Our First Camping Trip....

So, the Sheidy family got it's first camping trip under their belt this past weekend. And I have to say that it was totally fun! We took our pop-up camper out of the yard Saturday for the first time since we bought it last spring. We can finally say we've had the opportunity to actually sleep in it OURSELVES. Sam and Gabby had a blast as did Adam and I. We were invited to go camping with my sister-in-law Kim and her friend Michael and his family on his uncle's property up near Montague, MA. Sam fell asleep in the truck on the way up, so we had the opportunity to get all set up without any distractions. When he woke up, I swear the child was saying to himself..."Where the heck am I?" After some persuasion, we got him out of the truck and he was on his way to play without any hesitation. There were lots of kids there for Sam and Gabby to play with including their cousins Logan and Harrison, and we had no problems, meltdowns, etc. We all sat around the large campfire Saturday night socializing with one another. Michael's family is an amazing family. They had a whole turkey roasting over the open fire with lots of other great food for dinner Saturday night. And for breakfast, we were all treated to eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, corned beef hash and pancakes. To top it off at breakfast, we were easily relaxed by the music being played by a few of the guys that brought their guitars with them. I swear one of them sounded just like Tom Petty. It was incredible! Gabby had been saying the week prior to going that she was going to sleep in the tent with other kids, and she tried...but, she made it in there for about 5 minutes and she was crying for me. So, Adam and I brought her and Sam to the camper for a cold, but great nights sleep. We packed up our little camper and left after noon time and headed back for home...me being teary eyed. It brought back alot of childhood memories for me of all the camping trips my Mom & Dad took us on... and even in my later years when my parents were seasonal campers and we would all go and "hang out" at the campground with them. Boy, I miss them and those fun times we all had. Our trip this past weekend was a complete success and even though I was worried about not having electric or water hookups, we managed alright thanks to Bath in a Box and Noxema Facial Wipes...porta potty too! I wasn't sure how Sam was going to handle all this, but he did great! Better than I could have ever expected. I can't wait to take our little family on another camping trip very soon.

The Shirts are In!!!

Sam's May Review at Coltsville

How time flies....Just returned from another one of Sam's reviews at school. He's learned so much more since the last one in April. He's been working hard on play scripts where he's timed doing pretend play. Today he made pretend he was at Red Robin (go figure...that's his favorite restaurant) and they had a mock menu and playfood. His teacher was the waitress and asked him what he wanted to eat from the menu and he chose a hamburger and french fries. While he waited for his food to arrive, he kept himself busy with lego's. After the play script, they moved on to noun id's and he was given a book with a bunch of different objects. The teacher asked him to point to various items and he got all but one right. The one he got wrong was the ship. I'm sure if she asked him to point to the boat he would have gotten it right. He'll get it next time! They are working on his speech...trying to clarify his words. He still isn't pronouncing some letters in the alphabet, but his language is getting so much better. He also sat in the language group today and Gabby's class was there too. He was such a little chatter box! They sang a song and he sang the song so loud that it made me laugh! They chart and graph EVERYTHING at his school and I was shown his behavior chart, which noted that he's been pretty whiney lately. They think it's because he's making so much progress so fast that he could be somewhat overwhelmed. All in all, it was a great review and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Samuel's Journey.......

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Since it's Saturday... and now the end of the week, I thought I would give everyone a summary of how Sam's week went. We've had some highs and lows, but the fact remains...Sam continues to make progress everyday. He is talking up a storm and is speaking so clearly. He's even starting to put 3 and 4 words together to make sentences. Some highlights of the highs in Sam's life this week is that the Sheidy house will have a new fenced-in backyard in 2 weeks to keep Sam and Gabby safe. Mom and Dad will be able to enjoy the deck that we haven't been able to use really since we bought the house over 2 1/2 years ago. The cost of the fence is being funded through a Grant we received through DDS (otherwise known as the Dept. of Mental Retardation). We've also pretty much finalized the Walk for Autism T-Shirts for Sam. We were down to the wire this week on getting the images that my nephews girlfriend Kelly designed complete and getting quotes from various printers. We had gotten quotes as low as $500.00 and as high as $900.00+ for 50 shirts to be printed! Obviously, we chose the printer that quoted us $500.00. And thanks to the wonderful people that Mom works for at Nature's Grocer, Sam has a sponsor and we have received an extremely generous donation from Bob & Sue Spector whom will be helping us out with the cost of the shirts. I am proud to have the Nature's Grocer logo displayed on Sam's shirts. If any of you get a chance, stop by the store and say hello to Bob & Sue and check out the store. Mom loves being there! Now I don't want to make anyone sad with Sam's low of the week, but I do want to share an experience we had at Buckland Hills Mall on Wednesday night. I took the twins to the mall to get out of the house while Adam was working in the garage. After a little shopping, the kids wanted to play in the play area there, which we have done so many times before. They were having a blast......until.......a rough looking young family came in with their 3 kids. The oldest boy being maybe 13, the daughter being around 8 and the youngest boy 4 or 5 years old. As I was checking my voicemail, I heard a commotion and looked up to see Sam getting punched by the youngest boy. I've never in my life seen so much anger in a childs face than what I saw in that little boys face. As this was happening to Sam, I could see something in my Sam that made my heart break and opened my eyes to this whole Autism thing. Sam was standing there smiling at this boy who was hurting him...he was smiling. The parents of the young boy did not discipline their child, but instead stopped him from hurting Sam and hugged their boy. I grabbed Sam and Gabby and pulled them out of there and found a place in the corner and held him and cried. It was awful. This all happened because Sam wanted to play in the Telescope Cut-Out area with him and the boy didn't want him there so he started swinging. As I held Sam, I looked at him and told him that he has such goodness in him to still want to be with a person who hurts others. I told him that he is such a good boy. I've heard and read that children with Autism don't know what emotions are. They don't understand what happy, sad and angry is. I know that when I have cried, Sam has laughed at me. That's okay though, cause he ends up putting a smile on my face when he does that. In a funny sort of way, I'm thankful that Sam doesn't know how bad this world can be...he doesn't understand right now. Someday he will...I just know it.