Week 66

The kids being silly...

 

After weeks of watching Julia jump in the pool Ryan finally did it on his own.  He wouldn't jump in unless I was in the pool and holding his hand while he jumped from the edge.  For a while he did this and got a big kick out of my parents on the sidelines clapping for him.  But then they said they weren't going to clap anymore unless he did it all by himself without holding on to my hand.  Well he was so excited to have people clap for him that he did it on his own!  Here is a video of one of his solo jumps... (and he clapped for himself!)

 

With all of this swim time he's had this summer, Ryan's skin is super hydrated.  It is sooooo soft!  It hasn't been this smooth and soft since he was a little baby.  

And nonna's and papa's house is not just about the pool.  Here are some other activities the kids enjoyed...

Who needs to walk to go pick up the mail when you can hitch a ride in the wagon on papa's lawn mower?

Couldn't resist... their faces are just priceless in this shot!

Julia looks as happy as can be but Ryan looks a little unsure of Julia driving all by herself!

A true backseat driver.

 
In this video, papa wants her to turn left and she goes the wrong way.  Ryan is not very forgiving of her mistake... but it is still so cute (and funny) to watch!

Ryan quickly got the hang of the slip and slide.

He even tried it face first which was a pleasant surprise since he doesn't like to get his face wet.

On the food front, I baked from scratch GFCF egg free cupcakes for Ryan because we ran out of our supply in the freezer.  I modified a recipe I sometimes use and they came out great.  You can't even tell they aren't regular chocolate cupcakes.  They were so moist, which is a difficult feat to master when baking GF dessert items, especially without using eggs.  The trick was using Vegan mayonnaise.

This weekend we visited our friends Angela and Michael in their new home in Brooklyn.  On the way down the kids were looking through the mail in the backseat. Ryan was reading through a grocery store flyer and he found the bakery section.  He proudly announced that they had a cake for $7 but it isn't "gluten free Ryan cake"!  We got a good chuckle with that one.  Ryan was very excited to play video games and watch Michael play Mario Brothers on the Wii.  Below are some pictures and a video. 

Attached at the hip, and sitting the same way!

Notice Ryan's left hand holding on to Michael!

In front of the "Welcome Ryan & Julia" sign on the door.

As you can see, Ryan became very attached to Michael as he always does when we get together with them.  And Julia clung to Angela.  Several times on the ride home the kids said they were going to miss Angela and Michael, and Ryan said, "I miss my friend."

I brought him up to bed a few minutes ago and Ryan says to me, "Tomorrow after camp I want to go to someone's house."  When I asked him whose house he replied, "Someone that has glasses and someone that doesn't have glasses, Michael and Angie."  What an observant sweetie!

DC

Week 65

It is already late Sunday night and after spending a good portion of the day with the kids in the pool, I'm exhausted.  So this week's blog is going to be short and sweet. 

Ryan had a great week with lots of different people.  He participated in cookie day, pizza day, and arts and crafts day at camp.  We went to our friend Donna's pool and Ryan did a nice job socializing with her and her family.  While upstate at my parents' house, Phil's friend Kim came for a visit and although Ryan didn't remember him, he was not shy at all.  He spent a lot of time with him in the pool.  Then the next day Ryan interacted with my great Aunt Teresa and Uncle Mario.  It's nice to see him not shy away from people as much as he used to. 

I'd also like to share a quick story.  Ryan and Julia were sitting at the table with company eating an ice cream treat.  Ryan finished his and asked for more.  It was close to bedtime and I really didn't want to give him more.  But I also didn't want him to have a meltdown in front of everyone, because as many of you know, Ryan has a difficult time dealing with situations where he doesn't get his way.  So I say to him, "You know Ryan, you really had a lot of ice cream already, do you think that was enough or do you really need more?"  And he calmly says to me, "Okay, I had enough."  Oh my goodness, boy was I SHOCKED!  I couldn't believe it; I was so proud of him.  For those of you who know Ryan, you can appreciate what a big deal this is and how far he has come.

Below are a few pictures from this week.  Enjoy!

Ryan having fun in nonna and papa's pool.

Ryan and Julia attacking Kim!

 

Ryan with Ms. Jessie at camp.



Enjoying his GFCF pizza on Pizza Day at camp.

 

Our little monkey!

DC

Week 64

 Castle

This week we decided to stop off at the Olana house in Hudson, NY.  This is right by the Rip Van Winkle Bridge on the eastern side of the Hudson River.  We have passed it several times and the kids always wanted to see the castle on the hill.  So we decided on Monday, July 4th to stop off and see it on the way home.  When we got there the kids insisted that we go into the castle.  The bad part is the the tours go every half hour and we had to wait 20 minutes for the next one to begin.  When we got in, Ryan immediately wanted to know where the toys were.  We have no idea where he got it in his head that the castle had toys but he looked in every room wanting to know if this was the room with the toys.  The tour lasted 45 minutes and they did great for the first 40 minutes.  However, they were getting really antsy the last five minutes.  Luckily we only chose the 45 minute tour and not the 70 minute one.















We drove by the castle again yesterday and Ryan looked up and said that he did not want to go to that castle, he wanted to go to the toy castle, not the art castle.  There was only art in there and no toys!  I guess we will have to wait before we take him to any more Art Museums.

View of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge from Olana

We went upstate to Dawn's parents this weekend for a family friend's 70th Birthday Party.  Staying at their house with us was Dawn's cousin Guy and his wife Elaine.  They were just recently married and this was the first time that we had seen them since their wedding.  Both Ryan and Julia were so excited to see them and they are both so good with our kids.  Guy wanted to make his special potato home fries but knew that Ryan could not eat all of the ingredients.  So he cooked Ryan his own huge bowl of potatoes thinking that he would take some home.  Ryan ate the whole bowl!  Guy was so happy that Ryan liked his potatoes that they posed for a picture together.  

 Ryan loves the water but still does not like to get his face wet or go under the water.  Even though he is able to touch the bottom he still insists on wearing swimmies or a ring so that he does not go under.  He had such a great time in the three different pools that he went into this week. Yes, I wrote three different pools.  He started off the week in Papa and Nonna's pool, went into our neighbors pool on Tuesday, visited friends who had a pool in their condo complex on Thursday, and ended the week back in Papa and Nonna's pool.  

While upstate this weekend, we visited a family friend, Sherry, who owns two horses.  These were very gentile horses that were very excited to see different people.  Julia had no fear about going up to them, feeding them, and even sitting on the back of one of them.  Ryan was very nervous around the horses.  He fed one of them a carrot but I had to hold the carrot with him and he let go almost immediately.  After Julia went on one of them, we tried to get Ryan on the back of the same one.  I was able to lift him up but once I tired to put him on the horse's back he started to yell that he was too afraid and wanted me to put him down.  I did not want to scare the horse so I let him down and he backed away.  He was very concerned when he was going to get back into the car about where the two dogs were that Sherry owned.  He still does not like dogs and is extremely afraid of them. 

Both Julia and Ryan are still so competitive with each other.  They have to win getting to the bathroom to wash their hands, playing a game, getting their shoes both on and off, and who is going to open the door first when company arrives.  We hope that this is something that they grow out of quickly because right now Ryan is stronger and faster.  But in a few years, Julia is going to catch up and Ryan hates to lose.  He has a fit when he does not win and he sulks in the corner for 20 minutes.  However, Julia is starting to realize this and will taunt him when she gets somewhere first.  This is something that we will have to watch and hopefully they will grow out of this quickly before it becomes a bigger problem than it already is.  



Ryan is still making huge, elaborate train sets on the floor almost every week. It is great to see that he is really getting into the pretend play with the different train characters.  He is even using different trains from different sets to pretend that they are a particular character when he does not have that particular one in the Thomas set.  He truly enjoys his Thomas and Friends sets and has a lot of fun putting them together.

PC

Week 63

Ryan had a great Fourth of July weekend!  Let's start with the brownies.  There are lots of GF, and even many GFCF brownie recipes and box mixes out there, but it is not always easy to find an egg free mix.  Cherrybrook Kitchen makes a GFCF egg free brownie mix.  It's an okay tasting brownie, but the best part is that it is easy to make.  It doesn't call for a lot of ingredients and it is convenient in a pinch.  Making a recipe from scratch may give better tasting results, but Ryan really seems to enjoy these!



For his PARC graduation Ryan received a Melissa and Doug wooden train to paint from grandma.  He's asked several times and it was never a good time to take out the paints and work on this project with Ryan.  But this week we finally had an opportunity to work on it.  He sat with me for about an hour gluing the wheels on the axel, painting the train, and putting on the decals.  Ryan did most of it by himself.  He was patient and he tried really hard to do a good job.  He looked at the picture on the box and wanted his train to look exactly the same. 



So proud of the finished product!



Video:  Ryan's train

Ryan and Julia checking out the tent at papa's house

roasting marshmallows





Ryan having fun in the pool with his family





This week Ryan also went to camp at Noah's Ark for four days.  Besides swimming both morning and afternoon Ryan participated in lots of other activities.  Here are some pictures that were posted by the staff at Noah's Ark.

Ryan making pretzels with Ms. Jessie

Yes, he's petting a snake!



The class made smores one day.  Ryan couldn't eat the chocolate and graham crackers but he still looks so happy with his friends and content just eating the marshmallow.

I'll end with a quote that I just read on the Autism Speaks Facebook page:

"To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone." -Reba McEntire


DC

Week 62....Flowers and a Mother's Love

Ryan

Ryan's sunflower plant starting to bloom.

This is a picture of the sunflower that Ryan planted as a seed at PARC over a month ago.  We planted it outside of our kitchen window and we watch it grow.  It was this lanky, flimsy stem when he brought it home and now it is rooted firmly into the ground, standing strong.  We're looking forward to the day it fully flowers.


Here's a picture of Ryan and nonna playing a mini Foosball game.  His fine motor skills have certainly improved, as well as being able to accept losses while playing games. 

Ryan finished his school year at PARC on Friday and we couldn't be happier with the changes he's made this year.  The increase in muscle tone, the improvement in his speech, academic advancements, the frequency of social interactions, and the increase in his confidence are just some of these changes.  He's ready for kindergarten!  I'm so proud of his accomplishments and I love Ryan so much.  There's nothing I wouldn't do for him!

Julia

Julia with her flowers and trophy after her first dance recital.

Seeing her so happy and proud of herself, makes me proud.  I love Julia so much and there's nothing I wouldn't do for her.  Here is a link to the video of her performance of  On the Good Ship Lollipop

The entire show, including intermission, was three hours.  We brought the Ipad and ear plugs for Ryan and when he got bored with the show he went back and forth to the Ipad.  He wasn't bothering anyone, and it was sitting on his lap with the cover over it so that it wouldn't be a distraction to anyone around us.  A nasty old man behind us said something about him "watching TV" and I turned around and gave him a piece of my mind. Again, there's nothing I wouldn't do for my children.  It's unfortunate when you have to encounter selfish people who have clearly forgotten what it is like to have young children, and probably have no idea what it is like to raise a child with special needs.  Under the circumstances, Ryan did a great job sitting still in his seat for the entire show.  And when one class performed to the song, "Who Let the Dogs Out?", Ryan even sang along!

Baby

This is a picture of the violets sent to us from my brother and his family.  Violets are the birth flower for February. February, the month I was born, and also the month our baby was due.  We lost another baby this week.  We're not exactly sure what went wrong and when, but neither sonogram this week showed a heartbeat, and I was admitted into the hospital for a D and C.  

As a parent you try to give your kids the best of everything and protect them from harm.  Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail.  A friend shared this poem with me, and during this time of mourning it has helped me feel like less of a failure.

An angel from the book of life

Wrote down my babies birth.

And whispered as she closed the book...

"Too beautiful for Earth."

DC

Week 61

Happy Father's Day!

The kids absolutely adore Phil!  He is definitely a hands on kind of dad and always finds time for them, and me.  Here are pictures of them with the gifts they made at their schools. 

a tool belt from Ryan

a tool belt and hand drawn picture of daddy from Julia

 

a picture frame painted by Ryan



The front of Julia's card

The inside of Julia's card

Ryan's card; we were so surprised when we opened it up and saw it was from Ryan.  Look at all of the writing he did!

Inside of Ryan's card

 

The questions Ryan answered about Phil

This is Ryan's last week at PARC.  I know he will miss going there and we will certainly miss the comfort of knowing that he was there in great hands!  A HUGE thank you to all of the teachers and therapists that worked with Ryan this past year.  He has come such a long way and you have played a big part behind his success!  I know we posted these pictures last week during his graduation blog, but we're posting again to give another shout out to Ryan's teachers!



For graduation gifts, Ryan received lots of new letter and number books to help prepare him for Kindergarten.  Here he is practicing writing his letters, which is a big deal because he isn't too fond of writing.   



Ryan is not so great about sharing his things.  For weeks I've been trying to get him to agree to let his teacher borrow our copy of the movie Tangled.  He loves his teacher, but he wouldn't let her have the movie, even for just one night.  To Ryan, it's just "not right" for the movie to stay with someone else; it's his and it needs to stay home with us.  One day I was able to sneak her the movie without Ryan seeing, and we had to bribe Julia not to say anything because she of course doesn't miss a trick and notices everything!  On a similar note, Ryan puts together these elaborate train sets on the floor.  When he goes to bed, our cat likes to go sit inside the tracks, and I'm sure she does the same while we are at work/school.  I'm not sure Ryan would approve of sharing his train tracks with Helen!

When the kids are away, the cat will play!

Last week of school, hang in there everyone! 

DC