Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Texas Holding Them

Daddy can tell without looking that he's holding King-Jack because those are his two favorite cards. Oddly enough, he hates the Ace of spades so much he'll remove it from the deck if he finds it...

Face Paint

Bored Mommy plus markers plus little boy equals...

Friday, February 13, 2009

ASD Diagnosis

Yesterday, Nathan had his assessment and the verdict is in, he is definitely on the autism spectrum.

Now that we have an official diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, we can start getting him the help that he needs. We're looking into the options and right now, we're thinking speech therapy along with some play-oriented IBI (Intensive Behavioural Intervention). It's fairly clear to us at this point, that he's going to be higher-functioning than his brother since he has much less severe issues, so it'll be a matter of finding the right option for his age and level. Most children aren't diagnosed for another two to three years, so there will definitely be a challenge.

No matter how much we prepared for this, it was still hard to hear. I love both my children and I know that they're going to do all right but I can't help but be angry that this has happened to them. In the race of life, they've been handed a backpack full of heavy stones and told to compete. They can still reach all the goalposts as anyone else, but it's going to be harder and take more work. It doesn't seem fair that they've been handed this extra challenge.

I will do whatever I have to in order to give them the best possible chance in life. That is my promise to both of them.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Sleigh Ride and Newfound Literacy

This weekend we took Alex for a sleigh ride at Smithvale Farms on Carling. It was very pleasant, the staff was friendly and accomodating.

We were the only people on the sleigh and Alex was a little uncertain at first but after awhile he got quite interested. He went to stand up beside the driver, fascinated by watching the horses. The driver even let him "drive" by holding the reins. Alex was very excited by that, jumping up and down and squealing. Fairly soon, he was singing, which we explained was a sign that he was enjoying himself. The driver said he was just grateful it wasn't "Jingle Bells." Alex was getting a little cold towards the end of the drive and wanted to cuddle with me. Which was a nice end to the day.

The other interesting point over the weekend was that Alex took some of his letters from his alphabet puzzles and spelled out "jump" and then had the toy frogs jumping up and down next to it. He's showing more and more signs that he recognizes written words. I think my little boy is learning to read.

All in all, a very good weekend.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Discoveries and Cuteness

We've made an interesting discovery. Nathan sleepwalks.

We were pretty sure he talked in his sleep but the other night, I went in and not only was he babbling up a storm, he was standing up in his crib, sound asleep. His eyelids were drooping and his eyes were flipping around, a sign I remember well from my sister's sleepwalking incidents.

This will make things interesting when he outgrows the crib in a few more weeks.

But the more interesting news is what he did yesterday while we were out on a playdate. We were getting close to the time to go when Nathan brought me his coat and asked: "Go?" Then he dumped the coat in my lap, walked over to our hostess and babbled: "Ge-a-babba-dar-na. Bye-bye." Then he waved at her and leaned in to give her a hug and a kiss.

I'm so proud of my little boy.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Ouch

Bit of a rough weekend. Alex did one of the classic small child self-injury actions. He burned his fingers on the stove.

We were cooking dinner on Saturday night and he just came up to the stove and tried to touch the glowing element. He yanked it back so quickly that, at first, I was hopeful that I'd managed to startle him before he could actually touch it. But the first howls of pain put the lie to that hope. We managed to get it under cold water fairly promptly but he's got a blister on the pad of every finger on his right hand. The worst one is on his index finger, the blister covers almost the entire pad.

According to Telehealth, he should be fine as long as he keeps the blisters intact and he doesn't get an infection. He's protecting that hand fairly fiercely, keeping it curled up in a fist for the most part, so fingers crossed on that front, everyone.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank the nurse at Telehealth. She was very understanding and quickly grasped the difficulties that Alex's autism presents. An excellent professional assessment and I only regret that I didn't catch her name. Thank you.

He's doing very well with using his left hand for everything and aside from not using that right hand, he's pretty much back to normal.