First Playdate since the DX

Today a few of us Mommies have a little playdate at Holly's house. This will be the first time Aden will go into a playdate with a diagnosis. I know that all of the mommies love me, and love my babies as well, but I can't help but feel like Aden is going to be watched or judged, just a little bit. I know the girls will want to know about everything that we learned in SD, and how I feel about it. I know that everyone will watch him if he starts to throw a fit, or doesn't speak when spoken to, or repeats. Maybe I'm just being a paranoid and protective Mommy. If people are curious about him, I had better get used to it. We decided not to keep his diagnosis a secret so I should get used to the small amount of attention it might bring. I hope that he will have an interest in talking to his friends, and not just an interest in Tyler's motorcycle :) I just feel so jittery this morning, like I need to prepare him or something. Maybe try to get some eggs into him! LOL I never used to be this way before a playdate. It seems like the initial numbness of that rainy day in San Diego is wearing off, and a sadness is quietly creeping in...

Prayers

Every night, we say the same prayer with the kids before they go to bed. Yesterday it was time for Ava to go down for her nap. Aden and I took her into her room and she crawled into bed. We knelt down by her and Aden folds his hands and leans right next to her face. Heclosed his eyes and said, "Dear God, fank you for dis day. Pwease bwess Mommy, Daddy, Aden and Ava. In Jesus name we pway, amen". Then he kissed her head and said, "Good night Ava, I love you. You a good girl". It was so sweet!

An Answer

Yesterday we spent four hours with a pediatric psychologist at Rady's Children's Hospital in San Diego. Aden was such a trooper. We were able to have 2 breaks, during which we would ride the glass elevator up and down. The skies were black and it rained all day so Aden couldn't play outside at all. I thought the rain was fitting. At the end of our long day, we sat with DR Bental and she gave us our answer. She diagnosed Aden with Autism. On the DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria form, there are 12 possible boxes that can be checked. A child must have 6 boxes checked in order to be formally diagnosed with autism. Aden had 9. Of course, he doesn't show these behaviors all of the time, but he showed each of them enough during our 4 hours that she had to check those boxes. Obviously I half expected him to have some sort of diagnosis, since we were having him tested, I knew there was a reason. I was just a little shocked. I expected something that wasn't as "heavy", I suppose. She made it sound so easy and lighthearted, telling us that his situation was "ideal" since he is so "high functioning". His diagnosis is not "high functioning autism" though, it is just "autism". She said that the best thing we could do for him is put him in preschool right away, so that he can be around good "models"...that's when I cried. I'd rather drive him to 5 therapies a day than drop him off to be in the care of someone else. I had always planned to send him to part time pre-k next year, but this just seems too soon. Anyway, we have a lot of work ahead of us. People keep telling me that he is still the same little boy he was, and that he will be fine. Of course I know this. I couldn't even count how many times I have heard this, like everyone thinks I'm going to forget how amazing he is. Now we go on, loving him, and begin to push him everyday to be the best boy he can be. I'm glad it's over, but it's just the beginning.

Here We Go...

On monday, my mother in law ended up coming over while Ava was asleep and just sat on the couch and listened for her so that I could go with Aden. Ava slept almost the entire time and had just woke up when I came home. She has been fine since then :) Aden's testing with the school district went well, but it wasn't what I had expected. They were basically only testing him on his cognitive abilities, and it had nothing to do with autism. He is quite smart, if I do say so myself, he just doesn't want to have conversations. At one point they held up a shape and Aden said, "Pentagon! A pentagon has 5 sides. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!" They were sort of baffled at the things that he knows at his age and said that his speech is above his age level. He just very clearly repeats everything you say. Anyway, we wont get his results until after Christmas break. Today we leave to spend the night in San Diego. Our appointment is at 9am tomorrow. I was so excited but today I woke up very nervous about it. I'm just so fearful that he will freak out when we leave him with the doctors, and that it will be a really bad experience for him. Scott and I have no idea how it will be, if we'll be able to watch him the whole time or if we have to sit in the waiting room. I told him we should just go see a movie to keep from going crazy during these 4 hours! Ava will be spending the night at Miss Holly's house, and I am so grateful that I won't have to worry about her while we are gone. She loves Tyler and will be very distracted by all of his toys :)

I sort of feel like today will be our last "normal" day. Normal, no diagnosis, no therapy, just a happy, normal day with a happy little boy (who very clearly repeats everything you say!). Sometimes I wonder why we are even bothering with all of this. I think Aden is so wonderful and smart. Why are we doing this? But then I remember, when he won't have a conversation with me. Last night Scott brought home our Christmas tree and he was so afraid of it! So cute, but so bizarre. He ran all the way to the kitchen and jumped up on his chair to hide from it. We're going to decorate it today, maybe make some cookies to take with us. I'd appreciate everyone's prayers for our family as we step into the unknown. I already feel like my faith is being tested, and we haven't even left yet. I'll update when we get home on Saturday.

Struggling

I'm so frustrated! Ava woke up at 5:45am and has thrown up four times. Today is Aden's testing at the school district at 9:30am. Basically, either Scott or myself will have to stay home with her and miss Aden's testing. This is the one test that we will be allowed to be present for. Of course, I'm his mother so I want to be the one who goes. I also set up all of these appointments and have filled out all of the paper work myself. Then there is Scott, who thinks he should go, just because he wants to go (very understandable). So now I'm torn between staying with my daughter who is ill, or going with my son who is being tested for developmental delays. Prayer please!

My Noggin...

...is killing me. I have had migraines for as long as I can remember. They have sent me to urgent care, the emergency room and in for CAT scans multiple times. Of course, DRs never find a tumor, I just have migraines. Migraines that make me throw up, make my face go numb and my vision to blur. My migraines scoff at Tylenol, Advil, Motrin and more. BLAH. So now I'm waiting for Scott to get home so that I can go to urgent care and put myself out of my misery. Prescription medication, here I come! I've never been so excited to drug myself...

Blogs are up

OK...my photography blog is updated and lovely :)

www.KatieMcGihonPhotography.com

(click on the blog link)

He's A Sneaky One

So yesterday as I was buckling Ava into her car seat, Aden found a stale pretzel under the seat and popped it in his mouth! You can all imagine how upset this made me, since I have successfully kept him away from any sort of wheat for an entire month. He was happy as a clam chewing on that disgusting pretzel. I fully expected him to turn into some sort of, screaming, non talking monster, but that hasn't been the case. After it had been about 8 hours, I decided to give him a bite of wheat toast. One bite. (poor kid) He had his first "indiscretion" at 10am yesterday, and so far so good. We've decided that each day, we'll give him a small amount of something with gluten in it and see how he does. Some kids only need to be casein free, which would be amazing! Gluten free food is so expensive...I hate buying it. He's getting a little cough, so right now might not be the best time to try it, but we've already started.

ANYWAY.....I have been so busy with photography jobs! It's great to be working so frequently. I have a beautiful new photo blog, so I'll post here once I've updated it with all of my new jobs. Happy Friday!

Halloween 2009

This year was the first year we actually took the kids trick-or-treating! We visited about 5 or 6 houses and as soon as they grabbed their candy, I would yank it away and quickly replace it with candy that was dye free, GFCF and organic :) They had such a great time! Ava was sleeping beauty and Aden was a farmer. He won't let us put anything on his body that looks weird so this was the closest that I could get to a costume.

PS....why do my pictures look blurry on Blogger?! They are perfect and clear and beautiful on every other website, but not on Blogger...any advice??

GFCF...Cautiously Optomistic

Today was day 9 of Aden's full, and very rigid gluten free-casein free diet (yes, we have committed). I must admit that it was incredibly difficult to get started. We shopped for everything on Sunday after church, and I almost cried in the middle of Henry's. I kid you not, there were tears, but I didn't let them fall. Everything was sooooo expensive and I was completely overwhelmed. We ended up buying a ton of packaged stuff that cost an arm and a leg and guess what?! He wouldn't touch it. For the first few days he lived off of turkey and fruit. I wanted to give up, just so that he could eat something. Then, on day 4, he looked at me and said, "Oh Mommy, Get some applesauce, I hungry!" I was shocked. That was a huge and amazing sentence :) Slowly but surely, he has pulled out new words and phrases to surprise me with. Here are a few adorable examples,

"You stay there, Mommy"

"I need to clean da house" (what?!)

"I want some peanut butter sandwich"

He is using PRONOUNS! We could never get him to say "I"...or he or she or they or his or hers ECT. Now he is spouting them off all day (sometimes incorrectly, but he's trying). Overall his mood has shifted as well. He is waking up so happy every morning...it used to be very difficult to wake up. He would be grumpy for a good 30 minutes, and would often cry for no apparent reason.

I'm trying not to jump the gun and get too excited about GFCF. Maybe it's all in my head (but I hope not, and Scott thinks it's working as well!). I'm at home all day, baking bread and making chicken nuggets from scratch. I'm feeling very "Martha" lately...and very tired :)

Aden...

On October 1st, Aden had his 3 year well baby visit with DR Coit. After a long chat and some observations, he referred us to the Autism Intervention Center at San Diego Children's Hospital. He will be evaluated specifically for Asperger's Syndrome, which is a milder form of autism. DR Coit felt this was necessary because Aden shows a few key symptoms of autism, but not all of them. He lines up his toys, and copies everything you say. Everything. It's called "scripting", the medical terms is echolalia. He is having trouble sustaining conversations with people, even though he has an extensive vocabulary. He also cannot use pronouns (which is very cute), and is often times unsympathetic to other peoples feelings or emotions.

Scott and I have been absorbing information like mad over these last 2 weeks. We have studied all of the biomedical interventions you can imagine, and have slowly started making changes in his diet, and supplementing him above and beyond a multivitamin. He's also about to start taking digestive enzymes and probiotics (autistic kids have horrible trouble with digestion and an overload of yeast in their gut). We are cleaning him out, so to speak. His shampoo, body wash, lotion, toothpaste...everything has been thrown away and replaced with all natural and/or organic products, free of additives. I could go on and on about this, and the importance of environmental toxin around your children...I would encourage everyone reading this to take a good, hard look at what you are putting into your kids!

Our appointment isn't until December 11th (they are so full...autism is an EPIDEMIC!), Please pray for Scott and I, for peace as we wait. We've already seem small improvement in Aden's conversational skills...he's doing well with his Omega 3! We love him more and

more everyday...now we see how truly amazing our little Buddy is, and look forward to helping him learn how to talk to us, in his own words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oak Glen

This weekend we went to Oak Glen to pick apples! It turned out that there were no apples to pick, but we had a blast playing in the pumpkin patch and enjoying the beautiful weather. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day.

Ava

Just because she's pretty :)

Paint El Paseo Pink!

Today we did the "Paint El Paseo Pink" walk to help support and raise awareness for breast cancer. It was a beautiful day, and we were able to help support a great cause. Here are a few pictures from our morning...

Pushing the babies...

The kiddos...just hangin' out

Say Cheeeese!

Auntie Noelle and Uncle Bubby

"Anna"...walking for Melissa's Mom!

Aden's 3rd Birthday

This weekend we celebrated Aden's 3rd birthday! I can't believe that I have been a Mommy for three whole years. Here are a few pictures from his little dinner celebration...

Happy birthday to you....

Sweet boy!

Aden and Chase, "What could it be?!"

First race car

Playdoh is always fun :)

I left Aden fall asleep in our bed after his party. I cuddled with him, and he said "Mommy" about 50 times. I think he was just too tired to talk to me, but wanted to say something. Finally he said, "backward Mommy"....and he was asleep....so silly! I love my three year old :)

My Two Year Old...

....is almost a three year old. Today is his last day being two, and I have such mixed feelings! I love the fact that he is growing up, and we can do so many fun things together. He will walk next to me in Target now and never wander off ;) That's a big step! Here are some fun pictures from this past week...

Baking cookies with Mommy today

Checking out his first birthday card that came in the mail

"It's 7 AM Mommy, can we let the dogs in??"

At our cousin's wedding...my fav!

Seussical the Musical

This weekend is the last weekend of Suessical at COD. I'm so excited to start another run of shows (4 this weekend-yikes!) I'd love it if all of my mommy friends and their kiddos could come see it. We are going to bring Aden this weekend and see if he can sit through it. Here are the show times...

Friday 8pm
Saturday 2pm, 8pm
Sunday 2pm

I'd say that you would need to get there at least 30 minutes early. The house opens 30 prior minutes to curtain and the tickets are first come, first serve. It's held at the Pollack Theater on COD's campus. Hope to see everyone there...happy Friday :)

BLESSED

God put a couple of people in my life that blessed me so very much! The wonderful Holly suggested that I take my hard drive video camera to someone who might be able to recover movies from it, even though I had already deleted them. Brilliant idea! I took it to Dave Petrie at SCC. On Sunday he called me to his office and he had pulled 24 GB from it! He clicked open one of the video clips and his screen was full of my newborn Ava, under a warmer, getting some extra oxegyn in the hospital. All I could do was sit on the floor and cry! He was able to recover everything I had ever recorded on our video camera. I am so overwhemled with God and how He always takes care of our family. Thank you Holly and Dave, words cannot express how grateful I am for what you have done for me, for the memories you have helped to save!

Sad Monday

It's been a rough week for us. On monday, our house was broken into about 10 minutes after the kids and I left to run a few errands. They stole my laptop that was in the kitchen. Unfortunately, all of the kid's baby photos and all of our home movies were stored on it, and now it's gone. I have been crying on and off for the past four days. It's like someone came into our home and took our box of pictures. I'd appreciate prayers of peace for myself. I've actually been quite suprised at how upset this has made me. I lost about 9 thousand photos and 3 years of home movies. The cops were unable to find any finger prints. I'm still hoping that it will turn up at a pawnshop or on Craigslist. If any of you happen to have pictures of my kids, I would really appreciate a copy of whatever you have, as we are now left trying to get our memories back...

Brave Momma

Yesterday Scott and I had a scheduling conflict (we pretty much have one everyday) so I had one of my girlfriends come over and spend the entire day with my kiddos while I was at a hugh and long rehearsal. I think that I have left them with Holly once (thank you my love!), and other than that, they are only left with our family. Yes, in case you haven't already noticed, I am one of THOSE mommies. Scott and I have tried very hard to only let family watch them. I know that eventually I will have to find a babysitter to help us out. Anyway, while I fretted about their well being all day, they were having a blast with Miss Shawna, laughing, playing, eating, napping ECT. I came home to find Aden cuddled in her lap and he even hugged her goodbye. Everyone was happy and perfectly content, and my house was clean too! I guess trusting my babies to someone else wasn't so bad after all :)

Busy Busy

This week the chaos begins! My show (Suessical the Musical) is opening in less than 2 weeks, so yesterday we started our daily full run rehearsal schedule. Scott is also in the midst of his v-ball tryout week with PDHS....SO we both have to be gone at some point for around 4 or 5 hours everyday, who wants to come over and play with my kids?! :)  

Scott could really use some prayer right now. He was just informed by the district that his principle has put him outside of his credential (AGAIN) with this year's teaching assignment. Basically the district could transfer him to ANY school within DSUSD. He's taught middle school for 14 years, and in a week and a half, he could be teaching Kindergarten! We think that this might be a blessing in disguise. His principle has never given him priority when scheduling each year, and Scott has been at JGMS since it opened. God has a plan, we're just along for the ride. A change like this could be the best thing for Scott right now....to be continued! 

Morning Coffee

Hello blogging world! I'm back at it after a few very crazy months. I've been trying to make my blog look cute and haven't quite figured out how to make my banner up top look right (with my family picture on top), does anyone know how to do that?! Anyway, the kids are still asleep so I will try and quickly sum up what all of my mommy friends have missed....

1st-I went back to school as a nursing major! This past spring I took an 8 week medical dosage class and then this summer I had a general health class and Anatomy and Physiology I. Try learning ever detail EVER about the human body in 8 weeks...whew! I made it through with a B. Actually, since I have gone back to school I have taken 3 classes and finished with a B in all of them. I suppose having a husband, and two kids under 3 years old has made me a B student. I have hope for A's this fall though, when I will be taking Chemistry and a math class.

2nd-I started working a couple days a week at Express (my most favorite store!) I'm mostly doing it for the discount, and a few extra bucks each month is nice too. (When I say "a few" I really mean A FEW haha).

3rd-I am back into musical theater after a 3 year break! Oh how I missed singing and dancing and being on a stage. I'm in "Seussical the Musical" With College of the Desert and everyone HAS to come see it! It's a fun musical that loosely follows the story of "Horton Hears a Who". I'd love to see all of my Mom2Mom friends and their kids there! Tickets are $15 and you can either get them through me, or at the college when you show up. It runs the first two weekend of September, I"ll post with more info as the date is nearer.

Scott hasn't been golfing much this summer since he lost his amateur status after winning our car. I know it's been tough for him, but he's been able to be home with me and the kids, which has been helpful for me since I've taken on so much this summer. OK well this blog has been quite long! I'm going to try and post two times a week so everyone keep me to that OK? Miss you all and can't wait for M2M to start!

New Car!

I can't believe it has taken me over a week to blog about this, better late than never!

Last Monday, Scott was in the finals of the Kraft Nabisco Million Dollar Hole-In-One contest. Well he didn't get a hole in one, but he was closest to the pin, so he won a one year lease on a new Toyota Venza! This is such a blessing, we are waiting for our lease on the Lexus to be up, any day now! He also won two 1st class round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the US. Vacation time for Mommy and Daddy :) Through all of this, his amatuer status was revoked, now is considered a pro. We're not sure if this is a path we are ready to go down just yet...time will tell! Here are a few pics, I was able to be at the event, photographing him as he won!

The winning shot

"And the winner is Scott McGihon!"

There was a lot of press, he was later on the cover of the paper (me too LOL) and we saw him on ESPN!

In front of the new car. We still don't have it yet but this is exactly what it will look like

Slow Cooker Woes

I was so excited to finally buy a slow cooker on Saturday! I have been wanting one for a while, the idea throwing everything into a pot and letting it cook all day while I leave the house is quite appealing. Anyway, I put a few apples into it, along with walnuts, brown sugar and butter, I just knew that a warm and yummy dessert would be waiting for us this evening! The recipe said to cook it on low for 7-9 hours. After 4 hours, it was applesauce. BLAH. Maybe next time will be the great crock pot experience I was hoping for. If anyone has a trick or tip, let me know...

Scott left last night for his first golf tournament in a few months. The kids and I are holding up well-no major meltdowns (for me as well). Ava did end up in bed with me all last night-she was so snuggly! I'm hoping tonight is my night to sleep with Aden :) Scott will be home tomorrow night...I think we're gonna make it :)

Chase Update

Chase is safely home! He still has to keep himself very calm and take breathing treatments, but he is feeling much better, and we are all so glad he's home :)  Thanks for the prayers!

Chase's Adventure

On Wednesday of this week, my 5 year old brother Chase was admitted to Eisenhower for asthma. He had spent 3 hours in his family practitioner's office with my mom, doing breathing treatments, and he had a shot of prednisone (a steroid that helps open his airways). They were also sent home with a liquid suspension of the prednisone. As soon as he took that, he threw it up. Within an hour, they were back at the DR's office. It was clear at that point that he needed to be admitted right away. They did another breathing treatment, just to get him through admissions. His oxygen saturation was in the 8Os, and it needs to be at least 92. When I showed up at the hospital, he was is pretty good spirits, but he was laboring for every breath and would go into uncontrollable coughing fits. It was so sad to see him struggling to breath. Everything was so new and he was so brave! They did x-rays, IVs, bloodwork, and LOTS of albuteral (spelling??) treatments with a mask, and had him on oxygen when he couldn't get enough if it on his own. He has been the only child in the pediatric wing of Eisenhower, so he gets lots of attention and the nurses are just for him! The hospital also brought in puppies for him to play with in his room :)  Yesterday he was allowed to walk to the pediatrics playroom and play for awhile. The first night, his O2 saturation was still in the 8Os but he did well last night so we are hoping for a release today. He has been such a trooper through all of this, and only cried a little when they drew his blood and inserted his IV. Please send up a prayer for him and my family. My mom has been allowed to spend the night with him the entire time so that was a huge blessing. The day he was admitted was my parents 25th anniversary! They both said there was nowhere else they'd rather be :)  I'll update as soon as I here from them.

Babysitter....??

Last night Scott and I had family friends over for dinner. Their daughter is interested in babysitting for us occasionally...yes! So I make the house and children as squeaky clean and adorable as possible and Scott cooks a delicious meal. They showed up at 6:30, and the children turned into headless monsters at 6:45. I have no clue what happened! Ava was on the floor crying every five minutes and Aden was screaming at the table at the top of his lungs because Scott wanted to feed him his ice cream, instead of letting him spill it all over the white chairs in the dining room. I just kept looking at her and saying, "I swear they aren't normally like this". Aden went to bed at 8pm and kept coming out of his room to peak at us, so I had to lay him down over and over again. Ava was up until 9:20! This has never happened before. Then she woke up screaming 4 times in the middle of the night. Basically Scott and I just let her fuss herself back to sleep every time...she has been up in the middle of the night for about 4 nights now. What happened to my sleeping angel?! Anyway, I'm not sure if this poor girl will ever babysit for us, she is VERY shy, but at least we're trying :)

Random Updates

OK well Miss Ava has been sleeping through the night for about a month. I didn't want to say anything until it was a done deal. The only problem is that Scott and I are so used to getting up that neither of us sleep through the night! Someday :) She is trying to run now, and usually topples over because she has built up so much momentum and her little legs can't keep up!

Aden is becoming quite a chatter box. He can say almost any word you throw at him, and will repeat EVERYTHING you say (watch out!). He can count to 20, he knows all of his shapes, and lots of colors. So smart!!

Scott and I had our second counseling session...not quite as fun as the last one. It was a good thing though, and we have homework and new communication tools to learn. Feels like school...

I want to let everyone know that I will be making this blog private. I don't want anyone that I don't know looking at my posts, and seeing pictures of the kids. I will send out an email and you can all respond with your email address and I will add you to the list. Okiedokie...I have nothing interesting to say so I better start some laundry :)

Fixing It (finally)

I guess I'm a bit tired of repeating this story to my friends, and this isn't the best topic to blog about, but I will anyway, to keep everyone updated. Scott and I separated for just under a week (per my request). We've been struggling for quite some time. SOOOOOOOOO, yesterday was our first counseling session and it was great! We both agreed that we would stay with her for the remainder of our work together (yes-we both liked her!). It was definitely a "getting to know you" session, and I only slightly shed ONE tear, so we left happy and looking forward to fixing things. There will really be some long and painful days ahead as we dive in and address our issues, instead of ignoring them. Thanks to everyone for the prayer, phone calls and letters :) It's been hard for me to call my friends back when I know I have nothing positive to say. Sorry :(

Our therapist said at the end of our session that she could tell we still loved each other, had a great connection and both want it to work. We agreed. She said that I need to be doing the things that I love, that I gave up to be married and have babies. So, I'm hoping to find a way to start singing again, maybe acting...I don't know how to do that with two kids but she said it's very important and I have no choice but to be creative in that way. We'll see! Scott and I also have to start dating again. Trust me-we haven't DATED in a loooooong time. 

I guess I could ramble on and on about what all we learned about each other and the things we should be doing...but I won't. Mom2Mom is starting in one hour and I have to get ready! Thanks for reading :)  Here's to fixing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On The Move!

Ava has been walking since her 1st birthday. As soon as I can find my video camera and get it charged, I will post a clip of it. She is ADORABLE! Also, another big thing is happening at night but I dare not say it because I'm afraid I might jinx it! I am loving this little girl of mine :)