Different But Not Less

Different but not less. That is a quote my grandma taught me about autism and it is exactly right. They are different but by no means are the less of anything. In fact to me, they are so much more.
We finally got his official diagnosis of ASD (autism spectrum disorder) It has taken us 2 years to get this far. But worth it for the amazing funding Blake receives. The first thing I am going to enroll him in is therapeutic horse back riding. I have heard amazing things about horses and their connection to kids with disabilities. I know Blake will really love it and can't wait to see the joy in his eyes when he gets to see a horse up close. Most people assume that I would be sad hearing the psychologist confirm his ASD but I'm not. He's still the same Blake he has always been. Smart, funny, gentle, silly, happy, bright...
I haven't blogged in awhile. I plan to keep up with it more in 2011. And I have decided not to just write about Blake but all of our adventures as a family this year. Kind of like a journal I guess. I also want to comment on our incredible experience at the CDC in Nanaimo. They were amazing for Blake's assessment on January 5th which consisted of a 30 min observation with Blake and a 2 hour interview with just my husband and I. Followed by a meeting with everyone involved in diagnosing Blake. Which consisted of 7 people! They made our time there comfortable and warm. What a great place! It runs mostly off donations. Our government needs to fund more things like this. They are important for our community.
Anyway going to take the kids for a walk before we get more snow. I will blog again soon. :)

Birthday fun!

It's been awhile since I last wrote. I have been soooooo busy! Blake has around 3 appointments a week right now. One with his speech therapist, one with a wonderful woman named Lana, she is an infant development specialist, and a group day with other kids. Both Blake and Garrett really love group day. Blake comes home singing the songs, it's so cute! Ha ha i'm the only parent there that has two kids.

Blake and I had our birthdays this weekend. He turned 3. On Saturday we took him out to Mcnabs farm for a hayride to the pumpkin patch. He didnèt enjoy the hayride at all. Infact he tried to jump off the ride when it was moving so we had to hold him down. As usual we got all the stares from other parents. That is hard to get used to. The ride stops at the pumpkin patch and you get off and pick out your pumpkin and then you have to get back on. We had to chase him down to get him back on but once we got going again he settled down a bit. Garrett loved it! But he is so easy going, he loves anything. It makes me kind of sad that Blake has such a hard time with new things. I want him to enjoy life. It is also sad for me to see other kids and their amazing birthday aprties with lots of kids and presents. I cannot even wrap his presents because he gets doesn't like the wrapping paper. I just want Blake to experience all the wonderful things about life without being afraid or over stimulated.
One thing he did love though was the pigs! I think we could have stood there all day watching them dig in the dirt. He kept saying, "Pigs! Hi pigs!" It was so cute! As long as there are not too many people around and too much stuff going on, he seems to be okay.
Anyway to say I have my hands full right now would be an understatement! Life is very interesting with a 3 year old and an 11 month old. But I still enjoy every minute of it. I will try and write more often. I just don't get alot of time to sit down in front of the computer these days.

"Normal" Play

Well, it was a crazy busy weekend. We had two turkey dinners, one of which we celebrated some of Blake's birthday. He turns 3 on the 24th! Blake got some really cool toy trains and a wooden track. He's not too into the track. What he really wants to do is lay on the floor and push the trains back and forth in his line of vision. I am guessing this is a self soothing tactic for him. I am supposed to try and distract him from this behaviour but I have a hard time doing that. He likes to do this and if it's comforting for him then why stop it? Some kids like to carry around blankets or teddy bears for comfort, Blake likes to lay down and roll his trains along. I know I have to encourage "normal" play, but I also want him to be happy. He is also super obsessed with lines. Lines on the sidewalk, stop signs, the edge of a rug, fences... He likes to run by them try to look out the side of his eyes when passing. I think it's cute. Another thing I have noticed is the love he has for the credits that roll at the end of a show or movie. It has to do with sensory stimulation. Kind of like an itch you need to scratch. I haven't read up on autism too much on the internet. I don't want to overload my brain with tons of information. Also I really don't trust the interent where everybody and anybody can post whatever they want on there. I have been learning bits an pieces at a time. Plus, I just enjoy Blake for who is. I enjoy BOTH my kids. I have been thrilled at the way Blake and Garrett get along. They are starting to interact together and it is soooo cute. Blake will make faces and Garrett and he will start laughing or Blake will jump along side Garrett in his jolly jumper. This makes Garrett giggle and coo at Blake. If Garrett drops a toy, Blake will get it for him. I hope that they will be good friends one day if they aren't already.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I am going to make this short since I only had about 2 hours sleep last night. Blake went on the potty again. I am sooooo happy! I got him a potty seat, a Cars, potty seat. It seems to work alot better for us than the little winnie the pooh potty we used to have. I just place him on it and wait with him. He gets a treat after. I got him some special Purdy's chocolates for his treat. He loves them! Blake is not a candy kid at all. He's not even too thrilled over ice cream. He just loves his chocolate. Hmmmmmm, must take after me ;) Oh but I do love my ice cream. I am happy to see lots of family this weekend. We have two dinners to go to. One at my dad's tomorrow and then my mom's on Sunday. So we get to pack up the kids twice. You never really realize how difficult it is and how much stuff you have to pack around until you have kids. This makes me so thankful for our minivan even though I miss my sporty little car. Bruce has Monday off. It will be nice having him home for three days. He works super long hours. He leaves at five in the morning and doesn't get home until around six, six-thirty. Well, I just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving! I am looking forward to it. My fav time of year! I hope everyone eats lots and stays safe. xx

Group Time!

I took Blake to group play date at the family resource centre that he also goes to for his speech therapy sessions and after a little hesitation he went in and seemed to be okay. I think it was the play doh they had made from cherry kool aid. I wanted to eat it, it smelled so good! I went early so we could walk into a quiet room. They had a ton of activites! A rice table, slide, play kitchen, puzzles... Blake met a little boy with down syndrome (why they call it down syndrome baffles me, they are anything but down!) his name was Brody. So cute! They were playing peek-a-boo together by the slide! It was neat to see him have fun. Garrett has just started sitting up on his own. I know he is late and I feel like it is my fault for not spending enough time with him. So I sat Garrett on a play mat with a bunch of toy cars which he enjoyed. They they did snack time where Blake drank out of a big boy cup and had some banana and apples. Then it was time for songs. What a fun time! There needs to be more activites like this for these special kids. I wish the government would stop cutting so many programs. The people at the FRA have been wonderful and without them I would have no help for Blake. But don't even get me started on the government.
What a blessing for me to take BOTH of my kids there! I wish you could all see how beautiful these children are! I think one of the reasons I never used to talk much about Blake's condition is because I didn't want anyone to feel sorry for me. I don't feel sorry. I feel incredibly blessed to have him in my life. He has opened up my eyes to a whole new world and I have met some amazing people through this journey. I would never change anything about him. I have had a hard time figuring out what kind or career path to choose. If I had endless amounts of time and money I would choose a Bachelor degree in science or arts. Hey, if money wasn't an issue i'd do both! But now I feel like I am on a path somewhere. Who knows, maybe through this blog I can reach out to lots of families and people who are open and willing to learn more.

My Smarty Pants

So today I feel like talking about how smart my little man is. He amazes me everyday. There are all kinds of types of autism. Some kids never say a word. Some can't stop talking.
I first felt that there was something different about Blake when he was just under a year. He would rock back and forth on the couch for hours. I had read something in a newspaper about autism and rocking so I took him into my family doctor to have him checked out and all they said was that he was fine and healthy. I wasn't convinced but I am a worry-wort so I just kept an eye on him.
About 6 months later he started saying a few words. Not many. His first word was "nice" because I was always telling him to "be nice" to our cat, Jack. He developed a few more words. Maybe around 8-10 or so. I knew he was a bit behind but everyone kept telling me boys talk later and kids develope at different rates. I know it happened in the summer. Blake was 18 months and he just stopped talking. Wouldn't say a word. He had his own little language. He would talk in the bathtub but not words you or I could understand.
I had taken him to Munchkinland for some play time and by talking to one of the facilitaters there she recommended I take him to see a speech pathologist at the FRA (family resource association) here in town. So I filled out the paperwork, handed it in and waited. They contacted me and did a interview on the phone and decided I should bring him in. I finally got into see them a week before my scheduled c-section with Garrett. There are ALOT of waiting periods when your child needs evaluation. Tim, his speech pathologist, said it was good that I had brought him in so early.
ANYWAY, the kind of autism he has would be considered high-functioning. This means he talks (ALOT) and at times can seem totally normal. Infact he knew his whole alphabet by age two, he can count to ten, list all the shapes and colours. He loves to learn. Now he has begun to put letters together and makes words. Well, he puts random letters together and tells me he spelled cat or dog. Recently he just started calling me mommy. So cute! I have been waiting a long time to hear that. Anyway, that`s all I have time for today. I am hoping when I take him into Superstore today, he won`t freak out. Thanks for listening :)

Well, I am feeling inspired thanks to the love of some good friends of mine to open up some more. It's kind of hard to do at first. I'm not used to sharing so much but it feel good to talk about some of it and get it out in the open.
Today I took the boys to our favorite place to walk. We only had walked for about 5 minutes when Blake stopped in the middle of the path and refused to go any further. He started crying so I tried just walking ahead a bit but he wouldn't budge. It is really hard to figure out what he wants. He doesn't tell us. I am pretty good at just knowing what he needs but that is probably because I know him so well. I still have moments everyday where he can't tell us what he wants or needs. I also get frustrated because I don't want Garrett to be left out. I really worry about him because he doesn't get as much attention as I would like him to. My husband and I took the boys to the pool in Nanaimo to swim a couple of weeks ago and Blake pretty much had a melt down. Garrett LOVED it. He is my water baby! I was lucky to have my dad and Carol watch Blake for me last friday so I could take my little Garr-bear to the pool for a swim, just me and him. It was soooooo nice to spend time with just Garrett for a change. Don't get me wrong I missed Blake terribly and it felt strange not to have him with us but I noticed things about Garrett that I hadn't noticed before. This is one of my biggest fears. That Garrett will end up growing up feeling left out because of all the attention Blake gets. So once a week Garrett and mommy have alone time together. Right now we are enjoying our time at the pool but as he gets older i'll add some new activites to our special day.
I had this big plan in my head to have Blake's 3rd birthday party at Jumping Jimineys in Nanaimo but before I forked out all the money, I thought we better do a test drive. So we went this last Saturday. My husband, Blake, Garrett, and myself loaded up the red hot minivan and made the trip down to Nanaimo. Well sure enough Blake panicked as soon as they put the wristband on him so I had to wear it. I'm not sure if that set him off but once we got in he started shaking and crying. We took him over to the toddler area we're we put Garrett to play and Blake clamed down but wouldn't go play on the big slides and climbing equipment. It makes me really sad because I don't want Blake to miss out on things in life. I want him to enjoy everything and be care-free as kids are supposed to be.
So I have decided not to have a big party for him. Instead we are going to take the boys out to Yellowpoint to a farm called Yawning Acres where we will take a hayride as a family and pick some pumpkins. I really hope he doesn't get scared.
Those are my thoughts for today. Thank for listening. xx