Here's what's going on with Nathan.....

Most of you probably already know that Nathan had an appointment with a Psychologist last week. He was evaluated and diagnosed with something called PDD-NOS. Basically the easiest explanation of PDD-NOS is that he is on the mild side of the autism spectrum disorders. Our appointment was very quick because I had the time confused so we are going to take Nathan to the Pittsburgh Childrens Hospital on March 23rd at 9:30 for a second opinion.

The good news is that with the doctor's diagnosis came a prescription for an additional 6 hours of therapy. It will be a little while until we can complete all the paperwork, but once we get the approval, the therapy should be covered by state funding. From everything that we have been told, Nathan has the possibility of making amazing improvements with the early therapy that he will be receiving.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for us, as I'm sure you can imagine, but we are diving into this head first and getting as much information and as much help as possible so that we can help Nathan be the best that he can possibly be.

I thought I'd end this post with some of the new things that the kids have been doing that we are very proud of:

Reagan:

• Says Ma Ma, Oh for No, Ka for carrots, Oh for Go, Pa for Pop
  
• Makes animal sounds (Baa-Sheep, Ooo-Cow, Bach Bach-Chicken, Snorting-Pig, Argh-Tiger, Mmm-Horse, Ooo Ahh, Ooo Ahh-Monkey)
• Coloring specific items instead of just scribbling
• Pretend playing with her doll and her kitchen
  

Nathan

• Makes the sign language sign for "more"
• Shakes his head No when he doesn't want something
  
• Responding to his name more often
• Can throw his diaper away and flip the handle on the diaper trash can
  
• Throws his juice cup in the sink when he's done
• Pointing to what he wants

Riley

• Rolls over very well
• Can hold her own bottle for a little while
• Loves jumping in her Jumperoo
• Getting closer to sitting without support
• Can hold a rattle