Update on Ethan

The kids are on Christmas break for 15 days, but I had to take Ethan into his school today for a speech therapy evaluation. I was worried that he wouldn't understand that he wasn't going to do his regular school routine and that it would be difficult for him. But he went right in with his speech therapist and did all four parts of the evaluation seamlessly. He sat the whole time without getting up, answering the questions and participating in the activities. It was just 7 short weeks ago that I took him for his initial evaluation for school, and that was a giant challenge for everyone. Ethan wouldn't participate, he wouldn't sit still, and he threw a huge fit. What a difference 7 weeks of preschool has made! Believe it or not, the evaluation is not the point of this blog, though I was really proud of Ethan for doing so well with it this morning.

The real point of today's blog is that I got to talk with Ethan's teachers one-on-one (well, two-on-one, I suppose) the whole time he was having his evaluation in the other room. I was so happy to get to ask them all the questions I had been saving up. You know, the ones I always forget to ask when I'm dropping him off and picking him up since my focus is just getting him where he needs to be. Anyway, Mrs. Linda and Mrs. Colleen told me how well Ethan has been doing in school. He walks in the door in the morning, takes his coat off and hangs it in his cubby by himself, finds his name tag on the roll list and moves it to the "present" list, washes his hands, and sits down to eat breakfast with the other kids. He eats his breakfast, drinks his water bottle, and cleans up when he's done. He moves through all the different activities and games on his own and puts them away when the buzzer goes off. He happily participates in speech therapy. He uses the potty and washes his hands afterwards all day on his own (and he's one of the only ones out of the ten students in his class that is potty-trained). And...here is the big one...Ethan has a friend. Mrs. Colleen told me that he and a little boy named Austin are good buddies and play together all day. I had noticed one day when I picked him up last week that Ethan was sitting at a table with another little boy playing the peg game and taking turns (wow!!!). I found out they play on the computer together a lot, too, and that Ethan has been typing words and numbers. I am SO HAPPY Ethan has made a friend at school. I can't even tell you how good it makes me feel to know he has another little boy to play with and that enjoys playing with him. What a blessing this school has been for Ethan already.

I guess Ethan has just started using the computer at school, instead of just watching other kids use it. He likes using the word pad and typing the words he knows. Travis and I had noticed that he had been typing on his Nintendo DS a lot lately. Yesterday he typed, "102030405060708090100," and came up to me and told me, "Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred!" I had no idea he could count by tens, and his teachers told me he hadn't learned it at school. He does like sequences, so I'm not surprised that he figured it out, but the typing is new! I'm just so proud of my sweet boy. He is doing so well. School has been great for him, and I am so happy he has two great teachers who love him. I never knew I would feel this good about everything in such a short amount of time. Whew.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel...

My little autistic biscuit does not like to have his hair cut. Ethan has always been this way, since he was a baby. He doesn't seem to have sensory issues otherwise, but haircuts (and often hair brushing) are out of the question. He has to suffer through having his hair brushed before school every day, and he isn't happy about it. He runs away, and when I catch him he throws his head back and forth as wildly as he can. The good news is he has a lovely, thick head of hair that is curly. It always looks a little wild, and a LOT cute, even though 95% of the time he looks shaggier than Shaggy from Scooby Doo.

Ethan has his 4th birthday coming up, and Sunday is his birthday party. I wanted him to have his hair cut for the party, and for Christmas, and so my mom could attempt to take a picture of my three kids together in some pretty Christmas outfits. He hasn't had his hair cut since maybe...September? And it grows fast and furious like mine does. Anyway, Travis took Ethan to get a haircut today at my urging. It didn't go well. Ethan had a huge meltdown. I mean HUGE. So all we ended up with was a majorly unhappy child, a stressed-out Daddy, and no haircut. I looked it up, and just as I suspected it is VERY common for autistic kids to hate haircuts. (Do you watch Parenthood on NBC? Well you should, because it's great. There is a character with Aspberger's on the show who is 9 years old and has very shaggy hair. I always thought that must be on purpose and must be extremely accurate, based on my own experience.) Travis and I were talking about it afterwards and we decided Ethan just may be one of those kids that has long, curly, fabulous, shaggy hair for a while, until this issue resolves or we can figure out how to make it better. He will be the redheaded, male version of Rapunzel. And that's okay with me. So if you notice my very shaggy child, DON'T tell me he needs a haircut. He doesn't need a haircut as much as he needs to feel happy and safe. I will figure this out. I just haven't yet.

A couple of pictures from Rapunzel's shaggier (and cute-as-can-be) moments:

Oh, my precious boy. I love him! <3

My favorite Christmas movies

Watching Christmas movies is one of my favorite things to do this time of the year! I like the classic movies and the not-so-classic movies that aren't explicitly about Christmas, but somehow it figures into the story-line. I've compiled a list of my must-see Christmas movies. Let me know if there are any I need to add to the list!

Elf (Elijah's favorite!)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

A Christmas Story

It's a Wonderful Life (I actually watched this movie in the hospital during my labor with Ethan!)

The Preacher's Wife

White Christmas (This movie still reminds me of my first college roommate, who absolutely loves it.)

The Nativity Story

The Family Stone (One of my favorite movies, Christmas or not. What a great cast.)

The Holiday

Four Christmases

Home Alone (Elijah's other favorite!)

The heart of life

I <3 John Mayer. I used to refer to him as my boyfriend until my husband said he didn't like it. :)  Travis still took me to see him in Memphis this year, which was one of my favorite things I've ever done! I've posted the video of one of his songs above, called The Heart of Life. The lyrics and and the melody speak right to my own heart. Listen for these lyrics:

Pain throws your heart to the ground

Love turns the whole thing around

No, it won't all go the way it should

But I know the heart of life is good

Fear is a friend who's misunderstood

But I know the heart of life is good

<3

Tickets please!

I don't know why I worry so much. Ethan always does great at school. His teachers tell me what a fantastic job he is doing, and whenever I observe him there he's always following directions and happy. I think I underestimate Ethan, and I'm going to work on that. Ah, the emotional roller coaster that is parenting. Sigh.

Travis left for Tampa this morning. Madelyn was sad to see him go, but she enjoyed playing with his suitcase before he left. She would stand behind it, say, "Tickets please!" and Travis and I would hand her "tickets". "Thank you!" she would say, and then she would stick the tickets down her shirt. :) Madelyn had a difficult morning. She cried when Elijah got out of the car to go to Kindergarten, she cried when we left Ethan at preschool, and she cried on the front porch as Daddy drove away, headed to the airport. Poor little girl. Most mornings she isn't sad to see everyone go, but today maybe she knew Daddy would be gone for a couple of days and that made things more difficult.

I just have a small stack of dresses left to sew for What a Pretty Girl, and they're all cut out and ironed. I should be done this week. I've sewn Madelyn three Christmas dress and ruffle pants sets, so she just needs one more. I like to make her a new dress for every Sunday all year, especially in December. The boys will have ties to match. It should be a very cute Christmas season around here!

Back in the swing of things.

Today Travis went back to work and the boys went back to school after having last week off. No big deal for Travis, though I'll miss him, and no big deal for Elijah, who jumped out of bed and shouted, "It's computer day!" (On Mondays Elijah's Kindergarten class gets to spend a half hour in the computer lab, which is his favorite activity of the week.) But for Ethan, who just started attending special needs preschool the week before last, it was a big deal.

Ethan had just gotten used to getting up early, being rushed around, and spending the morning in school a couple of weeks ago, and then last week since there was no school he once again got used to NOT going. He's a creature of habit, even more so than most children, so this morning was not fun. He didn't want to get up, he didn't want to get dressed, he did want to go potty since he loves to do that, he didn't want to eat breakfast, he did want to drink his juice (of course), and he didn't want to have his hair or teeth brushed. But then he got in the van with no problems, and he seemed okay when he went into school. I hope he eats his breakfast there.

Since I have to get all three kids around by myself most of the time and Ethan is such a challenge in the mornings, I have to plan everything out the night before. Make sure everyone has nice, clean clothes to wear to school (as in NOT the too small jeans or the shirts that bother Ethan, a pair of matching socks for everybody, underpants, school shoes found, etc.), get Elijah's Kindergarten folder together, get Elijah his lunch money and whatever else he is supposed to bring (today it was a can of white frosting because his class is making gingerbread houses), plan a breakfast both boys will eat, and find clothes for myself since I have to walk Ethan into school. Then I have to get up before everybody to make sure that everything is ready to go in the morning, and (lucky me) I get to spend half and hour trying to wake Ethan up and get him out of bed and fight him into his clothes. I am hoping this gets easier with him. Once he's in the habit of going, maybe it will be?

I was unsure about putting Ethan in preschool as it was, since he's still only three. But he gets speech therapy at school for free (instead of the $200+ sessions from before), and the teachers really seem to be helping him. The first week he went, he learned to pee standing up (haha) and how to pick up after himself and put things where they go on the shelves. Those two things don't sound very big, but for Ethan they are a huge deal! I'm really proud of him, but I worry about him the whole time he's there...is he doing okay? Is he having a good time? Is he having a meltdown? Is he participating in the activities? Is he listening? I am also hoping the worrying lessens over time. I worry about Elijah, too, but not as much. Elijah can tell me if something bothers him or goes wrong, and Ethan's can't. A big part of me just wants to keep them home with me forever! Would that really be so bad?

So it's just me and Madelyn. We're watching Super Why and doing a puzzle (and blogging!). Before I pick up Ethan at 11:30 I want to sew a dress, take a shower, and play with Madelyn some more. I'd better get going!

I *heart* Wags

A couple of years ago a friend of mine showed me how to get tons of free stuff using coupons. All you have to do is watch the weekly ads and the blog, combined with clipping coupons from the newspaper, and you get a lot of free, more than free, and almost free stuff your family can use! Well, I forgot about couponing until a couple of months ago. We don't have a CVS in this tiny little town I live in, but we do have a Walgreens. I've been hitting up Walgreens a couple of times a week for the last couple of months and I have a closet full of free goodies to show for it. Tons of free toothpaste, cough and cold medicine, deoderant, shaving cream, soap, shampoo...you name it. If they sell it at Walgreens, I probably got it for free and it's sitting in my master bathroom closet. I'll never have to pay for toothpaste or soap again. Thanks, Wags! I became a thrifty mama and I'll never go back!

Also, Travis is taking care of the yard today so you'll actually be able to see our house instead of just leaves piled up everywhere. Yay! But...it's his last of 5 days off for Thanksgiving. He goes back to work tomorrow and he'll be in Tampa for 2 days this week. Boo. I hate it when he's gone. :(

Ethan's New Diet

Today I set out to design a new gluten-free and casein-free diet for Ethan. He has autism, and one of the homeopathic treatments many doctors and experts suggest is such a diet. This means he can't have any wheat, oats, dairy, soy, or many other things all of us eat without thinking everyday. Most of the things Ethan will be eating will be rice-based. So he'll have rice cheese instead of dairy, rice pasta instead of wheat, etc. His favorite food is pizza, so I bought rice flour at The Truck Patch (our local organic and natural foods market) to make gluten-free pizza crust, and shredded rice cheese for the top. He can still have most organic meats and fruits and veggies, so the rest of the pizza will be as usual. I hope he likes the rice cheese. Since he doesn't drink milk (he's had trouble digesting milk since he was a baby, which was one of our first clues to his condition) we won't have to do much to alter his drinking habits. This new diet, though, will be a challenge for us all. It will taste different, obviously, but it will also be a lot more expensive. And since Ethan is fairly set in his ways as far as food choices, it won't be very much fun making the switch. I am interested to see how it works, if it works (I hope it works!). Since his 4th birthday is next month, I already have plans for a gluten- and casein-free cake. Yummy! I hope.