Katie's Show Day at the Little Gym

Well my daughter finished her 20 week class at the Little Gym just like her brother.  She has come a long way since starting this class.  She can now do her forward rolls, high balance beam, and high bar.  She can also hang by herself from the bar and put her feet up.  She has also gained confidence in this program and I am looking forward to seeing her start the next class and and learn even more. 

Here she is doing some of her routines:

 

Alan's Show Day at Little Gym

Alan received a medal after his 20 week class at the Little Gym.  When we first started at Little Gym he had a hard time attending, following directions, and usually went off by himself.  I watched over the last 20 weeks how much Alan improved in these skills.  He attended and listened very well.  He stayed with the group about 99% of the time.  He enjoyed himself and interacted well with his peers.  He became confident in himself with all the routines that he teacher taught him.  It still amazes me to remember when we first put him in a class like this at Gymboree where he always wanted to be by himself and never participated with the other children.  Now he is becoming a little social butterfly.

On Show day, January 15, 2011, Alan surprised me yet again.  He usually gets really shy or shuts down when a lot of attention is brought to him but he did awesome this day.  He came running in when his name was called and showed all the parents his favorite move which was a forward roll.  He then proceeded to each station show me and everyone else in the room what he could do.  I was so proud of him.  I am proud of him either way but it brings joy to my heart to see him just fly.

Here he is with all his friends doing a train while holding on to each others ankles. 

Here he is doing his high bar routine.  Loves the height.

Doing his balance beam routine.

Here is his class with his teachers.  He loves both his teacher especially Ms. Gabby who is next to him.

He will be starting Karate next week at the Little Gym.  I am hoping he takes to this so we can put him at a regular Karate place.  I think it will really help him build up that confidence.

January 2011

Well its a new year and I am looking forward to it.  Alan has been talking up a storm which is great.  He talks a mile a minute as they say.  He loves to say my name over and over and over again, did I mention he loves to say my name again and again.  While sitting at my computer he has said my name at least 10 times and I just sat down.  I love it and so happy he talks to me.  It is great to watch both of my children play together.  I love their pretend play.  It does not make sense to me at all but they play so well together.  I only have to break them up once or twice a day but that's typical.  Alan was recently diagnosed with mild asthma and the doctor feels its due to this bad winter we are having.  She put him on medication and he has stopped coughing and sleeping so much better.  I hope this 7-day treatment works he he can stop the medications.  He surprises me every time.  Due to his oral sensory issues he still has problems tolerating certain foods and objects on his face.  So when the doctor prescribed a nasal spray I thought for sure he would bolt at it but nope after a few days he now asks for his nose medicine.  He says "It makes my nose feel better".  Now he asks for his "breathing treatment" to help his cough.  He tolerates the mask very well which shocked me, but that's Alan always a surprise.  I just love him so much and so happy of all the progress he has made. 

My daughter is doing great and she has been a great help with us all.  She keeps us on our toes and is a joy to watch and be with.  She is an awesome sister to Alan and a great little girl to us. 

We have decided to try and have another baby.  We have been debating this for a while because we wanted to make sure Alan would be okay.  I did not want to have another baby if Alan or Katie needed more attention.  So, now that Alan is doing great and Katie is doing really good we have decided to add one more child to our family.  I am super excited about having one more baby.  I think three is a perfect number.  Alan wants a baby brother and Katie wants a baby sister. I am sure they will love him or her either way.  I cannot wait to see their reaction when we bring a baby home.  Not pregnant yet but we are planning and looking forward to it. 

Joe is currently in pre-deployment stages so its going to be hard over the next year with the kids missing their daddy and I missing my husband but we just have one more year and we are done with the ship.  I am hoping this next year goes fast and we get to be a family again in the same house and state.  Looking forward to moving to a new place.  I am hoping we get Dallas, Texas since that will put us closer to family and closer to where we want to retire.  Not looking forward to seeing the kids lose their friends but we will make more and that will be a good experience for them.  I will make it a grand adventure for the kids and try and make it as exciting as possible. 

Well thanks for reading and take care,

Ketzie

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.

Updates

Need to get use to blogging more.  I wanted to do this as a daily journal for myself and any followers but it seems it has become another thing I forget about. 

Went to a support group meeting on Tuesday and it is so nice to talk to a group of ladies who understand where you have been and there to provide support for the future.  Sometimes I listen to new mom's and it takes me back to the days of when Alan was first diagnosed.  It is amazing to see how far he has come since being diagnosed.  I can still remember the sleepless nights and the fighting to get him to eat something.  The worries of when will he ever talk to me or will he ever talk.  My happiest moment is when Alan said "Mommy, I love you".  It's the littlest thing a child can do but to me it was the biggest thing Alan did.  My daughter says it all the time and I take it for granted now.  I am stepping back and remembering all the times with Alan and just questioning how we did it as a family.  He still has his good and bad days but we all do.  Everyday I see areas we can improve on and tweak to better his life.  I forget to step back and just enjoy what we have now.  I guess I am still on the train and I want it to keep moving 100mph until we reach our final destination.  I do not want to stop and enjoy the scenery.  Regression is my biggest worry.  We just added dairy back into his diet after 4 years of being off of it and he is doing great.  I only give him a little because that regression monster is still lurking in my mind. 

Other than those worries he is doing great and moving along nicely.  Now, we still have the battles to eat but not like it was 2 years ago.  He never stops talking which I love but then at times wish he would really like to play the "Quiet Game".  I observed Alan the other day in his class.  I went all day and watched and learned about his day.  He knew I was there but I did not bother him.  I worked with the other students and learned about his friends.  It was so great to see how well he worked with his group.  He talked, laughed, and enjoyed his day.  He still has areas where he can get a little overwhelmed but other than that he had a great day.  His teacher told me she assessed his reading and he is at an 8-10 level on the DRA.  It's great to see that he has a passion for reading.  He is also really good in math.  When it comes to handwriting, drawing, and coloring he still falls behind but we are working on that.  If he is anything like his mommy the art gene is just not there. 

Yesterday, in his class was awards day and he received the sportsmanship award.  Its an award where a student makes sure his classmates are happy and has all his or her materials that is needed.  The teacher said he is a great helper to his classmates and wants everyone to be happy in the class.  She also stated that when a student is absent he gets worried and wants to know if they are okay.  I was surprised at how much he was concerned about his classmates and excited that he has bonded with his classmates.  For a child that was supposedly never to talk or socialize he sure is doing a great job of it. 

I am going to have to blog more because I like having a daily journal for others to read.  I want to give hope to other parents and show you that your child can improve and function on his or her own.  It takes a lot of time and energy but as parents there is nothing more we would rather do than help our child succeed.  My last advice in this entry is to just enjoy each day.  Record it, take pictures, write about it, video it.  That is my biggest regret is not videoing more.  I wish I would have videoed everything good or bad to help me remember and show others that it does get better.

Take Care,

Ketzie 

Halloween 2010

After returning from the fair, we got ready for trick or treating.  This was the kids very first trick or treating for Halloween.  We always let them dress up but we actually went out in the neighborhood and did some trick or treating.  Alan dressed as Buzz Lightyear and Katie dressed as Snow White.  We went with our neighbors and the kids really enjoyed it.  They were so excited.  When we got home I let the kids give out candy for about 20 minutes before we called it quits.  Great night.

Carolina Coastal Fair

We decided to bring the kids to the fair on October 31st.  The kids were super excited when we pulled in and they saw the Ferris Wheel.  Alan starting talking about everything he saw.  As we entered the fairgrounds the kids were excited to see everything.  Our first ride was the Ferris Wheel.  The kids really enjoyed this especially when we stopped at the top and they could look down.  Next, we played some games.  Alan played hit the balloons with a dart and won a dog.  He did really well. Daddy tried to win a prize for Katie but the game was really hard so we moved on the balloon popping station again.  Mommy won her a orange puppy.  We then went on a search for the animals and found the kiddie park.  Alan was able to ride a dragon coaster.  Katie was too short so we went wait in line at the Bumble Bee ride.  I rode with both kids and they enjoyed it.  We walked on and found an elephant and camel.  We then rode a train and ended our day with this ride.  The fair was so much fun and I am glad the kids enjoyed their first fair. 

Catch-Up

Well it has been awhile since I posted on our blog.  This week has been a bit hectic, but I finally have a little free time.  Alan had two soccer games last week and he had a great time.  He was focused, attentive, and had a lot of fun with his teammates.  I love the way the team interacts with him and how they all get along.  It is nice to see him making friends.  We are making a lot of changes to Alan's ABA programs and I am hoping with all these new changes we will see improved results in his conversation skills.  He is doing so great with ABA that I feel in a couple of years he will no longer need it.  I cannot wait for that day where we can be just a family without strangers coming in and out of our house all week.  I do not want to say being normal because well we will probably never be that normal family which I think is great.  Its good to be different and think outside of that box.  What fun is it to be just normal.  My son makes me laugh everyday with his quirkiness and great sense of humor, and I would not trade that for anything. 

This past weekend we decided to change the playroom into an even better playroom. We added a nice comfy couch, cable box just for the kids, Wii gaming system, and a nice 10' caterpillar named Jeffrey.  All of this was my husband's idea.  He always seems to come up with some great ideas and so glad he is here to help implement them.  Now, the 10' caterpillar might have been one of those "what were you thinking" buys but the kids love him.  Jeffrey was kind of hard to resist, just look at that face. 

I brought our daughter to see the Princess on Ice show and wished I would have brought Alan with us.  He would of enjoyed it too.  I guess next year's Mickey's Magic Show will have to make up for it.  It was a good day though.  Daddy and Alan spent some quality time together.  They went to Little Gym and then a train ride which Alan enjoyed a lot.

We also met with Alan's supervisor of his ABA program and I see great changes about to occur.  I like the fact we no longer need intensive teaching or table time.  He is such a smart and fast learner that he no longer needs that.  We no longer need to document behavior because well he rarely has behavior problems.  I call them just being 5 because well that is what it is.  He has an opinion and not afraid to express it.  I love the fact we will start doing community outings and show Alan what is out there for him to do.  I think we are about to start the fun ABA therapy.  It was all fun but I just felt he needed a change and this will help him interact with kids his age more and we can really work on those conversation and interaction skills.

We also had a visit from an old friend I guess I could say.  Alan's OT came to visit and see Alan.  It was nice to hear all the comments of how much he has improved and grown.  I enjoy all of these compliments because knowing what we did to help our son made all of it worth it.  I always wonder if I push my son too much and too hard.  Now, I just want to keep going because I can see that finish line.  It does not seem too far now like it did in the beginning.  I know now that all the hours Alan has worked paid off and he will be able to function in the real world.  He will graduate high school and go off to college.  We are lucky parents to have such wonderful children.  They are a joy every day.

Great Day and a Great Game

Another great day in our little world.  Alan had a great day at school today.  He came home and did his reading program and then we played a few games.  After a few games I told him I needed to do some paperwork so I laid on the floor with my paperwork and began to work.  He came and laid right next to me slipped his hand between my arms and snatched my phone.  He loves playing Angry Birds on my iPhone.  So we laid next to each other me doing my paperwork and him playing a game.  I want to say this moment was priceless.  I had a friend ask today if I ever thought Alan would be where he is today.  After the diagnosis I set so many short and long term goals so that I had something to strive for.  He has met all my goals faster than I would have thought.  My ultimate goal was for him to eat and communicate and he is flourishing with that.  My next goal was for him to go to Kindergarten and he worked so hard and met that goal.  I was asked what do I want now and that is for him to no longer need therapy and just be a kid.  I know he will meet this goal and I look forward to that day because I think that deserves a big party. 

We had a soccer game tonight and he had so much fun.  He interacts so well with his team.  He talks and laughs with them.  It is amazing to see him socialize and interact with other children.  He brings joy and laughter to everyone he meets.  He is a joy to me and I look forward to everyday with him.  I just love when he talks because he makes me laugh at least twice a day.  He has a great personality and I am so happy he shares it with everyone.

Great Day!

Display my Art

Alan's school is having another fundraiser that I do not mind participating in.  Its all about him so what parent would not want to buy your child's art.  At www.displaymyart.com his art is displayed for all to see and buy.  His order number is 277366, for the State of South Carolina (SC).  I would love an interpretation.  As soon as my order comes in I want him to sit down with me and explain what he drew and why.  Its really remarkable how far he has come from not being able to draw lines last year to make this. It is a huge improvement from last year and I cannot wait to see more of his art.

Knock Knock Joke

My son finally make me laugh with his knock, knock joke.  While dressing for school he put on everything but his shirt.  When attempting to put on his shirt one arm came through and he left the other in the shirt.  He then said knock knock using his hand to knock from the inside.  I said, "Whose there", he said "hand", I said "hand who", he said "Hand wants to come out, hand wants to come out" in a really funny voice.  Its one of those things that you have to be there and  hear him.  It was so hilarious.  So proud he finally made a joke.  I always laugh at his other jokes but this one truly made me laugh so hard I cried. 

Soccer Game

Last night, Alan had another great soccer game.  He was a bit tired during his game so he did not play as well but he still followed all the rules and gave it his best.  Afterwords, we picked up Chick-Fil-A for dinner.  I had a support group meeting this night so we had to have a quick meal.  With the kids safe with their babysitter I was off to Mt. Pleasant for the meeting.  There were 19 of us in the room and we all shared our stories with each other.  It was difficult to hear from the mom's with older children and their struggles of having teenagers with Autism.  It was also great to hear how each family overcame these obstacles and how well their children are doing.  I am excited that this support group was started and I hope that we can help many parents in the future. 

Today, Alan had a great day at school.  He came home and wanted to play with his trains.  I told him he could play for a few minutes until his therapist came.  Well low and behold once "JD" arrived he came down about 5 minutes later and went straight to the play room.  That was awesome because usually he stays up there until the therapist gets him.  He had a great session with "JD".  His SLP came as well and she did some assessment testing.  Another great day in therapy land. For dinner I fixed Chicken and Rice.  Alan ate the chicken with some french fries.  He ate all his chicken and asked after dinner if he could watch "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom".  He said he would finish all his dinner so he could watch it.  He loves that show.  Put the kids to bed with no problems and now I am taking a well deserved break.  Till Tomorrow!