Adam and Anya

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

February

February seems to have slipped away! John has been struggling in his school environment and we've opted to move the kids to another school nearby in the district. It's very challenging when people don't fully understand autism.

On a positive note, he and Adam took President's Day to go mountain biking and spend some quality time together. Adam said John did really good on the rocky terrain. John blew a tire so they had to walk their bikes back to the car.

Ella, my mom, and I went to the Biltmore for a girls' day out shopping and eating pear with gorgonzola pizza and ice cream.

This past weekend we drove to see the new Gilbert temple that's being built. We also took the children on a carousel ride at Arizona Mills.

Ella's second tooth fell out last night and she came crying that it fell down the drain. We found it and she was so glad. Here she is checking out the gap.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Good Samaritan

Friday, February 10, 2012

Parenting

I'm currently taking a parenting course which has been really enlightening. I've taken a number of child development and family dynamics courses but parenting has been really fascinating. I get to raise a virtual child from birth to 18 years old.

Here's a few things I've learned so far:

Children watch approximately 3.04 hours of TV per day (Brooks 141).
Sexual content appears in 83% of popular adolescent TV shows (Brooks 144).
Children spend more time with media than in any other awake activity (Brooks 140).
16% of children are overweight (in comparison to 5% in 1980) (Brooks 136).
The best way to stop child whining is to ignore it (Brooks 160).
Boys are more likely to be spanked than girls (Brooks 162).
Spanking is now considered an ineffective form of discipline with over 300 extensive studies proving this (Brooks 161).

There are three R's to giving a child consequences:
1. Related - it must be a consequence related to the problem behavior
2. Respectful - Do not humiliate the child, be respectful
3. Reasonable - Have consequence be designed to teach, not to induce suffering

3 Examples of Healthy consequences:
1. Ignore (sulking, whining, pouting)
2. Social Disapproval - Speak firmly with a disapproved look on your face
3. Time Outs - 1 min per year of age, after the time out parents should make up with the child as an end to the consequence (Child 2 years old should only receive 1 minute timeouts)

I really really like this subject. I see a lot of areas for improvement in the way I parent.

Brooks, J. (2011). The process of parenting (8^th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

ISBN: 9780073378763

Thursday, February 9, 2012

January Happenings

January was full of appointments and worries. Both Ella and John had their endoscopies done to biopsy their intestines. Maybe we can get to the bottom of these stomach problems once and for all! We'll find out Friday if the Dr. has answers. We were very blessed when the facility didn't charge us for the surgery. We'll still have Dr. bills, but that saved us about $3,000.

Kids cuddling with Adam early morning before the proceedures.

Ella was very worried before going to sleep. I had to hold her little arms down so she could breath the gas and she was very angry about that. "I dont like it!" she cried. But in about 3 breaths she dozed off still holding onto my finger. The proceedure was very quick and she was silly waking up. She's gone through a lot recently with medical problems and chronic pain. We just want her to feel better soon.

Adam stayed with John (who didn't put up any fuss). John just wanted to get it over with so he told the Dr. he already knows how to have surgery. His proceedure took a little longer and then he woke up wanting to hold hands with Ella who was right nearby. He said he wanted to go to HipHop after for breakfast (Ihop).

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Gerber came for a visit and it was a blessing to see them.

We are also looking for a new school for the kids. It's been a very difficult battle, trying to get John support in his education. We really lost confidence in the school the kids are at currently. We have been touring schools, calling them by the dozens, applying in differrent districts, etc. We're trying to avoid charters and private schools because they discriminate so badly. We're on a few wait lists at some charter schools but only one has impressed me. Until then, we will be working with the current school to meet his needs.

We hired educational advocate Kim Yamamoto who also has a son diagnosed with autism. She's been a great help and we feel like some of our concerns are finally being heard.

We are also helping my dad find placement in a group home because his bipolar disorder/schizoid personality disorder is becoming a cause for concern. After speaking with his psychologist, we realized can no longer fully care for himself and we want to be sure he is in a good environment where he will have the support he desperately needs. It's a very busy time for our family but we keep moving forward.

The future is bright even though we all seem to be going through a bit of turbulence.