Sleep is a Beautiful Thing!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Today I am so grateful for sleep.  SO GRATEFUL!

I was reminded last weekend how much we love sleep and Tired Teddies.  If you knew me in real life, I've probably already proclaimed to you how these miracle herbs have changed our life.  You think I'm kidding?  Read on, because I'm not!  Tired Teddies are an all natural chewable sleep aid for little ones.  It's basically a chewable melatonin with some other awesome special herbs that help kids sleep.  It's all natural with no crap or fillers, and best of all- it works!!  No guilt, happy kids, and a very happy mama.  You see, I think my boys both win the grand prize for worst sleepers in the world.  They are terrible sleepers.  Terrible!

My oldest didn't start out a terrible sleeper.  He was actually a pretty easy baby.  He started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks.  He was always so content to just be in his crib by himself and watch his ceiling fan slowly spin.  I could leave him on the ground and he would entertain himself and be content on his own for hours.  But this is all another story for another time, we're talking about sleep today.

I got pregnant with my 2nd son, Ash,  when my oldest son, Ez,  was just barely 12 months old.  I think it all started to go downhill from there.  When Asher was born, he was a terrible sleeper and he cried ALL OF THE TIME.  I blamed it on so many things.  He was born premature (both of my boys were born 5 weeks premature) and he spent over a week in the NICU.  When we finally took him home I woke him up and fed him every 3 hours.  He was so little and he needed to gain weight.  Months went by and although I was not waking him up in the middle of the night to feed him, he was still waking up. 

Asher did not sleep through the night until he was 18 months old.  I am not kidding.  I had every book imaginable on sleep training.  I ordered dvds from the baby whisperer.  I made sure he ate a ton of food right before bed because he would wake up hungry.  Still, he did not sleep through the night until he was 18 months old.  And when I say 'sleep through the night' I mean he went from waking 4 times a night to waking 1 time a night.  Believe me when I say that was a fuzzy 18 months for me!  I was so sleep deprived. 

This was during his 'I have to wear my helmet everywhere' phase.

 Ezra was always good about going to bed, but he would wake up in the middle of the night and 'sleep walk' and do weird things.  He really freaked me out one night when he got up out of bed and with his eyes closed sat upright in a chair we had right beside our bed.  I worried that he would walk right out the front door!  I still do!  We've taken the necessary precautions for a lock on the top of the front door.  We also had to start locking him in his room (for his safety).  Even still, I would find him in his room the next morning in the weirdest positions or on the hardwood floor with his head smashed into the corner of the wall.  Inevitably, he would wake up tired and groggy and not well rested.

Fast forward 6 months.  Asher had just turned 2 and Ezra had just turned 4.  I ordered Tired Teddies and was very skeptical.  Very skeptical.  A friend of mine had heard about them and knew my situation- as Tired Teddies advertised that they were great for kids with Autism.  Well, I was blown away.  Both of my boys, let me repeat that, BOTH OF MY BOYS slept through the night that first night with absolutely no problems.  This had to be a coincidence, right?  So the next night we tried them again- and same thing!  To make a very long story short- we started using them around April/May of this year and I have been using them every single day since then.  For the first time in almost 3 years I am also sleeping through the night because I am not getting up with the kids!

This was his 'wear your sunglasses everywhere' phase. :-)

In the past 6 months or so, I have been telling everyone about Tired Teddies.  It sounds so cliche, but they have really changed my life.  It's not fun to not sleep through the night.  My boys were missing lots of preschool and we were missing lots of church because everyone was sleep deprived and getting sick!

Sleeping like a champ!!

 So this past weekend I went out of town to attend my best friend's wedding.  My husband took work off and stayed home with the boys.  What a great guy, right?!  Jason is normally a very busy attorney and he isn't usually home when I put the boys to bed.  So he doesn't really remember every part of our bedtime routine.  About 2 days into my absence, Jason was going nuts.  The kids weren't sleeping and they were having some bad tantrums.  He called me and was complaining to me about it.  I was like: 'well did you give them their Tired Teddies?'  And the answer: no, he didn't.  The next 2 nights the boys got their Teddies and there were absolutely no sleep problems.  These little teddies are a miracle!!  I was reminded how awesome these little herbs are when we got a glimpse of what our sleepless life used to be like. :-)  And you know what else?  They taste really good too.  My boys both love the flavor.  And should I be admitting this- I have been known to take one when I am having problems sleeping.  They taste great.

So that's my soapbox.  Tired Teddies gave me back my sleep and my life!  As dramatic as that sounds, they truly did.

Kennedy Krieger Institute Center for Autism

Oh, Kennedy Krieger.  I have a love / hate relationship with this place. 

On the one hand, I feel so grateful and fortunate that we live in an area that has such great autism services.  The Kennedy Krieger Institute Center for Autism is apart of the Johns Hopkins hospital in Maryland.  The research they have going on and the doctors that they have in this building are nationally recognized.  This entire building is dedicated to just autism.  They know what they are talking about here.

Now to some complaining.  We make the 1.5 hour drive to this place 4 times a year for the boys' doctor appointments.  I seriously could drive here with my eyes closed.  Seriously.  We also participated in a weekly Occupational Therapy program here over the summer while the boys were out of school.  So like I said, I drive here a lot!  They also both have a developmental/behavioral pediatrician and a neurologist.  The boys have an appointment every 6 months where they do extensive testing.  They often schedule our appointments over the course of 2 - 3 days.  Mostly because the testing is long and tiresome and they schedule in breaks for the kids.  It is exhausting mentally and physically.  Not just for the kids, but for me also.  Again, while I love this place to death- there is nothing more disheartening to listen to the results of the testing after a few long days.  I hate hearing how far behind my kids are.  Just when I think they are improving so much, it leaves me deflated to hear what age level they are at developmentally.  Ezra was diagnosed with autism while we still lived in California, but Asher received his diagnosis here.  Anyway, I really hate to complain about what a blessing it is to have such amazing doctors, research, and therapies at my finger tips.

This past week was our big Kennedy Krieger visit for Asher's 32 month appointment.  Now that the boys have a diagnosis, the doctors here closely follow them, offer advice and therapy suggestions, and do follow up testing to see if they have improved.  The testing they do is also used for their research and new findings in the autism world. 

Asher was less than 5 months old when Ezra was diagnosed with autism.  Most people aren't aware that if you have one child with autism that there is almost a 20% chance that you will have another child with autism.  Especially if that child is a boy.  Now, while they still have no idea the causes of autism (although there are tons of studies, articles, and journals that have theories) they are sure that it is in some small part genetic.  So at the age of 5 months old we had Asher participate in a sibling autism study at the University of Maryland.  Even at the 6 month mark, Asher was behind where he should be developmentally for his age.  I remember the day so well like it was yesterday.  Asher had his 14 month appointment with the sibling autism study and all signs pointed to him also having autism.  I wanted to crumble into a ball and die.  I remember driving home with sweet baby Asher in the car.  It was crazy raining, and my eyes were so full of tears I couldn't see where I was driving.  I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Asher, happy as a clam, with his fuzzy stick straight hair and big blue eyes.  I didn't care what label the world gave him.  So what, he has autism- I told myself.  Some people have children dying from cancer.  Ezra and Asher definitely weren't dying, so what was I crying about?  I scraped myself off the floor (although I still sometimes have to do that) and told myself that I would be their advocate.  They didn't have a voice, so I would scream to the whole world and be rooting for them, cheering them on, and advocating for them here on out.  Anyway, sorry for the rant, but because of Ezra's diagnosis we were super vigilant in testing Asher, taking him to see doctors, and having him in therapy and play groups.

What a cute little stinker

Now onto our appointment!  They first start with an eye tracking test.  This is such an interesting and fascinating test.  They start with Asher strapped in a  high chair and have him watch a short cartoon.  They played a 30 second Thomas the Train clip to get him interested in the video and for the computer to lock on his eyes.  Then they will show short video clips, pictures of faces, and geometric shapes to see what Asher is interested in looking at.

They use a red dot for him to lock his eyes on so that they will be able to track his eye movements.

I know this picture is crazy blurry, but here is examples of some of the things Asher would be looking at.  Here there is a picture of a man's face and to the side a brightly colored geometric shape.  Some research and studies have found that children with an ASD usually prefer to look at the geometric shape over the person's face and eyes.  To understand more about this, you can view a research study out of UC San Diego where they tested the exact same thing.

Next is the ADOS, which stands for Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule.  Basically, it's just a test where an examiner observes Asher.  They observe how he plays with things, how he communicates, and how he responds to certain obstacles the examiner puts up.  I didn't take many pictures, but here is Asher in his first test.

They take Asher into a room with a 2 way mirror where there is a bunch of different toys that he can play with.  Asher thinks that he is alone and they observe him playing by himself for 10 minutes.  They see what toy he wants to play with and how he plays with that toy (if he plays appropriately).  My kids always always always enjoy toys that have an aspect of cause and effect.  Here Asher is hitting balls into a toy with a little hammer.  He does something and then something happens-- cause and effect.

I like to think that this is just the little genius engineer in him. :-)  We had to show both Ezra and Asher (and we continually show them) how to play with most toys.  Like you push a car on the ground and make vroom vroom sounds.  Or you tuck in baby Elmo in his bed with a blanket and give him a kiss.  Or you fly a rocketship in the air and not just hold it in front of your face and spin it's wheels.  While pretend play and childhood play comes so easily to other kids, we have taught these boys how to appropriately play with certain toys.  And when I say "we" I am probably taking most of the credit.  When I say "we" I mean the therapists, teachers, and aides that work with our boys everyday.  Now we are trying to have more toys in our home that are not cause and effect (trying to limit that iPad!!!!) and that foster pretend play skills.

They did a number of other testing over the 2 days we were there.  Gross motor, fine motor, speech, coordination, head size, eye gazes, and communication were all tested.

Taking a juice box break

The good news: we survived the testing and no humans were harmed in the making of this movie!  Ha ha.  Also, Asher is improving.  He is still about a year behind in his age level, but he is improving everyday and making our house such a happy one in the process.  I love absolutely everything about this kid.  No matter what the world calls it: autism, PDD, Aspergers, or whatever else they come up with.  Asher is still my Asher and he is pretty awesome.

Ready to Go to Costco?

I try really hard to not take the boys out shopping.  Mostly because it's a pain.  I find myself forgetting half of the things I was planning on buying.  Or worse, coming home with a bag of neon blue candy suckers or a pink furry robot cat that purrs and walks.  Not speaking from experience here, wink.  I pick my battles.  And while I wouldn't willingly give the kids a huge neon blue sucker (hello blue saliva that stains their clothes FOREVER) to munch on, I'd be willing to give it to them when we're in the middle of Target and we are almost in full on meltdown mode.  Actually, I'd be willing to give them anything if it just meant calm bodies and happy boys until we reach the car.  Am I the only mother that does this?  Gosh, I hope not.

The other week I had to pick up some 1 hour prints at Costco.  The boys were home from school, so we all went and made it a family event to pick them up.  Can I just quickly say how grateful I am for large Costco shopping carts?  Enough space for both of them in those carts!  We love Trader Joe's, but I swear we've been asked to leave on two different occasions because of those teeny tiny shopping carts and the fighting that ensues!  But I digress...

Anyway, the prints weren't ready by the time that we got there.  They told us to come back in 10 minutes.  So we perused the Christmas aisle.  Ez and Ash loved the Christmas aisle and loved looking at the bright lights and Christmas trees.  They touched everything.  I let them. (GASP!)  Ten minutes flew by.  We left the Christmas aisle, picked up our prints, and headed home.  End of story. 

The following Monday was a no school day because of fall break and parent teacher conferences.  I was worried about this day because sometimes the smallest change in routine can really throw the kids off.  I got Ezra up first, like I always do, and started helping him get dressed for the day.  I asked him: "Ezra, what do you want to do today?"  Now you need to understand that I wasn't expecting an answer.  Ezra doesn't answer questions if he doesn't have the answer memorized or if the question isn't concrete.  He also portrays some Echolalia, where instead of answering the question, he would just repeat back to me, "Ezra what do you want to do today?"  We've been working on answering questions for over a year.  He now can tell you his name when asked.  He can also tell you which planet is the biggest, which planet is the closest to the sun, and which planet has rings.  He can't tell you how old he is.  Or who is his brother.  But we're working on it.  He's good at receptively labeling things (like "what's this?" *pointing to a chair* "chair!"  or "who is that?"  *pointing to Asher* "Asher!")

Anyway, back to my story.  So I asked him what he wanted to do today.  He looked up at me and said: "Ready to go to Costco!"  I literally fell to the ground.  Mostly because I was shocked and surprised.  I didn't know if this was just a coincidence.  Maybe he didn't understand my question and he had been thinking about all of those awesome Christmas decorations at Costco and it was just a coincidence.  I don't know, but I also didn't care.  I wanted to reward him for being the best kid ever.  So dang it, we spent the whole day at Costco.

You probably think I am kidding.  And maybe I am exaggerating just a teensy bit, but we did spend a good 3 hours that day at Costco.  It was actually so adorable to watch Ezra know and tell me exactly what he wanted.  I was silently having a party and cheering him on! 

When we finally reached Costco that day Ezra just kept saying: "ready to go to Costco!  Yeah, Costco, yeah Costco!"  The boys got in the shopping cart and I pushed it inside.  Ezra moved to the front of the shopping cart and directed me to exactly where he wanted to go.  He pointed and said: "that way, that way, that way!"  While pointing to the exact aisle I should go to.  Of course, we ended up in the Christmas aisle.  Ezra especially loved this very breakable and fragile snowman with a moving train inside of if.  He loved it so much that if it wasn't $70 bucks I probably would have bought it for him.  He was mesmerized.

And like I said earlier, we literally spent 3 hours in Costco on that Christmas aisle.  A very well spent 3 hours, I think.

Celebrating Halloween!

Here is proof that we celebrated Halloween this year!  The boys were train engineer drivers.  Ez was a driver for Thomas the train and Ash was a driver for a no name train. :-)

Don't mind the chocolate on his face!

This was pre- chocolate on his face. :-)

I'll be honest, it's easy for us to skip holidays.  The boys usually get pretty over stimulated no matter the holiday.  4th of July?  Too loud.  Easter egg hunt?  Forget it.  Halloween?  Too scary, too much candy, too much sensory overload.  Also, they still aren't really aware of holidays yet.  Even though Ez is almost 5 he wouldn't have a clue that we skipped Halloween, Thanksgiving, or even Christmas.  That's not typical for most almost 5 year olds, right?

Although, this year Ez has taken much more interest in holiday stuff.  We have 3 pumpkins on our front porch that we decorated for Halloween and Ez calls it our 'pumpkin patch'.  I also took him to Costco the other day and he took a keen interest in the Christmas aisle.  So he is slowly becoming more aware.

On to Halloween!  We went to a 'trunk or treat' put on by our church the night before Halloween.  They had a chili and cornbread dinner, then a costume parade, and then everyone went outside for the candy.  We came early so we could get a seat and avoid too much noise.  The boys would only eat the cornbread muffins and a chocolate cookie.  This was not a surprise. 

By the time the dinner was over, the boys were getting really agitated.  It was really loud and there was a lot of strange and fun costumes to look at.  They both started running laps around the church.  This was our cue.  Even though I wanted so badly to have them show off their costumes in the parade, we knew they wouldn't be able to handle it.  I brought some candy for the trunk or treat portion too, but sadly we wouldn't be able to participate.

Running laps!

 The actual night of Halloween was the next night.  We dressed the boys up in there costumes again, and went around to our neighbors in our cul-de-sac.  They both only lasted a few minutes before they wanted to go back home.  I was really proud of Ezra.  He wasn't so great at saying 'trick or treat' but he was awesome at saying 'thank you' each time a piece of candy was dropped into his bucket. 

We had a great Halloween!  We had some minor tantrums, but overall a successful sugar induced coma night!