Sunday, October 14, 2012

Fall is Here!!

Where do I begin with an update? This semester is quickly coming to an end for me, and I now have to think about what classes to take next term. So far I believe I have an A, and two B's in my classes :) My Research and Writing class has been by far the most challenging-mostly due to the instructor and lack of communication. I think I want to keep my Mon-Wed-Fri schedule, as that seems to work really well for me.

Nick has been Nick. We were in a fairly stable period behavior wise, and then he caught a little bit of something earlier this week that brought on aggression and Self Injury. Began giving him some cold medicine and nose sprays, and it seemed to go away without getting too serious, and by Thursday he was back to normal. We all had a wonderful day yesterday! Michael had his first hockey game of the season, so we spent the afternoon at the rink, and Nick made it all the way through with no meltdowns! We then went and got an early dinner from KFC-which everyone enjoyed. It was an all around good autism day :) One thing we have now noticed is that Nick still has sleep problems on the weekends. Usually on Saturday nights/early Sunday morning he will wake up sometimes around 3-4am and I am constantly having to tell him to go back to bed. He did this today, and as a result, he is fairly tired by the afternoon-early evening. He starts spending more time up in his room laying on his bed. He simply cannot take a nap though. Not that I would not like him to, I would, but his brain does not let him just 'relax'. He starts asking for "time for night night" on these days around 4-5pm. Today, he has been clearly tired and edgy this afternoon, but we have managed to hold it together behavior wise. If we can make it through dinner, we are in the home stretch.

Fall is here, and we have been enjoying the cooler temperatures! The trees are getting richer in color by the day, and before it was all said and done, last week Nick and I took advantage of a crisp fall day to admire the fall colors!




Nick has started to do something that we have thought is rather funny. He will go into Michael's part of the dresser and put on his clothes! He knows these are not his clothes, and it is just so funny to see him come downstairs in baggy pants and shirts! If we try to change him into his clothes, he puts up a protest! Nick has noticed that when Michael gets home from school-he changes out of his school clothes. So, now, Nick wants to do the same thing. When Nick gets home he wants to be put in pajamas or other clothes. It is hilarious actually. He wants to be like his big brother, and is doing things that maybe a toddler might do :)

Michael had another growth check up last Monday. It was not something I was looking forward to since both the boys were out of school, and Mike had to work. So, I was nervous about having to take Nick to an appointment that was A) not fun, and B) not even for him. Thank the Lord Nick was in a good mood, and we had no problems! The Dr measured Michael and he is 4'8" tall and 99lbs. He was not satisfied with this amount of growth, so he prescribed an oral medication and increased his growth hormone injection to 2.7mg from 2.2mg. We have been on the oral pill for one week, and so far no side effects...which I am happy about. We shall see what this does for him at our next check in Jan.

Michael also tested for his orange belt in Hapkido! He was also one of the select few from his eighth  grade class to sail on the Brig Niagara for one afternoon during school!  Have no idea what our plans are for Halloween yet, but hopefully it will not be ruined by meltdowns. Despite some bumps in the road, we have been on a rather good streak and would like to continue this way. Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend and a great week! Happy Fall!! :)