Duplo letters

I love this! It makes me want to pick up some duplos from the thrift store and some labels and just go crazy. I think it would really help Sarah and Rachel with sentence structure.

One Whole Year

Wow. I can't believe I haven't updated this in a year.

Actually, I can. It's been a... very full year. We had a number of difficulties, but we're pulling through now. Very hopeful future.

Can't spend a lot of time writing at the moment. I will say we're very impressed with our current doctor. My plan is to take the girls in to see him either sometime before the end of May or in the first part of June for a general wellness check-up and see if we can't get some other therapy options open. Spirit Horse is one (couldn't even think of anything extra like that while we were going through what we were going through).

Oh, and I've been reading a really good book (in the year I disappeared) called 101 Games and Activities for Children with Autism, Asperger's and Sensory Processing Disorders by Tara Delaney, M.S., OTR. I wish, when we first started our program that we'd been given a book like this instead of muddling through on our own. We learned a lot, but if we'd had this, we would have saved a lot of time. Not only are the games fantastic, but the book is organized perfectly for parents who want to get moving on a specific activity or aim toward a specific goal. I really love it and so do my girls. :)

More later.

Focus Shift... Again

I'm truly amazed at how life works. Things are calming down with Stevie now. His treatment is going great. He's scooting around the house and trying out the sitting and spinning thingamajigger. I wouldn't be surprised if he's gained back the vast majority of progress lost by the time a year is up. I'm not going to expect it, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I'm not going to mention the diagnosis. I was. I almost did. But I just don't feel comfortable doing it, so I won't.

I know that sounds snotty, especially in this age when everything is so open online. No one expects privacy anymore. I don't. But I've also learned to go with my gut and my gut says no.

I'm getting off topic.

The point is that things with Stevie are calming down and that means I can once again focus on Rachel and Sarah.

Quick update on them: Rachel is becoming very articulate. Unfortunately, her pronunciation doesn't match the greater ability her speech is gaining. Something to work on.

Sarah is doing very well, though all the stuff with Stevie means she's regressed a bit in her behavior: she tends to be a little less flexible than before. However, she's doing great with math and we're working on grammar now. Mad Libs work well with her sisters, but I think she needs a more structured approach. I'll be looking into that when I can.

I've also decided to look more into freelance writing. I won't detail that in this blog, though I may include links. We'll see.

Our family is in a huge transition. I'm looking forward to seeing how things will look like in a year from now. Mr. Vinca as well. Don't know what else to say, so I won't.

Geez. I really do sound snotty today.

Sorry it's taken so long to get back

Don't have much time to post today, but felt I should say something.

We have a doctor!

That's right. We finally found one we're comfortable with and that shares our philosophies, the important ones anyway. So, we took Stevie in to see him and the search is on! At the moment, it looks like we're going to be going to the local Scottish Rite Hospital for an assessment... if they accept us. We'll see. I'm very hopeful. :) More later.

Sarah and Rachel, being older now, are starting to turn into teenagers. For Sarah that means more stimming and a little less flexibility. For Rachel, that means she's more sensitive than usual. If they were any of my other kids, I would hand them a book on growing up, tell them to read it, and then discuss it afterward. However, that is not how things are. More later.

Good gosh, I wish I had more time to write more about this. I'll end by saying I'm thrilled with how things are going so far. I'll write again as soon as I can. Squee!

Autism Conference in Austin

Not sure if I'll be going to this. We'll see. I'd like to, but actual therapy and other related items take top priority.

However, in the spirit of sharing, Future Horizons, an Arlington-based publisher of literature relating to autism spectrum disorders, is putting on an Autism & Asperger's Conference in Austin, TX on February 5. Speakers include Temple Grandin, her mother Eustacia Cutler, and Kathleen Morris. It sounds awesome and I hope to go. Like I said, we'll see.

Things at the end of the year

Well, let's see. Where are we now?

Rachel and Sarah got bikes for Christmas. It'll be interesting to see how that will affect their gross motor skills. It'll also be interesting to see the rules we'll need to put in place surrounding the bikes and going out on them. For now, the girls are only going to ride them when we can supervise, mostly because they have no idea how to ride a bike (or where). Also, though they've gotten much better at communicating, they still have trouble with sensory input and being constantly aware of their surroundings.

Rachel and Sarah have, for the past couple of months, been going to Activity Days. And doing a great job. :) The report back is that the other girls love them and things are going very well. I can see the possibility of a challenge in the future regarding boundaries, but I'm very proud of them so far in their social abilities. Very happy. :D

As for Stevie, we took him to a chiropractor friend of ours around Thanksgiving. He gave us several things to think about and avenues to explore. He also pointed out that Stevie seems to be suffering from lower back pain. That would make sense considering his hips seem to be doing fine and I haven't noticed anything weird in his legs. In the meantime, we've modified some of what we've been doing for him. Here's some things we've added.

Fresh Juice - our chiropractor friend talked to us about the digestive problems and brought up the option of enzymes. So, because we had to stop the breastmilk (had to for a separate reason that had nothing to do with Stevie) we have been giving him fresh carrot, apple and grape juice (separate, single juices... not all at once) as much as he wants with a focus for a week (carrot one week, apple the next, then grape, then we go back to carrot again). He really loves the apple and grape juice and will tolerate the carrot juice... we may end up mixing the carrot with apple so he gets enough. You'd think he'd drink huge quantities, but so far he hasn't downed more than three cups in a day, no matter how much he seems to love it.

Increased Sprouted and Living Food - Whenever he asks for fresh fruits or veggies, we give them to him. And we try to make sure most of his grains are sprouted and low-heated, then blended so they're easier for him to digest. Flour products, even whole grain, are a rare thing now.

Three Oil Massage - Yup, we're doing that full tilt again: castor oil applied before bedtime for two days, then olive oil for two days, then wheat germ oil for two days. We've found it really helps him if he takes a warm bath first. Also, we've found nothing takes out castor oil if it gets on clothes, so we lay down an old towel on his bed for those nights and put him in clothes that are specifically for those nights that we don't care about losing if they get stained. He LOVES the massage, especially when we get to his back and starts giggling now when he sees us get out the oil of the day. I give him the T.O.M. to feed his body through his skin as well as help him stay aware of his muscles. He's always more likely to bounce around and play after a massage (you'd think it would relax him but that hasn't been the case since the first week). I go along with this and we end up doing some of the games I used to play with Rachel to improve her muscle tone, as well as some that help with lower leg and abdominal strength.

"Cleansing" Tonics - I hesitate calling them this because they're really more nutritive than cleansing. They support the functions of different systems in the body. We're using these as a supplement to the slippery elm and Kid-e-Reg to increase his body's ability to break down the foods we give him. As of right now, he's taking Liver/Gallbladder Formula to help with bile production, Kidney Formula to support those organs while we work on that part of the digestion, and BloodStream Formula which is a general all-around tonic that we've found helps with digestion among other things.

Complete Tissue and Bone ointment on his spine - After the chiropractor pointed out that he seemed to have lower back pain, I used Cayenne Heat and CTB together on his lower back. After about a week of that, he complained when I used the CH so I took that out and just used CTB. Then, because I noticed he kept his whole spine straight and didn't like to look up at stuff, I used it on his whole spine from the top cervical to the tailbone. I apply it in the morning and when I do the Three Oil Massage.

The result? Well, we started the ointments around Thanksgiving and we're now on week three of the juices, extra formulas, oil massage, and ointment on his whole spine. Stevie now bounces along the floor instead of the straight, careful scoot he was doing before. He's started playing with sitting up and laying down, essentially doing sit ups... he avoided that before... it seemed to cause him pain. This also applies to side-sit-ups, which he's been doing more often as well, usually as a game with me. Also, he's been going crazy with hitting things with his toy hammer. He'll tap the floor with it as he scoots along. Which reminds me, he's starting to scoot without touching the floor. Often this is because he'll have two things in hand and doesn't want to let go of either of them.

We've also been noticing his sensory issues have been going down. He's not as sensitive to sensory input as he was before and I'm wondering if these "sensory issues" weren't the same as when I used to be in pain and wanted the rest of the world to drop off.

We aren't as concerned now with reflux. The only time I get concerned is when something gets him laughing really, really, REALLY hard.

Most importantly, he smiles most of the time now. And he hasn't been in the rocking chair for over a week... he's been choosing the floor so he can explore the house. :D

As for the doctor issue, one of our possibilities moved. And her replacement doesn't sound very promising. Oh, and another isn't accepting new patients right now; we're on her waiting list. So, we're still looking. I may try signing up on one of those mom bulletin boards like Mom Cafe and see if I can't find a local one that fits our family. This is becoming more difficult than I thought.

But hopefully we'll find one and I'll be able to get the girls involved in Spirit Horse next year. That's one of my goals for the year.

"They taste like stained glass pictures"

No, I didn't feed her glass. The title was Sarah's comment after eating some sprouted blueberry muffins I made this morning. :)

Sorry it's been so long. Nothing bad has happened. Nothing ecstatically good either. Just life. School has been taking up a lot of my time (it's going well btw) and I've just been focusing more on my home and family in general. With one exception, which I will talk about on a different blog. Maybe. If I have time. It's nothing big. Just that I've finally decided to try going into freelance writing again. I'm really not sure how I'm going to do it. It's something I'm still working out.

I'm also wondering if I should start yet another blog and "retire" one of my other ones. I had a blog about homemaking, but I realized the other day that the kind of homemaking I do, and the current project we have going on food-wise, doesn't really fit that blog. It's more of a natural healing kind of food thing. And I think it might keep me motivated if I blog about our transition. Anyway, enough of that.

Updates.

Rachel seems to be doing okay with Deborah joining her for math. She's still not quite ready for reading yet, but soon. She's kind of hit a plateau, though I'm very happy with where we are right now. Yesterday, my youngest, who's ten months old, started fussing while I was exercising. I couldn't stop right then, but as I wound things down so I could take care of him, Rachel, who was very concerned about him crying, came over and started playing with him. To be as expressive as she was and as genuinely emotional as she was is amazing for someone in the spectrum. There was a time when all she would have done was commented on it, or maybe robotically go over and try playing with him without showing much, if any, concern.

Sarah has been doing really well with flexibility. I'd like to say this is due to some behavioral trick I've been doing, but I'm fully convinced now that it's diet. She hasn't had any white flour, or even whole wheat flour, in about two weeks. Everything, with only a couple of exceptions, has been sprouted and either used whole, blended, or dehydrated and then ground to make sprouted flour. As we dedicated ourselves to this, her behavior really improved.

That's another reason I'm thinking of doing this blog about our transition to a more raw-based diet (in our case, Dr. Christopher's mucusless diet). We see really good results when we stick with it, and we have enough information now that I think we could make the transition fun.

Oh, and the reason we've been focusing on sprouted grain flours and sprouted grains in general is because it increases nutritional content and reduces various inhibitors, not to mention reducing gluten. In fact, the main reason... well, that will take another paragraph.

New paragraph. The main reason we're doing this, unfortunately, has little to do with our two eldest. Becky, our third-born, has always had a sensitive stomach. We tried several factors but none of them seemed to fit what she was describing. sof for a long time we weren't sure if it was something in her diet or if the stress in her life manifests itself in her gut (like Mr. Vinca). We hesitated pinpointing wheat (the most likely culprit) because it has been a wonderful grain for our family and makes up the bulk of our food storage program because of its versatility. However, last month, we were able to use our grinder for all our flour needs.

That did it. Becky had a pretty bad reaction, though nothing that some herbs couldn't take care of (catnip and fennel in case anyone's curious).

So, a week ago, I decided to try an experiment. I lightly sprouted some wheat to make sprouted wheat flour leaving the extra as it was, and made bread out of the whole thing. Bread has been Becky's most loved food and the one that consistently left her in pain.

She had about half a loaf. No problems.

We've been sprouting all our grain ever since and she's been doing really well with it. She hasn't complained about an upset stomach for the past week or two. So, Sarah's improved behavior, Becky's improved digestion, not to mention Stevie's as well (he absolutely thrives on the sprouted grains), has convinced us that this is something we need to stick with in our family.

In fact, the only problem I can think of is that Becky is a real people-person: she hates knowing that her friends are eating something she can't eat. I figure pointing out her digestive upset afterward will probably be enough, but she's getting to the point where I can't monitor all the food that she eats. Now that we know the problem, she's going to have to make the decision herself if she wants the full benefits from it.

Just in case I don't get to creating that blog, here are the recipe books we've been using in our transition.

• Traci's Transformational Kitchen Recipe Collection by Traci Sellers. This is our top pick since it gives me a lot of inspiration and lots of comfort food recipes, including desserts. Plus, it's written with the idea of "transition" in mind, so it gives alternate directions at times for those who want a more traditional approach without abandoning the recipe (this is mostly true for the beans though she does this with some of the flour recipes as well).
• Introduction to Baking with Whole Grains by Sue Gregg. This is also a top pick since it discusses principles, using the recipes more as examples than a step-by-step-this-is-how-you-do-it-every-time recipe book. It covers everything from soaking grains in an acid base to sourdough to sprouted flours.
• Recipes for Longer Life by Ann Wigmore. This one is a difficult recipe book. The trouble with many of the recipes is that whoever wrote it assumed a level of knowledge about not just cooking but cooking with raw and fermented foods that I didn't have when I first picked it up. If you use this book, assume a steep learning curve since not all the information is given up front (especially the recipe for coconut oil... you'll need a heck of a lot more rejuvelac than the initial recipe makes). With a few exceptions, I never got a recipe right the first time with this book. In fact, I nearly got turned off of saurkraut because of this book. You may wonder why I'm adding it to this list. The reason? Once you "get" the recipes, they're wonderful. Her approach to raw foods, though not perfect, is truly excellent and I've found some real gems in this book. Plus, she has an excellent plan at the beginning for moving away from the traditional American diet to a more living-raw-kind of thing.
  

Now, I'm not saying meat is bad or whole wheat flour is bad. But everyone has their levels of tolerance and I'm thinking we've found ours. More some other time.