AngelicMadness.com

So Christmas was fun for everyone this year. I had a hard time finding something for Eric, I thought about getting him a MP3 player, but our phones already have MP3 players built into them. I finally decided on a “gaming” back-lit keyboard, and a new blue-tooth headset. He seemed happy with his gifts. We purchased a Robosapien, Kid Tough Fisher Price Digital Camera, Crayola Glow Station, and a bunch of other things for Gavin. For Laura we bought her the Rose Petal Cottage (which she loves the most), a Baby Chou Chou, a stroller for her baby, and a ton of other small toys. She loves that stinking cottage, it is so funny to watch her go in and out. If you go up to it and knock on the door it has, she giggles and opens the door to let you in, and when it is time for you to leave she pushes you out! Ha!

So today was long, and for the most part fun. Gavin was *SO WILD* today that I made a deal with him. I told him that if he took a nap that when he woke we would put up the Christmas tree (YES, I know it is a bit early….who cares) Laura has been running a fever and has felt pretty bad, so she laid on the couch while we put the tree together, as we listened to Christmas music, which Gavin loved. It is not the best looking tree in the world, but we like it.

Starting Monday, October 13th, I will start parent classes at Vanderbilt. I believe I will be in a class with other parents with children that are between 15 - 25 months old that are at high risk for Autism. As of right now I believe there are going to be around 8 other sets of mothers or fathers that will be in the class as well. The teacher of the class came out to the house Friday and took some video of Laura’s every day activities, such as snack time and play time. She also brought my “text book”, which is HUGE. This book weighs a ton. It almost overwhelms me a bit. The crazy thing about this whole deal is that Laura seems to be getting better with her eye contact and she is trying to talk now, saying only a few words. I almost feel like Gavin is getting worse. I am so thankful that we decided to not get Laura’s MMR vaccine, as I seriously feel that she would be worse off had we done it. Gavin has gone back to having to have this tiny ball of fuzz to roll between his fingers and stim off of all of the time. BUT..it keeps him calm, and helps him get to sleep better, so in no way are we going to take it away from him. I have actually found myself running to the clothes dryer and getting some lint to roll into a small ball for him when he looses his fuzz ball. He once was ripping one of my quilts to get the cotton out of it to roll into a small ball. It drove me crazy! We are currently having a hard time getting him to eat when it comes time for dinner. We usually would sit around and pretty much tell him he could not get up until he ate it all, which would end in a crying fit, so we have decided to not force him to eat. It is better on everyone. It is so fustrating to get upset with him, when we can explain to him why we are, because he doesn’t understand, and he can’t explain to us why he doesn’t want to eat whatever it is in front of him. Sometimes we just feel LOST. I am just so THANKFUL that we found them both a new doctor. He is wonderful. Laura is getting a ton of early intervention, which is a blessing. I just wish at this point there were more options to help us with Gavin. He has prescribed medicine for ADHD, but I can’t bring myself to go get it filled and actually give it to him. Part of me would feel like I am “druging” him, and that is the last thing I want. He is having more crying fits, and seems to be stuck in his speech. Hopefully we can get him into some speech therapy, which he really needs.