Third Birthday

We arrived to Bowling Green, found a house to rent in less than 24 hours and had one retail job secured that same night. We didn't think about where we were moving and what school our son would attend when he turned three and got handed over to the "public schools". So as soon as he turned three in January we were told that he would have to attend a school that by the looks of things, would be a very "rough" school. So to the district office I drove and we were told the only way to transfer preschools was if he attended daycare near a different school. They actually advised me enroll him in a daycare across the street from the mall. It would only cost me $50.00 a year and he wouldn't even have to attend, but it meant they would give him an alternate school so long as I provided the transportation...NO PROBLEM! So he was assigned Briarwood Elementary, one of the wealthier schools, but better than that was the teacher whom we would both come to love and cherish as she loved our son. I'll never forget the aingst in my heart bringing him to proschool for the first day. They had an alarm on the door that I knew would be tested by my son, and I remember telling them how worried I was that he would escape. Jacob was non-verbal, which means he had no language. He had lots of echolalia where he would repeat words and phrases, at this point there were a lot of Subway commercials on the televsion and his newest phrase was, "Subway...Eat Fresh!" It was a running joke for nearly a year.
January 1 2006 we had begun a gluten free diet and in doing so we had increased his dairy intake and saw his diarrhea worsen, so after two weeks I stupidly stopped the gluten free diet and went to dairy free since that seemed to be the culprit. (More on this later) Jacob ate school lunch everyday he attended school, and soy milk that they kept in the fridge. He had school monday through Thursday from 12-3:10 and Austyn and I would spend that time shopping and exploring the town.
One day turned in to the next and we saw little improvement, but Jacob did like school, and we all loved that. Mrs. Pillow was an amazing teacher and I knew that his special educators were just that...SPECIAL!

The Drive from CA to KY...(CAKY)

I have been neglecting this blog, I'll be honest, this post hurts me, although it was the beginning of our healing, sometimes the beginning of a treatment plan hurts the most, and this is the case with ours.

I'll never forget loading up our belongings and stuffing my Blazer until literally we were filled. My little girl, now ten months old, sat in the back surrounded by boxes, a cooler with our snacks and her antibiotics (she was always sick)blankets, pillows and our vacuum. My husband drove the rental truck with my son in the front seat, and towed his S-10 behind it and we said our good byes. Good bye to our home, goodbye to our town, goodbye to my parents, my community. That morning my mom came over to "see us off," and she said goodbye to her only grandchildren. I cried all the way to Vegas, I called my husband every hour or so and begged him if we could turn back. I can cry now just remembering my feeling of loss. My hopelessness and feeling of powerlessness, it was the worst feeling in the world at that moment.

Three days of fast food and driving during the daylight, sleeping in hotels along our travels, we had no reservations, no destinations along the way, just a final end point of Bowling Green Kentucky. Day two of driving my cell phone rang, it was my husband. "Something is wrong with Jacob, he put his blanket over his head and he won't take it off." My tears rolled off my chin, I knew then that we had pushed our fragile little boy further into himself. We may have lost him forever, the light in his eyes may have dimmed for the final time. I had to wonder how a two year old processed this, we had left everything familiar. His room was now packed up in boxes, his bed disassembled and stowed in the moving truck, his home cooked food replaced with fast food meals that came in sacks. His mother and sister in a car that he could only see in the review mirror...heck, I wasn't processing this well, how could I expect him to?

After three and a half days we reached Bowling Green and so began the quest to find what this town had to offer...

Gymboree GYMMIES Pajamas Sleepwear

Yesterday I purchased three pairs of pajamas from Gymboree. Two pairs were baseball themed and one pair had a bumble bee on it and some flowers.


What's New!

Gymboree -

short note - the Gymmies in the stores/online and that were coming out with the new lines are being sent back due to the new laws coming out. (Laws pertaining to the lead testing for childrens belongings, find out more here http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html). Apparently the flame retardent material has come into question for testing. No recall - just testing.

There are a couple online and they are not affected due to the material they are made out of - the Gymmies use a different type. So if your seeing a shortage on Gymmies don't fret - they will be back!

Thanks!__________________________________________________________

Very concerning right? Well I decided to call GYMBOREE Customer Support at 877 449 6932 I spoke with a woman named Virginia whom was very helpful but at first not aware of this email and not aware of what "testing" I may be referring to. She had no idea if the pajamas I purchased were a part of this group requiring further testing and sent me on to Eric in orfer Fulfillment at the Gymboree Corp. Here is the email I sent Eric:


Hi Eric,

I spoke to Virginia about these two item numbers that I purchased today from store 370


140045859-GYG053 SIZE 4

140045921-GYC052 SIZE 12-18 and SIZE 7

These are the item numbers that I purchased today and later I received an email that these were to be removed because of a potential problem.

Please respond as soon as possible as one of these is a gift for my nephew. (darling sister in law, yes they are for your son)_______________________________________________

Eric responded within two hours with this email:

Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail. We have received your message, and we are currently working as quickly as possible to answer all e-mails in the order received.

We typically respond to e-mails within 24 hours of receiving them. However, if you have an urgent issue and would like to receive a reply more quickly, please call Customer Service at 1-877-4-GYMWEB (1-877-449-6932). Our Customer Service hours are Monday through Friday, 6am to 9pm (PST), Saturday 7am to 3pm (PST), and Sunday 8am to 4pm (PST).

Thank you,

Gymboree Customer Service Team_____________________________________

Then came this email from Eric:

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us. Please rest assured that we at Gymboree consider nothing more important than the safety of the children who are in our care and who use our products. The standards that we set for our products have always met or exceeded those set by the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) and applicable state laws. We will continue to maintain these high standards.

Our sleepwear products were tested prior to their release and passed all applicable safety standards. Due to a new regulation in California, we are taking the additional step of ensuring our products meet or exceed the newly established standards in California. While we believe the vast majority of our sleepwear complies with the new regulation, in an abundance of caution we have removed certain styles pending additional testing. We appreciate your patience, and we are working to offer our sleepwear products as soon as possible.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Sincerely,
_________________________________________________________________

So here I am considering what I should do...if this testing only pertains to goods sold in California then I can easily understand why stores in Kentucky are able to sell them, but if California State says they aren't safe to be sold, then shouldn't they be unsafe for kids in any part of the country????????????????????????????????????????????????????? I am not yet satisfied and will pry further to get answers. That's all for now!

Therapy and the END

In September of 2005 my husband received word that he had been selected to pastor a church in Bowling Green Kentucky. This was a call that one could not deny as being Ryan's true call on his life. So with many tears we put our house in Rancho Bernardo, California up for sale. We had instant interest and within two weeks of that the market took a drastic turn. The real estate market had hit its peak and was falling faster than anyone could have anticipated. We had missed our window.

In a way I was relieved, hoping that our house would not sell and we could stay in San Diego, where services for children with Autism were fantastic! Well, in November we found a renter and agreed to be out of the house in two weeks time! We packed the UHAUL as much as would fit and left many pieces of furniture behind. Some things just can't follow, and sometimes I think my hopes and dreams are still there on that back porch. But we drove out and headed for the 40 to take us to our new home.

I plead my case within my own heart that Jacob would be elligible for services until he was three, maybe I could stay behind and move in with my parents until he turned three. His birthday was only two months away, and I knew that two months could make a HUGE difference! But I also knew that with all that I had learned, I could continue helping my son.

Somewhere in New Mexico along the miles we drove my cell phone rang. It was my husband several cars ahead of me. The words he spoke scared me to death. "Something happened to Jacob, he's depressed or something." What do you mean I asked? "He put a blanket over his head and he's just sitting there."

My heart sank, how does a nearly three year old with no language communicate his feelings about spending three days in a car, eating fast food every meal and sleeping in strange motels each night? How do you express your feelings about leaving the only home you've ever known and seeing your Nana(grandma) and Papa wave goodbye to you with tears in their eyes and grief in their hearts? How ould we have done this to our poor child?

My cries were met in Kentucky and my tears have turned to joy. More to follow.

Product Review Frigidaire Range ES340 BLACK

About a year ago my oven temperature knob broke off and permanently set my oven to 350 degrees with no ability to change it. The oven had been discontinued quite some time ago and there were no replacement parts available. I used my oven all this time adjusting cook times, not being able to justify a new oven. Mine works!

Well for Christmas I was given this oven and I could not be happier. This oven is a bakers dream. I chose black, it's a smooth top and I love it. The first thing I did wrong was try to use the oven for dinner the first night. Smoke and an overpowering odor filled my home within minutes. I called Frigidaire and much to my surprise got a live person! She instructed me that I should use the self cleaning feature before using the oven feature to burn off all the packaging dust. She went so far as to warn me that small children and even adults for our protection should not be around when we use this feature because the outside of the oven would become several hundred degrees as well as the odors from the burn off could be a hazard. She was very friendly and thorough as well in her explanation and seemed very happy to help me.

The front left burner puts off steam every time we use the oven and this is a ventilating feature to keep the oven the desired temperature. The heating element inside the oven is uniquely placed at the top of the oven instead of the traditional bottom where caked on burned grease and food drippings tend to stay stuck on for years! When I spilled a sugar cookie on the bottom of the oven it was a piece of cake to wipe clean and then burn off with the self clean feature! VERY SATISFIED and with Lowe's free delivery and haul away, I couldn't be happier! Frigidaire is owned by Electroluxe, so quite possibly a high end product at a very average price!

Pediatrician Visit: July 2005

I honestly can't remember the original reason for this particular Dr. visit, but the result of this appointment still shakes me to my core at each and every remembrance.

My son, Jacob, now two years six months was so hyper and out of control all the time that he had to be strapped into a double stroller so that he didn't run out of the building or run into the street. He was a big boy and I'm sure people wondered why I didn't make him walk. Jacob didn't know how to walk, he only knew how to run and he was quick!

I pushed the stroller into the patient room and we waited for the nurse to come and attempt taking his height and weight, this was always interesting to say the least with a child whom NEVER stopped moving...(giggling as would later refer to it!)

The Pediatrician we had chosen was an older gentleman whom epitomized the term gentle-man. He is the kindest and most warm man I have ever met and being a Physician is truly a call on his life, because he is amazing with children. I loved the way he spoke to me and I loved even more how he treated my children...like they were his grandchildren, his flesh and blood, he wanted to see them well and achieve great things in life. This is Dr. Thomas Page of Poway, CALIF.

Dr. Page spent some time reviewing my sons recent diagnosis from the San Diego Regional Center and spending even more time asking me questions and talking to Jacob. He handed him toys and watched him quickly lose interest and regain interest in some other toy (toy-hopping). Dr. Page spent nearly an hour asking questions and listening all the while interacting with my son before he turned to me and said, "Mrs. Smith, I don't know, I just don't know, but I'm NOT sure Jacob has Autism." One more open door, one more glimmer of hope, could we all be missing something huge? What is it, or Lord open our eyes and let us see, bless my child and heal his neuron synapses was my prayer every night when my son would finally slip into sleep.

MMR VACCINE

My daughter received her first vaccine of the MMR at three years of age and with her fourth birthday the school sent home a letter requesting the MMR booster be given by January 5th or she would not be allowed to return to school after Christmas Break.

Once again I began my google quest and found a MMR Titer could be done by a blood draw to ensure that her MMR antibodies are still high enough to negate needing a booster shot right now. So, off to the Pediatrician we went.

I am not against vaccines, but given our family history and my daughters chronic battle with infections, I think it's best not to vaccinate unnecessarily. Just recently a friend of mine was about six months pregnant when I had the opportunity to share my personal thoughts on vaccinating infants.

Children are born at all different sizes from approximately five pounds all the way to ten pounds and some ounces is the norm. Why do each of these babies receive the same dosage of a vaccine...wouldn't it make more sense that a baby born at five pounds would receive half the amount that a baby born at ten pounds would receive? I just don't understand how a precious infant body can be prepared to process such a dosage. Now, I'm not a doctor, right now I am a Home Manager, but my child rearing thus far has led me to question these things.