Cheese!

After losing the charger to our camera on Christmas Eve, I've finally found it again! I don't mind too much about not having it on Christmas morning. After spending the night in the ER with Jacob, (nasty croup monster struck again!) the morning was rather anticlimactic as far as photo-ops went anyhow. I have been missing it since, however, so naturally I had to snap a few shots of the kids as soon as I could.

I know I'm not anywhere close to knowing how to properly use a camera, but my kids sure are cute! 

I can't get enough of Jacob's version of "Cheese!" It cracks me up every time. As for my little Madi Monster, she is still as much a firecracker as ever. She's growing and learning so fast I can hardly keep up with her. Lately, her very favorite word is "NO!" which she says in response to everything, followed closely by her own name, "Madi!" She makes sure to point out every picture in the house and declare that it is a beautiful photograph of herself. If one should make the mistake of trying to correct her, she will simply deny the truth with as much vehemence as ever.

Truthfully, I'm loving the attitude. I'll probably regret saying that by the end of the year, but it's such a nice contrast from the calm, quite and serene baby that Jacob was. There's so much action! I think that may be partially because this age was about the time we started noticing the changes and delays in Jacob, and anything that is in stark contrast to how he was behaving seems like good news. I know that the quiet baby he was truly was his personality, but looking back on it now, I worry that I should have seen signs of a problem earlier than I did. It is truly thrilling to see how social Madison has become, something that has laid to rest most fears of any developmental concerns with her. 

We are still working on getting little Miss Diva off her binky at bedtime, especially since she knows all our favorite hiding spots and just how to bat her eyes at daddy. I'm satisfied that it is not in use during the day for now, we have time to work on it. I consider it a victory that it's not in her mouth 24/7. So far, everything else is going great! 

Starting our GFCF Journey

I have been putting a lot of energy into better ways to help Jacob lately. It seems as though things have been lagging with his progress, and quite frankly I've been exhausted and frustrated with him at home. His parent teacher conference was no help, I felt like I was being told the whole time that my child is hopeless. Now I know that's not true. With the little experience I have, I know there are many children who are a lot worse than he is. Most of the time I think he is an extra troublesome case because he is so close to being a typcial child, but so far away at the same time. While he remains undiagnosed at this time, it is clear that he fits onto the autism spectrum at least in some regards. We have been working with doctors to figure out what is going on with him and we hope to have some answers soon. I can't stress enough how little we care about labeling him. Our only concern is helping him and how to do that better.

Austin and I went to a support group meeting last night for parents of children with high functioning autism and related disorders. It was our second time attending and I think it's safe to say we will be returning. Not only do we get to mingle with other parents who are struggling with the same problems we are, but Jacob gets the chance to socialize as well. The really great thing about this group is the guest speakers they invite. Both meetings we went to had great speakers who were very informative on intervention techniques. Last night, we heard from a physician that specializes in naturopathic medicine to help children who are on the autism spectrum. What we learned was invaluable. I mean, I've heard before about the gluten-free casein-free diet helping children with autism, but no one has explained to me why or how that happens. That's exactly what this guy did. The whole meeting felt like a bio chem lecture, but it was such good information that made everything make sense.

I'm not going into the science of everything because that would be exhausting and I would surely not explain it well, but I will say that Austin and I had a long talk after the meeting and decided that we should give it a go. That resolution only magnified as I got to doing my own research and found so many success stories from parents of children just like Jacob. Some of them even achieved normal functioning after a few months of being on the diet.

Today I started off by asking Jacob if he would like to be able to talk to us better and make friends at school. He got teary eyed as he answered me with an affirmative "Yes". (This just about broke my heart, we don't have talks that go so well very often). I explained to him that we were going to start eating some different foods that might help with that and asked if he was willing to try. I know this isn't going to be easy. Jacob is a very food-driven child and he is already as picky as humanly possible. I am worried about the struggles we will face in the coming weeks with such a drastic change, but if there's a chance it will help him, I'd do just about anything.

So here starts our journey. I have been researching (and getting overwhelmed) all day long and tonight I'm going to brave a few health food stores to see what I can find. Excuse me as I fill up your Pinterest homepage with a ton of GFCF recipes.

If you would like more information on the GFCF diet, I strongly encourage you to visit this website- http://www.tacanow.org/tag/gfcf/

I also want to give thanks-in-advance to all our family and friends for supporting us in this endeavor!