Everyday Adventures

Trip to the dentist

2010-08-23T20:50:00.000-04:00

I am happy (and relieved) to report that after having given up for quite a while, we finally found a dentist who is AWESOME with our boys and they had a great visit last month.

Our last trip to the dentist did NOT go well. In fact, it went so not well, that we decided it wasn't worth bothering to go because they were not able to clean the boys' teeth, they were just baby teeth anyway, and we were afraid any more traumatic dentist visits would just make it that much harder to get them to go when they got "big" teeth and needed to start going.

I was dreading it, but Cuddlebug and Bearhug have several of their permanent teeth by this point and we really needed to go. And Bitty needed a dental form to complete his kindergarten registration.

So I started a search for a dentist who would be patient and work well with kids with sensory issues and communication challenges.

I have learned though, that everyone SAYS they can handle such situations ("oh sure, it'll be fine" they tell me... uh-huh), but the reality is many can't and it is usually painfully obvious within the first few minutes.

So I checked our local autism parents group for recommendations, did some research on the ones that got the most mentions, and then started calling.

The one I ended up calling was highly recommended by several parents, and after I talked with someone at his office I felt pretty good about taking the boys there. He's a pediatric dentist, and they have a designated day where they see only children with special needs. They limit the number of appointments on that day (and it's only one day a month) so it takes a while to get in (I made our appt about 2 months in advance) but it is SO worth it, because the trade-off is that with few appts that day, both the staff and the dentist have the flexibility to spend as much time with your child as needed without being rushed, and the office is calmer and less overstimulating for the kids.

Very cool.

We walked in and Cuddlebug and Bearhug immediately found the little alcove with video games in the waiting room, while Bitty went straight for the aquarium. He kept looking for piranhas and eels, lol, but obviously there were none in there. He was excited about the clown fish though :).

Cuddlebug did an *awesome* job letting them clean his teeth.

Bearhug did really well (better than expected) but finally had enough at the end, jumped up and ran back out to the waiting room shrieking. When he gets upset like that he just can't talk, so he couldn't really tell us what it was that set him off, but later that night he told me one of the tubes was blocking his nose, and when they wanted him to close his mouth over the suction thing he couldn't breathe. I can relate, I had a dentist appt not long ago and somehow between the squirting and the suction I was starting to feel like I couldn't breathe too. I didn't jump up and run out screaming, but I kind of felt like it.

At least now we know what was wrong so I can mention it next time as something to watch for. I know if they'd known they would have fixed it for him, but he was already at his limit from tolerating the cleaning and that was enough to push him over the edge. He did a good job calming himself back down once he was back out in the waiting room though.

This was Bitty's first dentist visit, and he did amazingly well too. As the hygienist was cleaning his teeth, she started counting and told him she'd be done when she got to ten (that actually worked pretty well). The *second* she said "ten" he jumped up, pushed her hand away, and said, "gway, job!!" lol :).

They tried doing an x-ray but Bitty wasn't having it. He tried, but since she said something about taking a "picture" of his teeth, all he wanted to do was his "say cheese" face and he was confused by the little cardboard thing they kept asking him to bite down on. He didn't quite seem to get that he was supposed to stay biting down for a second and hold still. But it was his first visit, so we'll just try again next time :).

We didn't try to do Bearhug's (it took effort just to get him back in to actually see the dentist), so Cuddlebug was the only one who actually did x-rays.

After the hygienists were done, the dentist came in to take a look at each of the boys' teeth. Bearhug was still in the waiting room at that point, but when the dentist found out he and Cuddlebug were id twins, he joked about just looking at Cuddlebug's teeth twice, which Cuddlebug thought was pretty funny :).

We did manage to get Bearhug back in to see the dentist, and he did great. Turns out both he and Cuddlebug have deep grooves in their molars (so do I, guess it is genetic) so he suggested having their molars sealed at their next visit to help prevent getting cavities in those teeth. He said it should only take a few minutes so hopefully won't be a big deal.

All in all it turned out to be a really good visit, much better than expected (given our track record). And no cavities, yay! I look forward to going back to this particular dentist for a long time.

Since it was Bitty's first visit, they gave him a little card with his picture on it. So cute!

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The Talk

2010-08-22T14:29:00.001-04:00

No, not that talk. The one about autism.

As I have posted before, we have talked to Cuddlebug and Bearhug before in general terms about some of their challenges (and strengths) relating to autism / SPD, but we haven't actually gotten into the technical terminology before.

Until now, that is. As I've mentioned, they have a new resource teacher this year, and we got an "introduction" letter from her over the summer. One thing she touched on was wanting to know how much the students know about autism, do they know they have it, and to what degree are we comfortable with her discussing it with them. The reason being, at this age they are only 2 years away from middle school and will soon be at age where they do need to be more able to advocate for themselves. She also mentioned in the letter that sometimes the kids hear her being referred to as a "special ed teacher" and want to know why they have a special ed teacher. Makes sense.

So... I wanted to be able to give her permission to talk to the boys about autism, but I wanted them to hear about it from us first. Dh and I talked about it, and then I waited for good opportunity to talk with the boys.

It turned out to be in the car, on the way home from taking them to the fountains at the park to play. Bitty was home with dh, so it was just the three of us in the car, and having just had the opportunity for so much sensory fun, they were in a good state of mind to be able to have a discussion without being too distractable, if that makes sense.

So I asked them casually if they had ever heard of "autism." They both said no, but they were interested in finding out what it was.

"It's when someone's brain works a little differently than most people." I answered, purposely using the same wording that we have used in talking to them about their specific issues before.

They both immediately recognized that and said excitedly, "Oh, I think WE have that!" I told them that yes, they do, and we talked a little bit more about what that means. Bearhug asked if that has anything to do with his "special effect" (the name he has taken to calling his um, outbursts, which thankfully have been few and far between in recent months). I told him that yes, I think that is part of it, and we talked a little bit about sensory issues specifically, and how it can be easy to get overwhelmed sometimes.

They thought about that for a few minutes, and I got a little concerned that they might get too preoccupied with the whole thing (after all, these are the same boys who get overly worried about things like mesothelioma and allergies after seeing commercials about them on tv). So I told them, "you know, it's not really a big deal."

Bearhug: "ok... because it SOUNDS like kind of a big deal."

me: "well, it's important to know, but it's not a big deal in the sense that it's not anything you need to be worried about. Just something that's helpful to know. Everyone has something that can make their life a little harder sometimes, so understanding what that is for you can be helpful."

Then Cuddlebug asked about a friend of theirs that has asthma, "that makes his life harder too."

I figured that was a reasonably good comparison so I went with it, and told them that yes, just like asthma can make some things harder their friend, autism will make some things harder for them. It seemed to click, and we went on to talk about all the things that are hard for some people (one of mine - I have no internal clock so it is really hard for me to keep track of time).

After we got home, it occurred to me to tell them that their little brother also has autism, so we had a short chat about that too. I told them that is why he is still working on learning to talk (they get frustrated at times with his communication skills and have asked about it at times), and part of why he has his meltdowns sometimes (the other part being, well, he's five).

It was a relatively short discussion, and no doubt there will be many more over the years. But I felt pretty good about it, and felt like it opened the door for us to talk about more things, and more specifics, as time goes on. I've talked with their resource teacher about how she handles the discussions at school and feel comfortable with her approach. She also assures me that she'll keep us posted on how those discussions go and any questions the boys have so we can address them at home too.

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Survived the first week of school

2010-08-16T08:06:00.005-04:00

Actually it went pretty well, this was probably our best "first week" ever - I have been so impressed with how well the boys have managed the transition into the new routine. I know it's still an ongoing transition so I don't want to speak too soon, but the first week went better than expected. Only one meltdown (Bitty, 2nd day of school, when he realized this getting-up-in-the-morning thing was going to be an every day occurrence now!) and minimal complaining. We'll see how it goes this week as our resident 4th graders have a series of quizzes throughout the week and a test on Friday to prepare for.

We've even managed to successfully expand the "horse on Sunday" rule to a more general rule of dressing nice for school (ie. save the worn-out, shredded, faded, CHEWED-on, and increasingly too small Thomas shirts for after school). His latest thing is chewing on the neckline of his shirts and now even the ones that looked nice are starting to have tears in the neckline. Hopefully limiting the wear on the Thomas shirts will help the ones he has last longer... and he still gets to wear his Thomas shirts to school on Friday :).

~~~~~~~~

Funny story from church yesterday - when I picked Bitty up from his class he showed me his little "badge" that said "I can be obedient" and was really excited about the new word he'd learned, "obedient." When we got home and he changed into his Thomas shirt, he even wanted me to put the badge onto his shirt so he could wear it all day. Until he started misbehaving and we reminded him that he wasn't being "obedient." You should have seen the look on his face, as if to say "it means WHAT?!" and then he pointed to the little badge and said "Take it OFF!" LOL

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First day of school

2010-08-09T13:40:00.005-04:00

They look pretty enthused, LOL. They all did great getting up and ready though, I was really proud of them. I look forward to hearing how their day went.

I walked Bitty in for his first day, but his big brothers will walk him to class tomorrow.

(Posting from my phone at lunch so I'll apologize in advance for any weird formatting errors)

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Summer's end

2010-08-03T08:54:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe, but summer is almost over. Not the ridiculously hot weather (100+, really?!), that will probably last another month or so (ugh). But school is about to start back next week.

Bitty is really getting excited about Kindergarten. Of course we've been talking it up :). And practicing with our Kindergarten workbooks. And if we forget, this is the only kid I know who actually ASKS for homework, lol.

Cuddlebug and Bearhug are not so excited, they have gotten used to their summer routine of staying up late and sleeping in. We've been having them go to bed earlier for a week now, and this week we'll start actually getting them up earlier too (because they've been staying awake even after they go to bed so they're still sleeping in).

On the upside, at least now that Bitty will be at the same school, they don't have to worry about getting up early to drop him off at a different school anymore ;). Dh is excited about being able to drop off / pick up all at once for the next two years.

Bearhug and Cuddlebug will be in the same class for the first time this year. Hopefully that will work out well. I'm looking forward to them having the same homework on the same nights, and the same tests on the same days :). No more going crazy trying to keep it all straight as to who is supposed to study for what and when, and no more ornery boys about one having homework when the other doesn't. Honestly that wouldn't have been as big a deal if it went back and forth, but last year at least it seemed to consistently be one of them who had way more homework than the other and we heard about it all year.

Class lists were posted on Friday, turns out Bitty has the same Kindergarten teacher that Bearhug had. She was nice, and very structured, so I think Bitty will like her and do well in her class. He's already learned her name and is looking forward to meeting her at open house on Thursday. We've already met his resource teacher, he is very nice and enthusiastic about working with the kids.

I'm not familiar with Cuddlebug and Bearhug's new teacher, but I talked to another mom with a daughter in the ASD program (who will be in the same class) and she was excited about the teacher as she's heard really good things about her. So I'm feeling pretty good about that and looking forward to meeting her on Thursday. We've already met their new resource teacher too and she is great.

I'll let you know how it goes on Thursday.

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SPD Blog Carnival: Sensory fun photos

2010-08-01T19:58:00.006-04:00

Hartley's Life with 3 Boys is hosting a blog carnival to share photos of our kids having sensory fun (h/t to K @ Floortime Lite Mama, since I saw it there!).

Here are some of our recent sensory adventures, most involving water (it being summer and all) and a couple from the park.

The best sensory therapy for our boys (along with bouncing) is swimming. Unfortunately we don't get to swim often, but we visited my SIL recently, who has a pool, and the boys had a GREAT time!

Little Bitty called it "da penguin pool" lol.

I recently took Cuddlebug and Bearhug to the local park with a fountain. Of course, my (not so) little sensory seekers were right in the middle of the biggest, most intense fountain.

Bearhug let Bitty spray him in the yard :).

Cuddlebug doin' his own thing (we've been telling him for years to stop running up the slide, guess we neglected to mention not to run *down* the slide)...

More slide action, from Bitty who actually sat on his bottom to slide :).

See more entries here.

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Deev likes the black shirt

2010-08-01T09:23:00.000-04:00

Bitty has made some progress this summer with his handwriting. He pretty much couldn't write a couple of months ago (he could do his name but anyone outside of his family and teachers would not have known that's what it was). He still has a REALLY hard time with writing, but he can make some recognizable letters now. Shaky and hard to read, but recognizable. What's even more impressive (to me anyway) is that he can spell some words on his own. I think he remembers the letters from all the reading he does.

A week or so ago he asked me to "wite a memo" with him. Not sure where he heard the term "memo" but I asked him what he wanted to write.

"Deev wike da bwack sert."

At first I thought he meant "Steve" from Blue's Clues (but doesn't he wear a green shirt?) because Bitty had been watching that just before he came to me with his memo request.

I started telling him the letters to write "Steve," but he handed me the pencil and said, "Mama do."

Sometimes I'll hand it back and say, "Bitty do." but that time I took the pencil and wrote it for him.

"Steve likes the black shirt."

"Nooo, not Steeeb, Deeeev!" he said in a silly tone (trying to be patient with his clueless mom, lol).

Deev? Who is Deev?

So I handed him the pencil and said, "Bitty do."

He took the pencil and with much effort wrote a "D" and a "V"

Light bulb moment for me, lol. Sure enough, he wasn't referring to Steve of Blue's Clues, but to Darth Vader, or "D.V." from his Mii Plaza on the Wii.

Hahaha :) And he's right, "Deev" likes to wear a black shirt.

He used my "memo" as a model, stopping to carefully check the letters he wasn't sure how to make, and slowly wrote out the rest of the sentence.

"DV likes the black shirt."

He did a great job on it, I had him show it to dh so I'm not sure where it ended up but if I can find it I'll post a picture :).

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Handsome Bitty

2010-07-31T01:47:00.000-04:00

Couldn't help myself, here's another picture of Bitty in his hat (it's reversible). Is he super-duper handsome or what? ;)

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SOOC: Fungus-among-us

2010-07-31T00:39:00.007-04:00

Mr. Bitty has had ringworm on his scalp for almost two months now. We've nicknamed it his "fungus-among-us" (yes, we watch too many cartoons).

He's been taking medicine and it is S-L-O-W-L-Y getting better, but he still has a bald spot. It used to be a big yucky-looking red bald spot, but now it's a smaller, pale (not red) almost-bald spot with a little peach fuzz growing back :).

He has a baseball cap that he wears when we're out and about, and we got him this cute little hat to wear to church. Took a little while to get him to leave it on, but he's become a pro at it now :). I usually flip the front part up a little so he can see better, but he likes to flip it back down.

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Pokemon apprentice

2010-07-25T11:34:00.006-04:00

Cuddlebug and Bearhug gave me one of their Pokemon games a couple of weeks ago "in case you want to try it."

It wasn't optional, lol. They asked me the next day how far I'd gotten in the game, and I had to admit I'd been too tired to play. Not wanting to disappoint them again, I made a point of starting the game the next night.

Turns out it is actually pretty fun :).

Although it's hard to play when you have two people hovering over you, both talking at the same time (such that you can't understand either of them, happens all the time so I'm used to it but it's frustrating b/c I really do want to hear what they have to say and no matter how many times I tell them I can't hear either of them when they both talk at once they truly seem oblivious to the fact that anyone else is talking to me at the same time).

I catch bits and pieces, they are both rattling off statistics of the various Pokemon, advising which I should use against which foes, what moves are best, when they will "level up" and what new moves they will learn when they do, and have I been to XYZ city yet?

They are eager to help, even showing me how to trade Pokemon with them. They accepted some of my low-level Pokemon in exchange for some higher-level ones that are apparently hard to find on your own in the game. What they forgot to tell me is that traded Pokemon won't necessarily do what you tell them to do in battle until you have earned at least two gym badges. I only had one, so I learned the hard way when I gave instructions in battle only to see "Jirachi is goofing off." Wha?!

Anyway, I have my second gym badge now so it's all good. :)

So yesterday the boys were telling me "you've learned so much about Pokemon, you're even smarter than Albert Einstein when it comes to Pokemon!"

Me, flattered that they are impressed with my meager Pokemon knowledge, "well I wouldn't go THAT far..."

Bearhug: "It's ok, Mom, Albert Einstein was born WAY before they even invented Pokemon."

Cuddlebug: "Yeah, so he knows absolutely *nothing* about Pokemon."

Me (laughing, so they are not so impressed after all, lol): "So in other words, it doesn't take much to know more about Pokemon than Albert Einstein?"

Boys: "Yeah"

LOL

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Spring Break - pictures

2010-07-24T00:35:00.013-04:00

Playing catch-up... here are some pictures from our trip over spring break.

Exploring at the park:

so cute how CB and BH are doing the same thing, each with one knee up and one elbow up :)

Sliding together...

...didn't work out so well (LOL)

Love those happy smiles :)

Bitty opening his birthday presents from Grandma and Grandpa

Little Bitty bowler :)

Visit to the zoo:

Bearhug and Cuddlebug took their "Poke-walkers" everywhere they went, it counts their steps and searches for hidden Pokemon in the area (don't ask...).

Checking out the turtles

Bearhug

Cuddlebug

Feeding the ducks and catfish in the lake (always a highlight!)

Children's Museum:

Nature walk:

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What happens when...

2010-07-11T19:11:00.014-04:00

...you fall asleep and a Little Bitty gets hold of your phone? He starts taking pictures.

I wasn't feeling well a couple of weeks ago and went upstairs to bed, Bitty followed me. Dh was downstairs with Cuddlebug and Bearhug. I guess Bitty entertained himself, because when I woke up I found these on my phone, lol.

Several pictures of his animal cards:

A few pictures of his feet (if there was any doubt as to the perpetrator, these would be incriminating evidence, lol):

And a little photo tour of my bedroom and his bedroom.

Our dresser (missing all the handles, lol, obviously replacing it hasn't been a priority).

My bedroom window - I actually really like this one, it has an artistic feel to it.

My bedroom door

Bitty's bedroom door

Bitty's toybox, with his finger blocking most of it, lol

There were several other, more blurry ones, and a few totally black ones where his finger was entirely in the way, but it made me smile to find these on my phone :).

Well, that is, after I figured out that he didn't actually break my phone, he just somehow replaced my wallpaper with one of his totally-black pictures that made it look broken. Ack!

Time to put a little Bitty-security on my phone...

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Salutatorian with autism gives graduation speech

2010-07-11T03:02:00.006-04:00

Thanks so much to Jean for sharing this, I LOVE it!! :)

This is the story of a high school student with autism who graduated as his school's salutatorian. It tells about some of the challenges he overcame growing up, and shows the speech he gave at graduation. Absolutely awesome :).

As Jean mentioned, it is especially touching to see the acceptance he has from his fellow students, who share in the joy of his achievements.

Because no matter what our children may accomplish, or where life's path may take them, isn't that something we all want for them? Acceptance.

I loved seeing how he talked about having to learn emotion ("a smile can go a long way," and he flashes a grin), that made me laugh and cry (happy tears) at the same time, it reminded me of Cuddlebug. He and Bearhug continue to work on their social skills, and at our last iep meeting his teacher commented that Cuddlebug doesn't quite get why he is supposed to do certain things in social situations, but he'll do them anyway. Bearhug is starting to "get it" more but being his stubborn self, he is more resistant to doing something just because he's "supposed" to if it doesn't make sense to him.

And my favorite quote is this one, "My parents were told... I would most likely end up in an institution... Today I stand before you accepted into every institution of higher learning that I applied to, so I guess, in a way, the experts were right about the institution thing."

Watch the whole thing, it's great (it'll make you watch a brief commercial first, but it's worth the wait).

Read the whole thing here. More here.

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SOOC Saturday: Mystery man

2010-07-03T15:11:00.002-04:00

Who is that mystery man? :)

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Adventures in autism: balloon edition

2010-07-02T22:05:00.006-04:00

A nice man at the store offered Bitty a balloon.

What could possibly go wrong? Let me count the ways...

I wanted to run screaming from the store. "Nnnooooooooo!!"

But that would probably be perceived as less than polite, so I didn't.

Instead, I repeated the question to Bitty, "would you like a balloon?"

"You wan' pink bawwoon?"

I looked at the man. Pleaselettherebeapinkballoonpleasepleaseplease.

He shook his head, "Sorry, we don't have any pink ones. How about orange?"

"You don' wan' da oweng one?"

"We have yellow, would he like a yellow one?" the man is probably regretting ever bringing up balloons by now, but this is just the beginning.

To my surprise, Bitty deems yellow an acceptable balloon color, so the man goes to get it for him.

When he brought it back, he offered to put it onto Bitty's wrist so it wouldn't fly away.

Strike 2. Bitty HATES tying anything on his wrist and squirmed away, refusing to take the balloon.

I offered to carry it for him, and peace was restored. Temporarily.

Yellow was not so acceptable once the balloon was in hand (or in mom's hand).

Bitty started getting agitated.

"Yewwow iss not good one. You don' wan' da yewwow one. You wan' to make it goner? Yeh, yewwow iss not good one. Iss time to keep it goner. You don' wan' da yewwow one. Da yewwow iss for goners!!"

And on and on. So I offered to "keep it goner" and went and found the man to give it back. Yeah, a little embarrassing but it was worth the look of relief on Bitty's face.

Things went ok from there, until we were checking out and Bitty saw the box of balloons behind the counter. He ran back there and started helping himself, sifting through them to see what colors they had.

Another guy was there and offered to blow one up for him.

Oh yeah, the whole color fiasco again. We were about to leave with no balloon when Bitty decided a white one would be better than nothing, so he ran back to ask for a white one.

He smiled and said thank you.

But then he decided white wasn't so great either.

He was getting more and more frustrated by this point.

"You don' wan' da WHITE one!!! Da WHITE-EEEEE iss not good!!"

We were finally done with what we needed, so I took the white balloon and started guiding Bitty toward the door.

He wanted to go back for an orange one. And a yellow one. I told him no and kept walking. I could see we were headed for a meltdown no matter what color he got, and wanted to get OUT of the store before that happened.

On the sidewalk outside, he started crying. "You wan' two bawwoons?... (counting on his fingers) ... you wan' seben bawwoons?"

Oh yeah, first the colors and now the numbers. Everything has to be seven. Or seventeen. Or twenty-seven. There is NO WAY I'm going back into that store.

As we got to the car, I put the balloon in first so it wouldn't fly away and he started screeching.

"If I don't put it in the car it's going to fly up to the sky. Do you want to let it go up to the sky?"

He immediately calmed down and nodded, "yes!"

So I handed him the string and he promptly let it go flying.

Not two seconds later he was crying again, "Nnoooooo!! Get da bawwoon!! No to da sky!!"

Ugh. I got him into the car and there we sat waiting while the meltdown ran its course.

He really wanted a pink balloon. And I really didn't want to deal with what was likely to be an evening-long cranky episode on a Friday night. I know the grocery store near our house sells balloons in their flower shop, because I've gotten them for birthdays before. I'm pretty sure they have all colors, so we should be able to find a pink one there. I offered to take him to get one if he'd calm down and buckle his seatbelt so we could leave.

Before we went in, I made him repeat several times, "ONE pink balloon. Just one. ONE pink balloon."

He repeated it the whole time we were there. "ONE pink bawwoon. Juss one! You ca' hab ONE pink bawwoon."

And whadd'ya know, we found out that the grocery store actually offer free balloons for kids (I would have paid whatever they asked at that point), and not only that, but they had the free ones available in PINK.

You know I was totally doing a little happy dance in my head when I found that out.

One happy Bitty... PRICELESS!! :)

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SOOC: Cat-fishing

2010-06-19T07:17:00.000-04:00

Dh let Bitty "practice" fishing in the yard, and of course Orion was fascinated by the little fishing weight bopping around the yard...

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Magic Marker Monday: "Exciting Land"

2010-06-14T19:00:00.012-04:00

Cuddlebug and Bearhug each brought home their writing folders at the end of the school year, and I've really been enjoying reading through them :).

Here's a story written by Cuddlebug, titled "Exciting Land"

You can click on the pictures to enlarge so it's easier to read, or the text is below. The only edit I did was to edit out Bitty's name and include translation on one word that's a little hard to read, the rest is pretty clear with great spelling :).

I love his descriptions, and it made me laugh that Bitty's unresponsiveness in the story ("sigh... I'll tell you insted" lol) is pretty true to life. And can I just say, his handwriting here is great! He has been working really hard on that.

Exiting land

Bitty's been bored for months. I'll tell him about exiting land - a very exiting place. "Hey 'Bitty'!" "Come to me!" I said. ".......(sigh)." said I... Never mind. I'll tell you insted. I'll tell you about the lava room and the cave room.

First I'll tell you about the lava room. There is a lava lake with rocks and a bridge. A train goes on train tracks that go over this hot smelling lake. But theres more, the train will go into a glass tube that leads to a rest stop in a black room.

A rest stop awaits. Wait, a rest stop in a black room? What the!? Anyway, here you may get out of the train and rest.

Now I'll tell about the cave room. Get on the train and go to the cave room. The train idmidItle [immediately] falls into lava! Nooooooooooo! Wait, this is red hot lava colared Jell-o! Eat up! Move on a 2 shaky bridges more and ride over.

Is it exiting? If so call 1-2-5-4. That's all about exiting land!

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The graduate

2010-06-14T06:42:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, as the school year was winding to a close, I kept feeling like something was missing.

It wasn't until a friend of mine mentioned her daughter's pre-k graduation that I realized what it was.

Next year, Bitty will go on to Kindergarten with his 5-yr-old peers (with resource support, but he will be in a class with his same-age NT peers for the first time). However, since he was not in an actual pre-k class this year (he was in a class that combined 3-yr-old NT children and 3-4 yr old children with special needs), he didn't have a pre-k graduation.

You would think a small detail like that would be no big deal, but for reasons unknown I was really bummed about it. Then at the end of the year he brought home in his backpack what looked like a little "diploma," rolled up and tied. I got all excited thinking they must have gone ahead and given the 4-yr-olds in the class who were moving on to Kindergarten a "graduation" certificate.

Then I unrolled it and saw it was general certificate for doing a great job in school this year.

And I started crying.

I am such an idiot.

At least no one saw me. The boys were all in bed and dh was out in the garage.

I really don't know why it bothered me so much. Bitty wasn't at all disappointed, he wasn't expecting a pre-k graduation and would have probably been indifferent even if he'd had one. He did have a nice end-of-year party, and it was a cute certificate.

Maybe because I hadn't really thought about it and it caught me by surprise. Hopefully it's not just because I'm crazy ;).

It didn't last long... I carefully placed his certificate in the office with his artwork and other school papers. I am really proud of him, and "graduation" or no, he's going to have a great time in Kindergarten next year!

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SOOC: Sleepy traveler

2010-06-13T12:08:00.000-04:00

I'm eventually going to get some pictures from our vacation posted (my parents are probably the only ones anxiously awaiting, lol) but here's a preview...

Mr. Bitty asleep in the car on the drive back home, still clutching his beloved "Baby Ei-stei wetters," the alphabet books that were a much-awaited birthday gift :).

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Day-of-the-week humor

2010-06-08T07:17:00.001-04:00

Bitty's sense of humor cracks me up. I love his "jokes."

One of his favorites is the "day of the week" quiz.

"To-day iss Sah-ur-day"

"You're right, today is Saturday."

"Tomowwow iss Sunday. Church on Sunday. You wear da horse on Sunday."

(We taught him the "horse on Sunday" rule to get him to wear his polo shirts instead of Thomas, at least long enough to go to church... he has nice shirts that aren't Polo but we haven't been able to successfully expand the rule yet).

"That's right, 'Bitty'"

"Today iss TOOOZ-day!!" and he laughs hysterically at his own clever joke.

How could anyone not laugh along with him? :)

"Today is not TUESday, silly!"

"Hahahaha!!! Today iss WEZ-day!!" more giggles to the point of hiccuping with laughter.

I play along, exaggerating my tone and laughing with him. "Nooo, today is not WEDNESday!"

He cracks up like it's the funniest thing he's ever heard. "You do not to want WEZ-day!!!"

He can go on like that through all the days of the week, laughing heartily at each one. I love his sense of humor, and the fact that he thinks the days of the week are so funny. I love his laugh and will keep playing along just to hear it :).

Now he's learning the months and their sequence, it's probably only a matter of time before he starts cracking jokes about what month it is :).

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We went to the mall last week, and survived to tell about it :)

2010-06-07T07:15:00.000-04:00

Cuddlebug and Bearhug walked several feet ahead of us.

Well, ok. "Bounced" is more accurate than "walked." Imagine Tigger with a twin brother, and you'll get the idea.

They looked up, down, sideways, even behind them, anywhere but right in front of them.

"Watch where you're going, guys."

Bump...

They bumped into some people walking the other direction.

Then another near miss as they looked back at us when we reminded them again to pay attention to the space in front of them.

Sometimes they ran ahead, making it hard to keep up. But just as we'd get close, one of them would spot something intriguing and stop in his tracks. Anyone following too close would have tripped over him.

We'd slow down but keep walking, keeping an eye behind us and calling out for them to keep going.

If we stopped, who knows how long they'd stand there looking at whatever had caught their attention. Not to mention, the next thing they noticed might be back in the other direction and then we'd be backtracking.

I felt like a broken record:

"This way, guys."

"Come on, let's keep going."

"Slow down, wait for us."

Seems like that would drive them crazy, but if I'm lucky, they might actually hear me maybe 1/3 of the time. Too many sights and sounds competing for their attention.

I can't even remember the last time we went to the mall, but it was too rainy to go to the park, and all of the boys needed new shoes.

It wasn't too crowded... more so than the average weekday but not as bad as a Saturday.

I'm loving that they are so tall now... it is much easier to keep them in visual range now that they are about shoulder height relative to the crowd. It was so hard when they were toddlers, barely knee height, slipping out of their stroller buckles and running off in different directions. How many times did we end up pushing an empty double stroller and chasing after them?

Pretty soon they'll be tall enough to be spotted above the crowd, and then it will be even easier to keep tabs on them when we go out ;).

We still kept a close eye on them, because although being tall means we could see them easily, it also means they have long legs and could quickly get too far ahead. We watched for any signs that the overstimulation was getting to be too much, always mindful of the exits and the distance to our car (I dare say we are something of experts in rapid escapes when necessary), but they actually handled it pretty well.

I couldn't help but smile at my big boys being themselves.

I also couldn't help but notice how calm Bitty was in comparison. He reached for my hand as soon as we started walking and walked beside me.

The entire time.

He didn't run. He didn't zig-zag. He didn't bounce. He just walked.

Holding my hand all the while.

While crowded places overstimulate Cuddlebug and Bearhug and make them even more hyperactive than usual (and if you know them, that's saying something!), the same crowds, especially in an unfamiliar place, sometimes make Bitty a little nervous and more mellow than usual (because he does plenty of running, bouncing, and crashing when we're somewhere familiar).

We managed to find shoes for Bearhug and Cuddlebug - and on sale too! (sales prices AND buy one-get one half off). Bitty refused to try on anything other than Thomas shoes, and we couldn't find any in his size. I'm still looking for some online, but he is reaching the point where Thomas items are harder to find in his size.

Luckily for me (and my back) Bitty lasted right up until it was almost time to leave before he started asking to be carried.

By "asking," I mean dancing around in front of me, making it impossible for me to walk, saying, "You wan' da up? Aww done wif da down-er?"

"How do you ask?" I prompted him.

"Up, pweez!" he answered happily, arms in the air.

And so with that, I lifted him up and we headed for the car.

I can say I got my exercise for that day ;).

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"How old am I?"

2010-06-06T17:15:00.000-04:00

Cuddlebug: "Hey, Mom, how old am I?"

Me: (thinking he must be asking something else because he knows how old he is) "What do you mean?"

Cuddlebug: "Am I older than 'Bearhug'?"

Me: (aha, so that's the real question, although we've actually talked about this one before) "You were born two minutes before 'Bearhug', yes."

Call me crazy, but the whole concept of "older" and "younger" twins has never really made sense to me since birth order is a matter of location (ie. who's closest to the "exit"), and not really a matter of "age," per se. Especially in the case of identical twins, as my boys are, who are literally conceived in the exact same moment. So I prefer to say "born first / second."

Cuddlebug: "Then why is 'Bearhug' stronger than me?"

(sigh, so they got over the "who's bigger" thing and now it's "who's stronger?")

Me: "um... aren't you both the same 'strong'?"

Cuddlebug: "No!"

Bearhug (at the same time, in a matter-of-fact tone): "No, I'm more powerful."

Cuddlebug: "Yeah, he is. Hey, I thought I was ten minutes older!"

Me: "No, it was two. But it's not a big deal. And it's not a big deal who's stronger because you're both strong."

They seemed unconvinced, but they moved on to talking about dinosaurs and dragons and other such things.

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SOOC: Nine years old

2010-06-06T05:32:00.014-04:00

As of 10:31pm (and 10:33pm) yesterday, Cuddlebug and Bearhug are officially nine years old.

They came into the world weighing nine pounds, nine ounces (combined - Cuddlebug was 4 lbs 1 oz, Bearhug was 5 lbs 8 oz.).

So to celebrate, I decided to share nine SOOC (straight-out-of-camera, no editing) photos from their first year. Please ignore the grainy look, these are all from my camcorder.

Cuddlebug (left), Bearhug (right)

Bearhug (left), Cuddlebug (right)

Cuddlebug (left), Bearhug (right) (For those who may be curious, their size difference was a result of TTTS)

Cuddlebug (left), Bearhug (right)

Cuddlebug (left), Bearhug (right)

Bearhug (left), Cuddlebug (right)

Bearhug (left), Cuddlebug (right)

Bearhug (left), Cuddlebug (right)

Cuddlebug (left), Bearhug (right). This was taken on their first birthday.

Sigh... I miss when they were so little :).

Well, minus the zombified sleep-deprivation of course. Other than that, I miss when they were so little ;).

But as they grow, my love for them grows too, and I am so grateful for them and proud of the young men they are becoming. :)

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Summer homeschool

2010-06-01T07:10:00.000-04:00

We've given the boys a few days off to relax and enjoy the start of their summer, but soon it will be time to start up our summer homeschooling activities.

It's something we've done since Cuddlebug and Bearhug were in preschool. It helps maintain structure during the summer, and also helps keep them on track academically. We can expose them to topics in the summer that we know they'll be working on in the next grade. Then it's at least somewhat familiar when they come to it again in school, which helps their confidence and offsets some of the impact of needing to take sensory breaks and such during the school day. It's also a chance to teach them things that the school curriculum may not cover, or may touch on but not go in depth (such as history or science topics).

We're taking a more relaxed approach this summer since they only have a little over two months before school starts back in early August. They work so hard during the school year, we want them to be able to enjoy some free time while they have the chance. :)

Topics for this summer for Cuddlebug and Bearhug include:
* Reading - reading comprehension, with a range of fiction and non-fiction
* History - Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence
* Math - more advanced practice with fractions, division, etc.
* Writing - they are full of ideas, but we will work on organizing their writing
* Science - TBD

They like to read so that part should be easy :). I'll be helping with the writing part, because although dh is a gifted teacher, writing is not his thing. I'll try to help with the rest as I can, but realistically it will mostly be dh as he's the one home during the day.

For Bitty, we still have a lot of the Kindergarten workbooks and materials from a few years ago that he can use. Our main focus will be to work on his hand strength and fine motor control for writing and drawing, as well as basic math concepts. He reads all the time so there's no need to set aside "school" time for that :).

I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

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A day for gratitude

2010-05-31T07:05:00.001-04:00

To our fallen heroes, and their families... thank you for your service and sacrifice. You have my eternal gratitude, today and every day.

Encyclo-bitty-a

2010-05-31T00:07:00.005-04:00

Little Bitty can often be heard rattling off all kinds of animal facts and figures.

"Sea turtoos... way eggs on wand!" (sea turtles lay eggs on land)
"Da anaconda... is wuh-da wargest snakes... in da wer'd" (the anaconda is one of the largest snakes in the world)

I have lost track of how many different animal flash cards and books he has. A couple of weeks ago, he was playing with the Wii and kept clicking on the "photo channel" and getting upset that there were no pictures. I offered to download some animal pictures for him so he'd have something to look at (we look them up together on Google Images). Ever since then he wants to look up new ones every day, and our "Wii ah'mals" collection now includes over 400 pictures.

He has branched out from farm animals and household pets, and he's developed an appreciation for all animals - woodland animals, desert animals, ocean animals, arctic animals, jungle animals, insects, the list goes on. He's asking me for pictures of animals I'd barely heard of before - a "Ura-peeya adder" (European Adder, a snake for those who are like me and had no idea what that was), "free-toe swoff" (three-toed sloth), "ekih-na" (echidna) are just a few of them.

I love the way he gets excited about seeing them... even the most, um, unattractive (to me) animal pictures are met with a huge grin and a "ee's berry cute!" from Bitty.

~~~~~~~~~

On a related note, Bitty is not only a walking animal encyclopedia, but sometimes he's a very cute little dictionary too. When dh and I went to visit his class for their end of year party, the class sang a couple of songs they'd learned and then joined the parents to watch a slideshow of pictures from the school year. As Bitty walked up to me, he said (looking around at all the parents), "a cwowd... iss a wahj gwoop of peepooh"

It took me a minute before it clicked.

"A crowd is a large group of people?" I asked him.

He looked back at me and nodded.

"Do we have a crowd here?"

He nodded again with a shy grin :).

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End of the school year

2010-05-30T10:24:00.005-04:00

Hard to believe, but another school year is now over...

Despite a challenging year, both Bearhug and Cuddlebug managed to get through it with mostly A's a few B's. And an even more exciting development - each of them has developed a real friendship in recent weeks. More on that in another post :).

They have both been sooo excited for summer break to begin.

Little Bitty on the other hand, I don't think he really understood that the school year was coming to an end. He was happy for a break for a couple of days, but today he is asking about school. We've tried to explain when school will start again, but while he understands the concept of "tomorrow" versus "today," trying to explain "two and a half months from now" is a little tougher. I'll make him a countdown calendar as it gets closer.

So it's official now - we have two 4th graders and a kindergartner. It seems like just yesterday we had two preschoolers and a baby :).

The upcoming school year will be one of transitions for all of the boys. As a new kindergartner, Bitty will be going to a new (to him) school, joining his big brothers at elementary school. We have already met his new resource teacher and really like him. We won't know until August who his regular ed teacher will be, but as with our older boys, his resource teacher will have some say in choosing a teacher that will be a good fit for him.

Cuddlebug and Bearhug will be in the same class for the first time next year. They will also have a new resource teacher for the first time since kindergarten. Generally the resource teachers cover two grades but Ms. D ended up changing grades and moving up with them. We absolutely love her as she has made such a big difference for both of our boys, but we've heard great things about their new resource teacher so I know they'll be in good hands next year too.

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SEW & WW: My sweet Bearhug

2010-05-26T07:03:00.000-04:00

Bearhug has been doing really well lately.

It's so nice to see his beautiful smile :).

He has an inner strength and courage, that I'm not sure if he even recognizes yet. I've seen it from the time he was a baby, and it has only grown since then.

He has the physical strength to match, and is well-known for his lung-crushing bearhugs. Yet he is a gentle person with a caring heart.

He loves being a big brother.

I love him :).

For more Special Exposure Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

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Evening visit to the park

2010-05-17T05:54:00.001-04:00

Bearhug, my fearless climber!

Race!

The boys love to swing like this :)

Bearhug

Cuddlebug

Bitty's silhouette

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SOOC Saturday: Cuddlebug's smile

2010-05-16T10:01:00.002-04:00

I love his smile.

I love him.

I love that he still nods when I say, "you're my sweet 'Cuddlebug'" I've been telling him that since he was a baby. :)

He's not a baby anymore, but he's still (and always will be) my sweet 'Cuddlebug.'

I love this picture of him. It's his "real" smile (ie. not the "say cheese" one although that is cute too of course). Also I managed to capture his eyes (ok, at least one of them). So often his eyes are hidden behind the brim of his hat.

For more SOOC Saturday, visit Slurping Life.

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Blogoversary x2 :)

2010-05-16T09:24:00.004-04:00

I completely forgot until I saw a couple of comments wishing me a happy blogoversary, that yesterday marks two years since I started this blog.

Here's what we were up to a year ago.

And a year before that.

And as I was looking I realized that tomorrow is one year since I started my photography blog.

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"Outrageously"

2010-05-14T08:25:00.005-04:00

Cuddlebug tends to use certain words and phrases over and over (sometimes repeatedly in the same conversation). Like stopping every 20 seconds to say "and guess what?" before continuing on with what he was saying.

His latest word is "outrageously." For example, T-rex's are "outrageously powerful." (he and Bearhug are really into dinosaurs right now).

One night as I was tucking them into bed, Cuddlebug told me, "heyMomguesswhat?... silly bands are outrageously poplee-ar. Everybody at school has at least one. Some people have LOTS of dem."

For those who don't know what silly bands, er, silly bandz are, they are basically rubber bands made in different shapes - animals, musical instruments, fruits... you name it, there is probably a silly band for it.

He and Bearhug have been bringing silly bands home from school, most of them earned from the "treasure box," and some traded with other kids I think. When I finally got around to looking them up on the internet (because the boys REALLY want the dinosaur ones) I found out that apparently these things are "outrageously poplee-ar" around the country, not just here.

I have to say I was really impressed to hear him say that. Usually our boys are into whatever THEY are into and if other kids like it too that's fine and if they don't, that's fine too. Nothing wrong with that, I rather like that they are individualist in that way, and not following the crowd. :) But I thought it was great that he had *noticed* a trend at school, and even more so that he actually cared. That's quite the social awareness IMO :).

And I will admit, I am also relieved that the "in" thing at my sons' school turns out to be relatively inexpensive too :).

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SOOC: A breakthrough

2010-05-02T21:01:00.004-04:00

Notice anything unusual?

Those who've been reading for a while may see it...

It was the first thing I noticed when I came home from work that day.

Here's a little hint...

Admittedly, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and not something we were actively working on, but it was a welcome surprise. It didn't last... but if it can happen once, it can happen again :).

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Visiting the vet

2010-04-26T06:19:00.000-04:00

Bitty loves animals in general and our cat in particular, so when he saw me getting Orion ready to take to the vet, he started putting his shoes on. I can take a hint, lol. So along he came.

Orion hates riding in the car. I tried to reassure him, and thought it was cute the way Bitty imitated me, trying to comfort the cat with "iss ok, kitty, you be ok!" and "We going to da animoo dot-ter!" (ok, that part was probably less than comforting if Orion remembered the 'animal doctor,' lol).

Bitty did a great job staying in the little exam room while we waited for the vet. He enjoyed petting Orion with me, and checking out the "books" (little pamphlets about various pet medications and such).

The vet was really nice, she let him listen to Orion's heart :).

The vet kept talking with Bitty while she was doing Orion's exam, and I love that she wasn't dissuaded when he didn't always respond. I thought about telling her he had autism to help explain, but then decided not to and instead just gently prompted him when needed... I guess part of me was worried she might stop trying to engage him if I said something. Probably an unfounded worry, but there wasn't a lot of time to ponder about it.

When we finished up, her assistant brought Bitty a little feather as a gift to take home, which was sweet. Bitty wasn't too sure about the feather though, so he shook his head and said, "you don' wan' da fedder?"

I softly reminded him to say "No, thank you" so he did. I felt bad that he had turned down the gift, but the man was very gracious about it.

I'm glad he came with me, it was fun for both of us and I think actually helpful for Orion to have him there :).

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SOOC Saturday: Nature walk

2010-04-25T14:09:00.007-04:00

This is one of those photos where Bitty was moving too fast for me to get the right focus and the composition I was going for, but I LOVE it anyway :).

We took a walk with my parents while we were visiting, and it wasn't long before Bitty was picking dandelions. He was so fascinated with them and ended up with a handful by the time we got home.

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Childhood Expressions Blog Carnival

2010-04-25T12:44:00.002-04:00

Barbara at TherExtras is hosting a blog carnival today, with the theme "Childhood Expressions." There are lots of great posts included, go check it out!

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"My Brother Charlie"

2010-04-24T01:33:00.024-04:00

When we returned home from spring break, I had an email inviting me to read a complimentary copy of Holly Robinson Peete's new book "My Brother Charlie", co-written with her daughter Ryan Peete. I am excited for the opportunity to review it here!

The books tells about Charlie, a boy with autism, from the perspective of his twin sister, Callie.

Before I even had a chance to read it, Little Bitty was drawn to the cute illustration on the cover and started flipping through it himself.

We sat down and read it together. I'm not sure if he totally understood it all, but he read some of the words with me. His favorite part is the heart puzzle :). The puzzle is featured twice in the story, but Bitty especially likes the last page, where Callie is helping Charlie finish it.

As for me, I found the book very uplifting. The love that went into writing it shines through. It explains autism in simple, easy-to-understand terms:

"...Mommy discovered that Charlie's brain works in a special way, because Charlie has autism. It's harder for Charlie to make friends. Or show his feelings. Or stay safe."

It's a sweet story that is honest about the challenges, while highlighting the blessings and focusing on Charlie as an individual. Most of all, it is a story about love, acceptance, and appreciating the unique gifts that all of us have. I had to smile at the part about Charlie knowing all the U.S. presidents. Remember this? :)

This book is a great way to introduce children (and adults!) to autism and help foster understanding and acceptance.

"If you ever get to meet my brother, you'll feel lucky to be his friend. He won't care if you have the coolest sneakers, or if you are the best at sports. He'll just like you for who you really are. That's Charlie."

More information / resources:

Click here for an interview with Holly Robinson Peete where she shares her family's story, perspective on autism, and what inspired them to write "My Brother Charlie."

Visit HollyRod4Kids, a not-for-profit that the Peetes started to help children with autism and their families.

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SEW & WW: First bike ride

2010-04-21T00:10:00.002-04:00

Last month we put some training wheels on Bearhug's old bike so that Little Bitty could start learning to ride. He is, after all, about the same age that his brothers were when we got their first bikes.

He was sooo excited!

Dh started off walking with him (even though he had the training wheels on).

Once it seemed that Bitty was getting the hang of it, dh let go.

Of course, after pedaling just a few feet, Bitty decided to try making a turn...

...which would've been no big deal, except that he turned at the high point of the hill in the yard.

Dh and I both went running to catch him before he crash-landed at the bottom... dh made it there first so I snapped a picture (hehe).

As you can see by the big grin, Bitty wasn't scared at all. He thought it was great fun and wanted to ride down the hill again! Uh... no, Bitty. Stick to the sidewalks, little dude!

For more Special Exposure Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes for Special Needs. Click here or here for more Wordless Wednesday.

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"Piggybank" ride

2010-04-20T06:53:00.001-04:00

Bitty pronounces it "piggy-beenk" :).

He's almost getting too big for this, but Cuddlebug didn't seem to mind.

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Learning to play Wii

2010-04-20T06:45:00.000-04:00

Bearhug helped Little Bitty get set up with the Wii remote.

Bitty was sooo excited to actually get to hold the remotes and play instead of watch :).

He's still learning how to play, but he had a great time!

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Magic Marker Monday: Bitty's kitty

2010-04-18T23:55:00.003-04:00

Bitty has started to draw pictures! He mostly likes to draw cats. Just like his Mama at that age, hehe :). He's drawn a few trains too (of course), I'll post some of those later too.

He started out just drawing a face with whiskers, so we've been working on adding the ears and the body, which you can see in this one. I love it!

For more Magic Marker Monday, visit 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

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"The world needs all kinds of minds"

2010-04-17T19:01:00.000-04:00

This is a little long but it's a great video - speech given by Temple Grandin.
H/T Queen Bee of 3

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SOOC: The great escape!

2010-04-17T10:16:00.009-04:00

We finally had a chance to get away from everything, at least for a little while, over spring break. I admit I was a little nervous about taking a trip after everything that's been going on, but we really felt that getting away would be good for all of us. I'm so glad we did!

We took a road trip to visit both sets of grandparents. The boys all did extremely well on the trip, especially considering the amount of time we had to spend in the car.

Lots more pics to come, of course :).

For more SOOC Saturday, visit Slurping Life.

p.s. also wanted to say thank you for all the kind comments and words of encouragement with regard to Bearhug's recent challenges. It's nice to know we are not alone... thank you.

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Update part 3: new insights, maybe

2010-04-17T09:01:00.003-04:00

After all the trauma of the blood test, the EEG went surprisingly well. Of course, it helped that there were no needles involved, and Bearhug was actually kind of intrigued at the idea of taking a "recording" of his brain.

He was supposed to be sleep-deprived for the test so he'd sleep for part of it. I stayed up with him to keep him company and make sure he didn't fall asleep early. We made the most of it - he couldn't have any sugar so we had pretzels and played the wii (well, mostly he played and I watched, lol) :).

Dh went in with him for the test. He did reasonably well, although he resisted going to sleep even after being so tired. Figures.

And then we waited.

About a week or so later, the results were in. Blood test - normal. EEG - normal. Nice to know, but we were pretty much back to square one.

In the meantime, I had scheduled our initial appointment with a psychologist. He wanted to meet with us first before meeting with Bearhug, so I went (dh had a conflict). I described what's been going on, and gave him a copy of reports from the school psychologist (they do a full evaluation every three years which just happened to be this year) and his resource teacher. Upon reading their reports and listening to mine, he asked a few more questions and then told me it sounded very much like Bearhug has bipolar disorder.

I wasn't expecting that, but as he explained the signs it did seem to fit. He said it also sounds like Bearhug has ADHD and that it can be difficult to distinguish between ADHD and bipolar in children, but that the rages we see with Bearhug are common to bipolar but typically are not seen in children with ADHD.

It's not an official diagnosis as he hasn't actually met Bearhug yet, but it does give us something to explore through further evaluations as a possible explanation for what Bearhug is going through. If that is the case, he will likely need medication.

As you can imagine, I have tried to find as much information as I can since then about bipolar disorder in children, particular in children who also have autism and sensory integration disorder. I haven't really gone into all the detail yet of some of the other "episodes" Bearhug has had, but some of the descriptions I'm reading from parents of bipolar children sound familiar.

I guess we'll know more when we meet with the psychiatrist again, and when the psychologist actually meets with Bearhug in person.

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Update part 2: the no-good, rotten, awful day

2010-04-17T08:07:00.002-04:00

Here's the Cliff's Notes version:

Bearhug's blood test did. NOT. go. well. It took four of us to hold him down and they had to stick him three times as his veins were not cooperating. If we ever have to do another blood test we'll skip the lab and take him to the hospital to be sedated.

Instead of calming down once it was over, Bearhug went into one of the worst rages I have ever seen (at least there was no question this time about what triggered it). One of the nurses ended up calling the police. I think the hope was that seeing the police officer would be enough to startle him into settling down (didn't work out that way, unfortunately). He was that out of control and trying to attack everyone he could reach. Thankfully, by the time the officer arrived, he had calmed down enough to sit in a chair by himself (without me having to hold him back from attacking the nurses), but he was not calm enough yet to actually leave (kept screaming intermittently and wouldn't get up). Eventually he did calm down enough to get in the car and go, but all in all we were there for about 2 hrs for a 15 minute test.

That evening, Bearhug was fine. You'd never know anything had happened.

What a day :(. It was scary to feel so out of control of the situation and not be able to help him calm down. We were in a catch-22 situation where I knew he needed some space and time to get himself back under control but there really was nowhere to safely do that at the lab :(. I know it was traumatic for him. I certainly hope we don't have any more incidents involving the police. It gave me a new appreciation for the work of Dennis Debbaudt in training law enforcement to respond appropriately when dealing with individuals on the spectrum, because I can see how a situation like that could have quickly gotten out of hand (what if he was a teenager or adult by himself, in an out-of-control rage without mom, dad, or nurses around to explain the circumstances?).

More to come, including some possible answers, in the next post.

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Update on Bearhug (part 1)

2010-04-06T03:53:00.004-04:00

So, last month we had Bearhug's appointment with a psychiatrist. We drove almost an hour away to see one who specializes in seeing children on the spectrum. I've kind of debated with myself how much to share here, but how many hours have I spent scouring the internet hoping to find a similar story to ours, in search of some answers? I don't have any answers to offer yet, but here goes...

We felt a little awkward going to the appointment, since we scheduled it back in November in the midst of some very difficult times for Bearhug. Since then, he'd been doing better, minus one big blowout in mid-January. But since it took so long to get in, we wanted to keep the appointment, figuring that if he started to have a rough time again it would hopefully be easier to get in for a follow-up without having to wait another three months.

I'm soo glad that we did.

The appointment went well. She talked to Bearhug for a while before inviting him to play with the toys in her office while she spoke with us. She started out with basic questions, and I had to laugh when he answered a question about his siblings with this:

"'Cuddlebug' says he was born ten minutes earlier, but I'm stronger!" lol (Cuddlebug was actually born two minutes earlier, not ten, but who's counting?).

After a few minutes of chit-chat, he asked her, "are we going to talk about why I'm here?" We had talked to him beforehand about what kind of doctor she is and why we were taking him to see her. I think he is as much hoping for some answers and help with these problems as we are.

I was really impressed with his ability to articulate the experiences from his perspective. He described how he feels so angry that he just "goes nuts" and "runs to get away" or "attacks people."

At one point she asked him if he's ever thought about killing himself. He said yes, and my heart broke for him. He is only 8 years old. She asked if he's ever tried to do anything about those thoughts, and he said yes again. I admit I was stunned to hear that, I wanted to cry but I needed to stay calm so that he would continue to answer her questions honestly and not feel that he'd said anything wrong. She asked what he had done, and he told her he hit himself in the head and banged his head against the wall. I've seen him do that, but had no idea that he had that intent behind it (at least some of the time apparently).

She recommended scheduling to meet with a psychologist closer to home on a more regular basis for talking / play therapy.

She ordered some blood work to see if there are any biological issues (blood sugar, vitamin deficiencies, whatever) that might need to be addressed (and I think also to get a baseline of his blood levels in the event that we may need to look at trying medication). She also suggested taking him to a neurologist to rule out seizures or other neurological issues.

We saw the neurologist about a week later. He suggested that these are "rage attacks" but ordered an EEG in case there is also some seizure activity. Bearhug has mentioned that he can feel these "episodes" coming on just before they happen, so they asked what that feels like. He said he feels a pain in his arm, that moves to his shoulder, and then it starts. We are trying to work with him on letting someone (us or a teacher if he's at school) know if he feels like that so we can try to help him calm down or at least get somewhere where it's safe to blow off steam if needed before things get out of control. Not that we've been particularly successful with that yet, but we ARE working on it...

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Easter egg hunt

2010-04-04T16:37:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T16:29:00.001-04:00

Hope all of you have a blessed Easter day!

I miss everyone and have been reading here and there but haven't had much opportunity to leave comments.

As for us, I have much catching up to do. Spring break has arrived and I'm blogging from my phone so updates will have to wait but I may try to post some pics from my phone if I can figure it out.

Happy Birthday Little Bitty!

2010-03-30T23:50:00.006-04:00

Seems like just yesterday we were bringing Baby Bitty home from the hospital...

...and this past weekend our not-so-little Bitty celebrated his 5th birthday. Cuddlebug asked me, "do you think 'Bitty' is a man, a big boy, or a little boy?" I love his multiple-choice questions :). I answered "a little boy" and Cuddlebug agreed, lol. Because, after all, he and Bearhug are "big boys" so it stands to reason that Bitty would have to be a "little boy" by comparison ;).

He's actually been interested in his birthday this year - he learned the date and has been counting down all month. We're still working on the whole age thing and being able to answer how old he is.

Checking out his birthday cake with 5 candles

Excitedly opening presents :)

I asked him to show me what he got, and he actually did :)

~~~~~~~~~~~

To my precious Little Bitty (or as your big brother used to call you, "he's a Wittle Bitty, he's a Wittle Bitty Baby Pwecious!"),

I love you so much and am so grateful to be your Mom. You are a blessing to our family with your sweet spirit and silly sense of humor. You're my little "Mama's boy," always wanting to be held and cuddled :) (please stay that way for as long as you want). You make me proud every day, I can't believe how much you've grown in these five years! I'm so glad you enjoyed your special day :).

All my love,
Mama

~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a close-up of the "Cat in the Hat" cake and cookies I made for him. This is the first homemade cake I've made in a very, very long time, and the first time I've tried using fondant (it's homemade marshmallow fondant, click here for recipe and tutorial if you're interested). To be honest, it didn't quite turn out like I'd hoped, but overall I was reasonably happy with it. Bitty seemed to like it and that's what really matters :).

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SOOC Saturday: Joy in the moment

2010-03-20T13:00:00.004-04:00

This one could use some editing (it was starting to get dark, and I'm still trying to figure out the best settings for my new lens) so I'll be posting an edited version later, but I LOVE Cuddlebug's expression in it, so here's the SOOC version.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I'll be back to tell ya all about it, but right now it's a gorgeous day outside and we have some pinewood derby cars to finish up!

In the meantime, check out more SOOC Saturday photos at Slurping Life.

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