1st World Autism Awareness Day!

I have gotten some feedback that my blog has not been tended to enough lately. I felt today of all days was important to post on the blog. The TV is full of programs about autism around the world. CNN has some great programs on it and Jenny McCarthy will be on Larry King tonight. On this day, I  think back on our own autism journey. Although, it has only been 6 months it seems like a lifetime. You can never truly understand the effects of autism until it happens to you. I knew of autism before I had children. In fact I feared it. I prayed it would never happen to my babies. Like most people I thought autism was a form of mental retardation. Now that I understand what autism is, nothing can be further from the truth. This is a MEDICAL condition brought on by possible genetic susceptibility and triggered by numerous environmental toxins. The minds of these amazing people with autism are far from retarded whether they are verbal or not.  We have been blessed to meet and know many families living with autism of all ages. Some are completely non-verbal but can communicate using special keyboards. The thoughts they have to share are deep, eloquent, brilliant, poetic and often full of emotion. If anything, on this day I hope the old stereotype of autism is replaced but what autism really is. Autism is a spectrum disorder, with kids who are severely delayed to those who function at an almost typical level.  I waited to get help for my child because he DID speak. I thought autism meant totally non-verbal so I didn’t think he could have autism despite other obvious red flags he had. Autism is NOT what you think. So on this day, open your mind, learn the red flags and if you know someone dealing with autism offer your support, love and prayers and most of fall don’t pass judgement because you have no idea how heartbreaking, challenging and exhausting it can be.

I want to list some of the red flags both well known ones and also ones that people are often unaware of. The point of this is to spread the word of what autism is so no more kids miss getting diagnosed. We are a great example of kids who get diagnosed early and excel in treatment. I have full hope that my kids will be recovered by age 5. When I say recovered I want to explain it does not mean cured. I believe my kids will always have small quirks that are associated with autism. They may be picky eaters forever. They may have trouble socializing or never want to make friends. They will probably always be very organized and like to have things done in particicular ways. I call these quirks because they are traits that we can live with. Some quirks are blessings. Mickey is brilliant. Brilliant to the point of savantism. He is learning to read now and just turned 3. Their minds work almost like computers and they have amazing memories. Once you began to understand autism you are in a much better place to be able to help children whether they are your own, or recognizing the signs in children you know.

-lines objects up or stacks objects

-facsination with anything that spins (wheels, fans, themselves)

-opens doors or turns on light switches repetitively

-obsession over one type of object or topic (i.e. prefers playing with cars)

-carries toys or objects around without playing with them (Mickey had to always carry 3 of one type of toy)

-spins, rocks, jumps or hand flaps

-screams, shrieks or some other form of a vocal stim used when excited or to self-soothe (when Mickey gets overwhelmed or excited he shrieks and says ticka-ticka-ticka)

-Some form of speech delay (not all kids are totally non-verbal, Mickey could say quite a few things but wasn’t where he should have been with speech and he used jibberish what sounded like his own little language also known as idiosyncratic language)

-Tantrums (most ASD kids get severe anxiety, overwhelmed and will tantrum over what we deem to be nothing simply because they are over stimulated or even because they are in internal pain from eating foods their digestive system can’t handle. Mickey learned the sign for hurt before he was speaking very well and pointed to his tummy.)

-No interest in playing with peers (that doesn’t mean totally but rather overall. Often kids will have a sibling or close friend they are more comfortable with but if you take them to a party, playground or school they will not play with other kids.)

-focused interests in anything with pattern and order ie. legos, letters, numbers, shapes, blocks, etc

-does not play appropriately with toys ( no imaginative play, no pretending) Mickey would roll his cars back and forth and line them up or carry them but he never pretended they were driving anyhwere.

-Either extreme liking of music or aversion to music (Mickey would scream anytime anyone would sing or play music but most ASD kids have an unusual liking of music-meaning they won’t respond to much else other than music)

-Overly interested in TV- they usually fixate on 1 or 2 cartoon shows and can memorize the shows. They often use “jargon” where they repeat lines from the shows out of context. Although my kids never watched Thomas the Tank, I know that is a well like cartoon among kids with autism. My kids are more obsessed with Charlie and Lola.

-Running off- Not all kids with ASD have this issue but alot do and Mickey is one of them. He will run off given any chance he gets. He will not come back when I call him either. It makes it really difficult to go anywhere.

-Low eye contact ( Mickey made eye contact but still wasn’t fully present when he did and it was only to me or his dad)

-Food jags, ASD kids usually will only eat one -five things and REFUSE all other foods. This is thought to be because at one point when they ate a larger variety of foods, their digestive systems couldn’t handle it and caused them pain. The kids remember the pain and only want to eat what they are sure won’t hurt them. Their choices are usually processed and full of carbs, sugar or dairy. They are often ADDICTED to milk, cheese, yogurt, crackers, bread, french fries, chicken nuggets, cheerios and cookies. The reason why is that Casien found in dairy and Gluten found in grains causes an addicitive opiate high in the brain similar to heroine. Also, the yeast in bacteria found in the gut crave and feed off of starches, grains, carbs and sugar. Their cravings often determine what the child wants to eat and worse how the child behaves.

-Aversion to textures (This can vary from kid to kid. Mickey loves sand but wants to wash his sands the second he touches finger paints or shaving cream. We are grateful he touches it at all!)

-Compliance issues, ASD kids have a hard time being told what to do and following instructions. They usually resist anything they do not choose do to and always want to be in control

-Obsessive/complusive issues ASD kids tend to be fairly orderly and neat and hate having dirty clothes or hands. They may have to have their food on their plate a certain way or put their clothes on in a certain order etc. We are fortunate Mickey doesn’t have to many issues in this area but he does have his quirks here and there.

Illness- ASD kids are either sick ALL the time or RARELY. This is due to their severe immune systems. Mickey had hyper immune where he was NEVER sick. Only recently since wew began biomedical intervention have we noticed him catching more colds. We believe this is because his body reacted to the vaccines and went into a superimmune mode to try to fight them off, thus protecting the body from catching other illnesses. Other kids often have the opposite happen where the vaccines destroyed their immune system and get sick ALL the time, usually taking tons of antibiotics for chronic ear infections. BTW this is the WORST thing you can do. Antibiotics only create a worse yeast problem and will be ineffective if overused in the future. Instead by some mulleine garlic oil ear drops from your health food store. Works just as well if not better.

-Digestive problems, This is a big one. I have not met one ASD kid who did not have digestive problems. They either suffer from chronic diarreah or mushy poops (Minnie has this, They looked like the texture of chili or chocolate mousse but often yellow colored) or chronic constipation as Mickey had.  Unfortunately, regular doctors out there tell parents this is normal but it is NOT! You don’t realize it is abnormal until you understand what a healthy stool is. I too had bowel problems until we all went on the SCD diet and my kids no longer had bowel problems and mine greatly improved. The reason for the digestive problems is because our diet is so toxic and lacking in nutrition for one, but also because these kids have destroyed intestines. This is where leaky gut and children with starving brains comes in. The instestines are supposed to have these little feelers that catch all the nutrients from the food and pass them onto the body and brain to provide nourishment. Instead, the feelers are “broken” and are not doing their job. Therefore, undigested food is not broken down and passes right through the body. It either comes out in a mushy undigested mess or becomes difficult to pass and causes constipation. The brain doesn’t recieve the vitamins, minerals and nutrients it needs and isn’t able to develop properly. This is the key to understanding the biomedical relation to autism. When the body is not getting proper nutrition the brain ceases to thrive. Why traditional medicine does not hop on board with this angers me. I am tired of this treat the symptom philosophy because it is soley a money making strategy. By changing our food source and cleaning up our diet we can help the body heal itself, but then that wouldn’t pay for Dr.’s luxury cars, now would it?

-Yeast, This falls under digestion but I am putting as a seperate issue because it deserves a category of its own. Yeast is one of the biggest medical issues with ASD kids. Research has shown that yeast and bacteria such as clostrida causes many autistic behaviors such as stimming, aggression and compliance issues. Once we kicked the yeast my kids became “typical” as far as there behavior and speech improved tenfold. My husband who is a very logical minded person was weary at first to all the biomedical stuff. I take care of healing the kids so he never knows what treatments they are doing but he can tell when they have been off probiotics or get too much fruit because there behavior is like night and day. Yeast survives because of our S.A.D. (Standard American Diet.) It is nothing but carbs. Most kids live off of sugar, artificial foods, and wheat products. Anyone who has done GFCF knows that when you first start reading labels it is amazing that enriched wheat flour is in EVERYTHING. We at first did GFCF and treated yeast with Threelac which worked great, but only took us so far. Then I read Breaking The Vicious Cycle which explains the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and it made sense to me. What good is continously treating the yeast for years when I could starve out the yeast with the SCD diet and give the body time to heal itself. The body is miraculous if you treat it the way it was intended. It is amazing how toxic we have allowed our food to become. We now try to eat as natural as we can from the way our food is grown to the way we prepare it. No boxed foods anymore!  Yeast is not only a problem for ASD kids but for everyone. It is the true epidemic and again it is because of our crap diet. Yeast has been linked to a multitude of illnesses including depression, ADD/ADHD, Alzheimers, cancer, and mental illness. I suffered from manic depression my entire life and it has only been since going SCD that I was able to kick depression, ironically at the time in my life I should be most depressed! Yeast is real. There are tests you can do for it such as the Organic Acid Test/ Yeast C&S combo test at Great Plains Labs. They mail you a kit and you send urine and stool samples in. 

-Allergies,  ASD kids are very senstive and often have traditional allergies as well as food allergies and sensitivities. There is an IGg food senstivity test done through DAN! doctors as well as at Great Plains Labratories online. It is an inexpensive blood test that can save you and your child alot of anguish. Dr. Dolores Rapp wrote a book called “Is this your Child” explaining how food senstivities effect your child both physically and behaviorally. If your child suffers from allergies, or breaks out in rashes, has eczema, dark eye cirles or aggressive behaviors, get the test!

-ADD/ADHD This disorder is a brother of autism and many kids with autism have it. Taking out any artificial foods, flavorings and colorings is a huge help as this is often a trigger for ADD/ADHD behavior. Again with this disorder cleaning up the diet is key.

-Sensory issues, This is a huge topic and all kids are different. Mickey gets overwhelmed in public, is fearful of hurting himself so he tends to be overly cautious, doesn’t like being dirty or touching strange textures. However, Minnie who also has sensory issues is the complete opposite. She gets anxiety and is extremely clingy to me and fearful of other children. She is messy as messy can be but refuses to keep a diaper or clothes on, more so than a typical child. She also has become a picky eater but over different textures than Mickey. She also has problems with motor planning and where she is not fearful, she falls all the time often injuring herself daily.

-Motor Skills Delays ASD kids are often delayed in either or both fine motor and gross motor skills. My kids also have hypertonia which is low muscle tone. Therefore they can not jump yet, pedal a bike or kick a ball. They have problems with coordination especially Minnie. Minnie tends to be fairly advanced in her fine motor skills but just can’t get her body to keep up with her brain and often misjudges her movements. Mickey on the othe hand just is overly cautious and fearful to try anything long enough to learn it.

So these are only some of the signs. Not all ASD kids have ALL of these red flags. It is usually some combo of the red flags.  If your child has some or you know a child with some tell them to see a specialist. A specialist is NOT your pediatrician. Sadly, pediatricians do not know anything about autism. There job is little more than legal drug pushers for pharmaceutical companies. They prescribe drugs for illnesses and vaccines for well checks. We learned the hard way they do NOT know anything. We know longer see traditonal doctors. We prefer doctors who approach medicine holistically. Our doctor is not a quack either. He is Dr. Sears of the famous Sears Family Pediatrics and is a Board Certified Pediatrician. They have authored several books, write for a number of parenting magazines and are often called on as experts for morning, news and talk shows. Instead see a developmental pediatrician who specializes in autism or contact your communtity office for disabilities. They will refer you to your local office handling autism. In California, we call our local regional center and they have psychologist who specialize in diagnosing ASD. If your child is school age, you can contact your school psychologist, but be aware autism is often misunderstood by mainstream society. Make sure you find someone well versed in recognizing and working with autism. Sadly, we have encountered many therapists and doctors who think autism is Rainman. Do your reading and research and don’t take anyones opinion as gospel. Also, if your gut tells you something isn’t right, than it isn’t. We knew at 12 months something wasn’t right but because no one came out and told us it was autism, we ignored our feelings. Even after his developmental assessment, no one told us, because they can not. Only a licensed psychologist or doctor can diagnose. We learned the hard way that we had to specifically ask for the autism test and get a seperate appointment and evaluation for it. The psychologist didn’t have to test Mickey for long before letting me know it was definately autism. Looking back now, Mickey was a clear case. My point is unless you know what autism really is, it is easy to let it go undiagnosed, but once you know autism you can spot it a mile a way.

So now that you understand what autism is, what can you do to help? Tell others. Spread the word. Use us as an example. Don’t be afraid to tell a parent to seek a developmental evaluation if you notice signs in their child. They may be angry at first, but later down the line they will remember you and thank you for helping to save their child. Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t the easy thing to do. I wish someone would have told us. Yes, I probably would have been mad but now as I write this I would have been eternally grateful. Early intervention is crucial in helping set these kids up with a healthy functional future. I hear too often about kids who are now 6,7, or 8 and struggling in school with language, compliance and social interaction not to mention the digestive issues and food allergies. The unrecognized health issues can easily grow into more serious diseases in adulthood. You can donate your time to help a family. We always need help! Lend your ear for support or a shoulder to cry on. Donate money to Autism research or to TACA who helps families in need pay for medical, theraputic and biomedical expenses- none of which insurance covers. And the simplest thing you can do is to GO GREEN! It is as simple as buying non-toxic cleaners, detergents, soaps, shampoos and organic fruits,veggies and meats. The less toxins we have in this world the better everyone is including this sensitive kids. Also, the more people buy green and organic products the more the companies will be persuaded to change their products and price competitively. Think you can’t afford to go green? Try buying online where products are cheaper, use coupon codes found on retailmenot.com or shop at Trader Joes where you can find products cheaper than toxic products. It is clear out world is toxic and these kids have a message. It is time to clean up our world and our bodies!

Don’t let this day or month (as all of April is Autism awareness month) go without purpose. Think of my beautiful kids and spread their message to all. Talk about it in your prayer groups, with your co-workers, to family and friends and in your play groups. Autism is real, it is here and it is at the point where it is effecting us all first hand. It is time to do something. Today is the day.

Just Tomatoes Snacks

We have to really think outside the box on this diet and my kids are quickly growing sick of boiled eggs, nut butter brownies, pancakes and bananas for snacks. I know they miss the crunch that wheat products have like crackers and cookies. The other day at the health food store we found a product called Just Bananas made by a company called Just Tomatoes. It is called Just.. (fruit/veggie here) because that is all it is! Nothing else added. The fruit and veggies are freeze dried taking all the water out so they are left crispy and crunchy. Perfect snack food! My kids favorite is the Just Bananas but the just Blueberries and Just Peas are good too. My kids react to strawberries and can’t have them but I tried them and they are great! They taste like the fruit they put in cereal. In fact you can add them to cereal or use them in baking too. When you add liquid they become moist again. They are great and a perfect snack for kids!

Videos and photos

My schedule has been hectic but I do have new videos and pics to post. The few times we are actually home, Mickey has taken over the computer. He has learned how to use it to play games. It is really actually quite amazing to see a barely 3 year old work a computer. He knows how to open and close programs, switch his games and manuever throughout the game. They are all educational games and along with computer skills, he has learned alot from them. He loves to play Dora’s Backpack adventure game, the games at Disney Playhouse, Fisher Price, Nick Jr., Sesame Street, Noggin and Charlie and Lola BBC just to name a few! A month ago he couln’t even work the mouse. Now he can use the back button, close tabs, open games, close games, and actually play the games well! We try to get outdoors and do a nature activity on the weekends because I can easily see my son becoming a video game kid who would rather be indoors than outdoors. Everything is ok in moderation but I want him to be interested in the outdoors too! I got some magnifying glasses, spray bottles and binoculars from walmart and we take them with us on nature walks through state parks on the weekend. The kids have fun spraying rocks, trees, leaves and shells and looking at them through there magnifying glasses. We usually bring a blanket and lunch for a picnic. I really think the kids benefit from being in nature. It is not much but we love it. Anyway, as soon as I get some computer time I will add some new photos and videos.

SCD 2 month regression

We had a big scare these last 2 weeks when Mickey regressed. It started with him acting out of it. He was just in a daze, not making great eye contact. He started talking in more jibberish than words and wasn’t interacting much with us or his sister. He had weird high fevers on and off for a week. I thought he was just ill. Than his ears turned really hot and bright red and he broke out in a heat rash on his ears and legs. The ear rash happened twice at different times over 2 weeks. He lost his appetite. He had HUGE tantrums and was fussy often. It seemed like he fully regressed again. We had not introduced any new foods, nothing had changed in his routine. This was just out of left field. Than I remembered a book called Autism: Effective Biomedical Treatments from the Autism Research Institute that talked about regressions at certain points in the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. We were rigt at the 2 month mark in the diet. Sure enough the first regression was at exactly 2 – 3 months! Mickey met 95% of the symptoms listed. It said the regression could last up to 14 days. Sure enough it was about 12 days for us. However, after the regression he blossomed! He is talking more than ever before. He is acting more like a typical little boy too. He is silly. He is pretending more. He is saying cute and clever things. We went to Sea World and when we got to the flamingos he saw people feeding them. The food was from a machine and we didn’t have any change on us. He said, “Mommy, I want to feed the flamingos.” I said, I am sorry, honey. We don’t have any money for the flamingo food. What else can we feed them?” He thought for a moment and matter of factly said, “Grapes!” (We can’t eat grapes yet on the diet so it wasn’t like he is used to eating grapes. He just decided that is what flamingos eat!) He has been doing great on his vocabulary. He knows very advanced names of things. He has a book of animals and can name them all from hyena to egret (mommy and daddy didn’t even know that one!) We were suprised when he saw Shamu and called him an orca! Some things he has a hard time pronouncing but he tries like hippopotamus is “hippopossum” and rhinocerus is “rhinosos.” His speech teacher is taking advantage of his interest in letters and is teaching him sight words. Since Mickey has an incredible memory he can see a word and memorize it. So basically the way he memorizes pictures in books or flash cards, he is memorizing written words. This will help him in future reading skills. I noticed after this regression he has self-corrected some of his previous words. Before he would say fire car but now says fire truck. He would say squad car (although technically correct, not as common in his age range) whereas he now says police car. The regression was hard. Probably the hardest 2 weeks to date, but the results have been worth it. There are supposed to be more regressions at 5 months, 7 months and 9 months. Good to know a time frame if we go through this again.

2/19/08 Update

It has been busy busy for us lately! Minnie had all her Early Intervention evaluations last week. She is 20 months old and I was concerned with her speech and some sensory issues with her. Some points of concern are: toe walking at times, spinning at times, lack of age appropriate speech, lack of imaginative play, unable to jump, problems with motor planning (major clumsiness to the point of daily injury), tantrums and sleep disturbance at night. She was evaluated for speech and at that time had a boost in her language so she just barely qualified but the therapist felt that with help she would catch up to age level within 6 months. She than had an early intervention evaluation and it seems Minnie’s skills are scattered. Meaning in some areas she is extremely advanced while in others she has some delays. For example she can string small beads on a shoe lace which is advanced fine motor skills. However, she gets confused with cause and effect. When shown how to make a toy pop up by pushing a button she couldn’t figure out that if she pushed it she could make the toy pop up. Instead, she kept telling the therapist to “open.” So weekly she will be getting 1 hour speech, 1 hour occupational therapy, 1 hour group therapy and 1 hour in home early intervention therapy. (Basically half of what Mickey got.) I do not think she has autism. She has alot of great skills and makes great eye contact. However, she is uncomfortable around kids, spins more than I would like (at least once a day), she has alot of tantrums and she does some jibberish just like her brother. I am worried she may have PDD-NOS which is pervasive developmental disorder not other wishe specified. It basically means on the Autism evaluation they do not meet enough of the criteria to have full autism but they have enough symptoms that puts them on the spectrum with the less title of PDD-NOS. I am debating whether to get her evaluated or not. At this point the diagnosis would do nothing more than confirm my instincts. We may qualify for respite care (paid babysitter) for her which we desperately need!! Mickey already qualifies for it and lord knows our marriage needs a little attention and we both could use frequent breaks from the kids. I am dealing with the kids disorders from a biomedical perspective so the labels really don’t mean a whole lot right now. After age 3 it matters because with the label you qualify for more services that really help the kids alot that we would otherwise not be able to afford. I am a huge believer in the early intervention program and we have had AMAZING results with Mickey’s therapy. So if the time comes and Minnie needs to be evaluated to qualify for services we may do the Autism/PDD-Nos evaluation.  It doesn’t come as a huge shock to me. I am dealing with it fine because my heart tells me in the end my kids will be just fine. It just means alot more work for me! It is worth it in the long run and I have faith every thing happens for a reason. There are many blessings that come with this disorder and I am just trying to focus on those.

Mickey is doing AWESOME in school. I had a meeting with his teacher who told me Mickey is excelling and his “top of the class in all areas: speech, intelligence, compliance, behavior..” (Those were her words!) Music to this moms ears. She said he is a model student and never has any issues with him. She said she is concerned this he is too advanced for his current class and may end up picking up some behavior issues from other students since his class has alot of behavior problems. She would prefer him in the advanced class for the just speech delay class with no other behavior issues. However that class is only 2 days a week. We both agreed that 4 days a week has been great for his socialization and routine. So as soon as I can figure out both kids therapy schedules he will move from 4 days in the moderate class to 2 days moderate and 2 days advanced.  He LOVES school and is happy when I drop him off and pick him up. Every day he tells me what he did in school (I confirmed it with his teacher and he has been telling me everything accurately!) He said he does dancing, marching, colors, reads books, sings the fishy song, jumps in the ball pit, does the monkey bars, made a heart.. etc It is so great to be able to hear him tell me how his day was! Today I asked him how was your day today. He answered, Fun! I had alot of fun today!” As we were leaving he told his school friend, “See ya alligator!” The other day as I was walking out with Mickey, another mom, with a son on the spectrum, said I just can’t believe he has autism! He is so verbal, makes great eye contact and even hugs you! I said, 5 months ago he was a different kid. Biomedical and the diet has saved him. I can not tell you how good it feels that people are in disbelief that he has autism. It is at the point I really don’t have to tell anyone. He still has his quirks and there are times I am reminded that he still has autism, but for the most part he is doing so great!

Savant

Many children with autism have certain attributes that are extrodinary. An example of this is in the movie Rainman starring Dustin Hoffman. In the movie he displays remarkable mathmatical abilities and memorization. I noticed very early on Mickey had an amazing memory. He can watch a show one time and have the entire dialog memorized. He can recall information that happened months ago. He has the entire layout of Disneyland memorized as well as the routes of everywhere we drive. He also often will have premonitions. He will tell me what is on TV before I turn it on. He made a comment to his speech therapist about the chair falling and a few seconds later it did. Today while I was driving he said, “Big truck crash!” I didn’t see anything but I proceeded very cautiously home. Who knows maybe he warned me and I was able to prevent something. I also noticed about 6 months ago that he had a knack for letters, numbers and shapes. Well, his “knack” has grown to be quite extrodinary. I have noticed him spelling things lately, reading signs and memorizing the computer keyboard. I am not quite sure what to think of this yet. I also don’t know what to say when he starts reading signs at the check-out counter and people notice. His teachers and therapists have all commented on his extrodinary abilities with letters. His speech therapist knows he knows the letters and sounds but at the last session we learned he also knows what words start with certain letters. She did an alphabet puzzle with him and asked him what each letter was for and he answered. A for apple…etc. when he got to M he said M is for monkey then looked at me and said… and for Mommy!!! In some ways I am thrilled that he is so smart but I am also a little concerned. Children with autism are most comfortable with order and anything that has do to with order. That is why letters, numbers and patterns are so interesting to them. Since so little is known about autism and its effects I just am not sure if this is something I should be encouraging or another form of a “stim.” As for now, I use his love of reading and letters as a way to connect with him and we play games around them. I guess as long as it is not effecting him negatively or keeping him from interacting with others than it is a good thing. Here is an interesting article about Autistic Savants.

 The videoat the top is an excellent display of some of the same abilities Mickey has with memorization, patterns, spelling and letters. (This is not my video but a great example by another parent!)

New show features Autism- Eli Stone Epsiode

The new show Eli Stone is airing an episode about vaccines causing Autism. I have never seen the show as it is brand new but I am going to watch. The American Academy of Pediatrics tried to get this episode taken off the air. It airs January 31 at 10 pm on ABC.
NYTimes Link

The Ball Pit

Mickey’s occupational therapist gave a brilliant suggestion for a homemade ball pit. I bought a $10 slide off Craiglist and got a really large box and filled it with balls. (although I need to get alot more balls) Voile! Homemade ball pit! The little ones they sell at the store don’t do much for therapy because the balls need to be able to cover the child up to there chest. The therapy ball pits are a few hundred dollars, so this is a good idea for home. My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!

Argh! He’s a pirate!

This was on a recent ttrip to Disneyland where Mickey enjoyed being a pirate!

Third day of school

This video was shot from across the street while I staked out the playground stalking my son. He cried his second day of school but by the third day he was doing great. He is wearing a navy blue peacoat and the teacher is trying to help him climb up the rock wall.