TJ update

I thought that since TJ's diagnosis has been such a life changing thing, I ought to update on his progress.

He is doing amazingly well with his speech. We are hearing anywhere from 1-4 words verbiages, or sentences. He is using three and four words more often and we can get out of him what he is needing/wanting to communicate at any time now. (Unless its during his crying time at night, which is a whole nother story).
Hearing him talk and tell us his needs and what he is excited about is an incredible thing. I will never complain about my one dear daughter who talks ALL the time. It's music to my ears. And I don't take hearing my kids chatting all the time for granted anymore. I have become more patient when they talk, and talk, and talk. :) They talk because they want to express something, share something, and they just want us to listen and be excited with them. After three and a half years of pure whining and crying with NO CLUE what TJ wanted, EVER, no pointing or any indication to his needs, his words are beautiful. Simply beautiful.
There is one phrase I hate hearing but love at the same time. It's his famous, "So sorry!" If you haven't heard it you are missing out, yet lucky at the same time. LOL. NO joke either. It's adorable, but obviously means he has done something he shouldn't have. From hitting, kicking, or biting a sibling or cousin to putting the one millionth thing down the floor vent, using all of the foam soap I JUST bought, or wigging out and flailing something all over the place. The messes and trouble is constant, as his "so sorries" are too.

TJ is doing a lot better since on his medication. His autism "symptoms" are still there but his behavior is so much better. He isn't stemming as much. He still echos regularly, lines up his cars and loves things a certain way, in a certain order or routine, but he is high functioning and we are so blessed for the mellowness we have seen in the past month. We put him on an ADHD medicine with tears, stress, anxiety and a lot of fear and hesitation. I say now that it was the best decision we have made thus far. We have only seen some sleep issues as side effects.Which just means no more naps for me and sleeping in is a joke. TJ is up before the sun. Literally. I hate meds like this and have ever been a fan. However, my little boy has had so much going through his little brain that he couldn't even stop to think about what it was he wanted or needed to do, let alone how to go about doing it. We see this so much more under control yet we still have our little TJ. He has the same personality, still gets into stuff, loves on us, gets excited about things etc... The things that have changed is that he is much more mellow, isn't running off nearly as much and isn't getting as upset when something isn't going like he wants it to. We hesitated sharing with others about using the meds because, like autism, anti depressants, etc.... it's controversial. But when you see you little boy so overwhelmed every minute of his little life because of the trillion thoughts going though his head that he can't even process, you are willing to try anything to help. He is so much more happy. You can tell. Even though he can't tell us, we see it. It's plain as day!

He is improving SO much in OT, (occupational therapy). Before the meds, he was all over the room and couldn't sit for more than 10-20 seconds barely able to attempt a task that was asked of him. He started to try and then got distracted. He was easily redirected back but he just couldn't stay focused. He would bounce from one things to another so fast that you basically just followed him around saying "no" and barely start to say where he needed to go or what he needed to do and he was already off to another area or thought. (FYI, this was my life for 3 years. Follow, clean up mess, repeat! All day every day).
Now TJ is able to make "mat man" color, play with moon sand for up to ten minutes, swing, ride a scooter, bowl, do the caterpillar without leaving the table (a long caterpillar with everything from a button to snap, button you put through the hole, a zipper, strap, velcro, etc...) He is now able to focus long enough to learn simple daily tasks as buttoning his shirt or pants, velcro his shoes. So many little things we take for granted with ourselves and our children. He is learning how to hold a pencil, be gentle, match things. His tremor in his hand is less and he is able to do fine motor things better, like building blocks higher, drawing a circle (sorta) and putting the little pegs in a light bright. It's so awesome.
I have not had an update from his teacher so I do not know how he is doing or improving at school. I just know that 5 weeks ago he was not doing well and I cried for days because he was so all over the place at preschool. (not to mention the overwhelming conferences I had with the kids the mirrored the same week of bad news I got in the spring). He has 5 teacher/helpers to 5-7 kids and she was still so overwhelmed with him not being able to sit for any time at all. She said the sensory table was their only luck, sometimes up to twenty minutes he would play there, but sitting at the table for art, circle time on the floor was a nightmare. They were lucky if he would sit long enough for a deep breath to get ready to start then off he'd go. He climbed on everything he wasn't supposed to and just wriggled constantly and was always chattering intelligible things. I can say for sure that her upcoming update will be much better than the overwhelming last one. I can't wait for some positive news.

Overall we have seem so much improvement and we are as a lot more ease as we research the brain. We are currently waiting for a book by Daniel Amen, who is just becoming more well known in the public eye. He has even been featured on OPB. As Christians, we often want to tell people, or ourselves, that if we just give it to God everything will be ok and if we pray over or about things that we don't needs meds. Sometimes our brains are hardwired differently and some people have to work SO much harder to do the simplest of things, even being more positive. :) For real. The brain is so complex and autism in a brain/mental disorder.
So here we go continuing on our journey to learning more and more about TJ. He is a joy and we are so blessed with him in our family. I know one thing is for sure, that the kids involved in his life (siblings, cousins and siblings friends) will have a lot more compassion for kids that seem different. We never know what someones issues might be. Not everyone is open about the struggles their child may be having. I know many who want to keep it on the down low because they don't want people staring or judging or even looking at their child with pity. Anyone worth being your friend doesn't do any of those things. I'd rather people know the truth about TJ then to think he is naughty, deviant or that I am a horrible parent. We need to bring awareness to special needs and there is no one better than special needs families.

Love to each of you if you even made it through my long post. If not, no hard feelings. I love to look back myself just to see how far we have come. I read some of my old posts recently and it opened my eyes to how much easier things are now than they used to be. We are fighters for our kiddos and we have conquered SO much.
My favorite time of year is here. I can't wait to post pictures of the holidays. We don't currently have a camera and the cell phone rarely does it's job, so I don't get to upload pics much anymore. Maybe I'll get a camera for Christmas. :) (hope that you are reading this one babe) lol.