Super Babies

Aidan's Rocking Night(s) with Michael Franti!

2011-09-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I forgot to post this last May but recent events have forced me to get off my lazy rear and finally update on some exciting recent events that happened with Aidan.

Last May, Michael Franti headlined the main stage at IFEST Houston and, as Aidan is a huge fan (along with the rest of us) I jumped at the opportunity to bring him to a live show in a family fun environment. The show was absolutely fantastic - probably one of the best I've been to in a long time. Michael had a good mixture of old favorites with a ton of material off of his most recent release "Sound of Sunshine". Everyone was jumping and dancing non-stop the entire show.

After getting getting everyone in the huge turnout to become totally involved in his music and message for an extended set, he closed out the night by inviting all of the children onstage to dance "Say Hey (I Love You)" as he usually does.

Naturally, Aidan jumped onstage and started dancing like a mad fool. And when I say mad fool, I mean all the other kids were basically jumping and clapping, but Aidan was GETTING BUSY. All this after he had danced the entire show (even the slow songs) like he was performing live on Broadway. (I honestly admire the energy of children sometimes).

Everyone at the show took immediate notice and finally Michael Franti couldn't stand to see him dancing to the side by himself anymore...

That's right - he pulled Aidan to center stage and proceeded to do every dance short of the Funky Chicken with him:

Here's a link to the entire video, Aidan goes center stage around the 3:45 mark:

It was a rare, magical moment. I honestly don't think I could have been prouder of him, and for those of you who know Aidan, that is saying an awful lot, as he makes me proud every single day.

Many people at the show wouldn't stop talking about it as we made our way to the exits, many of them stopping us on the way with, "Hey! There's that cool kid from onstage! Man you can dance!" Even cooler - the night I posted the original video to YouTube I was immediately contacted by someone with a much clearer view of him from the left side of the stage:

Here are links to the 2 part video:

Part 1

Part 2

Now, this evening was definitely a night to remember, right? It can't possibly happen again, could it?

Well, shortly after that wonderful Spring evening it was announced that Michael would be joining Carlos Santana on a tour that would come to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands.

Brandy, who missed the last two Franti shows I'd been to, was anxious to finally see him live as NO ONE puts on a better live show than Michael Franti. Naturally, we purchased 3 sets of tickets this time so she could attend and, after the last show, we would get murdered by Aidan if we left him behind.

As he was the opening act it was a much shorter set and, with such a larger audience than I've become accustomed to seeing him perform before, it wasn't as intimate a show as those at IFEST or the House of Blues. Plus, it didn't help that most people there had never heard of Michael Franti, and were only attending to see a legend of rock and roll: Santana.

Still, it was a great show. He managed to spend nearly as much time with us on the grassy hill during his set as he did on stage. I almost began to feel sorry for those who bought stadium seating because Michael seemed to prefer singing from the crowd in the cheap seats.

Unfortunately, it had to end much sooner than we would have preferred so Santana could take the stage, so Michael - true to form - called out to all the children in the crowd to join him onstage. Aidan got to the stage faster than you could say Jack Rabbit Slims but we almost weren't allowed up as the security staff were first demanding a ticket for the seating area, then telling us we had to line up on the OTHER side of the stage (after directing us to the side we were already on). In the end, it worked out. Michael put his bare foot down and asked them to let ALL the children up.

The video below is much worse then the previous shots as they would not let me down to the stage with him, but you can clearly see Aidan in green on the far right dancing with an 85 year old man :)

After the song wrapped up, Aidan approached Michael to talk to him. If you look closely you will see the two of them share an intimate moment around the 5:27 mark, and then immediately 'relive' their exercise dance from IFEST:

Aidan and Michael reminisce...

... and GET DOWN:

Although the quality is poor, Spearhead did have a camera operator onstage and, though they have yet to release any video of the concert, they did post 153 pictures from the show on Michael's FaceBook page, including this gem :)

UPDATE:

Here's yet another clear version someone uploaded from CMW Pavilion!! Aidan's practically at the center of the frame :)

Aidan's Report to Pearland mayor Tom Reid

2011-09-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

Aidan presented the yearly report to the mayor for his cub scout pack 446 today. Out of all the boys in his pack (about 100) he was nominated by multiple den leaders and ultimately selected over other boys much older than him. We are very proud of our future politician :)

Here is a picture of him with mayor Tom Reid:

Below is a direct link to the video. I wasn't in the most optimal position to capture the moment but I couldn't move without disrupting the presentation. The organizers were also recording the moment, from a much more advantageous position, so if I get a hold of a better viewpoint I will upload it as well:

2 Peas in a pod!

2011-08-15T22:01:00.001-07:00

2009 Family Vacation

2011-02-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to creating a video of our last family vacation. Time to plan the next!

Recent Pics

2011-01-12T18:43:00.000-08:00

Hermann Park

2011-01-12T18:37:00.000-08:00

January 8th, 2011

Christmas Morning Wii

2010-12-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

Aidan's Baptism

2010-12-25T11:12:00.000-08:00

Time is A-Flying!

2010-09-20T22:40:00.001-07:00

Wow. Time flies when you have children. Aidan is 8 years old today and we have not updated this blog in quite a long time.

Both Aidan and Rowan have gotten so big recently. Aidan alone must have grown 2 inches this past summer. We are a few weeks into the new school year (the 5th year of school for both) and Aidan is now a 2nd grader while Rowan is in 1st, his first year outside of PPCD in Life Skills.

Below are pictures from their first day of school. We have gotten so bad lately about keeping up with photos. It seems every big event we have to rely on utilizing our phones to capture the moment. Luckily, Brandy thought much further ahead than I did and managed to make sure the camera not only had a decent charge, but was emptied of previous pictures.

The pictures below are currently available in Brandy's Flickr account but I feel a few should probably be shared as well. They are from our 2009 trip to Fredricksburg (and Enchanted Rock) and are over a year old.

PPCD Field Day 2010 - Square Dancing

2010-05-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

Rowan had a great time at his annual PPCD field day. Here is a short video of him square dancing to "Ol Belinda".

He's the blond boy with the gold shirt. He has grown a lot since my last posting.

Pearland ISD GT

2009-09-02T00:22:00.000-07:00

Pearland ISD

"Pearland ISD is redesigning the gifted and talented program to include larger groups of students in one classroom rather than smaller groups in pull-out programs."

It really ticks me off that they do these things with out more advanced warning or notification! Errgghhh school districts!

Also on that note - why do school districts waste so much money on web programs that are not ever partially utilized? Currently, Skyward is a fancy district calendar with my sons profile information on it. It could be much more but either the teachers are either not being trained or not being encourage to use this. I hope that changes as the year goes by. Otherwise its a big waste of money that could be sunk into a bunch of other areas. **steps down off soapbox**

Discovery Park July 2008 (139)

2008-07-28T01:48:00.001-07:00

Discovery Park July 2008 (139)
Originally uploaded by javaverses

Q& A on raising an autistic child

2008-01-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

Jan 21 2008 - It was a Bach support group night tonight. Aidan still maintains that it is his favorite place to go, despite the fact he never received therapy there, only Rowan. Maybe that is why, a slight bit of jealousy? Not overly but nonetheless its there. It was mainly an open discuss night. I wasn’t feeling to extroverted or forceful tonight so I didn’t say too much. It’s funny how I can be extremely extroverted some time but not others. We had a list of questions we were working off, but we didn’t get very far down them. I though it would be a good starting point for a blog entry.

1) When did you realize something was wrong?

Maybe I am getting to hung up on semantics but I still don’t think something it “wrong”, different yes, wrong yes. But to answer the question and be really honest with myself, I didn’t realize it till it was point blank pointed out to me by my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law (who is a special needs teacher) right before he turned 2. It took a while to sink in and actually get services started. In hindsight I see where I should have seen it coming, but I guess I really didn’t. First of all no parent wants to look for something to be wrong with their child, second of all, when you have 2 children you worry about comparing them. So I was so busy telling myself that kids are different and are suppose to be different that I forgot that different is not always good, sometime its warning signs.

2) What was your reaction when your child was finally diagnosed?

Well that’s easy to answer because we just finally got that. A little bit of relief to finally have it in writing, but mostly residual frustration and confusion. Where do we go from here, there is not road map and no expert but us to show the way.

3) What resources did you find most helpful? Least helpful?

There has been a lot of websites, blogs and forums that have been helpful on many levels, but there is also a lot of negativity and misinformation, bias opinion touted as fact out there to be wary of as vulnerable newly diagnosed parent. However outside of anything web based the best resources I have found by far has been BACH and other parents. Nothing else comes close to a living breathing person who has been there and is positive. BACH has been a lifeline. I can always relate and touch base there and I know that no matter how old Rowan gets they will always support me, even if he isn’t receiving treatment from them.

4) How has your life changed?

In reality, not much. Emotionally I have a lot of guilty (although I know its unrealistic) feelings about not realizing it sooner, of expecting too much of Aidan, not as much from Rowan, feeling like I never do enough for them all. But really, I think I would have that anyways, some portion of that is just my personality. On the outside, we are aware of certain things now so we mold our life subtly around those things. For example, Rowan has sensory issues so we do a lot of heavy rough play, and work on his little issues in our everyday life. Potty training is more difficult, manners less stressed. Ultimately our life goals and family goals are the same, the things we do along the way just may be different.

5) How has your family's life changed?

As for immediate family, it’s hard to say since we only had 16 months with Aidan before Rowan came along. Your life moves and changes as you go so subtly, you don’t realize until later that it has changed. I could speculate how we would have been had we had 2 nt kids, but its just speculation. It took a little doing to convince John that there was anything there, and way more to convince my grandmother. But now it’s just a part of our life. As for the rest of the extended family, most everyone is understanding and somewhat sympathetic, I guess, if that’s the right word for it. I’m not sure they all really understand what autism is, but they adore Rowan and relate well with him.

6) How has your marriage changed?

I guess I am just really fortunate, but I don’t think my marriage has changed at all. Once John figured what I was saying has some validity to it he has been just as active and supportive as I am. I’ve heard of horror stories of other families where that’s not the case and I read somewhere that the divorcé rate in families with autistic children is something ridiculous like 50%.

7) What are your fears? Hopes? Dreams?

I try not to dwell too much on the further, and just live it one day at a time. Making little goal and meeting those before setting the next. But my real fears are things like, what if Rowan is never able to hold a conversation? How will he be able to be independent? Will his brother always have to be his guide and protector? Will Aidan resent Rowan and us for the way things are? I fear not doing enough for both of them, or doing things wrong. I hope that Rowan will learn to fully communicate and we can have conversations about what he thinks and feel. I hope that he will be able to understand how others feel. I hope he can be fully independent and successful at something he cares about passionately, like music or whatever it maybe.. Regardless to whether it is monetarily lucrative. I hope to have another child, no matter whether it is a girl or a boy, nt or not. I dream of having both my boys in college doing fabulously well studying something they have a real lust for.

8) What is the hardest part of having a child who is diagnosed with autism?

A lack of answers and facts. So much of autism is guess work and trial and error. If you have an infection they give you antibiotics, if you break an arm, they give you a cast. Sometimes it seems with autism they give you a smile, a paper and pat on your ass as you leave. All thing things he does, the symptoms, sure they are challenging at times, but that doesn’t bother me so much. I am only terrified of that I should know something I don’t that could help him.

9) What is the best part?

Rowan is his own person, totally genuine and unpretentious. I don’t think that will ever change and I sure hope to god it doesn’t! He has always been a generally happy little guy, content to himself and totally engrossed in what ever he is doing. That ability to focus on what he likes and is doing in the moment, if channeled correctly could serve him well later in life. He sees things differently and I wish I could see from his perspective.

10) If you had it to do over what would you do differently?

Shoulda, coulda, woulda’s wont get you far, but to pass on to others … I would have listened to my gut and done something sooner. I would have been more informed on childhood development so I would have recognized he wasn’t where he should have been and started asking questions. I let too much time pass dragging my feet thinking I was paranoid and being a hypochondriac mother. I would have gotten a medical diagnosis sooner too, because it opens doors that are harder to get in without that slip of paper. I would have worked harder to prompt him to do for himself, to ask for things instead of just trying to anticipate his needs and wishes.

11) What about your relationship with friends and parents, and how have they changed?

My parents (mom & dad) I don’t think they get it, but since neither is around much it doesn’t really matter. My grandmother is protective and supportive, but often sees things that aren’t really there, passing off things like oh he’s just fine on this and that, when he’s not. John’s dad is supportive, but doesn’t really understand very much. But relationships between them and us haven’t really changed. As for friends for the most part things go on as they did before. Sometimes people will say things like, I don’t know how you do it I could handle that. I hate it when people are all feeling sorry for us like we have a sick child or something. Our life is really not that hard or different that any other family with 2 kids. Our biggest problems stem from things that have nothing whatsoever to do with autism. The only thing I cab say about our relationship with our friends that has changed is it’s not as easy to talk to them about the kids. Even the ones that have kids just don’t understand the way a parent who has an autistic or at least a special needs child does. The last thing I want is sympathy, the way I see it there is nothing to feel sorry for us about. It would be like saying I’m sorry your son was born, and I am not sorry he was born or that he is autistic. Its part of who he is, it is not who he is, and it makes him different, not broken or sick. He will live a happy and full life, we just don’t know or understand the details yet.

12) Where do you go for support? Who provides the most support?

Again, BACH has been the greatest support by far and all the people there from OTs, volunteers etc., Mendy, Dana, Monica, Dee … everyone has been wonderful. Since Rowan moved to his new school the support there has been great too. They do a wonderful job keeping us informed and involved. But closer to home, my grandmother is invaluable in her encouragement and soothing presence with both the boys and us.

13) How do you feel about your child’s current level of functioning?

He is not where he should be, but I fear I have handicapped him by allowing him to lean on us when he could do many things with more prompting and support. I have allowed him to be babied and I have to stop. Right now he still is not spontaneously communicating very much and is not potty trained, those are things I want to work with him on. We are working on telling people with a prompt his name and age. I also what to work more on his self help skills like dressing, brushing teeth, using utensils, blowing his nose.

14) Describe a vivid memory or experience with your child that other parents of children with autism could relate to.

Where to begin there are so many. As a baby Rowan hated the car seat so much that he screamed and cried himself into hysterics each and every time we put him into it, well past the age a baby should out grow it … like 6+ months. We got use to it; there was little we could do about it. But of course we had a nosy neighbor who made it her business to question me about him. I’ll never forget her accusing tone when she asked me if he was OK, really OK? As if I had done something to him to cause the cries every time we walked to the car.

Also as a baby he hated baths, as some do when they are infants. But he didn’t out grow it; it only seemed to get worse as he got older. Feeling like a bad mom I would let more and more time pass between baths because I just couldn’t take the hysterics that were involved in trying to clean him. Even at 1-½ years old it took literally one person to hold him somewhat still and anther to try to clean him as quickly as possible. It was awful, the tears, sobs, heavy breathing and the look of desperation, betrayal, terror as if we were actually hurting him. I’ll never forget that as long as I live. To work him through it we tried at different times different things. Once I took him with both of us in bathing suits to sit in the tub with only a few inches of water. We lasted maybe 15 minutes before I gave up because he was so upset. We had a couple of moments that were OK, but it he wasn’t ready yet. Both John and I tried that a few times, till one day John took him and stayed in the bath for like an hour or more till Rowan really began to enjoy it. He was around 18 months old and that was our first really big break through, and our biggest to this day. Back them we didn’t even have a clue he was autistic. Now he loves water and baths, though we have had water issues we still had to work through, like water in the face and pools. He still has some issues regarding water, but nothing we can’t handle with time.

In essence Rowan being autistic doesn’t really change much for us, any more than my being a vegetarian does. He is still the same boy he was before we had a diagnosis, and it just fits into our life. I’m not trying to downplay its significance, but I feel like it’s a handicap only if you let it and are too negative about it. Just like anything you can’t let it eat you alive. I try to let him and everyone around him know that he is normal, different in some ways, but normal. I mean what the hell is normal? Its what ever you think it is, so is he. I want him to know that he has to learn some things that are hard for him, but there will always be things that are hard no matter who you are.

X-posted in thelittleelephantintheroom.wordpress.com

X-posted in ididntstartouttired.wordpress.com

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to school we go ....

2007-08-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

So the day has finally come that both of my babies, oops I mean, big boys are in honest to god real school. Of course I approach this with a bit of mixed feelings. Momentarily wishing that they were both still my cuddly babies, and part of me so proud of how mature and grown up they are.

Rowan is beginning his 2nd year of PPCD at his old school, and Aidan is starting PreK at his new school by our house. Now that they are both in they same ISD, I can begin to think about volunteering and PTA stuff. I hope that this year is a good one where they make lots of friends and develop, or I should say retain a love school and learning. I'm not worried about them making a good impression, Rowan's teachers already know and care for him, and Aidan is as always irresistible.

We took a few pictures, but they will have to wait till we have they developed since our last digital camera died on St Patty's day this year. I decided to take a 1/2 day off today so I could be with them on their 1st day of school. So now I am just waiting for 11 when they get out of school to pick them up.

Now our days will work like this ... 6.30 wake up, 6.45 wake kids, 6.50 breakfast, 7 dress, 7.15 leave the house, 7.30 drop Aidan off, 7.45 drop Rowan off, by sometime before 9 Mamma will drop me off. Then 10.45 pick up Aidan, 11 pick up Rowan, go home eat lunch, 4 leave to pick me up at work, 5 pick me up, 6.30 start dinner, eat by 7, play till 8, 8.15 bath time, 8.30-8.45 story & bed time. That is the most routine I have had in years !

Xposted at The little elephant in the room

We finally got the boys' hair cut ...

2007-03-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

We're pretty bad about little things like this. We had been putting off getting their hair cut for awhile and then the other day I was going through the pics on my phone and I came across shots from their last haircut.

Those pics were taken on September 30, 2006

Well... better late than never!!

Rowan News

2006-10-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

This will be a short post seeing how it nearly 3 am and I should have been in bed ages ago.

Last night (meaning Monday night) we went to a Parent Support Group/Child play group for kids on the spectrum (asburgers, autisic, pdd). It was a little intimidating but not overwhelmingly so (at least not for me - my grandma on the other hand I think got a little freaked out). But Rowan has a blast at the center for sensory play. They meet once a month covering a variety of topics. I'll be going back, but next time I think I'll take John & leave Mama at home. I don't think she's up for it.

Today (meaning Tues) we had double ECI appointments. The first was a sensory evaluation with the ECI Registered Occupational therapist. It went very well - it seems as though we are doing much of what he needs because of the great guidance we have gotten from his weekly meetings with Mrs.D. She tells us he is what they call a "mover", a kid who needs lots of deep pressure and movement therapy so we are going to start next week with a bi-monthly sessions at the Angleton ECI Sensory Clinic. I know that this is going to be a great thing for Rowan, since he just loves the stuff we have been doing so far. Its like he's saying YES- this is what I have been craving. One thing we'll be working on is his adversion to the forward swinging motions.

Well it really is past 3 now so I'll go -- signing out now for posterity, and before John wakes up and kills me for being on the computer so late ............

Aidans birthday

2006-09-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

By now he's so spoiled I dont know how christmas is going to top this! Will updtae soon with party pics

Rowan Update

2006-09-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

We started seeing an ECI therapist about 2 months ago. Ms.D is wonderful; Rowan took to her almost immediately, which is very unusual for him. We only have 6 months in the program so we are getting 45 minutes once a week. We set our goals, which are basically improving communication, and work on his sensory issues. We still do not have him diagnosed "autistic" but those we have talked to via ECI say that he shows strong autistic tendancies and he was admitted to the program because of "atypical behaviors" and under developed speech issues, as well as being all over the board developmentally (both above and below his age group). I'm still on the fence about seeking a medical diagnosis for him. Right now I think we are doing as much as we can, and I don’t see how a diagnosis would change anything currently. I don’t want it to hurt him later in life, and I guess we will cross that bridge if it becomes necessary.

I've learned a lot since we started this and I can feel Rowan & I growing closer everyday. We are doing deep pressure techniques and it is helping him clam down, and has reduced a lot of his stimming. He is bringing to do a lot more interactive play now, and one of the things we do is this thing where I make him hug himself and I say "I love Rowan". This weekend as I did it he turned his head back to look at me and said "I love Mommy" just like I had said the words. I absolutely melted!

Some other areas where he has improved are he now has begun demanding his share of attention. He has a brother 16 months older and when ever we were playing with Rowan and his brother and interrupted Rowan use to just walk away. Even though we tried to make him stay and interact he just wouldn’t compete with his brother. Now he gets mad and grunts! A rude awakening for big bro!

We are doing a brushing sensory technique that’s been helping too. Now he will actually bring me the brush and grin.

Ms.D has recommended trying out a gluten free/ casein free diet and seeing if it helps. We are going to try it, but it’s gonna be hard, if there are two things my family loves its bread and dairy. We already have a strange diet because I am a vegetarian (but no one else in my family is). Wish me luck, it's gonna be hard to cut it out!

I am so grateful to Ms.D & this Autism message board. Both have taught me to see so much that I was missing, and because I can see it now, I can help him now. While we are far from working miracles or anything, Rowan is already blooming.

Rowan, The Roller

2006-09-19T22:16:00.000-07:00


I just found this! Somewhere around the age 6-8 months Rowan decided to be a roller, not a crawler. That's my boy, always gotta be diffrent!

Learning to see

2006-08-31T00:02:00.000-07:00

I should be sleeping, but I just got Rowan back in bed. He had a night terror, you know the ones like nightmares except they don't wake up from them. I hate those because its hard to soothe when they really aren’t even with you, and if you try to truly wake him, it makes it worst. Sometime because his eyes might be open you might think he's are awake and just scared, but he's not. He cries and cough that scared crying hiccupy cough, and I'll think that he just has a dry throat, but then I get him water and he doesn't see it, pushes it away, doesn't want it. So I hold him, he struggles at first, but soon he settles down and we rock. 5-10 minutes later he's relaxed under my cheek his breathing is clam and normal again, and I am left just thinking.

John has blogged a little about our realization of the uniqueness of Rowan, I have so much to say but I always seem to put it off to another day, sometimes today seems hard enough with out adding to it. Yester day (Tuesday) was our first “session”, I guess you’d call it, with Ms.D the child development therapist from ECI. Our session are 45 minutes a week, 4 times a month, which is the max the program will allow. I don’t know if we are getting the max because they think he really needs it, or because we only have 6 months before he graduates out. Either way I’m glad and appreciate the time we will get. From the first time he met D he warmed up to her. He does that with a select few people, so I am glad she was chosen for us. Already I am learning to see so much I guess I was blind to before. All these signs that things were not “normal” that I had just attributed to personality. He had sensory issues that had I know what I was looking at I might have seen even as an infant. I feel so fucking stupid to have missed it and I just keep replaying all the things that caught me as odd when he was a baby and realizing I should have brought it up to his doctor. I just didn’t know, and I thought, well different child different likes & dislikes. The stimming is a sign that he is overwhelmed, scared or frustrated. How could I not see that? I just thought he was being a goofy kid, examining his hands, jumping around. Sure he was different, but I didn’t see that he was needing something. My brave little man, so self reliant. I just want to come home one day and have him tell me “Mommy I love you, hold me” or even just “pick me up"

Technorati Tags: autism

My Incredible Family

2006-08-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

I just got done watching The Incredibles for the gazillionth time and it was successful in making me miss my wonderful family even more.

I don't know if there's anyone out there that has not seen this excellent film but if not, don't waste anytime. Go rent it now.

Walking out of the theater we immediately drew comparisons between the baby, Jack Jack and Rowan. Even at that early stage we knew there was something special about him. He has so many talents yet at the same time doesn't exactly fit in with other children.

I guess we should feel blessed that he doesn't randomly burst into flames everytime he sneezes!

Our own little Jack Jack: Ro Ro

And at Jack Jack's age:

Aut TV

2006-08-15T23:37:00.000-07:00

The folks over at Aspies for Freedom have a webchannel for people and families coping with autism.

All programs are created by children and adults who have been diagnosed with autism and wish to "strengthen autism rights, oppose all forms of discrimination against aspies and auties, and work to bring the community together both online and offline."

Aut TV

Also:

Mozart and the Whale is a recent film starring Josh Hartnett and Radha Mitchell about two adults with Aspergers Syndrome falling in love.
It is written by Ronald Bass: co-writer to the Academy Award winning Rain Main, and directed by the Norwegian Peter Naess whose film Elling was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Click here to preview a few clips.

Autism Speaks

2006-08-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

Autism Speaks has a heartbreaking short documentary about the difficulties in raising a child with autism entitled: Autism Every Day.

I highly recommend taking 13 minutes of your time to see how the other half lives.

Small | Medium | Large

Hopefully Rowan is not as severe as some of these unfortunate children are. We haven't even had him diagnosed. Our appointment is at 3PM on Tuesday August 22. Please keep him your prayers and wish him luck!

Random Pics Of My Ro Ro

2006-07-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

Strike A Pose!

Gotcha!!

Ever since the baby gate came down Rowan thinks he needs to be in my bed every morning ... but I guess thats better than beingin my bathroom every morning, which he tried for awhile! ;)

Meet The Camera Hog

2006-06-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

Potty Party

2006-06-06T00:43:00.000-07:00

june 051
Originally uploaded by javaverses.

Its offical ... Aidan is potty trained, more details (and pictures) to follow soon!

2006-02-18T14:14:00.000-08:00

We finally got the boys haircuts last weekend.

Aidan before:

And after:

(Both pics are taken with my phone so sorry about the quality)

Brandy's comment afterwards was, "Aidan's head looks smaller and Rowan's head looks bigger." Now, I never thought I could imagine Rowan with a bigger head but I'd have to agree with her.

Here's them falling asleep at the dinner table the next night:

Rowan was actually eating in his sleep in this shot. Hilarious ;)

Chalk for the new year ..

2006-01-02T13:41:00.000-08:00

So Rowan has discovered the great joys of chalk tasting.

He tells me that the white is the best by far!

Aidan announces his intentions to wed.

2005-11-15T05:20:00.000-08:00

Aidan & Hailen's Playdate

Dispite the date in the picture, these were actually taken by John, November 13, 2005 .

So after Hailen & her daddy, Tony, left Aidan informed me that she was going to be a Mommy and he was going to be the Daddy. --- Hummm, I thought, aren't we a little premature with this convesation?

Potty Training

2005-11-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

We are potty training Aidan in ernest today! I bought a little timer and he has to try to go every 30 minutes, so far he has gone every time he has tried. We got a dry erase board to chart his progress, writing down the time, what he did, and when he has accidents. We are using Halloween candy as rewards. Damn it he will be potty trained by the end of this month I swear!

Halloween 2005

2005-11-01T17:52:00.000-08:00

Why does Houston Halloweens always seem to be rainy? What ever happened to a dry crispy fall?

Anyways Aidan went as Darth Vader & poor Rowan was I guess best described as the Funky Bird Not A Chicken. He hated the hood (typical of his age, and the hood was heavy for a not quite 2 year old) and Aidan tired of the mask quickly. We got a late start because of the rain. It was 8 o’clock before we got to the 1st house. We went to the neighborhood behind Coffee O, like we have or the last 2 years. There is this one cul de sac street that gets really decked out. 3 Haunted garages, and lots of houses with decorations. It was fun. Rowan actually walked the entire time! He was so cute. He wanted to go inside every house and touch all things shiny! Aidan had an impromptu fight against his son – Luke Skywalker – funny thing is Luke looked older. We got home and I don’t think we had any trick or treaters, because our candy bowl was still brimming! Looks like well have a sugar high for weeks now! I’ll edit this with pick as soon as I get them developed! --- Ok here's the edit with pics!

Aidan's 1st Audioblog

2005-08-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

So recently, I have decided to get Aidan involved in his blog. So as a treat today I let him record his 1st Audioblog. So check it out!

The Original Super Baby!

2005-08-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Just a little faster and I'll be flying!

Smiling Boy

2005-08-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

Smiling Boy
Originally uploaded by javaverses.

Aidan wanted to post a picture this morning and picked out this. He's so cute!

2005-06-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

My little blue eyed cutie!

Why birthday presents of course!

2005-01-31T01:55:00.000-08:00

Why birthday presents of course!

2005-01-31T01:53:00.000-08:00

What could be better than birthday cake?

Rowans Cake

2005-01-31T01:49:00.000-08:00

Rowans Cake . . . it started out a bear . . . and ended up looking more like a creepy red demon with blue eyes!

2005-01-31T00:45:00.000-08:00

Cake

2005-01-31T00:42:00.000-08:00

No! this is how you eat it!

2005-01-31T00:40:00.000-08:00

Mmmmmmmmm Birthday Cake!

2005-01-17T22:55:00.000-08:00

Rowan in my arms . . .I just found this picture. It's a rarity because he rarely sleeps in anyones arms, not only is he a very lite sleeper, he also preferes his belly with his bear and a blanket. It was a while back, about Septmber, he was 8 months old..

2005-01-17T22:47:00.000-08:00

Rowan dances to his own maraca.

2005-01-17T22:44:00.000-08:00

Aidan decided tonight he wanted to sleep with his toy box.

2004-12-26T16:33:00.001-08:00

still a little snow left for Xmas!

2004-12-26T16:33:00.000-08:00

Rowan and the Sesame Street gang

2004-12-26T16:32:00.001-08:00

Blue at the wheel

2004-12-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

christmas tree

Merry Christmas

2004-12-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

We recieved about two inches of snow on Christmas Eve and seeing how this was Rowan's first Christmas, he'll probably expect it every year from now on. ;)

Brandy loved it so much that she told everyone that we were moving. Maybe it won't be so hard to convince her five years down the road now.

Aidan sensed the magic in the air as well. Every time he'd step outside he'd exclaim, "It's snowing! Daddy, it's snowing!" Hopefully it won't be the last time he experiences snow in his childhood.

The children loved their toys, (However Aidan sure liked everything Rowan got as well) and they ate a lion's share of candy. This was the first Christmas that Aidan understood what was going on, so it was much funner in that aspect. Rowan is still too young to get the idea. He wasn't too interested into opening presents. (Aidan was more than willing to oblige and open them for him) I hope his attitude changes a bit in the next month so he can enjoy opening his first birthday gifts but I'm not counting on it. ;)

2004-11-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

Rowan at the wheel

2004-11-18T19:26:00.001-08:00

the human jungle gym

2004-11-18T19:26:00.000-08:00

getting the hang of it!

2004-11-12T23:44:00.000-08:00

See the mischief their making now!

2004-11-12T23:43:00.000-08:00

Rowan 2 days old - January 2004

2004-11-12T23:40:00.000-08:00

Aidan's Aura - He was less than a week old - Sept 2002