Warning: Detour

It amazes me to realize that, our journey to help Eef started back in March. We knew that Ethan was having problems with his speech. He dithers a lot (example: "You see Batman dit dit dit dit dit nen nen nen nen..."), and overall just seems to have problems creating his own sentences. He mainly draws from what he's heard. So he's basically my little echo. He'll come up to me and say, "You put pee-pee in the potty? Good job! You put pee-pee in the potty!" Contrary to popular belief, no, I did not just go the bathroom. He did. But that's his way of telling me. I'll hear phrases that I say to him all the time, but he just can't seem to come up with his own. He tends to throw a lot of tantrums, and we believe that one reason is because he's trying to communicate something and just can't figure out how. That's why we decided to seek help. My cousin, Mindy, used to be a Special Ed teacher and is now (I believe) a speech path herself. She got us on the road to help by having us work through the Edmond schools. Doing it that way means we get to do it for free, and we can already have them start building a school record for Eef. Once we contacted the schools, we realized that the seemingly smooth road ahead was sending us on a detour about 5 hours out of our way. This was March when we first contacted them. They couldn't fit us in until late April. Fine and dandy. Late April came and Barrett took Eef to be evaluated. Eef managed the visual test just fine, but decided he'd rather have his butt-cheeks stapled together than wear headphones. He screamed bloody murder, registering about a 4 on the Richter scale. So it was a no-go on the hearing test.
"We can't have him see a speech path until he's had his hearing measured." GRRR. We were then sent to a hearing center with a sound-proof booth a couple of weeks later. The genius there then tried to put headphones on Eef AGAIN, after I explained why it was that we were there. That truly hacked him off, so he refused to take any of their "tests." The lady, after trying to shove a dildo-like instrument in my son's ears, became CONVINCED that something was wrong with Eef's left ear. "It's shallow and abnormal." (An evil part of me thought, "Like your brain?" but I refrained). SOOOO.....off to the pediatrician we went. He looked at us weirdly and said, "His ears are perfect." We tried to contact the hearing people to report the news, so we could reschedule and move on with the process. They wouldn't return our calls! Barrett would give them times to call, and they'd always call when we weren't there. This "phone tag" went on for a couple of months. Finally, Barrett pretty much ripped someone a new one over the phone and managed to get them to call us. An appointment was made--huzzah. It's now mid July. Are we having fun yet? Yesterday, Eef went in again and Barrett had to battle with the people throughout the entire test. Example: "NO. DO NOT TRY AND PUT HEADPHONES ON HIM." (Yes, the geniuses tried again, even after Barrett reminded them over the phone not to). They wanted Eef to sit still. "Does he have to?" Them: "Well, we'd kind of like for him.." B: "Does he HAVE to?" Them: "Well...no.." B: "Then don't try and make him."
Eef managed to pass (probably because these people didn't ever want to see us again, and likewise), so now we are back on the highway. It truly feels like getting back on the road after a 5 hour detour. At the end of the month is the speech path appointment, and then probably a child behaviorist. I really envy parents who have "normal" kids. Go hug your kids and know that it is not due to some great parenting skills that you have, but the grace of God and sheer, dumb luck. Livi is normal, and wow--it's like night and day. To be able to talk to your kid and have them listen...be able to talk...hold your hand and walk beside you....go on vacations...etc. Go thank God and NEVER take these basic skills for granted. I love my son. I love Eef so much and I hope that time will even the road and he'll be okay. He's my goofy boy and I hope you all can learn to love him, too.