My Gecko Guy

My happy little guy is being a ham again, he just loves the camera. He has on his favorite gecko shirt from Geico, this is his newest love. He will run from one end of the house to the other if he hears a Geico commercial coming on. The Teletubbies are his favorite again, I thought that he had lost interest in them a long time ago but he is back into them again. His interest in Chucky Sue, the Chinese dwarf hamster has nearly disappeared so mom and I take her out and pet her every day. She is so adorable and sweet it is hard to resist holding her. Often she will fall asleep if you pet her for awhile.

The IEP went well, it was a bit too brief in my opinion but so far I guess most everything was covered even though my questions weren't answered because I didn't get to ask them. Griffin's teacher is wonderful and so sweet so are all the other staff who work with him. Next year Griffin is going to go to regular ed. for two hours and we will see how it goes and if he does really well the amount of time will increase. Their logic was that they didn't want to just push him full time and possibly overwhelm him. I believe that Griffin could do a lot more than they are fascilitating and for some reason they are keeping him in the special needs classroom. I think that he needs to be more challenged because he gets so bored easily. He seems to love learning and doing his homework so I feel confident that as long as he has an understanding 1st grade teacher then he is going to thrive in that environment. I only hope that this teacher has more than just a little bit of knowledge and more than just hearing or reading about autism, otherwise he will be judged as not being capable of staying in a regular ed. classroom.

I am finally realizing that Griffin's teacher is underestimating not only me but Griffin as well. Whenever I bring up his behaviors, which is all she seems to focus on, she becomes all nice and down-playing it all as if she had never written anything in the first place. On the IEP papers that I signed, which I obviously shouldn't have, it states that the behaviors were addressed and that is so incorrect! I brought them up and nobody wanted to talk about it and I was an idiot for signing the papers. Jamie didn't help me out, in fact she hasn't helped me out for quite some time because I have been writing to her for several months about it and got no reply and if I did it was exceptionally brief.

I heard that there is going to be a male assistant in Griffin's room and I have issues with that. I am going to make sure that there are safeguards in place to be sure that my child is safe because my child WILL NOT go through what I have as a child and I will do everything in my power to make sure that he is safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't care what anybody thinks or how much they think that they know this man, and I am probably the only one who has even considered the scenario/the possibility of this man being a predator. No matter what, my child will be safe and if they do not take precautions to keep him safe then ..........I guess that we will just see how I can really be when I feel that my child is in potential danger.

I am not angry yet but we shall see what the future holds and how much they really are concerned about his safety.

Life Is Good

Griffin is simply radiant in this picture, he is having so much fun with all of his characters (as he so fondly refers to them). He is still a bit mellow/low key and is not fully recovered but he does seem to be feeling better since his surgery. We went to my niece's 21st birthday dinner/party yesterdaty and we didn't get home until around 9:30 (way past his bedtime) so he didn't get to sleep until around 10:00 or so and I didn't get to sleep until about 1:00 a.m. I have been reading so much and writing so much that it seems that the outside world does not exist except when it is time to pick Griffin up from school and/or have to take him somewhere. But this is what I thoroughly enjoy (writing that is) and would love to do it full time, I could never get tired of it.

I plan to take Griffin by the gymnastics class for boys 6-8, it is called tumbling which is going to be the best for him anyhow. The only conflict in his schedule is that he has swimming the same exact time and date so I am hoping that the swimming can be changed to accommodate both activities. I believe that having gymnastics each week could teach him some physical activities that could help him regulate himself at home and maybe even while in public. Between the speech, OT, swimming, and now gymnastics he should be staying pretty busy this summer......at least I sure hope so because of my allergy to the sunlight...........weird, I know......I inherited it from my dad and his dad.

I will do my best to keep everyone updated, hugs to you all.

Griffin Had Surgery Yesterday

Griffin was such a trooper yesterday when he had his tonsils and adenoids removed, he didn't cry and was so mellow before and after the procedure was done as you can tell in this photo. It was all worth it because last night he was breathing so easily and quietly I had to watch his chest just to be able to tell that he was breathing. I held up a lot better than I thought that I would I guess because prior to the day of surgery I had kept being positive and confident that he would do just fine through the entire time and he did just that.

He has not been eating real well which I do not blame him for so he has mostly just been drinking water and fortunately we have been able to talk him into taking some Ibuprofen a couple of times during the day and once or twice he took some Amoxicillin. Right now he is playing with his Sesame Street characters and the Teletubbies of course.

I did an interview with Dateline NBC about the trial that I was involved in earlier this year when I went to Alaska to testify against an individual that I once worked with many years ago in Anchorage Alaska. I do not know yet when it will air but I will keep you posted. I did the interview on the 7th of this month and I have a good feeling that it will be a great program because they asked some very important questions and left no stone unturned.

I cannot remember if I mentioned that Griffin's IEP is going to be in about two weeks from now and I am looking forward to talking with his teachers and everyone else involved in working together on common goals and reflecting back on all the progress that he has made. I firmly believe that he is going to thrive now that he is able to get quality sleep since his breathing has improved tremendously. I feel really bad that he felt so bad for so long and that I didn't even realize it until he kept getting strep, had a foul odor in his mouth, and the snoring just kept getting worse. Now I believe that he is going to just feel better all over which will make such an incredible impact on his behaviors and his attitude towards learning and focusing on school and all the things that he loves about school and all his other activities.

I hope to get him involved in gymnastics this summer for a couple of reasons: he will have another activity to keep him busy during the few months he is out of school and he has shown a lot of interest in tumbling which he frequently tries to do at home. We need to re-schedule his swimming therapy sessions to a different day so that he can do both during the week.

Visit Tina and Her Boys and Younger Brother, Show Some Support

Griffin loves to play with the shaving creme while taking a shower and he also loves to wear his goggles which is helpful because I can wash his hair without getting shampoo in his eyes. He is such a goof ball............always making mommy laugh.



Lately Griffin has been doing so well in school, the reports from his teacher have been glowing and I am so very proud of him as he has been so much more attentive and such a good listener too. We have an IEP on the 20th which I am looking forward to indeed. I look forward to adding some new goals and objectives as he has reached most of his old goals. At home Griffin has been jovial and very positive, laughing and being so entertaining.........what a pleasure it has been to be around him.

I do not remember if Griffin is supposed to attend the regular ed classroom next year or what but because of how he has been progressing I have high hopes for him and I believe that he can and will reach higher goals. Griffin just loves to learn constantly asking questions and looking up words in the dictionary (child's version) especially with Spanish. Every day he asks me what words are in Spanish. I don't remember that much from my Spanish classes in high school but fortunately I do recall how to pronounce the words (for the most part). I purchased the Rosetta Stone program in order to help him learn Espanol and it is working wonderfully! It sure does make things so much easier. I am very impressed with their method of learning by immersion, it really keeps his attention and he retains all that he reads. It is great because I get to learn at the same time which does come in handy because we get to use the words in conversation which leaves an indelible impression on our minds.

If you haven't visited my dearest friends please do visit Tina and her two boys plus her younger brother at:
http://autismschmatism.blogspot.com/
please let her know that you support her and wish them all the best. They are such beautiful souls who are now experiencing very challenging and heartbreaking times right now. I think that if she sees how many people care enough to stop by and how much you care for them it would be a great way of showing her a lot of support. Recently Tina's mother has passed and she has been struggling with how traumatic this event is/can be. I can only imagine how tragic it would be if I lost one of my parents...........the pain would be absolutely unbelievable! Let's all visit her frequently and leave her comments so that she will know that we all care.

I just want to add that I am eternally grateful for all that is in my life, Griffin's health and safety and all the other simple and wonderful people, places, and things in my life..........I do my best to show/express my gratitude each and every day. I am thankful to have this blog (which I have had since 2005) and to have all of you visiting my blog and leaving comments for me......thank you for letting me know that you came by.