I can't believe it is the middle of October already! I have so much to share with you. Brendan goes to his developmental pediatrician doctor every 3 months for a routine check up. He goes to the Melmed Center where he has 2 doctors that he sees. He has Dr Melmed and Dr. PeBenito. So really he gets to see each of them every other time. This visit this time was with Dr PeBenito. We were the first appointment of the day at 7:45am. I always get such bad anxiety before these appointments because I never know how they are going go. Dr PeBenito opens the door and says Brendan I am ready for you. He hears her call his name so he gets up from playing with the office toys and grabs my hand and we walked up to the door and she says,"Hi Brendan". Brendan says, "hi"! We follow her to the exam room first. This is usually never a fun experience for Brendan. She asked Brendan to step up on the scale and he steps up without any hesitation. I was so shocked he did it without a fight or tears! She then asked him to stand against the wall to get his height measured. Then she said ok lets jump up on the table so I can look at your ears and listen to your heart. Well Brendan says,"NO". I told her he doesn't like the paper that is on the table you sit on. So she takes it off and what you know he jumps up for her. He lets her look in his ears and listen to heart. We are now done in the exam room so it is time go into her office. Brendan walks in and starts playing with her toys. She says, "Brendan what are you playing with"? He says, "dinosaur" (obviously in his language). She then says can you bring me the dinosaurs? He gets up and takes his 4 or 5 dinosaurs over to her at her desk. She asks him to count the dinosaurs. He counts out the 5 dinosaurs for her. Then without her saying anything he looks at her and says,"here you go" and hands her one of the dinosaurs to play with. At that moment she looks up at me with a GIANT smile on her face and says,"I am completly blown away with his progress. He greeted me, he answered the questions I asked him. He looked at me when I called his name and he interacted with me." She said he is proof that EARLY INTERVENTION works. She said the progress he has made even since the 6 months she had seen him last was just incredible. At that moment I wanted jump for joy. It was such an incredible moment to hear those words come from a doctor who treats kids like Brendan all day long. She said I can't wait for Dr. Melmed to see how much progress he has made! This was the best appointment we have ever had. We get in the car to leave and I start to break down and cry. I said to myself why is it every time I leave this place I cry? But this time I was crying tears of joy. All the hard work is starting to show. I was so incredibly proud of my son!
Brendan doing speech therapy
I am getting ready for our 3rd annual Autism Speaks Team Brendan walk next week. We are going to have a huge turn out and we are so grateful for everyone who is helping us spread awareness.
I am also getting ready for Halloween. This year I have joined the Allergy Associations campaign to go Teal. This is a for you to have a teal pumpkin visible which says you have a non food item to offer trick or treaters who have food allergies. As many of you know Brendan has close to 20 food items he is allergic to. So this means he can not have any kind of candy. It breaks my heart. He hasn't really learned that he can't eat candy because his sensory issues are what make him not eat the candy. But sooner or later it is going to effect him. We have put flyers all around our neighborhood and we have also tried to talk to neighbors. I hope they all jump on board this year!
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