Great Strides, and all the little in betweens

Today is Eve's 6 month birthday. Holy crap. Part of me feels like she just got here and part of me feels she's been here forever. As I write this I am nursing her in a Starbucks in a Barnes and Noble in Manassas. My multitasking skills are unparalleled. And it's a good thing because this is what our foreseeable future looks like, 3 days a week anyway. James has started school! And it's pretty much the coolest school ever, created for kids with sensory issues. It's all designed around movement and targets each child's problem areas by assessing where the gaps in their natural development are. It must be fun too because for James to happily leave me in a strange place when he's never been away from me for more than a few hours and never in a new place, well, I just didn't expect that. Never a tear or even a whine. I am so excited for his future and I'm quite honestly a little relieved to have some of the pressure taken off of me. See, despite appearances, I'm not actually a therapist and I don't really know what I'm doing. I remember watching Autistic-Like, Graham's Story and listening to Graham's mom say how exhausting it was to feel that everything you do, every time you play, every time you sit to eat, is something scheduled in to save their lives. That's a lot of pressure and takes a lot of the joy out of these early years. Cause let's face it, the great strides can be very far apart, and the little in betweens can really wear you down.
And so here we it, killin' time since Manassas is about an hour from home and school is just 2.5 hrs. While James is there he will work on puzzles and fine motor and listening and also play in a giant ball pit and jump on giant trampolines. I totally want to play in there too. If you want to check it out. Go to www.gmskids.com. We are so lucky to have something like it to get James ready for the real world. We should all be so lucky really! But I may need to find an alternative to B & N, like a gym. I feel like I have to buy something, as I sit reading my Amazon Kindle next to the Nook display, so Starbucks is winning. By a lot.
That's our most recent development, but all sorts of things have been going on! James is eating great and doing more and more on his own. He tells you when he's hungry and when he's not. He has started drinking lots of milk which is awesome. After some continued GI problem, we have been trying out a fructose free diet. It sounds fairly simple until you start researching what has fructose and also fructans, which is in wheat. You can end up on a sort of gluten free diet, but then take away most fruits and veggies. It's not easy keeping things yummy and creative for when James asks for something forbidden, but I'm pretty good at southern engineering. Mainly it means everything has to be homemade which is really not a bad thing...but........kind of a bummer for me. :) Most importantly, after about 2 days we saw great GI improvements and he started sleeping thru the night for the first time in his life. Go figure. It builds up damage in the gut, so I think he had been feeling worse and worse. And what it means is that James has Fructose Malabsorption. We'll see if there's anything else going on as we progress.
Things are great and moving forward at the Mansmann household! We are looking forward to the best Christmas in a long time with 2 healthy, happy kids and our wonderful family around us. Can't get much better than that!!!










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