Michael's latest checkup

He had a follow-up appointment on the 19th with the doctor who diagnosed him.

He's 32-33 months, but his age equivalents were 18 months for gross motor, 30 for visual reception, 26 for fine motor, 25 for receptive language, and 26 for expressive language.  Overall his "Early Learning Composite percentile rank" is 25.  There is a little note on the data sheet I asked them to copy:  "Twisting of Cap Perseverations" because he kept running over to me during the test to twist and untwist a cap off of my water bottle.

The doctor was optimistic with our more intensive therapy schedule that Michael will catch up to a great extent.  She does feel that intense therapy is critical, and also strongly encouraged me to enroll him in a Mother's Day Out program to bring a sense of structure to his days which should help him with his dysregulation, among other things.  All the MDO programs I've looked into are full, but I'm #1 on a waiting list at our church.  (Skipped to the front of the line since we're parishioners, awwww yeah.)

He's been really cute lately, singing along to his favorite music.  His hero is Mike Tompkins, a guy on YouTube who sings a capella (including all the instruments; there's around a dozen or two dozen layers of audio on each of his tracks).  Michael was beat boxing to one of his songs today.  It was ridiculous.  He also loves singing the "bump bump bump" part to Sally the Camel (who had five, then four, then three, then two, then one, then no humps) as well as chiming in at the end that she's a horse.

Conversation with a 2.5-y/o

Scene:  getting out of the shower

Michael:  "Keeno!"  ("Father, may I have the Kindle, perchance?")

Ben:  "Diaper first."

Michael: "Diaper Keeno!"

Ben:  "Vitamins after diaper."

Michael:  (sad) "Diaper Mins."  (happy) "Mins Keeno!"

Ben:  "No, then we brush your teeth."

Michael:  "Mins teef!  Teef keeno!"

Ben:  "Then it's time for num nums."

Michael:  "Num nums!  Keeno!  Num nums!"

He never got to play the Kindle before falling asleep.

We found Michael passed out with his hand down his diaper.  But before you think we're bad parents, notice the hair of the dog we placed within arm's reach for when he wakes up. 

At the Houston Zoo

The little pond at the botanical gardens

At the botanical gardens with Teresa and her kids

Riding the train at Zilker

In front of the Capital Building that we explored with Rachel 

Watching the House play solitaire on their computers

Michael LOVED the "butt heart" 

Michael being one of the big boys and riding the zip line

Visiting the O. Henry house with Popo

Michael received an official diagnosis of autism on his half-birthday, May 6th.  Every mommy wants her children to grow up healthy and happy, so this has been hard for me to deal with, even though we've suspected it for awhile and his therapists all said he was likely on the spectrum.  The pediatric development specialist said he has a "mild" case.

I'm pretty sure I have a touch of Asperger's syndrome myself, which makes it especially difficult to relate to him most days.  I'm not terribly empathetic toward my autistic two-and-a-half-year old and have trouble seeing things from his perspective.  Moreover, I get frustrated often because this doesn't fit my master plan where he learns to read at 3, is doing arithmetic at 4, gets accepted to a prestigious and highly selective preschool, and everything just falls into place until he goes to college when he's 10.  When he's spending an inordinate amount of time opening and closing doors, my frustration sets in.  This is a time for grace.

Michael is special.  Not just because of the autism.

• He has a pure heart.  I have never known Michael to hit or bite or kick any other children, even when they provoke him.  Every other child his age that I've been around has shown these aggressive behaviors.  I don't begrudge them because I know it's normal, but Michael's gentleness is very noticeable.
• He's very loving.  He loves to ask for "kees!" and put his forehead near our lips, and he randomly hugs and kisses Ben and me.
• He gives.  He shares his toys, he gives back toys to others, he feeds me.  It's in his nature to nurture.

We are bumping up therapy.  We're doubling his private therapy from 2 to 4 hours a week, and we're adding in ABA therapy in his ECI protocol for another 2 hours a week.  Add to that the hour each with (on average) with his other ECI therapists.  We're limiting screen time.  

Of interest is this article, Summary of Biomedical Treatments for Autism .  Ben actually found it.  It's an overview of the effectiveness (according to parents) of various drugs, diets, and supplements in the treatment of autism.  The last page has a nice summary, and one of the first pages lists their recommendations:

"Treatment Order: 

We have listed the various treatments in approximate order of what is typically recommended, [...]: 

• Improve Diet 
• Food Sensitivities 
• GFCF Diet 
• Vitamin/Mineral Supplements 
• High-Dose Vitamin B6 and Magnesium 
• Essential Fatty Acids 
• Gut Treatments 
• Antifungals 
• Probiotics 
• Digestive Enzymes 
• Amino Acids 
• Melatonin 
• Thyroid Supplements 
• Sulfation 
• Glutathione 
• Chelation 
• Immune System Regulation "

We're basically working our way down the list.  He's on GAPS (a variation of the SCD diet, which was one of the most effective treatments listed), GFCF diet, and we're currently playing around with some vitamin and mineral supplementation (especially since he's dairy-free; need those bone-building minerals!).  We haven't addressed food sensitivities yet.  There's actually a multivitamin for autistic children called Super Nu Thera that our doctor recommended, but even with fructose as the #1 ingredient, it's pretty hard to get down.  I made some banana soft serve tonight (frozen mashed bananas; has the consistency of fro-yo) and mixed it in, and he had some of it then, but that's the only way I've gotten him to take it.  And even then he didn't finish it.

Michael reciting the alphabet

The best part is around the 1:10 mark:  "W"

Michael will learn to read before he learns to talk...

... as Ben and I keep joking.  He has a keen interest in the alphabet.  I'm not quite sure how, but he's been able to identify all his letters for some time now.  The only time we really "practice" the alphabet is occasionally at the park, I'll sing the alphabet song and point to the letters that are imprinted on a wall on the playscape.  It certainly wasn't enough that I expected him to learn the alphabet that way, but then we were playing with alphabet flash cards and I would put out half a dozen random letters and ask "Which is L?" and he got all the letters this way (not even in order!).  This was probably a few months ago.

Over the last few weeks, he's been trying really hard to talk.  He's imitating all the sounds we make, and we know him well enough to decipher that "opa!" means "open" and "fffff" means "off," and so on.  He's having trouble putting two different sounds together, and it was actually only yesterday I heard him say "opa" for the first time.  We've been working hard on that one -- he has been doing "oh!" or "pah!" for "open" depending on the context, and I've been trying to get him to combine the two sounds.

Today we were coloring and I wrote out the alphabet on a big piece of paper.  I pointed at each letter in succession and he told me what it was as best he could; he couldn't make most of the sounds, but you could tell the wheels were turning and figure out what he was trying to say.

It must be terribly frustrating for Michael to have all these thoughts and have such trouble communicating.  He's getting better, and he's trying his hardest, God bless him.  He actually doesn't seem frustrated, but instead proud at what he can say, which is great.  I'm more frustrated than he is.  :-\

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Cute anecdote time.  Michael knows that kisses are exchanged when he is upset, but he seems to be confused as to the direction.  Whenever he gets hurt, or gets upset, he scrunches his face and gives me a big wet kiss.  Even when he's mad at me.

Gratitude Journal, week of 3/25/13

Well, here's my last entry into the gratitude journal.  I remembered almost every day of Lent to do this; I at least stuck to this one much better than my "no cheese" sacrifice, sadly, which I failed to adhere to for about the last two weeks.