December 26, 2006

  • A Christmas Memory

    I'll never forget the time I found out that there was no Santa Claus.
    I must have been 7 or 8 years old, maybe younger. It was not necessarily around Christmas time, but probably not too long after...perhaps in February or March...and it was my older brother, Dave, that broke the news--he must have been 14 or 15 years old. I was in his bedroom for some reason, and we got in an argument. Now, my brother Dave was really anal about his bedroom when we were young. He would know if anything had been touched in there, and so maybe that's what we were fighting about, I don't know. It's not really important--the point is that we starting fighting like siblings do, and it escalated to the point where Dave said something to the effect of, "Oh yeah, well there is no Santa Claus!" Well, of course I didn't believe him at first, but then he provided proof-the box the bike was in I had gotten that year from Santa was in his bedroom. I'm pretty sure I screamed and cried for a long time after that...
    Well...I certainly don't harbor any bitterness against my brother or anything, I mean, I tortured my little brother enough too. What else are brothers for?

    Today was great.
    We had family from down here over to our house today for Christmas dinner, so we spent some of the morning cooking, but it was great fun to watch the kids (mostly Nathaniel) open his gifts. He said some pretty hilarious things...I wish I could remember them all...here's a few:

    "I LOVE sewing!!!" after receiving a sewing thing...

    "All of my wishes came true!!" after getting his scooter and a set of jacks from Santa Claus...

    "I am sooooo thankful" about getting his presents...

    and there are so many more that I just can't think of right now, but it was very funny.

    Noah is not in a good place. He had some gluten a week or two ago and it has caused a tremendous amount of regression in his behavior. He has turned back the clock about 6 months on most of his skills. He still functions well, but he is not interacting well. He is not following instruction well, he is constantly "stimming" (negative stimulative behavior that gives great pleasure to his mind, but brings him deeper into his own world), he is grunting and screaming again and is not attentive during his therapy. He had some french fries he wasn't supposed to have almost two weeks ago. His behavior worsened, and we and his therapists noticed. The unfortunate thing is that gluten can take several months to work its way out of the blood stream. So we're loading him up with fluids, trying to get stuff through his body, but he continues to act strangely. We're hoping the symptoms go away soon.

    You should check out our site again, I'm continually changing it and adding stuff to it--this time I added video clips and some new Buzzlighter scores (including Mike's scores on his first and second time through the game). Also, if you like the show Friends, you'll love SCENE IT-Friends Edition. True to form, we got Mike a game for Christmas and then played it...it was VERY fun, even though I'm not a huuuuge Friends fan like my wife and some other people I know.

    Yay for holiday break!

Comments (3)

  • Friends Scene-It rules! Thanks guys.

    Could this be the best Christmas day ever? Hmm...

  • Hurray--so glad it was a good Christmas for Nathaniel and all!  Just a thought about Noah--the break in routine and extra stimulation due to the holidays often sets Shawn off in his behavior.  He regresses during the holidays, too.  It took me awhile to figure out the cause.  Now, I expect it and plan for it better than I used to but still it is not completely unavoidable. It probably is mostly the gluten for Noah, but it might be some of the adjustments he is making with the holiday schedule--adjustments that we think little about, but are harder for him.  I say this only to encourage you so that you don't think that it is all because of the french fries.  :)

  • How did Noah get his hands on french fries?  Darn.  Hope you see positive changes soon.

    One of my cousin's cousins just moved here from Hawaii, and they have a daughter who's autistic and a son with ADHD.  They have their hands full, I'll tell you!  We spent some time with them on Saturday night & then again on Sunday morning (at church and after), and I think they're going to be coming to Midway.  I wonder if the Sunday School teachers can handle kids with special needs.  It's a tough job.

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