Finding the Right Mix

We added Taurine and fish oil to our son's supplement routine last week, and our son flipped out.  Tantrums, screaming, frustration, and irritability, worse than we have seen in the last month.  A call to the doctor confirmed that we should pull him off of both of these new things for a couple of days to let him calm down, and then introduce them one at a time.  In the meantime, a few days later, we started the B-12 shots.  While we haven't seen a marked improvement from them yet, they are much easier to give than expected (thank goodness!)  In fact, our son hardly knows we're giving it, and just says, "Pinch."  We then slowly started the Taurine again 3 days ago, and, once again, he has gone ballistic.  So we are pulling him off of that for now, and we will start the fish oil soon.  Hopefully there won't be any problems with that.  

And the Winner of the Geography Bee is...

I went upstairs to put away laundry the other day while my oldest son played with his brother.  When I came down, just about 5 minutes later, the two boys were looking at a globe of the world.  My older son was very excited and said, "Mom, you've got to see this!"  He then proceeded to ask his younger brother to find different places in the world.  "Russia, Canada, Brazil," he started as his little brother would spin the globe and quickly point to the named place.  "China, Australia," he continued, with the same results.  And even added, "The North Pole and Home."  So then I added to the list, "Here is Australia.  This is Greenland.  This place is called Afghanistan.  And here is Mexico."  And then we "tested" this new knowledge.  Every time it was the same, he would spin the globe (usually very fast), stop it with his hands, and point to the proper location.  Very rarely was he off, and it was usually because there were two places fairly close to each other with the same coloring on the globe.  It was so much fun, and very cool!  We quickly went and got daddy from his office to come in and "play" with us.  Even he was stunned!  

What's Wrong With YOU?

My son likes to ask me, "What's wrong, mom?"  Then I reply, "Nothing.  What's wrong with you?"  And then he says, "What's wrong with YOU?"  It goes on and on, as he starts laughing.  Today, though, when I asked, "What's wrong with you?" he replied, "I shared a cup."  Me:  "You shared a cup?"  Son:  "Yes."  Me:  "Who did you share a cup with?"  Son:  "Big Brother"  Me:  "You shared a cup with your big brother?"  Son:  "Yes."  Me:  "And that's what's wrong with you?"  Son:  "Yes."  TOO FUNNY!

Our Son in Wonderland

I had such a weird dream last night, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.  My son was in a movie, Alice in Wonderland to be exact, and his little body was so confused and mixed up the whole time. Picture Alice in the scene where she takes something and grows very tall, and then uses another something to shrink again.  It was my job to go into the movie and find a way to get him out.  We finally found the right combination of concoctions so that he could fit through the door and I could bring him home to his daddy, who was excitedly waiting for us.  Daddy almost couldn't believe that this was really our son.  We were so happy to have him back.  And our son was so happy to be back.  

Another Doctor's Visit

Okay, here's another boring post.  Unless you are going through this with a child of your own, you probably won't find this very interesting.  But, again, it's for my sake so that I can remember everything.  We took our son back in for another doctor's appointment today.  It was just a normal follow-up with his naturopathic DAN! (Defeat Autism Now) doctor.  We have seen more progress this month than during any other period with him before.  It has been awesome.  He is speaking better, putting together sentences, playing with toys in the proper way, and even interacting with others.  We went over the rest of his blood test results.  We learned that his immune system is working super hard and, therefore, his active white blood cells are high.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it means that his body can actually fight stuff.  He also has low blood sugar, so we just need to make sure that he is eating often and getting plenty of protein.  The doctor is tweaking some of his supplements.  We are adding Taurine and fish oil right now.  I hope this fish oil does well because he's had a bad reaction (diaper rash) to another fish oil in the past.  We are also adding B-12 shots.  Ughh...that means that we have to learn to administer the shots here at home.  Poor kid, this is when I'm happy though that he doesn't feel pain.  We will eventually be changing some of his other supplements too as we run out of our current stock.  He actually did quite well during the visit today.  He was very social with the doctor and played with the wooden train set and blocks in the office most of the time.  We are fighting this, and WINNING!!!    

Pure Joy

During our camping trip this weekend, we took a small hike down to the beach.  It was chilly and the waves were really coming in.  My husband walked down the beach with our son and showed him how to throw rocks into the water.  The only word that I can describe what I saw next is JOY.  My son threw rock after rock after rock into the crashing waves.  He was so happy and having so much fun.  It was pure joy, both for him and me.

Yes, it is a good night.

We went camping during the long Labor Day weekend.  We have set up our RV to be very comfortable for our son.  He has a high chair, plenty of toys, crafts, his favorite snacks...you get the point.  My son loves to camp, until it comes to bedtime.  We just know that every time we camp, we are going to have to deal with tantrums when it comes time for him to get some sleep.  But he pleasantly surprised us this time (something that he tends to be doing a lot lately.)  Every night, while finishing dinner (dinners are usually later while camping), he asked to go to bed.  And every night, I thought that after I brushed his teeth and got him ready for bed that he would throw a fit about getting into bed.  But every night he gave us hugs and kisses and climbed right into bed.  Life gets a little easier all the time.  

Cows, Sheep, and SHARKS

My son has never quite understood how toy sets go together.  Well, the other morning when we were playing in his room right after he woke up, he got his farm set out of the closet.  He brought the fence pieces over to me so that I could help him snap them together.  He then proceeded to very carefully set up the fence in a semi-circle, put two cows near the fence, a sheep, and a farmer.  He said, "Moo" for the cows, "Baa Baa" for the sheep, and told me that the farmer was holding an apple and corn.  Then came the amazing part.  He ran back to his closet and pulled out a small toy shark.  He put the shark in the farm, and then ran away saying, "Scared!  Scared!"  He then started laughing!  Next he went and got an small toy eagle.  He put it in the farm, looked up at me, and asked, "Scared?"  I told him that maybe the eagle wanted to sit on the fence.  He then made the eagle balance on the fence.  He continued to play like this most of the morning.  Running around yelling "Scared!" after placing the shark, and making sure the eagle always had a place to sit on the fence.  Love that kid!