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!