Time to catch up!

Life has been busy. We’ve started baseball! My favorite season. My sister is getting married in a little over a month! We’ve had lots of activities going on and there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in a day. Along with all the craziness of this busy season, we’ve had a lot of great things happen! 

Liam turned 12! We officially have a pre-teen on our hands 😳

Liam got an honor roll award! If you know Liam, academics isn’t an easy thing for him. In fact, in elementary he struggled with pretty much every subject. We even thought he may have to be held back a grade. So to be on the honor roll in middle school is such a great achievement! 

Brendan has had some progress in quite a few areas as well! First, he sat through polishing at the dentist! This is huge as the vibration and noise from the tool they use to do the polishing usually sends Brendan into panic mode and we have a meltdown. This time, he sat still and just let the hygienist do her thing! 

And another one today with his haircut! We have a fantastic barber that gets Brendan. She interacts with him well and he loves getting his hair cut by her. But, she wasn’t there today. To my surprise he hopped right into another lady’s chair and let her do her thing! Typically, he has my phone during his haircut, but today he didn’t even ask! He actually looked like he enjoyed himself! Huge steps here! 

We only have 4 ABA therapy sessions left 😭 I think more than anything, we will miss our therapist. She’s amazing. We have learned so much from her. She really has helped us change the dynamic of our parenting, and even the relationships we have with Brendan. We still have some current goals that we are working on with Brendan, and he is very close to mastering them! 

We threw a bridal shower for my baby sister last weekend and it was lots of fun! Can’t believe the last kid is getting married! We are so excited to see what the future holds for her and her soon-to-be husband! 

We’ve go a lot going on over the next few months, but this is a fun season of life! Lots of activities, lots of goals, and navigating parenting without our therapist... we can do it! 

Birthdays, Christmas and New Years, oh my!

December was an eventful month, to say the least. I wish I would have taken a picture of our December calendar before tossing it. It was lit up like a Christmas tree with things that were going on. We had doctors appointments, therapies, birthdays, parties , jury duty, extra church activities, the Autism Speaks walk, just to name a few. The month flew by and even today, it feels like Christmas didn’t really happen! 

Early in the month we participated in the Autism Speaks walk at Angel Stadium. We had lots of fun. We got so many freebies, and it’s always nice for us to take a minute, and celebrate this precious boy that God gave us to watch over. We completed the whole walk (5k) and had lots of fun. Brendan’s favorite part was seeing himself on the Jumbotron when they let us walk on the ball field. We even took our elf, Toby with us! 

December was also Brendan’s birthday. He turned 9 this year! We celebrated his birthday with family a few days before his actual birthday, and he sure let us know that it wasn’t his actual birthday 😉 We would like to note, that with the new age of 9-years old, there has been an increase in sass and facial expressions! 

Christmas and New Years flew by! We enjoyed time with family, and our first ever trip to the Rose Parade! 

We all had a lot of tough moments behaviorally this Christmas break. There were a few moments during our break where I honestly couldn’t wait to get back work. I forget that I am away 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, and my patience level for having my name called all day got to me a few days. I really had to refocus and realize that my behavior is not benefiting either one of us. 

But, we were more prepared this break, with schedules and resources to help get Brendan through the many things we were doing. We created a schedule for break that included reading and math! Something that we all could count on being done everyday. Routine is very important for Brendan. Also, we had a visual calendar that we would fill out first thing in the morning with what we were doing for that day and what time. This really helped to transition Brendan between activities since he already knew what we were doing for the day. 

Growth is happening for us all, and we’re excited to see how this continues!