Little R's progress

Hi, Everyone!

Little R made me very proud yesterday when without a motivator (reinforcer) demonstrated that he knew a LOT more than we knew that he knew.

He met his new speech path for the first time (she taking over for Little R's previous speech path who just had a baby), and he performed incredibly well! So, what am I talking about? Let me highlight with some bullets...

• good eye contact - he wanted grapes so he looked at the jar of grapes, looked at me and then led my hand toward it (okay, this is not really new, but his new speech path - let's just call her Erin, pointed out that this was purposeful eye contact, very taken-for-granted non verbal communication skill that we all use)
• from a choice board of about 10 or more items, he chose the picture of a school bus, and it was exactly what he wanted (this is called choice making - might sound easy to you, but we've spent months and months working on it!)
• when Erin asked if he wanted a duck (as he was holding and looking at the PIC), he said "no" clearly accompanied by shaking his head to emphasize his reply was true - he's been saying "yes" (sounds like "lesh") to most things, so we're glad that he CAN differentiate the two concepts
• he indicated he had to go pee verbally! Of course it was assisted by the dancing and clutching of the penis
• when Eric asked showed him a book with many different pictures and asked him "show me what you drink out of", Little R pointed (well, he touched) the picture of a glass. When she asked "show me what you ride on", he touched the tricycle... he just didn't know "show me what you cook with" - he was supposed to touch frying pan but didn't know it yet
• he understood the present continuous participle, in other words "ing" endings like "show me sleeping, playing, drinking, eating" - he got them all correct!
• he was able to pronounce "apple" clearly! Unfortunately now he's been saying "apple" for the word "open", so what we have to do is not open until he says "open".
• he left said "bye bye" to Erin and waved when we were leaving
• he was able to turn take with Erin and do play how she was trying to play with him (turn taking is another thing we take for granted but is VERY important in social situations)

Wow. I'm really happy to see this progress.

Did I mention that we were doing his SCD/GAPS diet wrong? We were supposed to feed him a lot beef, but he was mostly eating chicken all the time. I remember last year DH said to a CDA friend of mine, "If I have to feed him a cow, I'll feed him a cow." It's really strange from going from no meat to meat EVERY DAY. We are forever grateful to these animals.

Oh, and another thing. Little R has been calling DH by his first name and not "Daddy" - which I find might be more functional. I mean, in a sea of dads if someone asks him "who's Daddy?" Little R can respond perfectly well.

So, what do you think? Is it the diet that's helping? Is it the Verbal ABA? Is it his sister who is learning and demonstrating SO much language right now?

Have a great day, Everyone!

Still recovering, but better

Little S and Little R have been bringing home lots of germs, viruses, bacteria and all that "good" stuff since they've been going to school. They've been sick more often and demand more attention and clean-up (if you know what I mean), but I think the what's worse is when the parents become ill too!

Anyway, I'm still coughing yucky stuff, suffering from headaches and aches, but I'm getting better :) I've complained enough so it's time for a little update on the Little RS couple.

Little S is speaking a LOT more these days stringing together sentences with pronouns, verbs even in the correct syntax (geez, did I just sound like a language techie?). Not only is she a parrot, she's also a broken record. In fact, she's a broken record that gets louder and louder if the request is not tended to. Case of bad parenting, you're thinking? I hope not!

Today I look the Little R and S for a little walk after I picked them up from school since it was nice and sunny. For the first time ever they were both holding hands and walking. It was as if Little R was leading his little sister. I think, in reality, Little S was really holding onto his fingers as Little R dragged her along as they walked. Hm, that should show Little R; he makes me drag him all the time when I hold his hand.

Little S made a cut-out doll of herself this past Saturday with her daddy at art class. She came home talking about "dawder". I don't think I've ever called her "daughter" before, so I'm not sure where she got the word from, but this paper doll was called "Dawder". She really likes it, taking it to potty, toilet, sleep, combing the few hairs that are tapped to the head... The Dawder is just missing a nose and a pair of legs.

Little R has made progress in his eye contact, humour, communication and eating. Unfortunately, we've still been plagued with pinkeye so he hasn't had his worker with him for two days again. Little R is saying "hi" and "bye" as well as flapping his hand to wave. It's really quite cute.

Hope you're all doing well. To your health! Enjoy your day.

Little S, the Little Parrot

As mentioned in a previous post, our family is now on a new diet called the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD). So far so good with the progress Little R is making. He's been crying a bit every day for not wanting to eat certain things we put in front of him, but we've noticed (and others have mentioned) an overall improvement in his listening, awareness of others and even in speech and language.

Having said that Little R is initiating a lot more communication. The last two days when he's had to go do #2, he's been closing the bathroom door to keep others out. In his privacy, he does his business. When I walked in and sat in front of him while he was on the toilet, he grabbed my fingers and tugged them as if telling me to leave. "Do you want me to leave?" He pulled my fingers and tugged them toward the door, "lea," he said. Wow! He told me to leave.

As well, last week during his pink eye days, I was drawing a picture of a house with clouds and then some flat "m"s in the air. "Boods," he said. "Yes! That's right, they are birds," I replied. He's been making quick progress lately, and I believe nutrition and environment have much to do with it. Of course we also need to give credit to his hard work!

Little S has been repeating things like crazy... in which ever language. As we were waiting to use the toilet at a gas station on the way from from Cornwall this weekend, a woman complained, "come on, guy." Now, I let this woman go ahead of us, and after she went into the washroom, Little S said "come on, guy." It was pretty funny. She's a little parrot that walks around and talks... except these last two days as she's been feeling quite poorly.

Some new independent sentences I've heard from her in the last week have been:
"I got the hiccups."
"No, you eat it!"
And a whole bunch of sentences in mixed languages like "cha face" "cha me". In this instance "cha" means to apply cream, oil, etc. to wherever.

Some phrases she's been saying for a while now:

"Dadda cookie."
"Mm, I like it!"
"Watch TV?"
"GaoGao shower."
"Moi moi turn."
"Ma Yi go seep."
"Come back!"

One thing is for certain, we really don't want to say anything that we don't want repeat!

A blessing in pink... eye

Last week Little R contracted a case of pink eye. It wasn't bad, but it made him contagious, so he was not allowed to go to school and be around his worker.

The weather was wonderful, and we took some long bike rides. He sat on his new bike with training wheels and pedalled as I pushed him. It was so much nicer than sitting in front of a computer screen inside an office building in a room with no windows. What a blessing it was.

As he rode, he would sometimes look at me and hold my hand. Such a cute little guy. His pedalling has improved a lot since he first started riding the bicycle over two weeks ago now. He especially goes really fast when there is a downward slope. Then that when I have to run after him to make sure he's safe.

Poor Little S is now sick. She was fine going to Cornwall on the weekend (both kids were amazingly good), but Monday (before Tuesday morning) night she was very irritable. She vomited, then went back to sleep for a couple of hours. When she got up in the morning she vomit ted again. By breakfast time she barfed out her supper followed by unpleasant watery smelly diarrhea. Poor kids. She's all hot, red, dry and weak right now. But again, seems like a blessing for me to be able to take care of her... and not be working in the windowless office room.

It's times like these that I can slow down to the basics, not focus on making money (although, we all know how important that is in our society) and just concentrate on comforting the little ones.

The weather is beautiful, and I'm glad that I'm in my naturally sunlit kitchen typing to you about the enjoyment of life! The kids will be sick here and there, but they'll grow up to be stronger. So, I take the time now to hold, nourish and make them feel better while I can.

SCD - let another diet

Many changes again are underway chez SHAKER family. One of them is Little R's new diet. In fact, it's a new diet for all of us.

A year ago, Little R was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) which led us to try many interventions to "recover" our little guy. First, we were vegan (pre-diagnosis), then we changed only Little R's diet to gluten-free and casein-free. Well, that didn't seem to be enough so the doctor suggested a low phenol diet. After seeing no difference with this diet, we just continued with the gfcf (gluten-free casein-free) diet. We gave Little R an igG test that revealed MANY food sensitivities. So, we were then on a rotation diet. Luckily for us, we used BIE (bio intolerance elimination) to "clear" his sensitivities/allergies, so we abandoned the rotation diet.

So here we are today on the diet that the doctor didn't want to put him on a year ago for reasons that no longer matter. Little R's language and speech has seen little improvement yet his bodily health is superb. The doctor asked himself "what can we do to unlock the speech?" He was concerned that Little R was still just making a few sounds that were intelligible. He turned to us and said "SCD."

SCD stands for specific carbohydrates diet. The GAPS diet is closely related. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OHJt0_wrFs

http://gapsdiet.com/

http://www.pecanbread.com/

So, what are we eating? Traditionally raised animals (like Mennonite meats), steamed vegetables, nuts and fruit. There are NO MORE GRAINS and potatoes in our diet. Of course we don't have to eat like him when we're out without him, but to support Little R in getting better, we are eating the same things at home. Once Little R can stray away from the SCD then we can start getting the meat out of our diet again. We are very grateful to those animals that are sacrificed for our nourishment.

Some children have seen remarkable improvements from this diet. The people at his school also mentioned that there was improvement in the last week. I commend DH on his new role of steamer and breakfast fruit salad maker. He's doing a great job!

Because of the limited foods Little R can have, visiting people and just not eating at home will be the most challenging it's been. Even eating at home can get a little boring with the same types of foods over and over again. We're trying to invest in a very heavy duty blender so that we can make raw cookies, raw nut butters, raw juices, etc. for Little R:

http://www.upayanaturals.com/Vita_Mix_5200_New_Model_p/vit-5200.htm

This year for Little R's birthday, would you consider making a contribution to his blender? Please understand that I am by no means asking for a contribution! It's just that in past years Little R has received many thoughtful gifts from many of you (birthday and Christmas), and many times we would be asked "what do you does Little R need." Your kind thoughts alone are enough, but if you really wanted to give him more, I just put the idea out there. Little R is also always in need of pants and new puzzles.

Again, no birthday gifts are necessary. Just thank you for remembering! :)

Transition March Break

Isn't life full of changes and surprises. We all grow up; it's part of life.

But, boy does things changes quickly take places in our household! So, here it is in a nutshell: Starting Monday, March 22, Little S will be going to a school full time. Little R will continue with his worker in the morning, she will take him to school but will stay at school for extended care. I will be dropping Little S off at her new school, then I will go to my new place of work. After work (that will be a different post on the Greening Days blog), I will pick up both the kids, take them home, eat supper, spend some time together, do the sauna and take showers, put the kids to sleep, make break, lunch and suppers for the next day... go to sleep, start all over again Tuesday.

I need to catch my breath now.

Friday morning, DH and I dropped Little S off at her new school for an hour. She was fine up until the point we started making our way to the exit and the teacher was bringing her to another direction. The poor thing was sitting at the snack table away from the rest of the children when we got back. She was so overjoyed to see her Daddy when we got back to pick her up.

I think that Little S will enjoy her new place of growth. There are many things she will stimulate her learning with there. A couple of the teachers will speak to her in Spanish, and I have begun to speak more to her in Spanish too - actually, what I'm working toward is just using my language, French, Spanish, Cantonese and some Mandarin with her. I should not use English - or use it as little as possible with her since she'll be getting that from everywhere else. In any case, the teacher there said that they will also learn some of my language to use with her sometimes.

My top concern with the school is there diet. We do not want Little S eating certain things that the Canada Food Guide promotes such as cow's pasteurised milk and milk products. This will be a toughie. But, if the catering company cannot accommodate, I will request that I not pay for food so that I can provide them for her. Now, the only thing is, I don't want her to feel that she is not part of the group because she can't have their ice cream cake or their milk - I'll just have to make things that look similar to the other children's treats. I know that the catering company's slogan is "a healthy choice," but I've come to realize my definition or standard of "healthy" is always different.

My second concern with the school is what they used for cleaning. Apparently, it's bleach. Chlorine. Yuck. Unfortunately for the teacher, I did not hold back my disgust. She explained that Health Canada had certain regulations (and I sarcastically commented "to poison") to keep things clean and sanitary. Anyway, the teacher also mentioned that they sometimes just clean with vinegar and water on the children's snack tables... I hope that this is the case.

Before the Friday, we had guests Wednesday and Thursday. Little R pushed some of the kids and screamed a lot, but everyone still seemed to have a good time. We walked to and from the park with the kids - looked like I had a daycare :) They children loved going up the apparatus and sliding down, swinging and just enjoying the outdoors.

Now, it's time for more change. E cat scratched Little R in the face (I'm not quite sure what Little R was doing to him - but often, he's quite rough with the cats), so DH put up an add to look for a good home for the cats. I really would prefer not to hand over my cats to someone I don't know. I want them to live a good life, be fed well, see light, be pet and be happy. Here is the ad if you know of someone who really loves cats: http://oshawa.kijiji.ca/c-pets-to-give-or-donate-2-Male-Cats-brothers-Need-a-Loving-Home-W0QQAdIdZ192151499. If at all possible, maybe we can teach the children to be gentle and just keep our furry friends.

Alas, many changes, many changes... but that's part of growing up.

Friday at Poo Corner

Yesterday was the Friday of the this March Break, the last day that I got to be "full time mother" with my children. I wanted this special time to be memorable.

I took the kids to Friend D's house. Little R went to the toilet several times while we were there, and unfortunately, he also went (but no toilets were around) during our walk home.

So, when we finally reached home, I took all his clothes off of him. Then I had to put my daughter to bed since she fell asleep on the way home. Then I wiped the little guy of his urine then proceeded to get some clothes for him. While I was still getting some pants from his dresser, I heard "plop plop." "Oh, no!" I thought, he's throwing rocks or something heavy into the toilet!

Oh, but as I emerged from his bedroom and spied into the hallway, I saw a couple droppings of doo. Then into the bathroom I peered: he was standing innocently with poo smeared on his hand in front of the toilet as if peeing.

Amazingly, I did not yell, I did not fret - I just made sure there was no poo to step in where my feet met the floor. Oh, there was a huge amount of poo in the toilet, but cleaning the boy was my first concern. Into the shower I plopped him. Scrubbed him I did... twice! And then a third time.

Yuck, my hand was yucked by the poo between his buttocks - but what could you do? He had to be cleaned!
He thought it was a funny as he took his toy boats to play. I really hope it wasn't what he wanted - imagine pooing so you could get showered.

So I managed to scrub him. I then dried him off with a towel, and lay him in his bed. My next concern was the poo on the floor. Of course while I was inside the bathroom ripping some toilet paper, I heard the guy running out his door directly in front of the droppings... luckily, I got to him first! I picked up the poo (with toilet paper), I did... next, I had to inspect the other parts of the house. Well, in my DH's apartment, I found (smelled) the poo residue he had some smeared on the comforter on top of the futon. So that I had to wash next... when was husband going to walk through the door?

And I think the little guy was still naked throughout all of this cleaning done by me. So, what did you think of this story? Should I write him a bed time book to remind him of our last day together during March Break?