The weekend finally ends.

We made it….it seems like we have been gone for eons, and it has really only been 56.5 hours….I counted. I am completely pooped, so I will try to make this short and sweet, even though there is a lot to say.
The drive there was great. The weather great. My sister-in-law and I went Christmas shopping, got everything on my list, spent exactly double of what I wanted to spend….that-not so great.
That night we headed to dinner. Kayler HATES eating out…so he pulled our whole table of food onto the floor…not great yet again. That night he noticed my brother Kris as he was grouting some tile at his house with a large rectangle sponge. Well immediately, Kayler knew it was “his SpongeBob” as he told Kris, and the dang thing has not left his side since. We didn’t want him to have the dirty tile one, so we headed to Home Depot that night to get him 2 fresh ones. Ohhhh the lengths we go to keeping that little guy happy.
We got to enjoy dinner with G.J.’s Brother & Sister, and their families on Sunday night. After that, Kris, Jenette, and G.J., Me, and Kayler headed to see the lights at temple square-which I had never done before. The First Pres. Christmas devotional had just gotten out, so it was PACKED, but beautiful. This is what we got to see (notice the first picture of Kayler and his "Spongebob's"...lol. We got MANY weird looks and a lot of snickering comments about "that little boy and his sponge"):






Isn't it all so beautiful!!!

This morning we woke up to snow. I HATE driving in the snow, and I just hate the mess and chaos it brings, but I know we need it, so I will just shut up. We got packed up, drove around, ate lunch, and then headed to the real reason we had came out. Here is a picture of Kayler in the waiting room at his evaluation.

So this evaluation went MUCH, and I mean MUCH better than the first one. They had SO many toys, so for the most part we were able to keep him very entertained. We were there for 3 hours. It was SO long, but he was doing so well, so that made it much better. G.J. and I filled out more paperwork that I ever have in my life about every single thing you could think of. We had already done like 20 pages before we got there, then we did 20 more when we got there. Then we headed in with the Dr. where we spent the 3 hours. She was very sweet. Kayler liked her…cautiously, but still he didn’t scream at her.
To make this short and sweet, she basically agrees with the Asperger’s Theory, although I didn’t tell her in any way that another Dr. had already diagnosed him with that. In her records, she did diagnose him with a condition called Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Here is the Wikipedia synopsis of it.
From Wikipedia:
Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID, also called sensory processing disorder) is a neurological disorder causing difficulties with processing information from the five classic senses (vision, auditory, touch, olfaction, and taste), the sense of movement (vestibular system), and/or the positional sense (proprioception).
For those with SID, sensory information is sensed normally, but perceived abnormally. This is not the same as blindness or deafness, because, unlike those disorders, sensory information is received by people with SID. The difficulty is that information is processed by the brain in an unusual way that may cause distress or confusion.
SID is its own diagnosis, but it can also be linked to other neurological conditions, including autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, Developmental Dyspraxia, Tourette syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and speech delays, among many others. The meaning of Sensory Intergration Disorder falls under the DSM4 criteria for Asperger’s syndrome. There is no known cure; however, there are many treatments available.
She does not like to diagnose anything on the Autism spectrum until the child is at least 3. So she wants us to come back, and she said if we work very hard with Kayler and continue his therapy here in Vernal-there is the “possibility” we can rule out Asperger’s altogether-which would be great. I am cautiously optimistic.
It was SO good to get another opinion. It was even better to have her tell us that we are doing everything right, and we aren’t the failures that we have been feeling like. She said that by observing him and all the paperwork, he definitely has some major issues that are in no way normal, and that we are not over-reacting, as some people have implied. So basically, it was a breath of fresh air despite the busyness of the trip.
I am so glad we went. It was so good to get some alone time with G.J. and Kayler, get my shopping done, spend time with family from both sides, and to make it home safe and sound and find all well here. Thanks to both Grandmas for taking such good care of Hallie and Gavin!
So now on to a new week….it is starting to get very festive around our house. Tonight after Kayler fell asleep, Hallie and Gavin made their Gingerbread house with minimal help from me for once!!! Isn’t it cute!