"Touch your head"

Lucas responded to a spoken command today. He was working with his therapist. She said "touch your head" (this was so he could get the toy he desired) and he did; with out any prompting or with out being shown how to touch his head. He hasn't done anything like this before. It was a good day.

How/Where to start?

Asia's visit to Vegas in August.
Tyson's 1st day of Pre-school at Goynes Elementary
Laughing Luke...
Lukey, Marci, Asia, Tyson, and Jim @ Shoshone Falls, in Twin Falls, ID.

We have had a couple of months full of CRAZINESS! I haven't blogged about it because 1. I haven't had the time and 2. didn't quite know how or where to start. SO, I'll just go for it.

A couple of months ago, we found out that Jim has a 12 (almost 13) year old daughter from his first marriage when he was 20. Although a little shocking at first, we are so happy to have Asia in our lives. She is gorgeous as you can see, is super sweet and has Jim completely smitten. He's head over heals in love, exactly how a daddy should be with his daughter. I'm just happy to have another girl around once in a while and just wish we could spend more time with her. Of course it's a little bit more detailed of a story, but I'm not going to "detail" it on the blog. We really are just so lucky to be a part of her life.

Lucas finished up all of his testing with the pediatric neuropsychologist, it was a long process. He has been classified as being on the Autism Spectrum. Highly functioning, but still with out any speech. He/we will be involved with intense therapy with different specialists almost everyday, and I will be learning how to be a therapy mom as to teach him through out the day. We already had a breakthrough this week, with him intentionally mimic-ing 2 different sounds I made multiple times. It was major. We are hopeful that he will continue to progress to get where he needs to be in regards to communication.

Tyson also participated in testing at the beginning of the summer that places him on the Autism spectrum as well. Also highly functioning. He "parrots" language. He can say everything and anything you say, often times repeating what is said rather than answering/asking questions. He has almost a savant ability for memorization, its really unbelievable. He started a "preschool" program that the school district provides at the elementary school to help him in the areas that he struggles with; such as "Wh" questions (i.e. who, what, when, where, why, etc.) He has also made progress in the last week, when I picked him up from school I asked him What he had for snack, he answered "grape juice and crackers" where as in the past, he would have just repeated my question. He also tells me about his new friends, Dion and Logan.

Although we feel a little "gipped" having two boys on the Autism Spectrum we are really so lucky. They are both "normal" boys that have some challenges that are different from other kids. The great thing about it is that they have both responded amazingly to "intervention" and therapy and they both have tested to be super smart kids, we just have to learn how they learn. Time to gear up for the challenge.

Jim is really busy. Besides being involved in our families issues, he is trying to keep up with his Master's class, can't help him there. His work let one of the pilots go, which means that he has to work a little bit more. We can't complain, we're just so happy he has a job in this crazy economy.

Me? Well, let's see. I'm a semi-blonde now. It seems fitting because I honestly feel a little ditzy lately. I'm trying to figure out how to stay sane and productive right now, sometimes it feels a little like I'm in survival mode rather than productive wife/mom mode. I'm hoping that I can actually get a grip in the next day or two so when we start our different therapies next week I'm geared up and ready.

The next few months ought to be interesting...stay tuned!