Yesterday was our Early Intervention evaluation, and it went as well as I could have hoped. To sum up, a group of trained professionals came to our home and poked our baby for an hour or so, and then gave us "scores" of her social, motor, speech and cognitive skills. Josie scored at her age (now 20 months) or above in all areas, except for gross motor. Her speech skills were that of a 24 month old, and her motor skills were only that of a 12 month old. It sounds a little daunting, but I felt a million times better after it was over.

Now that we have an objective opinion that her fine motor and cognitive skills are intact, the Scary is less likely. We are changing to a slightly different form of physical therapy, and are having Josie fitted for ankle braces. My heart feels lighter knowing that it is looking more like we are headed someplace that has a definable end, and have a plan on how to get there. I also know how very, very lucky we are when I look at other children with a neurologic diagnosis.

Truthfully, no one is going to ask Josie how old she was when she started walking at her first job interview. For that matter, they aren't going to ask if she had an unusually large vocabulary of barnyard animals and the nosies they make before her second birthday either. It’s all just labels, and I’m trying not to get too worked up about them.

Also, we are on vacation. (In Canada, because we are smart and know that the best direction to head after a long, cold, gray Pittsburgh winter is North.)