Children's Museum

Last week I decided to take the kids to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier.  We had my nephew Andrew overnight and Mitchell was at camp so I figured it would be a good chance to venture out.  Caroline's friend Jaime knocked on the door in the morning so we brought her along too.  There were 2 vacant seats in the car so had anyone else stopped by they could have joined us as well.  So off we went.

My original plan was to take the train but by the time we got Mitchell to camp we wouldn't be downtown until noon so we took the van.  The kids all behaved very well in the car.  Guess they knew not to mess with the crazy lady driving downtown.

The museum wasn't as crowded as I anticipated considering how the rest of Navy Pier looked.  The kids immediately started climbing and playing and investigating.  From fire safety to circus,  giant dominoes to treehouse and CTA bus.  All the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Steve met us for a bit and was tagged as an Unaccompanied Adult to be sure he did not leave with any children.  Creepy old guy coming to museum by himself.

We left the museum to eat lunch in the Navy Pier eatery.  Our lunch bill was not as high as the $200 Steve projected but its nice how certain McD's don't follow the special prices you fund everywhere else.

Watching stupid people who can't read

After a little more time having fun, dad had to go back to work and we stayed as late as we could before heading home to take Mitchell to therapy.  We picked up cotton candy of course on the way out.  Driving home I was reminded of the video I saw of guys singing the Gotye song "Somebody That I Used To Know".  All the kids were jamming and none were singing the right words.  I tried to video it (yes as I was maneuvering on the Ryan) but everyone stopped when they saw the camera.

After taking Mitchell to the zoo or even a park and chasing him around, it is a cakewalk taking 5 neuro-typical children into the city. 

Body Parts

As long as I can remember Mitchell has never been able to point to a body part when asked.  He probably was able to point to his head or belly button before Autism took over at 15 months but I didn't note this accomplishment, looking back I should have.  This goal has been on his IEP for 3 1/2 yrs and I was just saying after we received the summer school report that it's still there and he probably won't ever be able to identify them and I wasn't all that concerned.  Imitating is not Mitchell's strong suit and we have bigger fish to fry, right? 

Well yesterday at therapy we had a break-through and Mitchell pointed to his eye, nose, stomach, ear when asked to.  Julie, his therapist and the director at By Your Side, was so excited that he finally responded to the prompts.  This is such great a milestone for him!  At home last night he repeated the feat with Steve and even wiggled his fingers by his ears when Steve did it.  This is just amazing to see.  I am tearing up as I write this because my little boy is simply doing something any typical 2 yr can do but he has struggled so hard with.  I can't wait for school to start and we can remove this from his IEP.  It's a good day for the Iveys!

Melatonin

I have been going back and forth for about a year wondering if we should help Mitchell with his sleep or wait until it works itself out. As far as kids with Autism he is considered a good sleeper. Many kids on the spectrum only sleep 2-3 a night, every night. He goes in spurts where he wakes up in the middle of night for hours but it is inconsistent and the same is true for his bedtime which fluctuates between 9pm & 11pm. Several months ago he was in the routine of putting himself to bed at 8:30pm. So due to the changes in has sleep patterns I wasn't sure medicating him at night was the answer, he just seems to need a different schedule every so often.

Well in recent months we have all become tired of not sleeping like normal people. Mitchell will stay up sometimes until midnight and wide awake too. Fighting him doesn't do any good, he's either going to sleep or he's not. Steve does not have the patience to lay with him for hours and if I do then I fall asleep with him and have to get up early to get Grace when she wakes and wants to be moved to another room (whole other issue.) It's just easiest to let him tire and want to go to bed, plus he gets all the sleep his body needs, not lethargic during the day at all -hence nicknamed energizer bunny.

I had heard of melatonin about 9 months ago and thought it was crazy to drug your child to sleep but have since changed my view. After researching it myself and talking to parents who have used it I warmed up to the idea. Today I called the health food store and they were out so we went to CVS & Walgreens before we found the liquid form. I decided we should try it before school starts in case there were any adverse affects or we need to adjust the dosage.


So how did it go? At 8:26pm I added 1mg to Mitchell's juice and watched him slooooowly drink it. He tossed it to the side a few times so I tried it in case it tasted bad but it was fine. With half his cup left at 9:11pm he grabbed my hand to go to bed! Beginners luck? I'm not sure but I'll take it with a smile. I'll let you know how it goes.

Supposedly it only take 20-30 minutes to set in and it seems pretty accurate. My only concern is that Ethyl Alchohol is the preservative used in the liquid form. I looked it up and it appears to be a safe common preservative. I read most liquid forms of melantonin contain this but I'll check the health food store when they get their supply in. I also read melantonin supplements have been known to stop the beginning of Alzheimer's which I found interesting because Autism and Alzheimer's have many similarities. Could it be a lack of melantonin? Could be a start in the right direction. Of anyone has anything to add about melantonin let me know.