Week 32

Thanksgiving!

For so many parents who have a child with special needs, holidays can be a very stressful time.  Schedules change, food is different, and we hope that they do not meltdown too badly.

This is our first holiday season with Ryan and this diet.  We started to notice differences last year and the holidays only solidified our belief that something was different with Ryan.  This season is looking like it is going to be a much different experience.  We are so grateful for all the support and help that we receive from family and friends.  We sometimes forget how much progress Ryan has made over these past 32 weeks.  It is not until someone comes over to the house that has not seen him for sometime and the look of surprise on their face is all worth it! 

We consider ourselves very lucky to have people who have seen our progress and embrace this diet.  I am sure there were a few, myself included, that thought how much difference can changing his diet help?  Now, we have people asking us what he can eat, what kinds of desserts that they can bring over to the house or serve if we are going to them.  We have found so much support and help that this Thanksgiving season we are so blessed to have you in our life. 

We have included a few pictures of Ryan during the Thanksgiving weekend.



Practicing sign language. This was a chart that he received from his PARC program.



                                                                           



Making door signs with his sister. 





Playing hide and seek!





With some of the cousins that visited this holiday weekend.





PC

Week 31

The kids attended their new preschool, Noah's Ark, this week.  They love it there!  Even Ryan's bus driver noticed a difference and mentioned to me that Ryan seems so much happier when he picks him up from daycare each morning. 

Julia's teacher, Ms. Jessie, watches them when I drop them off and she is quite the artist.  They attended five days this week and Ryan came home 4 of the days with a different train hat that she made for him.  As soon as we arrive, Ryan runs and picks out a Thomas the Train book.  He picks a character, and while they eat breakfast, Ms. Jessie makes him a hat.  It makes him feel SO special!  In order from left to right, meet Diesel 10, Lady, Percy, and Thomas.

I think in a previous blog Phil mentioned Ryan's progress at PARC, and how the teacher is teaching the kids to sing songs.  Well, there's been more to it.  While up at my parents' this past weekend, Ryan picked up a flag and...

I have to say that the first time he recited The Pledge of Allegiance it caught me totally by surprise and brought tears to my eyes!  When we got back home Ryan showed the video to Phil and he was also pleasantly surprised. 

Not everything has been great this week.  Over the past couple of weeks Ryan has been having meltdowns at home and at school when things don't go his way.  Simple things to typical people, like Julia not wiping her feet on the rug and his teachers asking him to hold a door open, have set Ryan off.  It doesn't help that Ryan and Julia have been fighting a lot more lately.  While we mentioned last week how independent Ryan has become, well Julia is doing the same, and they are clashing!  Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of loving moments between them, we just can't leave them alone for more than a minute because you never know what to expect.  And when things turn bad, it's fast and furious!

The kids made it through a Christmas card photo-shoot by mommy.  We bribed them with a lollipop to get dressed and spend 10 minutes outdoors letting me take pictures of them.  They happily accepted.  I would have given them a BAG of lollipops to cooperate, but they were happy with one!  They did a nice job smiling and following directions.  The photography wasn't too bad; not perfect but it will do!  Here's a sneak peek of a few of the photos... 
 

                               







                                  

By the way, did you know there's such a thing as Gluten Free turkey?!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  May you be blessed with a week full of family, food, and fun!

DC

Week 30

Independence...

This week will go down in our memory as the week Ryan has demanded independence.  "I want to do it by myself" was his phrase of the week.  From making his own chocolate milk to going to bed, Ryan wanted to do most things by himself this week.  Considering our original appointment with Dr. Bock was originally scheduled for last week I can't imagine where we'd be with Ryan right now.  I doubt we would have been able to keep up the diet without the support of a doctor and the tests he performed.  I know for one thing, we'd still be feeding Ryan eggs.  But fate has been on our side, and we can chalk up another win for Ryan this week.

One morning Ryan went downstairs to "start breakfast" for him and Julia.  I was about a minute behind them and when I got there he had already taken his rice milk out of the refridgerator and poured himself a glass.  He had also set up 2 bowls and 2 spoons and took the chocolate syrup out to make chocolate milk. 

Each evening this week he wanted to put himself to bed.  He instructed Phil and I to remain downstairs and he was going to go do it all by himself.  He set up a step stool to turn on his music, he turned on his nightlight, lined up the entourage of stuffed friends and hopped into bed.  Now of course I couldn't just let him go up there by himself and not tuck him in and give him a good night kiss.  So I gave him a couple of minutes and went up to his room to check on him.  I told him I wanted another kiss goodnight.

Ryan has also been more independent getting dressed, putting on his sneakers (which is a big deal for him to do on his own!), and washing his hands.  He did a great job getting his injections this week and was adament about being the one to place the empty syringe in its special container after showing it to daddy.  Not only has Ryan been doing things for himself, he's been doing things to help us too.  Over the weekend he spent about half an hour helping Phil and I do yard work.  It was boring work but he helped us without complaining.

During the week we went to the Radio City Christmas Show and Ryan had a great time.  He was entertained the entire time and did a nice job following directions and staying put in his seat.

Ryan has also been doing a lot of pretend play the past few days. Here is a picture of the picnic he set up for his "friends". And he set it up, ALL BY HIMSELF!

DC

Week 29

We had another good week with Ryan.  His language is improving greatly and he is now talking in full sentences most of the time.  We had his parent - teacher conference with his teacher Ms. Sue and it was a positive report.  He still is saying no sometimes to his teachers (although we have high school student that are not autistic telling teachers no!) and his fine motor skills are still below where they should be at his age. 

We did have a set back this week.  We tried re-introducing pizza and he loved it!  Unfortunately we then received two bad reports from school that he was not participating in circle time.  Circle time before this diet was a complete disaster and what they were describing (getting up, not wanting to participate, and playing with something else) were exactly the behaviors that gave us the push to visit the pediatric neurologist last spring.

Injections are still going great and we finally have a video of the procedure.    He has come such a long way in such a short amount of time with these injections. We wish we had a video of one of the injections six weeks ago to show the huge difference. 

We also had another birthday party this weekend.  It was at the Build-A-Bear in the Jefferson Valley Mall for a classmate of Ryan's.  He did such a great job at the place.  He followed directions, waited his turn on line, played duck-duck-goose and Simon Says with the other children, and had a great time.  We even had cake in the food court and we brought one of his cupcakes and he was fine with that as an option.  Although, he did walk into the food court and announced that he smelled French Fries then told me how much he loves fries!  One of the great things about this party was that he was able to build a bear.  The only ironic part is that the girl did not understand that Ryan wanted to name the bear Sally and she thought he said Shary!  On the certificate it now states that the bears name is Shary.  So below is a picture with a brown bear in a baseball outfit called Shary, a new addition to the sleep time collection.  Each one has a spot and each one has to be in the bed before we can turn out the lights.

 Over all a good week and hopefully we continue this this upward swing.  We will keep you updated with the Circle Time report next week.

PC