Week 42

Ryan's class at PARC participated in a mini Olympics among their students.  Ryan was very excited to come home each day and tell us things such as how you are supposed to line up to do a relay race.  He brought home a medal and two award certificates.


Ryan received a medal and certificates for the Relay Race and the Javelin Throw



YES, Ryan got a haircut this week!  He let me cut it with the electric clippers!  Afterwards he looked in the mirror and said, "This is a bad haircut, mom!"  He's also been keeping his coat on with the hood up when we see people we know because he doesn't want them to see his hair, but then when they do they say how handsome he looks and he gets a big smile on his face.  It is really short but not as short as a buzz cut.  I was so surprised that he let me use the buzzer, especially near his ears.  But he did a great job staying still (granted he was watching a movie too so that helped!).  I'm hoping that if he'll let me use the machine the next time too that one day soon he can get his first professional looking haircut at a barber shop.  While I seem to be improving my haircutting skills, I do feel bad when his haircuts come out looking less than perfect.

On one of our numerous snow days I was peeling Clementines and asked Ryan if he wanted a piece.  He then proceeded to jam his straw into it so that he could get the juice out.  When I told him that wasn't how you eat it, he took out the OJ carton and replied, "Like this mom." 

An "A" for persistence and originality!

And once he realized he wasn't getting any juice out of the whole orange, he tried with the piece I gave him.  Of course I captured it on video!

A friend of mine alerted us that Fox News held a segment regarding how diet is used to reverse the effects of Autism.  And Ryan's DAN doctor, Dr. Bock, was interviewed. 
Here's the link:  Can Diet Reverse Effects of Autism?
We had some trouble with the link working so if you are unable to connect, go to foxnews.com and in the search box type in the title "Can Diet Reverse Effects of Autism" and find the article that way. 


Here's what happens when you have at least 2 snow days a week for the past 4 weeks.  Here's Julia occupying herself. 

Ryan joins in at the end of this video after we convinced him to not dance naked in front of the camera anymore.

Not really understanding the concept of musical chairs but they played this way for more than 10 minutes. It tired the heck out of them and I was able to grade papers while I randomly pushed the play/pause button on the music videos on TV.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before in a previous blog, but I often worry about Ryan being bullied and made fun of in school.  Working in a school I see too often how cruel kids can be at times and how differences aren't always tolerated.  Through friends on Facebook I was made aware of the lyrics of a song called "Don't Laugh at Me" by Mark Wills.  Here is a link to his video on You Tube.  It sends a great message.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVjbo8dW9c8
My school is currently doing a big anti-bullying campaign and I am again trying to get an event going where a presentation can be made by Jesse Saperstein (remember him from our week 27 blog post?).

DC