4/6/09

Sorry for the delay in getting an update posted. Tyler was quite sick last week and I spent most of the week home taking care of the boys. Early last week Tyler woke up from his nap, he was fever free,yahoo, so I didn't give him an fever reducer. I took the boys for a walk cause the poor dog really needed to get out and get some exercise. When we got back, Tyler played for a few minutes and then kind of laid down so I knew something was going on, I took his temp and it was 102 so I laid him in the chair with a blanket and got him some juice and gave him some fever reducer. I started making dinner for Ben and I. I ate quickly at the table and then check Tyler's temp again and it was in the 103's.. uh oh. So since I already gave him medicine I was just hoping it would kick in soon, I took off the blanket and his clothes.. checked it 5 minutes later, now it was 104.1. Ok.. temp is going up fast, I was home alone but needed to get Tyler in the bathtub to get his temp down. I didn't really have anything to do with Ben. He's not quite old enough to wander around without supervision in the house and he would be upset at what was going on in the bathtub cause I knew Tyler wasn't gonna be happy. So I ran to my neighbors and she and her son came over and played with Ben while I gave Tyler a "bath"... it was more like torture for both of us, we were both crying. I've had that high of a fever before so I know just how much your body hurts and how freezing you feel.. even though the water was luke warm, I know he was just miserable and kept looking at me with the "why are you doing this" look? So I ketp checking his temp, got it down in the low 103's and get him out and dried him off and kept him in his diaper.. finally it started to come down 102, 101, yeah. By the time we put TYler ot bed, he was in the 99's. woo hooo. I can't remember which day it was but one morning both boys woke up with a fever, we had planned on my mom watching the boys int he morning for us but with both boys sick I decided to stay with them. We were lucky my mom was there though becuase I decided to take Tyler to the doctor to rule out any major problems so my mom stayed wth Ben.

So the doc appt was a bit odd for us, Doc did not see any major physical causes of TYler's fever so he ran a bunch of tests, throat swab, nasal swab, blood draw, and urine test. When I type it out that way, it doesn't seem so awful but believe me, it was. We were there for 2 hours and that is in incredibly long time for Tyler to be anywhere without scheduled activities, I had ran out of things I had brought to entertain him and since he wasn't really understanding what was going on and why we were staying, well it was just hard. Especially the bllod draw an urine test. The boy wouldn't anytning when we were there so it took a while to get him to go to the bathroom and the puck that they put on to catpure the reason had really strong adhesive and that caused a bunch of broken blood vessels in his leg and well he just wasn't happy. But the staff was great and was as accomodating as possible. Anyway, they never actually were able to figure out for sure what caused his high fevers, he had a high white blood cell count so they put h im on anitbiotics and the urine test showed he had a trace fo blood in his urine so they are culturing that and we should habve results soon and we have to go back in 4 weeks for another urine test, oh goodie! So we started antibiotics that day and byt he evening he was doing much better and almost like a new kid the next day which I think was Thursday, he woke up fever free, yeah! He has to be fever free for 24 hours before going to school. He did great all day on Thursday, no fevers, although not eating well at that point, butplaying and doing well. Ben's fever was a fluke cause he was fine. Both boys actually played outside with me, we went grocery shopping, etc. Tyler went to school on Friday.

Tyler is learning two new signs right now and watching him do his version of the signs, is sooooo cute but I am working to clean them up. Snake and butterfly. H

Dad had to work on Saturday so Grandma and I took the boys to the park which is their first visit of the season. Usually the first time we visit anywhere, Tyler is a bit more "autistic" than after we go a few times. I think he gets overwhelemed by all things sensory, trees, leaves, kids, wind, etc. So this trip I let him kind of just be Tyler and do what he wanted and each time we go this year, I'll make thing sa bit more structured. I actually told Steve's mom at one point as she and ben are playing on the swings and Tyler and I are walking the circular sidewalk around the play area, I said, I wish I had a video camera, if someone wanted the definetion of autism, there it was... Tyler walking the sidewalk the play area while all the other kids laughed and played on the play structure, swings, slides, etc. That's autism... Dont' get me wrong, he did play ont he swings but only for a minute or two, he did play on the structure, but again only for a minute or two. Next time I'll make it 5 minutes... so 5 mintuse swing, 5 minute walk, 5 minute play structure, 5 minute walk, etc. I did try to make the walk a bit more functional, we sang, we did gross motor invitations and I signed things for him such as trees and leaves, but in general, that's certainly not what we should have been doign at the park. But I thought it pretty successful anyway, everyone had fun and that's all that mattered. Then we all went to arby's and both boys did great.

We had an "oh my god" moment one night last week. It was kind of late but the boys had taken a long nap and since we were gonna be home with them the next day, we let them stay up past bed time. Steve and I decided tot ry to watch a movie since it was getting late and we'd not be able to watch it all if we didn't start it soon. Sonmehow, Tyler ended up in my lap and Ben ended up in my lap. And there we all sat, still, watching Marley and Me! So you may say, what's the big deal? Well gettign Tyler to sit on your lap and sit still is a huge deal but getting it to happen when tehre isn't any of his normal type of entertainment, well that's a huge deal. And then add in the fact that we were each having a child on our laps at the same time and watching an adult movie, well that is the first time in 3 years that we ever were able to have that. We felt like a normal family, it was fantastic!

Tyler is really enjoying watching Ben on the swings at our house. He looks at Ben to see if Ben is having a good time and if Ben is laughing, again may not be a big deal to those of you who read this and maybe your kids do this every day, but remember, Tyler didn't even acknowledge that there was a Ben for the longest time, he never even used to look at him, let alone cared what he was doing. So it's a really big deal that not only does he acknowledge Ben but he's interstedin what ben is doign and laughing! Which brings me to my next comment.. last night Tyler was sitting on Steve's lap again watchign funniest videos... amazing for us.

I feel like there were a lot of other things I wanted to comment about but I can't remember any of them right now so I'll just save them for another day when I think of them.