July 18
We've been on holidays and considering all the different places and travel times and late nights Luke has been coping quite well. We've noticed the last few days that something negative is going on but I fully attribute it to poor diet (not eating well... very hot here!) and not sleeping enough. Let's hope it resolves itself in the next week as we resume normalcy for a little while. If not, we'll be going to Dr. Wagstaff on Tuesday so hopefully he'll be able to read what's going on with Luke.

Otherwise, Luke has been quite amazing. He drinks from a cup with no problem now (even one-handed on a handle). He is learning how to bike using this skookum bike we borrowed from the local therapy centre (and he's so pumped about it!). He's been pedaling himself, although it is really a big "three-wheeler" complete with seatbelts and foot straps. He feels secure enough on it to practice pedaling which is key to strengthening those "biking" muscles so hopefully he'll be on his own bike soon. He absolutely loves it, as does his more reckless and daring younger brother Joel. I'll post photos soon.

The other day I was teaching Joel some of the action songs we used to sing to Luke and Luke chimed in with all the words! My mouth dropped once again as he did all the signs for "Slippery Fish" and "Zoom, Zoom". It was so adorable to see both boys "singing". What a hoot.

Also, to note... Luke and Joel had memorized a Bible verse for talent night at my parent's 50th anniversary (weeklong reunion). AND they both performed perfectly (while standing on a table in the middle of the room). The verse was "I can do all things in him who gives me strength". I still hear Luke say it from time to time. They've been going to Sunday School together and every two weeks or so we pick up another verse for them to memorize. As an aside, at the reunion cabins, there was a kid's playground with slide/swing and climbing wall. Within a couple days Luke was sliding without someone's hand (high slide!) and climbing the wall. He's not a big fan of the swing yet (although he got the hang of it tonight on our swingset in the backyard for a long time, but then fell off so I'm afraid we're back to square one....)

In September Luke will be going to Kindergarten with Miss F and I've explained this too him (after a sad parting with our great preschool assistant Ms. M!). Every once in a while this month, Luke looks at me and says "I want to MissterGarden". So cute. I correct him... he tends to bring 4 or more words down to 2 so it takes a mom to figure out what he's really trying to say.

He's so in LOVE with the book "Green Eggs and Ham" and he says most of the last word of the lines. He calls it the "I am Sam" book :). This is the very first book we read to him when he was brought home from the hospital 3 days after he was born. Our first quality alone time as a new family of 3. I still remember exactly how and where we were sitting, and I was moving his tiny arms whenever we said "Everywhere".

We've signed him up for one week, mornings only for a sportscamp (just beginner ball handling) and were fortunate enough to get a free assistant. We'll meet her on Wednesday. The sportscamp is the week of August 16. We've also made arrangements to have pretty much full-time ABA during August, despite the fact that Luke's "under 6 contract" ends at the end of July and the majority of the funding will now go to the School District (they pool the money to pay for assistants and resources). We also happy that Ms. S. is planning to stay with us for another year with 3 afternoons a week of continued ABA. It's going to be tough to say goodbye to other two great BIs, but we don't have to do that until the end of August. And besides, they'd both be happy to respite babysit!!! Yay!

Luke has been conversing more and more these last few weeks, initiating conversations, making "reciprocal" remarks which is ABA lingo for commenting on something separate from what someone else commented on (yet related). For example, Ms. S. said (when looking outside at the street) "That dog is wet" and Luke said "Your car is wet". Pretty cool, as we just learned about this and had this as a new goal and he's already doing this! That's our boy!

He's also really excited about his BIRTHDAY, July 26. He's been singing the words to "Happy Birthday to You" and asking for all kinds of things for his birthday (mostly food)... "I want cake for my birthday"; "I want chicken for my birthday"; "I want blueberries for my birthday"; "I want pez candies for my birthday"; .... and the list continues. I don't think he completely comprehends the whole "presents/toys" concept, but that's okay.

He's learning the days of the week and he said "I want to go to church" the other day. And I said we go on Sundays. Today is Sunday and I asked him what we do on Sundays? and he answered (after thinking a bit), "Go to church". Good retention, Luke... yay. He also says "I want to go to P&J's" (the bookkeepers), or "I want to go to gymnastics" on a regular basis.

He's still quite repetitive which is concerning, but hopefully Dr. Wagstaff can alleviate that somehow; or time will heal. I notice it's obviously worse when he's overtired and has been overstimulated. We'll have to get his schedule back on track!

July 23
Went to Dr. Wagstaff and Luke STILL has a bit of yeast (I can't believe how pervasive it is!) so we'll get rid of it by doubling the probiotics and adding an anti-fungal. There's a new blue bottle to help with his brain chemicals as well, so we'll see if Luke rises above this latest fog. I know now, of course that he will bounce back better than ever. The one thing to mention is HOW AMAZING Luke was during the appointment. Two years ago Luke would be all over the room making weird noises and it would be IMPOSSIBLE to have a conversation with Dr. W. This time, he sat very quiet and still and only spoke when spoken to and did everything Dr. W. asked him. There was no trying to grab stuff off Dr. W.'s desk or no annoying noises to interrupt our conversation. We could actually talk to eachother and Luke sat quietly. I was in awe of him and so, so proud. He left the room on his own and made his own way back to the waiting room where daddy and Joel were. Dr. W. said it he was doing so well that it was time for me to begin speaking at autism conferences to give other parent's HOPE!

Another thing to mention is Luke can now take his shirt off, which means he can totally undress himself as he's been able to take pants and underwear off for a while now. He can get underwear and pants on, but still needs a little help with shirts on.... Once it's over the head, though he can put his arms through no problem.