Last Sunday fall ball came to an end with a double-header. It was also one of the best days of the season for Connor.
First, there was this photo. The whole team is swarming Connor and congratulating him (mostly by slapping their hands on top of his white helmet, but also one team member trying to pick him up). You see, Connor got his very first in-the-park homerun. It was a solid line drive down the right field line. The right fielder (a girl, Connor is quick to point out) couldn't get close to it in time to knock it down. And it rolled all the way to the fence. And he ran all the way around the bases, sliding into home just as the ball came in. The catcher dropped it, and he ended up sliding through home and pushing the catcher and the ball out of the way.
Best. Day. Ever. Or so Connor told us.
And we were also pretty impressed with another first. Connor has been playing shortstop the last half of the season. And while he's pretty good at knocking balls down and keeping them in the infield, his ability to catch a fly ball has been pretty non-existent.
Until Sunday. A ball was hit just outside of the infield, between second base and center field. The kid ran back to it, continued backing up and extended his arm pretty far out to make an impressive catch.
Nothing like waiting until the end of the season for a few of those critical firsts. First homerun. First fly ball catch.
Connor wants to know how long until Spring again.
And the twins say it's a really, really long time, thank you very much.
The last group of baseball photos for the season are here.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Big Moments
One day. Two very big moments.
The first was Sawyer at OT this afternoon. We have been slowly working on an exercise the last few weeks that involves Sawyer using his hands to grip a "pull" and use his hand and arm strength to hold on while in motion. We have tried it in multiple ways - both while using the coveted swings and also the less-coveted scooter board. He generally lets go the minute he has to exert pressure to maintain that hand hold. The last few weeks we've been using modeling with Xander. The boys have separate therapists, but we have been meeting up at the end of the sessions in a single room. The exercise involves laying on your stomach on the scooter board and holding onto the pull with your hands and arms while the therapist drags you around the room (have I mentioned OT is actually a lot of fun?) Both boys work independently in these joint sessions, but we have Xander start each activity so that Sawyer can see what is expected. And it's been working very, very well. Last week Sawyer mostly watched. When it was his turn, he dropped the pull within a few seconds. This week he held on for the entire pull around the room. Not once, but on multiple attempts. He held on, using not just that all important hand grip but also his arms. Big, big step for him.
The second was Xander at home. He inherited Connor's old bike (the one with the training wheels) when Connor outgrew it and moved up to a bigger frame without training wheels. Up until today, he's only sat on the bike and used his feet to "walk" it around while steering with his hands. We have made numerous attempts to teach him how the pedals work. He would usually do it once, then drop his feet. Or worse, start trying to go backwards (which, of course, on this particular bike is the brakes). Today, after just a few minutes of help (don't tell my surgeon, but I may have bent over and used my hands to hold his feet on the pedals for the length of our yard). And that was all it took. From that point on, he was pedaling all on his own. Big, big step. We'll not worry about those training wheels just yet.
And yesterday was kind of a big moment, too. Our private speech therapist has been in the process of doing an updated evaluation of Sawyer's speech goals. Last week I picked him up from school and took him to an early session so she could work on some of the standardized evaluations (which our usual after school session is not particularly conducive to, since he's sometimes done after a full day at school). His scores had of course improved, but they are still far behind a typical six year old. And we've still been working on some other segments in our after-school session. A few people had thrown out the idea that in addition to autism, Sawyer might also have apraxia. And his scores on some of the evaluations seem to support the theory. We'll have to do a few more evaluations and also make an appointment with the twins' ENT in the coming weeks.
Okay, maybe it was two days and three moments. It's hard to keep track, they seem to happen so much lately. Life is busy right now, but it's also good ...
The first was Sawyer at OT this afternoon. We have been slowly working on an exercise the last few weeks that involves Sawyer using his hands to grip a "pull" and use his hand and arm strength to hold on while in motion. We have tried it in multiple ways - both while using the coveted swings and also the less-coveted scooter board. He generally lets go the minute he has to exert pressure to maintain that hand hold. The last few weeks we've been using modeling with Xander. The boys have separate therapists, but we have been meeting up at the end of the sessions in a single room. The exercise involves laying on your stomach on the scooter board and holding onto the pull with your hands and arms while the therapist drags you around the room (have I mentioned OT is actually a lot of fun?) Both boys work independently in these joint sessions, but we have Xander start each activity so that Sawyer can see what is expected. And it's been working very, very well. Last week Sawyer mostly watched. When it was his turn, he dropped the pull within a few seconds. This week he held on for the entire pull around the room. Not once, but on multiple attempts. He held on, using not just that all important hand grip but also his arms. Big, big step for him.
The second was Xander at home. He inherited Connor's old bike (the one with the training wheels) when Connor outgrew it and moved up to a bigger frame without training wheels. Up until today, he's only sat on the bike and used his feet to "walk" it around while steering with his hands. We have made numerous attempts to teach him how the pedals work. He would usually do it once, then drop his feet. Or worse, start trying to go backwards (which, of course, on this particular bike is the brakes). Today, after just a few minutes of help (don't tell my surgeon, but I may have bent over and used my hands to hold his feet on the pedals for the length of our yard). And that was all it took. From that point on, he was pedaling all on his own. Big, big step. We'll not worry about those training wheels just yet.
And yesterday was kind of a big moment, too. Our private speech therapist has been in the process of doing an updated evaluation of Sawyer's speech goals. Last week I picked him up from school and took him to an early session so she could work on some of the standardized evaluations (which our usual after school session is not particularly conducive to, since he's sometimes done after a full day at school). His scores had of course improved, but they are still far behind a typical six year old. And we've still been working on some other segments in our after-school session. A few people had thrown out the idea that in addition to autism, Sawyer might also have apraxia. And his scores on some of the evaluations seem to support the theory. We'll have to do a few more evaluations and also make an appointment with the twins' ENT in the coming weeks.
Okay, maybe it was two days and three moments. It's hard to keep track, they seem to happen so much lately. Life is busy right now, but it's also good ...
Friday, September 28, 2012
Second Grade Field Trip
Let's just say it was a little bit silly and a lot of fun. More details to follow ...
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Sensory Afternoon
Even after a full hour of their weekly OT session, the boys were still in the mood for a little sensory play time.
Who needs a real bed when you can have a swing in your room, right Sawyer?
We took his bed apart a few months back and just put his mattress on the floor so that we could give them more room to swing (a few too many cuts on their ankles from banging into the foot board). The light fixture keeps us from truly centering it in the room, but it's close.
We were actually going to get rid of his bed altogether and had ordered him a giant crash mat. Amazon somehow managed to lose this 5 foot by 5 foot, incredibly heavy (as in nearly $40 in shipping charges) item in transit. And they also forgot to tell us about it, because they charged our credit card and we never got it. But my annoyance with Amazon isn't the point.
The point is moving the swing and making Sawyer's room a virtual gym for the twins was worth it. And Sawyer couldn't be happier with the arrangement, in case you can't tell from the video. Gives him something to do on those days when he decides 2 a.m. is a good time to be up for the day and the rest of us still think it's a good time to be sleeping.
Just another day in the life ...
Who needs a real bed when you can have a swing in your room, right Sawyer?
We took his bed apart a few months back and just put his mattress on the floor so that we could give them more room to swing (a few too many cuts on their ankles from banging into the foot board). The light fixture keeps us from truly centering it in the room, but it's close.
We were actually going to get rid of his bed altogether and had ordered him a giant crash mat. Amazon somehow managed to lose this 5 foot by 5 foot, incredibly heavy (as in nearly $40 in shipping charges) item in transit. And they also forgot to tell us about it, because they charged our credit card and we never got it. But my annoyance with Amazon isn't the point.
The point is moving the swing and making Sawyer's room a virtual gym for the twins was worth it. And Sawyer couldn't be happier with the arrangement, in case you can't tell from the video. Gives him something to do on those days when he decides 2 a.m. is a good time to be up for the day and the rest of us still think it's a good time to be sleeping.
Just another day in the life ...
Stocking Up
My apologies to the other GFCF parents shopping at our local grocery store. You have no idea how hard it is to find some of the more popular items, and this expensive little box of Gluten-Free Bisquick is one of the more elusive ones. Our local store has been totally out of it every time I've shopped there the last month or so.
And it's probably because of parents just like me. When you see it on the shelf, you stock up. I took all four boxes, and those were the only ones that were left.
We won't talk about how I had nearly the same experience with the Snyder's Gluten-Free pretzels at Whole Foods. I may or may not have bought 12 bags the day I finally found them. And also ordered another case of 12 from an online retailer.
This diet is hard. Really, really hard for our boys. They are already extremely picky eaters. Xander is a vegetarian, refusing to take more than a tentative bite of any kind of meat before attempting to either gag or screaming "No Thanks!" in your face (usually with tears to go along with it). Sawyer might be joining him. We've had a hard time getting him to eat meat after a recent overdose of bacon (perhaps half a pound) one day at lunch. He's been squeamish about touching most meat since that day and the resulting stomach ache.
The boys eat the same things over and over again. Fruit. Applesauce. GFCF chips and crackers. GFCF cereal. Soy yogurt (Xander only). GFCF spaghetti (Sawyer only). Non-starch french fries. And that's pretty much it. For every single meal, every single day. Variety is hard to come by, and I know it has to get old for them.
We have seen pretty remarkable improvements in both boys since we began the diet over the summer. Eye contact is so much better, for both boys, but especially for Sawyer. Focus and attention are better. Ability to sit still and perform tasks at the table is better.
I didn't want to believe in the diet. I didn't want to see improvements. But not that I have, I can't go back. And as much as I would love to let the boys cheat now and then (we did that for a while), I've also seen what a little cheating can do. Massive behavior changes. Xander unable to sit or focus, bouncing off the walls and vocalizing and scripting all day long. Sawyer withdrawing into his own world, not meeting your eyes or seeking your attention.
So we're continuing with the diet. We're trying harder and harder not to cheat at all, because it does make a huge difference. The boys are handling it as well as could be expected. There have been a few moments of Sawyer trying to steal gluten from any available place (Connor's Buffalo Wild Wings the other night at dinner, for one). It breaks my heart when I hear how hard he tries to get in line at the school cafeteria on pizza days. We've not had any luck on finding a dairy-free cheese that is both tastes good and doesn't offend their extreme texture issues. And it break my heart when Xander painfully points out every single Arby's we see in our daily travels (and there are more than I had ever really noticed, quite frankly).
Thanks goodness for Chick-fil-a and their efforts to provide GFCF food. Just yesterday Xander has some of their french fries, and Sawyer tentatively ate the new grilled chicken nuggets (no breading). That whole meat issue still working itself out, but I think he will eventually be happy with them.
Like I said, it's hard. But the benefits are definitely worth the effort. And who knows, maybe someday some of the other restaurants will work a little harder to make some GFCF food.
Until then, you'll just have to forgive me for picking up the last four boxes of Gluten-Free Bisquick. Or the last dozen bags of Snyder's Gluten-Free pretzels. We stick with what works around here ...
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