That was relatively painless

For two hours this morning, my husband and I answered questions about Andrew's various quirks, his behavior, and his growth over the last four years. This was the next step in the assessment merry-go-round. A psychology student completing her practicum came out to our house to observe Andrew in his natural habitat and to talk to us.

I have to admit that I was slightly dreading this step. I couldn't help but feel that our parenting skills were going on trial. Heck, I thought that even our marriage might work it's way into Andrew's overall evaluation. From what I can tell, my concerns were baseless.

The interview started off with allowing us to freestyle tell her our concerns about Andrew's behavior, along with anecdotal evidence to support our concerns. I started with my concerns about Andrew's social (or lack there of) skills with peers. At some point, my husband sucked some of the air out the room with a long series of anecdotes. I did a fair amount of head knodding and agreeing. Our narrative seemed to take about an hour.

The second hour was centered around a long list of questions that she asked us, which again we supported with yet more anecdotes. This poor woman now knows every detail of Andrew's short life, as I think she heard every story possible about the little guy. Of course, Andrew put on quite a show for her, from the very second she walked in the house. He immediately asked her what her favorite animal and color were - as these have been the latest in a series of obsessive questions that Andrew asks and asks and asks and asks...

Next week, Andrew and I will go into the Children First office. She explained that he will go through a series of cognitive tests, while sitting at a table. Very formal. This is to get some sort of baseline on his intellectual ability. I don't worry so much about his intellect. I'm not one of those mom's to brag that my kid was reading at 20 months, but he certainly is a bright cookie in several areas. He's great with numbers and easily counts to 100 and he seems to be trying to figure out the pattern for everything that come after 100. Based on letter sounds, he can pick out words from short texts. So, those are really positive things.

On to round two.