Just my girl

She is really growing up!

Walk for Autism Kick off Dinner

Tonight was the Walk for Autism kick off dinner. It was wonderful, I was pretty teary eyed the whole time. There were several speakers, and one really struck me...she was talking about how her son who is 27 and in a group home was diagnosed with Autism when he was 2. How hard it was to get the diagnoses, no support groups, no other parents to talk to , no one to really understand. She also went on to talk about how having a special needs child teaches you so much, so much that you may not of learned otherwise. Patience being the number one thing...oh my how we have learned patience. I always thought I had patience before but no, now I know the true meaning of patience. The second and perhaps the most important being unconditional love. I have been taught that, and it is so important. Through Ava, I have learned to love unconditionally, it is the greatest feeling of love ever. She has taught me SO MUCH, I am beginning to realize I was chosen to be Ava's mommy for a reason, and I am so happy that I was chosen to be her caretaker.

There was another little girl there, she was 9 with Autism. She read a speech and did so well. I looked at her and I could see nothing "wrong" with her, she read her speech beautifully, and spoke with SUCH excitement and joy..more so than you and I could have done! I could see my own daughter in her, and maybe a glimpse into her future. She sang us a song and did SO WELL! She dropped her paper at the end and with a resounding OOPS Into the mic picked it up. Everyone clapped for her and she was so happy.

So that was our night, and now we will be busy fund raising for the walk. can't wait to get started!!

Catching up

Two posts on one day!!
I haven't been able to post pictures lately due to lack of time, but I wanted to share some from a photoshoot I did a couple of weeks ago. This is baby "T", 3 months old.

EDIT to add that blogger is cutting off half my pics..ahh. Too tired to fix it tonight :)

The Bee Movie

My sister called me Saturday and asked if Ava could hang out with her and my niece and nephew for a few hours. I was very hesitant, as I worry so much when she is not RIGHT next to me. She has only went with a few people, those people being her other aunt, my mom ...and uhh yeah thats it. So I dressed her in her brightest striped shirt, cause you know you can see her easier that way if she gets lost. She wanted to take her "boys" ( she carries at least one around) so I handed her Moses because yeah he could look after her, and I thought about putting a name tag on her but I thought for sure my sister would be offended by that one.
SO I let her go. I guess they had a good time. Though I had to chuckle when my sister handed me a bag with food they ordered for Ava, it appeared my sister tried to feed her just about everything...there was a hot dog, chicken strips..ect. ALL uneaten, not even touched. ANYWAYS back to the point. Ava got in the door and had The BEE Movies that Aunt Kim had bought her on their adventures. She loves movies. She was staring at it, and saying " Bee Bee Bee". I said Yes Ava you got the Bee Movie, how cool is that? So her father comes down stairs and she says " GAGA ( cant say ds anymore) Gaga Bee MOVIE." Yes she said Movie. My jaw dropped to the floor..this girl has the HARDEST time saying words, she usually only says the start of the word and leaves off the end and here she just told her dad she got the bee MOVIE...plain as freakin day. My moms eyes were huge as saucers and my MILs jaw was hanging open as well as her fathers. OMG AVA what did you get??? Of course she wouldn't say it again and when she tried it wouldn't come out. But we all heard it and it was PLAIN..movie. Just how we say it. Ahh the little things that make us jump for joy :)

We are alive!!

Wow it has been a long time! Life has really been hectic and busy as of late.
Ava is doing well, she has her IEP meeting coming up on the 13th of this month. I can't believe she will be going into the school district soon.
Her ST did her PLS on her and quite honestly I believe she fudged some of her answers on the expressive part of the test. She came out at 26 months, which is really high. While I don't doubt that Ava is progressing very nicely, she is not at 26 months. She was giving her points on things Ave's can't do, I know she means well but it actually showed on the receptive that Ave's is just at 21 months and she even said herself that usually she sees the expressive and receptive come out to be the same. Well HELLO you were giving her points for things that she isn't doing/saying yet!! We know she will def still qualify for OT, she still doesn't walk up or down steps, dress her self, can't take her shoes off, cut or glue ..she has a lot of problems with her little wrists. We will get there though!
IT is just amazing that this time last year, I was SO SICK with worry and wonder about what was wrong, and the thought of her possibly being on the spectrum was literally driving me crazy..and now almost a year since her diagnoses and the sick feeling has finally faded. I no longer get nauseous at the mere thought of Autism. As of right now I am dealing with it much better. I know things could be a lot worse for Ava, I thank God that she has started talking everyday. I know one day she WILL sing twinkle twinkle along with me, she WILL learn to count, she WILL say her ABC's, she WILL one of these days say those words I LONG to hear..I love you mama. I know it. Through lots of therapy, and lots of hard work here at home she is doing so well. We still have a lot of social issues to work through, which I guess will get worked on more when she goes to pre-school or the child alert program. I was hoping she would be potty trained soon, so she could go to the small private pre-school and have her therapists go there to work with her..but it looks more and more like she will go to child alert where it is ok if she is not potty trained.
That has been pretty much what has been going on. I want to try to get back into this blogging so hopefully it won't be months without an update again.

What a day

Firstly, I cannot keep up with the 366 day picture blog. I will keep blogging and post pictures when I can. I feel so rushed and blogging was starting to become a chore. Blogging has always been such an outlet to me, and I want to keep it that way. I also want to keep part of it about Ava and her fight to be cured from Autism.

Anyways, around lunch time today Ava took her firs tumble down the steps. ugh. I knew she was at the top looking down, looking for her dad. The next thing I know I hear her tumbling down and her scream. I was very scared. I think I lost about 20 years of life and grew my first gray hairs. She scared the DAYLIGHTS out of me. Our steps are very steep and there is no railing or anything so she fell over the side of them, and landed in our dining room. She ended up with just bruise/brush burn type mark on the side of her forehead. I screamed and cried which I think made her more scared . She was all better though within minutes, and her SI came and they played and she acted totally normal all day. I did let her skip nap...just in case.
We went to wal-mart and shopped and she had a good old time.

There was a little boy behind us in line and I asked how old he was, and his mom said he will be three in March. He was too cute..he spotted Aves and he whipped out this toy truck his mom was buying for him. He showed it to Aves and said "Hey wanna see my TRRUCK?" lol typical male right? Showing off his nice truck. Aves hid her face with her hands and his mom said , I dont think she is too impressed with your truck buddy ...lol!~ It was soo cute. I was amazed at how much he talked. BUT we won't go there and compare.

Well it is late and my stomach is queasy. Still fighting off this cold/flu.

Take care!

**7**

So I skipped a few days...I have been really sick with a high fever, and to be honest it is VERY hard to keep up with this. BUT I am still willing to try. It was SOOO warm today, just beautiful. It was really nice to get outside and get some air. Aves ran all around and was super excited to be out and about...without coats, hat, mittens, boots. Too bad it is supposed to get cold again at the end of the week. I can't wait for spring!

Some pics from today :)




Also some totally mommy grabbed the camera cause ava was being silly so not so great pictures...
Aves decided she wanted to roll the carpet up and play with it ..


and dive on it


and dance and spin




She was just being a complete goober!