Age of Autism - Wow

If ever there was a day to read the Age of Autism Blog, today is it.

The first story is about a little publicized vaccine court ruling in FAVOR of parents of a child who developed ASD as a result of the MMR.

There is another link to a Huffington Post piece on the same topic.

And, there is a story where the CDC admits that ASD has an environmental component.

When is the world going to wake up and listen? How can we keep harming our kids? Please, go to Age of Autism and read from the top down. Today is a day you just can't afford to miss.

OK, I will

I'm sitting here shocked. Michael and I have both been sick for the last few days. He's on the mend, I'm not doing as well. Steve was upstairs checking on some things that he needs to do before going to a meeting tonight when his dinner 'dinged'.

I asked Michael (who is feeling well enough to be sent on errands) to go upstairs and tell him his dinner is ready. Immediate answer "OK, I will" and off he went. He delivered the exact message I asked.

I've never seen such cooperation as we have the last few days. Could it be the fever? Is it that he's on his second week of enhansa? We haven't had any side effects from the enhansa (unless they've been covered up by the cold), but wow. I'm speechless, and it's not just my lack of a voice!

Happiest Child on the Planet

I think we are in the presence of the happiest child on the planet – and once again it all started with the Wii. For Christmas, Michael’s Grandma gave him a copy of Wii Music. He immediately fell in love with the drums. Even though he still likes to just mess around with the menus and bop from activity to activity, he did spend a while taking the drum lessons and learning how to use some of the controls.
After a few weeks of ‘practice’ with the Wii, Michael decided it was time to beg for ‘real wii drums’. In other words, he wanted a real drum kit. An electronic one just wouldn’t do. I guess mostly because it didn’t look anything like the drums on the game.

Steve, being the wonderful father he is, sacrificed one of his guitars to trade for the drum kit. His Mom (the same Grandma that gave Michael the Wii music game) chipped in the difference. They hadn’t said anything to Michael about getting the drum kit, but when Steve was leaving with the guitar, Michael asked him where he was going. Steve told him he was going to the music store. Michael’s immediate answer was that ‘Daddy is going to the music store to get me a real Wii drum kit!”. I guess he was right!

When Steve got home and brought in the high hat cymbal, Michael was literally dancing around it in excitement. Even though he wanted the drum kit, I don’t think he was really expecting one to appear in his house. Michael was supposed to stay upstairs with his Uncle and Grandma while Steve put the whole kit together. He was so excited he just had to keep running downstairs to check on the progress. I don’t think he’s ever been so excited about something.

The best part of all was when he immediately was able to generalize the lessons from the video game to the real drum. He sat right down and knew how to work the foot pedals, and what each of the parts was called. It was so exciting to see! He didn’t quite get to bed on time last night and I’ll give you one guess as to what he wanted to do first thing this morning.

Why Questions and a Free Chess Game!

Michael has finally started asking "WHY" questions! I know that this can be the beginning of a lot of very difficult/annoying questions, but I am so excited!! It took him forever to start asking any questions, and now we've gotten 3 why questions!

Why can't I?
Why do you like reading?
Why are opposites bad? (They're not until you get them as an answer whenever he's in a bad mood)

I can't tell you how many nights I've worried about when he would start to ask these questions, and now he finally is. I am so excited!!!!!!

And, if your kid is into Chess, today's game giveaway is GrandMaster Chess. I'm not much of a chess player, but I know a lot of our kids are. And, free is good, right?

"Are you alright Daddy?"

I guess it's been a good evening. Even though Michael didn't want to do his homework, he eventually did. I was surprised that he understood the different between goods and services, and volunteering versus working. He's also getting really good at his math work. I'm pretty happy!

Afterwards, Michael was in the family room playing his wii, and Steve was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner. Michael was fairly absorbed in his game, but did hear Steve say "Ouch!" when he hit something. Michael immediately asked if he was OK. I was so shocked - situational awareness and empathy! What more could you ask for during Simms Kingdom?

Great weekend!

This has been a really great weekend. Michael had been fairly fussy most of the month, so we hadn’t been able to invite his grandmother over to visit. She is a little fragile and can get hurt very easily by just a little fussing. But, yesterday, he was excited to invite her over, and they played for quite a while. It was so much fun to see them playing together again! Plus, since my MIL hadn't seen him in a while, she was impressed with all the new skills and behavior he had learned since their last visit. Very cool!

When it was dinner time, Michael sat at the table with the rest of us and ate nicely. I don’t try to force him to stay at the table all that often since it’s very hard for him. But, when we have company, I generally push a little harder. Last night, he didn’t fuss and run away all the time. It was very nice!
Another cool thing is that he’s been able to fall asleep in his room lately. It’s so nice to have the bed kid free! He still sneaks in during the early morning, but we can live with that – for now.

And, the last, best thing - he is eating so much better. Today we bought a fresh pineapple. He watched me clean it and then ate some. He was hesitant at first but eventually ate several pieces. I am a happy Mommy! Now, if I can just get him to gain a little weight!