Video of Katelyn Talking About School and More...

Katelyn loves to talk about school and gabs non-stop at home. I shot this video of her last night since she was in a talkative mood. Unfortunately, she is overly sensitive to the sound of Ashley's voice, so she gets a little upset at the end and asks for her comfort activity: A hug from Mommy.

Katelyn Sings the ABCs and Happy Birthday!

Katelyn has always had a love of singing, but she never sang the actual words to the songs. Instead, she would either hum or put her own "spin" on the lyrics. For example, she might sing to the tune of "This Old Man," but say, "Swing, swing, swing...swing, swing, swing...car, car, kitty, baby, mama, dada, kitty."

Then on Tuesday afternoon, she started singing the ABCs song all on her own! I was starting to sing, "A, B..." and she took right over and sang the entire song, even with the full ending! I couldn't believe it because just that morning I had told one of her ABA therapists that my next goal was to teach her to sing the ABCs all by herself. As always, Katelyn amazed us all! She also has been singing Happy Birthday to everything as well, almost to the point of it becoming an obsession. Her favorite thing to sing Happy Birthday to is a "triangle," (she says ga-ga-gangle) so every night before bed we sing Happy Birthday to the triangle (any triangle...she isn't picky).

Here is a video that I took of her on Wednesday night. She is singing the ABCs and then she sings Happy Birthday to the "triangle" -- it is really a couch pillow, but she calls them "triangles" because she is obsessed with the corners of the pillows. She knows the correct shape is a square, and will say it if you ask her, but she continues to call them triangles anyway since her latest obsession is finding triangles everywhere. I hope you find this video of Katelyn as entertaining as we do :) And thank you as always for following my blog!

Swing, Swing, Swing...

Since Katelyn is obsessed with swings, we decided to purchase an indoor swing for her that she can use on a daily basis, since we cannot go to the "boo wing" (blue swings) every day. We ordered the Rainy Day Indoor Playground from http://www.adaptivechild.com/, which specializes in toys and therapeutic items for children with special needs. The main swing is for older children (3+) and is just a piece of canvas material that you sit on, so we also purchased a toddler swing (since Katelyn still needs to be strapped in, and Ashley can also use it) and a net swing. The set also comes with a trapeze bar, but I don't think that will be used anytime soon :)

Katelyn was beside herself with excitement when Dada came home and hooked up her new swing! We had already gone to the blue swings today with Mimi, so this was an extra bonus! Once I saw her on the swing, I knew it was the perfect gift for her. I am absolutely positive that it will be used on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

Here are some pictures of Katelyn enjoying her new swing:

Ashley even got a chance to try it out when Katelyn wasn't looking ;)

"Pum at Parpy"...

Today we attended our friends' son's birthday party at a place that had indoor rides and games. Katelyn was very excited and even demonstrated some of her newfound social skills! She made eye contact with a boy her age and even said hi after just a little prompting.

She even wanted to go on some of the rides (with Mama or Dada), which is rare!

She especially loved watching the "animal band" and she danced to the music. She kept saying, "More! More!" when the curtain closed, but luckily they started playing again within seconds.

We had to pry her, and Giraffe, off of the stage!

Overall, it was a really great time. It was nice to not have to leave a party early, and it gives me hope that Katelyn will continue to get more and more used to being around other children, especially in loud places. And she really enjoyed it too. When I was putting her to bed for the night, she said, "Pum at Parpy," which was her way of saying that she had fun at the party. It truly made my day to hear her say that. I am now hopeful that we will have many more "pum" days at "parpies" in the future :)

"Coat On Bye Bye Car Swing"...

Word for word, this was Katelyn's way of telling us two days ago that she wanted to go to the park so she could swing. Given the fact that we live in New England and there was a ton of snow on the ground, I told her that the swings were closed because it was winter. Of course, she did not like that answer, and she kept on pressing: "Coat on baby's, coat on Dada's, coat on Mama's!" Saying "coat on" (usually followed by "bye bye car") is her way of saying that she wants to leave.

After listening to her plead with all her heart, Kevin and I decided why not! It actually was 50 degrees on Sunday, so despite the snow, it was a mild day (aside from the horrendous wind). We dressed the girls in their snowsuits, plopped them in the van, along with the sled, and we headed over to the nearby park. Katelyn was beyond ecstatic that we were actually going to the swings!

Once we arrived, Katelyn saw the swingset and started screaming, "Boo wing! Boo wing!" (Blue swing, because it is a blue swingset.) We traipsed through the snowy field to get to the swing. I pushed Katelyn on the swing while Kevin pulled Ashley in the sled for the first time. The girls had a great time. The best part was that it was completely Katelyn's idea and that she was able to communicate it so well.

Here are some pictures from our little snowy adventure...

I Finally Have My Girl Back...

For the past few months, Katelyn seemed to be slipping away. She would no longer feed herself independently, watch her favorite TV shows, play with her toys, walk up and down stairs, etc. She even stopped singing and clapping. Overall, she seemed very unhappy, as if she was locked inside herself and couldn't break out. But with some help, Katelyn has returned.

Since it wasn't clear if she wouldn't, or simply couldn't, do certain things that she used to do, we were not exactly sure how to handle the situation. If she truly could not do these things, it would not be fair to her for us to try to force her to do so. However, if she was just choosing not to do certain things, this would be a behavior issue that could be corrected.

Exactly one week ago, I decided it was time to try to break Katelyn free, if possible. For some reason, she would no longer enter our kitchen for the past few months, so I decided to start there. I also wanted to tackle the self-feeding issue since she was only eating if I shoved the food into her mouth. I already have an 8-month-old who cannot self-feed, so as you can imagine, having to feed my 2.5-year-old as well was time-consuming and exhausting.

So I picked Katelyn up and brought her into the middle of the kitchen. She was not happy, but she lied down on the floor. I got out one of her favorite snacks and put them in a bowl. She really wanted the snack, but she got very upset that I refused to put them in her mouth for her. I held the bowl and told her that she needed to take them out herself. She began to cry and protest, hoping that I would give in. However, after enough time went by, she finally took one out and shoved it in her mouth reluctantly. It was like a battle of wills, not against me, but against herself. I praised her a ton and then I put the bowl down on the floor, no longer holding it for her. Once again, after some tantruming, she finally took one out of the bowl. Again, more praise. All in all, it took an hour and a half to get her to successfully feed herself, but it was worth every minute. This was a huge breakthrough!

I then decided to see if she would feed herself at the coffee table, since she had been refusing to even go near it for months. I put the bowl on the table and turned on Blue's Clues. With some prompting and reassurance, she finally went over to the table and fed herself. I praised and praised her. She became very excited to receive the praise. I could see the pride that she felt. It was then that I knew that she was not incapable of doing things that she once did, she just lacked the confidence. It was like she just got stuck in a rut and didn't know how to get out, but I opened up the door for her. Finally, my happy girl was back!

As if a magic switch had been turned on, Katelyn quickly resumed to many of her old activities. She now walks up and down the stairs completely independently, feeds herself (she even used a fork and spoon tonight and she did well!), doesn't require Mama and Dada to be in the same room with her all of the time, and she even has been incredibly sweet with her baby sister. She is constantly laughing and smiling, and you can just see the difference in her. Also, her language has just exploded and she is actually starting to form sentences! And to think, just a few months ago, we weren't sure if she would ever say more than one- or two-word phrases.

Also, her ABA therapy started last week and Katelyn is doing amazingly well. She already has a bond with her ABA therapist, Aimee, and she is enjoying the one-on-one sessions. And now that she has the language skills, we are able to see just how smart she truly is. She continues to amaze me every day.

Katelyn has taught me many things in her short life so far, but one of the most important lessons that I have learned is to cherish the small accomplishments and never take anything for granted. When you have a child with autism or developmental delays, you really hold onto the little successes, and if and when your autistic child reaches the "normal" milestones, even if it takes months or years longer than other children, it is truly euphoric. It is almost like witnessing a miracle because it isn't definite that your autistic child will ever do some of the things that other children do naturally. After witnessing, and being a part of, Katelyn's recent breakthrough, I feel on top of the world. I finally have my girl back, and I am never letting her go.

More Than We Bargained For...

It is a good thing that I did not bet money on how Katelyn would respond to getting the electrodes stuck to her head because she did way better than I had anticipated! Of course, she was not happy about it, but after the first few minutes, she did great and no sedation was required. The nurses and doctors were all amazing throughout our stay. They brought in some toys for Katelyn, one of which was a tube with beads that sound like rain when they fall. This became her "go-to" toy whenever anyone was going to mess with her head (no pun intended). She would shout, "Beads! Beads!" and we would quickly distract her with the bead tube. They also wheeled in her very own DVD player so she could watch Dora as much as she wanted to, much to our chagrin :)

Things definitely did not go as planned from the get-go; there were some good and some bad surprises. They did allow Kevin to stay with me, which was a huge relief for me. Even with the two of us there, it was still not easy to be stuck in a tiny hospital room with a 2.5-year-old who demands 24-hour attention from Mama and Dada. The food was obviously not meant for human consumption, so that was quite disappointing. We ended up living on ice coffees and donuts for the most part since there was a Dunkin' Donuts in the building, thank God.

Our 24-hour EEG turned into an exhausting 72-hour EEG because, despite the fact that Katelyn was exhibiting concerning behaviors multiple times a day prior to hospitalization, she did not demonstrate even ONE single event while admitted. Isn't it ironic (insert sarcastic smiley face here). The neurologist wanted to be sure that he did all that he could to attempt to witness any seizure activity, but unfortunately it never occurred. Therefore, we are still not 100% sure that she is not having seizures, but it certainly is promising that she did not show any signs of seizures while under observation. We were really hoping that she would do that strange behavior, even if just to rule out that it is a seizure so we would know for the future, but the good thing is that she has not had one of those events since, so we are optimistic for the moment.

As if being in the hospital for three nights with a 2.5-year-old wasn't enough, the worst was yet to come. Shortly after we put her down for the evening on the last night, Katelyn started throwing up all over herself. Even poor Giraffe got his fair share. She continued to be sick until around 1 a.m., but then finally slept the rest of the night. The next morning, the doctor told us that they wanted to keep her for a few hours after her electrodes were removed, just to be sure that she was okay since she had vomited the night before and there was a GI bug going around the floor. Right as we were about to be discharged, the nurse checked her temp and it was 102. The doctor said that he would keep her if we chose, but we were so sick of being in that hospital that we decided to take her home. Unfortunately, she threw up all over herself in the van when we were only a few minutes from the house.

The next morning, I ended up becoming violently ill, and by that evening, Kevin was also extremely sick. Neither one of us were in any condition to take care of ourselves, let alone Katelyn, but we did what we had to do, even when she woke in the night vomiting again. Luckily, Kevin's parents were gracious enough to keep Ashley so that she would not get sick too. We finally seem to be on the mend now, and Ashley is finally home with us after being at Grammy and Papa's for a week.

So, all in all, it certainly was not a dream vacation, and we didn't get any concrete answers, but at least it was memorable. I'm sure we will look back and laugh at this some day.

Giraffe and Dada got "hats" too...

Katelyn lined up her animals and played with balloons...

With Mama when we arrived/with Dada on the last day...

Bad Day at the Office...

Yesterday was Ashey's 6-month doctor visit. I didn't expect there to be a problem since the appointment was for Ashley and not for Katelyn. Boy, was I wrong!

Katelyn started out okay for the first few minutes, but then she saw a man sitting in the waiting room and said, "Hi Dada." He laughed and I explained that she calls all men "Dada." Well, then she proceeds to run to him saying, "Dada!!!!!" I go get her before she leaps on him and at first she is laughing. Then she goes into a fit of RAGE! She started screaming at the top of her lungs -- I thought the windows were going to crack! She was flailing, kicking, punching, screaming "Dada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and she even resorted to biting and clawing me. I was holding both of her arms so tight and she was fighting me, which was so hard. She kept screaming for Dada, but I was trying to explain to her that it wasn't Dada. He didn't even look like him! The man felt awful.

This went on for over a half hour, with the entire waiting room just looking in disbelief. I almost lost my mind. I told myself I had to keep calm because if I lost it in public, it would do no good for anyone. Finally, they called Ashley's name. I was about to go to the window and see if they would please take her sooner since Katelyn was having the worse meltdown she EVER had, and in public.

It felt awful to have her go through this, and it was certainly embarrassing to me since it happened in public, although at the time I tried really hard to ignore all of the stares. The worst part of all was that I realized that this was only the beginning -- there will most likely be MANY more days like this, and many more stares to ignore. That makes me so sad, not for me, but for Katelyn. Hopefully once she gets her diagnosis, we can proceed with therapies to help her (and me) in these situations.

Needless to say, I will never take the 2 girls to the doctor's office by myself again :)

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree...

This is the first year that Katelyn is old enough to really appreciate Christmas...well, maybe not the true meaning of Christmas, but at least the "ites" and the "green tee" (translation: lights and green tree). She was super excited when Dada came through the front door with a giant tree. She couldn't believe it was going to be in our house! She didn't leave Dada's side until it was completely finished, clapping and cheering him on. And she even helped decorate! Unfortunately, we had some icicle casualties, but that's okay. She had fun in the process :)

Katelyn hanging an icicle...

Katelyn spotting an ornament with a giraffe on it...

The finished product, complete with crooked angel and ornament-free bottom...

Ashley supervised and gave her smile of approval, dimple and all...

On Thanksgiving Day, Katelyn was thankful for...

Spending Thanksgiving at Uncle Pete and Auntie Amy's House!

"poobs" (tubes)

Sticks

Mama's Necklace (note the red scratches on my neck from her trying to rip it off of me)

Dada warming up her cold hands

Paper Tablecloths (so she can tear pieces off!)

Tickles!!!!!

Her Baby Sister, Ashley

And Katelyn is also thankful for all of the wonderful people in her life who love her very, very much, and are doing everything they can to help her become the amazing little girl that she is.

Thank you.

Who Needs Toys?

With a house FULL of every toy imaginable, Katelyn's favorite thing at the moment (aside from Giraffe, of course) is cardboard tubes. Whether they be from toilet paper, paper towels, or Christmas wrap, they get the job done. And the more, the merrier. She carries them all over the house, rolls them back and forth, snuggles with them (and Giraffe), stacks them -- you name it, she does it. She affectionately refers to them as "poob" :) When they start to unravel, she shows her concern by pointing out their "boo boo" and asking me or Dada to fix it. Yesterday, her Auntie Amy gave her an indestructible "poob" that will be able to withstand Katelyn's constant play. However, it was quite long and we were concerned that she would break everything in the house or poke out her little sister's eyes, so Dada cut it into 3 equal pieces (about the size of paper towel tubes). Now she is ecstatic that she has 3 indestructible "poobs" to roughhouse with, and we are grateful that Ashley won't have to sacrifice an eye in the process.