Outings

What's Anthony been up to?, you might be wondering.  Ha, not much.  He went to see his developmental pediatrician last week, Mike took him.  He has to go every six months to get his prescription renewed for ABA therapy.  It's SO ridiculous.  The doctor seems very nice and smart but honestly, he has nothing to tell us that we don't already know.  If Anthony isn't sleeping well, he can prescribe sleeping pills.  If Anthony is tense, he can put him on anti-anxiety medication.  That's it!  All he can do is prescribe medicine!  He's nice, as I said, and he seems .. impressed that we are - I don't know, even working with Anthony.  Like, what else would we do?  He's six years old!  I still have some hope for the old boy, sheesh!

He makes you wait forever, this doctor, and it's so crappy because we are only there to get our letter from him.  BUT like Mike says, it's just twice a year, big deal.  It's a small price to pay in order to have his therapy covered.

He is going to go on some outings at school.  He's going to see The Lorax movie and also he is going to a Dog Show, ha ha.  This is funny because Anthony is scared to death of dogs but as I told Mike, it's not like they're going to throw him in the ring with them, he's just going to look at them.  I imagine if he doesn't like it, they'll take him out.  I'm so glad he goes on outings at school, I don't really even care where he goes, as long as he's out in the world.

Speaking of the world, we went to Mass at our church for the second week in a row and it went okay.  It didn't go as well this week as it did last week but what can you do?  It's a Children's Mass and we sit in the back, in fact this week in the last row, so that we can get out if we need to.  We get their early so that people can consciously make the decision to sit near us and when they do, if they feel the need to give us a dirty look, I can just shrug my shoulders, like, "sorry, Charlie, you decided to SIT NEAR US!".  This week a single lady and a couple sat in front of us and they both seemed a little - not mad but they seemed like tightasses, kind of.  And to them I say, a) don't come to a Children's Mass, which is full of CHILDREN and b) don't sit in the back, dummies!  Get up front with the old people!  But it went well, we are joining this parish and the girls will go to school there.  How I wish there were something for Anthony there, but there's not.

Lastly, the sad news is that Anthony's great grandmother, Mike's grandmother Pat, died last week.  She was an extremely good grandmother to Mike and she was a super nice person to me.  I remember shortly after Anthony was diagnosed, we went to her house and Anthony had wandered into her bedroom, so we went in after him.  He was saying the alphabet, which I was signing, and he was so great at it.  She said to me, Oh Joanne!  Look at smart he is!  He's going to be fine!, and I have never forgotten it, I think about it all the time, I think about her saying that and I think that's true!  He is smart and he will be fine.  She and I had a great correspondence by mail and I will really miss getting letters from her.  We didn't see nearly enough of her in the last couple years because everyone hates the car so much, but I'm glad that we exchanged letters, she was always incredibly supportive of me and all these kids and I loved her for it.  We'll miss her.