Red Tape....

Last Friday Kami and I made our 90 mile round-trip up to OHSU for her weekly speech therapy, thankfully it was a gorgeous day! After her appointment with Kami's Disney princess sounding therapist, love her, we took a little walk and Kami picked some flowers.



I came home to a few messages on my phone dealing with referrals and parent interviews...AKA, lot's of red tape! When your child has a cold, you take them to the Dr, you get quick instructions on what to do that make them well. BUT, when you are dealing with treatment of autism, it is a slow, step by step process of observations, interviews and referrals. Lot's of meetings and tests of all sorts, it's a slow, slow, ongoing process, I would give anything to speed it up a little, like a left kidney, if it would move it along.

Oops, I almost said it!

So...I took all three girls to the mall this last Saturday, I know C-R-A-Z-Y! But, I had gymbucks to spend and time was running out. Kamryn was having an "ok" day, but once we got to the mall, the mass of people and noise sent her down hill fast. We headed to Gymbo, after a 1/2 hour parking space hunt, the place was packed so I parked the stroller at the front of the store and asked my oldest to stay there with the girls while I weaved my way through the crowds.

So, I hunted for the best deals I could find and some ultra cute clothes, the girls were being as good as possible under the circumstances. As I was wrapping up my shopping and headed over to the check out, a loud boom and crash echoed through out the store, followed by a eerie silence, I knew without even looking that it was Kami. She had pulled down a very large sign that is in the front window display, she was scarred and embarrassed, but fine. I apologized repeatedly to the store employees, and almost, almost said, "I am sorry, she's autistic." But, I couldn't! First I didn't want the words to pass my lips to a stranger, then I didn't want to make a excuse for her bad behavior, but I think it boils down to the fact that I don't want to label her, she is not just some autistic child, she is my beautiful, fun loving daughter.

Where to begin.....

Yes, where to begin..... I posted this post http://6weeksandcounting.blogspot.com/2011/04/big-word-had-been-spoken-and-i-am-not.html on my normal blog, well, if you can call anything normal these days. Thinking your quirky daughter may have autism and then being told she does is a heart wrenching experience. After a bit of a meltdown and a good sweat at the gym, bing became my best frienamy and after much looking, I could not find a blog, a really good blog, written my a mother of an autistic child. So, my gaol here is to do just that, have a great blog for moms like me, and lets face it anyone else who wants to read it.