September was a very long and hard month. There was some good, some bad and well…some disgusting.

The good…we are all adjusting to being back to school. Alyssa is handling full day kindergarten beautifully! Our new nanny is managing the schedule well and we are very pleased! I’m one week away from completing my first class of 10 towards my BCBA! And we survived the month!

The bad…Courtney has had a rough start to school. Not awful but not great. Her behaviors have increased and avoiding work like a champ. We have seen some regression in some areas too. It’s been defeating to see reports of a lot of pinching and scratching day after day.

The other bad…Alyssa’s sensitivity noises had gotten better once school started. It definitely helped that she wasn’t home all day with Courtney. The last 2 weeks though it is coming back. School is starting to see it too. She talks about how the class is just too loud. This of course worries me. Fortunately the teacher seems to be very understanding and is helping her through these moments.

Then there’s the disgusting. The behavior that’s going to break me if it continues much longer. The behavior that makes me want to shout “Autism sucks” as loud as I can. As I’ve shared, Courtney is still not potty trained. We still have this major hurdle of her being scared of the bathroom. In some ways she’s ready, but yet we are so far. Her newest behavior is when she has a bowel movement it ends up everywhere. Let’s just say this beautiful Saturday morning started off with us pulling out the massive rug cleaner at 7 am.

September was tough but we survived. We are happy and healthy and sometimes that’s all you can ask for.