Blog time!

Gonna try to make this as short as possible. These past few days have been hell on earth. Two kids with PDD-NOS and a stomach virus is about as bad as it has ever been! Kids puking until they are left with no energy to even move and then begging for you to make them feel better while they have their heads bent over a trash can will make even the strongest person have tears in their eyes. My husband and I didn't puke, but we felt like we were gonna be sick. It was the weirdest virus we ever had. I am still not feeling the best. But today has been about nothing but cleaning...ok, and a quick blog. There is so much to do after a stomach virus. Toys to sanitize, bedding to clean, pillows to clean, surfaces to sanitize. I should by stock in Lysol. LOL. 

I think the hardest part of this experience, other than seeing my kids sick and in pain, was realizing that they didn't understand why this was happening. My son was more understanding, but my daughter, she just didn't get that mommy and daddy couldn't make the sickness go away. We could just be there and talk her through it and love on her. She didn't understand that she couldn't chug juice or she would most certainly puke again. She wanted more and it was heart wrenching when she said please and started to cry, but we couldn't give it to her. Tugs on the heart string, that does. 

Anyways, the dryer just went off. Got more laundry to fold.

Breaking News...And It's Not GOOD!!!

So we have an important issue on our hands. Right now "The definition is now being reassessed by an expert panel appointed by the American Psychiatric Association," Please read the article I have provided. I want to start a movement against this. Wow, I am so mad I am having a hard time putting my words together. I mean, think about it. They want to drop the number of cases of ASD. NOT FIX THE PROBLEM! 1 in 100 children are being diagnosed. Narrow the definition and those children's problems don't go away, they just get swept under the rug. HELP ME STOP THIS! Will your children qualify for special education and specialists when they narrow the definition? Mine might not. Which means they will go into regular classrooms all the time. Be kicked out of school for misbehavior, picked on by "normal" kids. We need to keep these idiots from taking away our children's future. The key to a normal life is early intervention. What if 50% of cases never got early intervention? Come on, we all have to band together and do something. Our children's futures are at stake! Read the article, contact me through twitter @Tiger215. I am gonna sit down and figure out a preliminary game plan on who to contact and all that and will post stuff here. 


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/health/research/new-autism-definition-would-exclude-many-study-suggests.html

Introductions

Hi, I am an army wife. Not the greatest job in the army, but definitely one of the hardest. My husband is infantry with three deployments to his career, but we are on recruiting orders right now. We have a beautiful set of twins. Yes, I know. Everyone thinks their own kids are beautiful, but ours really are gorgeous. We are so in trouble when they get to high school. Also, our twins (boy-girl fraternal) have been diagnosed by a specialist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute with PDD-NOS. That stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified. It is a high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. They are very smart, very fun, VERY ACTIVE 4 year olds. They just have a couple difficulties in the developmental areas. For example, our son has difficulty with fine motor skills. He can already read and spell some, count to 10,000, and write all his numbers and many other things, but he holds the writing utensil with a fist, not with his fingers. They both learn better when there are pictures involved. My daughter also has a touch of ADHD. She has problems sleeping and we are still potty training her. She doesn't want to slow down to pee in the potty. Let me tell you something. If we could bottle her energy and sell it, we would be worth billions! Our daughter has trouble with retaining information...or it seems like it. I think she just stores it away for when SHE wants to use it. She is a redhead and SO stubborn. Everything is always on HER time. It can be very challenging. One of the things we are having the most trouble with is disciplinary actions. We are having a problem finding ways to discipline our daughter. Our son is doing great with a reward chart and time outs. Our daughter doesn't really care too much. If anyone has any good ideas, let me know. Something great about our daughter: she is so creative and has the greatest imagination ever. She never ceases to amaze us with what she comes up with in that head of hers. We have a full life of joy, and also, sometimes, frustration. Like last night, she got up at 3am and didn't fall back asleep until 5am. She wanted to play. Sometimes she doesn't fall back asleep and is up for the day. She doesn't nap, and she will be up until she goes to bed around 8:30pm. Momma needs some sleep today! LOL. We give the kids melatonin to help them get to sleep (recommended by the pediatric neurologist over benadryl) and it works great, but keeping our daughter asleep all night is definitely the biggest issue we face. I don't remember what it is like to sleep all the way through the night. *sigh* Maybe one day. As for right now, coffee is my best friend.