My son has his good days and his not-the-best days.
However, the husband and I are trying to do what we can at home, ABA apps, floor time, eye contact exercises, as well as continuing the stuff we have always done. His teachers tell me they are seeing improvements all the time. Especially eye contact! This feels so good to know and to see.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Candy wrapper
Just wanted to note that Our son got a hold of a starlight mint and opened it all on his own. And ate the mint.
Progress! Fine motor skills...woot woot!
We went to our first TACA meeting today. Boy are we glad we went. It gave us so much perspective and we met some other parents that have been and are in our shoes. They know how we feel. We aren't alone!!!
Progress! Fine motor skills...woot woot!
We went to our first TACA meeting today. Boy are we glad we went. It gave us so much perspective and we met some other parents that have been and are in our shoes. They know how we feel. We aren't alone!!!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Don't break my heart
My son keeps going around saying, "don't break my heart!"
I don't know where he got it from, but I am going to to assume he was listening to Elton John and Kiki Dee while at daycare, or something equally silly.
I worked for a little bit today. My husband told me that when I left, our son said:
"I love you mommy!"
Which was unprompted and completely awesome.
He also took a piece of his United States puzzle and showed it to the husband.
"Utah!" he said.
Yes, it was Utah.
This kid can name several states but can't tell me when he needs to pee.
But we are working on it!
He is doing pretty well on his new Gluten Free, Casein Free diet. Less bloating in his belly, less whimpering in his sleep, and more words and meaningful phrases. Nice! The hubby loves to cook, and he's getting really good at making GF/CF foods for the whole family.
I think I need to write Udi's a letter and thank them for their blueberry GF muffins. My son LOVES them.
So this week I will call the one autism school and see if we can tour it and if it would be a good fit for my son. We like his school now, but we have had problems with them not changing his diaper/pull up because he couldn't tell them that he had to go potty when all of the other kids in his class could. I picked him up one Friday. His diaper was saturated with urine all up to his back. It was not the first time that had happened. Monday came, and I talked with his main teacher. She was apologetic and honestly thought someone had changed him. Now, she writes down the amount of wet/dry pull ups he has, and another teacher has been putting him on the potty. Last week, he peed on the potty for the very first time. I think I had tears. So proud.
Being a parent is so humbling, and I know that we tend to, as a society, just take for granted that we CAN have kids, and when we do, assume that they will be "normal" and one day able to fend for themselves. I feel great comfort in the fact that I know a great variety of people who appreciate just how amazing and challenging it is to be a parent, esp to one with "special needs" as it were, and those that can have kids or adopted have realized just how lucky we are. I'm glad to know people who have decided they don't want kids, or can't have them, but appreciate this journey that others have taken on. I had never assumed it would be easy, and I never dreamed it could be this amazing.
Every kiss and hug I get from my son reminds me how awesome this is.
I don't know where he got it from, but I am going to to assume he was listening to Elton John and Kiki Dee while at daycare, or something equally silly.
I worked for a little bit today. My husband told me that when I left, our son said:
"I love you mommy!"
Which was unprompted and completely awesome.
He also took a piece of his United States puzzle and showed it to the husband.
"Utah!" he said.
Yes, it was Utah.
This kid can name several states but can't tell me when he needs to pee.
But we are working on it!
He is doing pretty well on his new Gluten Free, Casein Free diet. Less bloating in his belly, less whimpering in his sleep, and more words and meaningful phrases. Nice! The hubby loves to cook, and he's getting really good at making GF/CF foods for the whole family.
I think I need to write Udi's a letter and thank them for their blueberry GF muffins. My son LOVES them.
So this week I will call the one autism school and see if we can tour it and if it would be a good fit for my son. We like his school now, but we have had problems with them not changing his diaper/pull up because he couldn't tell them that he had to go potty when all of the other kids in his class could. I picked him up one Friday. His diaper was saturated with urine all up to his back. It was not the first time that had happened. Monday came, and I talked with his main teacher. She was apologetic and honestly thought someone had changed him. Now, she writes down the amount of wet/dry pull ups he has, and another teacher has been putting him on the potty. Last week, he peed on the potty for the very first time. I think I had tears. So proud.
Being a parent is so humbling, and I know that we tend to, as a society, just take for granted that we CAN have kids, and when we do, assume that they will be "normal" and one day able to fend for themselves. I feel great comfort in the fact that I know a great variety of people who appreciate just how amazing and challenging it is to be a parent, esp to one with "special needs" as it were, and those that can have kids or adopted have realized just how lucky we are. I'm glad to know people who have decided they don't want kids, or can't have them, but appreciate this journey that others have taken on. I had never assumed it would be easy, and I never dreamed it could be this amazing.
Every kiss and hug I get from my son reminds me how awesome this is.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Adventures in Echolalia
I have 8% of my outdated Mac battery left. I'll make this a quick one...
First, I want to apologize for the poor grammar, spelling, and hurried/inconsistent flow of this blog. Even though I am married and have an extra parent in the picture, I seriously get very little time to myself. We both work full time jobs and every minute I am home, I spend with my son. he's a toddler first (before he is a toddler with autism) and I find myself chasing him up and down the stairs while trying to cook & clean. Forget about me time. Forget about time to sit down and go over finances. I'm going to have to start getting up at 5 am on Saturdays now to get my bill paying paper work type stuff in order.
Our commutes are awful. We both have 1.5 hour commutes home. The morning rush we can sometimes do in an hour. Every minute in the evening with our son is precious time before we do dinner, bath, bedtime.
A friend used to say to us that it was cool that we didn't have a strict routine. Only it wasn't ow I wanted to be, it was just that we couldn't have one. A night shift mom and day shift dad have to just try and survive, which is what we did.
Most importantly, even though the husband and i almost split up for good last year (a long story which you can hear over coffee sometime if you wish), we had decided that, no matter what, our son comes first and we can deal with our crap (issues, etc) later. You only get one chance to be a great parent. We are not having any more children.
Our son is so funny. He is bright and sweet and kind. We didn't realize until the psychologist pointed it out, but Graeme mainly speaks in Echolalia. He can bust out some pretty hilarious stuff sometimes. An example of this is when we went to Florida for his 3rd birthday. He was looking out the window, standing on a bench? Well, all of the sudden he started to dance and sing "all the single ladies, all the single ladies!"
I don't like Beyonce. She can sing, and all, but not in my house. He'd heard it somewhere, randomly. All of the sudden he, in perfect pitch, busts out with the words.
Our friend Chelsea and her son Sebastian started laughing so hard, I think we were all crying. Out of nowhere.
His little toddler database(brain) is not so little, we have discovered. He can quote entire children's books and songs. He's known his ABC's since 20 months. If someone yells at him at school (which they did at Kindercare for the month he was there) we will know, because he can quote them in perfect pitch.
I have more funny stories but not much time to write them down. Later, maybe.
I'm hoping to meet with the Autism daycare next week to find out what our options are.
First, I want to apologize for the poor grammar, spelling, and hurried/inconsistent flow of this blog. Even though I am married and have an extra parent in the picture, I seriously get very little time to myself. We both work full time jobs and every minute I am home, I spend with my son. he's a toddler first (before he is a toddler with autism) and I find myself chasing him up and down the stairs while trying to cook & clean. Forget about me time. Forget about time to sit down and go over finances. I'm going to have to start getting up at 5 am on Saturdays now to get my bill paying paper work type stuff in order.
Our commutes are awful. We both have 1.5 hour commutes home. The morning rush we can sometimes do in an hour. Every minute in the evening with our son is precious time before we do dinner, bath, bedtime.
A friend used to say to us that it was cool that we didn't have a strict routine. Only it wasn't ow I wanted to be, it was just that we couldn't have one. A night shift mom and day shift dad have to just try and survive, which is what we did.
Most importantly, even though the husband and i almost split up for good last year (a long story which you can hear over coffee sometime if you wish), we had decided that, no matter what, our son comes first and we can deal with our crap (issues, etc) later. You only get one chance to be a great parent. We are not having any more children.
Our son is so funny. He is bright and sweet and kind. We didn't realize until the psychologist pointed it out, but Graeme mainly speaks in Echolalia. He can bust out some pretty hilarious stuff sometimes. An example of this is when we went to Florida for his 3rd birthday. He was looking out the window, standing on a bench? Well, all of the sudden he started to dance and sing "all the single ladies, all the single ladies!"
I don't like Beyonce. She can sing, and all, but not in my house. He'd heard it somewhere, randomly. All of the sudden he, in perfect pitch, busts out with the words.
Our friend Chelsea and her son Sebastian started laughing so hard, I think we were all crying. Out of nowhere.
His little toddler database(brain) is not so little, we have discovered. He can quote entire children's books and songs. He's known his ABC's since 20 months. If someone yells at him at school (which they did at Kindercare for the month he was there) we will know, because he can quote them in perfect pitch.
I have more funny stories but not much time to write them down. Later, maybe.
I'm hoping to meet with the Autism daycare next week to find out what our options are.
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