Recap

So I am not so good at posting on a regular basis. Here is a brief recap of our family.

Mark - Doing well. Works a lot of crazy hours. He is being a great Daddy and husband. When not working or doing my to do list he is often running Faith to some kind of therapy.

Faith - Doing extremely well in school this year. Her new fixation is the letter A. She loved apple week at school. Everyday she tells me A is for Apple, Mommy. She has a new teacher this year and there are only 6 kids in her class which is perfect for her. She is still in occupational therapy and speech therapy. We did some allergy testing this summer and found out two thing: 1. It is really expensive and 2. She is allergic to eggs. The egg free diet is going very well and pretty easy to do. I just had to do some research and a little planning. I sometimes wonder if daycare follows all the rules. Some days she starts to itch again. Faith turned 5 in August so now she does not like to say the number 4 while counting.

Will - What the little man!! He is turning two on October 27th. He is progressing in his potty training. He now will pee or poo everyday after nap. It is amazing to have a child that speaks in full sentences by the age of two. Faith only had 5 words at two, so this is a big change for us. Will enjoys to play dress up with Faith. He loves the pink high heels too much. :) Maybe I should get him some boy dress up clothes.

Me- Extremely busy. I have started back to work. I switched schools this year so now I am in Vigo County. I am currently sitting on the Covered Bridge Preschool Central Autism Team. This is providing me with a lot of great opportunities to share and receive some great trainings. I am also on the committee for the Walk Now For Autism event in Terre Haute. The walk is coming up quickly on the 17th of this month. Just wanted to thank all of our supporters. Current count of people walking on Faith's team is 47. The will be one big crowd of light blue shirts. I am also putting in to start grad school this coming summer for my school psych degree. This will set me up for some more options down the road in the far future.

The joys of Potty Training.

So I think I may be a little crazy. I have decided to potty train both kids at the same time. The reason behind this is that Faith wants to do everything Will does. Anyway, yesterday I was doing some work on the computer while Faith and Will were playing in the play room. Faith screams that she had peed and boy howdy did she. The problem being was that both her and Will were sitting in the train table. The train table turned in to a flooded Grand Canyon. I then tossed both kids in the shower. I took Will out first and as I was getting Faith out Will decided to stir things around in the toilet and then lick his hands.

Today Will peed in the potty while at Nana and Papa Crawn's. Faith only had one accident today but she never went in the potty. I am guessing she thought the pool was a toilet. Sorry Sam and Julie. Anyway I have decided for every accident I clean us through out the day that I get one adult drink after the kids go to bed. I may want to reconsider or I might be attending AA meetings by the end of the summer. Wish me luck.

May Happenings

We have made the big move to become a dog owner. As much as Karen wants to here how horrible it is, it is not. Sarah is a very loving dog and doing great with the kids. Will on the other hand needs to learn to stop riding her. She is a Shepard husky mix and about 15 weeks old.

Will is no longer my baby boy. He is a big boy bed because he thinks he is a spider monkey and can now climb in, out, on or off anything. If his finger tips touch it he is on it. ER here we come. To show for his new found love of dangerous climbing he has road rash on his shoulder and eye. What a bruiser.

Faith is doing well. She is now falling asleep in her own bed!!! She will finish up school here in a couple weeks and will be home with me for the summer. Only 8 more days of school for me!!!!!

Bowling

Tonight Faith and Will experienced bowling for the first time. It was a blast. The bowling place reserved half of he bowling lanes for those families with autistic children. It was so wonderful because when Faith threw herself to the ground in a tantrum, people just stepped right over her like nothing ever happened. This was all set up in support of World Autism Awareness Day. Will enjoyed picking up all of the bowling balls, and I mean ALL. I was for sure that he would come home with a broken toe. I will post pictures once I get them down loaded.

Will's ER trip and updates

Last night I spent a lovely six hours in the ER with Will. As most of us know he often is wheezy and has chronic ear infections. We have tried to get tubes put in but his breathing always gets in the way. Long story short is that late in the day he started to run a 103.8 temp. and breathing rate of 90 per/min. He was lethargic and not wanting to eat. For those of you who know Will, he never turns down food. After chest xrays, two urine caths (Yes I said 2) and blood work, the doctors determined he has a touch of pneumonia. Now he is on really strong steroids which in return has made him really mean. The fever has gone away but he still sounds like Darth Vader that swallow a squeaky toy. That is a quote from Mark who slept with him on his chest last night. This all comes in a week where I am in my busiest week of the year at work, doing 18 IEP conferences, Marks schedule at work changing and meetings for the Autism Walk. I think we have a minute or two this week if anyone needs help. Faith did enjoy the evening with Nana and Papa and got new shoes that she does not like to take off.

Faith has been in occupational therapy for about a month now at a new clinic and it is going great. This therapists is really able to get Faith to do things. This week we worked on getting dirty without having to wash our hands right away. She also got Faith to walk bare foot across the floor. This may sound silly but is it a big deal for Faith and those of us around her daily.

Mark is enjoying his job with the THPD. He is not home in the evenings but the kids do get to see him all morning. It works out because this gives me peace and quiet for a small sections of my day.

Things are going well me. I have successfully completed some of my first IEP conferences with no problems. Let's see how tomorrow goes. Work is going great minus some concerns for some of the quality of care for a few of my students. The evenings at home have been good when everyone is healthy. Faith is managing her tantrums much better in the evenings which is allowing us to get out and do more activities. Mom and Julie and Sam have been great this week and helping with the kids to allow me to get everything in this week since Mark's schedule got changed at the last minutes. Thanks.

Yard Sale

Today Mary, Mom and Brenda and I participated in the church's in door yardsale. I was so excited. I was able to declutter my house and make some really good money. Will was a big helper cleaning up. He was trying to push chairs up to the tables like all the adults were. Faith is getting to enjoy the afternoon with Nana and Papa at the ISU basketball game.

Autism Walk.

I finally got a picture of the kids downloaded. GO COLTS!! We still love them even if they are not in the Superbowl.

This week has been a week of lots of snow. Will got to experience his first play in the snow earlier this week. He smiled a lot but was unable to move in all of his clothes. Faith wanted the "snowman" off of her boots. Funny girl.

Faith went to the neurologist last week and we got some good news for once. The doctor seemed to believe there was no reason that she will not be able to live a pretty normal adult life!!! That is music to my ears. They said that she does not appear to have any other syndrome but he agreed with the autism diagnosis. The doctor said her cognition skills were good. They do want a urine sample to check a couple things because her urine smells sweet. We were so proud of her because she actually let the doctor touch her without any tantrums.

Speaking of autism. I am on the Autism Walk community this year again. We have started this week planning everything. Please keep October 3rd open for the walk. We will soon be creating a team and asking everyone to help support Faith. Any tips with a team name would be very helpful. I am very passionate about Autism Speaks and what they do for families and the community. At work I am currently working on a grant that will provide equipment and training about autism. This grant is through Autism Speaks. They also lobby for insurance coverage for individuals with autism. You would be surprised what insurance will not cover is they find out your child has autism.

Will is doing good. He is saying so many things and really has great receptive language skills. He is learning what expressions are cute and will use them to his full advantage. He finally started to cut more teeth this week. He also has another double ear infection and bronchitis. Poor guy. We hope to hear soon from the doctors if is is cleared to have his tubes put in. I am kind of worried about surgery though since he still turns blue once and a while.

We enjoyed New Years in Indy with the Hillman clan. Faith was a trooper and stayed up until 2am. Will was as sleep at 10pm. We enjoyed the Wii all night. We have since purchased one for ourselves thanks to Grandma Crawn.

Mark and I have started to work out and eat extremely healthy, not because of New Years but because we don't want to be fat. Anyway we both have lost 5lbs so far.

We celebrated my 28th birthday this week. Mom and Dad were very generous and kept the kids over night for us so Mark and I could go out. Mom fixed a great meal, FRIED CHICKEN!! I also started back to work this week which was a sorrowful welcome. I missed my students but I loved being home with my kids.

Mark starts working patrol tomorrow night. I think he is a little excited since he is walking around the house in his uniform right now trying to make everything perfect on it.

Today was a nice and quiet day. Faith had the stomach flu. Some would say how sad but it was kid of nice. When Faith is sick she acts completely normal, or those of you who have never met an autistic child normal is a very warm welcome. This means no screaming fits and no head banging. I think she if feeling a little better but Mamaw Tempel is going stay with her tomorrow afternoon just in case. THANKS!!

Will is growing up very fast. He now tells you no and stop. Yes our innocent little man now gets timeouts and his hands smacked for his little attitude. He is very curious little child that I sure will end up in the ER soon with a broken body part if he is not careful.