The meeting with the new speech therapist was fantastic! I'm really looking forward to working with her. I like her philosophy on how to teach speech and her priorities.... let's get Tyler talking :) So he has his first one on one speech session next week and then at that meeting we will discuss a longer term schedule for the school year, yeah! She is really excited that Tyler is interested in words and reading and has already given me some tips on how to get him to associate the spelling of a word with the object so I'm hoping I can get that going this weekend maybe.

There is some info going around on the list servs right now about the possibility of the mandatory vaccinations of school aged kids for the swine flu. In responses to those emails, everyone is reminding each other that Michigan is a waiver state and you can sign a waiver to opt of of vaccinations for religious or political beliefs. Also, keep in mind to please verify the ingredients if you decide to get your children vaccinated. There is a misleading sentiment out there that mercury has been rmoved from vaccines, but it has not been removed from all vaccinations. Thimerisol is a form of mercury and can be found in many flu shots and will possibly be an ingredient for the H1n1 vacation so please make sure you know that before making your decision. I don't want to push my philosophical views on anyone, I just want to make sure that people have all the information to make an informed decision. one of my friends told me her doctor said they can't separate out the MMR vaccination so my friend said ok and had them all done at once. Very frustrating..

As for as pushing my views, I don't want to do that, but I will share my experiences and my opinion moving forward. I believe that there are unnecessary vaccinations such as the chicken pox vaccination which I think causes more harm than it does good. how harmful is chicken pox really? also, newborns getting hepatitis b vaccinations just seems downright silly if the mother does not have hepatitis b. How many newborns are sexually promiscuous? The vaccination debate is not whether or not vaccines are necessary, it's why not make them safer, why give unnecessary vaccinations, why do we suddenly have 36 necessary vaccinations vs. 10 not that long ago. Why can't we split them up over a longer period of time. Why do the ingredients need to be so toxic. If you read the book Healing and Preventing Autism, it lists what vaccinations and their ingredients and it's downright scary. Tyler was very very very very sick after his 12 month and 18 month vaccinations. I think I've mentioned it at least 3 times in this blog but i literally kick myself every time I think about how i learned about biomedical treatment of autism, 1 week after Tyler's 18 month vaccinations.. which essentially were supposed to be his last until he was 4. I was worried from the time he was 3 months old that he had autism yet for 18 months I continually pumped him full of all kinds of crap. He's always had autism, no doubt in my mind, but the severity... the severity to which he would have had it will never be known. his sensory/eating issue kicked in full blast after his 12 month vaccinations.. i remember at 9 months event though we were worried about his lack of speech, etc. he was laughing and smiling at that doctors appt. he loved people faces and to look at them.. I remember that about when we got our carpet put in and he liked to watch the carpet guy and smile at him. Another huge mistake, getting carpet pulled and laid back down with a child at risk of autism. sigh. Anyway, his 18 month vaccinations left him lethargic, vomit ting and downright miserable.. for days. He was already on antibiotics for another illness.. exactly the reason we should not have vaccinated him as his immune system was lower cause he was already sick and on antibiotics and I think that's when he got his second dose of MMR. SIGH.. makes me sick to think about what could be different had i not gone through with those last set of vaccinations.... had I started the diet much sooner in his life.. had I... see you can't go back so I'll stop with the "what ifs" but that's why I feel it's important to share our story so that maybe someone else doesn't have to say "what if?" ya know.

Ok I'm off my soap box. Tyler was a signing little maniac this morning. SOOOO FUN! I had a baby Einstein video on when I got him out of bed and brought him downstairs to change his diaper, get dressed, etc. Those movies are pretty object focused, hence the reason he likes them, and each object that came up, he singed to me. Flower, butterfly, elephant, horse, cow, he was just having so much fun communicating with me. Made me so happy.

New reward chart worked great yesterday for Ben.. he got a sticker at lunch cause his diaper was dry all morning and then he got to choose a dinosaur toy after snack time cause he stayed dry in the afternoon.