Can she talk?

We went to AppleBees for dinner this evening and the FIRST thing the guy who seats you asked was So can she talk? Umm. Ok lol I know this is HARMLESS....a little harmless question, but for some reason I froze. I looked at him with a smile, and said the first thing that came to mind. I said "ummm kinda" and shook my hand back and forth. He said "kinda?" and bent down to her and said Hi! So I nudged Ava and said SAY Hi Aves! And she did. So she kinda does talk, but jeesh....i know this wouldn't of bothered me under normal circumstances, and maybe I am just crazy. It is not that it really bothered me, but we get it so much. The nice waiter lady came up and said the most FAMOUS question of all... "Whats your name?!" Honestly I know Ava knows she is Ava, but she doesn't understand that question. So of course I give her a second and answer for her.
Just to clarify I am not mad, it is just funny how if I had never heard of Autism, or had to deal with a speech delay It wouldn't of bothered me. I love when people pay attention to Ava. Maybe I should make that my opportunity to raise awareness for Autism.

We haven't had speech in two weeks. The first week she canceled then I had to cancel, and then it snowed and she couldn't make it. Ava is doing really good, especially when we tell her to say things..she will say it. I remember them telling me around 2 1/2 -3 years of age is when that window opens and that she would have a language explosion. Well it's not an explosion but it is coming. I get really sad when she IS trying to say something that is MORE than one word and it comes out all wrong. Example...Night night Dada. Comes out night night GUNK GUNK..the last part through her nose. Then she will do it again and again. And she WAS saying dada..but now its gaga. So much to worry about. I often wonder if there is something more going on in that brain of hers.

Mama mama mama!!!

Oh how sweet that sound is! Finally. 28 months later, she looked right at me and said "Mama". It is so funny how parents of special needs children proceed with caution even when something GREAT happens. At first I was in disbelief. Then she did it again, and I have even heard it today. My heart is overjoyed. I can not begin to tell you how much it means to me to hear THAT word.
Her little voice is just so sweet. I have to tell you the story of todays "mama". I was outside messing with Christmas decorations, and I must of left the door open a little. Next thing I know I hear "MAMA MAMA MAMA" And I look up and she is peeking out the door with the biggest smile on her face. Oh she just melts my heart. It was so cute, I wish I would of had my camera.

Needless to say I am SO in love with my daughter!

Leaving you with some Christmas pictures...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a nice day, except I have a really bad flu/cold. It is still lingering on and I feel horrible! But I do have so much to be Thankful for.

I will update more with pictures from our Thanksgiving later.

Ups and downs

As I write this post I just feel like crying. I am not sure what is wrong with me. Today Ava's ST gave us a number for another doctor down in Pittsburgh, we need to get a new eval so we can get TSS and hopefully ABA started. We thought maybe we could get by with not doing this until May when she would need a new eval anyways, but we all agreed we need it now. While her language is starting to come around, her problem solving and cognitive thinking is still lagging behind. Example...you take your child out of the car in a parking lot, tell them to stay put for that brief moment while you shut the door and they know to stand there, Ava will not know and will dart off. She doesn't understand concepts like that. I can't tell her to stay by mommy, or hold my hand.
I realize this skill will probably come around, i mean a few months ago she didn't know what " find your shoes, or get me a diaper, or throw this away meant. " The latter being VERY new! I told her to throw her juice box away and she did!

My niece and nephew were here this weekend, and I can TELL she wants to play with them. She likes to look at them, but when they come near her she holds up her hands in front of her like STOP! Brady likes to hug her and she shrugs him off. Pains me to see, but it is so good to have them around. They need to come over more often!!
Leave you with some recent pictures, nothing great...the sun hasnt been out in days and I need an external flash!

They are all looking...yay for lollis!













Poor Aves was not having it!
















Our pup!

Ava's words

Ava’s words

Spontaneous words

1. All gone (aaa gawn) with sign

2. More ( nore ) with sign

3. Please ( teese ) with sign and while touching her lips with palm of hand

4. Nanny

5. Penny ( ninny)

6. Bye Bye ( with gesture ) then blows a kiss.

7. Book

8. Broke ( boke)

9. Bee ( Loves bee’s and bugs )

10. Hot ( when looking at the space heater )

11. Night night ( niiii niiii )

12. Moon

13. Plane (peen ) umm lol ya

14. Stuck ( cawk) lol I didn’t want to spell it the other way but you get the point hehe

15. Cookie ( cook cook )

16. Balloon ( boon)

17. Baby

18. No ( And even will shake her head sometimes )

She will Mooo for a cow and most recently said oink oink and meow meow for piggy and kitty. We are really trying to get her to say yes and no to answer us, she really doesn’t get yes and no questions just yet. BUT she has nodded her head yes when asked to say yes. AND there was a sign with cheese on it at wal-mart and she looked up at it and said tteese. I was LiKE OMG ! She won’t even eat cheese , how does she KNOW that is cheese? We have also decided that sound she makes out of her nose is a type of stim. We have done so much research on it and finally came across some information that pointed it to a stim. She does it A LOT, but we really can’t redirect that stim because she doesn’t understand when we tell her to “open mouth” or “talk through your mouth”. It really isn’t harmful right now anyways.

Fall pictures

We took Ava to Ohio Pyle, we had a great time! She loved to be free and run of course.
Here are some of the pictures.


























































And we also went to the park....getting all of our outside time in before the flakes start flying!

Three Halloweens down!

I can't believe it was Ava's THIRD Halloween already! Time sure does fly. We had a pretty good Halloween, despite an awful time at the Dance Studios Halloween party. It was just way too overstimulating for her. She seemed very happy but, that Mommy instinct in me KNEW that something was just off. I tried to pick her up for the group picture, and she wouldn't let me..she wouldn't look at me...slapped and hit me and screamed. To everyone else she looked like a bad child, but really I know her sensors were just overwhelmed. She can cope very well in our house, but outside of it I guess is a different story. Especially something on such a large scale. Don't get me wrong, she was laughing and so forth but there was no control and she wouldn't look at any of the kids or anything. She fell and busted her lip and blood was running out of her mouth and she didn't even seem to care! We left in tears. Then we learned the mouth boo boo was nothing compared as to what happened next! Ava got her FIRST bad Boo boo that night. Daddy stuck her in the bathtub and she slipped and fell against the side of the tub. Scared me to death!


I was all ready to call 911~ I panicked like a true first time mommy. She now has a nice black eye and turning greenish and yellow. sigh!
Trick or Treat went MUCH better. She WORE her bee costume for me. I was so happy. She really doesn't like it because of the hood, but we put it on right when we walked out the door and she was free to run and have fun . She was a trooper. You can see her black eye too!