Lunch Date

John was still at school. I picked up Emmalee from Preschool. I asked her if she was hungry. She said, "YES!".

We drove to Taco Bell. I had meant to bring the chess game, but had forgotten it. She and I used to play chess in Taco Bell while Carolyn and John were at Purdue University on Saturdays last spring.

Instead of chess, we played tic tac toe and hangman.



She was cold but didn't want to wear her authentic poncho that her venezuelan friend had given her. She didn't want to get it messy. So she borrowed my jeans jacket and posed for this picture.

Just me and the kids for the weekend

Carolyn attended Linae's wedding in Minnesota. I have the kids for the weekend.

Pics Added

I added some pics to older blog entries.

October 2

Sept 18

Headaches and flashing lights

Emmalee is complaining of headaches. Yesterday she told Carolyn that she often sees flashing lights. She likes them because they're pretty.

We had taken her to the eye doctor and she needs glasses. We took her to the eye doctor because of her headaches. She had complained of headaches and they seemed worse after reading or playing on the computer.

We were hoping to push the eyeglasses into 2007, just for insurance reasons. But I don't want my girl to suffer.

However, the flashing lights complaint doesn't sound like an eyeglasses problem, it sounds like migraines.

The doctor confirmed that children can and often do have migraines.

Shortness Of Breath

John has shortness of breath and dry mouth that we now think is related to his Tenex. Those are listed as potential side effects. The onset of those symptoms coincided with his starting that medicine.

That means we'll probably have to switch meds.

That's a bummer because the medicine seemed to be working well.

Eye Doc

Looks like Emmalee will need to wear glasses for much of the time. Not for playing in the yard, but anything where she'll need to focus near or far away very much - like reading a book or a bulletin board or watching TV. So - most of the time. We picked out some cute frames. They have all the info and I just need to call them in January when the insurance kicks in for her. It'll only be $25 then, as opposed to $160 now.

The doctor needed to dilate her eyes to make sure she wasn't missing any prescription needs since it was obvious Emmalee was having problems both near and far. Emmalee handled it all like a champ. Actually, she was quite amazing. The doctor even commented that she was doing as well as a 10 or 12 year old. She really was, too. She never misunderstood a single instruction. She was incredibly cooperative and helpful. She had no problems reading off letters or determining which prescription was better as the doctor clicked them off. I was impressed. So was the doctor. Pretty cool. She even handled the dilation very well. What a great kid.

Retroblog

I've been putting old blog entries up on this site, some dating back to before John was born. I've enjoyed the trip down memory lane. You might enjoy it, too.

Click on the links at the lower right, labeled Archives. They start in January 1999 and the excitement and anticipation around the birth of our first child.

McScruffy

The latest in JohnSpeak (tm)...


John asked if he could have an ice cream cone at McDonalds.

"No, sorry, McDonald's ice cream cones aren't on your diet," replied mom.

"Well, how about a McScruffy?" he asked.

"What?!?"

"That ice cream shake they have with candy swirled in it," he replied.

"Oh, you mean a ... what's the word, not a Blizzard, that's Dairy Queen, .... Oh, right, a McFlurry...you want a McFlurry," said Carolyn.

"No, I think they also have a treat called a McScruffy," he insisted.

"Sorry, the McScruffy isn't on your diet either."


Mom and Dad had to swallow our laughter, he was sooooo serious.

Saxophone

Emmalee has a homework assignment to bring a bag full of items that begin with the letter "S".

We took a picture of her playing my saxophone. The sax is too big to fit in the bag, so a snapshot will do.

Wireless Networking

This is what I'm thinking of getting:

NETGEAR WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless 54 Mbps Router
(MPN: WGR614)

NETGEAR USB 2.0 54MBPS ADAPTER 802.11G
(MPN: WG111)

Tivo

We got Tivo. We are late comers to the DVR revolution. We got Tivo this past week.

Aunt Carrie swears by it. When I asked my friends at work about it, they were passionate about the benefits of it. They are True Believers.

It was marketed to us by the MOPS organization; marketed as a tool for managing what our kids watch on TV. We are tired of our VCR eating tapes, so we are switching to a digital video recorder that captures the TV shows and saved them electronically, no tapes.

It's pretty cool because you can sign up for your favorite shows and it'll record them automatically, even if the shows are preempted by stupid basketball like they are every other day in the winter in Indiana.

It's the next generation of VCR. Very cool.

tivo.com

Father and son time

John rode home with me on the motorcycle. We stopped at Hardees for a milkshake, one of the few fast-food items that are on John's diet.

John's Status

I'm sending this to let you all know before Friday's meeting what we found out at Riley today. We saw Dr. Posey in the autism clinic. After talking with us for almost 3 hours, here's what his thoughts were:

1. John is more toward the autism side of the spectrum than Asperger's. This, primarily because his communication skills are not that fluent (doesn't ask about how other people are doing; often doesn't answer direct questions, etc.)

2. Dr. Posey feels that what we've been seeing behaviorally lately could be better attributed to autism than say, Oppositional Defiance Disorder. He considered that as a diagnosis but felt it doesn't apply well because John doesn't have the prevalent irritability and anger that usually accompany that. He feels that the misbehavior we've been seeing lately at school is more due to autism in that he's testing the boundaries. John has a hard time respecting rules that he thinks he can get around (but we knew that!) And something like yelling at the principal is more of an autistic behavior in that he gets upset but has difficulty drawing the line where he should stop.

3. He didn't feel bipolar was an applicable diagnosis because we don't see obvious frantic energy or lethargy at any particular times.

4. He thinks that Tenex would be a good next medication to try. We need to take him off Strattera for at least a week before we'd start the Tenex. Tenex is known for being better at slowing down hyperactivity and impulsivity and not as good with focus issues. We're not sure which way to go with this. If we do start it, it will be after next Friday's endoscopy in Cincinnati so that we don't confuse our food trials.

5. He's also referring us to an autism and behavioral therapist at the clinic. She may have some different ideas on how to work with him.

Dr. Posey will be contacting Amy and Sharon to get more information from them. I'll let you know what we decide about the medication change and what we find out after meeting with the behavioral therapist at Riley. I don't know when that will be.

I look forward to meeting with you all on Friday. Thank you for all your help.
-Carolyn

Picnic at the park on Saturday

John climbs an ancient silo at the park. The park is on the site of an old farm, and a few things, like this stone silo, have been preserved.

As we ate our picnic dinner, we saw a grandaddy long legs walking across the sidewalk. Carolyn remembered when John was 3, he called a "Grandaddy Long Legs" a "Grand Old Spider".

She told the kids this. John got a huge grin on his face.

The kids are always fascinated to hear stories of when they were "babies".

Somewhere in the shambles we have little post-it notes, scraps of paper with cute quotes from the kids over the ages. This is likely all that is to come of those dreams of writing a book.

John's Status

No timeouts today in school. One verbal warning. Much better than last Friday with a record 6 (or was it 7) timeouts.

He seems better than last week.

Father-Son Ride

"Can we go for a motorcycle ride, Dad?" he asks.

"Sure," I reply. It doesn't take any persuading to get me out on the bike.

Sunday morning, skipping out on church. Singing hymns while riding past church parking lots packed full of cars. Rolling on the throttle and zooming past. Twisting through the hills, twists and switchbacks, the tree-lined streets of the Fall Creek area.

"Do you like twisty roads?" I ask.
"I ... don't know yet," he replies.
"Fair enough," I shrug.

"Do you like going fast?" I ask.
"I like going as fast as we possibly possibly can," he replies.
"Okay," I reply. Rolling on the throttle and pushing toward the redline. Rapid acceleration is the desired sensation. It matters more than top speed. It doesn't matter to him that I travel the speed limit; it matters that we reach the speed limit in under 3 seconds.

"Are you doing okay back there?" I ask.
"I am doing good," he replies.

"Slug-bug blue!" he yells, pointing at a passing VW Beetle.

"Are you getting hungry," I ask.
"Kinda," he replies.
"Would you like to stop for something to eat?"
"Yes," he replies.
"Would you like to eat our picnic lunch or just a snack," I ask.
"Just a snack," he replies.

Stop at a park, eat our snack. Explore. Find a baseball in the outfield. Play catch.

"Good throw!"
"Thanks, Dad."

Lots of time spent exploring, tossing a ball, exploring some more.

"Ready to go?"
"Yeah"

"Okay, let's gear up," I say. "Do you need help with your helmet?"
"No, I can do it myself," he replies.

Then, after a moment, "Is this right?"
"No, here, look at my fingers when I do it ... see?"

"Okay," he tries again, "How's this?"
"Good job!"
"Thanks, Dad."

Austism Speaks

Autism Everyday

The link above is the site for viewing "Autism Everyday" that was on Good Morning America last month.

We identified with pretty much every quote out of every mom's mouth.

A Blog For Us

A blog for us. It's time. Blogging is easier than maintaining a website. It's a time thing. We'll try it out and see if it works. If it works, there'll be more frequent updates than what you're currently seeing.

What's a blog? Blog is short for Web Log. Just a special type of website that people use to log their thoughts on the web.

Report Card

Hey guys. Of course, John doesn't get actual grades yet, but his teacher wrote a great narrative that she put in with his card. Here's what she wrote:

"John is doing a great job this year in first grade. His reading/comprehension level has increased to a beginning second grade level. He has enjoyed reading the Henry and Mudge series as well as the Frog and Toad books. I am happy that he is able to focus for longer periods of time on a book, and as the book gets longer in length, he is excited about the challenge. We are working on taking Reading Counts quizzes on some of the books.

John has been excited about writing his books during writing workshop, I have enjoyed reading his non-fiction books. Currently he is working on an "All About" book on space. He should work to revise his writing to make it even better. Please continue to work on spelling words that we have learned this year conventionally. Reinforcing tricky words weekly will help him remember the more challenging ones. He is still learning how to use the dictionary to look up unknown words.

In math John continues to do well. I am pleased that he has passed 2 of the timed tests. He is enjoying our geometry unit and is very spatially adept - solving problems ahead of his peers and creating unique and exceptional patterns and shapes. he generally does very well on the weekly math quizzes.

John continues to struggle with staying on task, but has made improvement since the beginning of school. We are working on better relations among his peers using appropriate language and interactions. I am pleased overall with John's academics and behavior this period. He is a delight to have in class. Thank you for your wonderful support and communication this school year."

Thought you might like to see that. It was sure an encouragement to me!

Metallic Silver Jeep

We saw a metallic silver Jeep today. I guess the sun
shined on it just right so it sparkled. John said "HEY! I just saw a
glitter glue Jeep!" I love the way he thinks.