I’ve had a few of you comment asking where I was. We had a whirlwind spring break and I will write about it when I can actually stay awake.
A few blurbs though….
Bob’s Red Mill Homemade Wonderful Gluten Free Bread was a big hit. So much so that I will be investing in a bread machine to help make it easier. (Any recommendations?) J thought the bread was awesome, especially since we told him we were making it like the Little Red Hen, one of his favorite books. Cinnamon raisin from the same brand is next on the “to do” list.
We made the Pizza rice crust. Either I did it wrong or it wasn’t what I was expecting. Either way, J liked it. Little J, not so much. I will try again one more time and then consider moving on. I found some other recipes I could live with.
We hiked up Piccacho Peak on a moderate trail that is .7 miles each way. They boys led the whole way at a super fast pace. We had a great time and are planning more hikes in the future. J wore his “cactus shoes” proudly.
The boys stayed over night with my parents Friday without me and it was super successful. Do you know what this means? It means that this summer when my mom is off work, hubby and I can have a few weekends to ourselves. 😀
Had a planning meeting with my Assistant Organizers for my Special Needs Moms meetup. It went well and we have a plan for the next month. Met another mom from the group tonight and it was good. The boys all got a long well, when they weren’t ignoring eachother 😉
IEP meeting on Wednesday. This is my first real one. The one they did in November, well I didn’t know what to expect. And since it was just for Pre-K, I just went along with what they said. Sounded good to me. But now we are planning for real. His teacher mentioned last week that she was going to recommend a 60/40 split in favor of special-ed instead of mainstreaming like they mentioned in January. I am actually happy about this because I found out a few weeks ago that the K classes in our district are going to a 24:1 ratio. That would be an absolute disaster for J. That much I know. So wise mommies of the autism bloggy world. What kind of things should be in his IEP? Is there a website I should know about? Email me if you need to. KarameiaKS at netscape dot net.
Grace Under Autism 
Have you tried Bob’s Red Mill brownie mix? It is my absolute favorite, and people who aren’t GFCF can’t believe how wonderful (and better) it is compared to what they usually have. I even made it egg-free (used a replacement and extra baking powder with a little apple cider vinegar added. Just fab! I used this as a base for birthday cakes, cup cakes, drop cookies (no baking powder or vinegar added for the cookies) – really yummy.
Good luck with the IEP, this may or maynot help but the graphic is good!
http://www.svmoms.com/2007/10/draft-abcs-and-.html
I would tell you to consider buying the book From Emotions to Advocay by Pam and Pete Wright. You will use the book for as long as your kiddo is in school. It is excellent and helps you through IEPS, advocating and much more. Money well spent. Good luck!
The hike sounds wonderful. I am glad you are all doing well.
http://www.wrightslaw.com has some good stuff. You need to wade through all the stuff that you’ll hopefully never need, but it has some good basics. On the side there’s an autism section you can go to, and if you get through all the legal stuff, there’s some great links and such. It’s a good home base from which to start. Good luck!
I just want to get the word out. Try Houston Tri-Enzymes. It is three enzymes. One to digest gluetin, one to digest casein and one to help vitamins absorb. It is a God send. Because my son can take one of these and eat the things he loves. He doesn’t like that gluetin free bread. It lasts up to 3 hours. The Houston website also has each of these enzymes separately. So if you are doing gluetin but not casein you can choose your enzyme. It is about $48.00 a bottle. If you don’t use it with every meal it can last about 6-8 weeks. Now your child can go to birthday parties and have his cake too.
I don’t have any good advice for you about the IEP as I’m still trying to figure it out myself but I wanted to welcome you back and wish you luck with it.
Best wishes on the IEP, I have been through 3 of them so far and 1 meeting with the teacher, so they can be tough!! At first, the school diagnosed my son with depression, so I went out on my own to a ped. neurologist and finally got the diagnosis of PDD.