One Rad Race

Yesterday, Thomas and Ayiana went on a race together. Well partially together, Ayiana started with her Dad, then I took her and we went back around past the finish line and up one station and waited about 10 minutes and then she ran the ending quarter mile or so with him. The race featured several stations to get "colored Rad" so by the end colored cornstarch was EVERYWHERE. Thomas and Ayiana loved it, my lungs for the little bit I breathed in did not lol. Anyhow, here are some of the pictures from the race. 

Ayiana finally got her bib number, kids under 7 ran free but they originally
didn't give Thomas a bib to put on her... 

The massive crowd waiting to start, three wave of runners, Thomas and Ayiana where in the second one

It's like Where's Waldo! Can you spot Ayiana's little legs on the left?

Waiting for Dad to come closer to the finish line, Liam found watching the people run by quite amusing! 

A mighty big hill at the end for Ayiana to run up, she made it!

the ending "blue haze"... cough cough... and you betcha   BLUE BOOGERS!

The "Before" and "After" shots!

Awesome people

So I don't often post about other people than the immediate family on here, some might ask why, honestly since I do not know how others react to being plastered online, I usually keep stories/photo's to a minimum for privacy sake. Today, however, I have a few pictures and stories about two positive people for our family. Thursday our pastor came over for an in-home visit and he let Ayiana dress him up, Liam climbed into his lap after awhile and even gave him some pretty awesome eye-contact! We are blessed to have such a wonderful Pastor and church family.

Look at those sillies!

Ayiana put hat and scarf on our Pastor, gave him one of her fruit
roll-ups too lol, such a nice hostess :) of course in my fashion, she
just couldn't keep her eyes open for the picture!

The next person, is Liam's occupational therapist. She did her first assessment/observation of Liam when he was 15 months old, she has been key to helping us do so many things for him, a simple thanks doesn't ever seem like enough. He use to whine and scream loudly during sessions, now he can not sit still in the waiting room he is so excited to see her! Friday we went in for our weekly one-hour visit with her, she has been trying for some time to get Liam to ride what is called a "scooter board" think wide skateboard but not as long and you'll have an idea.  Friday she laid down on it to "show" him what she was wanting, Liam climbed on top of her back, she said to leave him there and went down the hall with him! We where all laughing at how hysterically funny it was to watch him touching her hair while she pushed forward on it. After half way around she got Liam off of her back and then we actually got him to ride the second half around on his belly! I don't know to many teachers/therapists that would do what she does with him, but it works, she is an incredible therapist/person and we are so glad she is part of our team!

I am still chuckling about this one!

My recipe for patience

Truthfully I had written a post above this about all the calls and things I am going through to help Liam. While I wrote that one of the ladies I'd called, called back. She had been on vacation but got sick and her first stop back into Fresno was to an Urgent care center. She told me she was only in the office for a few hours that day and would get back to me as soon as she could. I had already written my recipe below, but I didn't feel even keeping the original note even mattered as it had before. It was clearly a "me" oriented one, I added some more instructions in my recipe... here it is! What's your recipe?


Recipe to develop Lisa McCarty's Patience   Love

1 loving devoted husband sent to a war zone followed by civilian policing, working nights/all weekends
2 years of infertility to have first child
1 sweet little girl arriving code blue at birth
1 wonderful baby boy with special needs (SN)
1 open heart surgery (for special needs baby)
1 mommy mental breakdown
1 doctor of each specialty to help (cardiology, gastro-intestinal, genetics, neruo-surgery, neurologist, ophthalmology  pediatric dentist, developmental pediatrician)
3 years of interventions for baby boy, followed by autism diagnosis

Sprinkle through the years 20-31, as life goes on, reminding that every person goes through different trials, some families lose a child, some have members with cancer, every family going through different struggles. Mix well, keeping mind that "love your neighbor as yourself" is a commandment and reference this verse regarding what love is: "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Picnic and Play

So I am WAY behind on posting, something about school year starting, then trying to coordinate Liam's new therapies, both of which takes much of my time. I have finally made a little head way on everything, but it takes many phone calls, emails, and report scanning, to get everything moving in the right directions. Believe me I'm not complaining, it is what it is, but I obviously can not update with all of it during the day! As for fun times, last weekend, the kids and I went to a birthday party on Saturday afternoon and then that night my husbands work had a picnic at our AAA baseball stadium. It was fun, the kids enjoyed the bounce house, swam a little, and really enjoyed running across the very even, non-sprinkler head dipped, heavily manicured grass! Heck, even Thomas said it was nice to run on, I sat and watched and snapped a few photos of them having fun.

Liam met a friend, we didn't know him, but he took to making sure Liam didn't get jumped on by the others in the bouncer, and even got him to stand and do some jumping... we where in awe of this young lad, as he was so sweet to do this without anyone saying a word. Give kids a chance to help others and many will, it was pretty neat to sit back and watch, and of course we thanked him when it was our time to leave!

Someone had brought this ball out to the field, Liam loved playing with it, and was wonderful to leave it there when it was time to leave

Give kids and a Dad some room to run and watch them play :) Airplane Liam coming in for a landing!

To be so young and carefree again lol

Play ball!

3 weeks of school

Ayiana "decorated" Bella...can you say "patient dog!"

Ayiana, on the last day she got to wear her "heart pin" the back wouldn't stay on after that day. 

Liam's "OH NO" not the dentist! Okay, serious he was
doing some sensory touch while eating a burrito, but I caught
on camera and felt it was appropriate :)

I can hardly believe that three weeks of school are already done! How easily time clips on, when I put in the little letter to Ayiana and Liam stating if I was lucky they would teach me a thing or two this school year, I didn't know how seriously that would be put to test! With a subscription to rethinkautism.com Liam is learning head over heals faster then before, it is pretty amazing to watch what a regimented routine lesson can do for him... so I am really anxious to get therapists with ABA experience on board, but realize that the school district is going to assess so that will be another 60 days down the road but we are moving, the train is chugging forward! We felt like we went stagnant there for a while and that isn't the best feeling so this is better, brighter, and much easier to deal with. Our biggest thing this week was the dentist appointment...which Liam absolutely hates. Ayiana did wonderfully and doesn't have any new cavities, YEY so very happy for her! Liam has one cavity, which in itself doesn't sound all that bad, BUT, he won't sit enough for her to get a good look at all the "possible" spots he has. He will not allow even x-rays on the sides to be performed! So... we are going to have to go to the general anesthesia route, they gave choices but since he doesn't cooperate AT ALL (chokes himself with his mucous even) we are capping all 8 molars. He also grinds his teeth so that in a sense should also help the enamel to stay in tacked. His one front tooth with the cavity had a previous filling and it either fell out or got soft again (meaning the decay continued around the filling) so if that can not be filled again he will have to have it either capped...which I was told will look really odd since usually they do both front teeth but he only needs the one. Dentists words where he will look "snaggle toothed", so extraction is the option that was recommended. On the car ride home, Ayiana being her positive self, said to Liam,  "You might loose a tooth before sister!" lol Not exactly the way we would ever want it but I guess we will go with her positive thinking, better then the alternative negative paths. We are fortunate that our dentist does work out at Children's Hospital, so we know Liam's sedation will be done by the best in the area, which does make me more at ease given all the work that will be done. With this most proactive approach, we are hopeful that Liam won't need more work any time in the immediate future.