Thursday, April 24, 2008

Melons

Ok- this may not seem like a big deal to many of you. But, about a year ago Michael only ate about 10 foods. If you gave him different things- he would pretty much gag and throw up. So, yesterday I was very impressed that he ate watermelon, cantaloupe and honey dew for the first time. We went to a Chinese Buffet with my Dad and there wasn't much to eat. He also had home fries (aka french fries) and carrots. He also drank water out of a glass with ice in it. No gagging at all!

Then today Michael went to the mailboxes and got the mail- all by himself. We live in an apartment and the mail is in a small box that needs a key. It's not THAT easy to open and close. He was so proud of himself. A few years back Michael and I walked to the mailboxes and he took off. That was one of the scariest days of my life. He was running down the center of the street and almost got hit by 2 cars. So, I thought it was ironic that Michael walked down to the boxes and got the mail. Sometimes I think he's a different kid.

It will be interesting to see how he is this summer when we stop the IV's. I'm still going to give him glutathione and transdermal EDTA, and of course all his supplements. But, he's been getting the IV's for about 1 1/2 years now and doing great. I guess we won't know until we do it.

No school this week. Michael has been fine, but a little lonely. He's been asking for an 8 year old brother or sister. I guess we all have dreams.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Another trip to NYC

Yesterday Michael and I drove into NYC to see They Might Be Giants. It's our 3rd time seeing the band. Honestly, they are one of my favorite bands and 20 years ago in college I used to play their RECORDS (not cd's) at the college radio station (WSUC-FM). The last 5 years they have come up with a couple of children's cd's- which are really fun. Michael loves them. It's always a special treat when we go together to a concert. Something I would have never dreamed of 20 years ago, or even 6 years ago when Michael's autism "kicked in".



Anyway, Michael was great- dancing around and sometimes singing to the music. Also, it was good practice for our 2 month roadtrip this summer. Oh, I learned an important lesson too. When you park your car in a garage and hide your EasyPass, it doesn't work unless you put it on the window. I went through the tunnel and started freaking out cause I couldn't find my EasyPass. I will NOT do that again. I need to learn to trust. Mostly because my memory is so bad anytime I hide something, I can't find it. Thank goodness Michael has a photographic memory. A lot of times I tell him the address of where we are going, just incase I need that information later in the trip. It's come in handy a few times.

I also have some photos from the Hockey game we went to last month. It was an Islanders/Flyers game. First time Michael has ever seen hockey. Not my favorite sport- but easy to follow. Michael enjoyed himself- that is what's important. Of course I forgot the tickets at home and had to buy new ones when we got there (see a pattern?). Michael remembered that fact when I couldn't find the They Might Be Giants tickets on Saturday. Thankfully I got them thru Ticketmaster and used a credit card, so when we got to the box office they just printed new tickets for us.



Our tickets for the May 20th Yankee game are taped to the side of the fridge right now. If I lose those, it will be a hat trick for me (see I know a little about hockey). At this rate, I'm going to be a disaster on the roadtrip. I think I need to make a huge list of everything and pack REALLY well. That is going to be a challenge- but one I'm up for.


I'm still going to blog while on the trip. I'll post pictures and video along the way. As far as chelation I plan on bringing some transdermal EDTA and glutathione with us, because he won't be getting IV's for 9 weeks. I'm going to keep the same supplements for the most part too. One trick is keeping certain things cool. So, I'm bringing this HUGE Igloo cooler. If you keep in close, everything stays cold for days. At least Michael is eating chicken in restaurants now- so I don't have to worry as much about carrying food with us, so we'll just have to worry about the meds/supplements.

As far as the IV's lately, everything is fine. Pretty uneventful. Oh, update on the whole "ingredients in the uterus" thing. Michael told me I needed more babies and I told him maybe he could buy a baby at Wal-Mart (it was a joke). But, of course he took it seriously and said he would pick up the ingredients there for me. Then I explained to him all the bad things about having a sibling- like you have to share your mommy and there is less money to do fun things, etc. I'm just saying ANYTHING to make him not want a sibling (cause it ain't gunna happen anytime soon). Our neighbor had a baby last week- so I think that is why Michael has been thinking about it. I should just have him sit in the room with the crying baby for 10 minutes and he'll change his mind.

Vacation this week- no school. Our big event is baseball practice tomorrow night for Michael's challenger team. I'm going to take some pictures and post them. I forgot my camera last week (big surprise). I'm glad he's getting into baseball- again something I never thought he would do.

OK- that's it for now. Thanks everyone for reading my blog. Remember you can leave comments now, if you wish.