Hello all.  Wow this week has flown.   Cody continues to THRIVE in his home therapies.  This week he's working on imitation and matching.  In 1 day he learned an imitation skill.  His therapist sits in front of him with a large jar and puts a ball in and says "Cody do this" and hands him a ball.  And he did it!  He gets a little treat after every time.  He got the hang of it so fast!  And if there's a cup and a bowl in front of him, she hands him a cup and says "cody, match the cup" and he sticks the red cup right on top of the red cup!  He's doing so awesome!  He's also working on picture communication still.  We added "hello" to his repertoire so don't be surprised if he walks up to you soon and hands you a picture that says "hello" on it expecting a hug!  We're ordering a communication book for him that will dangle from his belt loop.  It will have pages with different photos velcroed on them.  At any time, he can look thru the book and pull out the photo of what he wants and hand it over.  It will take a lot of work to help him learn how to turn pages, but that's a skill he's having incorporated into his ABA program - "page turning."  So much going on.  So fast.  I'm so proud.

He had a couple of hard seizures today but our neuro suggested an alternative to valium that *may* be working on these bigger seizures.  This is the 3rd time he's taken the drug (clobazam) after a bag seizure.  In the past, the bad seizures would just keep coming - but the last 3 days it seems to stop them cold.  I pray it will continue.  It's in the family of valium but acts a bit differently.  Doesn't affect him at all side effects-wise.  The valium is just not an option for us anymore.  I just love our neuro and the fact that he works so closely with these details. 

Casey continues to be a wild man.  He's obsessed with empty water bottles.  And his favorite food is avocado.  He wakes up with a smile and goes to sleep with a smile!  What a charmer.  His cheek has healed up nicely - hope it stays that way!  He and Cody have quite the symbiotic relationship.  They co-exist in our playroom and literally leave each other alone!  I can now leave them together and not even think twice.  Amazing.  It was always my greatest fear that Cody will kill Casey in that situation.  May change as Casey gets older - but for now he stays away from Cody and vice versa. 

Monday I have an appt. with a nutritionist to discuss a new diet for Cody.  It's called a "GF/CF diet" which means no gluten or casein (dairy.)  He's mostly on a dairy free diet now so that won't be a huge leap.  But gluten is everywhere!  It also needs to be low glycemic-index.  Yikes.  But this gal is the best in her field and has done extensive work with epileptic patients and autistic patients and she said she'll literally hold my hand thru the whole thing.  I just have such a strong intuition that Cody's seizures are often triggered but gut issues.  

That's it for now - with love to you all,

shawna