Happy Spring! We are loving this warmer weather. For the first time, Tyler is really wanting to play outside. Usually Ben wants to play outside but Tyler wants to stay inside and it can get tricky if there is just one parent home, especially now that we don't have a fenced in yard! Anyway, we are really enjoying time in the yard, can't wait for the weather to get warm enough to get out the water slides. The boys are also really liking bike rides this year. Ben finally had the courage to ride the bike that attaches to dad's bike. The whole time he kept saying "this is awesome" now he asks all the time if we can go on bike rides. I pull Tyler in the buggy behind me and anytime i stop, he gets upset because he also wants to keep going.

Had a great moment in the car today. Tyler's ipad is on the fritz and he usually plays with that on the way to school so today he was using his Dynavox. He pushed "old macdonald" so i started singing and then I paused when it came time to choose an animal, so tyler pushed rabbit so I sang it with a rabbit, then he pushed snake, etc. etc. Ben and I were singing along while Tyler chose the animals. It was so much fun to have Tyler "talking" and participating with us in the car.

We've also noticed Tyler's imitation/imagination skills are improving. lately he's been imitating a frog, bunny and turtle. We praise him often and make this a lot of fun for him in hopes we can get him using his imagination more often. Annie's (his second school) is noticing how much more interactive he seems to be in the last month or so. I've even noticed Tyler take Ben's hand a few times to lead him somewhere. All and all his social skills seem to be stepping up a bit. He's also beginning to eat some foods that he had elimianted from his diet not so long ago like pizza, spaghetti and yogurt, yeah Ty! Having a limited diet and then a picky eater can be tricky.

Ben's going to see his kindergarten classroom/school for the first time today. He's looking forward to it but says he's going to miss his girlfriend Brylee:)

Other than that we are trying to get Ben excited to be the ringerbearer in a wedding. Right now he says he doesn't want too. We've been bribing him and telling him how much fun it's going to be. Oh and as you can see from one of the pictures, he's practicing his dancing skills as I tell him there will be a big party at the end where he can dance and have cake!

Ok that's about all from the Cretsingers, the boys are doing fabulous.

xoxo

3/17/11 Happy St. Patty's day

The boys had a spectacular birthday! I can't believe they are already 5 years old, oh how fast time flies by!

Ben is in love with his new Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle and Tyler got a Toys Story Hot Wheels kit that he loves. They are looking forward to their birthday party this weekend.

I haven't posted in a while so I'm forgetting what I have already mentioned but for those of you who do not know, we stopped private speech. We have spent nearly $100,000 battling autism over the past few years, we've given up our home, and the small town community we once thought was our dream to be somewhere that Tyler could get the services that he needs. the road to kindergarten for Ty requires a lot of meetings. During one of those meetings, I had asked the team about TYler's chances of ever being able to talk (verbally) and they responded that the likelihood is pretty slim. Ty's been in speech since he was 13 months old, now at age 5, he still isn't saying any words. Babbles (yeah) but no words. Luckily his dynavox has helped his communication tremendously, in fact, I attribute his IPAD and Dynovox as being one of the main reasons Tyler has been so successful this year at school....

so successful that Tyler gets to move up to a Level 2 classroom next year, YEAH!!!!!! There is a lot involved with the road to kindergarten for a child with special needs. I had no idea the meetings, observations, meetings, etc. that would be required. Tyler has made tremendous progress this year and I'm so glad the team agreed that a level 2 classroom is best suited for him. Now, let's set the goals high and perhaps he can move to a level 3 the following year :)

Ann Arbor only offers half day kindgarten, so we are going to opt to pay for the extended day option for Ben. Tyler will go from 8:45 - 3:45 since he is in special education. This way both the boys will be bussed to their after school care (annie's) and arrive at the same time. I'm excited to have them together even if it's for a only a couple of hours. I had round up for Ben earlier this week adn meant the extended day option k teacher for Ben. I really liked the way they described the extended day option. It's considered child care however, the teachers reinforce the curriculum through other activities and I think ben would love that environment. I thought we'd finally be done with all of this expensive child care stuff, we chose the most economical schedule possible with one of us still going in late to work so we can drop off the boys and not have to worry about before care costs but it's still close to $1000 a month when we add up their after school costs and Ben's extended school day option (which was cheaper than the child care facility by the way). One more year and maybe we'll get back on our feet, lol.

Ok that's all from us, we are on the road to kindergarten :) I have an IEP scheduled for Tyler next month with the team from his new school and his current team (3 hour mtg) to write up an IEP for next year and work on transitions. I'm really really really happy that he is going into a level 2 classroom.

xoxo

1/8/11

Wow, how time flies huh! Over 3 years ago, Steve and I made a commitment to Tyler that we would fight with all we had to help him battle autism, early intevention is key right? We'd set aside our marriage, our wants/sometimes needs, to do what we needed to do to help Ty. In hindsight, I can't imagine where Tyler would be if we hadn't made that big of an effort. He certainly has a long road a head of him, however he's happy, he's found a way to communiate, his body seems to be healed to the ponit where he can eat freely and without objection. All and all that's what is most important, he's happy, he can be well nourished, and he can communicate. But I would be lying if I didn't admit that I had wished for more./ I really wish that Ben and Tyler had a better relationship. Ben told us the other day how he doesn't like Tyler's autism, honestly we don't either! I also wished he was talking by now, yeah, he has a way to communicate and hopefully by the time he's an adolescent, if he's still not talking, he'll have a more socially acceptable device like a cell phone, that also can act as his method of communication. Those would be my two wishes if I could have had just a little bit more progress.

Compared to where Tyler was at 12 months and 18 months, he's amazing. We can go outside now without him dropping to the ground to bang his head into the concrete, walkigng the dog was incredibly stressful in our house. We can set food at the table and he will freely eat on his own with utensils and not being strapped into the chair. He's wanting to be around people and participate in group activities more. He is able to go to restaurants and out in large public places without melting down. Our life has gotten signifantly easier in the past few years as a result of these improvements.

So as we near Tyler's 5th birthday, and also the end of that "window" that everyone talked about for the timeframe that intensive intervention would make the most impact. I'm ready to slow down. Good thing because I'm pretty sure we are out of steam, lol. Doesn't mean we are going to give up, not by any means. We'll still continue with private speech, we'll still go on to music therapy (update on that in a bit) but we are ready to slow down other efforts that cause us so much strain. We are officially done with B12 shots, the stress that it's creating and the cost are just no longer worth the benefit. We will continue to give him methyl b12 orally. We also have cut out quite a few of his supplements not only for savings but we aren't really wanting to give him anything that's not helping so to speak so we continually testing by taking out certain items and those that we don't see any sort of negative impact, we stop all together. Last but not least, I'm going to relax more at home. I feel pressure to make each interaction with Tyler some sort of learning opportunity, I know this is a result of a study and for very good reason has helped so much, however, it sometimes makes getting life accomplished hard and causes arguments in our houselhold. I'm done with feeling that pressure. I guess i look at it as worst case scenario, if Tyler never improves from this point (which is impossible cause he's such a smarty pants), I accept that fate. I feel like it's time to refocus on our whole family and my marriage. Time to get us all happy again as one big family and let the schools and therapists do their magic with Ty.

As most of you know, we are moving in 3 weeks. That will likely be pretty hard on Ty so we are strategizing about ways to support him through the transition. This is a big step for us. One that made me give up the last piece of the future I had once dreamed of as well as our credit rating, but more importantly it's the first step in my new dream, a happy, more relaxed, family. We will be renting a house, very similar to our house now, in a nice neighborhood with a little park 2 blocks away. We researched options a lot and chose these area (and had to fight a bit to get the house!!) because it's in a township so that rent is lower since taxes are lower. We could get a 2 bedroom condo within the city of ann arbor or a 3 bedroom house within the township for the same amount of money. We also researched schools for Ben, Tyler is placed upon his need but Ben will go to whatever homeschool is assigned to the area. The school Ben will be going to is the smallest elementary in ANn ARbor and each parent I have talked to sang it's praises. Ben struggled with the transition to preschoool and I wanted Kindergarten to be as small as possible. I felt really good about being able ot finally factor Ben into our decisions as well.

That's all from us, although January has been a horrible month for us in terms of finances, emotional and soon to be physical toll, even work has been really difficult, we know that there is light at the end of the tunnel:) I am going to welcome it with open arms. THanks a million times over for all the love and support from family and friends who have given us more over the past 4 years than we could ever give back. We could not have done it with you and your dedication to Tyler and our family is so appreciated.

xoxoxo

Melissa

12/13/2010

We worked really hard to get these pictures, impossible to get both boys looking and smiling. There were a whole of tickles and hidden parents in these pics trying to get a good shot, we got a few good ones:)

Things really seem to be coming together on the home front and making changes to help simplfy our lives a bit. It's been a hard road but I feel like we are definetly on the right track and making good decisions.

A friend sent me this e-newsletter from her local doctor's office. I thought it was interesting. As you all know, we believed Tyler had autism from the beginning but he did get worse after 12 month and 18 month vaccination. Remember that video I posted on a previous blog, http://tylercretsinger.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post.html It was such a deliberate "ma-ma" that came out....just before 18 month vaccines. I just had to watch it again, over and over, I tear up each time. Oh how I wish I would have listened to the minority, from day one I had concerns about Tyler, and that's a warning sign for parents, those kids who show just a bit of abnormality, need to avoid as much toxins as possible. We have a guy at work, has twins, one boy and one girl, they just went in for their 18 month (maybe 2 year) vaccines and the boy had a serious reaction to the vaccines. I told him things he could do biomedically to help his son recovery as well as signs to watch out for moving forward. That's the thing, everyone listens to mainstream doctors and media until something happesn to them, they think we are all crazy until it happens to your child, you see the changes, you feel the pain of it being a decision you made. It's frustrating. So this article is even more frustrating.... this is the bottom line

What's happening with vaccines NOW?

Drug companies are relying heavily on the future of vaccines. Why? Because health care costs are high and changes are coming to bring those down. This will include less medical imaging, less lab tests, less doctor visits and possibly restricted drug sales. A survey was conducted before the health care bill was passed. 45% of medical doctors said they would leave medicine if the bill passed. That's a lot! With less doctors, less prescription drugs will be sold.Drug companies see that their future is not in drugs because of these reasons. In order to bypass this imploding system, they are relying on vaccines. When a vaccine is made, then mandated by law, everyone needs to get it, not just the sick. This bypasses the medical doctors. Testing? Not necessary. It doesn't matter if you are sick or well. The profit center expands from just the sick to everyone.

At a recent seminar that we attended a doctor spoke about his experiences with vaccine-related injured kids. He lives in a part of New Jersey that has the highest rate of autism in the country. In the last three years, he has seen over 200 autistic kids. Each one was fine until they were "given that one shot". He finds mercury in all of them. (Vaccines have mercury in them except if you request a shot without it.) The autistic kids become more social, start talking, need less external stimulation, etc. when the mercury is cleaned out of their body. (We do this also.) The doctor has done three studies for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and his dad has worked for the NIH for 15 years. He said the NIH is "more corrupt than the entertainment industry." Example: When you google "vaccine+autism" or "mercury+autism" the studies that come up show no link s between the two. This is criminal. Talk to moms who have autistic kids and they say "Junior was fine until he got that shot." The other main source of autism is from mom's mercury fillings while she was carrying the baby. The mercury was transferred to the fetus in the blood or through breastfeeding later. There are studies on this to prove it. Here are 21, all referenced. 21 studies. We need our dentists to stop using mercury fillings. Feel free to tell your dentist, "No mercury. Thank you." If he says there is no harm from them and the American Dental Association can prove it, find another dentist. We have many good ones to recommend. One of our patients, a new mom, reported to us that her pediatrician said there are 96 shots in the first two years. That's too much formaldehyde, mercury, and aluminum for any size human being. Even if the vaccines were not toxic with poisons, the theory of vaccination alone is not proven.See here that polio is historically directly related to pesticide production. The same website shows smallpox increases with smallpox vaccination.The site here has 26 graphs that show how vaccines have no effect on the disease it is supposed to cure. It also shows how many diseases had been on the decline for almost a century before the vaccine was even introduced. These include scarlet fever, whooping cough, rheumatic fever, tuberculosis, tetanus, measles, and more. The reason why these diseases started to decline since the 1800's is because our sewers are now closed and we use soap more. That's right, showers and toilets are medicine's greatest advance ever. Beyond that, eat real food, not food products that look and taste like food. Use whole food nutritional supplements, not the chemicals labeled as vitamins. We can help you with that.

We have supplements to help your immune system if you choose not to get a flu shot. The decline in sick days is measurable and significant. We do really well with people who are "always sick". They go through a winter with only one cold instead of being sick for four months straight.

If you know an autistic person, bring them in. We'll find the mercury and remove it. Also, vitamin D plays a huge role in getting kids to talk and reversing autistic symptoms. Reliance on medication and vaccines is a problem. Drugs are good for saving lives during emergencies. The chronic degeneration of a body caused by American food needs to be reversed with nutrition. Call us to get your health back!

-Dr. Schmidt

:(

It's with great sadness and frustration that I tell you that autism insurance bill did not make it through, it was never brought to the senate floor for a vote :( It's been a hard week for us for many reasons but this is just a huge hit. I had tried nto to get too excited but I couldn't help but get caught up in the what if's. Maybe we wouldn't have to give up the last piece of the life we had once planned, maybe if I can get Speech and Behavioral therapy covered, I can afford two music therapy session a week for Ty. Maybe we can get Ben involved in more extracurricular activities, maybe, maybe, maybe....all got shot down with this horrible news.

I was sad last night when I got a feeling it was going to get voted on and then this morning when I found out for sure it didn't make it, well I just couldn't stop crying and just now I've found myself in just a dull melancholy depressive state, so I was delighted when I just got the following email from Ty's teacher:

"You should see Tyler with his device! He is scrolling through multiple pages to find the pics that he wants, and is using it to do fill-ins when I'm reading the story! This is fantastic!! Will try to get some video footage for you to see at some time :)"

Thanks little guy for putting a smile back on my face and for a friendly reminder that you are worth every tear, every penny, and every future battle we have to face on your behalf. XOXO baby

Please contact your local senator today! The autism bill has one last chance tomorrow to make its way through the senate, please let them know why you support this bill. Premiums will go up less than 1 % but the overall life long savings is huge due to the advancement that can be made in this kids with early intervention, they will require less services from the staet when they are adults. Call, email, do whatever you can. PLEASE! I cannot begin to tell you the emotional, physical, and financial burden we've had to deal with because of the lack of insurance coverage. We need your help!

We worked quite a bit with TYler this weekend on using writing utensils. We looked for creative ways to get him interested. A friend loaned us a stylus with a sponge tip that can be used on the IPAD. Attached is a picture of Tyler which shows him using it. one of his goals on his IEP is to write a few letters. I'm thinking if I cna get him to master this skill with electronics where he is motivatated, we can transfer it over to pencil and paper. I Also puleld back out an old leap frog toy where you draw shapes, he still needs help but he's very motivated, keeps bringing it to me to play with him. In general, he was very much a mama's boy over this Thanksgiving break.

Gotta go, please call and advocate for insurance.

11/23/10

Here is some more info on Tyler's goals for this year:

Goal: Improve visual-fine motor skills to increase independence and participation in classroom activities as measured by progress int eh following objectives:
1. Tyler will trace TLE using a small piece of crayon
2. With sciossors (left handed), Tyler will cut a 2" line independently

Goal: will increase independence and participation in activities of daily living, self-care as mewasured progress on the following objectives:
1. Tyler will stay dry all day
2. Tyler wil complete arrival and departure routines

Goal: Tyler will improve his social behavior and play skills:
1. Tyler will follow a peer and imiate their behavior
2. Tyler will make requests to peers
3. Tyler will respond to request by peers.
4. Tyler will initiate a social bid to a peer by giving them an object or by using a communicative gesture (tapping on shoulder, taking hand, using voice output communication).

To improve listener responder skills:
1. Tyler will identify two compontent noun-verbal and verb-noun combinations
2. Tyler will follow directions to "go get" and to "give to" various people and objects in his environment

Goal: Tyler will improve expressive communication:
1. Tyler will use voice output communication or PECs to make requests during activities through his day.
2. Tyler will use voice output communication or PECs to respond to questions, a) what b) where c) who
3. Tyler will use voice output communication or PECs to make choices/requests, to respond to questions, adn to indicate he wants a turn during group and paired activities.
4. TYler will produce sounds within his repertoire on command, imiate vowel/consonant sounds, and ebprompted to produce word approxmiations.

Goal: Tyler will improve his pre-academic skills related to reading and mathmatics
1. Tyler will answer questions or use phrases related to a story.
2. Tyler will sequnce three pictures to retell a simple story
3. Tyelr will improve his numerical concept developmetn as demonstrated by giving a requested number fo items from a group of ten/telling how many items are in a group up to 10.


He has lots of work to do :)