our favorite little guy

The purpose of this post is just so you know. It's not sad news. It's not bad news. But it is news that will hopefully change the direction of Levi's life for the better. A while back I blogged about how the Glendale Unified School District qualified Levi for speech and OT services on the basis of "autistic-like behavior." At the time, I thought, "He's not autistic, but whatever label will help him get services will have to do." Since then, I've been trying to schedule an assessment by the Regional Center for my boy since the GUSD isn't qualified to make the actual diagnosis. In the meantime, Levi's eccentricities and rigidity with daily routine, conversational topics & social interaction have become much more obvious. In fact, we can't get through any given day without Levi breaking down in tearful or screaming frustration at my inability to answer some line of incessant questions sufficiently or sit through one of his rambling monologues while I'm trying to get done the stuff that needs doing (like make a meal, get him ready for school, get him down to bed at night, get him to use the potty, etc.). Now 5 months down the road, and easily 100 phone calls to the Regional Center later, we FINALLY got an in-home visit from a social worker from the Lanterman Regional Center. She's not a psychiatrist, but a veteran of the field, and she essentially told me by our meeting's end that Levi is autistic. After Jeff's subsequent research, we're certain that more specifically he has Asperger's Syndrome. Levi's official psychiatric eval with a doctor at the Regional Center happens at the end of October, at which point I'm looking forward to some much needed guidance on how to effectively meet Levi's needs and help him to better navigate this insane world.


Still the same person he was before the diagnosis, and always our favorite boy in the whole world.

more cute kid pix

Here are a couple snazzy candid snapshots that a coworker of Jeff's took at a get-together a few months ago.

birthdayfest

We have a friend who insists on celebrating the entire week of her birthday, not just the day. Ruby's 3rd birthday has turned out into just such an event. On the actual day (9.12) we took the kids out for a banana french toast breakfast at their favorite restaurant. Later in the afternoon we took the kids to Manhattan Beach so that Ruby could do one of her favorite things: dig. It turned out to be freezing though. It almost felt like we were back in the Bay Area. So we left the beach after braving it for 10 minutes, and went out to dinner at one of our favorite pizza places, Tomato Pie. Then we went home and had some pink strawberry birthday cake (at Ruby's request) and opened presents. I sent her to school on Monday with a bunch of pink cupcakes so that her schoolmates could celebrate with her too. When she saw the cupcakes on Monday morning, she asked me with a big smile, "Mom, is it my birthday AGAIN?!?" Then today, Jeff and I both took the day off from work and took the kids to Disneyland. I'm pooped, but in a good way. The kids had a great time, and Ruby loved turning 3.
Jeff tried to build a windbreaker at the cold beach. Didn't really work.
Oh yeah, no celebration in this family would be complete without some good pizza!

Dumbo!

Absolutely thrilled to meet Pluto.