New Ventures

This morning Ms. Marie, the young woman who will be doing some ABA with B., came over to talk. She is an extremely optimistic, bubbly person, which makes me feel like the cranky New Yorker I often am, but so far I love her. The twins seemed to react positively to her, which is great for a first meeting. G. was lying on the floor making his baby duck kiss the mommy duck, and B. was jogging around smiling. At this point we are going to do ten hours a week, for B. only. I got the feeling she'd like to work with G. also, but since he's progressing pretty well, and we aren't rich, it's just going to be B., so far.

My husband is a bit worried about how much ABA will cost, but I think it's worth trying. I was very pushy with Early Intervention, but I ended up with each twin getting two hours of services a week (up from 30 minutes/week). That's speech and OT. For kids with so many challenges, that's just not enough. I think it's worth spending our money now, while they are so little. I don't mean put ourselves into financial ruin, but do what we can with what we have. (Piece of advice: if you have kids with special needs, do not move to the Lone Star State.)

Off and on during Ms. Marie's visit, B. was trying to get himself one of the Signing Time DVD's, which was hidden on a very high shelf (running around looking at a DVD case is a current preoccupation). He even dragged a chair across the room, and kept looking from the chair to the shelf, but couldn't decide what came next. I find it so interesting that he can think of bringing a chair over, but hasn't figured how to use the chair to reach something (I know it's just a matter of time!)

G. is singing songs all the time now, although much of the time we aren't certain which song it is. One of the lines he gets stuck on is from a song the Wiggles sing in Italian (something like "baila, bambina"). A friend of mine heard him singing it and said, "You're teaching him Italian?" Okay, I'm a bit of a crazed autism mommy, but not that crazed!

Starting out

One or two people have suggested I start a blog, so I'm giving it a shot. The short version of what I'm doing is recording a log of our family's journey through PDD. We have 25 month old twins who have some version of PDD, although they're still undiagnosed. We also have an older son (almost three) who is a fantastic brother, and a real character himself.

The name of the blog comes from the Wiggles' DVD "Hoop Dee Doo Dance Party". We've been watching it a lot lately. It's has a sixties-style psychedelic feel to it, and it sums up my mental state at this point. Nothing is what I expected it to be, so what the hell, let's have a Hoop Dee Doo dance party.

I've been reading other families' autism blogs every night lately. I find it so helpful to see what other people have been through...how they've coped, and the progress their kids have made. And, most importantly, seeing so many bloggers who have held on to their optimism and senses of humor.

Having never blogged, I'm not sure of what level of detail to go into, how personal to get, etc. I think the whole concept of blogs is so cool, I'll just play it by ear and see how it goes.

Our oldest boy is making strange animal-like noises from his room. He's someone who REALLY needs a nap, so I'll ignore it for a little while, since he sounds pretty happy.