Ready, Set, Go!

So we finally had Isaiah's highly anticipated appt. yesterday. It wasn't as ground breaking as our previous appt. two weeks ago. It was more like a reiteration of what we had discussed before, but I am glad we went. They are continuing on with the current diagnosis of PDD-NOS with anxiety-NOS. They said, with hard work, in the next few years, we may even be able to drop the the PDD label. As for the anxiety (which runs on both sides of the family) we are going to begin teaching him coping mechanizes now, that will hopefully help him learn to deal with it later in life (something, I too will benefit from). All in all, they said he will excel greatly in his career as he is brilliant. The part where he is lagging behind, is socially. They said while his intelligence is years ahead of him, his social capabilities are that of a child going through their terrible two's. He is having trouble coping with his feelings and transistions, and doesn't understand how to process them, so he goes into over drive (it's almost like watching a train wreck when this happens). But he is progressing so well, that if we continue to work our tushes off, then me may be able to head this off while he is young. I don't know if you guys have seen the new show called Parenthood, late Tuesday nights. One of the issues they are addressing (and I am so grateful for) is Asperger's. I love how they are showing how hard it is for the parents to accept, and all the hard work and worry that is going to be facing their entire family. Also, on this last weeks episode, the child actually manipulates the parents with eating (we struggle huge in this area) to get more TV time. I loved how they captured how rigid he is and temperamental, just to get him to go to a doctor's appt. If you ever want to kind of understand what we do on a daily basis, this show has captures so far, what we deal with (on a different scale of course). As we were driving home, I told Seth, maybe this is one of the reason's that G-d gave us Aurora and Elijah. They were sent to teach us how much we should value each life and work hard, even if it isn't considered a "normal situation." As Eli's pass away date is rapidly approaching, I have already begun to struggle about what happened in his last month of his life. So now I am trying to look at using my regret of not being able to rescue him, to rescue Isaiah. While both situations are entirely different, the amount of effort is very similar. With Eli, it was chronic round the clock care to balance his electrolytes, blood pressure, and solutions. With Isaiah, it is round the clock care to managing his behavior, transisitons, and teaching him about emotions that most of us, never think twice about. I know one of the hardest things most of us struggle with, is a feeling of being accepted and loved. I worry about him not being able to take social cues with bullies, and recognizing he may not have as many friends as the other kids because he is different. But I believe with G-d's help, we can rise above this, even though I know the road will be long and hard. Again, we saw other children that were there, who were fully autistic, it made things look that much more hopeful. Still, this is a hard situation and each family has there own struggles that are difficult to them and maybe not in the eyes of others. Seth was saying that he looked at this as a blessing. He's been thinking that this is not only going to make us better parents, but most of the time people with quirky things in their personality tend to be extremely successful. So while I have my days, where I am frustrated with him beyond belief, I am having so many more days of "wow, this is one amazing kid!" He's hilarious, and always has something to say. When I don't feel well, he comes up to me and says "I'll make it all better," or "Mommy, I need a hug and will you hold my hand." They reassured us, he'll get married and have relationships, but that he is going to need a tremendous amount of familial and friend support. So my goal, as the weather begins to warm up, is to call all of my friends and set up play date after play date, to encourage the skills that he needs to socialize even better. He loves kids and is really interacting with them in a way we have never seen before, thanks to his school. We are now going to try "test runs" at public places, to try and help him get past his rigidity and anxiety. We are going to push him just beyond what he is comfortable with and hopefully this will build his tolerance levels. It's much easier to do one on one, but with Aria, it's making it quite a challenge. But that is what parenting is about, it's not for wimps. Also pushing the positive reinforcement in the simple things we take for granted, he loves the compliments. I am really excited to see how the next few years will progress, something I'd never thought I'd say. I see nothing but success coming our way. Who knows, maybe he'll discover a planet he loves more than Pluto (he loves Pluto), if anyone could do it, it'd be Isaiah. It's game time, ready, set, GO!