This morning’s big event was the last portion of the autism evaluation – the physical exam. Same time – dick o’ clock in the morning (for most of you, that refers to “6am” and for us that refers to “8am”) we had to get up and going for our appointment on Friday.

I have to interrupt this to mention that yet again, Tristan’s screaming when he should be sleeping. I think he can hear the clicking of the keyboard.. even though I’m ACROSS the house.. be back in a few moments to write.

Anyway, he’s settled down now. Appointment today. Mostly questions about his medical history (not much, as it turns out – he’s been lucky and healthy – and also, he’s a baby..) and questions about his body in general as well as a physical examination. She examined his poop and manipulated his limbs.. well, not in the same moment. But the doctor was checking for related genetic conditions, of which she did not see any overt signs. He’ll have to have his blood drawn for some lab work, where they will test again for lead and also determine if he has any chromosomal clusterfucks. We’re now old champs at the Kaiser ASD clinic.

We got back from the opposite side of the city in time to attend playgroup today. We’ve still been going every Tuesday and Thursday when we can help it; it’s been something I forced myself to do first when Tristan was around 6 months old and again when we were invited to be sustained guests of the playgroup after we moved into here. Anyway, there was a large turnout due to the chilly, windy rain that felt like coming out. We saw some of the friends we don’t see often such as Mani & Arnav and Eileen & Elizabeth – friendly moms with kids within a month of Tristan’s age. I adore the playgroup, even when turnout is fairly low, because there is usually something that Tristan will focus on and leave me without having to attend to him every twelve seconds to make sure he’s still visible. I also will note that I started attending the playgroup to force Tristan to be around other children, and so far he still does just fine in that department. He’s a little bit more independent and explorety, but he does get right in there and play with what others are playing with, and he’s becoming more polite about it.

We had an impromptu playdate over at Eileen and Elizabeth’s place. We were all busy enough that it was 2pm before we knew it. The amazing and happy part of this is that Elizabeth is very “present” and was able to engage Tristan – the two of them spun around together and giggled, and Tristan made eye contact with her all familiar-person-like! I really hope that this will help him keep up with kids his age in terms of him perhaps starting to interact with children more. Elizabeth is a cutie and VERY opinionated, and I can actually manage her with Tristan fairly easily assuming Tristan’s not wandering off somewhere at ninja rocket speed.

This was a very good day, despite crazy indoors-only weather.