Big Brother And K.C./The Tough Days.

K.C.'s brother (Big Brother) has been sick as I mentioned in an earlier post. He is to have his tonsils removed on August 9th. He has just finished up a bottle of antibiotics (the pink stuff) and today, he is with fever AGAIN! His neck feels like there are two knots on each side (I guess its his glands, they feel big.) I did call his doctor who said to bring him in on Monday or to Emergency if he got any sicker. Any sicker? This kid has been sick enough this year! I am now wondering if he has built a resistance to the antibiotics he has been taking? I am giving him Tylenol for the fever and it is helping. Hopefully it's just a virus this time around and not the dreaded strep! Big Brother hasn't been outside much at all and has been reading Harry Potter (Deathly Hallows) every spare second he gets. K.C. has been well am I am ever so thankful for that. He is now watching Inuyasha at this late hour because he will not go to sleep for anything. If I can't get him to sleep soon I will give him a Clonidine. I don't like to give him Clonidine unless absolutely necessary and have only been using it twice a week. Tonight we are thinking of our dear friends Melissa and Conor. We hope you are getting some ZZZZZZ's and feeling better.
Before I had K.C., I used to take sleep for granted. I never dreamed in a million years that sleep of all things would be very hard to come by! K.C. is sleeping better these days, but still has his days where he'll be up til 3 or 4 a.m. and stay awake, grouchy as hell the rest of the day. I was sure that when he turned around 6 months old he'd been sleeping through the night. Nope, never happened, if anything, he'd wake up at night and turn the lights on and off a zillion times. I was sure our neighbors though we had some kind of freaking electrical problem with our lights. Then came the little doors on the inside of the refrigerator door. You know the little doors that open where you can put, butter or something that close in size? Well he would get up at night and open and close these doors for as long as he could until I stopped him. He would scream his head off, I mean scream for a good 1 1/2 if I stopped him from opening and closing. I'll never forget the day his Daddy took the little "butter doors" off the refrigerator. K.C. had headbanging fits because the little doors were no longer there and I for some strange reason began to think his dad as "mean" for taking the doors off. I resented him. Those were tough days, at one point I didn't think our marriage was going to last because of the huge amount of stress. We blamed each other and could never agree on what to do to help K.C. His Dad wanted me to just leave him be, no therapy, nothing. He felt that K.C. was "retarded" and it was our job to take care of our "retarded son." After alot of counseling, ALOT of counseling, K.C.'s Dad had said something I could have never imagined in a million years. He thought he was being cursed for something he had done in his last life. This is why K.C. had Autism. Those were very tough trying days. His crying seemed endless. I thought I was going to lose what little mind I had left. It's hard to believe and I could never ever have imagined things getting any better but finally things have gotten better and K.C.'s gotten older. I can't believe it has taken 6 years! Through the crying and headbonking K.C. has finally started to leave the crying days behind. He still cries but it's alot shorter now, he seems to understand a little better. Maybe as he has gotten older and is understanding a little better the crying has lessened? I am just grateful it's better and the poor kiddo isn't sad these days. He's learning and I am so proud of the little fella! I love K.C. and Big Brother will all my heart, these little guys are why I live, they are all I think of. Autism is tough but that smile K.C. shows on happy days melt all the yucky days away. For parents of younger children with Autism, things do get better as they get older. It just takes Time, Love, Prayers, Patience and ABA (ABA in our case has helped K.C. tremendously, every child is different though, a different teaching method could be better for your kiddo.)

An Award!

We have won an award! Yay us! Donetta from A Life Uncommon,
http://jewelryatalifeuncommon.blogspot.com has gave us this award and we are ever so grateful, we have never really won an award so we are really moved to happy tears! According to the rules it's our turn to give the award to 5 bloggers!
Here are the rules: For those who answer blog comments, emails and make their visitors feel at home on their blog. For the people who take others people's feelings into consideration before speaking out, and who are kind and courteous. Also for all those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping other bloggers design, improve and fix there sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.
So, know it is my turn to pick out five bloggers that I feel are deserving of this award.
My choices are:
1. My Beautiful Child Griffin And Autism. http://griffinblaise.blogspot.com Lora has been a great source of strength for me during very difficult times. She is always there for me and anyone in need of help. She is the most caring and giving person I know. I am blessed to have her our lives. She is an awesome Mommy and Friend!
2. Things I Can't Say Outloud. http://thingsicantsayoutloud.vox.com Melissa is another caring soul that has really touched our hearts. Her comments she has left on our blog has always made me feel so much better and felt reassured. She is truly a wonderful Mommy and Friend.
3. Me And My Three. http://meandmythreebabies.blogspot.com MamaRoo is such an inspiration. I have learned so much from reading her blog and have to have my blog "fix" of the day and read her blog. She has just had a brand new baby girl and has two little guys as well. Shes such an awesome mom and Teacher!
4. Dear Noah. http://www.dearnoah.blogspot.com Melinda is incredible. Her Noah is where I hope K.C. will be someday. Melinda teaches Noah at home and his progress is amazing! There is so much great information on her blog, it is a must read!
5. Autism Vox. http://www.autismvox.com Kristina is a Teacher and Mommy. When I first started blogging it was her site I found first. I am so thankful that I did stumble upon her site because to be honest, I had no idea as to what I was going to do about K.C. and his Autism. As I read her blog, I felt empowered. I found wonderful ideas that could help K.C. I am ever so grateful for her blogs Autismland and Autism Vox.

Trip To The Airport- Williams Gateway Airport

This morning we had to make a trip to the airport. Yesterday we had a pretty good dust storm and a few sprinkles. We haven't had a good rain here in ages. The weather has been hot and humid now that "monsoon" is in. On the way to the airport K.C. noticed a few rain drops on the windshield and started screaming his head off and kicking the back of my seat. I had to turn the wipers on to see and that made it worse. The wipers made him throw his hands over his ears and scream. Weird because I have been praying for rain and now I wished it would stop! After 15 minutes it did stop and K.C. quieted down. When he's screaming I have to say absolutely nothing to him because my words make it that much worse.
When we got to the airport we sat down outside the gates and watched the flights coming in and out while we waited for the boys daddy. While we waited we saw a Harrier Jet being worked on . K.C. wasn't happy about the airport and we left as soon as the boys daddy found us. No rain the ride home, K.C. was happy.

Tonsils/Emotions/Harry Potter

Just a quick update on what we have been up to. Big Brother has had strep and finally after all this time the ENT Dr. is going to remove his tonsils on August 9th! Thank goodness! Big Brother has been taking penicillin to get rid of the Strep. He's feeling much better:)
I got the boys school registrations in the mail (already), looks like it will be back to school shopping for us near the end of this month or very beginning of next month.
An Autistic little boy drown this week in Glendale, AZ. He and his class were going on a field trip and as they were boarding the bus there was some sort of incident with another student outside the bus. The little Autistic boy who was already seat belted in his seat unfastened his belt and simply walked away while the teachers were dealing with the other student on the outside of the bus. The Autistic child wandered away and drown in a canal nearby. A man working on the opposite side of the street seen the boy go down into the canal and ran to jump in and help but it was too late.
Heartbreaking :( It reminds me of how K.C. wanders and I am always scared to death he'll wander away from me somehow or the school won't watch him well enough. I worry he'll be left on the bus, gosh it scares me to death.
Yesterday K.C. did something that was a first! He was walking around in the living room, his face looked as though he was thinking, thinking hard. He sat on the couch and made the saddest face and his lip started quivering and he cried and cried. I have never ever seen him have this emotion. Sure I have seen him cry but to see him think, turn his lips into an upside down frown and cry was incredible. He seemed so "real" if that makes any sense? Its hard to explain but I know that some of the Autism mommies out there know what I am talking about. I hugged him gently and said, "K.C. is sad." He let me hug him! I am not sure what triggered it, it was just so incredible. The emotion I seen on his face- Big Brother was also floored. He hugged him too and I started crying which made Big Brother cry. I know it seems like a little thing but it was so real and huge for us.
Weather here has been very hot. We have been indoors quite a bit. I remember when lora and Griffin were living in Alaska during Winter time they were indoors alot too. It's kinda like that right now for us as well only we are indoors because it's so darn hot. It sure can wreak havoc on a person moods. I am trying to stay as upbeat as possible but it's not easy. I want to live somewhere that the boys can see all four seasons. Here in AZ. there are two season (seems like it anyways) hot Summer and a very warm Winter. On a happy note we did get some sprinkles here tonight! That was a nice change! I opened the door so that K.C. and Big Brother could see it rain. It has not rained here in the longest time!
Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting for (at least Big Brother) Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows will be released! We are thrilled! We have every one of the books and have waited for this day for the longest time! I promised Big Brother we would have a small party in honour of the release of the book. He wants an ice cream cake and that sounds fine with me, but I have to find something K.C. will enjoy as well. I think K.C. likes Harry Potter as well because when we do read it out loud (taking turns with Big Brother) he seems happy :)
Time for me to catch up on your blogs, I am going to go read now, bye bye:)

God help me!

Last night I had a craving for Mexican food and decided I wanted to make a quick trip to this local fast food Mexican restaurant for Carne Asada. K.C. was in a diaper and t shirt, the place is about 3 minutes from home, I have the car seat of out of the car because we are going to San Francisco soon. We are flying, all three of us! Anyways, I seat belted K.C. into his seat and he was fine. Lately K.C. has discovered his private parts and I have had the toughest time keeping his hands out of his diaper or keeping clothes on him for that matter. Well I ordered the food and pulled up to the window to pay. The guy working the window yelled something in Spanish and another worker came to the drive thru window and looked towards the back seat of the car. They were laughing. K.C. was directly behind me and I thought he may have been finger flicking or something but he wasn't he had gotten his diaper off and yep, you guessed it, he was doing what he shouldn't be doing. I was horrified, not because of K.C. so much but because of the workers. I really lost my temper, I told the drive thru workers to keep their food I didn't want food from perverts. Now I am left with wondering how the hell I am going to keep this kid from stripping his clothes off. I have tried saying, "clothes on" hundred times and it hasn't worked. Does anyone know if there are clothes that are very very difficult to take off? Any ideas? Help!

Shiva

For our dear friends Ian and Judy. You are always in our thoughts and hearts. I wish I could sit minyan with Judy. We are thinking of you both each and everyday.
Love to you both,
Tina and Boys