Thanksgiving

Thankfulness... This year I have so much to be thankful for. I'm thankful for my children they have made me who I am today. John has opened my eyes to a whole world I didn't know existed, he has taught me compassion, patients, acceptance, and to love unconditionally. He has taught me to value of a good teacher, the power of a hug, and to never take language for granted. 

 My sweet sweet Julia. She has show me a whole different side of parenting, an easier side. She has taught me the power of language at a young age, the joy is "cooking",  the closeness of putting in a pony tail and singing twinkle twinkle little star. Her excitement for life is amazing and I can not help but smile when she is around. 

My husband, who keeps me grounded, who can put a smile on my face with a simple text, who has been known to drive 2 plus hours to bring me a sandwich when Julia is in the hospital and I just couldn't leave her side. Who taught me it really is okay to take time for just me, that I deserve to take a break from life, that I can do anything I want to. Who showed me what true love really is. 

My in laws who accepted me and my children with open arms, who are the type of grandparents every child should have. They are a much bigger help than they even know. 

My siblings we are closer now than we ever where growing up, we are now all great friends. They are amazing aunts and uncles. 

Autism... yes I'm thankful my view on life has been expanded. That I can really truly understand what other parents go threw, that I just get it and I have something to be passionate about. 

Cold, Colds and more Colds!

We've had a busy few weeks. When my kids get sick they get real sick real fast. Tuesday night Julia felt a little warm like maybe she was coming down with a cold, I took her to the pediatrician Wednesday morning for what looked like conjunctivitis, but they didn't like the red around her eye so they sent us to the ER at Children's. The ER doctor was very very nice she was hopeful that as long as Julia's white count was under 15,000 we could go home and just watch her closely, but her white count was up to 18,000 so by Wednesday afternoon she was admitted to Children's Hospital in Boston. She had a sinus infection that turned into cellulites. We only had to stay for 1 night this time around because we caught it nice and early. This time she got a lot sicker than last time, she spiked a high fever 103.9, she was just miserable. The next morning after some IV fluids and IV antibiotics she was good as new and after a long day of waiting for discharge papers we got to go home Thursday afternoon.

Saturday John felt a little warm and started getting a cough. Sunday he still was not much better so we took him to the pediatrician (on a side note their old pediatrician was covering yay!! I really loved her!) but she wasn't sure if she heard asthma or pneumonia so she sent him for a chest x-ray just to be on the safe side. Seeing how it was a Sunday radiology was dead, so we got right in for the x-ray. After the x-ray the man doing it let JJ look at his x-ray and was showing JJ all the bones, JJ thought that was awesome! A few hours later the doctor called back to say he did have pneumonia (again) and we should start him on breathing treatments to keep his asthma under control and antibiotics (again). I really do respect this doctor so I asked her opinion if she thinks all these infections could be a side effect from his medication. She thinks it's just from being in school that he's catching a lot of things. I'm still not overly convinced of that so I'm waiting for a call back from his neurologist, at the very least the nurse from neurology I talked to this morning agreed it would be a good idea to do some blood work and make sure his white counts are back where they should be. I'm going to be asking the neurologist about referring him to a lung doctor, this is the 4th lung infection in 2 months and he's gotten asthma in the last 4 months as well.

On a very big positive note we will be switching JJ into a mainstream prechool class after Thanksgiving! My personal goal for JJ was to be mainstream by kindergarten gives us so much hope! I'm so proud of him!