Hello Friday, again!

I wasn't going to write anything, but, since I have three readers, I'll have to do a quick line or two, or seven... or ten...

We've all had a pretty good week. Life's starting to settle down, and we're getting used of the routine of therapies. It doesn't seem quite as hard to deal with any more.

Greenfield Village went great. We left our house at 9am and didn't get home until about 7pm. That included an hour trip to the McD's play room in Chelsea. Chase finally isn't scared of climbing up in it, so that's fun. He did get stuck once, but his daddy climbed up to save him.

Funny enough, Cory was the one that got to be a handful. Chase really had a great time, even if we did get yelled at a few times for running...

Here's some pics, note the crazy large wagon that's twice the length of a double stroller... But, they seem to like it...

Checking In

Hi guys, all two of you that read this!
Anyway, I had a minute and thought I'd tell you what's going on.

I was only in the office on Monday this week. My Grandpa had surgery, so my Mom went to Toledo to help my Grandma out. He's doing fine now and should be home today.

Chase has been doing great this week. He's been having some little temper issues, but it's like any other 2 year old. It's hard to explain but he's really finally acting his age, for better and worse. This makes me soooo happy! He hasn't regressed at all with any of his speech and actually started saying "rock" yesterday and "pancake" today. In our house, this is huge! He has become a little more dependent on the sucky thing, but he knows that he has to go up to bed when he wants it.

We're going to Henry Ford Museum tomorrow. My sister has to catch a plane at DTW for a flight to Ontario, California. We decided to take her and make a day of it.

Hopefully, I'll have some pictures of the trip on Monday.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

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Hello Friday!

It has been a great week! Chase has been in a great mood and has been acting much more like children his age.
Chase
He repeated almost every word the speech therapist asked him to, even when he was frustrated. He got mad because he wanted a piece of train track. Robyn pushed him into asking for it. He said, "I want (signed) more track!" and he got it.
He recovered very quickly, like 5 seconds after he got the piece, he was fine! This is HUGE! There was a time he wouldn't have recovered but would have continued to be crabby for hours. There was also a time when he would not say anything while he was mad, he would just scream. So you can see why this would make us happy.

Me
After Monday, I was pretty happy this week. I'm really excited about this Autism Walk. I've got one other person signed up for the team. So, if I've invited you and you haven't signed up yet, please do so. It won't cost you anything to sign up!
I also decided to stop being crabby and start asking for want I need or want. I explained this to my hubby, and he shocked me by saying that he understood. Wow! I don't give him enough credit most of the time.
I also got a great deal of real work for work done this week. It's amazing how much better I feel when I actually accomplish something. Helps me stay motivated for other things, like housework. I even got up early to clean up the playroom, which is going to seem useless when I get home and it's already a disaster area... oh well.

Putting up the pictures of Cory's Birthday made me look up some old pictures of Chase. Here's a couple from his first birthday cake. He loves him his cake!



On a side note, looking at those pictures from his July birthday make me REALLY want it to be Summer! It was 73 degrees on Tuesday, and then we woke up with 4 inches on snow yesterday. grrrr...

Just for Jodie!

Here are the pictures that I promised earlier in the week. Thanks for reminding me Jodie!

These are from Cory's party last weekend. Is she cute or what?





That's Aunt Sarah, Cory's godmother, in the last pictures. Maybe next time I'll try to make one of those slide show things that Jodie's used on her blog.

Any ideas for what I should do with her hair? Those pigtails are just the hair on the top of her head. It's a lot shorter in the back and the sides. I'm not sure what we could even do with it. Pixie cut?

Crazy Weekend

First, I should mention that we're testing Chase's success with the GFCF diet. He's been off of the diet this last week, but continues to take his supplements. He is doing extremely well in my opinion. I have not seen anything that looks like a negative reaction. We'll give it a month and see what we think. We're not telling the therapists to see if they notice anything.

We had Cory's birthday party this weekend. I'll hopefully get some picture up soon. Chase was very good, although he and Ethan really enjoyed running up and down the hall of the hotel. There was a mix up with the room we had reserved, and issues with the cake, ice cream, and me forgetting a bunch of stuff.

Chase went swimming twice and loved it. He really figured out the swimmies/waterwings. I'm excited to go to swim therapy and see how he does there. He didn't want to get out of the pool at all. He was very interactive while we were in there. He even said a new word - steps.

Non-Chase Issues
Then our propane ran out, but we had no idea. We now know that propane seeping into your house smells like a poopy diaper. We're getting more brought out today. Fun. I miss being connected to natural gas.

Next, Cory hit her face on the coffee table, and Chase wasn't even near her. Nope, she did this one on her own. She's got a fat lip and cut that thing that holds your upper gums to your lip. She's ok, but looks like she got in a bar fight.

Then, this morning, I had just pulled out of the driveway and could see a bump in the road. I always assume it's Mica (our cat) but usually, it's a squirrel or rabbit. This was a cat, but it was so dark, I couldn't tell if it was Mica. I didn't see a collar, but I had to be sure. I went back to the house and picked up a flashlight and snow shovel. I confirmed that it wasn't Mica and moved the poor black kitty off the road. That really got to me. Poor thing.

My Issues
Top of all this with me just being general crabby all weekend. I need to figure out how to keep from snapping at Craig about little stuff. Does any other mother out there get sick of feeling like you have to handle everything and make every decision? Ever feel like you can't handle making one more decision? Or, feel like you have to explain everything in painful detail to get your husband to understand what he needs to do to help you out? I always feel like, "Um, how come you don't just know this? I do!" That's my rant for the day. I've been a little on edge lately, and Craig gets the brunt of it. Sorry honey.

Too much thinking.

I'm feeling crappy today. I'm really feeling sad about what Chase is missing. Poor kid. Last night he found several things that he wanted to eat, and I couldn't let him have them. He even wanted yogurt, but refused the soy kind. I've been doubting the GFCF diet lately. We just did so many new things at once, I don't know what is really helping and what isn't really doing much.

Right now, I think it's the extra speech therapy, vitamins, probiotics, DMG, and B12 shots that are helping the most. I really want him to be able to eat "normal" food soooo bad. I think that maybe we'll try adding some things back in this month and see what kind of reactions he has. I did notice yesterday that he got really goofy hyper after he ate an apple. It makes me wonder about the phenol thing. I need to learn more about that. Although, he was tired and maybe that was just the problem. We'll have to test that one out and talk to the DAN! doctor about that. Oops, I really need to figure out when that appointment is...

The Weekend
We had a pretty good weekend. Chase was really very manageable and seemed very "with it". We ran to the mall to mail the invites for Cory's party and to return something to Kohl's. We had to wait about 10 minutes in line at Kohl's, and Chase stayed in the stroller and was really good! He even said "Hi!" to another little kid. Yay for Chase! (And for me.)

My Issues
I talked to our friend Michelle this weekend. Her little girl is exactly the same age as Chase. Michelle was saying how Jaden has been bossing them around. She's saying whole sentences about "Mommy, I want to watch this movie!" and other things like that. That's the times I realize how much I've lost in all this and feel sorry for myself, which I then feel guilty about (of course.)
I should be so thankful that Chase is as loving and interactive as he is. I shouldn't concentrate on the fact that he can't vocalize everything. Arg. It's so frustrating. I thing what gets me with all of this is that I still really believe he's just going to start talking one day. He'll start talking and all of this will be behind us. When I see "normal" kids, it hits that belief kind of hard.

Here's some pictures to make me feel better. They're from New Year's eve. Chase went to bed, but got back up in time for the countdown. He even toasted with us (sparkling cider, of course.)



There. I feel better now. :o)

Please Help Support Autism Reseach!

I know that I've been off for awhile. Before I do an update on Chase, please consider sending a letter to your Representative to encourage them to support fully funding the Combating Autism Act. Click here for more information. It only takes a minute or two, figures out who to send it to, and the letter is already prepared. All you have to do is enter your name and address, and then click Send.

Since I last wrote, we have had two really good weeks. Chase has been doing good with the diet, but we had some minor infractions. One was I guess not really minor, he had both dairy and wheat. The next day, his stools were pretty loose, but back to normal the next day. I didn't notice any behavioral issues, and believe me, I was watching! The only thing that I did notice was that he woke up in the night, but he's been doing that randomly the past month or so.

He's gained more eye contact and speech, and he's initiating contact a lot more. For example, he takes off his pants behind the couch, so that I can't see him. Then, he comes over to me and smiles at me. If I pretend not to notice, he starts fake sneezing. When I look at him and say, "Where are your pants?" he laughs and sometimes says, "Where'da go?" It's pretty cute.

I wonder if the B12 shots are helping. He's been more "with it" these last two weeks. I'm thinking that we'll keep him on the shots this next month, and possibly try adding some gluten back in. (I think the dairy is more of a problem.)

We have an appointment with the DAN! doctor soon, but of course, I can't remember when it is... I better call.

Chase was sick on Monday. He woke up with a nasty cough, and I had to take him to the urgent care clinic. By the time we saw the doctor, he wasn't coughing anymore, so I thought, "Great. Another doctor rolling his eyes at me." But, to my surprise, the doctor said Chase's lungs sounded bad. He had to have a shot, breathing treatment (which went surprisingly well), and medicine. Of course, he hasn't taken any of the amoxicillin, but he seems fine now. Never had a fever.

I did wonder one thing: The cake I made for Cory's birthday dinner was GFCF, but I used some whole milk in the frosting. I totally forgot and poured it in. I wonder if that really could have been enough to make him sick like that. Interesting...






Here's the pretty cake I made. I totally suck at lettering. It was REALLY good! It was a mix from The Really Great Food Company. They have the BEST mixes. Everyone liked it. You couldn't tell it was GFCF at all. Cory approves!