Someone Special

I know everyone adores that special person in their life. I am no different, Jake is my special someone. He makes me laugh when he quotes a part of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse appropriately in a conversation or he sings the Wonder Pets theme song. He has hilarious stories from work. Jake also has many other humorous qualities. Jake helps as much as he can despite working full time and working on his masters degree full time. Jake does all that someone can do to make me, his wife, feel loved.

This week I felt extra loved. I had a tough week. Ryan was sick last Sunday, then by Tuesday Brody was sick and then on Wednesday Jake was sick. I luckily never got it. But between being sick, having two extra kids that I take care of during the day and some sick people I had my hands full. Not to mention Brody has been at home more cause one of his programs stopped being funded by his state health insurance. With any child a routine is important and then a child with autism it is even more essential. Brody's routine had changed. Plus he is getting less help and therapy without going to this program. So now that he is at home he is acting out and his behavior this last week was pretty bad, especially when you compare it to the improvements he had been making over the past few months.

So Jake knowing how tough it was bought flowers, wrote a sweet love note, tried to help with the kids, let me request a horribly delicious hamburger and fries one night to give me comfort! There were other things he did and every little and big thing helped either take the burden off or comfort my emotional frustrations. Sometimes someone just wants to be understood and their frustrations justified.

I am grateful that Jake is in this with me. I am glad that even though he isn't always literally here to help he can listen to the venting and truly know and understand it all.

I think the romance and the love in our marriage has really helped me stay happy and positive throughout the tough times.

I hope everyone either has that special someone and cherishes them OR that they can find that special someone.

Fevers

I hate when kids get fevers




Okay, no one likes it when their kid is sick. But, to me, a fever is worse.


There is very little to do than perhaps a luke-warm bath and Tylenol.


On Saturday and some of Sunday Ryan has a really bad fever, poor kid was burning up.

Ryan was just extra whiny


I had no idea how hot he was cause we have no working thermometer


We have bought cheap ones, cheap ones for kids and then spent a bit of money on one and they ALL broke


Now today Brody has a fever


Called his preschool and told them he wasn't feeling well


Thought he could still have habilitation and respite


He got progressively worse as the day went on


He was lethargic, no appetite, no color, red eyes -the works



Yeah, this kid isn't doing anything today!

Since he looked worse I decided to feel his head again...WOW, he was burning

Again, had no idea how hot he was


Jake went to the store to get Tylenol for the fever

When Jake got back he said he spent way too much money but got a really nice thermometer cause he was sick of every time one of them has a fever we don't know how hot they are

His temp was 103.1!!!!

Tylenol and a luke-warm bath got it down but he is passed out on my bed right now

For a kid that never naps and it usually sitting on the top of a couch and playing outside on the slide that shows a lot

Oh Brody, poor kid! It is nice to have a reason for Dad to stay home but next time perhaps you can just fake it instead of looking like a zombie on the couch!!

Ryan is 14 months

I know it is silly to post every time the 13th of a month rolls by and announce that Ryan is another month older. Honestly I won't do it much longer. I also realize I am almost a whole week late. But as Ryan is getting bigger and older I just wanted to post a couple pictures and talk about this crazy kid. Ryan's personality has changed from an easy going, wonderful baby to what seems like a raging toddler who cries and whines about everything!

At just 14 months Ryan is:

• Grabbing everything in sight with his favorite being the phone and the tv remote


• His new favorite is taking sippy cups


• Screams when he is mad and he screams when he is happy


• Ryan wants desperately to go down the slide in the backyard and play on the couches


• Ryan loves to snack while in his highchair. In an instant some switch in his head changes and he screams to get down. Once down on the floor he eats all the snacks he dropped from his highchair!
  It takes 2 people to change Ryan's diaper. When I don't have a second person it looks like I am wrestling with him or that I am an entertainer at a casino in Vegas to get his attention away from wanting to move


• Ryan loves riding in the wagon in the backyard. You wouldn't know this by a smile or a facial expresion but by the fact that when you stop pulling the wagon he screams


• Ryan has a lot of teeth and even a couple molars


• Ryan will not rest until he gets the keyboard of this computer

He has become such a handful that at times I get so frustrated I want to scream but I usually end up laughing because Ryan is just such a crazy child right now and there is nothing I can do about it.

It will be interesting to see how his personality develops from here...will he ever calm down? If he doesn't I am thinking of renaming him Tasmanian Devil :)

Funny video

I thought this was a funny video of Ryan from a couple weeks ago

I hope I don't look mean for filming it and not helping him get out. This is especially funny when people realize how easily frustrated Ryan is and wow much he whines and screams when he is frustrated. But in this incident he patiently tried to work it out on his own...though it seemed to take forever!!

Just wanted to post some pictures

Right after I took this picture Brody came down the slide and ramped into Ryan (on purpose) he thought it was really funny but Ryan didn't!

Brody LOVES playing outside

static hair!!

This picture may look like the boys are interacting while playing under the slide but they were really just both looking at me

Picture Day - again -

Brody LOVES to color

My two yellow boys just hanging outRyan with his special-can't-live-without bear doing his favorite thing, having a bottle

This is a new shirt I bought him, it is just too cute!

P.S. This week I dealt with a sprained ankle. I was very limited as I spent a couple days trying to not do as much so I could give the ankle time to heal. Even though it was such a small thing it made me appreciate, as a mother, my health and mobility!

(Don't ask how it happened, I have no idea how or when I hurt it)

My baby is walking!

Ryan took his first steps weeks ago and, unlike Brody, we weren't able to get it on video. Finally I got the video above just by chance. As you can see from this video Ryan walks a bit and then once he sees an adult he starts to whine cause he thinks he needs to be picked up. But he is getting so good at wal king, especially when wearing baggy pants. From the time I took this video to now Ryan has perfected his walking and rarely crawls. My baby is such a big boy!

Autism Awareness

I know I sometimes post about Brody having autism so I don't want this to be just another one of those posts but I still felt that I should post something.

As some of you have read on the left column about the new stat of those with autism - 1 in 91 children and 1 in 58 boys. That number is so scary to me but it really shows more so that in general as parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, church-goers, friends, teachers, co-workers, etc. we all need to be aware of of autism and those who are affected by it.

It has been six months since Brody was diagnosed. It has been a tough couple years but the support and love from family and friends has been so great.

I am sure soon it will be that you can't go throughout your life without at least knowing someone first-hand or a "friend of friend" that has a child with autism or an adult with autism.

If any other disease with the statistic of 1 in 91 was occurring it would be a national crisis so we should treat autism as such. Yes, nobody dies of autism but children and people with this disorder, who are given professional help and assistance are sometimes not able to function normally.

We all need to be sensitive to this disorder and all that comes with it.

Funding from private and government entities need to explore more about this disorder from possible causes to all different types of therapies and help. No blinders should be used in the process of finding the cause and the effective treatments.

As a community, nation and world we need to work together to help those who have autism and their families.