Can I get a break here?

It has been a crazy, wild last two weeks or so. Between colds, family issues and teething, I need a vacation. Hurry up Vegas trip!

It was inevitable that Wes would get sick within the first couple of weeks of school. Sure enough, his nose was running, coughing, and fever. I even had to give him a nebulizer treatment which I haven't had to do in a long time. It was not fun. He fought me the entire time. I felt so bad having to pin him to the floor to get the medicine in him, but it was for his own good. We did a lot of cuddling and rocking after. That always seems to calm him down and mellow him out.

After that was Casey. What I thought was the cold being passed around was a molar coming in. Poor baby. He still only has the same 6 teeth in the front he's had for the last 5 months. Then a tricky molar had to pop through. He had been so miserable. Not sleeping well, drooling like a waterfall and had a diaper rash that I have never seen before as a mother. It was so red and raw. We tried every at home remedy I could find. From cornstarch to mylanta (yup, that's right.) nothing worked. Finally, Tim found this great Triple Paste diaper rash cream and it cleared up in 24 hours.

Then it was on to me. I figured I was blessed with Wes' cold, but mine was worse. Hacking cough, possible strep throat and just achy all over. Nothing a little antibiotic can't fix. I'm still waiting to feel better.

So, now our trip to Vegas. It's not until April, but I'm already planning in my head. Tim has a conference out there for work so I'm tagging along. The kids will be staying with my parents (as long as they don't back out). Basically, my planning is on sleep. I'm going to catch up on the last 3 years worth of lost sleep. I don't care if I leave the room until noon each day. I'm going to enjoy no whining, no crying, no screaming, no tantrums, and no being tugged in every direction. I do plan on doing some site seeing. I can't wait to see the Venetian and New York, NY. Those are top on my list of places to see. They might be the closest I come to those places until the kids are out of the house. So now the countdown for that begins!

I know my child

One of my pet peeves is when people ask about Wes, and they either assume that he will never have a quality life, or that he will someday snap out of this and be a typical child. Assured that I have explained how hard he has to work at simple tasks, they still assume one of these two things.
The other thing that gets me is when others think that I can't read my child. He is not quite non-verbal, but words don't come easy to him either. Sometimes, I can see him going through the filing cabinet, which is his mind, to find the right word. He will throw out every word he knows until he gets to the right one. Occasionally, he'll stop and think before he responds which is great. When he can't find any words, I can clearly read his body language to know how he's feeling and reacting to a situation. This ties to the sensory and behavioral issues. My son may not be able to talk to me and let me know how he's feeling, but I can read him like a book. Like no one else can. NO ONE.

The Thomas/ASD connection

Someone commented that I should google Thomas the Train and autism, so I did. It makes sense now.

Here is a very interesting site listing the connection kids with autism have with Thomas and his friends. The National Autistic Society did a study here on the Thomas/Autism connection.

It's very fascinating. I won't feel guilty for letting Wes watch an episode or two now. If he is making a "friend" in Thomas, then who am I to stand in the way.

Q & A

Wes has reached the next milestone ( in my eyes anyway). He is now answering questions instead of repeating what we say (echolalia). This is very encouraging to us. I'm still trying to figure out whether he is repeating answer's we have given him, but I'm thinking he's just listening and answering. In my previous post, I mentioned that he labeled the Thomas characters without any hesitation. It didn't occur to me that he answered my question without repeating it, until now.

Earlier this week, he was roaming the living room carrying a blue and yellow mega block. I stopped him on his way by and asked him what color are his blocks. He answered "bwoo an yewo." Not only did he answer me, but he used 3 words and made a sentence! Well bust my buffers as Thomas says (I didn't realize I was that corny).

He loves to use the computer and visit Kneebouncers.com. He can choose from a variety of games, but they all require just using one key. When asked which game he wants to play, he answers with the name of the games. One of the games has a tractor with an animal in tow ( sheep, cow, elephant, dinosaur, and camel), and when I ask him what animal that is, he answers, including the dinosaur!

This is huge. When I look back to when we started this journey, I never thought I would hear my child speak again. In the back of my mind I kept thinking he would be the one who never uttered a word except to vocal stim. I prayed to just hear him say mommy or daddy. Look how far he's come. He is an exceptional boy and I will never ever doubt his abilities again. I'm learning from Wesley

One week down, Many more to go

Wes' first week of school has come and gone. The crying has actually increased with drop off. The teacher said that he settles down very quickly after I've left. Is it me he's upset about? His aide has also said that circle time is getting better slowly. His first day, they let him slack a bit and didn't force him to sit at circle for very long. Each day, they made him sit longer and longer and well, that just wasn't going to happen for him. Eventually he gives in and sits with the other kids.

My favorite part...the art projects. They are so cute! He's painting, coloring, and gluing. I look forward to searching through his backpack to find all the little treasures he's brought him to me. I am so happy he's making an effort.

Smart Little Bugger

As I've said before, Wes' obsession is Thomas the Train . He's been into trains for months and asks to watch Thomas whenever he can. Of course, we minimize how much he watches because he'd be zoned out there all day if I let him.

One late morning, when we got home from school, I pointed to the characters on his backpack and asked who each or them were. He labeled them each correctly with no hesitation. We have some die casts that we've collected from purchasing some Thomas movies and I held those out and asked who they were. Again, he labeled them correctly.

I shouldn't be surprised by this. The kid is like a sponge and soaks up everything he does. His uncle bought him his first Thomas train set for his birthday. He will be getting a train table from Santa this year so we can continue to add onto his train set. He spends lots of time sitting in front of the train and watching it go around and around. I know he's stimming, but I'd like to believe he's just actually excited by Thomas as the train.