Birthdays

Al turns 15 in 23 hours. Yikes. We celebrated it tonight, and it was quite civilized. We went to Red Robin, since they have unlimited fries that are GFCF. They even let us bring in a gfcf cake and the waitresses (the young, cute ones gathered especially by our server) sang him 'happy birthday'. He seemed unphased by all the attention, took a bite of his cake, then declared that he was full (way too many of his favorite fries). We've discovered which restaurants will accomodate the various food allergies the kids have, and we've gotten brave about asking whether or not we can bring our own food in when they aren't able to provide what we need. After all, we're spending a decent amount of money and we always tip well. The 3 children didn't fight, whine or tantrum. They even engaged in conversation and tried not to call each other 'loser' every other word. Joe, their dad, and I have been separated for over a year and this year's birthday went much better. We laughed, talked, and enjoyed our kids. Due to genetics, our kids are all tiny. When Kelsie, Audrey and I arrived to get a table (waiting for Joe and Al to arrive from Al's shrink appt) the server asked if we needed 2 kids menues. I said just one, that since Kelsie is almost in high school she wouldn't be needing one. The server apologized a million times and Kelsie and I laughed the whole way to the table. At some point Kelsie will appreciate looking 8, but not while she's 13.

What was so special about tonight? Our family has found a new rhythm. The kids are great to take out, and then off they went to spend the night at their dad's. This gave me the time I needed to go climbing indoors. A great, great stress relief. After an hour of climbing we decided to practice self-rescue techniques for our trip to Red Rocks, near Vegas, next month. My first out west climbing experience, which I'm excited and nervous about. But I got sidetracked. Al, the one farthest along on the autistic spectrum originally, was social, funny, engaging, appropriate, bright eyed, fun. Audrey was absolutely indistinguishable from other 8 year olds, and Kelsie is quite charming and calm - not always the case before.

Birthdays past: Al watched more than participated. Whenever we'd go to other parties, he'd sit on my lap and watch. When leaving, he'd proclaim he had the best time ever. He just needed to watch. I thought it would never end and constantly worried he'd never fit in. One birthday comes to mind. We had just self-diagnosed Al as autistic March 23rd after reading Unravelling the Mysteries of Autism by Karyn Seroussi and had gone gfcf with Al on the 24th. After horrible withdrawl, Al became brighter and clearer just in time for Audrey to be born March 30th (3 weeks early- kinda stressful time for me). Kelsie's party was April 28th, we checked all the food, but weren't good about hidden gluten. We never even thought deli lunch meat would have wheat - who knew? Al had a great time at the party with Kelsie's friends, was very social now that he was on this new diet, and ate about a pound of meat. I was thrilled because he never ate protein other than dairy, and we were off of that now. Kelsie got a tape recorder as a present and they went off together after the party to record stuff. They played it for us later and it was hilarious, but I noticed how clear Al's speech was (at this point he had been in speech therapy for a year). The next morning they got up bright and early and decided to record more, only they recorded over the last part of the previous night's stuff. They came in and woke me up to play their new stuff for me, starting with last night's. When it switched to the morning's stuff, Al's speech was unintelligible. Even he couldn't figure out what he was saying and got very frustrated. I will never forget that tape. In horror, I started researching and discovered the gluten in lunch meat. He had been doing so well. But now I had proof of how foods could adversely affect his progress.

That was before we started on NIDS. But, believe me, whenever Goldberg told us to watch his diet or eliminate a food, we did it immediately without question. I had seen the devastating effects food could have on my son.