Time

I really do not know how people keep up with their blogs - busy moms, students, business owners - sometimes all wrapped up into the same person. How do you do it?
I'm currently keeping a list of topics that I think of - so that when I have that fateful twenty minutes, I can whip out my list and start to write. Otherwise I spend 15 of those minutes trying to think of that thing I wanted to write about three weeks ago when I was at ... TJ's...or was it the Post office or maybe just driving...hmmmm...

Let's see if that works...as far as I know there is only one person who checks this blog and she already knows all my ridiculous stories (and eggs me on to document them). And you know who you are!!

DOUBT

Whoever said that hope is dangerous, has never met Mr. Doubt.

But there is a quote from Kahlil Gibran that says "love and doubt were never on speaking terms". So maybe I'll go from love and doubt will run away...

Getting Stronger Everyday

We went to the playground Sunday. A very nice park, actually. It has a huge playground with lots of swings and then another area with animals. The big news of this particular outing is that my son went down the big boy slide - by himself. In the picture posted it's the slide on the left that is partially covered at the top. Big news? H U G E! My son is almost eight and barely 41 inches tall. His muscles are so weak he can barely climb the steps to the front door after a long day at school, can't climb into bed and certainly can't climb at a playground. After a year or so of correcting his diet, adding supplements he is lacking and trying to heal his stomach --- he can climb on the playground (with some boosting) and sit up tall and strong as he flies down the slide - by himself!!! Then he turns to me and says "Carson is a big boy". Yes, you are sweetie. Then he says "that was fast!" I was literally holding my breath b/c I'm afraid he'll take a header at the bottom and he doesn't wait for us to get there...the other man on the top of the climbing structure with us must have thought my husband and I were nuts as we frantically tried to find and exit to run to the bottom in time to catch him.

There was a time that he was to weak to walk in the sandy bottom of this playground. It was too exhausting for him to try to walk to the swings...wow. Way to go kiddo!

Young Love

My son is a ladies man. When he was 3, we were walking around in town and a beautiful young woman walked past us in shorts. He stopped, turned around to watch her walk away and gave her the once over - obviously looking at her from top to bottom. Another woman, spotted the entire scene and proceeded to laugh and say "That baby just oogled that lady" (he was three but he is quite small for his age)...that about sums up my son.

Fast forward to one of our current babysitters. He is in LOVE with her. Obsessed. Which is not hard when you are on the spectrum. The good thing about this obsession is that it is with a person - not an elevator, train, hotel, subway, toy. I suppose that is progress. He loves to 'snuggle' with her, he runs up to hug her and looks forward to showing her special things. But now he wants to visit her house all the time, and snuggle with her in her bed, etc. Now I see the pitfalls of obsessing over a person vs. a thing. A thing you can take with you all the time. And yes, he has fallen asleep with her picture cradled near his head...not as good as the real thing. Stay tuned...it could get ugly.

Maybe not so Friendly

We are regulars at the local Friendly's restaurant. They love my kids and take care of us.
The other evening there was a large table next to us of a family with a new baby. We were all "ohh"ing and "ahh"ing over this precious child.
As we were leaving, my son decided he wanted to see the baby (who ws now asleep). Side story - noticing babies and dogs is something somewhat new to my son. He treated them as if they might as well be... ah... doorknobs about 8 months ago. Unfortunately, he likes to walk up to babies and bop them on the head with a little plastic toy he carries around. By the way, babies do NOT like to be bopped on the head with little plastic toys - trust me. It's a new "concern" we have to keep in mind when we head out "ok honey, remember to watch Carson around babies and dogs; and Morgan is still afraid of wind and eats snow - any snow".

Anyhoo, as my son creeps closer to this precious child I knowingly hold him close and undetectedly (is that a word) hold his arms to his side. He peers at the sleeping child, smiles and shouts "HI!!". Have you ever seen a sleeping baby startle? It kind looks like a cross between an 8 year old at a Haunted House and your gramma slipping on some ice.
"Ok honey, remember to clamp your hand around his mouth...."

Tell me why, tell me why...

Today, we offered to take the kids to a nearby museum via the train (we have a BIG train fan in the house). For some odd reason, he said "NO!" and he became visibly upset. HUH? Normally we wouldn't cave to this and would still go on the the train trip, but sister's karate ran late and we missed the train. So we drove in, had fun, blah, blah, blah. The notable part was that on the way home we asked him "Why did you not want to take the train in?" He said (word for word) "Because it's loud"... That counts as a sentence. We understood what he meant by that

HUGE!

Asthma?

My daughter has asthma. Asthma is a bitch. My son, who has immune and mito disfunction, breezed through the flu and all colds this winter. My daughter was hospitalized once and looks like she's trying for an encore performance today. It's just a cold...

I can handle mito, dysbiosysis, yeast, lucky gut, brain inflammation, short stature --- but not being able to breathe is a BIG DEAL. And honestly, the hospital doesn't have any tricks of the trade there - except if she starts going down hill fast. Perish the thought.

It's time to start my home work about bio medical interventions for asthma...as this is not improving.... Maybe I'll have her take up the bagpipes! (Thanks Red Larry Yellow Larry)

Two words - OUTDOOR SHOWER

Ok - my first reaction when hearing the ME house we are thinking of renting had an outdoor shower was NO WAY! But do I really want to be such a wimp...I'm thinking yes! I'm also thinking of my sensory defensive son who hates showers and my daughter who hates cold. Then I'm thinking it will be something they will think is hiliarious and will remember forever. What really killed the idea was it's relative distance from everything else. Our kids just aren't at the age where they will curl up with a good book for the morning or something. Also, I cannot image us at a house that has a dock...I think I would return from vaction with a facial tick after accounting for my children while looking for them floating in the water around the house a million times a day.

How to name a blog?

I have to credit my friend "Mrs. B" with the name of the blog...
It goes like this...my family had been traveling quite a bit over the past year or so, which was no small feat considering my son with autism (and other complicating factors) and my three year old daughter, who is not shy about expressing her opinions. We had traveled to Puerto Rico twice, Baltimore (which included a hospital stay for my daughter), New Orleans, Texas, NYC and DisneyWorld (2x). Some of this was for work and we took the kids, some family stuff and some was just for "fun".

It was November and I was staring down the barrel of a trip to Key West to scatter my mom's ashes. I just couldn't bear the thought of this trip. Aside from the emotional implications - I was just fried from traveling. We had been tightening the grips on my son's diet and therapies, working more, starting yet another business...I couldn't take one...more...thing! I was sharing my dread of this trip with "Mrs. B" and she said "I can see it now - kids in tow going through security with 200 frozen gluten free pancakes and that huge silver urn filled with your mom's ashes. All I can say is 'Hello Gitmo'!" And the blog title was born. I was actually going to call it "200 Frozen Gluten Free Pancakes And My Mother's Earthly Remains" but c'mon - that's a bit much...I'm saving that for my book.

BTW, I bowed out of the key west trip. My sister was feeling exactly the same way - and now look. Things are so screwed with the economy we can probably get a GREAT deal on that trip now.

Tests

We have more testing kits sitting around this house than most doctor's offices - I'm pretty sure that's true. Poop tests, pee tests (2 kinds), blood tests, water testing kits, etc. I guess it's just par for the course in many households these days, especially autism families.

My friend, Donna, has jokingly remarked to her husband to sleep on your back at our house and NEVER eat out of the refrigerator without checking first...referring to the supplements given during our son's sleep or the "biohazard" tests stored in the fridge waiting for FedEx.

I remember prepping for our first set of these tests...reading and re-reading the directions. Oh the confusion - write the name and date? fill how high? Refrigerate? Freeze? Visa/MC? Insurance - HA! Now it's become so second nature that every time my son moves his bowels without the assistance of an enema or suppository my first thought is - "do I have a kit that I need a sample for?"...

He is more present...

It's funny but I'm noticing little things about how he looks up when we walk in the room; says hello to people when they walk in or he walks in (unprompted), comments unsolicited on what we are saying or doing...wonderful, wonderful things. But with the good comes...uh...more work. He is more easily bored and gets edgy if left to his own devices - even with the computer - for too long. He NEEDS interaction with us. He needs help playing. He wants to tell you things - but with 40% intelligibility with speech but the thoughts and ideas of a 6 year old...it gets tricky sometimes --- especially considering he becomes easily frustrated these days when he can't get his point across. But it's all moving in the right direction...