Autism Speaks

I received this link from a friend who knows some of what we go through with Ethan. Obviously his level of autism is extremely high functioning, however it is still there. I was finally able to watch the video...a warning...it may make you cry...it's just so beautiful.

Then I saw the very same link on another blog that I visit frequently, Danielle Bean. So, I figured I would post the link here as well, so that when you can spare a moment of your time, you can watch this beautiful video. It is an easy way to do something for children with autism.

The band Five for Fighting will donate 40 cents to children's autism research for each time this video is viewed online: What Kind of World Do You Want This is for real. Who knows whose life you could change in just a few minutes.

Thank you.

Five Firsts

We've been going through some great...and not so great...changes here in the Ouellette family. My kiddos are all growing up so fast, it's hard to keep up with all the changes. So, here are a few of the most recent "firsts" for some of those changes...enjoy!

1. Rebekah is standing and cruising. She will stand right up in the middle of a room, and shake her little butt, with the biggest, proudest smile on her face. If she is holding onto furniture, or a wall, she'll cruise, but hasn't dared to step out on her own...although she isn't far away. You can see it in her face...she knows what is next, but can't quite figure out how to make her legs move like everyone else. At the rate she's going she will still beat our her brothers who were 15 mos. (Ethan) and 16 mos. (Joshua) old before they began to walk...slugs! :)

2. For the first time in months, Mike and I were able to sleep in our bed...by ourselves. Granted it only lasted until 1 am, but it's a start. I'm not complaining about Joshua being in our bed all these months, he's been a nice bed warmer on these cold nights!! However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep Ethan in his own bed, when he knows his brother is "allowed" to sleep with mommy and daddy. The words "it's not fair" keep ringing in the air, and I know it's just the beginning. Needless to say, we decided to take up on an offer of a crib mattress that was being given away by a friend, and place it on the floor between the bed and the wall in our room. It fits perfectly, and Josh was very excited about his little nest...until around 1 am, where in my groggyness I vaguely remember the words, "mommy, up, up, up, up, bed, bed, bed...pwwwease??" We'll see how tonight goes, but it's a great start in the right direction.

3. One word for you...THUNDERSTICKS. Yup! We "won" a bunch of them at Hannaford last week when we were trying to pick up a few things with all three kiddos. At least my hubby was there to witness first hand, why I don't take them grocery shopping anymore!! :) Anyway, they absolutely loved the idea of being allowed to beat these two sticks together to make an awesome noise. Of course, they figured out you could make similar, if not better, noises by beating the sticks on each other...but we knew that going in...and they are now only allowed to use them for 10 minutes at at time. Can we say over stimulation??

4. Joshua is discovering his imagination. He's never been a big fan of having anything on his feet, and the first time we tried putting these monster slippers on him, he screamed!! That's why it was so surprising when I turned around to see him strutting his stuff, with monster feet. The trick?? He put them on over his other slippers. That's the only thing I can think of. However, he thought it was great to stomp around the house, and growl...because that's what you do with monster feet...right??

5. And the best first ever...Ethan actually helped me make play dough!! He's never really been interested in "cooking" past the initial dumping one cup of something into a bowl...then he'd be done. He not only dumped into the bowl, but helped to measure out all of the dry ingredients. (We still won't let him near the stove!!) Anyhow, Ethan was the only one who ever really used play dough and that was before we were gluten free. But since we were diagnosed, we gave away or sold all of our play dough as well as the "tools" that go along with it. For those of you who don't know play dough is made with wheat flour, and even though most kids won't eat it, it gets under their finger nails, so that when they do eat something, or put their fingers in their mouths, they will then ingest it. So, I finally took the recipe and made it gluten free! Ethan couldn't wait to get his hands on it...Josh wanted nothing to do with getting his hands on it. He wouldn't touch it, until I gave him a spoon, which he then used to beat it, and scoop it up to move it around. We'll see how well it stores for, but I plan on making some green and blue as well.

GI Checkups

It's hard to believe that another 8 weeks (well more than that due to snow storms and rescheduled appointments) has come and gone since their last medical checkup with Dr. Hofley. None-the-less it was a good day/bad day kind of appointment.

Joshua is doing awesome now. At his last check up he was at 22.5 lbs. but has jumped up to a whopping 24.03 lbs!! That's huge for him...generally he gains ounces to maybe A pound. Plus he grew a little more in height by almost an inch. We both believe it is largely due to the lack of dairy in his diet...to the point that she wants him 100% dairy free for at least the next month. We want to see if it further helps his sleeping issues, and diaper issues, as well as continue to add to the weight gain. He's had some really nasty, foul diapers which could be due to a number of things. We replaced his soy milk so that won't be the issue anymore, but he's still having enough dairy that although his asthma is at bay, it may still be enough to cause some digestive issues, or sleep issues. Not to mention that fact that he just survived yet another ear infection. In any case, we will do some blood work on Monday to check his CBC, zinc, TTg (celiac blood test) check for lead and Hep B. I guess some kiddos with digestive issues are having problems with their vaccines "sticking". We are also able to wean him off his Prevacid with hopes of weaning him off Zyrtec as well. It will be nice to continue to drop off some of the meds he's been on.

Ethan, not so good. He didn't gain any weight or grow any taller since his last visit. And for the first time ever, I had a small glimpse into what life may be like for people with low functioning autism. Throughout most of the appointment today, I had to restrain Ethan, full body, due to his yelling, hitting me, head butting, pushing his brother, and other extremely over stimulated activity. Even Dr. Hofley noted that he was much worse today than ever in the past. We've noticed more autistic behaviour in the past couple of weeks as well, rigidity, anxiety, lining up all of his vehicles in nice straight rows, (for those of you who know Ethan he's a rather destructive player, piling up toys so he can scoop and dump them...everywhere), and falling apart at the seams over a change in his schedule. Basically, all of the progress we had made over the past several months, falling apart in the past couple of weeks. Thank God, we have Dr. Hofley...she pointed out to this very exasperated mother that dairy may have a part in all of this. Ironically, Ethan has increased his dairy intake over the last couple of weeks. He's been eating at least 2 bowls of cereal with whole milk for breakfast, lots of cheese, and asking for a cup of milk with his dinner every night. We were psyched because he's NEVER been a big milk drinker and were happy that maybe he would really start some serious weight gain. Hehehe, no more. He will also be 100% dairy free for the next month. She wants to see if we notice any change, and if we don't we can participate in a double blind study she's been providing for families to determine if milk is really the issue with regards to behavior. Interestingly I mentioned that when we started Rebekah with yogurt we began to notice that she would cough repeatedly every time afterwards. Dr. Hofley wasn't surprised and said that since we now know that Joshua definitely has a problem with milk, it isn't out of the realm of possibilities that the other kiddos will have their own issues with it as well.

So, where is the silver lining in all of this?? Well, fortunately for us, most of our gluten free packaged foods happen to be dairy/casein free as well. The only problems we run into now are cheese and milk substitutes. A few of their favorite snacks like pirate booty, and their arrowroot cookies will have to go as they have a lot of milk ingredients. Our fall back lunch-on-the-go of cheese sticks wrapped in turkey/ham slices will also be a thing of the past. Plus, it's going to be real tough if not impossible to find any kind of substitute for mac and cheese...the "if all else fails we can make mac and cheese for all three kiddos" kind of meal. But, since we've been doing a mostly dairy free diet for Josh, we don't have to make too many changes. It just makes things that much tougher when we go somewhere. That whole "at least we can have the veggies, sour cream dip, and cheese slices" when we go to someones house has now become "mmm...veggies".

Growing Pains

It may be tough to see, but it was a little project we did this past Friday. I wanted to see how all of their hands compared to each other, and to "make their mark" in time so to speak. It is simply amazing how fast children grow...even the "slow growers" like my kiddos.

We have noticed a big difference in Joshua's growth since we cut out dairy. He is an eating machine now. I can't keep that kid full! He will have a waffle, and 2-3 bowls of cereal for breakfast now!! We stopped using soy milk, thankfully (I'm not a big fan of soy products) and have switched him over to almond milk. He still hasn't needed to use his nebulizer, but we've also noticed, due to his sudden interest in eating us out of house and home, he is putting on some weight at an astonishing rate. (Again, astonishing for my kids!) We will see just how much on Thursday at his GI check up, but he not only feels heavier, he looks a little chunkier!

He's even beginning to catch up in clothing sizes. He's around the 18-24 month mark in clothes, which is still smaller than his "age size" of 30 months...but much further ahead than before. Just last month he was still wearing 12-18 month pajamas!!

We're still having some bowel issues that his primary care doc. tells me is normal...but I can't see how having "blow through your clothes" diarrhea every other day, several times a day is normal...but hey, I'm just a mom! :) Needless to say, it is a question we'll be asking his GI on Thursday. It is one of the reasons we cut out the soy in his diet. It is known to cause diarrhea. He hasn't had soy milk for well over a week now, but still the bowel issues...we'll see.

In any case, my incredibly white, pizza faced, smiling boy is an amazing kiddo, and we are constantly astonished at the new things he is learning to do. His vocabulary has become quite impressive, although we still find it hard to understand what it is he's saying. He still has some sleeping issues, but at least we can put him to bed (in our bed) and still go downstairs and enjoy some adult time without him banging his head until it's black and blue or screaming so loud he could wake dogs in the next town over.

It makes us wonder what challenges Rebekah will bring to the table for us...hmmmm :

Epiphany

Happy New Year to all of you! We welcome 2008 with great joy and excitement for whatever may come.

As I had mentioned before, we were waiting to decorate our tree until Christmas Eve. So, on Monday night, before we went to Mass, we decorated. The kids loved hanging the ornaments on the trees, and even Rebekah had her little hand in it. Granted it was mostly with UNdecorating the tree, but she was still participating.

Ethan really enjoyed seeing all of his ornaments. Being 5 years old, he has received one from us every year of his life. However, he also has some on the tree from his godparents, friends and relatives. He was quite content trying to hang them all in one place. He kept calling it "Ethan's branch". Good thing it's an artificial tree, otherwise it many not have held up under the weight!

Anyhow, we are now at the end of our Christmas celebration as today is the Epiphany of the Lord. We have been able to light our tree and enjoy it's beauty for the past 12 days, and even though I'm sad that we have to take it down, it's nice to be able to do a little winter cleaning.

Ethan is having a hard time with not only putting the tree away, but also with putting the advent wreath away. We've been using it up until last night, but with 4 white candles to help him understand that we've still been celebrating Christmas...that it isn't just one day. (We put away all of the decorations yesterday except for the tree, which will come down today after Mass) I think he enjoyed the lighting and blowing out of the candles more than the meaning behind them, but we hope to continue the tradition to instill in him the true meaning of the season.

"Epiphany Day itself commemorates the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem to worship the Messiah and bring Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1-12). Since the earliest days of the church, these wise men have been considered to be representatives of all the peoples of the earth. By means of a miraculous star, God showed them that Jesus was born to be not only the King of the Jews, but the Lord and Savior of all nations." - www.stpaulskingsville.org/epiphany.htm

I have a hard time grasping a lot of the meanings of the season, and am still learning myself. It's been a blessing to have the opportunity to learn more about our Catholicism while homeschooling Ethan. Most children can grasp the unimaginable pretty easily, I think. However, someone with Asperger Syndrome may struggle with the abstract more than others, and instead can deal much better with the literal world. So, Mike and I have been trying to find ways to teach Ethan many abstracts in a literal fashion. It's a challenge to say the least, but it's so rewarding. For example we always say grace before our meal, but during these past 12 days we've been adding a prayer in celebration of Jesus birth. Even though our Advent wreath has been put away, Ethan still shouted out at the end of grace last night, "Rejoice, Jesus is born!"

Happy First Birthday Rebekah!

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

My baby girl is now a big one year old! You are just so beautiful! What a blessing you are. Your smile is infectious, and your laugh makes the world a much happier place. Everyone...family, friends and strangers alike find themselves captured by your fun loving spirit. You make even the murkiest days so much brighter.

I could never have imagined how wonderful my life would be with a daughter like you. All of your snuggles, nuzzles, smiles, hugs, kisses, and pure love are gifts I will treasure always. You are my baby girl and I love you.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!

And now for your listening pleasure...

Christmas Music....Ouellette Style

(for those of you who don't recognize it, "One Foot in Front of the Other" from the children's classic movie...Santa Claus is Coming to Town)

Snow Time

On Sunday, as those of you who live in New Hampshire are well aware, we had an awesome snow storm. Mike and I are BIG fans of winter time. When I say fans, I don't mean that we enjoy the dirty, salty mess on the roads that mucks up the kids boots, or the bitter winds that go through the 20 layers of clothes you have to wear just to get to the car. (okay a bit of an exaggeration, I usually just put on a sweatshirt, gloves and ear muffs, coats are bothersome in the car!) What I mean by BIG fans is that we enjoy the fun a snow storm can bring; building snowmen, sledding, and snowballs. It's also about the beauty of that white fluffy stuff as it falls and lands on everything covering it in a blanket that seems to muffle all the usual outdoor sounds. It's so quiet and peaceful directly after the storm...before everyone fires up the snow blowers and plows to dig out.

Knowing all this, we want our kiddos to enjoy the Winter Wonderland as well, so what better way to introduce them to it than chucking them outside into the snow!


Needless to say, Josh was not pleased. He hates being dressed in his regular clothes, never mind putting other layers over that. He hates socks and slippers, never mind snow boots. AND he hates having goop smeared onto his face. The snowsuit is size 24 months and it is absolutely huge on my 29 month old. (It was his cousin Ian's snowsuit and it was always huge on him as well!) The goop is Aquafore, it does a great job at protecting the face from not only windburn, but it also makes any snow that may come in contact with said face (say Ethan throwing snow into his face!) to bead up and wipe right off.

I would have posted some outside shots, but the camera I used for those pictures was my husbands and he had it on some special setting which made all of the pictures come out very dark. Yes, I could photo shop them, but I hardly have the time to do these posts most days, never mind spend time photo shopping the pictures!! :)


Anyway, after about 30 minutes, Mike brought the boys back in because it was incredibly cold out, and they had very red cheeks. Plus, Josh wasn't having any fun because (much like Randy from The Christmas Story..."I can't put my arms down"...) he couldn't really move well in his suit. So, he was just yelling from wherever Mike put him.


So, in true Mommy style...(yes I remained inside...someone had to stay with Rebekah even if she was sleeping quite soundly upstairs) I made hot cocoa with Pumpkin Soy Eggnog and a little Nestle mix which the kids just LOVED! I even put in a Pure Fun candy cane that Josh used as a way to "drink" is cocoa until it was a little cooler to really drink.
Now they are asking every day when the next storm is coming so they can go back outside, play with daddy, "help" clear the snow, and then come back inside for more yummy hot cocoa. With the way this Autumn is shaping up with all of the snow fall, it's hard to imagine how much more snow we can expect once Winter actually arrives!

Something New...Real or Toy

First of all the title...Real or Toy is a game that is played on the John Deere videos that Ethan and Joshua both love. They go through and show pictures of tractors and your supposed to guess whether it is a real tractor or one of their toy tractors...it's actually quite tricky. Their toy tractors are exact replicas...just smaller.

As for the "Something New" part, well...

From the time we were married, Mike convinced me, (it wasn't too hard) to have a real Christmas Tree since he'd always had one growing up. As for my family, we tried the real one, once...and only once. It was far too much work for three teenage girls to keep up with...all that watering, and cleaning up of the pine needles...whew! :) But as an adult, I thought it would be a nice tradition to start for our own family. So, for the past 6 years we did. Every weekend following Thanksgiving we'd go and pick out our tree. Sometimes we went with Mike's family up to the Lakes Region, to have one cut down. Other times, we'd just go to one of the many "tree stores" close by and pick one out instead.

Well, for a couple of reasons, we now have an artificial tree. As I've posted in the past, Joshua as well as myself, have asthma. It never occurred to me that the "fresh" tree may add to any breathing difficulties until I came upon an article regarding mold spores, asthma and your tree. Come to find out, having the tree could trigger and asthmatic episode! Well, we have been nebulizer free for over 3 weeks...and don't want to go back. So, if that means no real tree...

Mike and I talked about it and started looking into the purchase of an artificial tree. Oh my goodness!! They aren't cheap, AND most of the best looking ones come prelit. We have our own lights, and are a little, itty, bitty bit short on funds. So, we decided not to do a tree this year, and look at just buying one after Christmas to take advantage of the huge discounts. Besides the homily at our church on the first Sunday of Advent talked about how we shouldn't over decorate prior to the celebration of Christs birth, but that we should save it, and show all that splendor for the twelve days following Christmas up to the Epiphany. Hun. Never thought of it that way.

Well, my Aunt Dianne who lives in Maine had heard from my mom that we weren't going to do a tree this year, and dug out her artificial one to give to us. She has been doing a real tree now for several years, but just didn't have the heart to throw out this gorgeous tree. Well, thank God she didn't, because we are now the gracious owners of this beautiful tree. We can't thank her enough as it is exactly what we wanted and more.

The picture shows that it is simply decorated in lights with an angel at the top, and one angel for each of us on the tree. On either Christmas Eve or morning, we haven't decided yet, we will decorate this magnificent tree in celebration of Christs birth. Now that it's artificial we can leave it up until Epiphany without fear of it being too dry or brittle. And so begins a new tradition in the Ouellette family. We look forward to many years with our new addition and hope that, much like last night when we put it up, our children will continue to sit quietly in amazement at it's beauty as a reminder of the splendor of the Christmas season.

Happy 5th Birthday Ethan!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

You are smart, charming, handsome, and witty. You are an incredibly active little boy with a passion for almost everything, (except clean up time!). You have a way with people, and very few ever leave your presence without a smile on their face. You have an amazing amount of love for not only us, but your brother, sister, and friends. You have no problem showing it either. Almost everyone gets a hug, kiss, and/or a high five from you.

You are truly an amazing little guy, and we are thankful everyday to be blessed with you! We are amazed at how much you've grown over the last five years, and are looking forward to how much you will continue to grow during the next five. We love you very much!

It's official...

...Joshua is not only gluten free but casein free and dairy free! Well, at least for now. Here's why...

As I had mentioned in a previous post, we noticed that Josh didn't need to be nebulized after his last cold. In trying to figure it out I realized that HE had stopped eating and drinking all of his usual dairy. In the morning he would typically have a 9 oz cup of milk with his vitamins and medicine. Then at some point in the day he would have a Yoplait yogurt and eat the whole thing. He would also have either a cheese stick, a grilled cheese sandwich, or mac and cheese for lunch. He didn't have any of those things. It was only after our trip to Maine to visit friends that we confirmed Josh indeed has a problem with dairy. The only dairy he had while we were visiting was cheese. The night we came home as well as the following night, he had terrible coughing fits and we were back to nebulizing him every 4 hours over the course of the next 3 days!

Fortunately, going casein/dairy free is too difficult for a gluten free family. Most of the prepacked gluten free products and mixes happen to be casein/dairy free already. It's the day-to-day stuff that we're having a hard time with...cheese, and yogurt. After experimenting with several alternative milks, Josh prefers soy milk. So, that works fairly well in most of our mixes and just as a drink for him. As for butter, we've been using coconut oil for quite some time now, and it works really well in just about every instance that you would use butter. Plus, it's healthier! We just haven't found a cheese that he likes though. The trick with that is finding one that is also gluten free. For some reason not as easy. The one we did find, he's not too keen on. And yogurt...forget it.

So, why wasn't this diagnosed through his doctor...??? We DID run some blood tests for every kind of food allergy back at his last check up, because I insisted they be run. Unfortunately, (but not surprisingly) the tests all came back normal. Before I get attacked for saying "unfortunately", let me clarify it by saying that I'm NOT upset that my son is healthy, according to their testing. It's just that in my experience with Ethan, I find it hard to trust the data when it comes back normal. Without getting into the whole can of worms I just opened up, Mike and I just find that if we trust in our gut, (our much healthier gut mind you) we usually end up on the right path to making our kids happier and healthier.

Besides, wouldn't you trust your gut if you were faced with either having to hold down a screaming, writhing, incredibly agitated child while nebulizing him, OR limiting if not eliminating his dairy intake...hmmm...we choose the latter!

Oops-a-Daisy

Moments ago I was doing a math lesson with Ethan. It lasted around 20 minutes, which is pretty good for him. We were working on pattern recognition...and until the last 5 minutes he did awesome!

One of the great things about homeschooling for us is the ability to work one-on-one with Ethan for a short period of time. It also allows the other kiddos to have some independant play time without their big brother taking over.

Well, Miss Rebekah...oh so quietly...did some independant play of her own...

...yes, she climbed up there by herself!

...yes, those are dirty clothes that have yet to go downstairs...so of course she would play in them!

...and yes, I win Mother of the Year as I photograph her toppling out of the basket!

p.s. she's okay!

Happy Thanksgiving

I recently read a post on a friends blog (entitled Happy Thanksgiving) about how stressed out she was preparing a gluten free Thanksgiving dinner in a gluten home. I can't tell you how much I appreciated her attention and dedication to providing this meal all because of her love for this one person in her family who has Celiac Disease. I am constantly amazed at how far some people will go to make sure the food they are feeding their loved ones is safe for them to eat. To these people I say Thank You!!

Having said that...we were in a different situation this Thanksgiving. Our home is 100% gluten free. Everything we make and consume in our home is safe for everyone to eat. It is our belief that our children should have a place where they can eat whatever we have in the house comfortably without the constant fear that it might make them sick. It is also our belief that they learn how to deal with food situations outside of our home.

Ethan is really good at mentioning his gluten free status. He will usually ask whomever is giving him food if it is gluten free, even if he knows the answer. Joshua on the other hand, is an opportunist who will sample anything if it is in arms reach. Knowing this, we made a plan for our Thanksgiving.

Last year we had our first gluten free dinner in the safety of our home. This year, however, we were invited to share in a large family feast...on my husband's side. The Ouellettes have had several large family Thanksgivings over many years. The last one before this was about 8 years ago, a month after we got engaged.

Mike and I discussed it and decided the best way to approach the meal this year was to cook our own Thanksgiving dinner the night before. So, we cooked the turkey, all the fixings and dessert all day on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, we made up three round tin plates with the whole meal, wrapped them in tinfoil, and packed them into a cooler so we could just throw them into the oven at the clubhouse where we were meeting. We also packed gluten free brownies, as well as eggnog. That morning we also had Mike's immediate family come over for a gluten free breakfast. We made a bacon and egg quiche, coffee cake with cinnamon icing, apple crumb pie, and blueberry muffins. Eating that late in the morning took away the need to stuff ourselves on any appetizers before the meal, since we wouldn't be able to eat any of them anyway. (My sister-in-law was kind enough to make up a smoked fish platter without any crackers or dips directly on the plate. She checked the labels carefully to be sure that all the fish she was placing on the tray would be okay for us to eat...thank you!)

So, we were able to sit down with the entire family, and not have to stress about what we were eating. It was not only easy, but incredibly tasty!! Even my husband, who was a little leery about doing it this way, was impressed by how well it worked out. He even suggested that maybe we should do it like this for any future large gatherings. (Plus, it gave us lots of own turkey leftovers which in my opinion is one of the many great outcomes of preparing a Thanksgiving feast!)

Rebekah too...

Last night I had this thought..."hey I forgot to mention Bekah's health stats too!" So, before the "trolls" (people who have nothing better to do than read random blogs and post rude comments anonymously) can tear me apart for being a bad mother...again...I have Bekah's health notes.

Rebekah

This little girl is growing just fine, which is why she wasn't included in the medical update. She isn't under the doctors care...weird! :) She did just have her 9 month check up, even though she is 10 1/2 months old! (Ya, pedi offices aren't always on time with these things, and since I do only one immunization every three weeks instead of all at once, it doesn't really matter.)

Anyway, she weighs in at 16lbs. 8oz and she is 27 1/4" long, (2 ft. 3 1/4 inches). That would be 10th percentile for weight and 25th for height!!! I know...not only on the charts but double digits!! Other than cutting teeth, she hasn't really had any problems. She eats, sleeps, and is in general just a happy baby! And since I neglected (bad mom) to post her info with her brothers, l will post another picture of her.

This is a "fresh" picture, taken just a few moments ago! Enjoy

Medical Update

We haven't done a medical update in quite some time. This blog has become a great place for us to document the day-to-day life of our family as we live and grow with ALL of the many joys and hardships that come along with just being a family.


So, here it is.

Ethan

We continue to see Dr. Hofley every 6-8 weeks to keep an eye on the weight gain and growth pattern for both boys...but especially Ethan. Well, great news...he's still on the growth charts! Last time I posted their medical update Ethan was in the 1st percentile. Well, now he's on the 2nd percentile!! That's right! He actually gained almost 2 lbs. since his last visit! He is now a whopping 31.3 lbs. of soon to be 5 year old!! The more amazing stat though is his height...he is now 38.7 inches (3 feet 2 inches)! He's actually in the 5th percentile (I think) for that! He can now wear 4T pants...well mostly. He still has several 3T pants that fit him. It's amazing how many people will ask him how old he is and if he doesn't answer right away they will say "I bet your 3yrs old right?" He is just that tiny! I don't care though, his appetite has improved by leaps and bounds. He has become a walking stomach that desires food almost any time of the day! Yipppeee! His only meds. now are Prevacid for stomach upset, and the laxative that he's been on since he was 18 mos. old. We are hoping to continue to wean him off of the Prevacid, but will keep him on the laxative until he potty trains...which isn't happening yet.

Joshua

What a charmer! That smile has rescued that tiny tyrant from many a punishment!! :) This little man is doing well too. He is still in the first percentile even though he gained almost two lbs. since his last visit as well. He is now at 22.5 lbs! His height has improved as well...at 31.7 inches (2 feet 7 inches) and that puts him in the 2nd percentile for that. The doctor is very impressed with the improvement as most kids lose weight or don't grow much during the summer months leading into autumn due to their outdoor activity level and lack of sitting down for meals. Lucky for us our kids are grazers...they eat many more little meals during the day than actual sit down 5 course meals. I've also switched to using coconut oil instead of olive oil or butter in most of our cooking now which adds essential fatty acids to their diet. Plus it's just tasty! The only med. that Josh is still on is Prevacid for possible reflux. The good news is that we haven't had to nebulize him since we removed his 12 oz. of whole milk a day from his diet. We'll see what that does for his weight gain, but at this point the struggle and inevitable fight from Josh when we nebulize him just isn't worth the calorie intake from the milk. We are finding other ways to up his calorie intake right now so we'll see if it makes a difference at their next appt. on December 31st.

Frustration

It has come to my attention that most people in the Autistic community refer to their children as non-typical or non-neurotypical verses "abnormal". This means that they often refer to "normal" children as typical or in some cases neurotypical children. Why the difference?

Definitions:
NORMAL - conforming with or constituting an accepted standard, model , or pattern; esp., corresponding to the median or average of a large group in type, appearance, achievement, function, development, etc.; natural; usual; standard; regular.

TYPICAL - having or showing the characteristics, qualities, etc. of a kind, class, or group so fully as to be a representative example

In other words, for me, to "be normal" means you are accepted by the general public in all of your behaviors and endeavors. So, to be abnormal, would mean you aren't. However, if you classify children as typical, you aren't stating an acceptance level on any part of it. Instead, you are pointing out that although they aren't part of one type of group, they are in fact just part of another. It doesn't matter whether it is accepted for the good, bad or otherwise they just represent another group.

Why the frustration??

This morning Ethan has decided to act very much like his 2 year old brother. He is taking toys away from Rebekah, just because he wants to play with it right now. He has been throwing more and more physical tantrums over VERY small things like whether or not he is allowed to have more juice. He will "play" Tupperware next to Rebekah not with, just because she is doing it and gets upset when she takes a bowl away from him. Yet, when he's playing blocks, she better not dare to take one from him. He has no concept of age difference. We don't have any other toys in the house except toddler toys because Ethan is such a destructive player, he will break anything he plays with. We also don't have anything that is "age appropriate" because he won't play with it "appropriately". It instead becomes part of a big pile of stuff that he has to constantly load and unload into piles with his trucks or crash into.

He is not a typical soon-to-be 5 year old. So, when someone tells me, "Oh he's just being a normal kid"...I get frustrated. I get angry...because in the day-to-day stuff his behavior is anything but "normal". It's typical...for him...because he has Asperger.

First Day of School

Are you confused?? Well, don't be...this IS his school. We are officially signed up with the Seton Home School program for Kindergarten. Today was his first day of school, so we took a picture to mark the day.

Although he won't be 5 until next month, we decided, with the advice from Seton's counselors, to start Ethan's K program now since the program allows for two years to complete it. See, one of the many reasons we decided to go with Seton is because of their special education department. They know what Asperger Syndrome is and have found many of these students who are in the program, do exceptionally well...without the special ed. program. That's the beauty of homeschooling...you can do it at your child's pace. So, we started the program now, even though he doesn't need to be enrolled, according to the state laws, until next fall.

So, far...he LOVES it. Tonight before bed he asked if we would do more school tomorrow!

ROCK Halloween Party

We had our very first ROCK Halloween Party this past Friday. It was held in the conference rooms at Dartmouth Hitchcock where we usually hold our meetings...so there was plenty of room. It was awesome!

This was a first time Halloween party for many of the kiddos that came, and for those that had been to one before, it was the first time they could participate and eat whatever they wanted!

Of course it was held as a costume party...how do you have a Halloween party without costumes!! The kids looked awesome. We had a costume contest where we voted for a winner in three categories: Best Costume, Most Original Costume, and Funniest Costume. Joshua won for Best Costume, and Ethan won for Most Original. No, the voting wasn't rigged...there were about 15 kids there...and we weren't in charge of the voting!! :)

We also had a pumpkin decorating contest. It was the most quiet we had during the whole party. Imagine 10 or so kids, diligently painting and decorating their pumpkins. It was very serious business...as you can see by the beautiful pumpkins that came out of it! :)

The best part...from Ethan's point of view, was the donut eating contest. He had been talking about those donuts since we ended the meeting them month before. One of the moms that came to the party made these delicious apple cider donut holes that we placed on plates for the kids to eat...without their hands...very funny!
We ended the night by giving each child the chance to take a wack at the pumpkin pinata another family brought for the party...it was stuffed with lots of yummy gluten free goodies! All-in-all it's a night my kiddos won't forget...

9-1-1 Registration

Easter Seals was holding this event last night for anyone who has a child with special needs. It was geared more towards children who are on the autistic spectrum though, so we attended.

What this will accomplish is two things...first, it helps the emergency and medical community see the different faces of autism. As most people know, no two children are alike...and it's the same with autism. There are many different forms and levels of autism and last night we saw quite a few of them. The emergency response community are now being instructed to look on the refrigerators at homes when they respond to an emergency. We are instructed to post our child (ren)'s information in plain view for them to find. It helps them identify the possibility of additional care needed to help avoid escalating or scaring this particular child.

Secondly, the event was designed to help our children see, touch, hear and meet these people who, in an emergency, would be the people our kids would have to interact with. We're glad we went.

Ethan didn't like it at first. He had been talking about it all day...ALL DAY!! Every time he brought it up he'd flap his hands and arms and look up at the ceiling because he didn't know what to do with the excitement. For that very reason, I told him early on because I wanted to take the time to talk about it throughout the day and make him aware of the lights and sounds that accompany these people and vehicles. Yes, he's heard sirens before, but not so close. For those of you who don't know, Ethan is very sensitive to loud noises and bright lights...unless he is the one in control of them. When the fire truck first arrived, for example, it sounded it's horn and siren...and scared the beejeebee's out of Ethan. At that point he wasn't interested anymore and went right inside the building. We gave him about 10 min. or so to reach what is called baseline, by letting him color and play puzzles with some of the other kids, and then I brought him outside. (The first time was with Daddy)

With lots of encouragement and reassurance that they wouldn't do the siren again, we got him into the fire truck. He put the helmet on, and stared at all of the buttons and controls. You could tell it took a lot of will power not to reach out and press everything at once. (That and having me say over and over, "leave the buttons alone" seemed to work!)

Once he got down from the truck, the firefighter helped Ethan into a pair of boots and pants, and a coat. The coat was so heavy, Ethan crumbled (him and all of his 31 lbs!) under the weight of it! He didn't like the coat, but loved the boots and pants.

After that we went over to the police car. Ethan loved that it had a computer in it, and told Daddy that he needs one for the Jeep. The policeman even let Ethan talk over the speaker phone in the car...that kid never tires of hearing his own voice...amplified!

Soon after the ambulance arrived and Ethan was all warmed up and receptive to another brightly lit vehicle. He talked with the paramedic and was allowed up inside where the stretcher and all of the equipment is stored. He, of course had a million questions...and answers...not always on topic...but enough to occupy the paramedic for over 15 min. We finally told Ethan he needed to let the other kiddos who were getting up the courage to come over, get in the ambulance and check it out too.

So, we took them to the van to get them changed into their pajama's. Well, Ethan had a meltdown...he wasn't ready to go. He started screaming, and physically fighting off Mike who was trying to wrangle him out of his clothes and into his p.j.'s. Finally, we told Ethan that we would go back and visit after he put his p.j.'s on but then we would need to head home.

Well, since the ambulance had parked directly behind my van, I asked them if they would mind moving it so I could back the van up when it was time for us to leave. No problem, but, would it be alright if they took Ethan for a little ride in the front seat. Oh...my...goodness...I thought Ethan was going to explode...immediately he stared flapping his hands, turning his head and doing raspberries (another excitement stimulus), and happily took the paramedics hand to climb in the front seat. I bet you can guess what happened next...let's just say it got very noisy. Ethan was allowed to push any button he wanted: sirens, horns, lights etc...and he did, happily. He loved his 2 minutes of noise-making bliss, after which he was more than ready to go home...riding in the Jeep of course!