Uncle Robbie Rotten

Uncle Brett came over this weekend with Aunt Katie and Laurel. Neve tantrummed for about 45 minutes until she warmed up and then was back to her deceptively angelic self. The kids had fun and Laurel is such a doll. I wish we lived closer as those two would be such good playmates in the future...

HBOT is still going great. Dives 5, 6, & 7 went off without a hitch. We are up to 5 LPM for the oxygen during a 1 1/2 hr dive. Nothing positve to report. Nothing negative to report. BUT today was my dive with Nate and he was wound UP! He was crawling all over me nonstop and was trying to stand up and jump like he was on a trampoline. GOD! I thought he was gonna rock us right across the room! Crazy kid. :)

Adventures in HBOT - dives 3 & 4

Dives 3 and 4 went off without a hitch. Dive 3 was for 1 hour and 15 minutes, full pressure, no oxygen. No changes noted, positive or negative. Dive 4 was for 1 1/2 hours, full pressure with oxygen at 2.5 LPM distributed through a pass through in the side of the HBOT chamber.

We are now at our maximun length dive time..and we will be gradually increasing the pass through oxygen from 2.5 up to 10 LPM. Then the oxygen will be decreased and filtered through a mask directly to Nate's face...and then we will try and get him back up to 10LPM if his body can handle that. Lordy, after typing that it seems that we have a long way to go! ONWARD!

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes and overall  interest and support while we try out our rocket ship!

Adventures in HBOT...dives 1 & 2

Dive one was on Tuesday. 45 minutes of full pressure, no oxygen. Nate did great. He was super excited to get in it and acted liek he was playing in a tent. He gets to have a binky to help with his ears (sucking) and he is allowed to bring in his dvd player to watch Backyardigans and Wiggles. Aaron did ok too and was able to handle the ear pressure fairly well.

Dive 2 was on Wednesday. 1 hour of full pressure, no oxygen. Once again, Nate did great. He is really eager to get in his rocket ship which makes it SO much easier than the battle we had envisioned. Nate held his ears and put his head down a few times on the way "up", but after that seemed fine. I went in this time with him and had no problems except my ears kept popping all night (which is extremely annoying).

Overall, dives one and two a success. Tolerance was perfect . No positive side effects, but no negative side effects either. We'll take it. :) Looking forward to today's dive....

Our ROCKET SHIP has arrived!!!

This is our HBOT chamber! woo-hoo! We finally have it at home thanks to some Christmas help from Nate's grandparents.(and yes, I decorated it for the Holiday :) We are so excited and we start the actual sessions/dives tomorrow and work our way up by increasing pressure, duration, and oxygen flow. We are really excited and hopeful! Cross your fingers for Nateman!

You can also read up on HBOT here:

http://www.hypertc.com/

..and watch video about it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPQrDcS1fdY

..and here!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6RI0N9Gwro&feature=player_embedded

More videos from Nate's preschool Holiday Sing-a-Long. :)

Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-RA!

Go, Nate, Go!

Well, I wanted to post an updated video of Nate's Expressive Object Labels program (where he says the label of a picture after looking at it) but we had a few snags last weekend. The day this video was shot, Nate has a severe reaction to salicylic acid and he ended up in Urgent Care. Good times. That is why he looks like he is crawling out of skin in this picture and keeps fidgeting with his shirt. :)
Anyway, we are SO proud of Nateman and his attempt at vocalizing. He has come so far and we are anxious to see what he will accomplish next.

It has been too long!!

Well I have been awful about posting this entire month- so I will come back soon and fill in for the month...BUT, for now, here are some videos from Nate's Halloween sing-a-long at his school. :) I will be back with some pictures too. :)

Halloween sing-a-long #2

Click here to view this video

Halloween sing-a-long #1

Click here to view this video

Here a goat, there a goat, everywhere a .......

Today was the Autism Harvest Festival at Leeds Farm here in North Columbus. It was an event hosted by an autism mom- her family owns the farm. they opened up at the crack of dawn to invite autism kiddos and their families to come and play for free- and they also had vendor set up with autism resources in our community. It was a great event and a great turnout! It was awesome to see that many families come together but disgustingly sad at the same time. Why is this happening to SO many families? Why do people turn a blind eye and assume it won't be their kiddo. Last week I sat around and thought (which I do TOO much of) about WHAT things I wish I had known before Nate was born..and the list is staggering. BUT that is a post for another day. If anyone ever wants my opinion on this, let me know. If you know me at all, my opinion is not something that is EVER hidden. :) I am a take it or leave it kinda gal...lol.

ANYWAY- back to the livestock.
Neve had a blast with the goats,cow, bunnies, donkey, etc..- and we even got Nate to attempt touching.

Then Nate rocked the Pumpkin Jump which was this huge bounce thing that Nate was drawn to like a magnet. I couldn't pull the kid away. (Neve was too small to jump).

....and then my futile attempt at brother/sister pics..lol. I know I 'll get some when we hit the pumpkin patch next month. :)

Miss Neve just wasn't feelin' the Nate T. Love today. :(

Nate had a good day at school. he has been super anxious and distracted lately. We had a big YEASTY moment with inappropriate laughter and the whole nine yards. It seemed to pass, both in behaviors and literally in his diaper. Seriously, I had no idea this stuff even happened- was my head up my ass for most of my life? Wow. Well, my eyes are open now..and it is so easy to see why others have no clue what I am talking about (although that doesn't seem to stop me from talking about it! ha!).

Neve had little gym today and has a blast as always. She loves it there!

Hangin' with Mrs. Portnoy

Today was just a "hang with mom" kind of day. Nate went to school and he has a new girl classmate now!

Neve started a class today at the community center that is preschool games and such....very fun and Neve did really well. She is so vocal, and I obviously love to hear her talk!

..."met her at a beauty salon...."

We took Miss Neve in last week to get her Onion Loaf cut. It is a crazy ol' mop of hair that is curling up more and more. We thought they were just baby curls at first...but now we are starting to think otherwise. This little lady is gonna be curly!!
Well we started out ok..and we snapped this picture..and then the screaming began..and didn't stop until we got close to home. Lordy. We have a drama queen on our hands!!

FREE PARKING

Typical Sunday here for the Portnoys- We hit the PARK! It's a beautiful day! The kids let off a little steam....

....playing....



...and swinging...



...feeding the fish at the pond...



...licking germ infested plastic bubbles....



..and just being all around darling kiddos.

H1N1

Dr mercola spoke at the Autism One conference and also held a seminar on the Lyme-Autism connection--SO interesting...

Here is a new take on the H1N1...
http://http//articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/08/Another-Shocking-Warning-About-Swine-Flu-Vaccine.aspx

Looking for a Rocket ship....

So I think we have finally come to a decision to move forward with Hyperbarics. Aaron and I have been debating the pros and cons for years and wondering how the heck we can pull this off , both financially as well as logistically. Nate's DAN doctor is about 20+ minutes form our house and there is no way we can get there every day, especially not multiple times in a day.SO, here is what we are thinking. The HBOT (the rocket ship as I like to call it) costs appx 3000$/month to rent and about 20,000$ to buy. 20 grand is less than a car. If someone told me that if I buy Nate a Honda Civic he might improve dramatically health wise, would I not buy it? OF COURSE I WOULD!
So I think what it comes down to is that we rent it for a month...and here's the kicker: WE NEED TO BE WILLING TO THROW AWAY $3000. We know that Nate may not respond at ALL to this and that is a very real possibility. Fine. I will know that we gave it a try. BUT-WHAT IF, my baby, comes out and talks? what if he is more aware? what if it helps him potty train? what if, what if? what if? I can't sit around and worry about debt. We are in debt. Our child has extreme medical needs. I need to get over it. That is reality for us..so what's another 20K?
This week we will research it more and try to make plans. I have no idea how this will all work out, but my mind is fixed on it now...so look out. :)
The Portnoys are buying a Rocket ship!

He's No Blockhead!

Nate has learned SO much through his ABA home program which is overseen through Nationwide Children's. Aaron's parents help us out every month (for which we are forever grateful)to be able to have our WONDERFUL ABA therapists come to the house to work with Nate. They are here 6 days a week, for a total of about 21 hours a week. This equals out to about 3 1/2 hours a day...which is in addition to the 12 hours a week of preschool, and the 3 hrs a week of OT, ST, and Little Gym. Learning is a full time job for our little guy.

Here is a video of Nate rockin' his block imitation program. It is so amazing for us to see him do so well with this considering he rarely looks like he is paying attention. His body is usually flailing about and he is babbling so it is hard to tell sometimes- but he DOES get it!! yay!

7 years and counting.....

Aaron and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary tonight.....wow. That seems like forever ago. We met over 10 years ago. I guess time really does fly by...

First Day of SCHOOL!

Today was T-Bone Malone's first day back to school. He is in his second year of preschool. The teachers are the same (all 3 of them), but the actual building has changed. I am not impressed, but it is what it is.

Here is Nate getting ready to go. He was super pissed at me for trying to take his picture.

Then we all piled in the car and headed to his new Elementary school.

Family Weekend

Oddly enough, this weekend was the first weekend in as long as I can remember that we had NOTHING going on. NO therapy, NO birthdays, NO anything! VERY strange for us in our perfectly scheduled little world, lol.
Yesterday we took the kids down to COSI (the science center downtown) and the kids had a great time. We have season passes there but we certainly don't get down there as often as we should. Nate loved running around like a madman and finding mirrors to look in. Neve loved playing "kitchen" and she also got to touch a turtle.
Today we packed up and hit the zoo. The kids did great and Neve was lovin the elephant and the ducks, as always. :)

WIGGLES Fun!

We Went Bananas!

Well the last few weeks have been crazy to say the least! Nate had an awesome birthday party with a couple family members that could make it and a handful of preschooler friends that he has known for quite some time (and their families too of course!). We had a local children's musician come and perform on the guitar and flute and the kids all seemed to have a great time. Nate had a few tolerance issues, but for the most part he was happy with it all.

http://http//www.babyjellybeans.com/web/do/site/home?ID=34479

http://nates4thbirthdayjamboree.shutterfly.com/#n_19

Last night Aaron and I took the kids to the Wiggles concert in downtown Columbus. IT WAS A BLAST! We prepared for the worst and brought a gazillion snacks for Nateman to help him through it--but we didn't need a one! They both were transfixed and really watched the show! We were on the floor near the front and smack dab in the center aisle- which was PERFECT! Both kids were in the aisle at some point dancing and jumping around. I wish we could take them every day as it is so WONDERFUL to see your kids so happy.

Registering for the Columbus seminar-If any other parents want to go- I would love the company!

Windows Live Hotmail: "just received this info regarding Nancy Kaufman speaking about in the area in December. For those of you unfamiliar with her, check out her web site www.kidspeech.com

Children Who Struggle To Speak: The Kaufman Speech
Praxis Treatment Approach

December 4, 2009 in Cleveland (Holiday Inn Strongsville)

October 2, 2009 in Indianapolis (Hilton Shadeland Ave)

November 13, 2009 in Columbus (Crowne Plaza Dublin)
Tuition:

SLPs: $195 each
Parents: $125 each
More information on online registration:

CLEVELAND: http://www.nss-nrs.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/NSS.woa/wa/Seminars/detail?id=1000971

INDIANAPOLIS: http://www.nss-nrs.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/NSS.woa/wa/Seminars/detail?id=1000968

COLUMBUS: http://www.nss-nrs.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/NSS.woa/wa/Seminars/detail?id=1000970"

Playful Preschoolers

Nate completed his Playful Preschoolers program (Summer school) last week so we now have 2 more weeks of break before the new school year. My "goal" was to make sure I arranged peer playdates for him during this time, but that just doesn't seem to be that easy. Typical kids at this age are learning to dislike playing with certain children, and that's just the way it goes I guess. It is heartbreaking when you are the parent on this end, but I can't force parents to include Nate. The kids have gotten older and playdates are now arranged as one on one type settings...and I know that the kiddos aren't asking to call Nate. I get it, it still doesn't make it any harder to swallow. ahhh....It will get easier, right?

Dog Days of Summer........

What are people thinking? seriously!! I guess it is safe to assume that they are NOT thinking, because that's all that makes sense...

I took the kiddos to the park this morning to let off a little energy. It isn't a HUGE park, but it is spread out enough that I have to keep bouncing back and forth to be able to FULLY see both kiddos. I saw this family walking towards the park with a couple kids and a dog, but it didn't immediately raise a red flag since that is a pretty common sight! Well, sure enough, Nate comes tearing down a tube slide and as soon as he hits the bottom I see this dog run over and start licking and rubbing all over him. OMG. I ran as fast as I could to get there and everyone is just laughing saying, " don't worry, he won't bite!". OMG. Yea, a dog bite is the least of my worries. I am more worried about his throat closing, but thanks. Turns out the dog wasn't on a leash and they said they didn't bring one. NICE. We just can't win. It's like Nate DANGERS are just lurking around every corner and I can't keep the little guy SAFE!

If You're Happy And You Know It- JUMP!

Nate opened another early birthday gift from Mom and Dad- and he is in HEAVEN! he loves his new bouncer with rock wall and slide. He jumps and jumps until he is a sweaty mess! here are some pics of Nate having a blast! The last pic is from today when Aaron and I decided to be the COOL parents. It is like 112 degrees outside so we brought the 11 foot tall bounce house inside for the day. HA! SO much fun. :)