Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Just stuff....

Well vacation is almost over. I'm sure Alex will be glad to get back to his school routine. He has been a bundle of energy. His poor baby brother doesn't get a moments rest! Alex's big thing is that he wants to be in his brothers playpen or crib. Today the speech therapist gave me a great idea, put a stop sign on the playpen, so far it's worked. I'm  keeping my fingers crossed! I still don't have my camera so I will post yet another older picture! :)



Halloween 2008



Spring 2008

Monday, December 28, 2009

We survived Christmas!

Well we made it through Christmas, it's the aftermath that has almost killed me! Alex has been full of energy the last few days. I can't keep him off of his baby brother. He crawls in the playpen with him, so I move the baby to the crib, then of course Alex is in the crib! I am also having a increasingly hard time getting Alex to go to bed, and stay there! I am thinking about trying vitamins to see if that will work!

I promise to post some Christmas pictures soon, I was unable to take any pictures with my camera because my litle man has done away with essential parts of my camera, imagine that! So right now I'll leave you with a picture from "last" Christmas!


Thursday, December 24, 2009

A poem by me and the word of the week....






Dear Santa,


I’m making this list for my son, he’s only three. I’ve compiled a few ideas, actually needs.

His diagnosis was recently received,

High Functioning Autism is what they say,

I set out with big plans; sure plenty of help was on the way.

The school people rolled their eyes, he don’t meet our "criteria" was what they said, and what’s the problem, he can talk, we saw him play, when we observed him for an hour that day.

So Santa here are a few gifts I’m sure he would agree, that would help with some of those non-existent needs,

Some Melatonin would be great, sleeps become short of late

A weighted blanket for his little knees, when he can’t sit still to say his ABC’s

How about a little tent, I’m sure he would be content.

And I haven’t had time to make; the visual schedule they all say would be so great.

I’m sorry to bug you but just a few things more

A social story wouldn’t be much of a bore.

And Santa when you visit could you please, give others a dose of compassion for me?

When they see my son kicking and screaming on the floor,

I’m not a bad mom; I do my best you see.

You will love my son, he’s cute and he’s smart,

Autism is not who he is, it is just a very special part!

Denise Privett


Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a blessed and happy Christmas! Alex don't seem very excited about Christmas. I talk about it but he sort of just does his own thing, imagine that!
Yesterday we had to take his brother back to the doctor, while we were in the waiting area I had the chance to observe him with some kids that were "strange" to him. At first he held back and wouldn't have much to do with them, even though I could tell that he was wanting to play at the little sand table. He sat next to me and informed me (very loudly), "mommy that is a stupid kid,  that boy, he's just absolutely stupid". Of course I told Alex that it wasn't very nice to say that, which led to him saying it several more times. Then while we were seeing the doctor Alex walked up to me and pointed to his baby brother saying "that is a stupid baby". I guess stupid is his word for the week, but pretty embarrassing! People look at me like "what are you teaching that kid"!  That's not as bad as the looks I get during his meltdowns, I either get those looks that accuse me of doing something to him or more often the looks of "if that were my child, my kid didn't act like that, control that child" if only they knew! I really need to make Alex some social stories I guess!

Since he is on Christmas break from Head Start he is off of his schedule, so life is interesting right now to say the least!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

My first post...


Alex at 2 in Tampa Florida



Hello to everyone that I hope will soon be enjoying my rambling thoughts. I decided to start a blog about Autism. In the past couple of months my three year old son has been diagnosed with High Functioning Autism, denied desperately needed school services, and began private therapy for language and O.T. It has been a roller coaster but I expected it to be. Now I sit here and write this and wonder what the next step in the battle will be, because yes I consider this a battle. Why should my son be denied a IEP, when he so obviously needs the help, so I guess my next step is to fight, though I can't say I'm looking forward to it!

I guess I'll tell you more about Alex and the events leading up to his Autism diagnosis. Almost two years ago I was pregnant with triplets, to make a long story short I developed TTTS, lost two of my triplets and delivered a extremely premature infant, Elijah (read his story here).  During all of this Alex turned two at a Tampa Florida Ronald Mcdonald House 12 hours away from home. I decided after our second month there that I would take Alex home to be with my parents. I stayed a week with him and flew back to Florida. During this week I took Alex for his 2 year checkup and he finally had his MMR vaccine. Now I'm not saying that this vaccine causes Autism and I'm not saying that it doesn't, I really don't know.
The first odd thing we noticed with Alex was that suddenly he couldn't tolerate bright light.  My mom noticed this, and he had his first big meltdown on her at Wal-Mart. After I returned home from Tampa we had Alex's eyes checked, the doc said he couldn't find anything wrong.
During the next few months we were pretty much prisoners of our own home due to the baby's RSV risk, when we finally ventured out during the spring I started noticing small things. Like the fact that Alex was turning into a sensory basket case, that he didn't eat certain textures, and when I started taking him to the library reading group I noticed he avoided other children, acting almost afraid of them. During one of these library visits the group made cute little aprons, when it came time for the children to put them on and have pictures made Alex refused, he just didn't like the way the apron felt. After this I mentioned the behaviours to his doctor, and here we are.

I will write later about what has happened to us since the diagnosis. Including the reason Alex was denied services and the IEP meeting from H__! The one where I was reduced to tears because perfect strangers who had observed my son once for about a hour were trying to tell me that they knew more about him then I did, yes I'll save all that for later because I have to run! You know how it is....