Aaidforautism

Julius Blows Out His Birthday Candle for the FIRST TIME!

Celeste — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:49:44 +0000

We are so thrilled to see Julius blow out his birthday candle this year, for his sixth birthday! Elated!!! The video is tremendous. Need some hope? This is a major milestone. He is reading his fluency sentences, loves for longer stories to be read to him, can read 25 sight words himself. Set high expectations. Don’t stop. Go HARD!!! As you can see, I haven’t blogged in a loooong time. I am also working now. I promise to return. The hope and progress, along with treatments, need to be shared. Now…time to get ready for work! Watch this video and share!!! BELIEVE~~~

A.Skate!

Celeste — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:12:31 +0000

Yesterday I took Julius to Torrance for another Askate event. This was our second time attending the clinic where an experienced skater works one on one with a child on the spectrum. The first time we went, in March, Julius was very timid and uncoordinated. He mostly held onto his instructors legs and rode the board with him.

It was a whole ‘nother thing game yesterday! Julius started off really rocky, not having a connection with his first instructor. After meeting Peter, Juju quickly warmed up and had a day that will never be forgotten. When Peter told me Juju had great balance, I almost fainted.

The past month has brought incredible gains. We are seeing a lot more language, spontaneous…mands, singing, and overall compliance. He is engaging, paying attention when we talk to him, responding to his name immediately. We couldn’t be happier with his accomplishments.

Enjoy this video! It is AMAZING! I am SO PROUD OF HIM!!!

Autism One Conference and MORE

Celeste — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 01:01:31 +0000

Man, I have been a blogging slacker lately. Prepping for Autism One and the end of the school year was a lot to deal with. We continue to stay blessed and stressed! The conference in Chicago was like a family reunion, without the drama! Tony and I had such a wonderful time, really soaking in the sense of community and unity. Conferences are rejuvenating, and inspiring. We made many new friends, and loved on old ones.

Our Thursday night talk and trailer, Q+A, had around 200 attendees and we hope touched as many hearts. I was so proud of my courageous husband for letting his wall come down and for speaking from his heart. I hope we were able to help a few families, several relationships, and many children that night. We look forward to the next chapter in our story to share with everyone…to be coming very soon!

We came home to see Julius making more and more progress. He climbed in bed when I was napping, grabbed the remote off of the bedside table and pointed it at the tv that was turned off. He said, “Watch Gabba Gabba!” WOW. That was a first.

Today, we attended Tony’s work picnic and he was paddle boating with his Daddy. They were about 70 yards across the pond and he waved back to me, saying, “HI MOMMY!” That is huge because he has never pointed at birds, airplanes, etc, nor been able to make the connection when we are pointing at something from across the way. I WAS THRILLED!

In the car I was playing a random brass station on Pandora and when a song would come on he hated he would holler, “CHANGE IT!” from the backseat. This is awesome because he normally unleashes a blood curdling scream to let us know of his disapproval. We always prompt him to say, “change it” instead, but today was the first day he actually DID IT unprompted.

We continue to see improvements in the complexity of his speech patterns, and the length of utterances from him (instead of one word utterance, we are consistently at 3-4!!) Love, love, love it.

He is stronger, his muscles and bones are getting girthier (not a word I know and he is CLIMBING on the furniture, slides, and being ACTIVE. Cerebral Folate Deficiency!! READ ABOUT IT! Dr. Rossignol is a genius. Time to get back to work. We are SOOOOOOOO excited about the TACA Picnic next weekend!!! Hope to see everyone there!