Thursday, November 08, 2007

Good News!!

Nick has made very good progress with requesting things this week! His therapist at UW is amazed at all he is doing! He can now follow one-step commands like "clean-up", "sit-down", "get down" etc. All of this has taken LOTS of practice; but he is now getting it. We work with him every day on simple things like greeting people (saying HI, BYE, Good Night,etc), and making him request things like Cup, cracker,etc. Things are connecting. Today I picked up some BK because I had school tonight and did not feel like cooking. Nick stood beside me and acted like he wanted a french fry. I gave him one (I know, a big No-No while GF/CF-but he did not eat it anyway) and said "french fry". He took it, smelled it, rolled it on his face, got it to the lips, then was done. Well, he came up to me, looked at me, and said "french fry". I was so happy and shocked that I gave him another one and lots of praise! We have also practiced a bed time routine of saying "Good night" before going to bed. I told him one night "Nick, go say goodnight to daddy". He went down the hallway, found daddy in the living room on the couch and stood beside him. He needed a little prompting with speaking, but he did it! He now says "Good night, I love you" on his own.

We also found a therapist to work with him at home. She was recommended by our therapist at UW. She has worked with many autistic kids and she was looking for more hours, so she asked our therapist if she knew of anyone. Well, 'C' e-mailed me today at work asking if we were interested. OF COURSE! She will be coming Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am-1pm. I still have not recieved the report from the speech clinic, so I am not sure of how much he will get there; but I am just glad that things seem to be falling into place. We have had a good week over here. Ending with a couple of pictures of Nick just being himself.



He loves to watch things spin in the microwave :)
Also a current obsession with him is to carry around a blanket,towel,or sheet wherever he goes. This is his favorite sheet in the pics.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

My Little Ducky



This Halloween was the best yet with Nick. He still does not get the idea of getting candy(much less EATING the candy) by going house to house dressed up in a silly costume, but he lets us do it every year. This year he walked the entire way instead of being strapped in his stroller, and I even took him up to a few houses so that he can participate. I tried to get him to say "Trick or treat", but all he could muster was a stare and a quiet "Tank U" (thank you) after some prompting. One house had a fog machine and lots of decorations outside. Nick stood at the edge of the sidewalk and exclaimed "WOW". He was a little hesitant to go through the fog, but he did it. It will be a while before he grasps the whole concept, but we are making baby steps.

Nick has been completely CF (no milk or dairy products) for a little over a week now, and he is adjusting very well to the rice milk. Thursday his school decided to give him regular milk despite me providing a thermos with his milk in his back pack every day. He had very bad diarrhea three times after that. I will have to write another note to his teacher directing them not to give him milk. We have noticed some good changes in Nick since starting the diet. Last night he did something he has NEVER done before. He went up to a kid with a flash light and said "My turn". He did this about 3-4 times and just kept following the poor boy. We were so happy that he actually initiated contact with another person; that it was all Mike and I could talk about after the boys left!

Friday we had an evaluation done on his speech through a local speech and hearing clinic. Nick was completing puzzles and playing with the toys and generally having fun. He would repeat words that the therapist said, and when putting puzzles together he would exclaim to himself "Good Job!". At one point he was so eager to respond with something; but just did not know exactly what to say; so he said "Goodnight, I love you" to the therapist!! He made great eye contact with her a few times while we were there and even touched her face. We should hear from them soon regarding how many hours he will get there. The clinic also works on food texture problems as well. I am so excited that we are finally going to recieve help for this!! We have been to a few doctors who said that he was beyond their services to help!! He WILL eat table food. Eventually.