Week 57

Last Sunday we brought the kids to Guy and Elaine's wedding.  This was the first wedding that the kids have been to and we decided that we were not going to bring the kids to the church.  The kids spent the time at Dawn's cousin, Donna's house with her two boys.  They were at Ryan's birthday party the day before and they all had a great time.  Ryan is going to be in a wedding in October so we thought we should give this wedding a try as a practice.  We called the place ahead of time to find out the food options and there were a few things that he could eat but most of the items he could not.  We did let him cheat a little but we tried keeping an eye of what he ate and we did bring his cupcakes for dessert.  The place was very accommodating and we only had one issue.  When dinner finally came out they put a plate of fried chicken nuggets and french fries on his plate.  This was not what we had worked out with the chef and our waiter.  However, the young kid that was helping out did not realize this and just put a regular kids meal in front of Ryan.  It was already so late at night and we told Ryan that his dinner was coming.  But then we had to take it away.  He just threw himself on the floor and it took a few minutes for him to get out of it.  We had to joke with Ryan by telling him that we were going to eat his new meal and that got him up and into his seat.  

He had a great time at the wedding with all of the dancing and loud music.  They had a mini-smoke machine, laser-lights, and several flat screen televisions.  We thought that it was going to be too much for him but we were wrong.  He loved it!  He was dancing with his sister and cousins and with another little boy that has autism as well.  The kids kept dancing all night and they were usually the last ones on the dance floor each time they cleared it to serve food.  They all had a good time but it was a very late night.  We did not get home until almost midnight and Ryan fell asleep almost immediately in the car.  Below are some pictures and videos of the event.

Alyssa, Ryan, Amelia, and Julia with Nonna

Having fun at the cocktail hour.

Looking sharp with Uncle T!

Pictures of Amelia and Ryan

Trying the salad!

Dancing with Amelia

Having fun on the dance floor

Instead of a wedding favor the bride and groom make a donation to Autism Speaks.

A few videos of the kids dancing! 

We also decided that we needed to finally bring the kids to the dentist. We took them on Tuesday and they did a really good job.  We took them to my dentist and the hygienist did a great job with Ryan.  She let him look and touch everything first before she tried to clean his teeth.  He was a little hesitant at first but he watched Julia go first.  He was not too crazy about the chair going all the way back but the hygienist was able to get most of the cleaning done.  The place was not a pediatric dentist office but they really made the kids feel very comfortable.  They were calm and patient with Ryan and let him stand up so they could finish cleaning his teeth. I have heard of places asking the parents to hold their children down so they could clean their teeth but not here.  They scheduled 30 minute appointments for the both of them and we were done in about 40 minutes total.  We did not feel rushed or pressured to hold him down.  Even the dentist let the kids stand up as he examined their teeth.  They allowed the kids to select a prize out of the treasure chest and they gave the kids balloons.  A great first experience with the dentist for Ryan and Julia. 

We were not sure if the birthday party/wedding weekend took too much out of Ryan but his behavior was very off this week.  He had difficulty at school and we got several bad reports from his teachers.  Ms. Sue also had to call Dawn after Ryan was having a 30 minute meltdown.  We had stopped the red medicine injections a few weeks ago but we decided this week to start them back up again to see if it helps.

He also got another gift in the mail, this one from Aunt Anne, and here is a video of him trying it out. 

This Tuesday we have Ryan's Annual Review with Wappingers CSD and they are already starting to give us problems.  They called us this Friday afternoon and they dropped a few bomb shells on us. We were under the impression that they had a full day integrated program like he is in now at our elementary school.  However, they told us that this program is only half day and at a different elementary school in another part of the district.  We hope that this will all work out but they are trying to tell us that they will be able to service all of Ryan's needs in a 12:1:1 half day program and they will be taking away his speech services.  We don't know yet about O/T and the counseling portions; I guess we'll have to wait to hear what they say on Tuesday.  He is in a 6:1:1 full day program now receiving speech, O/T, and group counseling.  We will tell you more next week.  I can now understand why my special education parents are crazed by the time they get to the high school level.  We have only been dealing with the system for a short time and we are already crazed!   


Do not forget that The Autism Speaks walk is Sunday, June 5th in White Plains.  Click this link to join our team or make a donation.   
The Ryan Express Team Page

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