Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I started a post about 2 weeks ago and didn’t even get a paragraph completed!!  So that means it’s been about a month since I’ve posted anything.  Yikes!!  I’m going to just pick up where I left off with the old post that starts below.

It’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve posted anything.  Partly because we didn’t see much change for the first week.  And partly because I suck at this!  Anyway, this past Saturday was week 7 of our 12 week program.  As I said we didn’t see many changes for about a week.  I was talking to Coach Jessica and to a friend of mine on Tuesday (3/4/14) about this and of course that afternoon, bam! 

·         When we got home from school that day he went to the pantry and got out cereal that I tried to get him to eat a couple of weeks earlier.  I put some in a bowl and he pointed to it and said milk.  I said you want milk in your cereal?  And he said yes!  So I put some coconut milk in his cereal and he proceeded to eat two bowls!!  He has never eaten cereal with milk his whole life!!  

·         That night I made an egg casserole for dinner that he ate.  I made salad to go along with it.  He put his fork in my salad and I asked him if he wanted a bite and he said yes.  Then he said “salad little”.  I asked him if he wanted his own salad and he said yes.  He actually ate the whole thing!  A salad with shredded cheese and bleu cheese dressing!!  

·         I was in the school one day picking him up and while I was talking to some of the aids he walked over to an older lady sitting in the rocking chair, touched her cheek with one hand and kissed her on the other.  He was acting out a scene from the movie UP!  I was sitting in the rocking chair a few days later and the same lady was sitting in the one next to me.  She didn’t know I was Drew’s mom and she was telling the aids that she has thought about that for days!  

·         Taylor and Geoff were at our house for dinner one night and Drew leans over and kisses him on the cheek!

·         One Sunday after church I was putting him in the car and he was being a little grumpy.  For some reason I went to pick up one of his toys he had in the car and he said “I don’t want you to touch that!”  Again, I think he was acting out a scene from UP.

·         On Wednesday, we went to Chick-Fil-A on the way to church.  We were sitting at the table eating at church and he points to my sandwich.  I asked him if wanted a bite and he said yes.  So I gave him a bite of my grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato.  He then went back to his chicken nuggets and FF.  He finished his meal and then reached for my FF, which I had only eaten 3 or 4 out of, and polished those off.  Then he wanted the rest of my sandwich.  There were only a couple of bites left but he took it and ate it!!

·         The school book fair was at the end of February and they always have Clifford the Big Red dog visit.  One of the school librarians posted pictures of Clifford with some of the students.  Drew was one of them.  Her comment was “Drew just chattered away and Clifford was a good listener.”  Then Ruthann told me that she thought the same librarian was upset with him because she just stood there staring at him with Clifford.  Ruthann asked her if everything was ok and she said “Yes, I’ve just never heard Drew say anything other than no.”

·         March 2^nd Abby and I were out having dinner with our children’s minister and Matt was home with Drew.  I got a text from Matt that says “Kevin Harvick is leading the race.  Kevin is a bird.”  I didn’t understand until he told me that is what Drew had said.  The bird in UP is named Kevin.  Then he told me that Drew kept asking him “who is 24, who is 48, who is 8, who is twotee two (22) and Matt said this went on for quite a while.  Then Kevin Harvick pulled into the pits and I guess they kept saying his name since he was in the lead and Drew says “Kevin likes chocolate”  If you haven’t seen the movie UP you need to watch it and then this will all make perfect sense.

·         March 4^th I got a note from “Smurfann” that said at the beginning of gym class he went over to the other class and talked to a group of kids.  Then he walked back over to her and said “Did you see me talking to my friends?”

·         One night I made hard apple cider braised sweet Italian sausage with spaghetti squash.  I cut up the sausage like a hot dog and put a little bit of spaghetti squash sprinkled with some pecorino romano cheese on his plate.  He ate all of the spaghetti squash and said “more spaghetti please”.  So I gave him a larger portion and he ate all of it and the sausage.  While he was eating he says “delicioso dinner mama”

·         During Guidance at school they watched a video about responsibility and the teacher asked a student to turn off the lights.  Ruthann said that Drew turned to her and asked “I will turn the lights back on?”

·         His new favorite thing to do is fill my washing machine soap dispenser with any liquid he can find…apple juice, hand sanitizer, etc…

·         Part of his therapy is wearing a pair of safety glasses with the right side of each eye blocked for 30 minutes after his exercises.  One day I couldn’t find them downstairs so I went upstairs to look for them.  I hear him yell “Mommy I found them”.  I asked him where he found his glasses and he said “In the dishwasher.”  They weren’t in the dishwasher but that’s funny!!

·         He is supposed to be limited to 30 minutes of screen time a day.  This is very hard to stick to, especially on the weekends.  One afternoon I asked him turn the TV off because he had been watching it for 30 minutes.  He will usually tell me no and I will have to ask him a couple of times but he got right up and turned it off!!  After he did that he went somewhere in the house to play and I didn’t know where he was so I said “Drew, where are you?”  He said “I’m right here” and I asked him what he was doing and he said “I’m reading a book, Transformers.”  Normally he would just say I don’t know.

·         One night he wanted to play ball on the stairs with his daddy and I told him he had to take a bath first.  When he was done with his bath he yelled down the stairs for his daddy.  Matt came over and asked him if he was ready and he said “I brushed my hair and I brushed my teeth”.  (he didn’t really, I did).

·         One time when I asked him to turn the TV off he looks at me in the kitchen and says “I in charge.”  This kid is a riot!

·         For as long as I can remember he has taken Melatonin and Benadryl at bed time.  About 2 weeks ago I ran out of Benadryl and didn’t have any more.  He slept until a normal time the next morning so I decided to try an experiment and didn’t give it to him for a couple of nights.  He has now been off of the Benadryl for 2 weeks or so!!

So all of that was from 2 weeks ago!  

Last week we went to Cocoa Beach for Spring break to visit Matt’s parents who are being snowbirds down there!  We stopped by Brain Balance on the way down.  He has dropped 2 more primitive reflexes!!  So to refresh your memory he had to drop 6 when we started.  He has dropped 4 of them in 8 weeks.  Coach Jessica gave us a new exercise routine that is brutal.  She removed several of his exercises but added new ones.  Most of them are to strengthen his core and large muscle groups.  They are to help increase his balance and bilateral movements.  He has extremely low muscle tone.  This is very common in children with Autism.  She switched out his blocking glasses for cool eyelights glasses.  The glasses have little red lights that flash at a certain interval on his left eye.  This is to stimulate his right brain.  Once he gets used to that they will flash on the left side of both eyes.  We are also adding Interactive Metronome exercises.  

I love going to the center to see Jessica.  She is always so positive and encouraging.  There are days when I can only get his exercises done once and there are days when I can get all three sessions in.  It’s very easy to get discouraged when there are more once a days than three a days.  But she always pulls me back up and brushes me off with her encouragement and obvious passion for the program and the kids she is working with.  She was very encouraged with Drew’s progress and said he is definitely ready for in center therapy during the summer.  So now Matt and I have to figure out a way to pay for not only the next 12 week session but an apartment or extended stay place in Georgia.  But I would sell all the teeth in my head if it meant giving my sweet boy the opportunity to be the best he can be!!

As I mentioned earlier, we just got back from the beach.  Drew hates the beach.  I don’t know if it’s the sand, the noise or the vastness of it all.  The first year we went to Hilton Head he absolutely loved it.  The next summer we went back and I couldn’t get him to go anywhere near it.  He was visibly shaking and scared.  When I took him and Abby back over fall break the next year, I at least got him to sit in my lap in the sand for a few minutes.  While we were in Cocoa I took him down to the beach and he tolerated it for a little bit.  He even sat in Matt’s lap (reluctantly) while he was fishing so I could at least snap a picture.  Ironically, the kid who hates the beach is the only one who collected shells.  He does however LOVE the pool!!  Matt and Grampy took him in the pool despite the fact that it was 63 degrees with 36 mile an hour wind gusts.  This gal wasn’t going anywhere near the water!  Thanks Daddy and Grampy!  The next day it warmed up a little and Grammie got in on the action in the pool!  I however was still not going in there!  I hate to be cold!  We also learned that he likes to play tennis.  He played tennis with Grampy a couple of times.  I think I’m going to look into getting him lessons soon.  

Grammie and Grampy’s condo has a great view of the ocean and you can see the ships pass by when they leave port.  The first time we saw one he was so excited.  Then Grampy got out his binoculars and Drew kept calling them goggles.  So every once in a while he’d jump up and go running out to the balcony to look for boats.  One time he saw a fishing boat and said “medium boat”.  

We had a great time and now we are home back to the grind stone!  I want to thank everyone for your kind words and letting me know that you enjoy reading this blog.  I’m sorry this post is so long but that’s what happens when you’re a slacker.  You have to spit it all out in one post!

Until next time…