Autism Awareness Day 6

Autism Awareness Day 6 - Therapy alone is not enough. One thing that Dr. Soloman told us when our boys were diagnosed was that we needed to record our therapy sessions. He said that we shouldn't rely on therapists, that we needed to learn how to do the therapy ourselves at home. Dr. Soloman said that we as parents were the key to helping our children meet their milestones and that a few hours a week with a therapist was never going to be enough. So we took his advise and recorded the first several sessions so that we could replay them and learn how to provide therapy at home.

At this point in time we no longer record therapy sessions but at the beginning it was very helpful. We still observe therapy sessions and partner with the boys therapists to keep up with what skills we need to work on. We've done our best to incorporate the things they do in therapy into our everyday lives. We are constantly working on skills at home but we've made it more a part of life rather than endless therapy sessions. The key to teaching our boys is through fun and play. They learn so much more when they enjoy it and I think that is really true for just about anyone.

We've taken a lot of the advice given to us from therapists and put it into play (literally play time) at home. We've also found some of our own methods that work too. I don't feel that we are the best at this but I will say that the therapists have always told us that they can tell we're working on things at home. So if you ask me that must mean we're doing something right. All I know is that our boys have come a long way since the beginning of this journey.

Horrible Hands

     As I'm sure most of you know already, when dealing with children it is important to wash your hands often. Well with two little ones like I have I am constantly washing my hands. In fact I wash my hands so much they that they just look terrible. They are extremely dry and just look awful. I know I should put lotion on often, probably after every hand washing, but there's no time for that. I'm a busy person and unfortunately my hands suffer for it.
     There are a few things that I do though to try to spare them. I do apply lotion when it occurs to me but honestly that doesn't happen very often. When things get really bad that they hurt I will put vaseline all over them before bed and usually by morning they look significantly better. But there is one thing that I have noticed that helps the most and that's when I use natural handmade soaps. I am a huge fan of natural handmade soaps for many, many reasons but my hands are a big reason.
     It never fails that if I use natural soaps for my hands then I never seem to have near as big of a problem with them. I can wash my hands just as often as any other time but natural soaps will keep them protected better. They never seem to dry out as much when using an all natural soap compared to commercial soaps. The is probably because most commercial soaps aren't really even soap at all. They are actually detergents and there is a big difference in the effect that soap vs detergents have on your skin. So my advice to you is that you make the switch to natural soaps.

Grocery fun

     It was another fun filled trip to the grocery store today. It can be quite a challenge to get out and about with these two munchkins and grocery shopping is no exception. I can only wonder what people must think of us when they see us out and about. Each trip requires a lot of time, patience, and two carts. Yep fun indeed!
    First off it seems like it takes for ever to get everybody ready to even leave the house and go to the grocery store, and then once we're there we immediately have to get our two carts so the fun can begin. Usually I take the cart with Draiman in it and John takes the cart with Gatlin in it. The reason for two separate carts is mainly because Gatty likes to attempt to open, eat, or otherwise destroy pretty much everything we put into the cart. So the Gatty safe objects go in his cart and everything else goes in Draiman's cart.
     Today was an exception to the rule though because Gatty decided to climb into Draiman's cart when I had the two carts side by side. So we went with it and kept both boys in one cart and the majority of the groceries in the other cart. Though it is a hassle, I do enjoy taking the boys to store because it is good for us all to get out and they're going to have to learn how to do this stuff eventually any way. Mostly it's just kind of comical the amount of attention we seem to get from people. Gatty always gets attention because of his loudness and cute face and of course now Draiman gets attention as well because of his cute and everyone seems to love babies.
     The trip today was a good one. Overall Gatty was pretty well behaved with the exception of continually throwing Draiman's elephant toy out of the cart and on to the floor. He did seem to have one admirer, a women commented on him being loud and then we ran into her two more times throughout the store. Each time she talked to him and smiled. Draiman got lots of smiles from people as well. Then as we were attempting to check out Gatty got overly excited about watching the groceries go down the belt at the self check-out in Meijer. He was practically screaming in excitement. You got to love when everyone in the store is looking at you. After the kids and groceries were loaded into the vehicle I popped open some Jarritos (Mexican soda pop) and we headed home.

FYI- the bars on the front of the cart where the coupon holder is make for a great bottle opener

Thank goodness for Pink

     This week has been a rough one for poor little Draiman. He's been quite fussy in general because he seems to be teething, but things were a little worse for him when he started having diaper rash issues. I'm not sure what I ate that upset him (the trouble with nursing) but poor little man constant poopy diapers for a few days and let me just say it really did a number on his bottom.
     Both of my boys seem to have very sensitive skin and a few excessively poopy diapers can really do some damage to them. We used to have big problems with Gatty (before Draiman was born) and I felt so bad because no amount of Desitin seemed to help him. Desitin had always been the saving grace for the other kids in the past but it just didn't seem to cut it for Gatty. Luckily for us when discussing the situation with my Aunt Dona she told us about "the pink stuff." She couldn't exactly remember the name of it but she knew if was pink and it worked great.
     At one of Gatty's doctor visits I told the doctor about the diaper rash issue and asked him if he had any suggestions. He hesitated as he thought about for a minute and then I mentioned "the pink stuff" and he instantly knew what I was talking about. It's actually named Pinxav (pronounced Pink Salve) and the doctor said it should do the trick for us. He suggested we go to Walgreens and ask the pharmacist for it. He said it did not require a prescription but that it was usually kept back in pharmacy.
     Needless to say we went out immediately and got the stuff and let me just say that's its awesome. That stuff has worked better for my boys than anything else has. I hate to think how bad poor Draiman's bottom would've been this week without it. I mean he still got red and irritated initially but keeping that stuff on him regularly really helped to keep his bottom protected. Plus the nice thing about it is that it has a cooling sensation that helps to relieve any pain. So if you babies get bottom issues like mine then I highly suggest you go out and buy some. Trust me it's worth it.