9/3/09

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah..lots of good stuff to report. When I picked up the boys from daycare last night, I was hanging out for a bit talking when I realized Tyler was starting to blow air out his mouth. To this point he has never blown air, i.e. blow bubbles, blow out a straw into water, blow out a candle, etc. This is fantastic news..another piece we needed to come together to help him talk. There are many things we can do to reinforce this behavior like today he had an airplane whistle at speech so if he would have blown into it,t eh propellers spin and he loves spinning. Anyway, probably not huge news to anyone but me but I was elated when I saw/heard him doing this, yeah Tyler. I gotta go get some more "blow" toys for him to practice on. An So last night was family movie night, Toy Story was the choice. Ben loved it by teh way. Anyway, I think it was our 5th family movie night and TYler participated more than he ever had in the past.. In fact, when we first started the movie and had asked Tyler to sit with us, he just started running back and forth so in order to keep it tru to family movie night and allow ben to actually see/hear the movie, I put one of Tyler's fav video's on in the foyer. He did watch it for a few minutes, but then he kept coming back over to us to read a book to him or something and then eventually he just kind of laid down where we all were and hung out with us for a bit. It was great. I was able to get a picture with my camera, Sorry it's dark but i didn't want Ty to get distracted if I turned on a light and I Don't have a flash on my phone so poor quality but awesome to capture everyone participating in family movie night. See...there is hope for our family yet :) Ok, now on to speech therapy, woo hoo! Ty did great, really great. she began the session by just saying hi to him and seeing how he interacted, etc. He was making a lot of sounds and she said this was great, he's got a good foundation for language by the different inflections, etc. I get into details in a minute but the whole session I just watched Tyler in amazement. I reviewed the blog the other night to prepare for the speech session and to also give myself a little boost. I struggle during the rare weeks where Tyler is not involved in something becuase i feel like I'm not doing my job to help him move foward, so those are always really good weeks for me to reflect back at his progress. So anyway, I was just so in love with Tyler today, watching him make sounds, and eye contact and signing, pointing, joint eye gaze, etc. and so happy why he was doing it. . None of that came naturally or easily for him. I just felt really inspired by him today and really hopeful and energized to continue our battle for him. He's so amazing. Ok, I was able to get a lot of video of today's session. Tee hee i go through that rant about him being amazing and you'll probably think big deal so he opened his mouth.. how hard is that. Again, for Tyler it's hard, imitation is hard, making sounds is hard, tolerating someone just touching his face is hard. It's all hard and you'll see that on the video. You'll see him clench his teeth and get frustrated with her. She's compared it to playing the piano, she goes imagine i sat you next to a piano and said ok, now play. she goes you'd be pretty frustrated.. that's how Tyler feels when we are asking him to make sounds, movements, words, etc. it's very hard for him, but he TOLERATES it so well! She pushed and pushed and never once did he try to go to the floor to bang his head, in fact towards the end he'd go to her to do his little mouth movements to get what he wanted. Ok so one of the videos where you see her doing numerous movements with his mouth, I am supposed to do this at home with Tyler, she did this a lto during the session, maybe 10 times or more? So I video'd it so I'd remember. She said this is also a good routine to establish so that he knows it's time to work on speech stuff. So anyway, if htat one seems weird I wanted to explain it. The other parts are her just geting him to sign and make sounds for what he watns or at least make the correct movement of his mouth along with the sign. by th way, who knew he knew the sign for lobster... but he does. signed it today. It is on one of his videos but he's never demonstrated it before. i wonder what else he knows that I dont' know he knows... Tyler rocks!!

9/2/09

Tyler has had diarrhea now for about a week, we aren't sure what's causing it. Luckily he usually has a day off in between so it gives his booty and legs a little time to heal. We finally found the ferinsol that the doc wanted us to start giving him. Since it's iron, I'm hoping this will help make him a bit more solid. Poor guy. He still is eating quite well and doesn't seem to be under the weather so I have to believe this is not illness related.

We start speech tomorrow...yahooo!!! I'll be working a late day tomorrow cause Tyler and I have speech in the morning. I think we are gonna figure out a more regular schedule at tomorrow session for when Ty starts school which is next week! Anyway, we are hoping he can go to speech right after school. Also, our hr benefits person is gonna help me try to get the proper coding and possibly try to get it reimbursed through insurance, if not, at least flex spending will cover it and Ihave enough money in flex spending to get us 4 months worth of speech and hopefully we'll have figured out something else by then.

Met up with Amy the other night. She's the director at EMU's new autism collaborative center and they are beginning a music therapy program in the fall so we are hoping to get Tyler into that. Gonna try to look into somehow getting a grant or something to help us with this or maybe biomed costs.

Tyler's picked up some new signs. he now knows "thunder" and "kangaroo"..he also is doing flower which he has been fo ra while just not sure I've put it in. watching him do kangaroo is so funny! We were going through an animal book last night and he and I were both signing the animals. we came to "goose" and I just said goose and he looked at me and my hands (which were doing nothing) and he looked back and me and I said, sorry little buddy I don't know the sign for goose. Gotta look that one up! He was like hey now! He was really enjoying the bee which I just use the "bug" sign for and then we'd play bumblee bumblee coming from the barn.. he got the biggest giggles.

Oh and we were able to get ben and ty to play a bit together last night. started a bit rough but worked out. Ben wanted in Ty's crib to play 5 silly monkey's jumping on the bed. So after that faded out, ben was throwing a ball out of the crib and back to me while I was readying baby baby bear to Ty (steve was doing laundry) so then Tyler wanted to see the ball but Ben was playing with it first so Tyler reached in the crib after Tyler to attack him. I said no Tyler, Ben is playing with the ball. Tyler then had another toy in hand that was similar to a ball and I said that one is Tyler's so Tyler threw it in the crib. I said Ben, Ty wants to play with you, throw it back to him so they had that exchange at least 5 or 6 times with Tyler laughing and Ben although not laughing seemed to be enjoying himself, yeah! Also that little Tyler attack moment, gave Ben a chance to pracice what we talked about "NO Tyler" he did great..no crying.

AND...it was shot night last night we don't think Tyler had a party in his crib last night. Yeah! Can't be 100% sure.. on party nights I tend to put the monitor closer to Steve because he's sleeps more soundly than I do but will wake up if Ty is crying. Well sometime in the middle of the night steve went to sleep in ben's room and hte monitor remained on his side of the bide so even though I didn't hear anything it's possible Ty had a crib party but I didn't hear a peep and he woke up at 6:30 so I'm thinking he probably slept through the night! Yeah.

we go back to the DAN Doc/Pediatrician next week. this is a follow up to all the labs we had run on TYler (thank god for insurance I'll explain that one later). So we go the comprehensive urine results emailed to us and can't remember if I posted them or not but the results were 13 pages long and I have no idea what it means other than the email the doc sent to me which said "this shows excess oxidative stress and possibly difficulty in digesting proteins" so we'll be talking about all that next week. Ok so that one urine test alone was over $1000.00. We paid $100 up front and luckily insurance does pay part of it but it's an out of network lab. just got a statement saying they covered $700 so we have another $350 or so to pay... on top of the $500 we just spend 4 weeks ago. Hence the reason we are gonna try to look for grants, and any way we can flex spend costs, etc. So I somewhat understand why insurance doesn't pay for biomedical treatment, it is somewhat experimental yet you have thousands of parents that will say it works.. so OK I can see that one but why won't insurance pay for speech, OT, behavioral therapy, etc. ITS SO IRRITATING! OK just had to get that off my chest.

Ok so that brings me to what i said last week about the National Autism Institute and some marking material they have out right now. I can't attach files (other than video and pics) to the blog and my attempts and cutting and pasting just didn't' work so I encourage you to follow this link..it's very powerful..hopefully it works..

http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/images/NAA_OBAMA.pdf

8/31/09 - Is summer really gone?

Can't believe how chilly it was this weekend, had to put coats on the boys, crazy!

Ok, well I do have to say that with all the behavior training I've had, definetly feeling like a failure when it comes to Ben and potty training. Our reward chart is not working and I decided to once again take a break from potty training..feeling like Ben is feeling too much pressure. Sigh. I'm thinking once Tyler starts school next week I'll ask them to start charting wet/dry times so we can move forward with potty training Ty and then hopefully Ben will see how much attention Tyler is getting for going on the potty and then the peer pressure (doc said this is highly motivating for kids) will cause Ben to want to go too, we'll see. i cannot wait to get rid of that diaper expense..two kids in diapers for 3.5 years.. I've had enough.

So Saturday night was shot night and Tyler's crib party was about 2 hours long this time. I live in fear that he's gonna climb out of his crib and get hurt or caught or something. Then I think if I had him in a regular bed, I worry about him roaming the house while I'm sleeping and getting into all kinds of trouble or god forbid leaving the house and wondering off. I am very thankful that he doesn't yet know how to open doors! Steve has gotten into a habit of cuddling/rocking Ty to sleep so I told Steve this weekend he had to break that habit before we move him to a big boy bed.

So today's update probably isn't going to be the happiest. Tyler seems to be really taking joy out of upsetting Ben. So yeah I understand that many siblings are like this so it's not necessarily abnormal behavior but it's just upsetting in that they aren't normal siblings. They really don't play together or interact together at all, we try to make most of their interactions positive so that they will continue but it's difficult when Tyler is picking on Ben and Ben lives in fear of Tyler biting him. we were at the lunch table on Sunday and Ben wanted to know what kind of dinosaurs we all were.. I told him I was a velocirator and he said no, you are a plant eater not a meat eater, you are a (forgot what he said) and then he goes, what kind of dinosaur is Ty Ty and he says.hmmmmmm Ty Ty is a T-Rex because he bites just like a T-rex. sigh.. There were countless time sthis weekend that TYler went after Ben. A coupl eof times we were there so we could stop it and a couple of times we weren't but ben is so anxious about getting hurt that he starts crying right away an then Tyler is getting excited about that. So yesterdya Ben and I did a little role playing. He played Ben and I played Tyler and I prentend to go after him and we discussed that Ben should say "no Tyler" as Tyler definetly knows what No means and he should say it like he means it and then go find mom or dad if we aren't there and tell us what happend. We also warned miss karen that Ty seems to be going after Ben so that she can watch out for it. We are going to try to keep those two a bit separated if we aren't in the room so if I'm in the kitchen cooking, I'm gonna have ben come in there with me and help cook or paly with dinosaurs, etc. so I can monitor better how the two are interacting. Tyler has left a few pretty bad bite marks on Ben's back so I don't blame him from being scared and there's no way I can change the behavior if i"m not there so for now I'm gonna try to prevent it from happening when I'm not int he room.

Ok on to the next not so great news. This weekend is when we chose to break the "i don't want to go on a bike ride" tantrum... We gave lots of warnings of what we were diong and instead of a bike we were gonna use the wagon for Tyler, This way he can play with som eof his favorite toys while we walk around/bike around but he's still participating in the walk. We had his toys in teh wagon and we went outside and he refused ot get in teh wagon (ben already on bike). Not necessarily a problem cause I can get him in the wagon regardless of his refusing, however then I realized (had just chagend both diapers) that he had pooped.. SHOOT! Steve goes want me to take him inside to change him? I said,, I have to think about it cause I don't want him to get out of the wagon ride just because he's throwing a fit and that's what it will seem like if we take him inside right now. The whole time we are having this conversation Tyler is literally writing in my arms/wagon while I try to get him in there. So we decide neighbors/screaming and all to bring the diaper stuff otuside and change him outside in the wagon. He was definetly not happy about this. So now we are in the wagon.. Ben is riding his bike and Ty's crying..however he is not trying to escape the wagon so success #1, yeah! About a quarter o the way in the walk Tyler wants to escape (still crying) I stand him on the sidewalk and say you can walk or you can ride in the wagon. he grabs on to me and sobs... (heartbreaking to stand your ground sometimes).. I say Tyler, you can ride in teh wagon or walk. Keep in mind the wagon is full of some of his fav toys, I'm really not a big meanie!! Ben and dad are way ahead of us at this point.. hence the reason it takes two parents most of the time. I cannot keep Ben save while doing what i need for Tyler. So we eventually get in the wagon.. and thens truggle with the "sit down" command.. but alas.. I did prevail.. so sitting and crying.... I'm once again pullign the wagon and we catch up with Dad... so about 1/8 mile from home.. crying stops, yeah! I keep telling Tyler once we get home, we are gonna play on the on the swings and slide in teh backyard. So as we park the wagon the garage and walk in the backyard Tyler starts crying again (he'd live his life inside if he could) and so we play as normal and Steve starts swinging Tyler aroudn by his arms, legs, etc. and finally we get him happy. We did not take him back inside until he had been happy for a couple of minutes. The key here was to ensure that the throwing the tantrum/fit did not get him out of doing what we wanted. It's really important that Tyler doesn't alway sget to do what Tyler wants and when he wants and we can't coddle him through each situation. As we were on tehw alk I said to Steve, so you are never gonna pick Tyler up again when it's time for a bike ride/walk right? Becuase this is the result.. he's gotten out of doing it a few times and dad has carried him and breaking that behavior chain is not so fun! He goes NOPE! Sometimes in the life of Tyler you don't realize that you are creating a pattern until it's too late. We both are guilty of that.

So anyway.. i'm sure next time isn't gonna be so great but hopefully it will be better than the last and we can keep moving forward. We are gonna get a picture of the wagon and a picture of his bike and then show him the pictures before we go outside so he can choose what he wants and carry the picture with him as a transition item. hopefully this will help him as well. Again..the key here is putting supports in place before he gets upset, not after.

So that's that. No much good stuff for the weekend. Ben peed all over the chair and floor in the dining room, Tyler almost slipped and fell in it. Steve and i were grouchy to eachother, Tyler was trying to beat Ben up and thought it was funny and Ben has developed a serious 3 year old attitude with talking back. boo hoo.. but we did take them to the Hands on Museum and to the park so all hope was not lost in having some family time.

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.

082509

Here are some pictures of Tyler at Splash Camp. The theme for the last week of camp was "creepy crawly" and you can see in one of the pictures, Tyler is touching a frog. We also found out that Tyler touched a turantula.. ewwww... I might have had a heart attack if I did that. So the newsletter said that Tyler's favorite parts of the week were teh "flight of the bumblebee" toy and jumping around in the ball pit. In terms of feedback from the therapists:

Music: Tyler had an increased level of independence ni terms of sitting without staff support during music. More frequently this week, he was able to sit alone on his capart square without being on an adults lap and he wa sable to watch adn engage in teh session when sitting alone.

Speech & Language: Goals focused on transitioning from playtime to speech time, focus and joint attention, listening skills & more consistent use of gestures. Tyler has shown increased group participation and focus on people and faces. He is more independent at the speech table especially during songs & stories.

Occupational Therapy: Tyler has done very well this week! He has transitioned much better to the OT room in the morning and has a higher level of participation! He seems to respond well to moderate pressure provided in short bursts to help calm him in the morning.

So this week, Tyler is kind of in vacation mode, taking it easy at daycare :) He did the coolest thing this morning. Tyler often signs for things he wants or makes sounds for them but rarely makes the appropriate sound and sign at the same time. The key there being appropriate.. eh still makes sounds but not always the cooresponding sound. Well this mroning he walked up to me and said "buh Buh" and I turned to look at him and he was signing "book" yahoo! We keep his Tag books in the kitchen so he has to ask us for them. I was so super excietd that he made the right sound with the sign :)

We started a new potty traniing plan with Ben today, hopefully it works. Found a bunch of dinosaur stuff in the dollar bins at Target yesterday. Bought a bunch of it and put it in a bin then last night after boys went to bed I made a reward chart. Kinda looks like a calendar. Each day has a square for 20 days. Every day that he has a dry diaper all day at daycare he gets to put a sticker in a box and then grab a toy from the bin. Hopefully this will work. he has to do it for 20 days and then after that he gets to go to teh zoo to see the animals which means he watns to go to teh Toledo zoo. He seemed pretty excited about it this morning so let's hope it works and we can get down to just having one kid in diapers and then we can start working on Tyler in the fall. School pretty much does most of the work for us for Tyler and we just follow whatever they tell us to do.

8/24/09

Just found out there's a natinoal campaign on September 9th, asking "how much longer" they have some pretty strong literature so far. http://www.national autismassociatio n.org/howmuchlon ger.php Anyway, more details to come once I get them. The one to Obama is paticularly moving in my mind.

Ok, camp is all over :( and I forgot to bring the cd so I can load the pictures. I'll hopefully get to do that tomorrow so you can see what a great time Tyler had. Camp provided all snacks, drinks, etc. And one of the snacks lat week was pineapple which Tyler loves. He ate all his pineapple, grabbed the aids hand, and went over to the pictures of the snacks and pointed to the pineapple and signed more. Poor guy doesn't know the sign for pineapple so he figured a way to get his point across, in fact, note to self, look up sign for pineapple.

Also, at daycare last week, I was picking up the boys and Tyler was trying to tell me something. he signed the color 'red" and then was gesturing to the door. So I went to the door which opens into the breezeway and said Tyler, what do you want that is red? He went out the open door and grabbed the red frisbee. So that night I looked up teh sign for frisbee and told daycare so now he'll know how to ask for a frisbee. See..imagine how frustrating it is to be Tyler and not know how to tell someone what you want. That's where most of Tyler's behavioral issues come from, if anyway. He just gets frustrated when he can't get his point accross. I'd probably have a lot more behavioral issues than he does. So, as I always, i just want to remind everyone, watch Tyler's hands, even if you don't know what he's signing, you can at least tell he's wants something. Also, give him opportuniities to respond. We took the boys to the park yesterdy and Ty was swinging on the tire swing, some other kids wanted on so I added 2 more kids on the tire. I knew that Tyler probably wouldn't want to stay on the swing long but since he's swinging, he can't exactly stop hanging no to sign all done. So whenever we are swinging Tyler, we often stop the swing and ask if he's done. If he still wants to swing, he'll sign swing, if he is all done he'll sign all down or gesture to get down. I was right, he didn't want to stay no teh swing with the other kids very long but he did do it for a short time and wasn't upset about it at all so that's good. You just have to make sure to give him opportunities to communicate and really work with him to figure out what he is trying to communicate.

Which brings me to my next topic..speech :) I have a meeting with the new speech therapist tomorrow, yeah! I've heard so many good things about her and am really looking forward to meeting her and coming up with a plan for Ty. I so badly want Tyler to talk and be able to interact with Ben. Ben lives in fear that Tyler is gonna bite him and as much as we try to support a positive relationship between them, it's very difficult. If Tyler could talk, Ben would be so much mor einterested in him and then Tyler could tell Ben when he's upset rather than using biting as a form of communication. remember.. behavior is a communication tool rather good or bad. I was jsut talkign to Steve this weekend while we were in the kitchen. He had tried to take the boys on a bike ride but Ty wasn't intersted. I said so Ty wasn't interested int he bike, he said no. He goes are you having the same problem? I said, I haven't tried to take them in a while. I asked if he brought a transition item and he had. Then he said, last time i tried to take them, Tyler refused to get on the bike so I just carried him or (i can't remember exactly waht he did).. and then a bell went off in my head. I said so, last time Tyler threw a fit and you didn't make him follow through with what you asked. So this time, tyler through a fit and same result. He's gonna keep throwing a fit if we keep carrying him vs. him having to ride the bike. midn you he likes the bike after we get going, he's just not a big outdoor play kinda kid unless it involves water so he takes some extra effort. So I said, ok we gotta break that cycle. Next time we are all home, we'll all go together so that I can work with Tyler while he takes Ben. Probably not gonna be so pretty (sorry neighbors) but we've reinforced him crying to get out of bike ride so now I gotta get through that and follow through with the bike ride demand. Funny to think of a bike ride as being a demand. Anyway, I'll try a new toy or someting to transition and try going a different way on teh ride and see if we can get him happy about bike ride again. It definetly takes two parents, in fact whenever the boys are out with us in public it still takes at least 2 parents adn then if one of us has to use the bathroom it gets pretty hectic. The grocery store trip (very quick) was rough yesterday. Tyler doesn' twant to sit in a cart anymore. we used to be able to giveh im a few toys and do a quick run through the store with ben helping to push cart, well now Tyler doesn't want to sit and then he gets overstimulated by all the lighting and different colors and Ben is bouncing of the walls. It was definetly a quick trip :)

081909

Tyler did something really cool at camp yesterday. One of the boys was playing with 2 rings and then there was another one accross the room on a table and Tyler went and got that ring and gave it to the little boy. So cool and very social of our little guy! This weekend he was playign with ring sat the public pool we went too and anotehr little boy as well as Ben at tmies were taking them from Tyler and he was knida melting down, even if he got replacement rings so it's cool to see that he was so willing to give up a ring that wasn't even being played with. Or it's slighly possibly he just knew that all the rings went together and it was bothering him that they weren't together.. but I like to think it was the first reason:)

Ok so it's family movie night tonight, we'll see how it goes, it all depends on whether or not Tyler has taken a nap today. We are watching lady & the tramp.Ben gets really excited about making a bed on the floor and he has sat through all of the movies so far, impressive!

I keep forgetting to mention how well Tyler is doing with eating new foods lately and not vomitting. He had cantelope at school the other day and loved it! Also the night before last I was giving him a vegetable mixture (corn, carrots, green beans) and he was no problem eating it, didnt' even make a face. Now I will say that when I was letting him eat the meal on his own, he was never choosing to eat the vegetables but if I could them on the spoon or fork for him, he'd eat them. In the past anything where there was a mixture of textures/sizes/etc. in one bite would have made him sick. I'm just really proud of how far he's come in terms of his eating. I definetly think he eats more than Ben. Speaking of which.. Ben has really grown the past month or so. He is now towering over tyler but a good 1.5 inches or so.... it's possible that this winter they may actually be in different sized clothes for the first time. Even their shoe sizes to this point have remained the same!