Day 15

Today was a great day. For breakfast he ate 2 organic marshmallow bars, one waffle, two pieces of toast, and two cups of rice milk. Not a bad breakfast! Today was also our first true test of the diet. We had a first Holy Communion party today and we knew that most of the food at the party was not GF/CF. Dawn packed his food and off we went.

At the party there were pasta, meatballs, chicken francaise, rolls, manicotti, cake, M&M's, and a huge hero sandwich shaped in a cross. There were potato chips, butter pretzels, and cheese doodles for snacks. Before the diet this would have been right up Ryan's alley. He would have eaten for the entire four hours we were at the party and whined for more when we told him that was enough. Today was a much different story.

He did ask for some things but we simply told him no and offered him something else that we brought. Dawn had packed organic GF/CF chicken nuggets, organic french fries, and organic ketchup for his dinner and he ate it without complaint. He did not go up to the buffet table and beg/demand for food. He ate all of his food and continued playing with his sister and the rest of the cousins. We were so proud of him!

It was also great to observe Ryan interacting with others. The hosts of the party had brought arts and crafts for all the kids to play with to help pass the time. In the past, Ryan wanted nothing to do with these types of activities. We used to have to bring a portable DVD player and let him watch a show in the corner to calm him down. Today was a much different story. He sat and participated in the arts and crafts. There were small foam shaped objects, like sail boats, surf boards, and such that had a small piece of paper on the back that had to be peeled off. Ryan sat down in the middle of the group and peeled these little pieces of paper off for over 30 minutes. He never once asked for help. He then stuck these foam shapes onto a little picture frame. He kept showing his art work to some of the high school aged cousins and he was the one that was engaging the conversation. When asked what he was doing, he said that he was making a gift for Mommy. Even when Dawn had to step away to change Julia he waited for her to be done and ran up to her to show her what he had made!

At one point during the party, Dawn was talking to one of her relatives and was telling her about Ryan's diagnosis of Autism. The woman was shocked and told Dawn that the doctor must have been pulling her leg. Ryan looked fine. He was talking to people, interacting with his cousins, playing appropriately, sharing toys, and did not have any melt downs. This was the first family gathering that we did not have to be running around after Ryan and we were able to enjoy the party.

When it was time for cake we thought that we would be in trouble. We had been there for four hours and both of the kids were getting tired. One of the people at the party had made GF/CF brownies for her son and made a big enough batch to share. Ryan had two brownies and cut up strawberries. He asked for cake once but Dawn told him no and again offered him an alternative. He did ask for a second brownie. Once he finished, he just got down and continued to play. It was amazing. The fact that he was the only person at the table not eating cake did not bother him at all! In the past it would have been a nightmare if he did not have what everyone else was having, especially cake! Like I wrote at the top of the blog today was a great day!

PC