1 Year Anniversary of Brendan getting his Autism Diagnoses-(Brendan 25 months old)

               

                June 17th, 2013 is a day that I will never forget. Today is the 1 year anniversary that has forever changed our family. The day that Brendan's doctor gave him his official "Autism Spectrum Disorder" diagnoses. The feeling I had that day is something no parent should ever have to feel. Just thinking about my emotions on that day literally makes my knees weak. This past year has been such a roller coaster ride of up's and down's. I have watched Brendan make progress, regressive, cry, fight, fall asleep during his year of therapy. We have had some amazing therapist and some not so good therapist come in our lives. But we finally have the most amazing team working with Brendan. When you spend close to 50 hours a week with them they actually just become part of your family. Brendan's therapist treat him with so much love and care and I couldn't be more lucky. They even treat Haley with the same love and care.
    I want to thank all of our family and friends that have supported Team Brendan this year. We had one of the largest groups at the Autism Speaks walk in October. We ranked in the top 10 of the donations raised. I couldn't have been more proud to be part of Team Brendan. I am so excited for this years walk which is on October 26th, 2014. I know we will have an even bigger team representing Team Brendan! We also were part of the Autism Society of Greater Phoenix bowling charity. We were definitely the largest team! We all had so much fun bowling and our team won so many amazing prizes. We will be participating again next year which will be sometime in April 2015. Thank you, thank you again. We wouldn't have made it this far without your love and support.
            I have been watching older videos of Brendan when he first started aba therapy and it is so crazy how far he has come. Brendan truly is the hardest working 2 year old. As we begin the 2nd year of our journey in the autism world I hope life starts to get a bit easier to manage. I know as Brendan gets older we will face many more challenges but I am confident that we will get through them! I sit here with my eyes filled with tears. I have so many emotions about our experience so far but I know god has a plan for everyone and he gives me strength daily to get through my days. I love you all so much! I can't wait to see what this year brings!
         Brendan finished his last day of therapy yesterday and was amazing! He knew how to do things we had never even asked him to do before. What a way to finish before we take a week off of therapy! We are now on the road headed to San Diego & Huntington Beach! My next post will be all about our trip!

I have made a video of the progress Brendan has made this past year!

The End of May Wrapped Up with Amazing Progress-Brendan 25 months old today

                 
                I first really want to thank all my family and close friends that reached out to me after my last blog post. It means so much to us to have so much support. I am happy to report that Brendan just had a really good two weeks. It was so fun to watch him make so much progress after such a rough couple weeks. I am learning with kids on the spectrum that life has so many ups and downs. Brendan and his therapist have been working on a lot of basic skills. For example labeling. Which is having him identify objects. Teaching him what a train is, cup, snack etc. Then they have been working on him giving a hug, sitting down when asked, standing up when asked etc. All of the basic skills that typical kids just learn by watching others. Brendan has done really good with his goals this month so I think we will be ready to have new goals soon.

Brendan loves wearing his swim vest around the house. I think he likes the pressure it gives him!

                   We are getting ready to go on a couple vacations this month. Most people would be so excited to go on vacation. Me on the other hand am not looking forward to it. When you have a child with autism traveling isn't so easy or fun. I am actually terrified. We have been pretty much home bound for last couple weeks so Brendan's daily routine is going to be extremely altered. He does really well with his routine at home because he has figured out to communicate in his surroundings. The hardest part is Brendan can't eat any food when we leave the house. So this means going on vacation I have to bring every meal for him which is really hard. This weekend we are headed to Rocky Point with some of our closes friends. Then we will be home for a week and then we are going to San Diego and going to Lego Land and Sea World for the first part of the week. Then we are going to Huntington Beach to meet all of my family from the bay area to celebrate my grandparents 60th anniversary. I am so excited to be reunited with my whole family! Some of the family hasn't met Brendan yet so this is a real treat for us! Plus my daughter Haley will get to celebrate her 7th birthday while we are in California! So wish us luck on our trips and I will have pictures and updates after we return.

This a video of Brendan doing his therapy. My favorite part is Brendan blowing kisses!!!!!