Finished Basement!

Yay!  The basement is finished!  I am so excited, I have wanted this done for 11 years and it is now finished.  I just can't wait to see it in person.  My mom has been taking pictures and keeping us posted throughout the remodel process.  Here are a few pictures..

Austin gets another award...

Austin is always getting awards in Reading, this time he got an award that he has never received before, the Author Award.  At the end of each quarter there is an awards assembly and several awards are handed out to students for many different things.  There are three 5th grade classes in his school.  Eash teacher chooses a couple of students from their classes for the various awards.  Austin was really surprised when his teacher called his name for this award.  He wrote a short story on our cat, Sammy.

Austin is pretty shy and is easily embarrassed, his cheeks look a bit flushed.

My little artists...

The boys love to draw on the dry erase board.  Usually letters, numbers, & shapes.  The other day I overheard Gabe yelling "I did it, I did it, it's Leo!"  I went to see what he was so excited about .  He was standing above the board and pointing down to his picture.  He was so excited and so proud.

Here he is putting Leo (character from Little Einsteins) next to his drawing to compare...

Here is Sebastian, he was trying to get the same excited response, he would scribble a little and then clap his hands yelling "yay".  So cute!

Easter

Our Easter celebrations began Saturday, first with dyeing Easter eggs and then we went to the Easter Vigil that night.  Austin was an Altar Server for the service and did a great job.  He was really tired afterwards, considering it went until just about midnight.  We got home and all went to bed.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

This is the first year that Gabe & Sebastian were actually interested in coloring the eggs.  Gabe had a great time writing words on the eggs with the crayons.  I think he wrote "Leo" on pretty much all of the eggs.  In fact, he even got his Leo from "Little Einsteins" and helped him write on the egg.  Of course Austin was into the egg coloring as always.  He likes to see how dark he can get the eggs by leaving them sitting in the dye for as long as he can.

Sebastian really got in on the fun, he loved putting the eggs in the different colors.  The fun didn't stop there, he even liked to dip his whole hand in each color as well.

Here Sebastian was admiring their finished work and then he thought he could eat them just like that.

Here are their Easter baskets...

The Easter Bunny leaves a trail of candy from their door to their Easter baskets, so when they wake up they just follow the trail.  They usually get sidetracked by the candy and have a few pieces along the way.

Bubbles are always a must for Easter...

Sebastian LOVES Chocolate!

Cute little Abby

A Hair-dryer brain?

Wow! I just read the most amazing blog!!! It is from a mom of a 4th grader with Autism, she was asked to speak to his class (he wasn't there) and answer questions they had about autism and her son.  She really explains this Autism analogy so well! Here is the link to her post:

http://momnos.blogspot.com/2010/03/on-being-hair-dryer-kid-in-toaster.html

Here is the link to the rest of her posts:

http://momnos.blogspot.com/2010/03/toast-to-inclusion-autism-education-in.html


During the night when Abby wakes up to nurse, I hold her in my glider and nurse her until she falls asleep, at times I will log onto Facebook, check my email, or Google stuff during the night on my iphone while I am up with her. This morning I was up with her around 6:00 am, I checked my email and my mom had forwarded me a message with this link attached. So I checked it out, oh my gosh! I couldn't stop reading, even long after Abby had fallen back to sleep I still couldn't put my iphone down, I wanted to read this amazing story that this mother was telling. I put Abby back in her crib and I climbed back into bed and continued reading. These stories that this mother was sharing hit so incredibly close to home and brought such a realization in to my little world. I will back up and share the beginning of my Journey with my Gabe.

Gabe was born in Feb 2006, all seemed well, he coo-ed, he laughed, he played, and everything seemed to be pretty mainstreamed. He started eating baby food when he was supposed to, finger foods, etc.

Now I was just waiting for my cute little guy to say the sweet word "Mama". 8 months came and went, 10 months, came and went...still not talking. Crawling around everywhere but not walking. His first birthday was now here, still not talking or walking. I was starting to become a little concerned but didn't think too much into it. Finally, 14 months old and he is walking, but he is walking as though he has been walking for a long time, in fact he can nearly run. We were elated! So excited! So now my areas of concern are: he still isn't talking, and now I cannot transition him from baby food to regular food. To speed things up a bit, a month before his 2nd birthday I had PIC (program for infants & children) come to our house to do an evaluation of his development. After the evaluation, it was recommended that Gabe have speech therapy, occupational therapy, and to attend LEAP (a learning play group for developmentally delayed children). He started LEAP within a few days, we were put on a 6 month waiting list for speech therapy and we were able to start occupational therapy within a couple of weeks.

LEAP was great, he went every Tuesday morning for an hour, during this hour they had circle time, sensory games, singing, interactive play with other children. He was having so much fun. During one of the sessions, I spoke with one of the Developmental specialists about Gabe. She had suggested to me that from her observation she thought that maybe he fell somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. I was in shock, I thought there is no way, and he is just speech delayed. We talked some more and thinking back to some of the "cute things" that he did as a baby maybe just weren't "cute things", such as lining up all of his cheetos in a row, or getting all of the canned food out of the lazy susan and lining up the cans, or even being able to successfully stack "stacking cups". I began to tear up as I thought about my cute little guy. The specialist told me that everything would be okay and of course it is difficult to hear that something may be wrong with your child. She told me that I should talk to our pediatrician and get a referral for him to see a Dr. for special needs to see if he is on the spectrum. I put it off feeling that it wasn't necessary to get such an early diagnosis. I had read that normally they don't like to see children for this until they are at least 3 years old. I whole heartedly agreed! So I decided just to continue with LEAP and Occupational therapy. I never really quite understood the occupational therapy but I also thought that it couldn't hurt to have that extra intervention. I talked to the occupational therapist and she agreed that he showed signs of being on the spectrum. I was still on a waiting list for speech therapy. I called and called several people everyday and finally came across a therapist that had an open slot. She had a private practice that she ran out of her house; in fact she lived just a couple of streets away from us. We started speech therapy that week and she saw Gabe twice a week for 30 min each time. She taught him some basic signs and how to request things. It was a slow process but it was working. I told her about the referral for Autism and she felt that he could be on the spectrum also.

October 2008, I called Dr. Brennan, the special needs doctor. The clinic mailed me the lengthy packet to fill out and send it back to them and then they would call me to set up an appointment for Gabe. Well I filled out the packet but never sent it in. I was so afraid to give my son this label. I just felt that since there really wasn't a "medical test", (you know like a blood test that you can test positive for Autism) how could they be so sure. So I put the packet away in the filing cabinet and thought I would hold off a bit longer. When Gabe turned 3, he was tested by the school district to see if he qualified for the special education pre-school. In order to qualify for this, you must be delayed by at least 25%. He qualified and was able to start pre-school immediately. The elementary school in our neighborhood has this program. I was very happy to hear that because this is where Austin goes to school. Gabe started pre-school in Feb 2009. With school now 4 days a week, speech therapy 2 days a week and occupational therapy 2 days a week, I need to cut down on our appointments. LEAP group ended as soon as he turned 3, so that was out of the equation, occupational therapy seemed like it could be replaced with his schooling. Speech is still a NEED. Things seem to be going great, school is good, speech therapy is good, Gabe is happy. He was finally starting to use some words...still no "mama", but hey that's okay, any words at this point are fabulous!

Gabe was excelling with his new pre-school class and finally starting to use some words. Very basic but he was saying words. His teacher felt that he was doing so well so she was worried about summer break and him not having school. She recommended him for the summer school program. This was held at a different school a bit further away. He was put on a school bus route and he loved riding the bus. He continued to excel in the school setting and was talking more and more. He is so smart, he can read, spell words, he knows how to work a computer. Summer school ended and his regular pre-school started back up again at our neighborhood elementary. He had a new teacher this year, who has just been amazing! When I first met her she wanted me to tell her a little about Gabe. I explained to her that it has been suggested to me on several occasions that he is possibly on the spectrum. I shared my concerns with her about giving my son such a profound label. She has been such a great teacher to Gabe. She has been very patient with him and keeps me informed of how his days go. Gabe keeps a notebook in his back pack that Ms. Jones and I write notes back and fourth in for each other.

Gabe's speech therapist has moved out of state and now we are on another waiting list for speech therapy. He does get some speech therapy at school. His vocabulary just continues to grow.

I saw a commercial on TV advertising a program called "Your Baby Can Read". This looked amazing to me. It is a program which comes with 5 DVDs, flash cards, books, and a music CD, so I ordered it. Sure enough, Gabe conquered it. He could sit at the computer and spell words like Rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant, giraffe, and many many more. He absolutely blew us away. At this point he was using so many words, singing songs, and repeating phrases from his favorite TV shows. We could understand what he was saying and what it was that he needed. We were able to read his ques and help him. We knew how to solve problems before he even had them.

Speeding things along again, bringing us to current, Gabe is doing fabulous! He loves to spell things on the dry erase board; in fact I didn't even know that he could write until one day he was standing on the kitchen counter writing the word "go" on the dry erase board. He would write it, say it, then erase it and write another word. He loves to read books, I don't really think the comprehension is there but the words definitely are. His favorite shows consist of Super Why!, SESAME STREET, Little Einsteins, Leapfrog videos, and sight word videos. He is doing so well.

When I read this blog, there were so many things in there that made me think "Wow, that sounds like Gabe", especially the echolalia. This mother's blog was really such an eye opener, after reading this blog I decided that it was time to send in the packet for Dr. Brennan and schedule and appointment for Gabe, just to see what they say. We'll see!

I know this was such a L O N G post but I felt that I needed and wanted to do a summary of Gabe.  Thanks for taking the time to read it, if you did.

KORN

Austin went to his first concert..KORN.  A couple of months ago Austin told us that he heard on the radio that the tickets were going on sale for Korn, so we went and bought 3 of them.  Austin has been so excited, waiting for this day to come!
The day of the concert, Vinnie got a call from a friend of his who works with the promoters that brought Korn up here.  The bass player, Fieldy was wanting to get a tattoo while he was up here and wanted it done by Vinnie that day.  Vinnie shuffled some appointments around and was able to get Fieldy in.  I took Austin down to the shop so he could meet Fieldy and get some picutres with him.

 While Vinnie was tattooing Fieldy, he was told that we would be "hooked up" for the concert.  That night when we arrived at the concert, Vinnie called his friend and they came down to a security door on the side of the building and let us in.  We avoided all lines and went straight to the front of the line for the meet and greet.  After the meet and greet we were able to go back by their dressing rooms and hang out until the concert started.  The lead singer of Korn; Jonathan Davis, does not like to have his picture taken and is super super shy.  During the meet and greet everyone was told absolutely no pictures, no cameras, no cell phones..period!  Well, while we were hanging out waiting for the concert to begin, Jonathan walked up to Austin and put his arm around him and said, "hurry, who has a camera?".  We hurry and pulled out the camera and got a picture.

Here are some more pictures of us with the drummer, Ray and another one with Fieldy.

When it was time for the band to go out on stage, we walked out with them and then went to the side of the stage and watched the concert from there.  I was so relieved that we were on the side of the stage because the concert was general admission and it looked like it was one big mosh pit, bodies being thrown everywhere, people getting smashed, etc...

Fieldy wore a Rebirth Tattoo shirt for part of the concert, that was really fun to see!  After the concert they gave Austin the guitar pick from Fieldy and he got 2 drumsticks from Ray.  One of them was used during the concert and the other was brand new.

It was so fun to watch Austin enjoy his first concert!

Spring Pictures 2010