How about a lazy and vain blog post? Yes, another one.
My BFF Ashley is re-launching her photography business, and asked me if I wanted to to a mom & me session to help build her portfolio. And then amazing things happened:
She is so talented and my kid is so cute and these are so wonderful and then my heart exploded. The end.
One of the things we were asked at Tycho's assesment last week was if he names any of his favorite playmates or characters (Elmo, Dora, whatever). He definitely says Arlo, but that's it, and they wanted to see at least two, so we scored a "no" on that point. It didn't seem that strange to me, as he doesn't even watch much television, except he asks to watch Cars all day everyday.
It's his best buddy's favorite movie, too, and Arlo is always a good influence. Today he rubbed off on Tycho, and my little dude now says "McQueen"!
Tycho was heartbroken that he couldn't take Arlo's die-cast Lightning McQueen home with him today and I was so proud of him for learning that name that I may have gone a little overboard with the Amazon Prime...
Tycho had his initial assessment this morning. It went well.
I was having stomach-churning anxiety about the whole thing. I mean, not about Tycho. He couldn't mess it up because all he had to do was be himself, but the assessment was a home visit and home visits freak me right the fuck out. I know that they are not there to judge me on whether or not there is cat hair on the couch, but still. But our house was clean and our child as bathed and my hair was pink and I momentarily regretted not waiting until next week so that I could appear to be a responsible adult but our intake nurse was very nice and everything was fine.
Tycho was amazing. I mean, not like, advanced, because he's not and that's the whole point, but he was more or less cooperative with the assessment games. I was pleasantly surprised. There was definitely a significant chance that he would just throw a screaming tantrum throughout the entire process, so any amount of participation from him was delightful. And he didn't spend the entire time pointing at the television begging to watch Cars and making me look like an asshole who sits him in front of the tv all the time as was my fear so that was good.
The verdict? Just as we expected, he is delayed in multiple areas. He is not quite at the 25% delay cutoff for speech, though, but he will hopefully still be able to get therapy for that. We don't know yet. This is a gazillion-step process apparently, so next we take him to the clinic for a group evaluation where all the therapists and whoever see what he can do and then they will make their official recommendations and then we get to deal with the whole insurance coverage hullabaloo, which I already know will be stupid because my insurance only covers speech therapy for children with an autism spectrum disorder and not for regular old run of the mill speech delays apparently so we will get denied and have to go through the state aid process and blah blah blah blah blah.
Anyway. I'm have some emotions about it all right now. Maybe it's the wine talking. I am actually really pleased with today's results, they are pretty much what I expected and wanted to see but the reality of entering THE SYSTEM is settling and ack. But I'm glad to be one step closer to actually doing anything.
Tycho's developmental assessment next week really can't come soon enough. He talks constantly, but I mostly have not a single idea what he is trying to tell me and we are both utterly frustrated with each other and all I want is to get started working on getting him to a better place.
At the same time, though, I'm so incredibly nervous. I've invited people to come into my home and judge me and that is scary and I'm worried that he has made just enough progress in the last month that he won't actually qualify for services but he'll still be clearly behind and we'll all be going crazy but we won't be able to find a way to afford private therapy for him and we'll be stuck like this and he won't reach his full potential and and and.
So, I have a two-year-old now. I've been saying I had a two year old for a couple of weeks now, because that's easier, but now, really and truly. I am trying to stop calling him a baby because he is two and he sleeps in a real bed and he eats food like a grown-ass person, and we haven't been nursing for approximately a billion years now, and even though his speech is still lacking, he often does make his opinions known and he has this little personality that is his and his alone and it is kind of amazing.
This is my favorite age ever. I know I always say that, but that is because I like him better and better the older he gets. Because he gets more and more awesome.
It's been six months, give or take a few days, but I finally got another picture of him with his birthday bear today. I stopped doing them monthly at 18 months because he just wouldn't stay in one place, and while he still changes so much so fast, it was getting harder to notice on a monthly basis. So, here he is, in all his two-year-old glory:
His birthday was really fun. We had a non-party party. Just those closest to us over for dinner and cake and presents and vegan ice cream for this poor dairy sensitive kid. He's finally catching on to the whole presents concept. Watching his eyes almost pop out of his skull at each amazing! thing! was so much fun for me.
His special gift from Kyle and I was baseball gear. His own mitt, tee, and bat. I maybe shouldn't have been, but I was shocked how he seem to grasp the tee concept right away. Not perfectly, mind you, but the pretty basic put ball on tee, knock it off with bat was right up his chubby little alley.
He took it to bed with him that night and slept with it and we woke up in the morning to him beating down his door with it. Sigh.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN! You turned two today! I can hardly believe it!
I said I wasn't going to have a party this year, just dinner at home with family, but dinner at home with family IS a party. Grandma and Opa and tante Annika and Julien and Yoann and Anna and John and of course Shea and Ashley and your best buddy Arlo all came over to eat tacos with us and celebrate YOU. Because you're so awesome.
You loved all your presents this year. Mostly sports equipment. You're sleeping with your new baseball bat right now. I love that you've such a distinct personality. Everyone knew just what to get you!
What a two years it's been! You've changed my life totally and completely and every day it gets even better. I can't wait to see what your third year brings!
