Today

Today started out as many of them do, awake too early, with too much to do. However, before too long, it was time to get Haydn into the car and to the Early Start offices for an evaluation. When we arrived he became interested in the toys in the waiting area. When we were taken to the room where his evaluation was to take place, he very quickly made the acquaintance of the Infant Development Specialist. She had a wonderful bag of goodies and kept introducing the contents to him. He LOVED this. He shyly greeted the other women in the room. He was playing the part of Bashful, and he was playing it well. One of the first things we realized is that his language had exploded onto the scene. He was linking multiple words into sentences. Up to this point it was a very occasional experience, and they were wordswhich were blended into one, such as "thereitis", and "lookatthat". He was using verbs, which we had never noticed before. I was so surprised by his actions, as he had never willingly played with strangers before, but he was playing ball with our service coordinator and was not afraid to initiate interactions with the Infant Development Specialist. He was trying to impress everyone. I must say that I was impressed. My relief was palpable, as you can imagine, because Haydn was not exhibiting many (if any)signs of Autism. He still does stim, and still hums vivaldi and the superman theme alot, but socially he has come out of his shell! I am soooo glad that I read all of the books I've read, and so glad I didn't lose hope. Who knows if Haydn would ever have been diagnosed on the spectrum, or will ever be, but with the therapies we've been doing at home it increases his odds of having a more typical life. YAY!