October 22nd-28th Autism Speaks Walk Team Brendan 2013

            I don't even know where to start. This past week has been so heart warming for my family. We want to truly thank every person who walked, donated and reached out to us in some way in support of Team Brendan. Team Brendan had 74 walkers and we raised $3,335. We were the largest independent group walking. We were also in the top 12 groups of money raised. They announced just before walk that they had 20,000 people registered to walk yesterday. It was so crazy, there were so many people there raising autism awareness. Looking and watching our group of Team Brendan shirts all walk together was a feeling that will never leave me. It made me so emotional knowing all the friends and family devoted there morning to raise awareness. Brendan of course had no idea what was going on, he even fell alseep during our 1 mile walk that took us 50 minutes to walk. I can't wait to tell and show Brendan what our first year walking for him was like. We are going to make this a yearly tradition for Team Brendan. I am already excited for what next year will bring us. We also had my amazing family and friends walk in Northern California and Utah in both freezing cold weather. Then my brother who is a fire fighter and had to work during the walk had his station support and they made a banner and also walked for Team Brendan. We finished the walk and headed over to a park and celebrated with a big lunch, candy,cupcakes and the kids made puzzle piece ornaments to remember the walk. Thank you again to everybody who gave us your support. We love you all so much!

       

           Last week Brendan had a follow up appointment with his development doctor at the Melmed Center. The day of the appointment brought me so much anxiety because the last time we were there was when he got his diagnoses. I was terrified at what was going to happen. I came to the appointment with my list of concerns to tell her about. I was afraid I was going to forget everything. She wanted to know how things were going and my answer was,"it's been a crazy roller coaster of up's and downs so far." She wanted to know what my concerns were first. My main concern was him eating all of the things are not food and enjoying them. So I explained to her that it started back on the first of September when he started to eat sand. I first thought he was just being a typical boy and experimenting  and being gross but for the last 2 months every time he is around sand he begins to shovel it in his mouth. When I take it away from him or say no he completely has a melt down. He actually enjoys eating it. I know in my last blog I mentioned how he was eating lost of strange objects and I just thought it was him being a boy but it started to become more frequent. I knew it wasn't normal when he was enjoying the taste of dirt and things like soap. He doesn't do it everyday but I have been so paranoid at what he might eat next that I follow him around every second of the day. This is a big safety issue so I knew his doctor needed to know. She explained to me its a condition called PICA syndrome. It is common in autistic and mentally disabled kids ages 18 months to 5 years old. He is basically doing it as a sensory seeking act. So now we really need to get all of his therapist to help get this under control asap. It just another concern to add to my full plate. But I handled this news pretty good. Then I told hid doctor all the good things he is doing. She pretty much had the same reaction that his therapist are having. Which is he is definitely a very unique little boy. He is progressing out of the norm. He is skipping the basic things kids normally learn first and just skipping to much harder words and activities. But she doesn't care which order he is going in as long as he progressing and not regressing. So overall we had a good appointment. Just a set back with the PICA diagnoses. I have been educating myself on PICA all weekend. I feel much better now knowing more information about it.

This video is of Brendan playing with Barbies. He loves to play cars but he has also been taught by his sister on how to play barbies. The best part of this video is he is playing with them appropriately.