Have a minute?

I have something really quick to share with you right now and will be back later with more.

If you have a quick minute go to Ask.com today they are teaming up with Autism Speaks. If you go there peel back the top left corner and it will reveal and explain everything to you.

We are heading to Gpa and Gma's house here in a little bit. The girls are going to stay the night with them while i take Mav to the behavioral specialist to get new meds and check him out then the nurse said we may have to go get and cardiogram done on Mav's heart he's having some issues because of the meds he has been taking and they want to make sure all is ok with his heart. So if you all could say a little prayer for the dude that would be awesome and very much appreciated.

ok be back later. till then have a great afternoon!

XOXO
Mav's Momma

UPDATED: ok not much more to share the Dude had fun at Gpa and Gma's watched some dvd's, ate some sweets,chatted,enjoyed hangin with the G-rents(great grandparents) and we actaully made out of there with not meltdowns Mav helped carry the goodies gma gave me out to the car then got in just like a big boy. I was so proud of him!I had prepared myself for a bad scene and heck of a ride home but none of that happened we had a nice ride home listened to some tunes chatted a bit and looked at the scenery passing by. Got home hung out and played outside while waiting for daddy to get home. Just chillin hangin out at home ready for bed. Chat with ya'll tomorrow.

Wednesday means a WINNER and another Giveaway!!

The winner of the Week 1 Giveaway is Lisa T Howard. Congrats girl shoot me an email with your addy at mad4mav@hotmail.com .

ok are ya'll ready for another one? I have put together 2 scrapbook kits one that is boyish colors the other girly so that means we will have 2 winners next week. To be entered to win one of these kits leave a comment you can tell me if you prefer one over the other if you'd like.You can leave a comment between now and 11:59 pm April 14th the winners will be announced on April 15th.
I just want to thank you all again for visiting the blog and the wonderful support you are giving us!!!

Kit 1 has Heather Bailey, Bazzill, Basic Grey,MME, Tinkering Ink, AL stamp & more

Kit 2 has Making Memories, Collage Press, October Afternoon, Scenic Route, AL stamp & more

Sharing some cool finds

I wanted to share this link with you all it's the place I go every other day to see Autism News. It's updated daily with the latest Autism News articles from around the world.

I know we all love ETSY (if you don't know what Etsy you must check it out it's a wonderful site full of handmade goodness for you to purchase) while browsing I came across these awesome finds which not only do I just like them they also are benefiting Autism which is so cool!

One of my favorite finds today this beauty from polarity it's an interchangeable magnetic locket

This Beautiful necklace is from cravejewelrydesign

This cute little Tooth Fairy doll from CourtneyBenton she also has some cute art prints in her shop.

This Beautiful Bracelet from rocknbauble

How cool are these? Fingerless Gloves by TinkerAndPo

This Beautiful artwork by cREaTebyRET

This beautiful necklace is in the wiresNpliers shop and it is for Artist with Autism Awareness Month - Art Careers- Sarahbushka's there are so many more beautiful pieces in this shop that are made by Sarahbushka who lives daily with Autism.

This pretty earrings from lariescreations

Ok seriously how cute are these? FeltHungry makes this cute felt play food for kids.

Who wouldn't want to sport one of these beautiful handbags by kcrainehandbags

This beautiful pin is by nanichan

This cool necklace is by OleanderTea

This caught my eye the minute i saw it. It's just too cool! It's made by uncorked

Love the Screen Prints by thentherewere3 this one is my fav I also love the Green one they have in the shop.

Ok I got no where near all the way through my search so be prepared for another post like this sometime this month. There is just so much cool stuff on Etsy you really have to check it out.

Have a great day see you tomorrow.

Mav's Momma

PS Don't forget the Week 1 Giveaway ends tonight at 11:59pm I will post the winner in the morning along with another giveaway.Thanks for reading today!

Today....

is better! If you read yesterdays post thanks! Mav and I stayed up late lastnight and slept in the morning. I woke to a little man on the floor in my bedroom laying there just a jabbering away. He is smilin and so am I. I think he needs some momma time just the 2 of us and he's getting it today. The girls are with mamaw till later and dad's at work. We are just hangin out taking it easy it snowed lastnight ahh. I did call the Dr this a.m. and the nurse is going to talk to the Dr about changing meds and get back to me.
Thanks again!Have a great day!

Mav's Momma

Straight Up Sunday

Ok first let me apologize for a late post today I'm sorry. We have had a rough couple days with Mav meltdowns, screaming, just not a happy camper and seriously not fun for me either. We will get through it and have a good spring break.

SO on with the Straight Up Sunday stuff...
After reading the above your probably wondering what I mean when I say meltdown.. Mav's meltdowns go something like this he gets upset or mad over almost anything or nothing, he throws himself down, kicks, screams, crys and most of the time you have no clue why. He can get physical too with grabbing, hitting, or sometimes worse.
What do we do when this happens? We try to figure out what's going on, change the situation, redirect him,talk to him, sometimes we use this wrap holding thing kinda like a big hug that the behavioral specialist advised us to use, we try to do the time away thing too. Sometimes things help sometimes they don't. For example yesterday we were out in about we had to go to the big city of Grand Rapids and make a stop at a small mall so Louis could get license plate tags so I took the 3 kids to JoAnns (they have carts woot) put Mav in the cart got all done looking he was screaming and wanting dad we had looks finally dad got back but still not a happy Dude. We leave he screams and instead of getting upset and trying some technique or discipline I walked briskly and talked to him as he screamed after a minute he got it and it was over.then it started again in the car ahh but we got through it. Today he's just not happy not sure what's going on so I plan to call the Dr to see if maybe we need to change meds or something.

Yes life is not always peaches and cream but it's life. I try to be upbeat and positive sometimes it gets so hard but we always get through it one way or another. This is life, this is part of our journey. It's not always like this thank goodness. Mav is a true blessing to us all and he has changed our lives for the better!

ok on to another question.
Is Mav potty trained? NO he is not this is one thing that we have always said we can deal with we are working hard on everything else and this is something that really has to just come to him not like we can make him go on the toilet when he really doesn't know what is going on down there. Yes diapers for him are expensive and we go through alot so we are have found a wonderful lady named Carolyn from Grand Rapids who has designed some cloth diapers for Mav which will be using this summer and on the weekends here at home. He really likes them and hopefully it will help towards the potty training thing too. You can visit Carolyn's Etsy shop HERE Awesome stuff!

Sleeping Habits
Mav was going on very little sleep I'm talking like a few hours a week and it was killing me so we talked to the Dr about it and Mav was put on medication to help his moods and help him sleep at night. It goes in spurt where it's been decreased then increased, it works then it doesn't work. Right now I think were going through another one of those times where its not working and he is needing something different actually at the last Behavioral specialist appointment he wanted to switch Mav's meds because he is chunky and should probably try something different for his moods and sleep I choose not to at the time and have been really been paying more attention to his weight and breathing lately and I'm actually getting scared about it so that is another reason I will be calling the DR and saying that I guess I'm ready for the med change now.

What does Mav like?
Mav goes in spurts of what he plays with, watches, and likes. As of a few weeks ago Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends have made a comeback there for awhile he didn't play with them now we take them everywhere I'm making Mav a Man purse to carry his goods in. He is into computer games the learning kind but gets frustrated easily with them most of the time. He isn't int his movies as much anymore he use to love watching them but now we watch about 20 minutes of each movie then it's on to the next which drives everyone crazy but he likes it. He loves Boomerang on the satellite which is kinda weird since most kids love the new cartoons Mav loves the oldies.

Is Mav on a diet? Does he eat certain foods?
Mav is not on a diet unless you count the picky eater Mav Diet which consists mostly of bread products. He hates noodles! they don't come in his space or he flips out. We try to get him to try new foods which usually results in a real throw down meltdown which is not good for him or us. We have tried the Gluten Free Diet but we didn't get the results other have with it and it was way harder he was cut down to nothing and for a kid that bases his intake mostly on bread stuff um that diet just doesn't work. We gave it 6-8 months to see how he did on it so it wasn't like we tried it for a day or two. I do know that the diet does work for some kids it just wasn't right for him.

Health?What kinds of Dr's does Mav see?
I would say Mav is pretty healthy he does have problems with his legs, feet, and nervous system. Mav sees a Behavioral specialist,Pediatric Neurologist, Pediatric Orthopedist, and of course his Pediatrician. He has been given multiple diagnoses he has a cavus feet and metatarsus adductus ( foot deformities), charcot marie tooth(nervous system disease), and a disease in his foot which causes the blood to be cut off from the bone making the bone harden before it should. We have been given other diagnosis too but these are the ones that the DR is concerned with and focusing on right now. Mav goes to the orthopedic DR on the 15th this month to see what is going to happen next and when he will have surgery on his feet. We have been told that he needs surgery on his feet where the DR will break the bones in both feet and reconstruct the feet. This surgery will need to be done multiple times its is very very scary more poor little Dude going through all that.
When Mav does get sick with the normal stuff like the rest of us it seems like it hits him alot harder and it takes him longer to get over it.

Mav has alot of sensory issues which is why he has problems with foods, noises, touch, movement etc.If you google sensory processing problems/issues it will give you an idea of what I am talking about. Mav is both hyper and hypo sensitive to most things on the checklist which baffles us all because usually kids are one or the other.

ok I think i have wrote enough for today.Reading this I hope you don't think this is negative or sound like I'm dwelling on the bad stuff because I don't I'm just trying to show you the REAL life stuff too.Mav is a blessing to us!Thank you for your support! I really appreciate the visitors and the comments you all are wonderful!!! I Will be posting another post something like this next Sunday hoping it will be Louis' thoughts or maybe Teagan's. Thank you for reading this!

~Mav's Momma

Statistics Saturday

Autism statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicated that cases of autism spectrum disorder have risen over the past several years. Autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, is the term used to describe a number of developmental disabilities that stem from a problem within the brain.

Autism is the most common form of ASD, and it is now prevalent in 1 out of 150 children in America, according to the CDC's 2007 autism statistics. This number is even higher for boys, where nearly 1 out of 94 have autistic disorder. And those numbers are rising, as is evidenced by autism statistics provided by the CDC and other organizations. Here are the facts and figures that have been discovered over the past several years:

• Autism is usually diagnosed before a child turns three years old, but symptoms have been noted as early as four months.

• Autism is a lifelong disability and life expectancy of autistic individuals is normal.

• Anywhere from 10-20 out of every 10,000 people are affected by autism.

• Estimates show that 1-1.5 million Americans have some form of ASD.

• Autism is currently the fastest growing developmental disability in the United States, with an annual growth rate of 10-17 percent.

• In the United States, a new case of autism is identified almost every 20 minutes.

• In the past 10-15 years, cases of autism have risen 172 percent. In this same amount of time, the U.S. population grew 13 percent, and cases of disabilities rose 16 percent.
window.google_render_ad();

• Care of autistic individuals costs approximately $90 billion per year. This dollar amount is expected to more than double, or even quadruple, over the next five years.

• Early diagnosis of autism can cut down on costs for lifelong care by about two-thirds.

• About half of autistic people score less than 50 on IQ tests; 20 percent score between 50 and 70, and 30 percent get a score over 70. Only a very small percentage of people with autism are savants, showing genius-level abilities in a particular area.

• About 17 percent of all children have some type of developmental disability.

• Autism became a special education exceptionality in 1991, and it is the sixth most commonly found disability acknowledged in public schools today.

• Autism is diagnosed more frequently than Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis and all forms of childhood cancer combined.

Autism statistics are always changing as research and observation is completed and shared. The growing numbers have led to some societal concern, and hopefully this will lead to new treatments and eventually a cure.

*information from Autism Diagnosis.com*

Thanks for reading some of you may have already read this stuff but I feel its always important to share again.

Tomorrow is going to be titled Straight Up Sunday I will share and try to answer some question about Mav that you all might have like where he is on the spectrum, what some of his quirks are, his health, sleeping issues, potty training, just more Mav stuff in general and what it's like to be his momma.I'm also going to get Louis in on this so it won't just be my view I know and have experienced how different and difficult it is when it comes to being the Daddy and having your only son diagnosed with Autism by watching Louis these last few years.Love picking his brain too lol he usually isn't much of a talker. If you have any question please please ask away I am open about anything when it comes to this I want to share our story so please don't not think your asking a rude or bad question because the only bad question is the one that never gets asked. The more I share or answer the better off Mav's Life and others like him will be.

XOXO

Friday Photos

Some of my favorites from lastnight. The Dude was so happy to get outside he was running, playing, laughing and smiling it was good! Yes he does have shorts on and I do realize it is not summer but that is how he decided to roll yesterday he's taking the whole Spring Break thing to heart and it was nice out I wouldn't let him go out in shorts if it was freezing believe me.I love that smile! Thanks for stopping by today!