Happy Birthday to Logan!

Today was Logan's 9th birthday. I can't believe nine years have already gone by. He chose to go to Taco Bell for his birthday dinner. I was surprised since he loves Red Robin too. It is hard to know what to get Logan for his birthday sometimes, but I think we did okay this year. He is really looking forward to watching Ice Age 2 and was even holding it with him as he laid down to sleep. Of course, even with Melatonin (to help him sleep), he is still not asleep and it is 11:30. He is quite hyper and apparently trying to make his birthday last until the very last possible minute. We are going to get him swim lessons with help from Grandma Bell's money, which he'll be thrilled about and we also got him a book called My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete and her daughter, Ryan. It is about Holly's son who has Autism. I cried as I read it to Logan and Eric tonight. All week, Eric has been saying that we needed to buy streamers, balloons, party hats, and candles. I didn't want to buy party hats, so instead we all just wore silly hats at the party and then switched them around. Logan has an application he uses on my phone that is titled "What Goes Together?" It shows 4 photos and you have to choose the two that go together. Ever since I told him that his birthday was coming soon, he has been saying, "Birthday cake and candles go together." What is hilarious, is that he is totally scripting exactly what they say on the game so what he says right after "birthday cake and candles go together" he says, "toilet and toilet paper go together." So funny! I even made him a Vegan cake this year so that he could eat it if he wanted to. He didn't want to eat it and gagged when it was on his plate, but hey - whatever - I'm not going to force him to eat his own birthday cake. By the way, you might notice that the train tracks on his cake are purple. I tried to make brown, but it didn't work, so he had purple tracks. : )

Here are some photos of "Logan's Special Happy Birthday" as Eric kept saying today.

The Legend of the Gimp Curse

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, called Iowa, Duke Bill, against his better judgment used a climbing device that was too short for his job and fell off and broke three of his ribs. Discovering that Duke Bill was injured, Duchess Sharon dropped all of her official engagements and flew to the land of Iowa to nurse her one true love back to health. After leaving her chariot, Duchess Sharon ran to her true love's aide and came upon a cruel and dastardly shadow that left only evil in its wake. As the Duchess encountered the shadow, she fell and broke her leg and she and the Duke became the laughingstock of the local medical establishment. After returning to their castle in the land of Colorado, Duke soon discovered that he had not only broken his ribs, but he had also broken his hand. Upon seeing Duke Bill and Duchess Sharon, neighbors and friends asked if they had been in a serious chariot accident, but alas, no, they were just living out the beginning of the Gimp Curse.

The Gimp Curse traveled around the country affecting other villagers until it reached the Township of Susquehanna. There it first struck Sir Mike when he slipped and fell when walking with his grass eating goat in the back garden of the Bell Castle. Next, the suspected chariot accident of the Duke and Duchess actually happened between the land of Gettysburg and the land of Harrisburg when Sir Mike's chariot collided with a deer. Both the chariot and the unlucky deer were severely injured, as was Sir Mike's foot once again. A few nights later, when Lady Angie was saying her nightime prayers with her son, Count Logan, she tripped and created a crack in her footbone and has been wearing a hideous glass slipper ever since. The last act (hopefully) of the Gimp Curse occurred just today when Sir Mike was diagnosed with a fracture that was caused by his ligament pulling bone out of place. However, this story has a happy ending. Sir Mike was able to acquire new gimpwear including his beloved magic staff. As he walked with his wand, he was heard saying "Putting on the Ritz" hundreds of times as he walked out of sight. And they lived Gimpily Ever After. The End.

Logan's Newfangled Children's Songs

Tonight when Mike, Logan and I were in Logan's room while I was making Logan's bed, Logan started singing. He started with Old MacDonald Had a Farm, but the lyrics kind of trailed off after EIEIO. Next, he started singing, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" but not the version we're used to. He sang, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star how I wonder what you ate for breakfast." After that, he sang, "Row Row Row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Life is just a bowl of spaghetti."

It was very funny because he was singing so clearly. I'll have to ask Logan's teacher if he is learning these newfangled songs in music class.

He love that he was making us laugh but as soon as I got the video camera out, he stopped singing loudly or clearly enough to hear the lyrics. "No witnesses" as we say.

P.S. This photo is from Hands-On-House which is a Children's Museum in Lancaster. Logan got to go there on a field trip with school.

Sensory Showing of Shrek Forever After

This morning at 10:00 we all went to Shrek 4 - Forever After at the theater which we have been planning since we heard about it. When I was catching up on the Autism Society Yahoo Group I saw that there was going to be a "Sensory Friendly" showing of Shrek 4 this morning. This meant that if your kid made noise, or walked around, started "flapping" it wouldn't be a big deal. I think this is a nice idea, but it is always strange to be in a group where there is someone in every group that has a disability. I still struggle with the concept that the world should change for our children rather than us teaching our children to fit into the world. I think it is great that no one freaked when one little boy walked up and down the length of the theater smooshing himself between the chairs and the wall. I think it is great that no one freaked when one child was freaking out, because even though the lights were "up" he was still afraid of the dark. However, I still felt compelled to tell my children to whisper when they were too loud but it was nice that no one else needed to "shush" us. There were still points in the movie where you couldn't hear the lines because of someone being a bit too loud, but overall it was a good thing to try and we will probably do it again promptly at 10:00 a.m. the day after Toy Story 3 opens.

After being in a group of children with disabilities (many clearly had Autism) it was very nice to feel thankful for the family that I have. Many times after talking to a parent of a child with Autism or hearing one speak at some official gathering, I find myself feeling frustrated because there doesn't seem to be anyone in my same boat. It always seems like every Autism parent in the media is in the media because their child was "cured." I really hate that as a parent of child who is most certainly not cured but is improving every day. That improvement should be celebrated too, not just the children who are "cured." I feel like every time I hear of one of these children, it makes me feel like an inadequate parent because I apparently haven't done enough to cure my son of this apparent scourge. I truly love, like, and enjoy Logan for who God made him to be. I want him to be the best Logan he can be, but I have never believed that should prevent him from being a child by having him in therapies 24/7. Maybe I will have to answer for this in front of God someday, but I know that God entrusted Logan to us because we would know what was best for Logan, maybe not for X, Y, and Z kid with Autism, but we would know what was best for Logan. I hope that is true.

Sorry that this is so long, but sometimes it feels good to use this blog as a journal rather than just sharing photos. It is also nice for us to look back at old archives and think about where we were at that time.

I want to share a couple things the boys said today after the movie. After the movie, I asked, “Logan did you like the movie?” to which we would normally have to prompt him with a “Yes” or “No” to get him to answer that type of question. Today, instead of having to do that, Logan responded quickly and enthusiastically by saying, “THANK YOU VERY MUCH!” It was a wonderful surprise and made me get teary eyed (as it is doing again now).

As we left the theater, Eric said, “We had a good day” and then a few minutes later said, “We saw a great movie. I like Shrek.”

When we were in the car driving home, Eric said, “I love you Logan.”

Logan responded, “Very nice.” Then he kissed Eric’s hand and held it.

Eric got my attention and said, “Mommy, we’re holding hands together.”

I love my sweet boys SO MUCH!!

This photo is of Logan during the credits to the movie in his Forrest Gump pose. He said, "Sing" and "Dance" several times. I don't recall him doing this during "UP" last summer, but since he has always been musical, I think he was just enjoying the music during the roll of the credits.

Ericism

When we got home from running some errands after I picked up Eric from preschool, we had this conversation:

Mommy: "I know that you don't think you're tired, but I know you better than anyone. I've known you you're whole life and you even used to live inside my tummy."

Eric: (giggle) "I know, just like a kangaroo."

Logan and the pistachio shell

Last night at dinner Logan would come into the kitchen, gag, and leave so we buckled Logan into the booster chair, that we still use when we need to get him to eat stuff he doesn't want to eat. Mike looked down on the floor below his chair and there were two halves of a pistachio shell on the floor which was apparently grossing him out. Being the helpful Mom that I am, I bent over to pick up the two shells and Logan proceeded to vomit all over the top of my head while I was under his seat. I could hear him doing it, but couldn't get out of the way. YUCK!

That is now the second time in about a month that Logan has thrown up on me over feeding issues. He never did it during the entire Feeding Clinic training, but has now done it twice since. I think I'm getting paid back for throwing up when I was a kid and Dad tried to get me to eat carrots. Here's the ironic thing, I found out that I can get both of my kids to eat carrots. However, since things are never simple around here Logan will ONLY eat raw carrots and Eric will ONLY eat cooked carrots that have to be at an acceptable level of "hotness" for him. It is just like Mike and I with green beans. I like French Cut and he likes regular, so I still make two versions of those a lot of times.

Cool Church Service today

We had an artist in church today who started from a HUGE blank canvas and painted throughout the service. I believe that he painted one in the second service as well. He has done two other large paintings that hang in our church. This was really cool and a modern way to worship which NEVER would have happened at our old church. Our sermons have been on the Prodigal Son for the last month or so and he painted the image of a man embracing another man. Check out the photo of his art work at the end of service.