The excitement is building.....!!!

Yes folks.... it's true..... Daiya Foods is FINALLY getting ready to release their cheddar and mozzarella style shreds on the retail market! Woohoo! It's apparently in the distributors now and the crowds are asking, begging and pleading for their natural food, or health food stores to carry this. It should be widely available (within the health food/natural food market) by April 1st! Yay!


What struck me the most about the packaging is ... it's "pretty"! I love how it tells you everything you need to know about the product right on the front! Better yet? It doesn't even look cluttered.... and they share a LOT of info right there on front! The picture of the cheese on the front (although I can't tell if it's a picture of the product, or if that's a clear window and you see the shreds through it) looks absolutely scrumptious..... like CHEESE - you know, the dairy-laden stuff....


I'm anxiously awaiting my arrival of the Daiya cheese I ordered with a group of friends. While this won't be directly packaged from Daiya, it's a good teaser for when the product DOES become regularly available directly from Daiya. My favorite allergy free food store, Navan Foods, is hoping to have it in their store within the next week or two! I jokingly told Jennifer Elizondo that maybe I should camp out at the store the night before it becomes available so I can be sure to get some! ;) Seriously Jennifer... I was kidding..... though it is a tempting thought. :)

So enjoy this product when it becomes more readily available..... I know that my son sure will!

10 things to know about Ashton......

Reflection ....... 

(this is a favorite picture of mine of Ashton... 

taken back in August, 2006)

I got the idea for this blog post from a book titled "Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew" by: Ellen Notbohm. Many people don't understand the differences in each child with Autism .... plus, the child might have Autism ... but Autism doesn't define the child themselves..... (yes, the book defines 10 traits/characteristics of children with Autism., but I wanted to do a more positive spin on it).

These are ten, very important things to know about Ashton .... (btw, I have been working on this particular post for about two days now.....)


1.  He's a very sweet and loving boy. Almost to a fault. I know.... some parents of autistic children never hear a spoken word from their child. Nor do they ever get the first sign of affection and adoration from their child. Well, we definitely do! Constant hugs and kisses and "I love you too"s! It's very sweet and endearing.... and I do truly LOVE it. He's truly connected with his family, teachers, peers and friends and I'm very grateful for his social connectedness.


2.  He loves to watch TV and movies! Again, to a fault..... that's all he does sometimes! And if he's not watching them, he's talking about them, or quoting them.... NON STOP! Current favorites are: "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", "9", "Earth", "Iron Man", "Hulk", "Ben 10: Alien Force", "Super Hero Squad Show", "Spongebob Square pants", and many others ... Unfortunately, Ashton also knows how to use the TV/DVR/DVD remote..... and if we make that inaccessible (by removing the batteries, putting them in backwards, hiding the remote, etc), he's learned how to use the buttons on the DVR and the DVD players. He will watch what he wants to watch .... the only good thing is... without the remotes, he can't fast-forward, rewind, or pause what he's watching. But, he's freakishly fast at controlling the players. He'll look around to see if anyone is watching and then speeds through the guide/menus to get to what he wants and then rushes back to the couch. Sneaky turkey!


3.  Ashton loves his hair "short, with a little bit of hair". That's what he asks for everytime he goes to get his hair cut. I've learned (from the self hair-cutting incident in December) that when he starts pulling at his hair, etc that it's time for a cut. Basically, it's a buzz cut, or a military-style cut. Right now he's sporting a marine cut! It makes me sad he won't let his hair grow out more... he's got such thick, shiny, and soft hair! But because I don't want to deal with an odd-ball cut because of him trying to cut his hair, I get it cut as soon as I start to see the signs. Maybe at some point he'll let it grow out a bit, but for now.... this is much better.


4.  He does not like it when his brother gets fussed at or punished. If I punish Holden by sending him to his room or standing him in the corner, Ashton is right there, to rescue him. We haven't figured out what exactly he doesn't like, but Ashton will usually clap and/or flap his hands together rapidly, if we're fussing at Holden. Sometimes he'll fuss or yell at us or question the given punishment "Mommy, can Holden come back downstairs from his room?" It's kind of annoying but in the grand scheme of things... OH WELL!


5.  Keeping in mind that Ashton is on a special diet... Gluten Free (wheat/barley/rye/oat), Casein Free (dairy), Citrus Free (oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit) his favorite foods are: macaroni and cheese (Amy's Kitchen non-dairy rice maraconi and cheeze), cocoa loco bars (they are kind of like a brownie bar), Lay's Original potato chips, and he LOVES french fries and chicken nuggets providing they are safe for him to eat. He also loves to drink water and Coke!


6.  If there is one thing you should know about Ashton... it is, that he LOVES to read! He loves books, comics, reference materials (encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc) .... really, just about anything that can be read, he'll read. His favorite subject matter used to be animals.... but it's slowly transitioned into being super heroes. ANY super hero will do! Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Iron Man, etc. He also loves storybooks, that is... books with multiple stories in it. More bang for the buck, I suppose? His current, favorite books are: "Sumo Mouse" by: David Wisniewski and "Five Little Monkeys Storybook Treasury" by: Eileen Christelow. He especially loves "Five Little Monkeys Bake A Cake" from the the storybook treasury book.


7.  Ashton's favorite person in the world, is undoubtedly, his younger brother, Holden. Ashton's taken to calling Holden, Baby Swinub (yes, the Pokémon character). We have NO idea why he insists on doing this, but Baby Swinub, Holden is. :) Holden doesn't seem to mind all that much, just when Ashton starts trying to treat him more baby-like. We're trying to break the "baby swinub" habit, but so far, it's been pretty fruitless.


8.  Ashton has an uncanny knowledge of some of the most obscure animals! I mean, he doesn't spout off random facts about said animals... but if you see one on TV or out in the "real world", he'll name it.... even if it's the wrong name! ;) hahaha! (example... a bongo at the local zoo was called an "antelope"... and there's no assuaging him to the correct name once he's named it...) By the way..... did you know that the sound an armadillo makes is: "I'm an armadillo!" (cute story.... back when Ashton was three or four years old, we used to ask him what sound any certain animal makes. He didn't know what an armadillo says, so he asked us back..... my husband spoke up and said an armadillo says... "I'm an armadillo" and it's stuck ever since. I'm not even sure what sound an armadillo makes)


9.  Ashton is finally...... and positively, absolutely, unmistakably no longer wearing pull-ups of any kind. Yes... nearly eleven years of age, and this is finally a fact.... not a pipe dream of ours. He has been completely potty trained since June of 2009. I don't think I completely stopped the pull-ups until July of 2009, but he literally, potty trained himself, virtually overnight. A kid who wouldn't stay dry all day and never at night.... and would absolutely run SCREAMING if you asked him to use the bathroom for number two..... just up and started using the potty, all on his own with very little (really, none) pushing from us. Yay! It's so nice to not have that bother anymore!


10.    and last but certainly not least....  while he has challenged me at every possible turn of his life ..... it's also been an incredible joy and pleasure to watch him grow into the wonderful young man that he's becoming. Sweet, thoughtful, loving, funny, cute(nope, I'm not biased....) and such a wonderfully happy personality that you can't help but smile when he's around! Sure.... he's got a long ways to grow and mature... but from the tiny little newborn that I held nearly eleven years ago, to the two and a half year old that I could no longer connect to (because of him being in his own world due to Autism), to that oblivious big brother of a newborn brother at age three, to the big brother who danced and hugged his baby brother at age five, to the eight year old that knew every animal that he saw, and to the now, nearly eleven year old boy that can run circles around me when it comes to electronics and makes me smile every day..... he's wonderfully, happily, and joyously mine. 


Hope you've had fun getting to know Ashton :) 

Toys R Us and Autism Speaks pair up to raise funds for autism research

Donate at Toys R' Us for Autism Speaks

Anyone who knows me, or who has read this blog, knows that I have a son with Autism, Ashton. Well, duh..... AUTISM is in the blog title "I Can Has Autism"! Autism is obviously, very much a part of our everyday life and is something that our whole family will continue to live with for the rest of our lives. 

Since April is coming up, I thought I'd post about this. Some of you may not know this, but April is "Autism Awareness Month". For the past three years, Toys R Us has taken on a fundraising campaign for Autism Speaks. Their (Autism Speaks) mission statement is as follows:

Autism Speaks is committed to facilitating research that will uncover the causes of autism, develop effective biomedical treatments, and hasten the discovery of a cure. We are committed to researching all potential causes of autism and we invite researchers to submit grant proposals covering a wide spectrum of ideas.

I'm speaking up here, for all you out there, to do what you can from now until May 1st to help raise Autism Awareness. Autism is on the rise, whether we like it or not. As of December 2009, ONE (1) child  in every  NINETY-ONE (91) children has Autism. Eleven years ago when I had my son, I hardly ever heard of anyone who knew someone that had Autism. Now, you can't go anywhere without hearing someone talk about Autism or without spotting an autistic individual. (it's pretty easy to see, especially if you are familiar with it).

All of this to say... please, help raise Autism Awareness and post this link to make others aware! If you can't donate to Autism Speaks, that's okay! I just hope to raise others awareness of Autism and what it is, and is not.

Thanks for reading (and hopefully, reposting/sharing!)

In the presence of a gold-medal winner!!!!

Yes...... I did indeed say a gold-medal winner!
Holden won his VERY FIRST GOLD medal yesterday!

Holden, as I've posted before, is an avid youth wrestler in our local wrestling club and has been wrestling since March of 2009. At this point, some kids his age have already been wrestling for two to three years, so he's already a bit behind the punch to begin with. Add in his small size (he's only forty-six pounds at nearly eight years old) and he's at a big disadvantage when it comes to most matches. (At most, he's at the bottom of the weight bracket).

He's always done pretty good in most tournaments, but the most recent tournaments he's experienced a fair amount of anxiety and doesn't seem to wrestle his best or wrestle to win. Rather, he wrestles "not to lose". In fact, at one of his tournaments in December, he got so anxious and worked up, he walked off the mat. Now, I would normally not condone this behavior, and he did indeed realize he had made a mistake. Both myself and his father expressed our disappointment in him. Not necessarily for him not winning, but for all-out quitting. We all had a talk with him (his coach included) and told him that he's too good of a wrestler to just quit when he's not winning. Yes, he's sometimes going to win and sometimes going to lose. Not everyone is going to be easy to wrestle. You learn more from your mistakes than your wins, and become better from losing.

Anyways ..... he'd been really excited about this tournament. It was a rookie tournament where wrestlers cannot have had more than one year of experience (wrestling since September 2008) to participate and compete. We figured if any tournament was one he would do good in, this would be it. He even woke up Saturday morning proclaiming "I'm gonna win the gold medal. I'm gonna come in first!". We tried to assure him that it wasn't about winning; it was about going out and having fun and doing your best. But he was pretty insistent that he was going to win the gold medal.

So we get there and find out that there are four people in his weight group. (well, there were actually lots more, but they split the lower weights into lots of smaller groups instead of fewer, large groups). He had a very good chance of medaling at this point. The wrestlers were warming up and there were tons of people around. The good (or bad) thing was, we didn't know any of the kids Holden would be wrestling. This is good because he wasn't able to say "they beat me before!" but bad because we knew nothing about how good any of these wrestlers are.

At this point, Holden was still pretty insistent that he was going to win the gold. He was going to have three matches, and we told him all he had to do was win all three to win the gold! He went out for his first match and won ... by pinning the kid in the first period of the match. We told him one down, two to go! He wasn't showing ANY signs of anxiousness/nervousness as in previous tournaments and of course, now had a big boost to his self-confidence since he had won. We had a little wait for his second match and when it came around, he pinned that kid too, in the first period, again! :) At this point, we were all pretty excited (coaches, other teammates parents, and us) because we knew all he had to do was hold it together and he could WIN THIS THING! We went and grabbed some lunch and then sat around and watched some teammates wrestle. By the way ... a big, huge SHOUT-OUT to the Western Branch Bruins for their awesome wrestling yesterday! When it came time for Holden's third match... we told him all he had to do, was pin the kid, or win by points and he would indeed, get the GOLD MEDAL! He was pretty psyched (in a good way) and the coaches were joking around with him. He goes out on the mat, and by golly..... PINS THE LAST KID! He had WON (by pinning) all THREE KIDS he had to wrestle.... GOOOO Holden!! He was SO excited at this point and the one coach jokingly told Holden he had to share the medal with him. Holden kind of gave him a look like "Are you CrAzY?!" We sat around a bit watching some more of our club's kids wrestling and waited around to get Holden's medal. We had noticed earlier that they brought a podium in for the medal winners to stand on... talk about another huge self-esteem boost! He got up on that podium and had the biggest smile on his face! Rightfully so..... he deserved that gold medal!! Anyways..... we are very proud of our little guy..... and he's INCREDIBLY proud of his gold medal!

Below are some pictures from yesterday..... enjoy!

This is Holden and his friend/teammate Ty

(who is 6, but a whole lot bigger than Holden!)

Holden is the winner!

Holden pinning his second opponent! (This little boy walked by 

Holden right before Holden's 3rd match and boy... "if looks could kill!")

(the following 3 pics are from his last match .... he "had this kid at hello".... LOL)

Holden getting his medal

On the podium (how cool is that?!) in FIRST place!!!

Another cute pic from yesterday

Don't they look like they are sharing secrets or something? Love it!! :) so cute!

Some outdoor fun

 

Got this keeper of a photo of the boys this afternoon when Ashton wanted to go outside to play. I thought it was cute :) Once it falls off the main page here, I'll retire it to the sidebar, because I think it's *that* cute! ;)

Have a great night everyone!

Sleep, it's such a precious thing!

Ashton's been sleeping...... ALL NIGHT LONG!

Yep, whispering and yelling at the SAME TIME! LOL

Wednesday and Thursday nights he slept from 9pmish to 6:30am. I swear he must hear my alarm clock go off, because as soon as I hear it go off, I hear him stirring and waking up.

Friday night (last night), he slept until almost 7am! Woot!!! *happy dances*


Even better ... ? I've been able to cut his Melatonin dose in half (5mg from 10mg) and his Clonidine dose in half (.1mg from .2mg) and he's STILL SLEEPING ALL NIGHT! I guess the Abilify really has been knocking him on his putt throughout the day if it's helping him sleep this well at night.

Now, he did decide to go out on our back porch patio to swing on the swing back there this morning. The bad thing? It was 7:00am. The second bad thing, we have a house alarm and because he opened the door before the alarm  had been disarmed, it set it off. The scary thing... WE DIDN'T HEAR THE ALARM GO OFF!

The alarm company tried calling the house but we didn't recognize the number, so therefore didn't answer the house phone. We typically have our cell phones set to mute/vibrate at night, so we didn't hear THOSE ring either. What made me get up to investigate, was the strange number calling and that I had heard Ashton wake up. So I came downstairs and panicked when I didn't see or hear Ashton anywhere. Since we hadn't heard the alarm go off (the alarm company had disabled it) I didn't realize that the alarm was still sending a signal to the company. I yelled upstairs for hubby since I didn't see Ashton anywhere. He had the wherewithal though to look at the panel and see that the back patio door was the one that had been set off, and there Ashton was, sitting on the swing, clapping and flapping his happy little self away.

Tried calling the alarm company to let them know it was a false alarm, but police had already been dispatched. When they got here, I just explained to them that my ten year old autistic son had went outside in the backyard and had set off the alarm. I said he didn't realize that what he had done was unsafe. They took down Ashton's name and age and my name and age. fun.... :P

Since this has become a recent trend, we're taking steps to prevent this from happening again. We've put a wooden rod down in the track for the back patio door so he can't get out that way anymore. Then, hubby is currently at Lowe's getting a keyed deadbolt set for the front door (if he gets out that door and takes off running.... he'd be lost for sure....) and also something for the door from the laundry room to the garage.

SCARY morning but alls well that ends well ....  and the all night sleeping IS a very welcomed thing.... Zzzzzzz

Finally! Our specialist appt @ CHKD

I had no idea what to expect.

Things with Ashton have been calming down, and he's become a lot more pleasant to be around. There are still some lingering issues; mainly having to do with sleep (too much during the day, and the lack thereof at night) as well as some lingering OCD issues. He's also got some major attention/impulsivity issues, but who knows what is tied to the Autism or what is manifesting itself as ADHD or OCD.

Anyways .... this doctor, is the director of Psychiatry at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD). All I knew is he has a specialty in pediatric psychopharmacology (big, fancy term for dealing with children and medications that are used to treat mental diseases and/or disorders).

I went into this knowing that this isn't a long-term care type place. They help you sort out the issues, treat them, and get your child "evened out" so to speak, so you can go back to your regular doctors and have them manage your care. We get there and they do the whole basic thing of checking Ashton's weight (87.2lbs) and height (4'7") and blood pressure. He was absolutely fine through all of this. It does bare mentioning that we had his portable DVD player (thanks Grandma & Grandad for that Christmas present!) as well as a boatload of snacks. Since Ashton is GFCF, I tend to take a lot of snacks since you never know how long you're going to be gone and what foods will be available.

Then, the doctor comes out and asks to speak to Ashton, by himself, first.

Ok, I admit it... at this point I'm wondering .... what exactly does this doctor hope to gain from talking to my autistic child, by himself? Not to mention, what was Ashton going to do without me in there? .....

Oh mommy of little faith..... he did just fine. Turns out, it's pretty routine. He wanted to get an unbiased feel for Ashton's personality. He only had him back there for a few minutes. The doctor then came and brought Ashton back to the waiting room (my wonderful mother-in-law went with me) and it was my turn.

We then spent about forty-five minutes going over Ashton's medical history, developmental history, our current problems and issues, etc. He actually listened! Now, I don't mean to say that other doctors haven't listened (you hear me Dr. Madren..... you too, LISTEN! ;)) but then after listening, he actually explained medical things in easy to understand ways. We talked about different medications, side effects, what medications work for what conditions, etc. It was just a different knowledge-set that he can better explain since pediatric psychopharmacology IS his specialty.

He then had me go back to the waiting room while he looked over all of his notes, my notes that I had taken in, and came up with what will be our initial game-plan. We then talked another thirty to forty-five minutes talking about family history, what our issues with medications have been, what we need to prioritize as our most important concern, and came up with a game-plan.

We've decided to move Ashton's morning dose of Abilify to the evenings. It seems logical that the Abilify might be what's causing the morning sleepiness and extended day-time naps at school. Since he's also not sleeping through the night on a consistent basis, (but seems to nap on a consistent basis) the hope is that the Abilify will help him sleep at night. Well, for the last two days, he hasn't fallen asleep during the day. He's a tad more irritable, but then again, his schedule was messed up yesterday with no school and then a pretty lengthy doctor's visit. But, the best news is..... HE SLEPT ALL NIGHT from 9pm-6:30am! Yes, I typed that in really little letters... I just hope this sticks and works! I am to call him back next week with an update, and we'll go back for a follow-up appointment in April.

The hope is, if the Abilify works to help him sleep at night, that we can decrease (or eliminate) some of the other medications he takes to help him sleep. Now granted, keeping him on Abilify for sleeping issues, long-term is not ideal. Abilify can have some pretty serious side-effects (weight-gain, increase in cholestoral and sugar levels, etc) We're considering doing a sleep-study to get a better idea of Ashton's sleep patterns and see if we can possibly figure out why he wakes at night. We'll discuss those at our April appointment. We need to figure out if the stress that the sleep study might cause Ashton will be worth the knowledge we might gain from it.

We have a check-up with Dr. Madren in a couple of weeks, so that'll give us a good couple of weeks to completely sort things out and hopefully get Ashton on a better sleep schedule and routine. Hopefully we have better news for Dr. Madren at this upcoming appointment rather than the news we had at our last appointment in January (when we were in the thick of things with the aggression, mood issues, defiance, etc).

Thanks for reading.... time to go watch "Burn Notice"! :)

KID - isms.... Out of the mouths of babes

You know, those funny things your kids say that you just HAVE to write down for posterity. Well, I was sitting here listening to Ashton ramble on about some movie, and a couple of kid-isms came to mind that my boys have said. I'll quote them here as I remember them .... some are just a line or quote, some are actual stories..... Enjoy!

Now some of these are especially funny when you keep in mind that Ashton is autistic and also that some of these things were said a few years ago when the boys were younger.

Ashton (age 10) - "Hey Ladies! What's crackin'?" - don't ask .... I do NOT know where he picked this up! LOL

Holden (age 5) - "Mom, what was life like before cars?" - I couldn't help myself, I BUST OUT laughing at that one! At the time, I was thirty years old, so therefore, am not aware of what life was like before cars. HAHA :P stinker! We told him that even his great-grandparents (Granny and Papa) don't know what life was like before cars.

Ashton (age 10) - "I'm getting married today!" - this is a line from a movie, not quite sure which one but he was walking around and saying this at Thanksgiving - TOO funny!

Holden (age 3?) - "I'm going to take you out like batteries!" - said one night while horsing-around with his Daddy. He said it with the fiercest little look on his face. To this day (nearly five years later) we're not sure where he picked up that saying from. We've googled it and searched for it on IMDb as I thought for sure it'd be a quote from a movie, but alas.... nothing.

Ashton (age 6?) - "But it's not on my schedule!" - Keeping in mind that children on the spectrum are pretty schedule-dependent and need consistency, Ashton said this one evening while out at his grandparents house. We were attempting to get him to use the bathroom as well as get ready to leave and this lovely gem of a quote is what he came up with. He was SO RIGHT, it was indeed, not on his schedule! LOL

Holden (age 5?) - "I'm going to build a tunnel from my house to your house Grandma and everytime my mommy yells at me, I'm going to come over." Then when he was asked what would he do if mommy came through the tunnel after him, he quipped "Well, I'll just make it small enough so she can't fit through!"  HAHA! He's such a little charmer. This was prior to his ADHD diagnosis and we'd been going through a rough patch with discipline and behavior. Thought this was pretty funny :)

----- More to come as I remember them ----- 

*edited 2/24/10*
Told ya I'd be back when I thought of some more! 
 

Ashton: Some acquaintances have "interesting" names! ;)
Corbin was "Baby Cornball"
Ella was "Baby Elephant"
Camille (former teacher's aide) was "Ms Chameleon"
Holden is "Baby Swinub" (a pokemon character) - NO IDEA why he calls his brother that! LOL
Dr. Madren is "Dr Magic" .... Dr. Madren has gotten quite a kick out of this comment :)
Dr. Dozier is "Dr. Bulldozer" ... hahaha, sorry! I think it's funny! ;) 

Ashton: Fictional Characters
Abominable Hulk "Obama Hulk" - HAHA!!! ;) 

he came up with a list of names for family members once:
Daddy was a "Vampire"
Mommy was a "Mummy"
Ashton was a "Skeleton"
Holden was a "Ghost"
Grandma was a "Witch" (later corrected by Grandma as a "nice witch" LOL!)
Grandad was a "Werewolf"
Papa was a "Zombie:
Granny was "Herky Jerky"
Uncle Kevin was a "Prince" 

*edited 2/25/10*
Ashton said this wonderful gem last night
"My, this is a tasty, tasty meal" .... huh?! LOL! I promise you, this was not anything special..... all he was eating was some ham and some pretzels. Apparently, according to him, it was quite tasty! LOL

Again..... more to come later :)

Amy's Kitchen's *new* non-dairy rice macaroni & Cheese

Yes, we have found the holy grail of pre-packaged, frozen gluten & dairy free macaroni and cheese. It is the one pictured above. Amy's Kitchen rice macaroni with non-dairy cheese. The "cheese" is actually from a company, called Daiya Foods, They have the single-most, best-tasting non-dairy cheese that we've ever tried! We haven't actually tried the cheese itself yet, but mainly because I haven't bitten the bullet and ordered any. As of yet, it's (Daiya) not available locally in any stores, although I keep hoping and am keeping my fingers crossed. If this product is any indication, I can tell that we will LOVE the plain Daiya cheese. It comes in two flavors.... cheddar and mozzarella. I'm excited to get the mozzarella as I'm sure it will be quite delicious on pizzas or even shredded up on some spaghetti for Ashton!

Now that is what I find completely amazing ..... my younger son took one look at his brother's bowl of macaroni & cheese, and asked me if I had given him the wrong one!! You see, Holden wanted a bowl of macaroni and cheese too, so I made him some Kraft macaroni and cheese (you know, that gluten/casein-laden kind.... the kind that WILL cause Ashton to have some serious bathroom issues).

So, which one do you think is the Amy's Kitchen and which one is the Kraft? Other than the noodles of one of them being a bit fatter, they basically look the same, don't ya think? They both looked, smelled and somewhat tasted the same. I have NEVER EVER found a GFCF macaroni and cheese that looked, smelled and tasted so close to the real thing. No wonder Ashton loves this stuff! 

If you're wondering..... 

the bowl on the left is the Kraft mac and cheese and the 

one on the right is the Amy's Kitchen mac and cheese.

As you can see from the picture, Ashton was thoroughly enjoying his dinner. A bit perturbed that mommy was interrupting him to take pictures (how dare I!) and yes, that is a can of Pepsi throwback he's drinking. (hey, at least there's not HFCS - high fructose corn syrup - in it!)

So there you have it ....... delicious macaroni and cheese ... AND it's safe for him to eat!! Now I'm on a mission to get a more local store to carry it. Right now, I've only found it at Navan Foods, which is a local (Virginia Beach) allergy-friendly food store. He's already eaten the four boxes of this that I've bought, so I need to get back out there and get some more. I do believe it's his new, favorite food.

Thanks for looking!

What I thought was an ear infection was really STREP!

nice........ not! :(

Ashton has been complaining of an earache/headache off and on for the better part of the last two weeks. I figured that today would be a good day to get him into the pediatrician to make sure he didn't have anything serious brewing before he has his pediatric psychiatrist appointment next week at CHKD. I'm telling you, nothing has really seemed that off from the normal .... just the fact that he's been complaining of the earache/headache. His appetite has remained the same, he's sleeping just as well (or as bad..... depending on how you look at it) as normal and he hasn't complained of anything else hurting.

Well, his ears looked FINE! The nurse then proceeds to look in his throat and asks me if he's complained of a sore throat. "Nope!" I said, wondering why she's asking. She said his throat was really RED! Ack! But we figured well, he HAS had a runny nose, so maybe it's just drainage. She asked me if he's been around anybody with strep. Again, my answer was "No, not that I'm aware of." I did then point out the fact that there are some parents of children in Ashton's class who do send their sick children to school, when they really should probably be at home. I realize, some parents might not really have a choice, but I digress. We decide to go ahead and run the rapid strep test just to be on the safe side and imagine my surprise when it came up positive! *bangs head* I HAD NO IDEA! If I had realized that THIS was what was brewing over the last week or so, I would have taken him in much sooner. Now he's exposed all of his classmates, teachers, therapists (private and school) to strep, since I'm not sure how long he's actually had it. He has not complained ONE SINGLE TIME of his throat being sore and he's been eating and drinking normally and has not ran a fever at all through out all of this.

So, she writes us a prescription for the Z-pak. We decide to go for the tablets since he takes pills okay (he chews them, which I know is typically a no no, but he does pretty well with it....). BIG! MISTAKE! He takes the first pill (the first days dosage is two pills) ok..... gags and almost throws up but manages to keep it down. But when I gave him that second pill... nope... it came right back up along with whatever else he'd just eaten/taken. L.O.V.E.L.Y. This now means he's thrown up the first days dosage of a five day course of medication. I call the pediatrician back and they call in a prescription for the liquid form and he took that one like a champ .... well, okay... that's pushing it but he did take it without upchucking it. Thank goodness!

So, tomorrow afternoon I'll be washing his sheets/blankets in hot water and tossing his old toothbrush and replacing it with the new one so he doesn't reinfect himself. I'm contemplating washing all of the blankets downstairs on the couches too just because well, he's always wrapped up in them too.

Good news is ...... despite having been on Paxil AND Abilify at the same time (both of which can increase weight) he hasn't really gained any weight at all! He weighed eighty-nine pounds today and that was with his shoes and coat on. At his appointment at the beginning of January, he weighed eighty-seven pounds with no shoes/coat on. So he's maintaining pretty well, YAY!

Well, waiting for Holden to get home from a friend's house .... (well, as I typed that, the doorbell rang... he's home LOL!) and it's almost time to get the boys ready for bed!

I love bedtime..... both the boys' and my own.... *laughs*

Enjoy your evening!

He may be small, but he IS mighty........

Holden is still quite the little guy. He's almost eight years old and is lucky if he's forty-six pounds. That's in the 5th percentile for his age, for those that keep track of those things! But this kid is super tough! As most know, Holden started wrestling in March of 2009, so almost a year ago. He's done very well in that time and has amassed quite a collection of medals! He's gotten four, 2nd place medals (silver), and one, 3rd place medal (bronze). He also got the coach's "Most Improved Wrestler" medal last spring as well as the gold medal and ribbon the coach gave out to all the kids who wrestled during the season.

While he didn't place in his most recent tournament (January 16th), he did very well. We didn't really like the way they had the brackets set up, but it seems that Holden overcame his anxiety he seems to get when there's a tournament. He even PINNED the first kid he had to wrestle. YAY Holden!!! :) He lost his next two matches, but he kept himself together pretty well and enjoyed spending his time with his teammates and cheering them on.

Among other news... Holden FINALLY has a REAL big boy bed! He's been begging for one for quite a long time now, and we jumped at the chance when hubby's aunt and uncle offered us up their son's bed frame and boxspring. We figured if nothing else, it gives Holden a place to sleep and he can get out of the toddler bed (which was really, a crib with the front taken off). He absolutely LOVES his new bed and loves the new sheets I picked out for him.

 

In other, more educational/school news.... Holden's report card, was ALSO fantastic! All Ss (Satisfactory) except two Ps (making progress) and ONE O (outstanding!). Now the funny thing about the subject/area he got the O in.... it was in...... currency and money value! Anyone who knows Holden, KNOWS he knows his money facts and can count money like nobody's business. You can give him two numbers and he can't add them, but if you add a dollar sign to the front of the number, you can bet he can add it then! LOL He's such a smart boy, and we're very proud. He was happy to have earned $35 for his report card. We also did some educational/psychological testing to see if he had any other issues other than the ADHD diagnosis we got from the pediatrician back in December of 2008. The psychologist did confirm the ADHD diagnosis and tacked on a diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Now, the anxiety is not something that needs to be treated with medication (at least, not yet....) but it is something that we need to be aware of when we're being overly critical of him, his behavior, etc. The testing also showed an above average IQ (we already KNEW he was smart). His reading scores were quite high, while most of his other scores were above grade level, but not substantially so. His writing scores however, are right at his grade level (2nd grade), which is not altogether bad, but it does show a discrepency considering his IQ and other scores. It's something we're working on and hoping it improves with time.

Well, it's time to figure out what is for dinner ...... I'm thinking leftover chili, but we'll see what the hubby says. If not, maybe some hamburger helper or something.

Toodles everyone!

Three steps forward, two steps back..... ??

 Well, that's what it felt like at the time ..... let me explain....

Ashton's behavior started spiraling out of control in November and culminated with us having to put him back on an anti-psychotic medication to somewhat control his mood swings, odd behaviors and aggressiveness. Unfortunately, what caused the initial downward spiral was ANOTHER medication that we had started in November to help with some OCD tendencies.

There were some massive all-out tantrums (from a kid who is nearly as big as I am, that's not so fun) in some very public places. He was also basically attacking me at every turn for the smallest things. Aside from the chunks of hair he pulled out of my head, and the bruises he and I both incurred from his "fighting with mommy", things seem to be evening out, behaviorally for him.

What culminated all of this into us weaning him from the problematic medication that I thought was causing the initial issue, was Ashton decided it was a great idea to try and jump out of the car while I was driving down the road. He had been trying to escape the house at that point and one day, I was going to my husband's grandparents house to finish up some laundry and Ashton climbed into the front seat (while I was driving) and then on a side street in a neighborhood, climbed over top of me and tried to climb out the window. At this point, I stopped the car and scrambled to figure out what I should do. In any case, the situation got resolved, we made it back home safely and all was well. This lead me to calling our DAN doctor and he made an "emergency" appointment for us with a psychiatrist at our local children's hospital. That appointment isn't for another week, and it was made back at the beginning of January!

Desperate to help Ashton, we started weaning him off of it and I found out about three weeks into the weaning process that Ashton had been hiding the pills under our napkin holder. Since then (it's been about one and a half weeks now) his behavior has gotten a LOT better and his mood is much improved. I'm glad he seems to be getting back to his normal, happy self.

He's happier, he's more social, he's completely his school work in a much better fashion and as evidenced by all of this, his report card was AWESOME! He had all Ss (satisfactory) in behavior areas and his academic grades stayed at Cs (pretty normal for an ASD kiddo with an IEP and modified curriculum) except one, which he *raised* to a B! Even better ......... he is FINALLY, after being in the educational system since he was two and a half years old, reading **ON GRADE LEVEL**! YAY!!

Anyways, here's a recent pic of the booger. He has a really big adversion to brightness (outside mostly) so he's squinting. Still a cute picture though ...... :)

The only other "bad" thing that has been happening is his sleeping is really out of whack and he's got some really erratic sleep patterns. He'll sleep completely through the night from 8pmish to around 6amish for a few nights in a row. Then, he'll mix it up with waking up at 2, 3, or 4am and staying awake the rest of the night, yikes! *sighs* The biggest worry with this a few weeks ago was that he was trying to escape from the house in the middle of the night, but now it's more of the fact that he just doesn't want to go back to sleep.

The GOOD thing that's happening is .... he's realizing that if he ASKS to go outside and tells me why he wants to go outside, that I'm more likely to let him go. Last night, he asked to go outside to "play in the backyard" and I told him to get his shoes, coat, hat & gloves on (it is.. afterall maxing out in the 30s this week). He did and he and his brother played outside for forty-five minutes, came inside to eat dinner and then they went back outside for another thirty minutes until it was too dark outside to play anymore. I wanted to take pictures but I felt like I would spoil their moment and fun so I'll try to get pictures the next time.

Well, I guess I should do another post on Holden (who is doing really well) so that he gets his own glory :) Keep Ashton in your thoughts as we hope that we're past the regressive phase that he was in and that things can continue to improve and his behavior gets more under control.

Enjoy the day!

Sleep: WHY is it such an issue?!

OK - so my question to all of you is.... WHY do so MANY children (and adults too, for that matter) with autism spectrum disorders have SUCH a difficult time falling and staying asleep???

Over and/or under stimulation? This is probably the biggest problem right there. Too much outside noise or not enough. Too much outside light or not enough. Being overfull from dinner, or maybe even HUNGRY. Too much "screen time" before bed. Not enough time for relaxation before sleep. Not enough deep pressure/stimulation or maybe even too much.

--I've yet to actually figure out if anything I do with regards to this helps Ashton sleep or not sleep. It seems like whenever I get him figured out, that he changes it up on me, just to spite me! Ok, so I know it's not really to spite me, but sometimes it feels like it! I don't think our children are inherently trying to cause us strife; I don't think they master the tools of manipulation, but hey, maybe I'm wrong! :) I am tired after all! Insomnia? If insomnia is already a problem, then not sleeping is already putting you/them at a disadvantage. It perpetuates the entire cycle and makes things worse, and worse.... and even worse.

--This definitely happens in my house. It seems like the more tired he is, that the more he fights going to sleep. The evidence of this is when he's wide-awake and bushy-tailed at 2 o'clock in the freaking morning sitting in the bathroom flapping and clapping and filling up the bathtub with water. He doesn't even look REMOTELY tired at all, and you have to wonder WHY is he trying to take a bath in the middle of the night? (we asked ... we didn't get a reply, just a blank stare). I post this example because it happened last night. Luckily my husband woke up and heard it before the tub overflowed (I don't think Ashton would have known what to do at that point and I can't say that he would have come to wake us up).

Medications? I know there are some medications that make it very hard for some to fall asleep. Stimulants such as Ritalin, Adderall, Focalin, etc are all stimulants that are often used in the treatment of ADHD, which many children/adults with autism have symptoms of. Unfortunately, those medications can cause problems with sleep; both falling to sleep and staying asleep. ---- Now of course, there ARE medications that are traditionally used to help one go to (or stay) sleep. Melatonin is an over the counter herbal supplement that our body produces anyways, but many people just do not make enough. People that often have erratic sleep schedules due to work, school or travel, will take melatonin to help regulate sleep. There are many other medications that are used "off-label" for sleep issues.

--Some of the ones that *we've* tried are: Trazodone, Clonidine, Imipramine, Seroquel and even the good ol' standby, Benadryl. We've tried multiple combinations of all of the above medications (in conjunction with and without melatonin too!) and while we always find something that works, it's usually very temporary. Sometimes we'll get lucky and it'll work for a few months but most combinations only work for a few short WEEKS!

I strongly believe that if my son can fall asleep at 8:15pm and have to be WOKEN UP BY ME at 6:40am, than he really NEEDS that much sleep. I can even handle him not falling asleep until 9-9:30pm and getting up at 6:40am. It's the fighting sleep and not going to sleep ALL FREAKING NIGHT (twice now he's literally stayed up for nearly 24hours straight ... once he went to sleep around 6am; last night/early this morning he FINALLY fell asleep around 4:20am....). Even when he doesn't pull that number he will fight sleep and not go to sleep until 11pm or midnight. He has to be up at the latest by 6:40am to get ready for school and be on the bus by 7:05am.

So ... any suggestions, or words of wisdom? Commiseration? Want to laugh at my misfortune? (go ahead, it's good for the soul sometimes! ;))

I went and bought a BABY MONITOR today .... for a TEN YEAR OLD! I didn't tell Ashton what it was, nor did I tell him what it was for. I made sure he had his "cocktail" of sleep medicines tonight and then let him soak in a warm bath with some lavender scented epsom salts. I turned the light off in the bathroom and made him whisper and told him *NO CLAPPING*. He was very calm and very relaxed. Got him cleaned up and then dressed for bed and put the radio on and let him lay down on the couch. He went upstairs to bed at 8:30pm (same time I took Holden upstairs for a shower) and I haven't heard a peep from him yet. This technically means we're in the clear as far as him GOING to sleep. We'll see if he stays asleep ALL night like he's supposed to. Anyways .... I KNOW someone, somewhere out there, can completely commiserate and is just as desperate for sleep as we are. So ... here's some sand from the sandman and wishing you all a good night's sleep!

GFCF Mac & Cheese!!!

Doesn't this creamy-looking dish look delicious?! Would you have guessed that it was gluten-free & casein-free? If I hadn't been the one to make it last night, I'm not sure that I would have known!! :)

What kid doesn't love a creamy, warm, satisfying bowl of macaroni & cheese once in a while? But for some children (my older son, Ashton, included) having that satisfying bowl of creamy macaroni & cheese can make them seriously ill, or even lead to a severe allergic reaction! I will let this lead me to say that prior to going on the gluten-free, casein-free diet, my son was the lover of all things macaroni & cheese. If it looked like macaroni & cheese, he'd eat it! But when, on a whim, we decided to try the gluten-free, casein-free (otherwise known as GFCF) diet for him, he could no longer have this creamy, yellow goodness! I found lots of substitutes (every one of which, Ashton would eat) but I found them to be less than stellar and some, downright disgusting! Some even smelled like dirty socks out of the package, YUCK! I was determined to find SOMETHING that I could feed to my son that didn't leave me gagging or with the desire to throw it in the trash before he dug in. So that leads me to last night.....

Well, this delicious looking bowl of creamy goodness came pretty close and was a HUGE hit with Ashton last night! I had went to Navan Foods earlier this week and saw that they now carried both the mozzarella and cheddar forms of the Teese cheese substitutes. I, being the adventurous soul that I am, decided to try the cheddar form and use it to make my son some macaroni & cheese. As I've previously said, I find that most mac & cheese subs just look nasty and smell even worse and I have no clue how they taste because I will NOT taste them, AT ALL. In one word, I find that most are N.A.S.T.Y! Well, I knew I had the pasta at home and wasn't really sure what I would use to make it but I set off with a mission in hand; to make my son a delicious bowl of mac & cheese that wasn't gross and that *I* didn't mind looking at!

So, last night was the night I decided to make it.....

I set out my ingredients

Andean Dream Quinoa Macaroni, Teese cheddar style, Earth Balance spread and Pacific chicken broth

And then I set out to make my son the most

yunmiest mac & cheese *EVER*! :)

Here is the recipe I used (I followed a tip from a fellow GFCF mom and used the broth instead of a dairy-free milk substitute .. that helped, A LOT, in regards to taste I think!)

1 box of Andean Dream quinoa pasta

1 roll of Teese (cheddar style)

2oz Pacific Organic Free-Range Chicken Broth

2 TB of Earth Balance Soy-free spread

sea salt, ground black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder (season to taste)

At this point, you get cooking! ;) I boiled the pasta according to the directions on the box. While waiting for the pasta to finish, I cut up the teese (which by the way, doesn't smell all that awful straight from the package like I was fearing it would) into small chunks and placed them in a smaller sauce pan. I then mixed in the earth balance spread as well as the chicken broth and let them simmer until the cheese was melted. Once melted, I added in the sea salt, pepper and garlic and onion powders and let it all simmer while the pasta finished.

cheddar sauce once melted .... it looks pretty runny, right?

Admittedly, I was a bit perplexed at how this watery cheese sauce was going to properly cover the pasta to give my son the macaroni & cheese I was envisioning for him.

But alas, once the pasta was drained (and I rinsed it just a tiny bit) and then mixed with the the cheese sauce, I had my beautiful looking mac & cheese!! Can you believe it?!

I WAS SHOCKED!!!!

It LOOKED like normal, gluten & casein laden, processed macaroni & cheese from a box! And even better, *I* could tolerate the smell of it! It didn't smell like Kraft, but it certainly did not smell horrible either. I even tasted the sauce (that's how impressed I was, I NEVER would taste most of the subs) and I was quite impressed! It had a creamy texture/flavor and it tasted pretty good! Sure, I like my Kraft or Velveeta mac & cheese anytime, but for my son who can't have those, this was certainly what *I* considered to be a suitable replacement!

Here, you can see, that he's enjoying his macaroni & cheese! He wouldn't smile for me because well, he was too busy eating and was getting mad that I was making him look at me! LOL!

Anyways, I hope this recipe helps any that are looking for a good recipe for some good-tasting and good-looking macaroni & cheese. Since I made the entire box of pasta and the whole roll of teese, he's got plenty for leftovers and is asking to eat more of it for today's lunch, which I will let him indulge in. Now I am anxious to try the mozzarella teese for pizza and as a topping for spaghetti, yummy!!! Thanks for looking and stopping by! :)

One year of being GFCF!!!

Ashton - 1oyrs (July 2009)

Well, we've done it. We've made it to a year since having gone GFCF (gluten free, casein free)! We started the diet in late August of last year and WOW, what a year it has been! We've removed him from his 2 behavioral meds (Focalin XR/Adderall XR and Risperdal). For some reason, both medications all of a sudden stopped working; and in fact, were putting Ashton to SLEEP within 20-30minutes of taking them. Odd, but I guess it was his body's way of letting us know that he was done with those medications. We've also taken him off of melatonin as it was no longer doing any good, but we've got him on Clonidine and Imipramine to help him sleep at night. It's still not perfect but at least with this combination of meds, he's not waking up half a dozen times to pee! Oh, speaking of peeing ... HE IS POTTYTRAINED! And not just day-time trained for pee, but day AND nighttime for pee AND poop! WOO freaking HOO!!!! We started him on the regular Monavie in May of this year and within two weeks, he was totally pottytrained with NOTHING having changed on our parts. It was like a lightbulb went off in his head and he was trained. He does the whole deal on his own. He goes without us having to tell him, he wipes himself and the WHOLE BIT! Now if we could get him to stop stripping everytime he uses the bathroom (this IS getting better, slowly!) we'd be doing great! He only does this in people's homes, nowhere out in public, thank goodness! But at 10years of age, it's SO GOOD to not have to drag a backpack and wipes/pull-ups with us EVERYWHERE we go. I still keep an extra change of clothes in the car (for both boys, actually) but that's more of a habit now and we don't ever carry it in with us anywhere. We were JUST about a month ago able to take him off of Risperdal. While he hasn't gained any weight in the last year on it (and also subsequently, his dosage hasn't changed either), I wasn't fond of him being on this. So, coupled with the fact that it seemed like he no longer needed it along with the hesitation of being on such a powerful atypical anti-psychotic drug, I stopped giving it to him with 100% success! WOOHOO! YAY! We removed the FocalinXR/Adderall XR (we switched from one to the other but they both basically do the same thing) in December when we noticed that he was always sleepy after taking it. Weird, but whatever works and he's been off it successfully ever since. Yes, he still takes 2 prescription meds for sleeping, but he's NEVER been a good sleeper, EVER. He goes through good phases, but they typically die off and go right back to constant waking-up all night long. At least now he goes to sleep between 9-9:30pm and I don't hear him awake until 6:00am or so. He might still wake once a night but he doesn't come in MY room anymore (that's a plus!) and he doesn't go in the room over the garage. It's getting better, slowly. Ashton still takes a calcium/vit D supplement since he is dairy-free. He also takes a high dose probiotic to keep the yeast monster away. He also takes cod liver oil and super nu-thera. Nothing has really changed as far as supplements go, other than the Monavie. I'd like to switch him to the Monavie Active, but we're trying to get through our supply of the regular Monavie first. It'll be interesting to see if we notice any big changes with the Monavie Active, but we'll see.

And, for the first summer since he was 4years old, we didn't send him to summer school! We made a HUGE gamble on this, but in the end, it turned out it was the SINGLE BEST THING for Ashton. Last year's experience was such a DISMAL experience that I was unwilling to have him regress AT ALL considering all the gains he's made in the last year. Instead, we signed him up for 3 weeks of Camp Gonnawannagoagin, alternating every other week. HE DID GREAT!!! He did so many FUN things (aquarium, zoo, ocean breeze, bowling, air boat rides, bounce houses, and lots of other fun things) and was quite social with his peer buddies from what I was told. I think the next time we send him, I'm going to ask that he be paired up with an older teen male, to see if that makes a difference in his level of participation in the more active activities. He LOVES the attention he gets from girls, but I DO think that a male could encourage him to be more active, whereas the girls are more likely to "baby" and fawn all over him and let him be a bit sluggish. Either way is good, but I'd LIKE for him to start showing interest in more active things not just sitting and reading a book (which is all well and good, but ya know what I mean). School starts in just over 3weeks and other than the fact we have NO IDEA who the teacher is going to be, I foresee another great year for him. He's had a lot of personal and social growth and cognitive growth so we'll see. We're also gearing back up to start OT and ST, neither of which he's had since the spring (we stopped OT back in March and stopped ST in June). He also hasn't had ANY services ALL summer, which is mind boggling because usually you make sure you have services during the summer to PREVENT regression. But, he hasn't had ANY! YAY!! So all this to say that a year into GFCF, and we're still going strong. Still plodding forwards without too many backward steps. We've been lucky and blessed to have such an easy-going kid to begin with. Further blessed by the support network we have (family, friends, therapists, school personnel) and further by our two boys. Have a wonderful rest of the summer and start of the school year!!!