End of school year update

Last week was the last day of school for my kiddos.  It was a long year. One that I do not want to repeat.  This is the first year at these schools for both kids and while there have been good times, there have been issues as well.  We have been battling medical issues with both kids as well. 

Nick started middle school this year and his ADHD medication needed adjusted.  He really needs to learn coping mechanisms as school gets harder for him as well.  This is a big adjustment for us all, as we have to learn how to help him too.  We have been super lucky as his teachers really seem to want him to succeed.  He's super smart and that kind of makes the whole picture murky.  It gets really frustrating because we all know he can do the work...but he forgets to do it or turn it in, or he loses it.  His grades in no way reflect what he's actually capable of.  He doesn't see the point in much of the work...especially homework.  So, he just doesn't do it.  There is only so much I can do as he needs to grow in responsibility.  He's had some great success in choir and band.  For the spring concert, he got a solo and ROCKED IT!  He was fantastic!  He's doing well on his trumpet as well.  He's currently trying to figure out which he wants to continue in because they can't do both, apparently.  He would like to march with the band, but he loves singing.  I have left that decision up to him, so I don't know what he will decide.  He's turning into an awesome young man.  :-)

Wesley just finished up first grade and it's been a rollercoaster ride.  He started out great, but with lots of focus issues.  Now, because of his autism, evaluating him for other problems is fairly hard.  Because Nick has been diagnosed with ADHD, we have really been wondering about Wesley.  Is it ADHD or just another symptom of his autism?  Then throw in the suspected seizure that he had last April and I just want to throw my hands in the air.  I went to our general doctor, but she wasn't confident in dealing with the autism, so she sent us to a neurologist.  The first one that we went to see didn't think that he actually had a seizure in April...she fixated on one small thing that was said and disregarded anything else that was said.  So, luckily, I got her to send us to a different doctor to deal with the focus issues...this one's focus is on children with autism, so I was feeling better already.  She is a behavioral neuropsychologist...that's a mouthful!  Anyway, she was fairly certain that he DID actually have a seizure and was concerned that he was having absentee seizures that would cause the focus issues.  Finally, someone was listening to me!  Anyway, she set up us for a 24 hour video EEG.  I was terrified.  When we went to the hospital last April, it took 6 of us to hold him down to get the electrodes on his head for a 30 minute test...how were we going to get this done??  Just like any kid likes to prove mom wrong, that child sat right there and let the lady get him all hooked up!  Unreal!  I was dancing for joy!  Now, I just had to keep him occupied and happy for the next 24 hours!  Once he found the bed controls, he was a happy camper.  :-)  We went into this test thinking that we were going to be put on some kind of medication depending on the result...either seizure medication or ADHD meds.  Well, true to form, he had to be difficult and show one 1 second burst during the whole time.  This was not a seizure, but spoke to a tendency for seizures.  So, we were at an impasse.  Do we go ahead and start treatment for seizures that we don't know are happening or do more testing?  I opted for more testing.  We got to do a 3 day at-home EEG next.  The silly child...when we went to get him hooked up he cried because he wanted to go to the hospital.  Sigh.  He did really well again...except he throw up all over the place after everything was done.  I think we scarred the poor tech...he'd only been doing this for 6 months.  :-)  Results came back normal this time, so we were ready to start an ADHD medication. Then, of course, we had insurance issues getting it, so he started medication on the last full week of school.  Not overly helpful to see if it was going to help!  Oh well, whatcha gonna do?  It's never boring around my house! 

School was a trial, this was our first year there so they don't know him that well.  He did fairly well in the beginning, but around Christmas he stopped talking.  I still have no idea what that was about.  There was even talk about Selective Mutism.  I am fairly certain that is not the case.  He is very willful and will try different things to see how far he can push and they were letting him get away with it.  Once I finally got them to start correcting him, he started talking again.  And then the defiance come to the forefront.  He is such an independent child that he doesn't like to be told how and when to do stuff and he let them know about it too.  Well, at least he's talking again.  Here's to praying that next year is a better school year for him.

So, that's a pretty quick update of how our school year went.  I hope that yours went well and you have lots of great stuff planned for the summer!

This one is ALL Wesley

I've been telling Rich for a while that I needed to write an update for Wesley.  Well, yesterday was his 6th birthday, so what better time?  I went back to see when I updated about him last and I didn't realize that I had dropped the ball there!  The last big update you got about him was in Oct 2010.  At that time, he was just getting the whole counting thing...he had numbers 1-7...and he was astounding me with his shapes.  After months of trying to get blue and yellow, he finally had that then got red right off the bat.  He had just started his last year of preschool, although we didn't know that at the time.

With special needs children, you have the option of holding them back a year from starting kindergarten just to ensure that they are where they need to be.  We had always intended to take the extra year, we were certain that there was no way he was going to be ready to start on time.  There was also some sticky red tape involved with special needs and the labels and junk.  Before a child is 6, they can be in preschool under a Developmental Delayed label...they can't get the Autism label before they turn 6 according to the school system...even if they have all the outside diagnosis in the world!  Without that Autism label, they can't get services from the Autism teacher.  So, because Wesley's birthday isn't until January, he would have had to go half the school year with very little support.  This was NOT in his best interest.  Fortunately, they decided to change this and we could add autism as a secondary label in order to get the support.  (It's all mumbo jumbo to me, just tell me what you are going to do for my child!)  Anyway, this opened up the kindergarten option.

At this time, Wesley was still fairly behind neuro-typical (NT) peers, so we were still pretty sure he wasn't going to start.  There are so many other things to think about as well.  Wesley is a big kid, so he's already the biggest kid in the class, if we hold him back another year so that he's a year older than everyone else, he's going to be that much bigger!  We didn't want him to have another reason for being picked on in later years.  This one decision was so huge...it would affect the rest of his life!  Who are we to make a decision like that when we are but faulty humans??  We really struggled with this...if you couldn't tell.  :-)  In the end, Wesley learned like a champ for the rest of the year!  He could identify and reorder numbers 1-20, he knew all of his capital letters and some lower case ones.  He knew lots of shapes!  His speech was growing rapidly!  He took some of my arguments out of our hands.  He would be going to kindergarten!

Of course, the worrying didn't stop.  Wesley really has to struggle to learn new concepts...like colors...so how was he going to keep up in kindergarten when they are learning letter sounds.  It took MONTHS to get two simple colors down...while he's working on getting the idea of letter sounds, aren't the other children going to zoom past him?  We had our IEP (individual education plan) meeting in June and put together some goals to work on for the year.  Letter sounds, counting and identifying numbers to 50, naming and identifying vocabulary using pictures, upper and lowercase letters, writing his name, sounding out words, and some beginning math.  I was a little concerned about some of these goals.  But these will all seem like typical goals for you, but there are also a couple that won't be so typical.  Initialing and sustaining play with peers for 10 minutes, and answering simple WH questions (who, what, where, why).  It really is amazing some of the things that you take for granted with an NT child...I never had to teach Nick how to play!

Anyway, I was pleased and nervous about starting kindergarten.  Then we found out that he was to have Mr. Whaley for his kindergarten teacher...he's been in the room right next to Wesley from the beginning, so he knew Wesley well.  I was very happy about this...and then we also learned that Ms Penny from preschool was changing positions and would be Wesley's aide for the classroom!  This was turning out wonderfully!!  Wesley did well over the summer continuing to learn and polish up some skills, so he had a little jump on his classmates come fall.

Wesley's personality has been showing through so much more too.  He's learning to communicate better so that makes it easier.  He's such a funny kid!  He's currently obsessed with Mario right now.  Everything Mario!  He has a knit hat with Mario on it that he likes to were...it can be 70 degrees out and he wants "Mario."  I am loving the communication...things that I didn't know he could say keep coming out of his mouth.  He's being able to tell me things that he wants that I don't know that I would have been able to get otherwise.  A couple weeks ago, I was getting him dressed and out of nowhere he says, "How about, BELT!"  I had to make him say it a couple of times because this was a new word for me!  But he wanted to wear a belt!  I just happened to have one that fit too.  Nick never really wore one, but his daddy does.  Now, he has to have a belt on almost every day.  I shudder to think of all the fits that might have been thrown about a belt (without me having any clue what the fit was about) had he not been able to tell me what he wanted!  This is one of those moments that will stick in my head.

Wesley is doing fairly well with potty training, still refuses to go anywhere but home and grandparents house and I have to remind him...especially when he's playing video games.  Wesley brings home 2 books to read every night and at first, I thought he was just memorizing the books from school until I tested it a little.  My baby boy is READING!!!!

We had another IEP meeting in December to go over the testing that was done to determine his eligibility for services due to the fact that he was turning 6...more red tape stuff.  Anyway, of course he's eligible, so we went over the goals again while we were there.  Wesley has mastered some of his goals!  He's gotten all of his letter sounds!  He's sounding out words and is reading age appropriate books!  Mr Whaley said that he is actually nicely ahead of lots of his NT students!  Just what a mom wants to hear!!  :-)  So, we need to tweak the IEP to add some harder stuff!  He's going to be starting addition and subtraction, counting by fives and tens, and we've moved on the comprehension with his reading.

My big baby boy is doing fantastically!  I am really impressed at anyone who has made it through this entire post, but there was so much to put in here!  I am sure I am missing stuff, but I promise not to take so much time before updating about him again.  Thank you so much for caring.  Having Wesley has shown me the meaning of it taking a village to raise a child.

Thankful...

I left this post a little late to write.

I come to this post after having a great meal with a great group of people.  And I thought this would be a great time to write this post.  Unfortunately, it went down hill very quickly.

We did have a fabulous meal with part of our homegroup.  We had some great conversation and just a generally awesome time being with friends.  Our children, all 8 of them, we together having a good time...things were going wonderfully!  It was time to eat and Wesley came to his daddy and said "Time to eat."  This is huge.  Wesley has a handful of things that he will eat, some of this being the McDonald's the we fed him on the way over because we knew he wouldn't eat anything while there.  I got him a plate and he picked out mashed potatoes, a piece of turkey and a roll.  I didn't really expect him to eat any of it, but I was optimistic that he would at least take a bite of the mashed potatoes.  Instead, he took his plate and went and sat down with the rest of the children.  With tears in my eyes, I watched him look like the other children...except he wasn't eating.  :-)  I really think he just wanted to do the same as they were doing.  I was so happy at this!  This is a huge thing for a child with autism.

What I missed was the fact that he was zoned out for most of the meal, staring at the fish tank.  This should have sent me a red flag, that things were overwhelming him and that I needed to watch for a good and easy transition to leave.  I was too excited about the progress that I saw.  Instead, I enjoyed myself and let him get really into playing Mario on the Wii...it's the latest obsession, anything to do with Mario.  Then, I sprung it on him..."Time to go!"

"No go! I no go!"

I let him play one more level...that usually helps...and we got sock on pretty well, but that's where he was drawing the line.  No shoes.

Our homegroup is a great bunch of people and they know that we deal with Wesley's autism...they've just never seen a full blown meltdown.   Until tonight.

At this point, this post is exactly what I need.  I need to remember all the little things that I am thankful for.  So, here goes.

my Savior

my husband and how much he loves me

my children

my parents

the fact that I can be a stay at home mom

having such great friends

my church

my bed

Wesley being diagnosed early

Nick being such a gifted child

Rich doing what he loves

the food that we eat

living in such a beautiful state

tea

the therapists and teachers that love my son

the fact that he can say "I love you"

Rich's friends that can give him someplace to go away from the craziness

coffee and coffee goo

awesome tv shows that I zone out on at night

my blog and its readers

Coke Zero

chocolate

the smiles on my kids' faces when I walk into a room

Nick's love of reading

McDonald's

the hugs and kisses from my kids

I could go on...but this post has been successful.  Yes, there was not a great ending to the evening, but my life is so much fuller than what happened tonight.  There are so many things I have to be thankful for.  Thank you for coming by to read this.  You have no idea how much I appreciate it!  :-)

#YouMightBeAnAutismParentIf

Twitter is a fabulous thing...I will go so far as to say that social media is a wonderful thing!

I have a great autism family near me.  We even have a support group set up, but we don't see each other nearly as often as I would like.  Our lives are so busy with our children and just plain living that we don't get near enough time together.  This is where social media comes in.  It's there when we have a second to grab for ourselves.  There are other moms out there that are dealing with the same things, every day. And Twitter and Facebook makes it so much easier to come together.

This is why I was pretty excited when I stumbled upon the "you might be an autism parent if" hashtag on Twitter.  I stayed up late watching and participating, I have had several people follow me because of it.  I was up this morning and greeted to 432 new tweets for the hashtag.  Every one of these people understand!

Here are a few of my favorites:

JoAshline Jo Ashline 

#youmightbeanautismparentif You have more compassion, patience, love, tolerance, hope, resilience & stamina than u ever thought possible

CalliCoop Christa 

#youmightbeanautismparentif your child goes hungry until the right food is served. Yes, children CAN starve themselves to death.

myautisticson Eric 

#youmightbeanautismparentif you have learned to love your child for who they are, rather who they should be. Best lesson ever!

jillsmo Jill 

#youmightbeanautismparentif you have to live forever. No, I'm serious. This isn't optional.

helenhamill helen hamill 

#youmightbeanautismparentif you wouldn't change your child for the world- but want often to change the World for your child!

spectrummymummy Spectrummy Mummy 

#youmightbeanautismparentif the first thing you'll do after you win the lottery is take your kid to a Swarovski shop and let her loose.

Lostlodger1 claire howett 

#youmightbeanautismparentif tweeting and following this hash tag has been the best therapy, EVER! :)

antitheistangie ajackson 

#youmightbeanautismparentif you think it'd be cruel to throw your child a traditional birthday party full of stimulation.

xtremeparnthood Sunday Stilwell 

#youmightbeanautismparentif the term "IEP" instantly conjures up the theme song to "ROCKY" in your head

sugrNspiceLife Christine Zorn 

#youmightbeanautismparentif you've burst into tears in front of a therapist or teacher....more than once

Christmas in Holland.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We just had our 3rd Christmas "in Holland."  Wesley is 4 and this should have been a really exciting Christmas for him.  But we are in Holland.  Things are not the same here.  I currently have 7 still wrapped gifts sitting by the tree, all with Wesley's name on them.

Christmas morning, he acted like we were trying to murder him when we tried to get him to open his gifts.  So, we are letting him do it in his own time.  Every now and then, for reasons unbeknown to us, he will take interest and decide to open something...then it's back to whatever he was doing before.

I mourn Italy on occasion, but I recognize the beauty of Holland.  Wesley greets me with great vigor every time I am away from him for a time...even if it's just long enough to take a shower.  :-)  He gets super excited for the smallest things.  "Cars" is his favorite movie and you can't help but smile when you see how excited he gets over it!  He loves to be praised and will look for it!  He likes to make you laugh, he just recently learned how to pretend to be a dog.  He will get in my face barking, panting and even licking until I just crack up.

Funny Wesley!

Today's topic is "Share a funny memory of your child."

This is more about the way Wesley is rather than a specific time.  Wesley is 4 and in preschool.  Their class is comprised of half autistic children and half neuro-typical children.  Wesley is quite the ladies man.  He picks a little girl to be friendly with and will pursue her for most of the day...the last time they told me about it, he actually moved in for the kiss!

All rolled into one!

This weekend was crazy and it rolled right into my week!  Agh!  So, dear readership, you get a post with everything all rolled into one!  You should have gotten Meaning-Full Monday, TAG Tuesday, and Wesley Wednesday already, so here it is!  :-)

Thank you God for keeping Rich safe!  He was in an accident on Friday afternoon.  It was totally the other guy's fault too.  Thankfully, the occupants of the other vehicle didn't appear to be hurt either.  Rich had a pretty sore weekend though.  I don't think he realized how bad a sudden stop like that would hurt!  Fun fact: airbags deploy at 186 mph.  Typically, the decision to deploy an airbag in a frontal crash is made within 15 to 30 milliseconds after the onset of the crash, and the airbags are fully inflated within approximately 60-80 milliseconds after the first moment of vehicle contact.


It looks like the insurance company is going to total our little car, so we are looking into our options at this time.  God has always and will always provide!!


Nicholas is doing well.  He's having fun with learning the violin, he's excited because they are actually playing some music now!  :-)  He was pretty bored with the exercises that they were having to do.

 He is totally in love with the TAG program.  From the sounds of it, he's feeling very different in class and right at home during TAG.  I guess there are other kids calling him a nerd and such.  *Sigh*  Why do kids have to be so mean??  He's doing really well with it though, "They don't understand that it just means that I'm so smart."  Love that kid!



Wesley is being a little super star!  He's totally got 1-7 now!  We were only working on 1, 3, and 5, but Sharon tried 1-10 and he knew 1-7!  I about fell out of my chair!  Shapes are much like that as well.  He has circle, square, heart, star, octagon (!).  He still needs just a little reminder for triangle and he calls a rectangle a door...well, it does look like it!  But he has finally mastered blue and yellow, so we added red and he already knew it!  We are hearing more and more functional speech!  Yeah!  We are pretty proud of him!


All that being said, behavior is going downhill...hopefully not for long, it makes me tired.  Mornings are being fairly rough.  I am having to fight him to get him dressed, into and out of the car and onto the bus.  By the time I get all that done at 8 in the morning, I am ready to go back to bed!  This morning, I didn't buckle him into his seat to go meet the bus (it's down the driveway), when I got out (and left the car running) he locked all the doors and wouldn't unlock it or get out.  I only had one set of keys and it was raining.  Beautiful start to my morning!  He didn't like it one bit when his bus drove off without him though, so he unlocked the door and got out after it!  We jumped back in the car (after I buckled him in!) and chased the bus down. Got to stand in the rain and talk to another mom for a while though!  It was great to see her.  Hi Cheri!  :-)


Alright ladies and gents, I am going to call it a day here.  I know these were brief, but I think I got you all caught up.  Until next time!  :-)

Wesley Wednesday

Wesley is my youngest.  He is 4 right now and in his second year of special needs preschool.  There is a lot to be said about Wesley and a lot has already been said.  You may want to go read the back story here, if you haven't already.

With that taken care of, I haven't posted about his therapy lately.  Wesley goes to OT (Occupational Therapy) once a week and sees an Autism Specialist twice a week.  At school, Wes gets OT and Speech as well.  There are lots of people working to help Wesley.  Right now, we are working on several things...remember through all this, we are working on speech as well...the numbers 1, 3, and 5; identifying body parts; yellow and blue; shapes; the verbs eat, drink, sleep, and cry; yes and no.  Some concepts are seemingly easy for him.  We just started with numbers and shapes and he's getting them very quickly. But other concepts seem to take FOREVER!!  We have been working on yellow and blue since March...6 months on 2 colors!  I was really beginning to wonder if he wasn't colorblind!!  But I knew that he wasn't...he would pick all the same colors out of a bowl of M&Ms and he could match colors.  HE'S FINALLY GETTING THEM!!!!!!

It's amazing how excited I can get over what would seem like a really small thing for most parents.  I know you get excited when your child starts identifying colors.  But I want to shout it from the rooftops!!  Nothing is guaranteed with Wesley.  Every new thing we get is something that we weren't sure we were going to get.  I have heard and probably said "They will be potty trained when they want to be, you don't see kids in diapers in kindergarten or college, right?"  From the looks of it...my child is going to be in diapers in kindergarten.  But that's not going to stop me from fighting like mad to change that!

Wesley is a beautiful, funny, happy little boy. I had a picture and a video that I was going to add to this post, but it doesn't seem to be working.  So click for the picture and for the video.  Thanks for reading.

How a piece of furniture about wrecked the day...

Life is always interesting here at Chez Chaffins.  Here's the latest bit of interesting.  Getting a new piece of furniture is capable of wrecking an entire day!  Can you believe that?  I do.  It was an expected result here.  Let me get you up to speed...

DVDs...We haven't had cable for most of our marriage.  So, we have LOTS of DVDs.  Wesley loves DVDs. He will sift through lots of DVDs looking for just the right movie.  He is a rather independent child as well...things are usually his way or the highway.  But he has no regard to respecting property, the rejected movies are tossed on the floor or he will remove a DVD from the player and throw it on the floor...then walk on it, or put a chair on it...they get scratched pretty easily...or broken.  So, our living room is an interesting sight.  When DVDs get picked up, they are usually stacked together and tucked somewhere on the top shelf in the hopes that Wesley won't get them again before we have time to sort them back into their cases.  And this is usually a lower priority thing, so Wesley will usually get hold of them before we have time to sort them back in their cases.  You get where I am going with this??  We have had to rebuy several DVDs, especially of Wesley's favorites that will cause tantrums if they no longer play.  Our DVDs are kept on a bookshelf, open to the rampage of the 4 year old.  This has got to stop!!  So, we went yesterday and found a cabinet that has doors and locks.

Now, we had to put this cabinet together, first of all, and Wesley was home.  He thought this was the funnest thing ever and had to be right in the middle of everything.  This was all well and good while building the shell of the thing.  We ended up building around Wesley.  Then when we put shelves in it, he wasn't so happy with that and wanted to sit on them.  "I want sit down."  While great talking...not a good idea!  Remember "his way or the highway?"  Yeah, that's when it all started.  He was not a happy camper.  At this point, he still has no idea what's going IN this cabinet.  So, we get the thing built and decide to see how it's going to stand up against the Wesley storm, so we locked it...it was completely empty.  Wesley's head about exploded!  But I am happy to say that the cabinet held up just fine!  :-)

We went to work getting the movies transferred from bookshelf to cabinet and, of course, Wesley wanted to be in the middle of that, so I put him to work.  He loved it.  We did have to divert him a few times, but it's all in a day's work now.  Got the transfer done and locked the cabinet.  You could almost see it click in his brain that he was no longer going to have access to the movies.  Not pretty, not pretty.  Luckily, and speaking to his progress, this did not last too long...not as long as I had expected anyway.  I really kind of expected him to still be screaming about it.

Wesley is super smart and getting pretty sneaky too, so I don't, for a minute, think that he is all fine and good with this new cabinet.  I think he's just biding his time.

Autism...autism...autism.

My son has autism. I was writing about our journey on CaringBridge, but I stopped about a year ago. I thought that I would put all the posts here so you, whoever YOU may be, could read the back story. This starts over a year and a half ago...Wesley was 2 and had been diagnosed for about 6 months. This is going to be a long post, so feel free to skip it...read parts of it...read a sentence...whatever. Just putting it here for info, yo. :-)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2008 6:30 AM, CDT

This is the first entry and it's not going to be near as complete as I would like...I don't have that much time. Wesley has a cold right now, but I think he's getting over it.

Here's a little bit about what we are doing as of right now. Wesley is receiving services through Birth to Three (B2T). He sees an Occupational Therapist, who helps with his sensory needs. And he sees Sharon Holbert, who is a developmental specialist, but also an Autism expert. She runs the only autism clinic in Morgantown in addition to seeing clients with B2T. We have Wesley on a Gluten Free, Casein Free (GFCF) diet. This has seemed to help with his sleep and his speech, strangely enough. His sleep got to where he was only up once a night, so we started him on clonidine at morning and night. This has helped dramatically with his sleep, but it has also helped with his extreme energy during the day. He can sit and attend some tasks now. This is also helping his speech, I think.

Ok, that's a snapshot of what's going on. I will write more later.

May the LORD give you increase, you and your children!

(Psalms 115:14 ESV)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2008 8:57 AM, CDT

Hello friends and family. As I write this, Wesley is sleeping. This is because he was up at 3 in the morning. Unfortunately, this is not an unusual occurrence.

I thought today, I would take you through an ordinary day at our house. First, who knows what time Wesley will sleep till. But most of the time, he is up by 7. Nicholas gets on the bus at 8, so that time is spent getting Nick ready and such. Then Nick is out the door, sometimes Wesley cries over this. But then we put in one of the favorite movies. Right now, it's either Cars, Open Season, or a Spongebob episode. Cars is his absolute favorite though. He likes to make the sounds. He knows the movie so well, that regardless of what he is doing, if he hears a certain part coming up, he will run. He can make the sounds right as they are happening too. Good imitation! I just wish it was of words. Oh well.

Wesley has a very self-limited diet. We do have him on the GFCF diet, but it really isn't a problem with his main foods. For breakfast, he may eat a bowl of Rice Krispies with rice milk. Or he may not. He eats on a little table in the living room. If you give him something that he doesn't want, he's liable to throw a tantrum over it. Tantrums are a common occurrence too. A typical tantrum happens when Wesley doesn't get his way. Then he will throw whatever he can get his hands on, he turns over the table (remember that bowl of unwanted cereal?), if he can't find anything to throw, he pulls his pullup off...regardless of what's in it. He also hits and kicks. I am a mom that gets kicked and hit every single day. Never thought I would be able to say that.

So, far, I have just painted a very ugly picture of my day. It's not all like this. Wesley is so full of love and kisses, it takes my breath away sometimes. He will walk over and kiss me for no reason. And sometimes he wants so many kisses that I get tired before he does! When he enjoys something it is so fully that regardless of how your day has been, you have to smile.

I am going to leave you with that. But stay tuned...there is so much to Wesley that I don't think I will ever get it all down.

Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God, and once again I will praise him, my savior and my God. Psalm 42:11 TEV

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2008 10:33 AM, CDT

This must be some kind of record or something. This is my third day in a row writing something...don't expect me to keep it up! But most of you should know me, and already know that. Oh, by the way, put this in your favorites and come back to check up on him often. Maybe even get updates in your email.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with the pre-school coordinator. Wesley will have to have three more evaluations in the next 80 days and then we have another meeting to see the results and see if he will be eligible...he will be. Then we have to put together an IEP. Now, I don't know anything about them and have heard horror stories. Luckily, Sharon Holbert on Wesley's team is great at writing them and advocating for her clients.

We really hit the jackpot when we got Sharon. And it's mostly luck too. The service coordinator for B2T brings you a stack of papers...this is all of that certain type of provider. It has a little spiel about why they are doing this or such and it tells how long they have worked with different age children. That's all...no other parents opinions or anything. Who knows what you are going to get. But we certainly got lucky when we got Sharon.

But Wesley should start pre-school when he turns three in January. Scary thought! My baby is going to be going to school!!! They even asked if I wanted him bussed! My baby riding a bus!!! I'm not sure how I am going to do this! But we will find out soon enough.

“Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”- Galatians 6:2

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2008 6:23 AM, CDT

Today's is going to be short. Just wanted to thank everyone for the prayers. Wesley slept through the night last night! Woohoo!! I wouldn't be up this early if I didn't have to be working. But, such is life.

Yesterday was a really rough day. I am unsure as to what was going on with him. Nothing was making him happy. I had a few errands to do and they wore me out with him! First, he didn't want to get in his car seat and then he didn't want to get out! Now, this boy weighs 55lbs! He's not a lightweight! Then, I had to wrestle him into the shopping cart...this while he's trying to take the shirt off my back. Nothing like being stripped in the middle of a parking lot. Then, I wasn't allowed to touch the cart...he made this very clear with the kicking and hitting. Got lots of looks at Gabe's and Wal-mart yesterday. Luckily, I didn't hear any comments about how I should spank him and that would fix him. Unfortunately, autism doesn't get fixed like that. I'm pretty sure it's been tried.

I'm going to leave you with that. Pray that he wakes up in a much better mood today. I could sure use the break.

Oh, one last thing. I am so excited, there is a new Autism Support group starting up at PlayWorks, here in town. I am really hoping there is good attendance! Finally, some other moms who have been here!

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Phil 4:13

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008 10:43 PM, CDT

I wasn't going to write a journal today, but I have been led to do just that.

Today, Wesley got his Project Lifesaver bracelet. He has never gotten lost, but he does have a tendency to wander. After hearing and going through Jacob Allen's disappearance and rescue, (He is an 18 year old with autism that got separated from his parents while hiking. He was missing for 4 days. He did not have a Project Lifesaver bracelet on, but received one shortly after they found him.) We decided to go ahead and get one on Wesley. It has went much better than expected! I figured we would have major melt down, but he has only bothered it a little. He has found that he can use it to make noise with, so he's been banging it on the floor. Good thing they make them durable!

We have trouble leaving Wesley with anyone other than my parents, so going to church has been rough. 3 weeks ago, I went to church for the first time in about a year. God knew it was that right time. In the room that Wesley was in, He placed a very special lady. Cindy is literally a God-send. She has personal experience with autistic behaviors and was looking for a place to serve in church. Wesley walked right into her lap. So, she's working with Wesley at church and she wants to give us respite. She sent me a poem that led me to write tonight's journal.

THE PATHWAY

One day a follower of the Lord knelt before his Father in heaven. With a prayer on his lips, peace in his spirit, and faith in his heart, he gazed into his Father's eyes. He noticed the Lord's eyes were clear, brilliant and sharply focused. The follower turned to see the Lord looking out at a pathway. The pathway was only visible for a few hundred yards and faded from view behind a small hill. The follower noticed other pathways close by. It was at this time that the Lord spoke---

"The pathway you see is the path that I have chosen and prepared for you. Follow it with confidence, trust and courage. It will perfectly lead you into the plans I have for your life. If you ever wonder where the pathway is taking you, simply look down and you will notice my footsteps ahead of you and behind you.

As you walk, you will notice other pathways close to yours. Some will draw your interest and curiosity. You may be attracted because of flowers that border them, trees that shade them, or the direction in which they are heading. What you don't see is the depth of the valleys, and the steepness of the mountains through which they wind. Those whom I have called to travel these other pathways will have grace for their journey. I do not want you to waste your time imagining what it might be like traveling down someone else's path. If you choose another's path, you will not have my grace upon you, and the valleys and hills will burden you and create a weariness within you.

The time and energy I give you will always be enough for each day's travel, and you will find many resting places along the way. Give yourself completely to the path I have prepared for you. As you do, continue to look upon My face, for My smile will be upon you. Never forget that everything is significant and working together for good. I know where the path will take you, for I have already traveled it. Believe Me when I say that you can never imagine the incredible things that await you."

"For the I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper

you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

"These things that I plan for your life won't happen right away. Slowly.....steadily....

surely....the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow.....

wait patiently.....for it will surely take place." Habbakuk 2:3

MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2008 10:30 AM, EDT

I hope this finds everyone after a great weekend. We had a pretty busy one and I didn't get to spend much time with Wesley.

I was missing him pretty good by the time I picked him up last night. So, he had a big surprise for me. When I was putting him the car, Dad was out there and I was trying to get him to say "bye-bye." This is all normal...he had that and several other words and lost them. But out of the blue, he blew Dad a kiss!! I was so excited! Most of what he does is imitation, while good, spontaneous is much better! This is something that he had before and lost, so I was pretty excited to see it again! He also repeated something that sounded like "love you."

He still doesn't really like his bracelet, but he's tolerating it...thank God! I was expecting full blown tantrums.

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, Psalm 30:11

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2008 3:16 PM, CDT

We have officially started PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System.) We started it this morning and so far...I'm not sure how Wesley's going to take it. I think right now, he's just going along with it. I don't think he's really making the connection, but that's what this is all about. Slow steps. We make it very easy for him to begin with, then slowly make it harder. Until he understands the concept and can distinguish between something that he wants and something that he cares nothing about. I think this is going to be really good for him and will make it much easier for him to communicate with other people that don't know him as well. He will be starting preschool in little over 2 months, so I hope this will help.

"Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him." Psalm - Chapter 127:3

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2008 6:18 AM, CDT

Good morning everyone. This week has been a fairly quiet one. Sharon was here yesterday and we are moving Wesley to phase II of PECS. I am so excited that he's doing so well.

Wesley was up at 3 this morning, but he had some regular milk yesterday, so this is what I think happened. Almost everytime he gets milk, as opposed to the rice milk that he usually drinks, he's up VERY early. Ugh!

Next week is going to be a busy one for us. We have two therapy appointments, and two evaluations. We are losing our OT too, so I am going to have to pick a new one. Hopefully, we get a good one.

I will keep you all updated with the appointments next week.

'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.' Isaiah 41:10

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2008 4:29 PM, CDT

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and had a great Halloween, if you celebrate. We took Nicholas out, but Wesley stayed with my dad. All the in and out of the car would have been just too much for him. Nicholas got plenty of candy to share though.

I went to the first meeting of an autism support group today. They are just starting so it will be neat to see where it goes. It was awesome to meet other moms who have been where I am. I was the only one there with a 2 year old. The other kids are between 4 and 8. All of them are already in school too. They are talking about having a play group and maybe a date night thing where they will have sitters so parents will be able to go out on a date! There were 15 people there today. 9 with autistic children, 1 grandmother, 2 providers, and then I thought this was great...there was a gifted teacher there with two of her 6th grade students. They are doing a service project on Autism Awareness this year and are gathering what information they can. They also offered to provide some childcare for the meetings. I thought that was just wonderful! It was interesting to hear where other parents are. I did get some more information about the support group in Fairmont too. I may attend this month's meeting there too. Mom is interested in going. It's so awesome to have such support.

Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O LORD, supported me.

Psalm 94:17-18

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2008 7:09 AM, CST

Good morning everyone! And what a great morning it is! Today is my birthday! It's also my oldest son's birthday too. Happy Birthday Nicholas! He's 8 today. We will be taking him bowling today. One of his favorite things to do. He doesn't know about it yet, but when asked what he wants to do for his birthday, he wants to watch alot of Mythbusters (one of his favorite shows) and go bowling. I think we can take care of one of them! Mom and Dad watched the kids last night so Rich could take me out to dinner. We talked about a movie too, but I guess we are just getting too old...we were too tired for that. We just bought some Ben and Jerry's ice cream and went home. Perfect end to a great day!

Sorry, I haven't updated in a few days...as I said this week was very busy. Let's see if I can get you caught up.

Monday, was when Sharon came to see Wesley. He was NOT in a good mood. It was downright ugly. He refused to do a lot of what she wanted him to do...easy stuff too, like give her five. He is one willful child! But if we don't get through this behavior stuff now, it's going to be a lot harder the older and BIGGER he gets. He is ready for Phase III of PECS, so we started that, but he's not getting it as easily as I had hoped. This is the phase where he has to start differentiating between the pictures. We use two pictures. One that he really wants and one that he cares nothing about. We give him whichever picture he gives us. He's figured it out though...he gives up both pictures! He really is a smart boy! We just have to figure out how to USE those smarts!

Tuesday, there was another autism support group, this one in Fairmont. It's been running for a while. They have childcare, so we took the boys. I was very surprised about how well Wesley did. There were about 5 OT students to watch the children. There were 5 children, so it worked out nicely. Wesley tried to escape about 4 times in an hour and a half. But it was really good to talk to other moms and get some new information.

Wednesday, we had the developmental evaluation for preschool. It was sufficiently horrible. As soon as we walked into the room...didn't even shut the door yet...Wesley started screaming. He did NOTHING for the lady. He did calm down a couple of times though...which is an improvement over the other evals! But even though he didn't do the cognitive stuff the way it's supposed to be done, she was certain that he would qualify for preschool. They have to have a 25% delay in 2 areas...yeah, he qualifies.

Thursday, he had his first private speech session. We also got an OT scheduled too. This went surprisingly well. The room was smaller than the one for the evaluation, but he didn't cry even after the door was shut. He did fuss when Amanda tried doing stuff with him, but we got him calmed down and he finished everything that she asked of him. I was impressed. I think it's going to work well. I'm sad because we only get one half hour per week though. He should get some speech through school to though, so that will help.

Yesterday, he had OT through B2T. We went to a park here in town. They have mulch on the ground and all he wanted to do was play in it. Great sensory play! But, we couldn't get him to do anything else. There was one thing I was all excited about. There was a little girl there who was jumping on the rubber bridge. Wesley was watching her. About 10 minutes later he got up, went to the rubber bridge and started jumping! He was imitating her! Awesome! We have 2 more sessions with this OT and then she is moving to New Mexico. We will miss her. But I think that Wesley is going to have a BLAST with the new OT at PlayWorks. He's younger and he will really put him through it! Lots of sensory stuff!!

We also took cupcakes to Nick's class for his birthday. Wesley did very well there. He loves sweets, so I gave him a cupcake so he could lick the icing while we were passing them out to the kids and when I came back to take the paper off so he could eat the cake...he had apparently already eaten the paper! A little fiber won't hurt! :-)

John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the

world."

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2008 4:56 PM, CST

Hi! It's the first snow day of the season here in WV...and Nick is praying for a ROUGH winter! :-) Wesley didn't really know what to think about the snow falling...the stares outside have gotten longer, it can be very dazzling.

Lots has been going on, so let me get you caught up. He is doing well on his medicine, to the point that I can really tell when he hasn't had it. His sleep has been good and he's been taking naps again! Wow! We got the results of the genetic testing back, everything was negative. So, we still have no reason for the autism. He has started OT and speech at a PlayWorks and is doing really well there! I have been shocked! I am not as worried about school now, I think he will be fine. Things at church are going well too, if we can get there. We missed this last week because of a conference at Stonewall Resort that we got to go to.

The Families Conference was a blast! We had a great time and met some great people. This was a conference to celebrate people with disabilities and their families. We did not take the kids, Wesley just would have had a rough time. I am sure that we would have heard "go" about a million times over the weekend. They stayed with my parents and had a great time too. It wasn't quite as informational as I had hoped, but meeting other parents was wonderful. Not to mention the food at that resort! Yum!!

PECS is still at Phase III. We need to more practicing with him. We got lazy because he was doing so well, so I am spending every day with him several times a day doing trials.

We have started some supplements too. We are just going slow though. Introduced a multivitamin that he should have been taking for some time since he doesn't eat that well. We have a couple of others that we are going to be starting over the next couple of months, I will keep you updated as we do.

Ok, I need to get some work here at the house done. Talk to you soon!

PRO 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of

life.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2008 3:44 PM, CST

Another week is almost past us. The kids had a two hour delay here, so Nick was happy. Well, he would have been happier had they canceled, but he was happy enough. Wesley was happy to get to spend more time with his brother.

We are seeing a few more stims here with Wesley. He has started pacing. It's kinda cute because you can see when he's going to start...he clears out a path. He also loves cars, so he has several around. They are one of the few toys that he will play with appropriately. He just started, this morning, putting as many of them in the microwave as possible. Rich forgot about this and started to warm up some soup for lunch...oops! Had to clean out the microwave first. We usually keep the bedroom door shut because we have a bathroom off it and Wesley likes to play with things that he shouldn't. When I got back today, Rich told me that he found another reason to keep that door shut. He wouldn't tell, "just see for yourself," he said. I forgot about this until I had to go to the bathroom. I walked in and Wesley had taken all those toys from the microwave and tried to see how many he could fit in the toilet! Let me tell you, those little bowls can be deceiving! He fit 1 big car, 3 medium size cars, 1 large transformer and a bendy spongebob in there! He can be a creative little thing!

When I went to lunch with Mom, she had Alex, my nephew, with her. I don't get to spend alot of time with him. He's going to be 2 in Feb...so, he's over a year younger than Wesley. He's picking up words like crazy and it's awesome to see what I can get him to say. Today, Mom was drawing pictures of people that Alex knows and asking him to point to "mommy" "daddy" "aunt Misty" "Wesley" "Grandpa" "Alex" "Nicholas" and he would point them out. Now, he doesn't say many names, but he certainly knew which ones they were supposed to be! He was able to point to eyes, ears, nose, mouth, head, tummy, fingers and toes. It's only when I am around Alex that I can truly see how delayed Wesley actually is. Wesley can't do any of those things.

We just recently got him to point to his nose, pat his head and pat his tummy, but they are all imitation. He can't do the correct one unless you show him. Don't get me wrong...imitation is wonderful too! This was a great day when I got him to do this! Just giving this example to explain how delayed he is. And it's a reality check for me too. I am still in denial sometimes...but mostly, Wesley is my little boy. He is who he is. He's a happy boy and I love him so much that my heart feels like it's going to burst some times.

While I was in the hospital this week...went in on Wednesday night for chest pains and they kept me over night. Everything is fine, they have no idea what it was, but they are confident that it wasn't cardiac related. Anyway, a pharmacy tech came to talk to me at one point and we got to talking about our children and she said that she could see how much I loved them because I just glowed when I talked about them. That's what kind of mother I want to be. I am trying to not let Nick get lost in all this autism craziness. Well, for that matter, I don't want Wesley to get lost either. He's a little boy who just happens to have autism. Autism isn't who he is.

Then Jesus took a small child. Jesus stood the child before the followers. Jesus held the child in his arms and said, "If a person accepts children like these in my name, then that person is also accepting me. And if a person accepts me, then that person is also accepting the One (God) that sent me." Mark 9:36-37(ERV)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2008 5:04 PM, CST

Wow, a month has passed and it's almost Christmas time. Such an interesting time of the year. So many people start early to get ready for it and then can't wait till it is over. It is such a stressful time of the year, but it is also a beautiful, magical time. I love the innocence and excitement of children.

This is where having a child with autism can be very hard. A friend of mine only has one child and he has autism. Christmas is very hard for her. Her son doesn't notice all the Christmas hoopla and doesn't get excited that Santa is going to be leaving something for him under the tree. This should have been the year that Wesley understood all of that. He doesn't.

His birthday is 11 days after Christmas and we are even discussing not having a birthday party for him. More than likely, he would be much happier if we just had cake at my parents house. And this may be the compromise that we make.

So much has happened this month. We had a good Thanksgiving/daddy's birthday. We spent some time in Oceana with Rich's family. So that was fun. Wesley did much better than expected with that...even though it was the beginning of another stretch of terrible sleeping.

We got an invitation to a good friend's 1st birthday/Christmas party and I was determined that we were going to go. We don't go to other houses very often...for obvious reasons...but these people have special needs children of their own and I was determined. Well, as luck would have it, it decided to be horrible that day! Snow and ice. Yuck! Anyway, we made it to their house and discovered that we were the only guests. Turned out to be a great evening! Nick and their boy decided that they had to be related because they liked so many of the same things. Anyway, made it to get Rich from church and was trying to get home when we wrecked the van...our only vehicle...on the ice. They ended up totaling our van leaving us with nothing. But God works in mysterious ways. There has been nothing but positiveness come from this accident. We were all fine, thank God. But in looking for another vehicle we got offered a van from a couple in our church for free! What a blessing! So, now we have the payment from our van set aside for a down payment on a home! Wow! God is great!!

Ok, to update you on the school situation. It's been interesting getting all this together. The IEP was supposed to be done by Dec 15. We met and got it written today, the 23rd. The evaluation for development and speech was terrible. He didn't do anything except scream and try to get out of the room. The OT eval was different and I don't know if that's because Rich took him for that or not. He did everything that they asked him to do but they did see the sensory needs. We had been told that he most likely would not get OT in school because they don't usually get it for sensory. Well, he has it! That's great news! Now, he's being placed in a room with an autism teacher, 5 other autistic children and 6 peers or typical children. There will be 3 adults in the room. I am not happy with this. I will be talking to other parents and we will hopefully meet with the lady in charge of designating another aide to the room. The teacher can only do so much, I think it's time for the parents to speak up. All in all, I am ok with the IEP. I only say ok, because it really brought home the fact that my baby is going to school! He's never been in daycare and I am pretty protective of him. I have been hugging and loving on him all day...he's not so thrilled with that! :-) Oh well, it makes Mommy feel better!

Ok, I think I have gotten you updated now. I pray that everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Luke 2:14

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

I just got this in an email. Thought I would share.

Autism Night Before Christmas

by Cindy Waeltermann

Twas the Night Before Christmas

And all through the house

The creatures were stirring

Yes, even the mouse

We tried melatonin

And gave a hot bath

But the holiday jitters

They always distract

The children were finally

All nestled in bed

When nightmares of terror

Ran through my OWN head

Did I get the right gift

The right color

And style

Would there be a tantrum

Or even, maybe, a smile?

Our relatives come

But they don't understand

The pleasure he gets

Just from flapping his hands.

"He needs discipline," they say

"Just a well-needed smack,

You must learn to parent..."

And on goes the attack

We smile and nod

Because we know deep inside

The argument is moot

Let them all take a side

We know what it's like

To live with the spectrum

The struggles and triumphs

Achievements, regressions...

But what they don't know

And what they don't see

Is the joy that we feel

Over simplicity

He said "hello"

He ate something green!

He told his first lie!

He did not cause a scene!

He peed on the potty

Who cares if he's ten,

He stopped saying the same thing

Again and again!

Others don't realize

Just how we can cope

How we bravely hang on

At the end of our rope

But what they don't see

Is the joy we can't hide

When our children with autism

Make the tiniest stride

We may look at others

Without the problems we face

With jealousy, hatred

Or even distaste,

But what they don't know

Nor sometimes do we

Is that children with autism

Bring simplicity.

We don't get excited

Over expensive things

We jump for joy

With the progress work brings

Children with autism

Try hard every day

That they make us proud

More than words can say.

They work even harder

Than you or I

To achieve something small

To reach a star in the sky

So to those who don't get it

Or can't get a clue

Take a walk in my shoes

And I'll assure you

That even 10 minutes

Into the walk

You'll look at me

With respect, even shock.

You will realize

What it is I go through

And the next time you judge

I can assure you

That you won't say a thing

You'll be quiet and learn,

Like the years that I did

When the tables were turned.......

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2009 5:15 PM, CST

Ok, ok, I'm not good at keeping this up. Now that I am not working, I will try harder...I promise.

Now, let's got to the point. Wesley is now 3 and he's started school! It's been an interesting time...but he's doing wonderfully! I think he would be doing better if it weren't for all the snow and ice we have had here! I don't know that the child has been to school two days in a row! But here's praying that the weather stays stable. Today, I took him to his classroom, the teacher took his coat off and he helped to put it and his backpack up. Then he took his folder and put it were it is supposed to go. Then he turned and went to get the baby doll. He's doing wonderfully with pretend play too! He will "feed" the baby and dress and cover her up. It's so neat to see! He didn't even cry! I am so pleased that he's doing so well. He hasn't tried to get out of the classroom, he follows directions, sits through lunch. These are things that I was very worried about. Right now, he's looking at a book, which he had NO interest in before. It's exciting to see!

His sleep isn't good right now. I'm thinking that this is from the holidays when we let the diet slip. Milk seems to be a huge factor in his sleep problems, so think that we are still working that out. Ugh!

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend.

“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”- Mark 9:35

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2009 2:08 PM, CST

Good afternoon, everyone. Just a quick update on Wesley. Today is the first day of the afternoon bus. We were told at first that they could not provide transportation for us because they didn't have enough buses to come up our road. Then when another kid changed his drop off spot, they could get Wesley home in the afternoon, but still no bus in the morning. I am ok with that for now. I can get him to school, it was the getting home that was wreaking havoc on Rich's schedule. Right now, we only have one vehicle, but we are praying that in the next couple of weeks our other car will be fixed! Thanks to Eddie (my brother in law) and Dad!

Anyway, Wesley is still doing well in school, even though he is starting to show his true colors. He was a totally different kid there, he was following directions, sitting still...all the stuff that we were having trouble with. Yesterday, Bethany told me that when he was asked to do something, he would throw himself in the floor and cover his eyes...now, THAT'S the Wesley I know! The other day I ran a bath for Wes while he was watching Cars...one of his faves...and when I told him to come get in the bath, he would tell me "no" and cover his eyes...leaving gaps so he could still see the TV! :-) I have a picture of it and will upload it soon. It was so funny!

I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me. Psalms 13:5-6

TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2009 11:54 PM, CDT

Good evening. We have had some sickness in the house the past couple of weeks. Both of the kids had strep throat with high fevers and vomiting...lucky us, huh? Anyway, I think we are getting over it...now my parents have it. My sister is having surgery next week, so we will be helping with her little boy. He loves Wesley and Wesley loves him...they just don't really know how to take one another yet. Maybe the extra time together will help. Alex really wants Wesley to play with him, but Wesley doesn't really know how to do that, so they end up chasing each other...Wesley certainly knows how to run.

Alex is just a little guy compared to Wesley, he's also a year younger. Developmentally, though, he's past Wesley. You ought to hear the words coming from Alex! It's awesome to hear, but heartbreaking at times that I am unguarded.

Wesley is going on his first field trip tomorrow. I'm kinda excited to see how he will do. They are going to the ice rink, they will have "snow" to play with on the ice. Wesley has also started a Tiny Tykes Tumbling class for special needs children. Well, he missed the first class because of strep last week, but I am so excited for Friday to get here!

We have signed up as a team to be in the 2009 Walk Now for Autism in Wheeling, WV on May 30th. We have a website where we can take donations or people can sign up to be on our team. I'm pretty excited about that too!

Ok, I know this was a pretty rambling entry...it's midnight now, so that's my excuse. :-)

Each of us has something different to contribute, and no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, it can be for the benefit of all. --Lauritz Mechior

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2009 9:10 PM, CDT

Good evening everyone! I just got the kids to bed, so I thought I would jot down some notes for you all. I'm trying to keep you filled in...even though I am unsure who "you" are. It's funny that I am writing this, but I am not really sure who's reading it. I mean, I know that my mom does, but then I am pretty sure she knows all the info that I put on here. Oh well, read on! :-)

Wesley had his first field trip. They went to the skating rink. I thought that he would have a good time...I was wrong, it's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last. Wesley started freaking before we even got to the door. He somehow knew that he absolutely did not want to go in there. Wesley is a flopper. If he doesn't want to go any further, his bones just magically disappear! This is not good for a 60lbs kid! We finally got him onto the ice, but he wasn't having it...solved the flopping problem though...he didn't know what to think when his hands got cold! They had sleds for the kids to ride, hockey set up on one end and snow piled in the center. All of the other kids, except one, was LOVING it! Not mine. We did finally get him to walk around on the ice and even got him on a sled. But he certainly wasn't having any fun, and he let you know it! He was way happier just playing on the bleachers and in between the soda machines. Oh well. I had fun watching the other kids.

That Friday was Wesley's first tumbling class, after the field trip, I wasn't too hopeful. I wasn't disappointed either! I let one of the teachers take him in first, but he wasn't happy. So, I took him in. Of all the things in that place to play with...trampolines, foam pit, foam wedges, hula hoops...the child wants to play with the water fountain!! He finally took off exploring, and found a trampoline...I figured he had found his spot, he loves the trampoline at home. Nope, off to the races again. Now, there were 2 girls there practicing and he about got ran over by one of them! He found the foam pit and fell in love!! I sat there with him for a little while, but I eventually left him to return to the parent area. It was neat to see. They didn't have a class this last Friday because it was spring break for the University, but he will have another one this week...I don't know, but we will try it again. I think if they let him in the foam pit that he will be fine.

I just realized that I didn't give my web address for the Walk Now for Autism. http://www.walknowforautism.org/wheeling/wesley

I am doing a craft fair on April 4th at Skyview Elem. from 9-4 and will be donating a portion of my sales to the walk. Come down and take a look at what I have. It's my first craft fair and I am pretty nervous about it. I make soaps, lip balm, body butter, bath salts. Smelly things. :-)

Oh yeah, April is Autism Awareness month and I am part of a support group here in Morgantown and we have scheduled some events in April. Depending on the turn out at these, we may schedule some others. On April 2nd, we are having a play date at PlayWorks. We are still working out the times and such of the others...if you are interested, just let me know and I will get you the information! We would love to pack these events! I know that we have the Rec center pool for one day! It's going to be exciting!

I think that this is very apt for everyone, including our children:

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness. --Therese of Lisieux

FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2009 2:00 PM, CDT

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! To all who have been praying for Wesley! Just in the last few weeks, his vocabulary has expanded by 3 times! Now, let's put this into perspective...before it was about 2 words...now it's about 6 words. But that is incredible! Especially when it felt like a brick wall we were up against! I have not idea what prompted this spurt, but I love it! We really were having trouble getting Wesley to mimic or repeat, but it seems like about 2 weeks ago, he suddenly "got it!" I know that I am using lots of exclamation points, but you can't imagine how excited I am. I was cautiously optimistic when it first started, but we are still seeing it 2 weeks later!

Let me give you an example. In a normal speech session, which is 30 minutes, he would usually say very little...if he said anything it was usually "no." Today, he repeated 23 words, 6 phrases and one sentence!!!!!