The Tater Monster

Ok so here is the update that I promised. (and you dont have to read all of this...some of it, is just for my own record...)


Tate. My little man.

Ok...so EI is going well. Taysen is fitting right in. We had a few problems when he first started in March...a lot of crying. He hated it and didnt want to leave me. But...about a month later and a few support sessions for me, he actually started to do ok! Yes, its sad, I needed support sessions because his crying was just too hard for me to watch. Isnt that just so sad...the poor mother...but the child who cries the whole entire class doesnt get a support session...haha. Luckily he finally grew out of that, because I seriously almost took him out. Anyhow...he likes EI now and when I ask him if he wants to go he gets a big grin on his face. :) Its so much better than crying! Well, he has been in EI for 4 months now. He is progressing, just not as much as I had planned. I figured he would be talking like a whiz now, and that we wouldnt even still be taking him by now. BUT thats not the case. Taysen has really started babbling a lot now...before he was babbling...just not as much, and it was always "a ba...a ba" a lot of "a ba" goin' on here for the longest time. Everything was a "ba" and it was really difficult to tell one thing from another. Haha...he now has all kinds of sounds...he will talk to you for an hour, different sounds, different tones, gestures...anything you can think of, but you cant understand a whole lot. Haha...but hey, its progress! Also, he is now saying words. Really, the words have been really shining through in the past 3 weeks or so Id say...maybe even less than three! He has been trying so hard these past couple weeks. It makes me so happy. :)

Ok so the bad news is that we are pretty sure that Taysens problems are more than just talking late. We have just been watching him closely and just adding things together...and we are pretty sure he is on the autism spectrum. I dont think that its a worst case at all. Even a few weeks ago, when I was really diving into all of the research, I was so sad, it was just a horrible thing to even contemplate. I couldnt get off of the internet...I would do research for hours on end. Just to end up bawling my eyes out because I didnt want this to be happening to us, and especially not to him. I have literally done so much research now though, that Im not as worried. Im not as worried about him growing up and being normal. Taysen will grow up and be normal. I know that because 1-he doesnt have the worst symptoms....and 2-because we are going to do everything in our power to help him with whatever he needs now. I have met with his Help me Grow caseworker, and we are going to pretty much line up everything that we need to to get stuff done. We are meeting with a new pediatrician tomorrow...mainly because the pediatrician we have now doesnt even see a problem at all, not even that Taysen cant talk yet. (Seriously...) and then on wednesday we are meeting with his speech therapist from EI, his occupational therapist from EI, and his teacher from EI. So we are getting things going at least. Anyhow I did talk with his speech therapist from EI a lot last week. Mainly just pulled her aside to ask if she did private therapy because I thought that would be awesome for Taysen since he already knows her and is comfortable with her. Well of course she doesnt, darn...but we got to talking and the teachers had all talked about our concerns and they dont us to label him already. So thats the main reason we are meeting with the teachers/therapists from EI. Heidi (his speech therapist from EI) said that she honestly doesnt even see him on the spectrum...but I dont want to get my hopes up right yet. Mainly because they arent with him every day and dont see all the things he does. But like I said, he doesnt have the worse off symptoms (like mainly the worst social problems.) He just does all these quirky things that are just odd in general. The only social problem that he has is that he is really shy and if someone enters his personal space before he is ready for them...its just screaming and tantrums. Which its really hard to discipline him for that because he just isnt ready for people to be right up there and talking to him. And sometimes the first things people do to a cute kid (and he is so cute!!!) is to get right up in their faces and say "Whats YOUR name little boy!?!" "How old are Youuuuuuuuuu???" and man thats just too much for him. Anyhow...like I said, the symptoms are just the quirky ones. (Heidi his speech therapist, said that he may have Sensory Intergration Disorder...so we are going to try a few more things like private therapy before we have him labeled as autistic for the rest of his life....)

OK here are the quirky things and problems that we have noticed:
-repetitive behaviors, like lining up cars, books, toys...just things he does all the time, all day long if you let him...
-of course, his language delay
-he self-tims a lot...he does it when he is excited or happy about things, he will tense up his whole body in joy...he does this a lot...like if you turn on the ceiling fan, or he spins something and it makes him happy, or if he just lined up his cars and he is so proud of hisself...
-obsessed with spinning things-ceiling fans, propellars...has to have ceiling fans on in the house or its totally panic attack time...
-obsessed with making things spin-for an example, he will take a matchbox car, flip it upside down, and spin it on the floor...over and over and over again.
-he likes to look at things out of the corners of his eyes while he walks. he will do this over and over again, pacing back and forth like under the table...its almost like he thinks the legs of the table are moving, but its actually him.
-he has an extremely long attention span for these things (lining up cars, spinning things, pacing...he will do it for an hour or two if you let him...)
-he is extremely sensitive...like you can crush his mood with just the wrong tone of voice....
-he has very frequent temper tantrums...not that most 2 year olds dont though...this one may just be a terrible two trait. ;)
-when he is upset, he will smash his head on the floor...mostly I think he does this just to get a reaction...the caseworker told us to completely ignore him when he does this, and lately he hasnt done it too much since we have been ignoring him.
-fascination w/trains
-cannot stand hands being dirty or sticky...if he falls down on the ground, he will freak out that the dirt is on him...or like if a hair gets on him (this could be part of a sensory problem...)
-plays with his fingers a lot...likes to watch them move
-very loud and shrill (but adorable...could be problems with his hearing...possibly fluid in his ears...gonna get that checked out too...)
-extremely horrible diet. he will only eat: cereal (dry or w/milk) yogurt, oatmeal, crackers, cookies, applesauce (occasionally) , doritos (occasionally), and a plain Mcd cheeseburger/plain McGriddle (he would eat these for every meal if we would let him...its the only food he wont turn down. (most likely sensory issues...at least thats what his speech therapist thinks...)
-chronic constipation...at least once every few weeks we have to give the poor kid either a suppository or an enema...(we just had to give him one on friday...on saturday I went to the holistic doc that I went to for my stomach problems a few years ago...she gave me a probiotic to mix in with his juice...and so far he doesnt notice it! :) hopefully it works!)
-chronic ear infections/butt rashes (going to ask the new ped. about it all tomorrow...)

Ok a couple good things...1-we can get his attention when he does these odd things, like the pacing...he isnt so zoned out that he is deaf to us, so thats a good sign. 2-he doesnt self-stim when he is uncomfortable with his environment, he only does it when he is excited and happy...I guess they are good signs.

Anyhow...we just dont want to just wait it out and hope everything turns out ok...because thats the worst thing that we could do to him, especially if he does need a lot more extra help. So we are just going to try every route we can to get him to progress as much as possible. We really think that once he can talk, that things may just start falling into place and he might start to drop some of his quirky behaviors...but its all a matter of time and seeing how long its going to take him to talk. We are going to get a prescription for a private speech therapist tomorrow at the consultation with the new ped. We are hoping to start him with the private therapy next week. He will still be going to EI also...they might add a few more hours or classes to his schedule depending on what we find out in the next couple of weeks. Now in a perfect world he would just be a quirky kid that needs tubes in his ears and some extra speech therapy. That is what I would so love to hear that new ped. say. I know its a long shot...but its really what I would love to hear. I know its going to take tests and stuff like that to get it all figured out...but oh well, we will get there eventually.

Ok also I made a list for the new pediatrician of all the words Taysen knows...even if he doesnt say them exactly how they sound. For some in parentheses is how he pronounces it. Some are animal sounds, but Ill take every word I can get!!
1-baby
2-feet (beet)
3-uh-oh
4-no
5-ball (baa)
6-eyes
7-bee
8-cow (ow)
9-doggy (goggy)
10-truck (kut)
11-choo choo (sometimes says ya ya-pure laziness i think!)
12-outside (ow-eyesh)
13-wow
14-Mmm (like yummy...haha)
15-ow
16-binky (icky)
17-cup (cu)
18-jump (da!)
19-boo (as in peek a boo...)
20-mom or mama
21-teeth (tee)
22-please (pees) AND signs it! so cute!!! he just learned this last week and says it all the time!
23-car (caa)
24-up (ubee)
25-down (daa)
26-bite (bie)
27-bath (ba)
28-Oswald (yes, as in the show...he says Owow)
29-moo (as in what a cow says...haha)
30-meow (maow)
31-dada
32-bus
33-airplane (aipee)
34-spoon (poo)

Ok I think thats all of them for now. So he is progressing...not all of his words are real clear, but that could be his hearing...hopefully its his hearing. I know its wishful thinking, but that would be such a better diagnosis than the other...With a lot of words, he says the beginning and not the end...will talk to the doc about that too.

Anyhow, with all that said, Taysen is a very loving kid...especially to family. He loves us and cuddles with us and hugs and kisses us all the time. When he talks to us, he looks us right in the eyes, unless he is upset with you, but I think thats just a normal kid behavior. Other than his little quirky habits, he is a pretty normal kid...its just that he has so many quirky habits. If it was just one, it would be less worrisome...but there are too many to ignore. We never noticed the early signs like the pacing in the crib, but we also took Taysen out of his crib at like 22 months or something like that because we switched him a toddler bed. But even the other day I was in Rowans room putting away some clothes and tidying up, and Taysen was just pacing back and forth on the outside of her crib, literally for like 30 minutes. Everytime I said "Taysen, what are you doing?" he would look at me and giggle...but its just the point that he was doing it at all...ya know? You just want your kids to be perfect in every way...definitely not stuck with a neurological disorder. Anyhow, just keep your fingers crossed that we can help him overcome whatever problems that he has so that he can grow up just like any other kid. That is our hope for him. We have put him on a few supplements to try to help even out his body...1-a probiotic for his intestines...to try and help with his constipation 2-liquid chlorophyl-basically like the goodness of greens in a liquid that i can add to his juice, has nutrients in it 3-DHA-basically nasty fish oil to help his brain...its strawberry flavor, and he actually takes this by dropper with no fight, can you believe that? 4-glyconutrients-basically the 8 sugars that your body needs to work correctly (not refined sugars...natural sugars...some that your body is supposed to produce and some that you are supposed to get through your diet...if you do research on them, they are supposed to really help the cells in your body communicate with eachother and work correctly...) anyhow thats what he is on so far. Down the road, if he is diagnosed autistic, we will probably do some detoxifying of his system of heavy metals. (Its supposed to try to rid the body of the mercury that is exposed to these kids from the vaccinations they get...and also from environmental toxins) I just wish I would have done some of this research before I had my babies...and before I vaccinated them. I know for a fact that from what I have read, that these shots have too much crap in them that they outweigh the benefits. I actually read in the book from Dr. Ken Bock that in the first shot they get on their first day of life, it has 36 times the amount of mercury in it than an adult should take in! Thats just the first shot! Plus thats in a baby's body...not an adults...so it has to be so much more horrible for these little babies! Its not just the MMR shot...I know that neither of my kids will be getting any more shots. Its just not worth it to me. And also I learned that the NE part of the country has the highest numbers of Autism...they believe its because of the amount of plants around here...especially diesel plants. Whats really nice to know, at our first house, we lived right around the corner from a huge refinery. Nice...there is so much I wish I had known...but its not like I can change anything now...just have to go forward from here.

Anyhow...so I guess this is where we stand for now. It really sucks just waiting and waiting. I really feel like things are clicking in Taysen brain with talking...just because it seems like he is trying to say a lot more words in these past couple weeks. As long as he keeps moving forward and doesnt regress at all, then I know he will be ok. So guys, please keep him in your thoughts...he really needs some luck right now! And whoever made it to the end of this post is definitely a true friend...or really really bored! Either way, I love you for that!! :D

Guess I should update...its been forever.

Ok so things have been kinda whirlwind lately. Taysen is getting so big...ok ok he is still like 24 lbs but he acts so big. Haha...Rowan is just about 15lbs and she is already 9 months old! She is finally sitting up, but still wont crawl. She still hates tummy time with a passion, but I really dont care, I gotta make her do it! Haha...she will appreciate it when she has enough muscle strength to crawl and walk. ;) I want to get some more pictures of them done soon...just since now she can sit pretty. :) We got her ears pierced when she was 5 months old...and they look so cute. I love little girls with pierced ears. Anyhow, she is a total drama queen and cries at the drop of a hat...but she is also is totally easy to get to smile and laugh. Its crazy she is gonna be a year in a few months! Personally I cant wait...haha. I cant wait until she is at Taysens age...thats going to be so much fun! I really enjoy the toddler age so much. :)

Ok on to Tater. Things have been up and down...he is such a great kid. He just has to look at me to make me laugh. He has such a funny personality. He is just such a goofball! The kid cracks me up. The other day we were swimming at Lindas and he sees a ladybug. I just watched him. He goes right up to it, picks it up, and shows me. I say how cool its a ladybug...then he squashes it. Poor ladybug didnt even know it was coming! I hope it had a will. Oh well ya never know what a kid will do right? So now I am freaking out that he is going to try to pick up a bee or a spider. Ew...that would be so nasty! Boys will be boys! Anyhow, he loves swimming so much. Linda and Bob (Joshs parents) have an inground pool...and the first time we swam in it this year, he was so unsure and was clinging to us...then we took him again a few days later and he couldnt be out for more than 2 minutes! He would want out (by the steps) and then he would run around to the side and jump in! He is so short he goes right under the water. Its sad the kid knows someone will catch him so he doesnt even care that he cant swim. Little booger. He jumped in the deep end one time and I freaked out. But he thought it was hilarious. Note to self...get a lifejacket for Taysen! Then last week we went to another friends house that has a pool...this one is above ground...so he decided as long as we set him on the side rail every once in a while so he can fall face first into the pool, he was happy. Haha...he is a fish. He was in the pool from 1-5 the other day...no breaks...just hanging around with us adults. Skipped his nap and everything. It was so cool. Rowan was in for 20 minutes before she needed a nap...and she slept the whole time. So at least I got a little sun on my shoulders too. Haha...:)

I am going to stop here for now, at least in this particular post. I will post again soon about Taysen's progress with EI...its going good...he likes class now, but we are pretty sure his problems are more than just a language delay. We are working on it at the moment...trying to get things figured out. I will update you later....just because it will be one long post...thats for sure. Hope you are all doing well. :)