Let's Pick Some Apples!

Last Saturday, September 7th, we drove the nearly 2 hours up to Wilcox, AZ to visit Apple Annie's Orchard.  The trip was long, but definitely worth it.

To be honest, though I knew it would be a fun family trip, I mostly saw it as a great photo opportunity.  I've gotten a little tired of the same old background, the little yard right out front of our apartment.

There were little wagons, and fruit pickers for us to use, and while the fruit picker was just a nuisance to me, the wagon was very beneficial for keeping the kids contained while we moved between the rows.

The kids had a blast at the orchard, especially Oliver.  There was a little tractor show there as well, which was Oliver's favorite.  He sobbed his little eyes out when we had to leave.

It also just so happened that the tractor Oliver and Wynter got to sit on was an Oliver brand tractor!  What a crazy coincidence!

Overall it was fantastic day, and we hope to start planning more frequent family outings like this.

The Call.

Nothing has changed. Everything has changed.

Last Thursday Oliver had an ADOS test performed by a wonderful woman, Maria. The test was mostly a semi directed play time with observations made and scores given according to what he did, or did not do.  We'll receive the official report soon, but yesterday our Developmental Pediatrician called with the results.

Oliver has Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I read that as mild or higher functioning Autism.  Classic Autism had it's own category and that is not where he scored into.  Personally, I was thinking that he might not score into an Autism diagnosis at all.  During the test he responded to his name, looked at Maria (though I'm not sure if it was eye contact or not), he followed many directions, engaged in pretend play, and easily transitioned from activity to activity.  Where I still saw subtle signs of ASD were when Maria pretended to get burnt by a match and he did not react, between activities he constantly refocused on the cars and trucks, he did not follow Maria's eye line to look at something, he did not engage in pretend play focused on putting a baby doll to sleep... there might have been some other subtle indicators, but I didn't notice them.

Despite the finality of the diagnosis journey, nothing has changed.  Oliver is still Oliver, and I love him.  I love his quirks, I love his smile, I love his uniqueness.  Nothing has changed.

And yet, everything has changed because before Oliver was born, and for the first 2 years of his life, we did not imagine that we might be heading down this road. Yet, here we are, and it's okay.

Everything has changed... and yet, nothing has changed.