Trip to the Zoo

Saturday was a beautiful day (not too hot with a nice breeze) perfect for a trip to the zoo. We decided to go late in the day so we packed the kids in the car right after naps. Riley spent the first leg of the zoo in the wagon but she got sleepy after we ate. Riley ended up spending the 2nd half of the zoo on my back fast asleep in her carrier. Looking back at the pictures, I think it's funny that everyone except for Riley had a back pack on.

We saw a lot of animals but the highlight was the lioness. She was standing right in front of us. Reagan and Nathan hopped out of the wagon to get a closer look but the lioness quickly started to move away.

We used the back pack kid leashes on the twins at the zoo and it worked out pretty well. We have been practicing walking around the neighborhood so I think that helped. Reagan seems to have it down pat but Nathan still takes off and runs full speed without any warning.

Riley's Christening

Riley's Christening was this past Sunday over the Memorial Holiday Weekend. It was two years ago on the same holiday weekend and in the same church that Nathan and Reagan were baptised. Riley was really happy at the beginning of the service but as the ceremony started, she decided she was starving. From that point on there was quite a bit of crying. It was a beautiful day and we all had a really nice time sharing this memory together.

Nathan's progress & another evaluation

We have been using the sensory brush for about a week now and Nathan has been doing really well. He is tantruming less and just seems to be more "with it". He has recently started to point at objects in a book like an apple or a ball. He is pointing to his body parts. He imitates us when we sneeze, he consistently makes 3 signs (more, down, open) and several times today he said "oh" for open when we opened the door. We are so very proud of him!

Nathan and his dad went to see a DAN doctor on Tuesday. The doctor had some interesting thoughts on why Nathan has autism. I'm not sure that I will get the wording correct but to the best of my understanding she thinks that Nathan's body has a tough time getting rid of certain chemicals or something and she used him having high bilirubin levels as a newborn as an example. She thinks that the starting point or trigger to his autism was when Nathan came down with that very nasty stomach virus around 15 months that landed us all in the hospital. Of course I'm not explaining this nearly as well as John explained it to me, but I hope you can get the gist of it.

The doctor wants us to start getting rid of milk and milk products then go gluten free. She wants Nathan on 3 different supplements and she wants blood work done for food allergies and a urine test done for heavy metals.

John and I are still somewhere in the middle on how we feel about all this. We plan on taking away milk in the next week or two and starting Nathan on a calcium supplement. We are going to get the blood work done for the food allergies and see where we stand and how Nathan does being off milk to see if we want to try going gluten free. We have yet to decide on the urine test, plus I am curious how the heck I am supposed to "catch" a sample of his pee? That will be an interesting day!

Of course none of this is covered by insurance so it is all being paid out of pocket. It is such a strange place to be in. We have no idea if any of this will help Nathan so we have no idea how far to take it. I can assure you that we won't be shelling out $10,000 to buy a hyperbaric oxygen chamber in the near future but some blood testing and a change in diet sounds like a good place to start.

Another thing going on is that we are getting closer to wraparound behavior therapy. We had another evaluation today as a final determination in how many hours we will ask for. And what did they come up with....A Whopping 30 Hours!!!! Holy crap! I am really excited to have this much help for Nathan but combined with his EI therapy that is 33 hours a week and basically a full time job. They will slowly fade in the hours so as not to overwhelm Nathan. We will start with 10 hours for weeks 1 & 2 and then 15 hours for weeks 3 & 4 and so on. We still have to meet with the insurance company in 2 weeks to see if they approve that many hours. The doctor recommended we take Nathan to that appointment because she thinks it can sway the insurance company in the right direction. You can bet that we will be bringing Nathan to that meeting no matter what.

The Swing Set is Up

It is finally done! John and our good friend and Godfather to our kids, Chuck, built the swing set from start to finish. It was a long project as the instructions said it would take about 13 hours. I am very proud that the two guys were able to put it together because we had seriously considered hiring a professional swing set installer to do the job.

The kids absolutely love the new gym. Nathan is a big fan of the slide while Reagan very cautious on the slide and prefers the swing. We even got some good smiles and chuckles out of Riley while in the toddler swing. There is still some work to do like digging out the area a bit more, adding mulch and putting sand in the sand box. There is also a clubhouse that John needs to build that we will put on the side between the fence and the shed.

Happy Mothers Day!

I hope that everyone had a great Mother's Day!

This morning as I was making my coffee, Nathan came over and handed me a cute t-shirt from Old Navy, then Reagan came in a few seconds later with another Old Navy t-shirt, and of course Daddy carried Riley in who handed me a Mother's Day card and another t-shirt.

My Mother's Day card said, "Mom, if you don't have the toughest job in the world, then I'd like to know who does. (Open it up) And tell Dad to put his hand down." The card was complete with scribble from Nathan and Reagan. So very sweet!

It was so darn cute and so sweet, it made me all teary eyed. Towards the end of the day I decided to take the kids for a wagon ride so we met up with the next door neighbor and her youngest little girl and went for a quick stroll. This was Riley's first ride in the wagon without her infant seat and she was totally loving it. It really was a very nice and relaxing Mother's Day.

Here is a video of the kids decorating their Mother's Day cards that we sent to GG, Gram and Iris.

New Toddler Chairs

Thanks GG for the new toddler chairs!



GG came to visit us from Iowa a couple weeks ago, and I am just now getting to post about it. We mostly stayed inside but we did all make it to church, the playground and the kids played in the front yard while Grandma was here. It was a nice visit, but like most visits it was too short. We can't wait for GG to come back again in June!

New Sensory Seeking and Support Meeting

For about the past month or so Nathan's sensory needs have changed. He used to be perfectly happy lining things up, drawing and occasionally throwing objects straight up in the air and watching them fall. But lately the lining up has come to a complete halt and it has been replaced with covering himself in cushions or objects (I assume to feel the pressure) and kicking them. It looks almost like a mini tantrum when he does this. In our basement playroom we have an inflatable pool with a bunch of stuffed animals in it and that's where we direct him to go when he needs this kind of input. We spend a lot of time upstairs too so I have resorted to making a pit of sofa cushions for him in the living room. Unfortunately the cushion pits don't always fulfill his needs so he will take any toy (puzzles, blocks etc) and scatter them on the floor so he can get down on the ground and kick them. I am at a loss on what to do sometimes. Even two of his therapists have noticed a change in him and they are going to have a meeting to discuss ways to get Nathan to focus again.I really believe that his sensory needs are getting in the way and that we need to deal with them so that he can focus better. I am thinking about getting a sensory brush for Nathan because his OT suggested it and I have read a lot of good things about it's use. Basically it is a surgical scrub brush and you brush your child's skin with firm pressure every couple hours and it should calm him down. It is one of those things that you have to stick to and do it religiously in order to see the benefits.

John and I are also thinking about going GFCF (Gluten Free Casein Free) and seeing a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor. I attended my first Autism Support Group meeting last week and I think 28 out of 30 mom's have their ASD child on some type of diet. It was so wonderful to meet other mom's going through the same thing and be able to ask questions since many of the moms have "been there, done that". One of the mom's shared her story about her completely recovered son. He was diagnosed with Autism around the age of 2. He is now 12, has lost the diagnosis and appears typical in every way. Hearing these moms and how so many of their children have benefited from a change in diet has pushed us to look for a DAN doctor and try some alternative methods besides just doing therapy.

Speaking of therapy....Oh my what a long and slow process!!!! I am so over this! Our BSC is coming out today to do another 3 hour evaluation. After today we will have 2 weeks down and roughly 6 more weeks to go until Nathan can start receiving therapy. And to top it all off, the woman I need more than anything right now (Nathan's OT) is MIA for the next two weeks. Apparently she was in Mexico to get started with a church mission last weekend so her company has asked her not to meet with any children for the next two weeks due to the Swine Flu scare. I am glad that they are taking precautions but we need OT right now more than ever.
So to turn a frown into a smile I will leave end this post with a cute story going back to Nathan's new sensory need to cover himself up. Last night I went to check on him in his crib because it sounded like he was moving around and still awake. When I looked in, I couldn't see him. He was completely covered in stuffed animals, pillows and blankets. However there was about a 3 inch area that was not covered and all I could see was this little pointer finger moving like a windshield wiper as he was rubbing the nose on his bear pillow (something he has been doing to fall asleep since he was about 18 months old). It was the funniest and most adorable thing ever. I so wish I had a video or a picture. I'm not sure that my explanation does it justice.

600 miles round trip - Brave or Nuts?

The consensus is in.......and I am officially Nuts!

Our mini van needed a whopping $2,000 in repair work so I packed up the kids and the dog and we made a trip across the state to have my dad fix the car. It was just routine items that needed replaced so it was safe to drive the car, otherwise we would have never done this. It made sense to leave when we did because John was gone for business over the weekend and isn't returning home until Thursday night. Also, Nathan's therapy was either pushed back to the end of the week or canceled because of the swine flu scare. So really it just made sense to go.

The driving part of the trip really wasn't too bad. We did make a ton of little stops both on the way there and on the way back, so it took more like 7 hours to drive what normally takes about 5 hours without stops. All three kids did great on the road. They watched the car DVD players, snacked, drew on their DoodlePros, napped and we even went to a McDonald's playland to let the twins get some energy out.

On the way back I decided to turn one of the dvd players around so that Riley could see it and I think she really liked that. It was really fun to see how much the two girls are interacting now. Since Riley is still facing backwards, she and Reagan can see each other very well in the car. There were many times where I would catch them making each other belly laugh with a game of peek a boo.

Unfortunately the weather was all rain the entire time we were at Gram and Grandpa's so we didn't get out of the house at all. Naps at their house were a little tricky with 3 pack n plays in one room and two dogs that LOVE to bark at everything. There was really no way to cover up the barking because we were in a one story ranch home. I tried playing a CD to mask the noise but that only does so much. So naps were usually cut a little short which makes for somewhat cranky kids.
So anyway, we are back home and we have a lot on our plate for the next few days. We are very excited to see Daddy tonight since it has been almost a week since we last saw him. Not sure what is in store for this weekend, maybe a trip to the zoo if the weather is nice.