Let the Blogging (Re)Commence!

Okay, okay… after being gently hounded by several friends for not blogging in almost two months, I’m back! (Hopefully not in Poltergeist/“They’re baaaack” sort of way!) I have pulled out my calendar to see what I have been up to and I have to admit, I have been a busy girl – my DH would say too busy, but not me. Rather than one boring long post that will put all of you asleep, I wanted to do a quick recap and you can click on my specific posts about:

• Reflex Repatterning and Brain Gym
• Neurofeedback
• Spring Allergies
  
• The NAA-NY Metro
• Autism Awareness Month Candlelighting Ceremony
  
• AutismOne Legal and Advocacy Training
  

A quick update on Henry . . . In a nutshell – Henry seems to be doing well. He is incredibly chatty these days, much more outgoing, and school work seems to be more readily clicking (though still a challenge!). On Friday, Henry sang in his school spring concert and he proudly displayed his really cool artwork in the art show that preceded the concert. His class sang a reworked (age appropriate!) version of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Spamalot. It was really cute and all the classes performed with such gusto and talent it was a joy to watch all of them.

Henry also gave a great science presentation at school recently. He had the choice of doing a poster or actually demonstrating an experiment and, to my surprise, chose to demonstrate for the entire class. His experiment involved using a lemon, two forks, some zinc plates and wire to activate a small digital clock – pretty cool stuff. He impressed all of us with his knowledge and understanding of the experiment and he was so proud when he successfully demonstrated it!

In the category of “Hey, you never know…” Henry asked to take his NintendoDS to school recently to play while we wait for the lobby doors to open at 8:15am. I held off letting him do this because I feared he would isolate himself from the other kids and just play his game in a corner. Was I wrong!!! The darned thing has turned into a great tool for socializing. Every morning, Henry is surrounded by other children and they are all talking about the games and sharing thoughts and ideas. Who knew??? And Henry has been great about leaving it in his backpack during the day (a condition of being allowed to bring it). A great, and surprising, result (or maybe I am too old to realize that these games actually can be social?)

And me? I continue to work with Dr. Kellman to get my thyroid in order and we seem to be making good progress (Henry seems to be in a really good place with his thyroid right now). Henry and I also continue our sequential homeopathy and Heilkunst work with Rudi Verspoor and we both continue to see benefits from this treatment. Henry seems to be the somewhat more unusual patient who reacts almost immediately to homeopathic remedies, if he reacts at all. In a way, I like this because it shows me that something is going on.

I love being involved at school, and in addition to serving as the co-chair of the Parents Association Communications Committee, I have done a number of projects this spring at school. I worked with Henry's fabulous music teacher, Sarah, to develop and make cute, simple costumes for Henry and his classmates for the spring concert that evoked the “Spamalot” medieval spirit. I also have been working on the school yearbook with Henry's amazing art teacher, Peter, and a dedicated group of other parents. I took on the parent dedication pages – so many of our families supported the yearbook by purchasing dedication pages -- I was amazed and a bit overwhelmed by the response but the extra work was worth it -- I am hoping our final product looks fabulous -- we all put in lots of time and effort and -- more than once -- the great parents with design training on our committee saved me with technical assistance. We are producing the book through Entourage Yearbooks. This is the school's first year using a professional yearbook company and Entourage has been very patient with all of our newbie questions. The one great unanswered question is my husband’s: “What are you doing up at 1 a.m. working on the yearbook???” Sorry honey.