No, I’m not talking about Tim.

J-man seems to be getting some sort of illness. Please let it NOT be the flu. I want him to be as well as possible for Tuesday’s evaluation. Of course, I should be used to this by now – every evaluation he’s ever had was prefaced by some sort of viral attack!

Coughing and whining. Whining and coughing. I’m not hungry. I’m starving! I need to sleep. I don’t ever want to see the inside of my crib again. Hold me and don’t put me down even when you desperately need to pee. I want to sit in my highchair all evening and will cry if you take me out.

Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.

I went to Whole Paycheck today to stock up on J-man food. I bought 6 bags of Veggie Sticks. Yep, six bags. If WP were a 30 minutes minimum drive from your house, you would play the stock-up-game too. I also bought 459082371526 jars of organic baby food, but not the 2 soups that I was looking for, because they were out. Son, I would like for you to eat real food sometime soon. Like last Thursday.

Because of some potent fertility drug they pump through the water fountains at the therapy office, our occupational therapist (OT, for the uninitiated) recently went on maternity leave. We had our first session with our new OT this week and J-Man did extraordinarily well.

For the past few months, the OT sessions have been ‘home visits’ (therapy in your ‘natural environment’ - a.k.a. home where all the toys are), but we’ll be having sessions at the preschool until a home visit slot opens up with her. We shoved a session into the crazy schedule so he wouldn’t have to wait all the way until the 17th before we get into the new routine.

There was so much stuff in that kinda small room that I thought it would unnerve him, but he had a really good time. It helped that she didn’t make him do any eating work. It was motion stuff (vestibular and proprioceptive for those of you who know what that’s all about), which he’s been doing well with of late.

I was really impressed by how well he took to her and all the good eye contact he made with her. He’s doing pretty well with new people - and he loves him the ladies - which is a relief for us (the eye contact and comfort level more than the lady-lovin’). She read him well - a skill we always appreciate - and seemed to intuit well when to push him and when not to.

Hopefully she drinks bottled water. The new and expectant demographic there is impressive!

J-Man’s ‘inclusive preschool’ has taken its show down the road a couple of miles. We outgrew the little room we were in at the therapy office, which doubled as the community break room for the therapists. Not to mention, all the heat in the building apparently was directed into that little room. The combination of heat, body funk, markers, apple juice, and pee diapers proved to be a real motivator to complete the deal to move into a more spacious setting. God help them all if a kid ever dropped a diaper bomb in that old room…

So J’s preschool - a.k.a. The First Church of ‘Yes, We Can’ - has literally moved into a church. The room is huge, and they have a full-blown playground! The first day’s report was that Jonas - feeding issues and all - found the edible mulch at the playground reasonably palatable. Maybe if we shred some over pasta he’ll eat it.

With nine kids on the wait list for a class of just six, the new digs will let them split the class into two and add six more kids. They’re looking to group the kids in the class by developmental delays, so for instance the ’sensory kids’ will end up together.

The classes are team-taught, which is not only a good idea but an absolutely necessity! One of his teachers from before now has the other class and his developmental therapist has now joined in as the other half of his teaching team. J-Man looked a little confused about this for a while, with a temporary “Holy crap, what are you doing here?” look on his face.

He did his explore-the-room-off-by-myself-to-get-adjusted thing for quite a while, but he’s coped with the new environment much better than I thought he would. I think the size of the room really helps since he can go get some personal space if he needs it, something much harder to do in the old place.

They’ll add one new kid a week until each class gets to six so everyone - including the teachers - can get used to all the changes. It’s been great getting to know the other parents and kids, and I look forward to the new ones. They’re such a fun bunch!

So, a great first week! With the big autism evaluation Tuesday, we have no idea what this coming week will bring. More on that later…