A good day overall

Liam had a pretty good day at school today. He participated in the class activities and showed no real signs of anxiety. The only time he did show some anxiety is when the speech therapist tried to take him down for speech therapy. Liam did not want to go with her. He instead stayed near his teacher. When the therapist tried to take him by the hand, Liam immediately started getting upset and got closer to his teacher. His teacher told her to not touch him and offered a different way to get Liam to go along. The way the teacher told the therapist to invite Liam worked. Liam has definitely developed a relationship with his teacher. We are glad to see this, and especially glad to see how his teacher has grown since Liam joined her class.

This evening Liam wanted me to take him to his OT. During dinner Liam must have changed his mind on who he wanted to take him 10 times. I ended up going with Liam. On the way there I talked up all the things he was to do, and Liam was quite excited about it. I had in mind his previous OT sessions did not go well. As we got closer to the facility Liam started telling me he wanted to go home, go see mommy, and how he didn’t want to see Mark (OT). I kept talking with Liam to keep him calm. Once we got there we had to wait for a while. As we sat there we talked about different things. I asked him questions to see how / what he would say. Liam’s responses were correct each time. One thing we did was look at magazine pictures of people and ask him what they were feeling. He correctly responded to those that was sad, happy, laughing, and crying. I was impressed to hear that. While in therapy, Liam went right to work. Physical tasks like swinging, rolling, and jumping, were done without any hesitancy. It was a big change from previous weeks. We then went to work at table activities that work fine motor skills. Liam had to draw, cut, build, play games, and remove marbles from clay. This worked on his pincer grasp and grip strength. This is one area Liam has been very weak in. It was good to see him really working his hands. Towards the end Liam wanted to go home. He hugged me and asked me to take him home. I softly told him he had to finish his tasks that were on his list. Liam then completed his tasks as needed. When he was done, Liam got up, helped put things away, said good bye to Mark and said “Let’s go daddy”. It was the best OT session I have been to with Liam. I have easily seen a great improvement since the last time I went with Liam back in late February early March. It was a great end to the day.

Field trip day

Today was the big day for Liam’s field trip to Olmsted Falls High School. From the moment Liam arrived at the high school he was apprehensive about the whole situation. . His teachers did a good job in reassuring Liam and easing him into the new environment. Liam still had moments of anxiety as he soon realized he let his blanket in grandpa’s car. A special class at the high school that have future aspirations in early childhood development planned a special day for the pre-schoolers. They had a tropical adventure in which they did different arts and crafts in a Hawaiian theme. Liam would have repeated moments of anxiety at school, but overall he had a pretty good day. I think the preparation by his teachers and him talking to us about it Tuesday helped him ease into it.

Once Jill got Liam home from school he right away remembered leaving his blanket in grandpa’s car. He had what we would call a complete meltdown with crying, whining, and rolling on the floor for his blanket. Jill ended up calling her dad and having Liam talk to him about his blanket. He settled a little, laid down on the couch, and fell asleep. When he woke up, he immediately started asking for his blankie.

When I arrived home from work, the first thing Liam wanted to do was get in the car with me and go get his blankie. He whined and pouted a little while we told him he could go after dinner. Seamus and I were going to her parents to help her dad spread some topsoil he had delivered. We ended up taking all the boys over since it was nice out. The boys helped out shoveling the topsoil for a few minutes. Seamus was huge help as he took several small wheel barrow loads he could handle, I was quite impressed. Jill took Liam, Aidan, and Brendan, for a walk. While away the ice cream man came and grandpa treated Seamus and I to a cone. Jill and the boys returned as grandpa McCourt was finishing his cone. Liam from there melted down. He wanted an ice cream cone from the ice cream man who was long gone. He just got worse from there. We ended up leaving as soon as we finished and stopped at Dairy Queen. We got home with the ice cream and Liam finally settled down. We got them bathed and Liam was asleep in no time.

Overall it wasn’t too bad of a day for him. It turned out better than we expected. We attribute that to the proper planning and informing Liam of the change that was taking place today. Tomorrow will be a normal day at school. Liam has his OT appointment tomorrow night. We will see how he does there in the new room again.

Worrying about Wednesday

Today Liam was much the same as he has been lately. Moments of anxiety and moments of short tantrums. Jill said it was not as bad as in previous days. Today Liam was have anxiety over a field trip on Wednesday. His whole routine Wednesday is going to completely changed. Knowing how Liam does not handle change, his teacher had started telling Liam of the change that will happen Wednesday. Liam’s whole day is going to be totally different. He is going to be dropped off at the high school, spend the morning in a different room, be in a larger school, and have a lot more older kids around him. Jill is preparing to have to go get him. At least his teacher has recognized and learned how Liam could possibly react and taken a proactive approach. This is essential with Autistic children. Preparing them for a change is always the best way to avoid any problems. It may not always work, but it is the best you can do. I give his teacher credit for preparing him for tomorrow.

At home today Liam has done nothing but talk to Jill about the field trip on Wednesday. Jill said she lost count the number of times Liam has talked about it. Liam has repeated to Jill several times everything his teacher has told was going to happen. When I arrived home from work, before I could even get my coat off, Liam greeted me and started telling me about his field trip on Wednesday. We talked about it once and that was it. Liam then wanted to focus on finishing dinner and going outside. Jill took Liam out and I took Seamus to soccer practice. Outside Liam was content swinging. Jill said she thinks was helping him to relax. We both think he has already started to worry about Wednesday. When Seamus and I arrived home Liam, Aidan, and Brendan, were bathing. Shortly afterwards they were all asleep by 9:30.

We’ll see how Wednesday goes. Hopefully Liam has been prepared for the change enough to have a successful day.

Good day until dinner

Liam had a pretty good day at school. Part of his routine in the morning at school is to take a load of paper down to the school office. The school secretary made Liam a name tag that said “Official Office Delivery Boy” with his name under it. Liam was thrilled by this and that made the rest of his day at school go well. When Jill picked him up from school that was the first thing he showed her and he just beamed about it.

The rest of the afternoon Liam was very good playing at home. He still had small moments of anxiety, but not that bad. In the afternoon while Jill was doing things around the house, Liam sneaked out of the house shortly after Seamus went to Eli’s 2 houses away. Our neighbor Lynette saw Liam in her backyard and brought him back home. This is something Liam has not done in a long time. We were lucky he went to where Seamus was instead of just wandering like had last year on a couple of occasions.

This evening at dinner Liam had an anxiety attack. He woke up from a nap and when he saw the pork chop, rice, and beans, he broke into tears asking for spaghetti. Liam never eats spaghetti, so where this came from we don’t know. He laid on the floor and kicked his feet, cried, and kept whining he wanted spaghetti. When I picked him up to hold him to try and calm him, he kept kicking, crying, and asking for spaghetti. As I tried to calm him, he then started asking for a popsicle. We didn’t have any of those. He continued to cry and could not be soothed. This went on 45 minutes until I decided to run to the grocery store to get a box of popsicles. When I got home with them Liam’s behavior went right to happy and excited to have popsicles. The rest of the evening he was fine as he played outside. Liam was asleep by 8:30 after a busy day. The past 3 days have been busy for all the boys. Hopefully they can get caught up on their sleep. The weather this week is lousy and will help have the boys in bed early.

A typical up and down weekend

This weekend with Liam on his new dosage he has been much the same. He continues to have periods of high anxiety, worry, and have fits. This pattern repeats itself over and over each day. Some days are worse than others. Saturday was a good day for Liam. We went to Seamus’ soccer game where he was very good and enjoyed himself. After the game, we were invited to see a friend play in a Gaelic football tournament. Jill had to work so it would be me alone with the 4 boys. I knew there would be other kids for the boys to play with, but as always, what Liam would do there. We got there and started watching 2 games that were in progress and Seamus decided to go play with some of the kids. Liam in turn wanted to go. Since I could see where they were I felt comfortable, plus we were not near anything that could pose a danger. All the boys played a while and then came over to watch the game we came to see. They all had juice boxes and snacked on pretzels while the game was played. We watched St. Jarlath’s team win its third game in a row. Once that game was over we had to head to the Irish Heritage club where the rest of the teams were to finish the tournament. The boys were still doing great despite being out in the sun for a few hours already. We watched a couple more games before St. Jarlath’s played again. Liam was tired and wanted to take a nap, so I laid a blanket out for him in the shade. He slept for about a ½ hour. He woke up and wanted to go see Brad and Ryan. We were to go over my cousin Mike’s house for a cookout and Liam remembered it. I told we were going to stay and watch the rest of the games and Liam got upset. He wanted to see Brad and Ryan. Liam was simply reacting to the schedule I told him we would have earlier in the day. He was quite upset up until the time we got in the van to leave. Once in the van and on our way he became happy and was excited to see Brad and Ryan. After we stayed for a while it was getting close to bed time and the boys were tired from being out in the sun most of the day and running around. We went home, they bathed, and were quickly asleep.

Seamus’ soccer game was another huge success for him. He scored 7 goals and played great at goalie. Seamus even scored 1 goal kicking with his left foot. This was something his coach and I had been telling him to do for several games now. Seamus continues to have an excellent season and Jill and I are both so proud.

Sunday we took all the boys to Petiti Garden center to look for flowers outside the house. It was quite and adventure. Aidan, Brendan, and Liam, all acted like the 2 and 3 year olds they are. They couldn’t sit still and wanted to just run around. Once we got what we wanted, I took them out to the van where Liam fell asleep quickly.

When we got home we made dinner and Liam had fits a few times because he wanted to do things that we would not let him do. Once dinner was through Jill had to run to the store get a few things. Liam had a fit because Jill did not take him. Liam was crying at the front window where I could see him picking at his gums as he cried. I had to hold him for a few minutes and talk to him to get him to stop. He would not settle down so I had to let go for about 15 minutes when it ended. Liam came out of it and started playing with his brothers before bath time. I had the boys all bathed and in bed by 8:30. They had a busy weekend and were all exhausted. Liam fell asleep without taking his nightly dosage. We’ll see how Monday goes!

Sunday, CNN had a special on about Autism. It was a documentary by Susan Rubin who is an adult with Autism. Her verbal skills were not very good so she had to use a hand held device that said her words. There were so many parallels with Liam that we saw. Her parents spoke of the same challenges every day that Jill and I face. It was quite moving to hear and see someone else talking about the same things we go through every day. It is a further reminder that Autism is something Liam, us, and his brothers are going to deal with every day for the rest of our lives. Looking into the future it looks like such a difficult challenge. So many questions remain about the future. Like, when we die, will Liam be able to care for himself, will he need to live in an assisted living home, or will he have to live with one of his brothers. It’s a scary thought. Jill and I are doing our best to help Liam now and prepare him for the future. Are we doing the right things? Are we doing enough? What else could we do? I am not sure if we will ever know for sure, all we can do is hope. Hope, it seems like that’s all there ever is.

Liam’s day at the neurologist

Liam’s day at the neurologist

Liam’s has much been the same the past couple of days. He continued to have times in which his anxiety was very high over the smallest things. Wednesday was another day in which Liam did not want to go to school and had to be coerced.

Wednesday Seamus graduated from pre-school. His class put on a program for the families that was very entertaining. They sang several songs and received their diplomas. Afterward the school had a reception. Seamus got to say good bye to the friends he made. It was great to see the friendships he made, and hear all the positive comments from his teachers. Good luck in kindergarten Seamus!

Today Liam had his appointment at the neurologist. Jill ended up waiting over and hour to see doctor and that caused her to miss Liam’s OT appointment this evening. Jill explained to the neurologist how Liam has been. The biggest concern that came out today was the gum picking he has been doing. Today was another bad day for that. His blue blanket looked like it cleaned the face of a boxer off. Blood stains were all over it. The neurologist was pleased with how he has been doing, except for the gum picking. She has decided to leave him on risperdal for a while longer, but increase his dosage over the next 4 weeks to 2 tablets in the morning and 2 tablets in the evening. She hopes that increasing the dosage will help him. I am a bit skeptical because tablet at night knocks him out. Jill said the idea of gradually increasing his dosage is to help avoid that. I hope it works out. The continued gum picking looks bad on his gums. I fear for whatever dental damage he may cause. So, here we go with another new phase in coping with Autism. Hopefully this will help.

A day of high anxiety, all day.

Liam’s Tuesday was not too good. All day long he was very anxious about everything. From who or what was playing with what toy, to who was eating what food. Jill said she noticed it right away at breakfast as Liam just appeared very nervous while eating. When he was to leave for school he did not want to go. It took a lot of coercion by Jill and grandpa McCourt to finally get him out of the door. When she picked him up from school he still showed signs of anxiety in the way he clung his blanket close to his face. Once they got home, Liam immediately started looking for the teething ring we got him to chew on. We bought the teething ring for him to chew on instead of other objects or his fingers in which he would pick his gums with. Jill noticed him chewing on it all afternoon. When he would put it down and realize he did not have it, he would find it. Jill could not figure out just why he was so anxious, only that it’s just one of those autism traits that can’t be explained. Hopefully once Liam gets older and can learn to express himself with words can we understand what he is feeling.

In the evening I took Seamus to soccer practice. I wanted to take Liam to the practice to let him run around, but he wanted to stay home with mommy. Any other time he would go, just not this day. When we got home Liam was playing, but when something wouldn’t go just his way, it was immediate crying and getting upset. It was unusual given the past week things went so well for him.

At bath time, Liam and Aidan took a bath together. In the tub Liam would get upset if Aidan touched him or even got a little water on him. It was par for the day for Liam. Liam went to sleep with no problems. We’ll see how Wednesday goes.

A much better day for Liam

Liam had a much better day on Monday. Liam’s teacher brought him out to the car and was her usual happy self. Liam was in good spirits when he got in the car, so that is always a good sign. The ride home Liam was just talkative with Aidan, Brendan, and Jill.

Once they got home Liam still showed signs of impulsiveness and anxiety. He would play with his brothers but would once in a while have an outburst of impulsiveness. They weren’t home too long since Jill had to take the boys over to grandma and grandpa McCourt’s. Brendan had to have a scratch test done for seasonal allergies. Poor little “B” tested positive to allergens in spring time. He was especially allergic to red maple and tree pollen. The tree pollen was no surprise as we recall what happen to his eyes last week after being outside. The allergist even stated that this years tree pollen counts have been the highest in years. Brendan now has to take zyrtec and nasonex to help combat his allergies. Poor little guy is almost 3 and has all these allergies. Hopefully he can outgrow them now while he is young.

In the evening I wanted to hang a storm door in our garage entrance. It is something we have wanted to do since we moved in 3 years ago. Jill took the boys over a neighbor’s house to play. Our neighbor and friend Steve came over to give me a hand hanging the door since it is a two man job. Steve was a huge help. His measuring skills are far better than mine. Jill said Liam played nicely outside while I was working. Aidan wandered back over the house was we were working and was quite inquisitive about what was going on. Aidan has shown to be a very technical thinker and it showed as he was asking questions about the work we were doing. When we would be doing something else he would open and close the door looking at how it worked.

Once the door was hung it was bath time for everyone. Everyone was in good spirits at bath time, even Aidan who for the most part hates bath time. Brendan was simply exhausted from his day at the doctor’s. Liam took his full tablet of risperdal and was asleep by 8:45.

Liam has a follow up appointment Thursday with his neurologist. Jill and I are interested in what will happen there. The risperdal he is on was only for a temporary basis. If she changes his prescription plan again, we have to go through the routine of weaning him off risperdal and on to something else. This has already proven to be a difficult task, but we know it’s for the better. It’s just another challenge along the way.

Good / bad weekend

This weekend started out real well for Liam. Friday he was very good all day. Jill went shopping and grandma McIlwee came over while she was out. Liam was very good for her as he just played with toys and his brothers. Friday we went to my nephew Ryan’s birthday party where Liam was completely fine there. All the boys had a great time over there as they all played outside and their favorite, video games.

Saturday Seamus had a soccer game where he had another outstanding game. This team was tougher than all the others so far. Seamus’ team fought hard and was ahead 3-2, but lost 5-3. Seamus had 2 goals and his friend Eli had 1. One of Seamus’ goals was hard fought in front of the goal. His persistence paid off as he finally got it in after 3 attempts! Seamus’ coach was even pleased as this was the most excited I’ve seen him after a goal. Way to go Seamus!

Now Liam the whole time was very well behaved at the game. The rest of the afternoon he was home with me while Jill went out grocery shopping. He took a 2 hour nap and was good all afternoon. At some point, he picked at his gums again as his blanket had several blood spots on it. Jill brought home dinner and everyone ate well. The kids played until around 8pm when we finally got them to take a bath. Liam is usually asleep around 9:30, but last night he wasn’t. He stayed awake with Jill until 10:45 pm. We were both perplexed as to why it took so long for him to go to sleep. Well, after I thought about it, I realized I gave him only ½ tablet of Risperdal on accident. It was too late to give him another tablet. My first reaction was, lookout on Sunday.

Sunday rolled around and Jill and I immediately noticed a difference in Liam. He was very hyper, extremely anxious over so many things, and very impulsive. He would scream and grunt more often than in the past week or two. His impulsivity was back like it was a couple weeks ago. It was almost unbearable at times. Just as you would correct him for doing one thing, he was somewhere else doing something he shouldn’t do. We took all the boys to Lowe’s to look at a few things and he was a handful there. It was constant reminders to Liam to control himself. This made for a long trip to the store. Once we got home the kids played outside for a while and Liam’s impulsivity was like it was earlier in the spring. He would not listen, he would just run off on his own, and when he would see one of this brothers touch a toy he wanted, he would drop what he was doing and run over to them screaming at them. This repeated itself several times.

Missing that whole tablet last night really did make for a long day. I expected it, but also thought that maybe just missing ½ dose wouldn’t be so bad. As bad as we feel about medicating Liam to “help” him, when he is not medicated, we see a huge difference in how he acts and behaves. Un-medicated, Liam’s attention is horrible. If Liam had this attention span every day, he would not be able to learn anything. Jill and I keep asking ourselves often if we are doing the right thing. It is days like today’s that we believe we are. Hopefully one day in the future we will be able to look back see we did the right thing, hopefully….

Good day for Seamus and Liam

Jill had to take Seamus to school for his pre-kindergarten testing so Liam, Aidan, and Brendan, got to stay home with Grandpa McCourt. Liam was very well behaved for Grandpa. Liam was quite intent looking at his Disney catalog off and on all morning while playing by himself and with Aidan and Brendan.

Seamus had his pre-kindergarten testing this morning. One of the testers was Liam’s teacher so she already knew Seamus from previous meetings. Seamus was asked to count to 100 for her and he did it correctly. According to the teacher, he was 1 of 2 that were able to count to 100. Jill and I think holding Seamus back really helped him be better prepared for school next year. Seamus was very excited about it all as Jill said he was smiling the whole time. Seamus was excited to see a couple of his soccer teammates there as well. He is really excited about school next year.

Liam had his Adaptive Aquatics swimming class today. Jill said Liam had repeated moments in which he was crying for mommy. His teacher as usual did an outstanding job keeping his attention and focused on the tasks he had to do. At one point one of the toys from the teacher’s toy box fell to the bottom of the 4ft deep section. Liam told her a few times he wanted to get the coin and she told him to take a deep breathe and hold it. She then held him and as she put him under water to get the toy. Liam got it and came right back and proudly showed Jill what he did. She was quite impressed at how he did, as well as I am. I am still shocked by that.

When I got home from work I asked him about swimming and Liam told me how he cried for mommy. I was surprised he told me that, and I was surprised that he understood my question by his answer. When I asked why he cried, he said it was because he wanted mommy. It was a very good conversation about his swimming. This is something that is rare with Liam. Maybe this is a positive sign, we’ll see how it progresses. Outside tonight was damn cold. The temperature had to be in the 40’s and windy so that made it worse. We ended up calling it an early night for this reason. Liam was asleep quickly as usual after his day of swimming.

Bad day at OT therapy, good at school.

Liam had a good day at school. Part of his routine now is to first take reams of paper down to the school office. Liam then joins the class in their activities. Jill has communicated to Liam’s teachers how swinging soothes and helps center him when he becomes anxious. They have been doing that lately and they believe that has helped him. Today after some of the first activities Liam started to become anxious and one of his teachers took him to the gym to swing. There he swung for while settled down. He then went back to class. The class then went outside to the playground, and Liam went right to the swings. So of course he got some more swinging in today than normal, but that’s fine, it helps him.

At home today Liam was pretty good. He still had moments with his brothers or different activities in which he would show sign of anxiety. One such example was at dinner. Brendan was putting his hands near Liam’s plate and Liam would get worked up very quick because Brendan’s hands were near. The next thing that happened was he dropped his fork on the floor and he started screaming and crying about dropping it. I picked up his fork and told him softly that he need not scream and that he just to ask us using his words to pick up his fork. Liam would then repeat what we asked him to say rather than scream and cry. We keep trying to emulate proper responses to him to help him learn how to respond.

Jill returned from Liam’s OT appointment and said it was not a good night. Liam would not even go into the room where he would swing and do different physical activities. This has been the 3rd week in a row in which Liam has not had a good OT appointment. The one thing Jill can think of is that the room in which Liam had OT is now in a new location. He had been taking OT in a temporary room during remodeling. Since they moved into the new room, Liam has not wanted to do physical OT therapy, only table activities like drawing, cutting, and playing with clay. When Liam would be prompted by the OT do to do things he would get very anxious and cry for mommy (who was sitting next to him). This would go on until he would settle down on his own and do the activity. Upon starting the next activity, the crying for mommy would start again. The OT recommended that Jill note his anxious behavior to his neurologist. Liam doesn’t have school Thursday, so we’ll see how he does at home.

Bad day for little “B”

Due to problems with this blog site, yesterday’s blog that was written did not get saved, nor was it saved. Here is a quick summary of how Tuesday went.

Liam had an average day at school. He continued to have his moments of anxiety and tantrums. Normally they are short in duration but quite often. His day at home wasn’t too bad. He had a few tantrums, but overall he was pretty good. In the evening he was cooperative and played with other kids outside, and did not run off like he would early in the spring. This is probably due to the medication finally working.

The big problem of Tuesday came with Brendan. Poor little “B” was outside in the playground with his brothers playing when he just started to cry. Jill didn’t see anything happen, but as she looked closer, his eyes became very puffy. She at first thought a bee stung him, but she could not see any signs. She then took him in and called his pediatrician. She spoke to the nurse who thought it was due to allergies. The nurse stated tree pollen is very high right now, especially in the morning. Brendan continued to cry and just want to be held. Jill had to wait a few hours to hear back from the nurse who was going to talk to the pediatrician. When I got home at 4:30 Jill had to go to the drugstore to pick up antihistamine eye drops for Brendan. When she returned we gave him the eye drops and I had to take Seamus to soccer practice.

Once we returned from soccer practice, I saw Jill and the boys playing at a neighbor’s house. There was “B” running around playing. I went and saw him and he still looked terrible, but at least he could see out his eyes. We went to bed and gave him more eye drops since they were clearly working.

2 good days in a row!

Since I had just gotten back in town from Portland, I was swamped at work and had very little time to call her to see how Liam's day was. When I arrived home we talked about his day. Jill looked at me, smiled, and said according to his teacher, it was his best day of the school year. Wow. I was quite shocked to hear that, especially after he had a good day yesterday. We are wondering if the risperdal is taking effect now the he is in the 3rd week of a full dose at night. His teachers have been giving him a chore each morning. He has had to take a few reams of paper in a wagon down to the school office. He then goes back to classroom and takes part in the regular class activities. This was great to hear today!

Jill had mentioned to Liam's teacher how the manner in which he drinks has lately gotten worse. Liam gets liquid in his mouth, holds it in there, swishes it around his mouth, then swallows. This has been something he has done for a while, but with all the other issues lately it has had less attention. Jill wanted the teacher and school OT to watch this, and help us come to a way in which we can help him stop that. The teacher and OT said they did not see him do it at all. Jill and I were a bit skeptical about it. We know how he does it, and there is a possibility he didn't do it. We will both start watching him more closely to determine if in fact he does not swallow that way at times.

Liam also was picking at his gums again today. He had stopped picking at them for the most part, but today he started again. It was bad, the top right gum area above the canine was picked at and bled quite a bit. Jill showed me how much blood he had gotten on his leg, face and hands. We are not sure why he started this again, but we will continue to watch him.

This evening Liam was very good outside. He played with other kids, did not run off on his own, and was cooperative when given direction. The only tantrum he had was when we were cleaning up after dinner and we would not let him outside on his own. His tantrum lasted about 15 minutes until we got the kitchen cleaned up and I got changed. Liam also continued to show no regard for traffic as I took Liam, Aidan, and Brendan, across the street to talk to a neighbor. While over there Liam saw Jill come out of the house and wanted to go by her. He got to the curb and was ready to just go when I ran and stopped him. I then guided him across the street. Jill then came across the street and before we could even open our mouths Liam started riding him bike across the street. Luckily none of the idiots that speed down our street were around.

It's been 2 good day's in a row, we are hoping to have turned a corner with Liam. We do know that we still have a long road ahead, and several challenges yet to face. We'll take the good days when they come, and enjoy them.

Mother's day, a good day

Liam had an overall good day. He has asked for donuts for breakfast for a couple days so I decided to get some. He was quite excited when I brought them home. He ate 2 whole donuts, that were not that small. Jill and a few other people had noticed over the past week how Liam's face has filled out, as well as his stomach area. An hour or so after breakfast Liam was looking for something to eat. I have also noticed him eating more lately, but didn't give it much thought thinking it was another growth spurt. I looked up side effects of risperdal that he is now taking 1.5 pills per day of. Sure enough, one of the side effects is an increase in appetite. That could explain Liam's latest eating pattern. We try to control how much he eats, but often saying no results in tantrums. We clearly need to work to control the situation before he puts on too much weight. Right now weight is not a factor, but we want to avoid that ever being an issue.

Liam and Brendan took a couple hours nap while Jill was at the grocery store with Aidan and Seamus. I took that opportunity to get on the ladder an spray areas those annoying yellow jackets wre trying to make nests. I cleared 3 areas that I could see now. I will have to continue to monitor them as I consider having an exterminator spray the outside of the house.

When Jill returned, Liam woke up, he joined Seamus and I as we shucked corn on the cob. He did pretty well as I thought the gripping and pulling of the husk would be good work for his hands. He did 2 ears of corn as best he could and was done with it. Liam was pretty good outside. He played with the toys outside and obeyed when spoken to. The boys all got a treat as the ice cream man came by and Grandpa McIlwee treated. When it came time for bath Liam seemed to want to bathe alone. He got easily upset when Brendan or Aidan would get too close to him in the tub. Liam was the first one out and ready for bed. Liam had an overall good day, hopefully this will carry over to school on Monday. But, in the back of our minds is that thought, a good day is often followed by a bad day. Being always optimistic, I have hope that tomorrow is another good day.

A fun day for the boys!

Saturday morning the boys all saw me in the morning and were quite excited to see me. I got them breakfast and they all ate and cooperated well. Seamus had an early soccer game so after we ate we had to get ready. Seamus had another excellent game scoring 6 goals! His buddy and neighbor Eli had 3 himself. It was great to see Seamus and Eli again working together out on the field. In this league, each kid is only allowed 3 goals. I understand why the rule is in place, but at the same time I think telling a child not to play so hard is not good training for them. Seamus's coach had him play defense, but at times he had the ball and just broke away to score. Seamus is doing excellent at soccer and I hope he continues enjoy it as much as he is.

Saturday afternoon Jill had to work at the Irish American club. She left around 330 and apparently had Liam's blanket in the van. He got terribly upset when he realized that and soothing was not working. I didn't want to bug Jill at work so I put all 4 boys in the Bonneville and went up to the IA to get the blanket. I went in with the boys and let Jill know what was going on. Since we were there I decided to let the boys play on the playground at the IA. The boys and I were having a great time playing since this playground can support adults. When I saw it was near dinner time the boys did not want to leave and were pretty vocal about it. Since we were having a rotisserie chicken, I told them we would run home and pack up a quick picnic and take it back to the IA's pavilion. We did that and the boys fun continued. It was really a lot of fun for us all. Liam had a few moments where he wanted to see mommy, and didn't get very upset. Taking him back to the playground quickly distracted him as his brothers were all playing. Upon returning home, Liam quickly went to sleep, as well as his brothers. Playing like they did for 3.6 hours wore them out!

While away in Portland....

I was out of town the week of May 2nd in Portland, Oregon. During the week Liam was pretty much the same all week as he has been the previous couple. He continued to have his tantrums and periods of high anxiety. While I was away Liam would often ask where I was at, or even say I was in Portland or on an airplane. The worst day Liam had at school was Thursday. He apparently got sick and threw up in school. Jill had to pick him up early. She thinks it was the 2 cream filled donuts he ate for breakfast. He has been fine since. Thursday evening while outside Liam was watching the airplanes come in to land kept asking Jill if I was on each one. When she would state no, he would get upset and call out for me. She had to talk to him to settle him down a couple times, or divert his attention. Overall Jill said the week went better then she expected, so she was quite pleased.

A great day at the Indians game!

This morning the day didn't look like it was going to be too good of a day for Liam. He was having little tantrums over very little things. Liam was supposed to go the the Indians game with me, Seamus, Katie, Bridget, Uncle John, Uncle Mike, Aunt Molly, Grandma, and Grandpa. Jill and I were debating how Liam would do. If he could not handle the game, I would take him him and Seamus would get a ride home.

We got to the ballpark a little early since it was kids day. Outside the stadium they had different activities for kids to do. There were people in costumes of robots, knights, snoopy, slider, and some others from the art museum. There was a bouncy castle, a rock climbing wall, and big climbing wall with a slide on the other side. A dj was also playing music loudly and there were a lot of people there. I described what public places can be like to Liam in a previous post, well this was that again times two. As we got near Liam immediately saw and heard all this and was right wanting to go home and see mommy. He immediately clinged to me was vibrating from it all. I tried soothing him and it was not working too well. I looked around and noticed some art easels. Knowing how part of his OT is drawing, I took him up to that since no kids were near. Liam started drawing and right began to relax. We talked about what he did and he suddenly seemed quite excited to be there. Seamus and Liam then went into the bouncy castle (another calming mechanism for Liam) and were having a ball bouncing around. We then went to the rock climbing wall where people were there to assist kids climb up. I expected Liam to shy away as all the activity from other kids was quite overwhelming. He went right up with help and came down the slide laughing and ready to do it again. He and Seamus went on this 4 times each. We then met up with Mike, Molly, Katie and Bridget.

Once we got in the gate and to our seats, which were the 2nd from the top of the bleachers, Liam seemed quite relaxed. I think what helped was he saw a lot of people he knew. Numerous times during the game Liam would want to go home and see mommy. I kept reassuring him to make him feel at ease. In the 5th inning Liam was really anxious and wanted to go. I decided to take him for a walk around the ballpark. This worked out real well as he settled down and talked with me as we walked. He decided he wanted to go back and see grandma and grandpa. We went back and by then it was the bottom of the 7th inning. By the end of the 8th Liam was done. I told him they would not let us out until the game was over. It worked. Since it was kids day, the Indians let kids run the bases on Jacobs field. Liam was at first hesitant, but we kept reassuring him it was ok. One creepy employee with a clown nose did not help matters. Liam practically jumped in my arms as this guy in a creepy voice spoke loudly to him. We came out of the visitors bullpen to the field and went down to first base. The kids were all into it. Liam who was clinging to me suddenly wanted to run by himself. I went with him around the bases and it was really neat. We left the stadium and headed home.

This was a LOT of activity for Liam and I was so happy how well he did. He has really progressed in social situations like this. He still has moments of anxiety, but holding him and comforting him really helps him cope. As he gets older we will have to teach him how to know what situations will cause anxiety, and then find a way for him to cope. There is no cure for social anxieties in autistic children.

I leave for Portland Monday morning for 5 days. I hope using the pictures of where I will be will help Liam understand where I am. I had been telling him all day daddy has to go away. We hope that letting him know in advance what change is coming he will be ok. We shall see.

As always, we hope for the best each day, especially this week as Jill will be home alone without much of a break from it all. Good luck Jill!