10-23/24-08

10/23
Lily hasn't been sleeping, again and I've been busy trying to figure out a plan of action with her as far as therapies go. I was having trouble finding ANYONE who takes our insurance. I know we'll have to pay out some out of pocket expenses, it's expected, but I'm trying to utilize what we DO have first, because realistically, it can be very easy to spend thousands each month on therapy and I have to be somewhat practical. What I've been wanting to do is find someone who can teach me what to do, so I can work with her at home (at least part of the time) and I think I've finally found some help in that department with a wonderful doctor that I met with today (who also directed me to a place that takes my insurance for some other therapy as well, yippie!).

As a mom of a child with autism it is very hard to not try to put everything in one pot and stir it around. By this I mean I want her to have every therapy that I can get for her and put it all into place right now, especially since it feels like we have been stagnant lately and not really making as great of strides as we have in the past (hence the drop in number of updates). The problem with going about things that way, is #1 it can be overwhelming for Lily and #2 it may be hard to descern which therapies are doing the most good. I'm praying that the Lord will direct me to make the right decisions for her. Too many cooks in the kitchen can sometimes be a problem, but at this point I'm just really interested in having dinner and not caring how it gets made.

10/24
Lily has been trying to use her signs more, though it has been a little problematic. Now she signs "more" just when she wants something but can't tell me what! Yesterday she spontaniously handed me her giraffe and then showed me the sign for it (which I had quickly taught her yesterday) so that was neat. She also took the pen out of my hand, handed me her ziplock bag of pompoms and signed "open", so that was great as well! Lily also "sings" now. She has a Princess book that has musical buttons on it and she "sings" along with the music, it is very adorable.

Today we went to the mall play area and she got to play with all of her friends whom she had missed so much! She had an absolute great time and really tried to interact with them. She was clearly so happy to be there and it felt great that she could just run, climb and play. I really want her to have the opportunity to still play with her friends. I'm hoping that everything will get scheduled well enough to allow for enough of a balance for her, that's the goal anyhow. I wish that I didn't have to work weekends, it would give me another couple of days to work with!