Sensory Integration

We've been blessed with fantastic resources and ideas to help Buddy Boy with his Sensory Integration Therapy. For those who don't know what that is all about...Buddy Boy basically has a lot of sensory issues. His vestibular and proprioceptive senses (balance and sense of where his body is in relation to the world around him) are out of whack, and his oral, visual and tactile (touch) senses are understimulated, meaning that he needs more stimulation provided. His hearing sense is overstimulated, meaning that he is extremely sensitive to sound.

Anyway, below are two videos of us doing some sensory integration therapy. What fun, huh! As you can see, Munchkin is enjoying this as much as Buddy Boy.

No Resolutions

I have thought and thought about New Year's resolutions, and I just am not feeling it.

I'm not sure, but I think the technical definition of a resolution is changing, or fixing something that you're doing wrong...maybe I'm totally wrong, but that's always how I imagined them. I think I'm doing some good things with my life though, and I'd like to add to them, but not necessarily change them. Does that make any sense?

Anywho, I've talked with the kids and hubby about setting goals, and we've set a bunch for the family for the year. My daughter cracks me up with her ideas, but I put them all down anyway, and we'll see what we can do....

Mom's goals:
- Plan and grow a much bigger garden for canning - oh yeah!
- Build shelves in the playroom (Dad was so nice, he did this before 2008 even ended!)
- Buy more rechargeable batteries. Lame? Nope, it will save us so much battery money. - Still haven't done this either
- Improve guitar playing - like, learn 4 new chords or something - nada, I think I forgot the 3 I already knew.
- Make DVD out of kids' baby videos - man, I suck!

Dad's goals:
- Build new shelves in playroom (as mentioned above, it's done, yippee!)
- Learn more about Autism - yeah

Munchkin's goals (from her own mouth):
- Fix the swing set - done!
- Take a vacation, maybe to Italy - does Paris, ID count? YES
- Learn how to sew - a little, still working on it (see, Mom isn't all that great of a teacher)
- Get green tickets every day at school until she's 16 - well, she did until the school stopped offering green tickets!

Buddy Boy's goals (with help from mom and sis):
- Learn to say or sign more words for more effective communication - yes!!!
- Learn to do ring around the rosy - nope, not interested

Family Goals:
- Paint most of the interior of the house
- Get Munchkin signed up for at least one extracurricular activity - (done after school programs, soccer)
- Get Buddy Boy signed up for the one-on-one early intervention play class - done!
- Teach Munchkin more life skills (give her her own garden box, take her to the bank to deposit her allowance, etc) - did a garden box, deposits $$ every 3 months
- Teach Buddy Boy more life skills (helping Mom clean, showing him to pull weeds and not flowers, etc)- hmm...working on it still

The geek that I am, I've got it all printed up, along with baby steps to get there.

Munchkin update

Munchkin just went back to school after her Christmas break. She wasn't as excited to go back as I thought she would be. I guess after having such an exciting Birthday, and Christmas, It would be difficult to beat the fun of it all. She has been playing with all her new toys, putting on her new dress, and watching new movies. We have been going to Granny's and Grandma's and playing with cousins, and I think she didn't want it all to end. She now totally loves High School Musical. She was able to watch all three of them. The third Mom took her to the theater, and she LOVED it. Munchkin loves it so much she wanted all of her stuffed animals to watch it too, so they can enjoy it. She has been dancing to it and singing to it. To make things better it has been snowing a lot and she loves making a snowman, and sledding. Too bad thing have to change. ~Dad

Buddy Boy Update

Buddy Boy had a difficult December. He was sick for the second half of November and the first three weeks of December. To make it worse his teeth were bothering him. He has been grinding his teeth a lot. He also started biting his lip, during December. I imagine it was to distract him from his pain of his teeth. He also was getting severe stomach aches. It has been hard to see him not being his happy self. He really is a happy boy though. I will have to get a video of him playing. Because of the difficult circumstances Buddy Boy didn't really enjoy his birthday. We took him to see a doctor, which came back negative. We also stopped giving him milk to help with his stomach aches. There is a theory with Autistic people that many of them have difficulties with dairy and wheat. Buddy Boy was drinking (when not sick) a gallon of milk a day. He would constantly ask for it, and he would wake up in the middle of the night asking for it. Then he would have a stomach ache until we gave him more milk. So we switched to soy milk. It seems to have made a difference. Some people totally get rid of all dairy, and wheat. We haven't got to that stage, but cutting out his milk cuts out 95% of his dairy, and he has not seemed to have the addiction to wheat. Mom has read a lot of books, written by doctors and others about Autism, and one compared milk to crack, and how it seems to have the same effect with some Autistic children. After observing Buddy Boy's behavior, it seemed to me like crack would be a good way to describe it. But don't worry. The rest of the family still gets milk. We tried making it a fun birthday without all the hoopla. We also went to temple square, which it was too cold for the kids to enjoy.
On a good news note, Buddy Boy has been handing me and Mom things (book, juice cup) and then asking for more by signing more, instead of just signing more and making us guess what he wants "more" of. We have been so excited about the increased communication skill. It has been wonderful to see him playing and happy again. ~Dad

Merry Christmas

Here's the letter we sent out to people...most people on our blog list probably didn't get one, so here ya go!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Greetings!! We hope this letter finds you doing well, and enjoying a wonderful Christmas season. Here’s an overview of what’s going on with us:

In September Munchkin started Kindergarten! She has really taken to school and loves to learn. She’s doing well learning to read and has made about a bazillion friends. When we attended parent-teacher conference, we received her first report card. She had all perfect scores!!!

In July Buddy Boy was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. It has presented us with a lot of challenges, emotional, financial, and other, but we feel SO grateful that he received a diagnosis at a young age. He’s an absolute delight in the family, and we’re now armed with more information to help him continue learning and growing.

In the summer Mom learned how to can, and began canning everything she could get her hands on. It was a lot of fun learning a new way to be more self reliant and to build up the food storage. We have much bigger plans for the garden next year!

All throughout the year Dad has been building things using scrap wood we have around the house. Among his creations are 3 fabulous food storage shelves, a new garden box, and a bench for the playroom. We’re loving that we can make such great use of scraps and not spend money.

In May we went to San Diego for vacation. We played at Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and the Wild Animal Park. We also visited with family. We slept over at Mae and Nate’s place, and had the blessed opportunity to see Big Mama and family again. We also enjoyed dinner with Reggie and Michelle. What a blast!

As we look back at our year and make plans for the next one, we realize that we wouldn’t be where we are without our friends and family. And so we send our love to you this beautiful Christmas season.

Love,
The family!

Insulation

Jacob gave us a tip how to get a good deal on insulation. Qustar gas is giving some rebates for attic insulation. We thought it was too good to be true. When we bought this house there was about two inches of insulation in the attic, so about 4 years ago I put about 7 more inches up there. It was a pain in the butt!! It took a couple days of work. I wanted more than the 7 inches, but it cost us about $600.00 to put that in ourselves, and it made a mess of the house. It was a lot of work, but it had to be done, and I thought maybe in the future I would put more up there. Now Questar gas is giving rebates if you don't have very much insulation. Jacob found a company that does it for pretty cheep, and they will even fill out the paper work on the rebate, and have the rebate sent directly to the company so we only paid $33.00 for 10 more inches of insulation. Normally it would have been $600.00. Last week they came in and put it in. It only took them 30 minutes. I love insulation!!!
Dad