The Nyberg Family Circus: August 2011

Monday, August 22, 2011

Update On Our Little Jeffrey

Back in May we announced that our little Jeffrey had a diagnosis of either Asperger's Syndrome or High Functioning Autism and that the Doctor wanted to wait another year to see how his language came along before distinguishing between the two. Well, this morning I took Jeffrey to see a specialist down at the Dayton Children's Medical Center for a follow up/second opinion. I immediately liked the doctor, she was so nice and Jeffrey didn't even need time to warm up to her or the 4th year resident she had with her. The resident was able to play with Jeffrey while she and I talked and she was watching his behavior all at the same time. We discussed his history and whatever concerns I had. The first thing that came up was his speech delay. She told me that a speech delay automatically ruled out an Asperger's diagnosis. She also told me that when you walk in a room, you immediately know if a kid is "Autistic." Jeffrey was just too social and responsive for that diagnosis, however, she still believed him to be on the "autism spectrum," just listed as Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD) not otherwise specified. Pretty much meaning our little Jeffrey is just too original to be put into a more specific category. :) I am very happy with the diagnosis and feel that it is the right one. We were in there for 2 1/2 hours and I believe she had all of the tools and time she needed to make an accurate diagnosis. A main concern that I, as well as other parents have had about this diagnosis process is they feel the doctor doesn't spend enough time with the child for the full diagnosis and I felt a little like that with our doc in Tennessee, but I'm so happy to say that that isn't the case this time and we feel very fortunate. I recommend anyone get second opinions if they aren't entirely certain about the first one, especially in this ever growing field of study. Thanks to everyone who is so patient and loving with our little Jeffrey, he is one in a million. :)

p.s. the tooth-fairy visited our house for the first time ever last night!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The 'REAL' Heaton Family Reunion Post

I started out my last post thinking I was going to put all of the reunion photos on it, but ended up putting other ones up instead, so alas, this is the "official" reunion post. I had to limit the photos to just the ones with my family in it (there were over a hundred total!), but I e-mailed all of the other photos taken with my camera to everyone else that was in them. Without further adeau (I am absolutely positive I spelled that wrong), pictures!!!

Janice and Sharice were in charge of games and crafts and on the FIRST day they made KAZOOS. The noise level in the house (6 beds 1 loft with 31 people in it!) got pretty up there. :) They were a hit and the kids loved them!

Jeffrey especially loved his.

Grandpa Heaton helping out with the Kazoos.

Ben with Uncle Jon. Out of all of my kids, I always thought I could see Jon in Ben the most (without his glasses on).

Megan and cousin Eli chilling on the couch with Aunt Jill.

Ben all dressed up for church in Show Low, Arizona. (Who me??) :)

Yayyyy!!! Daddy surprised everyone by showing up the second day!! Brian was able to get 5 days plus 2 weekends off of work last minute to fly out and meet us and then drove back with us across the country. Such a miracle!!!

Relaxing and just having a great time.

This is pretty typical of how we sit on the couch. Me with me legs up on Brian. :) And yes, I'm wearing Brian's socks (socks were required in the house and mine were dirty)

I have no idea what she's holding, but it sure looks like she's trying to hide it from everyone!

I almost didn't post this one because it was blurry, but then thought about how fitting it was considering all of the older boy cousins' vision probably was like this after playing on the Wii for hours and hours and hours.

Photos by Ben Nyberg. If you'd like to schedule an appointment let me know. ;) Ben snapped this one while we were walking to the pool.

I'm only now realizing that the only picture we got of my family at the pool was of me waving hi. Oh well. :)

After swimming, a few of us went outside to dry off instead of going straight into a chilly air conditioned locker room to do it.

Megan coloring on Grandma Heaton's pillow case that everyone drew their nice hand prints on.

Okay, so you really can't capture the reunion with just pictures of my family, so I selected a few of the other good ones that didn't just have us in them. :)