More Baby Steps

Today I had coffee with other moms who have autistic children. Got good information, some suggestions and some new energy for all this.

Then I bought teff. I'm betting 95% of you have no idea what that is. Hint: it was at the hippie grocery store.

Then I came home and had my first attempt at making spring rolls. Pretty good. I'm going to try sushi tonight.

While chopping up tiny bits of things, I called and hired an advocate to help us deal with the school district. We have a full evaluation next Friday and I want someone there on our side. I am so tired of being brushed aside and written off and when they start to question me and throw babble at me, I can't think. I need someone there to help me think.

March 5th is the school district evaluation. I had to call up the food chain to get them to do this and I'm realizing it should have happened months ago. Time is going by too quickly for Charlie. 3-5 is a very key developmental age for the skills we're hoping he can learn in preschool and odds are he'll be 4 before we can get him started somewhere, even with a lot of pushing on our parts. I'm not happy about that.

I also had a friend call with a possible job. It's nice to know that there are actual jobs in the world. I find myself driving by these mammoth office buildings thinking 'Surely one of them has an extra cubicle and paycheck lying around for Dowlan.'

Speaking of driving by office buildings, I have now driven by the Echelon building three times. Twice with the girls in the car. The first time, you could still smell the fire. You can't see any of the plane but it is amazing to see a building with a giant hole in it still standing.

However, they're not sure how much longer it will be standing and anticipate spontaneous collapse within the next few weeks. Until then, traffic will continue to be cut off for one section of the road in front of it.

It seemed odd that life has moved on so quickly after this. The first time I saw it was three days after the crash and there didn't even seem to be a pause in the activity of the offices and shops nearby.

Ah, back to that time thing. I wish I could slow it down, just a bit . . .