Best christmas gift

I know I should have posted this before the EEG, but better late than never right?

This year, I received the best gift I could ever get. Wesley, without prompting, said "Hi Mama" and looked me right in the eye. No wrapping or bows could ever take the place of hearing the sweet word "Mama" come from the lips of your 3 year old son for the first time. He has never labeled me without prompting. I wasn't even sure if he knew what to call me. He labels Daddy all the time and even labels Casey without fail. Me, well, not until Christmas Day 2007. It simply melted my heart.

I still feel the pangs of sadness knowing Wes wants nothing to do with Christmas. Casey opened his gifts with such excitement and it was nice getting to experience that. Deep down, I want it from both my boys. Someday it will happen, but I'll never get back this time with Wes. Being 2 and 3 years old is magical at Christmas time. So innocent and in the moment.

This year, my resolution is to just enjoy my children the way they are. Every little milestone will be celebrated to its fullest. Wes has accomplished so much in the last year. He still blows my mind with each new word and each new sentence. Casey, well there isn't anything that boy won't try. No couch is too high and no gate will hold him back. I hope he carries that his entire life. He can do anything he puts his mind to. How amazing is that?

What a nightmare

With the title of this post, you'd think that all my negative worries came true. You'd think that Wes was tired, cranky and miserable. You'd think that we couldn't keep him awake and Tim and I wanted to kill each other. Well the total opposite happened, yet it was still a nightmare.

We took Wes out to McDonald's for a special dinner after we dropped off Casey to my sisters. He was spending the night. Tim got Wes a chocolate milk with his chicken nuggets which he has on rare occasions. Of course he loved it. By the time we got back home the boy was off the wall. He was dancing around and singing songs and just hyper. We were actually glad because he wasn't tired and ready for bed. By 9pm, we let him watch a Thomas the Train video to help calm him down. Tim gave him a bath at 9:30pm and he was in bed with lights out at 10. I'm not sure how long it took him to fall asleep because I went to bed too. Tim had idea to stay up all night rather then getting a little bit of sleep. He woke Wes up at 2am and after a half an hour, Wes was rearing to go again. He played on the computer A LOT and he and Tim played. By 6am, he was asking to go to bed. We managed to get him to stay awake with some breakfast and headed out around quarter to 7 for the hospital. We get there and get checked in and Wes is still doing great. He even greeted a few of the other patients. The tech comes and gets us and brings us in the back into a small room with a bed only. We try to get Wes to lay down and he just doesn't want to. The tech gives up after 3 minutes and tells us we will have to come back and have him sedated. There were no orders to do so today and apparently they were just too busy to wait for orders from his pediatrician. Uhhh, what?? He asked why we were doing this procedure and we told him he has autism. The tech said that on the 100+ kids with autism that he's done this for, most had an opposite reaction to the sedation and were hyper rather then sleepy. We spent 10 minutes in that hospital before turning around and leaving.

Needless to say, I am rather angry that Tim had to waste a sick day and all of us are sleep deprived for nothing. I knew this part would happen and I mentioned that to both his pediatrician and the neurologist who ordered the test. I need to make some calls and find out what to do now. I won't be making them today, because in my condition, I'm sure to say something I'll regret.

The big day

Tomorrow is the big day. Wes has been scheduled for an EEG. After our consultation with the neurologist, he suggested doing an EEG just to rule out any brain issues and possible seizures. I'm certain that Wes has not had any seizures but it's better to be safe then sorry.

I have not been looking forward to this day at all. Since the first mention of an EEG, I've been anxious about the procedure. They want a sleep deprived EEG done. That means that Wes can only sleep from 10pm tonight to 2am tomorrow. The appointment is for 7:15am at our local hospital. I'm trying to run through every senario that could possibly happen. He won't fall asleep during the test or we won't be able to keep him awake before then. He'll tantrum through the whole thing and it will be pointless or he'll fall asleep in my arms and the test will go smoothly (not likely).

Thankfully, my sister has offered to take Casey over night for us so we won't have to worry about him and Tim and I can take Wesley together to the hospital. Tim and I have decided to take sleep shifts. We're still working that out. Hopefully, the everything will go great. There will be no hiccups and I can be thankful it's behind us. I'll be sure to update tomorrow at some point.

Happy Holidays

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season. It's been a crazy year for us. We've had ups and certainly had downs, but I wouldn't change anything for the world. I only see our lives getting better and as long as the boys keep those dynamic personalities, then life is good. Watch out 2008, cuz here we come!

I want cracker

The title says it all folks. However, in case you don't get it, let me elaborate.

I had a couple of Ritz crackers still in their roll on the sofa. They were left over from afternoon snack we enjoyed in the living room. I was too busy playing with the kids to put them away so I just left them sitting on the back of the sofa. After a few hours, Wesley climbed on the couch, grabbed the left over crackers and brought them over to me. Looking me straight in the eye, he said "I want cracker". I thought for a moment that it came from Casey, but that was almost as impossible as it coming from Wesley. I held up one single cracker and he repeated "I want cracker". Holy Cow! Total left field but okay. I'll take it.

I know that he has been using 'I want' with the PECS system at school and of course using his words to go along with it. But there was no picture. There was only crackers, he and I. He used the sentence appropriately and he got what he wanted. Now we're on to that next phase and I couldn't be more excited.

Favorite Book

This morning, Wes crawled into bed with me like he does every morning while Daddy is getting Casey up. We say good morning to each other and I always ask if he slept good. It's our own wake up routine. He laid down next to me and started reciting something. It sounded familiar, but wasn't until after he finished that I understood. He was repeating the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? . It was the cutest thing I have ever heard him say. I've read the book many times and he was doing such a good job. I asked his teacher this morning at drop off if they had read it recently and she said they read it yesterday.
Guess what book will be under the tree this year.

Finally!

Thanks to Auntie Kelli and her advice! I persevered and took a million pictures before we finally got some good ones. I want to share my boys. Aren't they adorable (with a bit of mischief mixed in)

Sharing is caring

I think Wes has finally accepted that his baby brother is here to stay. It only took 15 months, but who's counting. He has been so loving and attentive to him. If he knocks him down, he will stop, turn around and give him a kiss on the head. He's more apt to play with a toy with him as well. The biggest thing is he is sharing his toys. If Wes has something that he knows Casey wants, when he's done, he will walk over to Casey and hand it to him. It's the sweetest thing! Of course, then he comes running to me for praise which I lay on thick.

It was one of my fantasies before the bomb drop of Autism. That my kids would play together, share and grow up as good friends. I never fully gave up the dream, but knew it would be slightly different than what I had always imagined. It changed to Casey growing up and being his brothers protector. I still think that will happen, but now I see that they will both protect each other.

I am blessed to have my children.

He IS listening!

I need to stop expecting my child to not "get" things. He clearly can. Here are two examples.

The boy really loves the computer. He loves to go on Kneebouncers and play the games on there as well as some of the ones on Fisherprice. Last week he wanted to use the computer but it was just before dinner and I was cooking. I told him that if he behaved at dinner, he could use the computer. He sat nicely and even tried a bite of food. When he was done he said "I'm finished" and got down from his seat. He looked me square in the eye and said "computer". Did he really remember or did he just want to play computer really bad?

Again, last week, I was trying to get him to take a No Thank You bite of food. He did not want to go along with this and made a huge fuss. Finally, I decided to try a bribe. I told him if he took his No Thank You bite, he could have some goldfish. I have never seen a piece of food tossed so quickly into his mouth before. He swallowed it whole and got himself a handful of crackers. I was stunned.

For now on, I'm going to assume he understands what I'm saying, even if it takes a few minutes to register. I'm also going to assume that when he doesn't do what I ask or say, that he's just being 3 and learning what he can and can't control. That's what we're striving for. Each day, he's making a comeback and it's the greatest thing to watch.