A month's worth of stuff

Well its been a month since I have written in our family blog.  Lots of new things have happened over the last month with our family.  Katie is talking so much more and becoming so mature for her age.  She is really a blessing to have and I am so grateful that she is a great kid with her own unique personality.  She really keeps us on our toes and I love that everyday she learns something new and wants to share it with everybody.  She currently is taking art and absolutely loves it.  She is not the cleanest or even the neatest artist but she loves doing it so that is all that matters.  She is doing really well in school right now and its amazing how much she has grown over the last few months with her language and personality.  She is so good with her brother which I am thankful for.  She tends to be a bit bossy with Alan but that is what sisters are for. 

Alan on the other hand just takes it and does what she wants.  I guess he is learning at an early age to just go with the flow when it comes to girls.  ;-)  He is doing great in school.  I am so proud of all he has accomplished over the last 3 years.  I am still amazed that he went from a non-verbal and non-functioning child to an independent talking child.  I was at a support group meeting last night and I was talking to another mom who is going through the same things as I am and I just love hearing about how much these children are  making so much progress.  Its going to be 3 years in February that Alan received his diagnosis, 3 years in March that we started ABA and 3 years in January that we started Biomedical.  Everyone asks me what I did to help my child to be where he is today which is fully mainstreamed and an independent functioning child.  I always start off with "we have to remember each of our children are different and not all benefit from what we did with Alan".  It saddens me that things we did for Alan do not work for all but I can only advise and help on my knowledge of what worked for Alan.  We had a guest speaker last night at the meet-up and he said something  important "you can only be an expert on your child".  Learn about your child and become an expert on him or her because our kids are not alike in many many ways.  So, when I help more people I can explain that the things we did worked for Alan, but it might not work on another child.  I believe I have gotten away from a lot of Alan's biomedical and even his ABA because he is doing so well.  I guess I slacked off a little because of all the remarkable progress and I just needed a little break.  I think its time to become more involved again and really diving in to help Alan become even more of an independent child.  Its time to set new short and long term goals. Alan is by no means recovered or cured as some would say.  He still has some deficits and we are currently working on those.  He has a lot of problems with conversations.  He has the communication part down and even his conversational skills are improving as long as they are about him and what he wants to talk about.  His main issue is giving information that I want to hear about.  Little things as tell me about your day, who did you play with, what did you do for recess.  He shuts down and says "I don't know" and that's all I get.  I spent all day yesterday asking about his day.  I started off with telling him about my day and what I did.  I even had Katie tell him about her day so he understands what I am wanting.  He did not give me anything but we tried and will keep pushing until he is bursting to tell us about what he did.  I did learn this morning that his class went to Australia and he went to music.  His class is visiting different countries this week and they are learning about different cultures.  We also have drawing and writing issues that are being address too.  He can write all his letters both upper and lower now we are working on him writing words and short sentences.  Its new and challenging so he is being stubborn, but he is moving along with it.  Anything new and different that Alan does not know how to do he always gets stubborn.  It is a good thing though because we have found something we can challenge him with.  The drawing and coloring is coming along and I know within a few months all of this will be mastered and we will have to find something else to challenge him on.  It is always like starting a new adventure in a remote part of land.  There are those easy treks across a flat piece of land then you come to a raging river, then a forest, a nice trek over a hill and finally you get to that mountain.  Once you are over that mountain you have that overwhelming feeling of accomplishment.  I love that feeling and I am so happy I have a child to show and teach me all these new adventures.  My children are such a blessing and they make my life such and an enjoyable existence.  I would like to give a gigantic (new Alan word) thank you to my husband who has been my rock and has been so understanding through this journey.  Without him I have no idea if we would have accomplished as much as we have in such a short time.  He has sacrificed so much on this journey and I am thankful for all of his support.