Busy Weekend!

The boys and I had a busy weekend! I took them to visit there great grandma, K.C. loves visiting her and is always all smiles when he's there. He runs to her front door and Big Brother knocks, when she opens the door she always gives them great big hugs, K.C. is a tough one to hug though. He will be all smiles when he sees her but will blow right past her as if shes not there. When we get inside my grandma will ask him for "kiss and hug" and he'll let her. It's the cutest thing cause he'll leave his head hanging down a little low cause he knows she wants a kiss. It was a great visit. It used to be that K.C. could only handle a very short stay at her house but now he stays for up to an hour long!
Big Brother is a total Spiderman addict! He wears the Venom costume every chance he gets. He has the red costume (the good Spiderman) and the black costume (not so nice Spiderman). He tries his best to get K.C. to put on the red costume, he wants to play Spiderman with K.C. badly! He keeps trying to put the mask over K.C.'s head. At one point K.C. kept the mask on for about 2 minutes and Big Brother was thrilled!
We went swimming this evening at our house, K.C. loves the water, I mean totally loves it! He kicks his feet, he knows he is able to float, best of all, he looks so relaxed in the water. He has no fears of water, I honestly believe he will be a swimmer quickly, I believe he learn all on his own. I always keep a safety jacket on him in the water cause he'll walk straight to the deep end and get in. It's kinda scary cause he hasn't an ounce of fear. When he's in the water he spends alot of time with his eyes closed and twirling around. He loves doing this in the water:) He'll be a swimmer soon!

What A Morning!

What a morning, the first day of the boys summer vacation started out with a bang! Big Brother starts summer school on June 1st, K.C. is doing ABA through the summer. Why can't today be June 1st?
K.C. woke up at 2:30 a.m. and right now it is 9:50 a.m. here in Arizona. It's already 86 degrees but the temperature in our house feels like hell. I tried my best to make K.C.'s night wakenings as boring as possible hoping he would go back to sleep, nothing doing! I was up all night long with him and dozed off for about 45 minutes to wake up to crayon marks all over the walls, computer screen, printer, it was everywhere. I yell, "K.C. you write walls, bad boy!" He doesn't even look in my direction, that gets me angrier, I rush over to take the crayon away only to walk on lines and lines of little cars so perfectly lined up, now destroyed from my stupid feet. He notices that immediately and screeches as if someone is trying to kill him. I ignore it. I try to ignore it, it's hard. Now Big Brother is standing at the top of the stairs saying, "what did he de-stroy now?" I tell him to go back to his room and wait there. When K.C. is in destructo, head banging about to happen mode, I try to keep Big Brother distanced from him. I know it upsets him and I don't want him to be upset. So, K.C. is still screaming, rolling on the floor, no head banging yet, that a plus! I pickup the cars and then go get cleaning stuff for the walls. Why did I not listen to the guy from Ace Hardware when he told me to get the paint with scotch guard? I'll tell you why, cause I am a cheap skate. I try to save for rainy days as best as I can. As I am cleaning the walls (and look it's actually coming off!) K.C. quites down all by himself, woo hoo! I am still cleaning and stop because I hear something break. Go into the kitchen and 3 eggs broke on the floor but the worst part is K.C. got some on his toes and is back to flipping out again. I hurry to get a cloth to get the egg off his skin as he's screaming like it's burning a hole through his skin. Got the egg off, after 20 minutes he's quieting down. I clean up the kitchen mess and then head back to clean the walls. Good news. the walls cleaned up with some good scrubbing and the walls look normal again. Big Brother hears the quiet and comes down stairs. He looks at me and says, "this morning sucks, Autism sucks too." I have never heard him talk like that before. I don't know if I should hug him because he's clearly stressed from K.C. or have him turn around and go straight to his room for talking like that. I think of how I am feeling at that very moment and ask him to come down stairs, (he's still standing at the top) I don't know if I should have said this or not but I did. I said to him, "honey I know this is a yucky morning, I feel yucky, you feel upset, I'm sorry." Then I said, "you know you shouldn't talk like that right?" He says, "yea I know Mom but look at him, he doesn't even give a care." I said nothing to that response because in all honesty it does look like K.C. "doesn't even give a care." Big Brother then says, "when is Dad coming home?" I tell him, "around 2 p.m." Big Brother says he's hungry and we go into the kitchen together. He says he would like to eat oatmeal, I say, "no eggs?" I say it only as a joke to get a smile out of him and he says, "you got to be kidding me!" K.C. comes into the kitchen and hangs around (this probably meaning he's hungry.") I get pictures and lay down two choices, "noodles" or "dry cinnamon life cereal." He lives off these food currently and even though I have added different choices to the line up when he sees the new add ons he rips then off and throws them. He taps the cereal once. He taps the noodles twice. Noodles it is! The boys have been eating together fairly well these days, so, I set them down next to each other to eat. As soon as I turn my back K.C. sends his noodles flying and for good measure grabs Big Brother's bowl and throws it too. Chaos erupts. Big Brother is so mad he bonks K.C. right on the top of the head and says, "idiot!" I usher Big Brother out of the kitchen before he hits K.C. again (he is usually very good to his brother and never hits him) K.C. looks as though he's going to have a head banging fit so I grab him and hold him in my lap. I immediately watch out for his head because he will throw it back straight into my face if I'm not watching. He cries for a good 15 to 20 minutes and then starts to settle down. When it's quiet Big Brother emerges again with Legos in a box (one of his most prized possessions) and gives it to K.C. and says, "I'm sorry I hit you (crying) you can have my Legos." All my frustrations melt away. ..

Shavuot

This evening Big Brother and I went to Synagogue to celebrate giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai and the giving of the Torah. We listened to the 10 commandments being read and I watched Big Brother's mouth drop open as it was read. Earlier, Big Brother's Daddy watched K.C. as we went to my Parents house for "Tikkun l'el Shavuot." Big Brother listened as my Father read Jewish Texts, my brother Adam listened as well, in his own way :)

"I am the Lord your God, Who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery"


"You shall have no other gods but me"


"You shall not take the name of your Lord in vain"


"You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy"


"Honor your father and mother"


"You shall not murder"


"You shall not commit adultery"


"You shall not steal"


"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor"


"You shall not covet your neighbor's goods. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his bull, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."


Moses went up the mountain and returned with the Tablets that contained the Ten Commandments.

Autism or Mercury Poisoning?

(K.C. with his Macaw Device at school. His teacher sent these home for his PECS photos over the Summer.)
On our way to catch the school bus this morning K.C. loves to help take the mail out of the box. Today in the mail I got some test results of the DMSA Treatment study from Jaunary 2006. K.C. had blood draws, many blood draws and was supposed to move on to the Chelation study but I stopped short of moving forward because I feared for his safety. What I got in the mail today was his blood draw results. Two of his tests came back as "abnormal." K.C. has Mercury in his system, it's at abnormal levels, it says Mercury I g A AB - 20 This one says abnormal levels. The other test is RBC TOTAL GLUTATHIONE 423 MicroM. There are papers explaining what Mercury and Glutathione are, they came with his results but they are very hard to understand. I am really worried and confused about it. I do not know where K.C. would have gotten Mercury from, where ever he got it, it can't be good right? I am racking my brain trying to figure it out, I keep wondering if he's just Mercury poisoned or Autistic if that makes any sense. We are going to see the Pediatrician to talk about his results. It's all very confusing.

Swimming With The Boys

I took the boys swimming over the weekend. I think that I have finally found something K.C. is totally comfortable with, SWIMMING! He loved it! He got in the pool slowly but once he was in, he floated around, laughed, drank the water (I tried my best to keep him from doing that) and looked relaxed! K.C. has a different type of walk. Everyone we know always says, "he walks around like a little old man." His OT says he has hyptonia that is why he has a floppy look to him. Yesterday he toe walked all around the pool, but guess what? As soon as he got in the water, his shoulders fell and he looked relaxed and not so tense. You could see his shoulders just fall. I haven't seen him look like that in a very long time! I really believe he could learn to swim very quickly! Maybe even before Big Brother! It was so different yesterday, Big Brother wanted to do what K.C. did without fear! What a change, Big Brother wanted to learn from K.C. I think K.C.'s has no fear of the water and Big Brother does so that makes a huge difference. I went out to the store yesterday and bought more sunscreen. It's been 100 degrees here everyday. Next week it's supposed to be 108. Guess we will be doing what all of the children in Arizona do to keep cool, swim! (I don't know why but Blogger turned my comments off, figures!) Hopefully they will be turned on in the next post, sorry about that.)

Spiderman/SpiderBoy/SchoolDay

I took Big Brother to see Spiderman for the second time yesterday. If you haven't seen it yet, it is really, really good!

I want to be able to take K.C. as well. I can't get him to wear ear plugs to block out some of the noise from the movie. I think the loud noise is what overwhelms him. I have tried taking him before and he was o.k. waiting until the previews started and the very loud sound started. He covered his ears and howled in pain. Have you guys been able to go to the movies and how did you get past the loudness? I think K.C. would really like to see a Disney movie but at this point he's terrified. Any ideas?

I just put the little guy on the school bus. School is out for the Summer here on May 24 Th. I have Big Brother in a Summer program but haven't yet decided where or if K.C. will go. I think the Summer will be perfect for two sessions of ABA per day.

The weather here has been so hot. 106 a couple of days ago. When I do take K.C. out to wait for the bus it's at the very last minute because of the heat. He just plops right down on the hot sidewalk. I tried to get him to sit on his backpack but he just won't do it. I so need to move! I am so sick of these very hot temps. It will most likely be this way until November! I want to see snow!

Happy Mother's Day!

These are some photos from our trip. The Boys and a relative had a great time playing in the Colorado River. The water was just 61 degrees! K.C. spent alot of time taking rocks out of the water and lining them up. He did this for about two hours. He was happy so it was all good. In the first picture K.C. had picked up a rock a threw it. The rock hit Big Brother of all people right in the back of the head. He didn't cry as K.C.'s didn't throw it too hard. I noticed when K.C. does throw a rock his head hangs down and then he throws. I don't know why? Even on the elevator in the hotel he bent over with his head hanging down when the elevator moved and took great big breaths. I am going to ask his OT on Tuesday. We ate at a restaurant three times, I was terrified K.C. was going to have a melt down the whole time but he did well and I kept his reinforcers right at hand the whole time. He also kept his little dvd player with him at all times. The volume was low and it didn't bother anyone. He flapped his hands alot and did his eeeee's, people looked but I looked right back at them and smiled and they looked away. The waitress came over to us and said, "what are we watching?" She was a really nice, older lady. She then said, "is it a bird movie little guy, I saw you flapping your arms like a little bird?" Before the trip I had told myself I wasn't going mention the A word. I wasn't going to do any explaining. I had only said, "he's happy and a little shy." It worked! I hope this doesn't sound mean or selfish, but I get tired of explaining to people when we are in public why K.C. does what K.C. does. Most of the time when I do say, "he's Autistic" they immediately say, "oh I'm sorry." I know I shouldn't think this either and God knows I have never said it out loud, but I want to say, "screw you, does he look like he's dying, does he look sick, this kid is happy, healthy and quirky, your sorry, for what?" Yes it is hard raising an Autistic child but so is raising an NT child at times. Big Brother can be a pain in the butt kid at times as well. The other reason I don't want people to say, "oh I'm sorry" is because of K.C. Yes he seems to not understand, yes he's non verbal, but who knows how much he understands! The last thin I want is for K.C. to think he's a tragedy!
I ordered K.C. a big plate of what I thought he might eat. I asked for a child's menu cause I knew it would have photos of food. We have been working very hard in ABA with requesting and it's finally working! K.C. pointed to each food and the tapped the catfish photo twice! I knew that was what he wanted! At home he has been tapping food items I show him very well. Only food though or drinks. We are working on requesting other items besides food and drinks. This is huge for K.C. and his anxiety has dropped alot. It's working! His ABA therapist is a genius and he really enjoys working with her. I am amazed at this lady, totally amazed! Most of all I am so so proud of both my Boys!

Headbanging/Communication

K.C.'s teacher has been working with him on his communication device. We just got it 4 days ago, it is called a Macaw device. His teacher says that when the new school year begins, I can request it be sent home with K.C.! I am so excited for K.C.! Just thinking about all the possibilities that this device can have for K.C. thrills me! His teacher says she believes he will learn to use it in time! Last week the school nurse phoned me and said that K.C.'s teacher was having a very hard time keeping him awake and that he was very, very sleepy. I immediately thought seizure. He always gets very quiet and has these very long staring spells just before a seizure. I told the nurse that and she said, I should come pick him up. I did just that. The change in routine threw K.C. off big time. He screamed and kicked the back of my seat all the way home. I thought I was going to lose my mind. It is very hard to drive with a child kicking the back of your seat and any words you have for him doesn't go through only makes it worse. I was silent until we got home. K.C. was still going strong and as soon as I unhooked him from his seat he slid out of the car like jelly straight to the ground and head banged twice before I could blink an eye. He hasn't head banged in awhile and I had even thought we might be over that mountain but no, not yet. I have seen K.C. head bang many times but I can tell you that each time he does head bang I get the same feeling. Stomach is in knots, scared to death he's going to seriously hurt his head and the after K.C. has head banged there is always a "letting it go" period where he's very limp like and crying. This is the hardest part for me because I just want to cry and cry because he has hurt himself that way and because K.C.'s cry sounds different that the regular cries. An after headbanging cry sounds hurt, sad, very sad, almost as if K.C. is trying to communicate "I'm sorry." I will never get used to seeing that ever.

Quick Note, Fellow Autism Mom's Video

A fellow Autism Mommy that lives in same state as I, has made her own Autism Video. I cried and cried when I watched it. It is very touching, if you have a chance please watch the video, it will really, really hit home. Thanks :) Here is the link and small note she attached, ""Hi everyone, I made a video about autism & my son for the Five for Fighting "What Kind of World Do You Want?" Each time the video is viewed and the ad at the end gets clicked, 49 cents goes to Autism Speaks.Here's the link:http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/252777Thanks for checking it out!Kim G. ""

What We Have Been Up To These Days.

We have been incredibly busy these days. K.C. and Big Brother are doing fine. K.C.'s school is having a curriculum night on Thursday and the boys Dad and I are going to check it out. K.C. has been a handful this week. He's been putting everything in his mouth, he's destroyed 7 of his DVDs from biting. I got bit as well a few nights ago. K.C. walked right into the bathroom where I was and bit me on my side. He's been happy though just very chewy. Big Brother and I went to Atomic Comics to look at Manga. On Saturday Marvels Spiderman will be at the comic book store. I will get pictures and post them here. I am going to go ahead of Big Brother to wait in line at the comic book store and as I get closer to seeing Spiderman I'll call the boys Daddy to bring Big Brother to wait with me. He's really excited! Next week we are finally going on vacation! I need this vacation badly!! I am so looking forward to it! I hope K.C. can handle the drive, I am going to bring all the things he likes along. We will be gone for just three days. Well time for me to go get some candles out, there is a dust storm headed our way and my lights go out easily.