Tomorrow…

… is the big day : Our in home evaluation with the speech therapist for Little Man. I’ve been trying to get a grips on my feelings about it all week and unfortunately, I’m still not quite sure. On one hand, I’m very excited! New tools and ways to get my little angel’s voice to sing. I’m looking forward to seeing him interact with someone else, to see how he will do (my son isn’t big on strangers) and I’m hoping that she sees in him great possibilities.

But there is a part of me that is scared… Scared that all these little quirks that we find so endearing, all those little strange ways he plays with his stuffies, that he eats his food, that he chews his hands when nervous, that he won’t play WITH other kids (instead plays AROUND other kids), that he won’t let anyone but us hold him, will raise flags. Flags that go way beyond being deaf. I know I don’t have to spell out the “A” word here, but it’s been on our minds. That is what has been hard to cope with this week. Funny enough, again, it’s not the prospect of the diagnosis, but the unknown.

We’ve also been running tests on his diet again. We’ve known for a very long time that he cannot have dairy in any form and we were fine with that. But he was still suffering from gastrointestinal distress more often than he should so we started eliminating things one at a time. We did soy for a few weeks without any real changes. Then we moved on to eggs, no changes again. Next was gluten and we are pretty sure we hit the jackpot. We are almost 30 days into an almost 100% gluten-free diet for him (we still use small quantities of organic spelt in some recipes) and suddenly he’s sleeping through the night almost every night, his skin has cleared up from almost all the rashes and eczema and he has calmed down quite a bit. He’s still all go-go-go, but he goes with a bit more focus now. And that is a nice change. But at the same time, it means more questions. So I’ve scheduled an appointment with our family doctor to ask to be referred to a pediatric GI specialist and get some food allergy tests done. I really think It’s time.

But still, throughout the week there has been much light and fun : We went sugar-shacking with Little Miss’ preschool and the kiddos had lots of fun. As much as she loved the maple snow taffy, the horse-drawn buggy ride into the forest was the best. We watched Turkey Vultures hunt and saw snow geese flying North for summer. We listened to downy woodpeckers work away, collecting slow sluggish bugs from old rotting maple trees. It was a lovely morning treat.

We’ve been enjoying really warm weather this week, shedding layers and letting the sun warm our bodies and souls. We made bird feeders to hang around the yard, trying to bring in as many of our feathery friends in.

This week-end will be all about working on the gardens since all of them are almost completely thawed. We will be amending soil and planting cold hardy crops : That is right, the gardening season will officially start. What a grand adventure it always is.

But first let’s get through tomorrow… ❤