, we haven't seen each other very often. Except for big family gatherings like farewells, weddings, etc. And those events are always really hectic, so you don't really get to spend much time with anyone.

One benefit of living in Carlsbad, is that we're only a 7-hour drive from Ben and Mary's house in San Antonio. So we've been to visit a couple of times. We went for Thanksgiving and again for Easter. The drive is really easy and the kids have so much fun together. They all play together really well. Caden and Livi are inseparable.

We almost didn't go because Tyler was sick, but he stopped throwing up, his strep test was negative, and the doctor cleared him for travel, so we headed out Thursday morning. The drive there was uneventful and went by pretty fast.

Friday, Mary and I did some shopping at Old Navy. She had a killer 50% coupon, so we got lots of good deals. Then that afternoon, Mary took Cierra and Abby swimming, and Ben made fajitas for dinner.....yum! Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market, ate at a yummy BBQ place for lunch (with crazy giant, flying bugs that smelled like play-doh) and the kids went swimming again.

Sunday was Easter and Caden woke up at 3am ready to see his basket. We held him off until 4:30am and at that point we were so exhausted that we let him have it.

He ate some candy and watched the movie he got (Tangled) and was asleep when everyone else got up to see what the giant bunny had brought.

The rest of the kids got up around 7ish (I think) and they all ate lots of candy before breakfast.

I kept Tyler home from church because his eyes were really goopy and gross and he still didn't feel well. Everyone else went to Sacrament meeting. I really wanted to put Tyler in his Easter outfit, but it had to wait a week. We had a fabulous Easter dinner and the kids just played all day and watched movies and ate more candy. Tyler got into everyone's candy. He really likes chocolate.

Monday morning, we packed up and headed home. The cousins were all sad to say goodbye. Cierra missed saying goodbye to Abby because she had school and Cierra was sad about it all morning. They really all played so good together.

The drive home was uneventful for the first 110 miles. Then Cierra projectile vomitted all over the backseat, including all over Caden's pillow. This didn't sit well with Caden, so along with Cierra sobbing and apologizing over and over again, Caden was SCREAMING at the top his lungs about his pillow, which in turn caused Tyler to cry. Luckily, there was a truck stop about 10 miles down the road and we were able to stop and get the van and Cierra all cleaned up. I hope that my first experience with truck stop showers is also my last.

Overall, it was a great trip. Thanks so much for having us and we are excited for you guys to come and visit Carlsbad soon!

PS-Caden got a new pillow out of the whole ordeal, so all is well.

Tyler

Tyler had his ECEP evaluation yesterday. To say that it was emotionally draining, would be an understatement. We had been anxious about the appointment since we found out about it a month ago. I spent the last few days filling out paperwork and jotting down notes about things and questions to ask them. Tyler is very social so I was positive that they weren't going to diagnose him with autism. Until a few days before the eval. Then the panic started to set in. What if they do? What if I have TWO children on the spectrum? How will I handle it? How will I handle hearing it? So then I decided I would tell myself that they were for sure going to diagnose him with autism, so that there were no surprises.

The ECEP team was beyond great. They adored Tyler and he had so much fun with them. We were there for over three hours doing different evaluations and answering a million questions. Tyler was evaluated by a developmental pediatrician, a psychologist, a speech pathologist, a physical therapist, and an occupational therapist. After we were done with all of that, we went home for an hour so they could discuss everything and talk with his therapists here that he works with on a weekly basis. Erick and I went back without Tyler to find out what they had decided.

First things first, he does not fit the criteria for an autism diagnosis at this time. He is autistic-like, but also makes good eye contact and loves to play and interact, so they are confused. Not having autism is a good thing, but it also complicates things. Tyler is regressing and losing skills. That is a typical autistic trait. So to be regressing and NOT have an autism diagnosis is even more concerning because they have no idea what is causing him to regress. If he loses any more skills or has anymore regression then they will refer him to a neurologist for an MRI and EEG.

From a medical stand-point, they want him to see an ENT and make sure that his tubes are still in place. They can see them, but aren't sure if they're still in the ear drum. They also want the ENT to perform a hearing test, just to make sure that's not an issue. They are also looking more into the medication that I had to take during my pregnancy for my thyroid to see if it is known to cause any problems. They also want to get his thyroid checked because the medicine I took (PTU) can cause the fetus' thyroid to not fully develop. He is also being referred to a geneticist. We were expecting that, but it was still hard to hear. He has wide-set eyes, epicanthal folds, and they don't think he looks like either of us. Plus his behavior and lack of speech could be a sign of a genetic defect or syndrome. They also want to send him there because of our family history (all the diabetes, autism, seizures, etc.)

As far as everything else goes, he has a severe language delay. He is at the level of a 7-month old. Not only does he not talk (we do get an occasional word,) but he doesn't make enough sounds or do enough (or any) babbling. He also has Sensory Processing Disorder, hence all the biting, spinning, tip toe walking, hand flapping, head banging, and all the other stims he does. And all of the eating issues.

They gave as an overwhelming amount of information and I honestly can't remember all of it. His therapists will have all of the recommendations and we will also get a formal report in about a month, so we can review everything then. I thought that I would handle everything well as long as they didn't diagnose him with autism, but the whole experience was really hard on me. They asked SO many questions and many of them are not things I normally think about. Like when they asked me "What does he call you?" I thought, what do you mean what does he call me? He doesn't call me anything. Not ma, or mama, or mommy, or even some other name he made up. He's never called me anything. The reality of that hit me hard. I long to be his "mama." They also wanted to know if he ever "social smiled." He doesn't. And never has. (FYI-a social smile is a smile in response to JUST a smile. Not in resposne to play or funny things or cute baby talk.) This is human instinct and my son doesn't do it. He also doesn't wave bye-bye (never has,) clap his hands (used to,) point to body parts (used to,) imitate sounds or words, make animal noises, and so on. He has a lot of really great strengths, but having all of his weaknesses painted out for us in black and white was difficult.

So our next step is to get our appointment with the geneticist set up. It will probably be a three month wait, which is fine because were are going to be very busy for most of June with Cierra's medical stuff and Tyler's hand and a million other things we need to do while we're in Utah.

We sure love our Tyler and wouldn't trade him for the world. We are hoping and praying that he will start to make some progress soon and not have anymore regressions.