October is almost over!

This month is finally over! It has been a long one. Michael has been sick a lot and also started ABA therapy (25 hours a week), Ken has been working 2 jobs (almost 70 hours a week), I am have been dealing with my own health issues as well and we also had to some unexpected car issues (470 $ worth). I have also been reminded of how lucky I am to have so many people that love and care for my kids. With all that has gone on this month I have had to have lots of help for loads of people many of them are not related to me by blood but I consider to be part of my family. It fills my heart with such joy when I see my kids with all those amazing people that have welcomed them into their hearts. We also took some family photos with Grandma that turned out great and I am so happy to have them.

But there were many many good things as well MOST importantly Michael turned 2 years old!

It feels like he has been here a lot longer than 2 years! So much has happened in that amount of time. I am I truly luck to be his mommy. His birthday was perfect and there were so many people around him that love him so much. He is changing so fast and improving so much with his speech. He makes animal sounds now and loves singing. His favorite song is The wheels on the bus. His Favorite book is The truck book. This favorite toy is either a car or a ball and his favorite word is MOMMY!

Kaylee has had a great month at school. She is learning so much and is growing up so fast. Just listening to her talk takes my breath away. It is so hard for me to believe that she is only 4 years old. The one thing that I am so jealous of is how she prays and just talks to God! She says God is inside me and with me forever! She reminds me of it too when I am sad she tells me to talk to God about it!
The best part is that she is asking how to spell everything that she can think of and she is starting to spell things back.

This month/year has been the hardest on Ken and I as well. Ken and I are BEST FRIENDS and this year has gotten in the way. I think that for me the hardest part is that we don't get a chance to hang out and have fun and be ourselves. I think that this month we only got the 2 days in Disneyland to be our old-selves with the kids and I loved every minute of it. this month it has been 17 years since our first day (that is almost a half of a lifetime together). I know that it is just this hard time for what will really turn out to be a short time out of our lifetime together but it is still super hard. I know that we can work through it.

June 2005

2004

December 2000

Michael update

Being a mom is the best thing ever! It is also the hardest thing I have ever done and now with Michael way out of my comfort zone and understanding. Before I had kids I always thought I knew what it would be like and thought I prepared myself for what was to come. I was so not ready for everything that Michael has thrown at us. I still feel very blessed every day to be at home with both of my kids and be the primary person raising them. We have had to make a lot of sacrifices to make that happen but both Ken and I think that it is important for our kids and even more important now that Michael will need a lot more help in his early years than most kids. So all in all it is worth it to be with the kids all the time. 

With all this stuff happening with Michael over the past 2 years I have felt very alone during most of it because almost everyone thought I was pushing to hard to get him help. Then with all his health problems it is overwhelming to me to even think about. I have had to make some very hard decisions for the past 2 years and there are many more to come. 
1. His pediatrician wants to do biopsies of his tummy and intestines to check on a few things but his new GI doctor is blaming all his GI issues on his A.S.D diagnosis (which I have never heard of until he told me)! So I started doing research and now I am not sure who to listen too! I really don't like his GI doctor and really trust his pediatrician but she has not worked with a lot of A.S.D kids. So that is one thing I have to decide on. 
2. His new GI doctor wants me to put him back on all dairy products because he thinks Michael has out grown his protein intolerance. So we tried it Friday and Saturday and the poor kid has had a tummy ache and gas and diarrhea like crazy. Today was the first day he has had no runny poop. So now he wants us to try lactate milk products! 
3. Then a week from Friday he has his O.T. evaluation from Kaiser. It takes about 2 hours and I know that they will denial him which is fine but the San Andreas Regional Center wont provide O.T. for him until they get the denial letter from Kaiser and then after that they will do their own evaluation as well. I hate having him to though all this it wheres him out so fast. 
4. Michael has a very limited diet and I have many people telling me what to do because at 2 years old there is a very good chance they will not continue to cover his formula. I should mention that one can cost 42.00 and he goes through a can every 3 or 4 days! so that is 2 cans a week and 8 cans a month which is more than we can afford. So I am freaking out about that and trying to find stuff he will eat that will make up for the calories and nutrition in his formula. I am taking a class at Parents Helping Parents (a nonprofit for families that help kids with special needs) for S.P.D and eating issues next week on Thursday and I am hoping I will learn a few things. 
5. ABA therapy has started and it is going to take him and the family a long time to adjust to this. Right now we are starting at 15 hours a week but they want to increase it to 25 hours a week in about 2 weeks. I don't think that he will be able to handle that much so I have a meeting scheduled in  Monday the 24th so we will see.

But there have been a few good things in the past few weeks he has been calling me mommy and it is the best thing ever. He knows who I am and that I have a name! It is so good to see him make the connection finally. He now knows 6 body parts: eyes, ears, noise, tummy, feet, and fingers. He can't say them but he knows where they are! We are working on animals now and he seems to really like the noises they make. He is fixated on horses though so I may have to get a few plastic/rubber ones for him to play with. He can moo, baa, neigh, bow wow, and  kinda quack. again I never thought this was going to happen but he is finally getting it.We are slowly starting to use P.E.C. (picture exchange communication) he still does not understand it but I am hoping it will come to him soon. 

Disneyland

So we did it! We took both kids to Disneyland and best of all Kaylee had the time of her life! The drive up took a lot longer than we had planned. Poor little Kaylee got super car sick. It started about 2 hours into our drive and just continued from there. She is now a pro at throwing up in a zip-lock bag though. We stopped to get Dramamine or Benadryl but as most of you know Kaylee is not the normal weight/size of a 4 year old so the pharmacist I talked to suggested that we talk with her pediatrician before giving her anything. Which was a good thing because it turned out she is only suppose to take a 1/3 of a dose. But after it kicked in she was finally stopped throwing up!We made several stops along the way just to give her breaks. One place we stopped was Kettlmen City and they have the best park for the kids to play in.

We ended up checking into our hotel around 6:30pm (3 hours later than we had planned for). Kaylee wanted Jack in the Box for Dinner which was right across the street and then both kids were in bed by 8:30pm! The next morning was so exciting Just to see how happy Kaylee was.

 We got to Disneyland just after they opened and it was not crowed yet. Kaylee was over the moon!! She thinks everything is magical! It was so amazing to watch her run around like crazy and plan our day there!

 Michael on the other hand was not happy about any of it. I am not sure what was getting to him but he was not happy at all 30 seconds after we walk into the park and he never stopped until after we were back home. For me personally that was disappointing because I then had to handle him for most of the trip which meant that I missed out on a lot of stuff that Kaylee did. He did do a lot better if i had him in the carrier but the kid is close to 30lbs. and with all the walking we did he got heavy fast! But we were there for her and all that mattered was she had fun.

Mickey mouse! She asked him if she could tickle his ears!! Michael was so so scared he was shaking.

Princess Kaylee

We finally got the kids these bubble wands and that was the best thing ever for Michael and really helped him calm down. The only down side is they also play music from The Little Mermaid!

Even with Michael having a hard time is was the best trip ever because of Kaylee. The 1st day we were there she said Thank you mommy and daddy over 50 times and she never complained once about a thing even Michael being a pill. I hope she remembers this for a long time. She had already started saving her money for our next trip back. My special silly girl. I hope that she never changes and that she always sees the best/magical in everything and everyone always. I have so much to learn from her.