An update and a little more...

I was hoping that taking that leave of absence from work left me more time to blog. Ha! right! that seems to have worked out considering my last post was in August. I was way too optimistic and unrealistic. From now on I will cut myself some slack and blog when I can. Period. I had also hoped to separate both kids blogs but that does not seem like it's going to work either. It will be one blog and one blog only. I will also blog about my life or my attempt at one and not just autism. It's a brand new ME!

Quinn (1) is making steady improvements in the motor skills area. With the help of pt, ot and st he keeps improving on a daily basis. Not crawling or walking yet but he is taking steps with support and also goes into knees and hands with little support. Fine motor skills are also emerging left and right. For example, he now holds his sippy cup proudly. He also signs "All done" and for "more". He is a super happy baby; everything is funny, everything makes him laugh. What a joy!

Kai (8) is also improving by leaps and bounds though hard to remember that some days when he is scripting the entire Pillow Pets commercial or Elmo Holiday dvd. Urgh!!! He is reading at 2nd grade level (he is in 3rd grade) and doing double digit addition- even carrying over 1! He loves school and has started to use better structured sentences unprompted! imagine that! We are still using the Tampa DAN Dr. Ruling things out and going back to the beginning carefully testing and acting on blood/urine/stool results. He is still on a gf/cf/sf/pf mostly organic diet. Up next we will be going back to the "toxic metals" chapter. We had dropped that to focus on gut issues. Now that his yeast is under control and testing is back to normal we are ready for this stage once again. We will probably be doing a challenge very soon. We are also considering stem cells in Panama once again.

He continues to attend hippotherapy as well as a social group both once a week. He has attended Sea World, local fair, the movies, bowling and even sleepovers with his social group. He LOVES it!

Both kids had an amazing Christmas. Quinn seemed interested in the gifts and Kai wanted to open all the gifts- even if they were not even his!


As a side note, I am beyond pissed off at the renewed attack on Dr. Wakefield. Really? Why doesn't the media put that much effort into actually investigating what they are reporting and not putting out such biased interviews and reports. Case in point: Anderson Cooper. I have always been a fan but now he is going into the "I was cool but now I am a moron" category. Right down there with Amanda Peet. And Snyderman. And Offit. Nah, who am I kidding. Snyderman and Offit never even toed the "cool" category. Ha! I love how they reported all the deaths from all these "preventable" diseases, except they forgot to note that it was mostly on kids who were immunized for it already. Pretty effective vaccines huh? I also love  how Cooper talked all over Wakefield but was a gracious and composed host to his other guests. Biased much?

Why don't they study the Amish?
Why don't they study children's whose autism symptoms have diminished with diet intervention? or a DAN protocol at that?
Why don't they study REAL vaccinated/unvaccinated children NOT paid for by dirty pharma $?
What do they have to lose?

It's so simple to put all of this to rest. But nooooo, instead let's spend hard raised money to prove that "mother's of children with autism have more stress than those whose kids are typical". Newsflash: NO SHIT!


Ok, off my soapbox for today.

Here is hoping everyone has a fantastic 2011!
May the force be with us all.