The First in A Series of Catching Up Posts

I’ve decided to work backwards on what has been going on in lives of the Barkers.


So first, our stake road shows are this weekend. The theme is fairy tales. I am not performing, but am assisting in directing the young women who are playing princesses in the show. I’m going to be spending many hours at the church on Friday and Saturday, but that’s okay because it should be fun.

Josh and I went to a meeting with the school district on Monday to discuss Charlie’s IEP. Charlie will start attending an autism classroom pre-school for half a day Monday through Friday starting on his birthday, which is a week and a half away. They set annual goals for him in many different areas, like speech, pre-academics, self-help, and motor skills.

The first part of the meeting in which we went over and over and over what Charlie’s deficiencies are was very depressing. I especially loved talking to the psychiatrist, whose report said that Charlie is basically functioning mentally and emotionally as a 3-6 month old, with a smattering of skills in the 6-9 month range. I also loved when they talked about how little progress Charlie has made in the past year. I translated that comment this way: We have failed as parents. We have not done what we needed to do at home to make his therapy more successful.

The second part of the meeting where they told me that Charlie was being classified as autism-like (instead of mentally retarded, which was the initial thought before they evaluated him in person) and about the class he would be attending was wonderful. The school district provides bussing, so Josh doesn’t have to worry about transporting Charlie back and forth to school every day, which is great. And it turns out that Charlie is going to be in the same class as our friends’ little boy. And they are going to potty train him! Being in a daily pre-school program should help Charlie progress much faster. We got to meet one of his teachers and she seems wonderful. Josh is going to visit the class next Tuesday to get a sense of how it all works. It’s a small class; Charlie will be the 9th student. There are a minimum of three adults in the class at all time. The children in the class range from age 3 to 6 (it’s a pre-school through kindergarten program).

In a year, we will meet again with the school district to review Charlie’s progress and make sure he is still eligible for services. Every three years, we have a big meeting like we did this time around where they do a full reevaluation.

Last Saturday, we finally had our Easter Egg Hunt. Only two weeks late! It was great to be able to just step out into the backyard and do the hunt, instead of having to pack everyone in to the car and go to a park. Fitz was napping when we did the hunt, but I figured that was okay. Also, we didn’t dye eggs. I can’t bring myself to waste eggs like that; we don’t eat hard boiled eggs, so they would just end up in the trash. So we did plastic eggs with candy inside, like we always do.

Charlie was not the least bit interested in the eggs and spent the entire time just hanging out in the grass, eating plants and dirt, or just running around and looking up at the sun.

I tried to get Charlie interested in the eggs.

I thought I had him involved for a minute, but that's dirt in his hand, not an egg.

Instead he did this.

And this.

Alek and Katie had a good time and both did a great job finding the eggs. Alek was really good about not taking all the eggs, but instead letting Katie find a lot. It ended up being a pretty even split.

 Katie insisted on wearing a dress. Of course, she insists on wearing a dress pretty much every day.

Alek intently looks for eggs.

After the hunt, we pooled all the candy and I had every intention of doling it out slowly over the next several weeks. On Monday night, I decided to let the kids have some Easter candy after dinner and discovered there were only 4 pieces of candy left! Katie and Alek had each had 4 pieces on Saturday, which should have left about 50 or 60 pieces. Turns out, Alek ate a whole bunch of candy when I wasn’t around. So Katie got the rest of the candy and Alek didn’t get any dessert at all, which he wasn’t happy about.

Alek with his loot. 

And Katie with hers.

So that catches you all up on the last week or so. Stay tuned for the next exciting installment!

Here's a picture of Fitz, just because he is adorable. He's wearing one of the cute rompers Grandma bought him.