New friends

Wow, long time-no post. We've been chugging along here. Lowell finally is on the good side of his cold and seems to be feeling a lot better. He's verbalizing more and more. Last night he turned off all the lights before going up to bath and said "dark" appropriately. Cool! In other news, I went to a workshop on potty training your autistic child. Yikes..sounds like it may take awhile! Lowell also has a new pediatrician that came highly recommended. She seems quite nice and very accomodating. I like that she wants to do some blood work. We've never gone that route and it would put my mind at ease to know that all is "balanced" in his body, as much as it can be!

As you can see in these pictures, Lowell really got into his Baby Einstein puppets tonight. We gave them to him for his birthday. He hadn't shown any interest in them, but tonight went over and put them on his hands. He didn't "talk" to them at all, but was intrigued with them and the fact that they matched the characters in his video. Pretty cool! Last night Lowell was drawing on his Doodle Pro and drew numbers 1-23 all by himself, with no prompting. They even looked like the right numbers:) In school today they said he's now counting up into the 60's. He's been really making some great progress lately.

I did a little project on my other blog about this, but I thought the article written by Temple Grandin would be of interest to you.

Let's go fly a kite!

Last weekend we had the *perfect* kite flying weather. Lowell loved watching us run across the backyard with the kite in the air, so he gave it a try:) Now the weather has turned cool and rainy. Lowell's had a cold this week, so he's been "under the weather" a bit. 

Happy Birthday Lowell~

Lowell turned 3 years old today! He had a nice, mellow day. I brought in GF/CF brownies to his Autism Day Treatment class. He took a huge nap this afternoon and then my parents came over for dinner. He's such a simple kid. He was very content with his new Sesame Street book and his balloon, sitting and reading to his alligator friend. A fine way to spend a birthday!

Karaoke Lowell~

So Joe's dad (Lowell's grandpa) came over yesterday and brought Lowell a early birthday present....a real karaoke machine!!! How fun:) Lowell was, of course, very curious about the words on the screen and the familiar songs. He loved pointing at the words on the screen! He even put the microphone up to his mouth, but has yet to say anything into it. What a great gift! He really seemed to be able to handle not getting overly obsessed on the buttons. He touched them, but then let the songs play, without pressing them just to press. I can't wait until he figures out how fun it is to talk...or sing...into the microphone and can enjoy that too!!Here's another pic from today of Lowell admiring his Think Autism. Think Cure. bracelet. Ok, he doesn't know it says that, but it's sweet nonetheless. Lowell has had a very good week back at his Autism Day Treatment program. The note from today said he did really well in music class and is doing very well with his picture schedule. Yay! We've also noticed at home that we can stop mid-reading or mid-song and he'll fill in the blank. It's become a fun game to play and it really shows us how much his vocabulary has taken off! One more week until Lowell turns 3!!!

It's a wonderful life!

I was told about this story in my comments last post. Amazing! I've loved this artist for years and didn't know she has an Autistic son. So fun when you realize that you have so much in common with someone you admire. Very hopeful story! Give it a read:)

So this is the end of our week off from the Autism Day Treatment program. This week went better than I could have ever imagined. Lowell was very calm much of the time and used his words very well. I can't even count how many new things he's said in the last 10 days!! He's also getting much better about letting us know what he wants. I'm excited for him to start back up with the program after some good quality family time. Now he's rested and ready to learn!