Rory's 2 Year Check Up

Rory had his 2 year check up on Tuesday. Doing those developmental checklists just seems to rub in my face "Your son has Non-Verbal Autism"! We even asked if we had to fill out the forms, since the doctor already knows that Rory has autism. But the answer was a monotone "Yes." I'm sure the staff is asked constantly if papers really need to be filled out. Sometimes when you already know your child is behind, sigh, you just want to skip that part of the appointment. But we didn't, Char filled out the forms, shaking his head every now and then.

The doctor came in, checked to see how our waiting list for therapies are going. Our honest response was "Slowly"! The doctor suggested she put in some referrals for Rory's lack of speech with an actual speech therapist and occupational therapy for his fine motor skills. She said insurances tend to cover "medical" issues even through they are really mental / Autistic problems. All of this will be in addition to his weekly Early Intervention sessions and his 15-20 hours of weekly ABA therapy. Which will be close to 18-23 hours of therapies every single week!

We started getting him undress to weigh him and see how tall he is. He began to freak out. I told him, "Buddy, this is the easy part!". He weighs 25 pounds (30% percentile) and is 36.5 inches tall (71% percentile). After we had a chat with the doctor and she looked him over, the poor guy got his immunizations. He was strong, we had to hold him down, he still wiggled free just as the nurse injected Rory. So the shot went in at a bit of an angle.  

We had time to kill until my next appointment, so we wandered around an uncrowded store for a bit. Just trying to get Rory used to unfamiliar environments when things are slow to reduce meltdowns. As we were leaving the store Anastasia and Rory became very agitated. One thing I've learned is Grumpy Wegeners'+ Food = Solution to everything. 

We tried experiment number 2. Going inside of a restaurant instead of going through the drive thru. It was Rory's first time at a restaurant in a very long time. (Last time didn't end very well. Can you say "Meltdown"?) He surprised us by being fairly well behaved. Of course we sat way back in a corner far away from everyone and the chaos of the line as much as humanly possible, so that may have helped. Anastasia was very happy after getting 2 bottles while the rest of us ate. 

Next was my doctor's appointment. I thought it was at 1:00, turned out it was at 1:30. We ended up in the waiting room for 45 minutes. The babies got stir crazy! Rory kept saying "Milk" but I believe it meant "Bored" since we gave him milk and he wanted nothing to do with it. I walked him around the waiting room in his stroller. 

Anastasia learned a new trick. She learned to wiggle free of the car seat and crawl on the floor. Anastasia then crawled underneath a table, making it hard for me to grab her. Tricky girl. We decided to divide and conquer. Char took Rory for a little drive while I took Anastasia into the appointment with me. It worked out pretty good. On the way home they finally fell asleep. 

Can I take a moment to say, Daylight Savings changes SUCK!! Especially when your children are little and have a set routine.