It has been too long

So the idea of keeping everyone up to date was a great one but boy does time fly. We are going in to month three of Logan's full time therapy and the changes are amazing. I can't believe a few months ago I was excited about Logan wanting chocolate milk. The other day he was sitting in the living room with me I mentioned it was time for dinner and Logan yelled to Ruby (she was upstairs) come down now it is time for dinner.

Ruby is still having some difficulties adjusting and I am just trying to be patient and understand it is so much for a five year old to absorb. We have a psychologist that is spending sometime with her to help her understand everything. She was over the other day and she asked Ruby "how is Logan different from you" Ruby said he is a boy, he is smaller/younger than me, and he is stronger than me. In my mind I was thinking it is so refreshing that to her Autism does not have a label. Don't get me wrong there are down sides at times. I have dealt with her asking if Logan will be autistic for the rest of his life, she has asked for a different brother, and she has warned her friends that want to come over for a playdate that her brother is autistic and they have to be nice even if he is not. But in all she is so wonderful with him. She must say to me "that was so cute" at least once a day.

Logan is learning new tasks everyday. He can now put on his jacket. He can use his daily scheduler so he knows what is going on day to day. He has mastered Cariboo, Pop up Pirate, and Memory. So at this time family game night is almost Typical. I used typical because what is "normal". He is currently learning how to play Go Fish I can't get over how fast he has learned it. These games provide Logan with joint attention skills and turn taking. While he is playing he is making eye contact, taking turns and waiting patiently.

He has mastered many clothing labels and all most all body parts. It is so int resting to see him learn these labels and watching how his brain works. When going through all the body parts if you are to switch and pull on you pant leg and say what is this he says knee because his brain is still focused on body parts. After working on body parts then moving and playing something else if you were to pull on your pant leg and say what is this he says pants! The brain is a funny thing. It would work the same way if we were working on shapes and then pointed at the door he would say rectangle. Every thing is so literal.

If Autism has never touch your life and you just don't get is you need to see Temple Grandin the movie. It was recently on HBO. I watched it and was speech let.

I will post more often.

Clinic Day

We went to Logans first clinic. This is where our team all gets together to talk about Logans progress and brainstorm ideas to solve challenges and come up with new goals. It gives us all an opportunity to get on the same page. As parents it shows us how to work with Logan and allows us to ask questions.
His clinic went really well the General Comments/Observations were as follows:
Logan has been doing very well; he is progressing nicely through his programs. However staff have seen an increase in number of tantrums over the past couple of weeks. The antecedent for tantrums are normally based on transitions (moving from something highly preferred to something else.) On average there are 1.25 tantrums a day that range in length from 2minutes up to 30 minutes. Logan's hoarding behaviour is almost non-existent in sessions and his flapping has also decreased, on average Logan flaps nine times per session. Logan's flapping behaviour is only occurring when he is very excited. All in all Logan has been showing great progress!
It is also noted that Logan will sit at his desk during non preferred tasks 9 out of ten times, after a short period of time on something preferred Logan remains calm when asked to clean it up without a warning, he is responding to clean up, come here, sit down, give it to me. Logan also is answering yes/no, and asking to do it again, asking help please, and saying I don't know. They are working on Turn taking and Logan will wait for the other person to complete their turn before taking his turn. 77% of the time. As he currently waits his turn playing with two people they will now add another person. When it is Logans turn he will only take one piece at a time instead of hoarding all the pieces. Logan is also playing memory when he is presented with 3 cards he will only flip over two to see if it is a match. If they match he will put one on top of the other and place them in the container. If there is no match then he will flip both cards back over and leave them in place then choose 2 new cards till he finds a match. They will now go to four cards. Logan will complete 3 simple close-ended activities that take up to 5 minutes to complete. They will now up the time to 10 minutes. When playing Cariboo Logan will match a colour card to its appropriate match 40% of the time they will now move on to letter cards. When handing something to anther person Logan will make eye contact 43% of the time next they will work on when receiving an item from another person Logan will make eye contact. When working on haircutting desensitization 83% of the time Logan will remain calm when running fingers through hair as if getting it ready to cut with the scissors open, and when opening and closing the scissors. He will also remain calm when running a comb through is hair dry and wet. They have also introduced getting Logan to put on and take off his boots and are working on show Logan which is right and which is left for his boots. They have also shown Logan grabbing his jacket off a hook by the hood and finding the tag inside. Logan is also working very hard on his pincer grasp using clothes pins (clipping it to paper) and tweezers (to pick stuff up). Last but not least they have been working on Ruby time to show both kids how to play by simple turn taking and for Logan to ask Ruby for help and asking her to give him items he needs.
In all Daddy and I are so proud of the progress Logan has made and we enjoyed watching him on Clinic day. He was so proud of himself and when working on everything Logan had a huge smile on his face that tells me we are on the right road.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Logan's therapy is progressing well. He is now starting to realize that it is not all play and there are expectations for him in sessions. At times he does not like these expectations and has a tantrum. He has met another milestone as he has learned to put on and take off his shoe. He is so proud when he does this. Who knew I would be so happy about him putting on/taking off his shoes but it is wonderful to see him become a bit more independant. He is also doing well with teeth brushing. He actually tolerates it without me pinning him down. My next challenge is the dentist....Tuesday we go to the dentist I am expecting the worst hoping for the best. I will keep you posted on what transpires.

Chocolate Milk Please!

It has been too long since my last post. My intent is not to have such a long time between posts but life happens. We are away for a bit. We are in to BC to watch Nana (my mom) participate in the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay. What a wonderful experiance for the kids. Although Logan could have done without the crowds they are enjoying themselves.
We flew her and I was very nervous that Logan would not like the flight. He did so GREAT. We talk to him about it being loud and told him we were going to drive a bit, then blast off and go in the clouds he really liked that. When it was time to land we told him we were leaving the clouds, then bump, drive really fast and stop. I think he thought it was a great ride.
I am such a proud mom and Ruby is a proud sister. The other day Logan looked a us and said "want chocolate milk please...I firsty!" Ruby said to me "mom I don't think Logan is Autistic anymore!". I asked her why and she said "because he can talk better now". To be a child and things be so easy. Sometime I think we take life to seriously. My kids are both so innocent sometimes it is nice to look at things the way they do...it is refreshing.

Has it really been a month?

I can't believe we are nearing the first month of Logan's intensive therapy. I am really enjoying having the aids in the home with Logan. They are all so nice. Ruby is also adjusting well. Although she would like a bit more time with them, the more she watches what Logan has to do she realizes it is not just playing. Logan has adjusted better than I anticipated. Normally his day starts with playing quietly alone while the aide gets ready and reads notes in his binder from the previous aid. Then the aide will lay out three specific activity/games/toys that they are going to use. This is like a schedule for Logan it is to teach him how to transition from one activity to the next. When one activity is complete he places it in a large bucket called "the all done bucket" this teaches him that done means we don't play with it again till next time. He was getting very frustrated with putting things away thinking they were never going to use them again. Once Logan has completed three activities with the aide he is rewarded. Each child is rewarded in a different way for Logan he loves physical rewards "airplane rides, a tickle fight, a piggy back" or playing with his Thomas table. This process is repeated through the whole session teaching Logan different skills. They have started individual play and schedule three activities Logan must transition through alone and complete before being rewarded. This teaches him to play functionally by himself. Before he loved being alone but did not play functionally with his toys. He would watch marbles fall down over and over or watch cars go down the ramp over and over. Now he really plays and it is wonderful to watch. During all of this play they are really encouraging eye contact and speech.

With the new skills Logan is learning we have found Ruby having a hard time adjusting. She was so use to playing for Logan. She would play and he would watch but Logan now wants to play too. Ruby realized early on that Logan loved cause and effect (she would run he would chase, she would pretend to give him something when he went to grab it she would pull it away)those activities use to be fun for both of them but now that Logan has a voice it makes him angry when she teases him that way. Now we are trying to empower Ruby with knowledge on how to functionally play with Logan and help him along the way. Instead of doing it for him or talking for him.

We have started to figure out how Logan learns and proving that we as a family can teach him and have learned so many new things already. It is hard not to be excited. With Logan's willingness to learn and our readiness to teach I can't begin to imagine the possibilities.

Skating with the Hitmen

Logan has now been in therapy full time for about two weeks. I am amazed at the improvement. It may seem small to some but for us it is HUGE. In December "Help me" and "I don't know" were introduced. He has almost mastered the sentences using them with little prompting and for the most part in the right context. We are now at a point when he is using the sentences that we will wait for eye contact. He may repeat help me 4 or 5 times but eventually he makes eye contact then we help him. He gets confused with "Help Me" and "Help You". He hears us say "Help you?" then he repeats. He has gotten much better at it and mostly says "Help Me?" now. Ruby thinks this is great as she can get in her sibling teasing by not acknowledging Logan or helping him until he looks at her but contrary to typical siblings we allow it...lol. Along with the new demands have come some major tantrums as he just does not understand but we were told it would get worse before it gets better.

With January came our annual skate with the Hitmen at the Saddledome. This yearthough we actually took part. We told Ruby that we could not go until she could skate. In October we enrolled her in Learn to Skate and with the sole determination to skate with the Hitmen she has excelled. We even took Logan on his skates. It was amazing he actually did it. His first time on skates and he walked a bit on the ice on his own and when he fell down he got up on his own (which is one of the first things that is taught in the learn to skate). The kids met all the Hitmen in person and got their autographs on Ruby's Hitmen hat. The kids favorite player was playing on Team Canada (Martin Jones) but they did not seem to notice. It was a great night. Canada's loss to USA on Logan's birthday did not go over well in our household it was the first time Canada did not win Gold in the kids lifetimes.

Welcome 2010

Where does the time go? Now that the holidays have come and gone I feel like I finally have time to fill everyone in on what has been going on in our home for the last few weeks. We had an amazing Christmas. Logan was sick and vomiting on Christmas Eve but luckily bounced back in time for Christmas morning. Christmas morning was great. The kids woke us up (not too early). We went downstairs and Santa had left Logan a marble set and Ruby an Easy Bake oven. From that moment on all Logan wanted to do was play marbles. We finally convinced him to open his other presents when Ruby pushed the button on the gift she got for Logan when the Handy Manny song started playing he needed to see what was in that present or "wish box" as Logan calls them. They got some great gifts (not too many). We cleaned up the paper mess and finally let Logan play with his marble set while dad and I got breakfast ready. We got ready for the day and off to my Aunts house we went. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with all the fixings.We even got fresh baked cookies from Ruby's easy bake oven! Unfortunately by the end of the night daddy was starting to feel sick and achy and was down for Boxing Day.

My family came to town on the 27th and were amazed at the progress that Logan has made. He enjoyed playing with his cousins and sister for a few days. On the 29th we went to the hitmen game for Logan's birthday. I was desperately trying to find a

toddler Hitmen jersey for Logan as he attends all games with Dad and Ruby. I had talked to my mom about checking at a great Sports store where she lived to see if they had one or knew where to get one. When she came up empty handed she decided to contact the Hitmen to see if they knew where she could get one. Turns out they do not make toddler sizes. My mom had told them that Logan had been going to the games with his dad and Ruby since he was a few months old. She also told them of Logan's difficult year and that the Hitmen games were the one event Logan was able to regularly attend. They replied by wanting to present Logan with a Hitmen Jersey albeit too big but a jersey nonetheless. On the 29th three hitmen players (Hilton, Kirsch, and Rissling) presented Logan a Hitmen Jersey. They even put it on him. They gave Ruby a Hitmen Bear. Logan was so happy. Daddy had upgraded the seats so we were closer to the ice than normal. The smile on his face made us forget all we have gone through with Logan this year. What a wonderful organization we can't wait to pay it forward.

New Years Eve was nice and quiet. We watched the ball drop in NYC and told the kids it really was New Years. They were ecstatic to be staying up till "midnight" we toasted the New Year with Sparkling Apple Juice. What a wonderful year it will be.

New Years Eve must have hit Ruby pretty hard. She was sick all day on New Years Day she must have been really not feeling well as she put herself to bed that night.

On the 4th of January Logan started his Therapy. It is everyday either 8:30 to 12 or 1 to 4:30. Our team consists of two wonderful girls who will alternate days with Logan. Occasionally the Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Pathologist, Psychologist or Clinical Coordinator will stop in during "therapy" for an hour or so to see progress made or suggest changes. Right now it feels different as I am so use to dealing with Logan alone during the day. I have a times not known what to do with myself. Ruby thinks it is great. She has come up with a few crafts we are going to "tackle" while Logan is in therapy. I am sure it will be harder for her as the sessions keep going as she is not use to Logan getting all the attention but for now she is happy.

Today is Logan's 3rd birthday. He woke up a bit stuffed up and cranky. When it got time to dig into his cupcakes tonight he started throwing up so we are sitting by the monitor listening making sure he does not get sick in bed. There are times I look back and can't believe it has taken me this long to get here. Other times I can't believe how fast it has gone by and that we have accomplished as much as we have.