...Food....glorious food.......

Those of you with children on the spectrum know how testing it is to get your kids to eat, let alone eat healthy. It does my friggen head in to be honest!

Mario has NEVER eaten fruit..nope...never. He's tried it, spewed and gone of his nut that bad that I never wanted to try it again. Don't sit there now and think, come one you didn't try hard enough...you have no idea how many tears, how many times I have yelled, begged and cried asking him to eat...Ive tried closing his nose so his mouth opens, bribery...its just doesn't work.

His eating habit's tend to stick to the 'white' foods...eg pasta - chicken - fish - cauliflower - potato - eggs - cheese. They need to be bland, not mixed together or with each other, no sauce. Nope just plain and boring. He did LOVE chocolate and when I asked our Pead about it he laughed and said it was quiet common as chocolate contains iron and its what he lacks due to his diet. Pentivite was bought and we had a little help for a while.

Another favourite was MacDonald's...I caved one day due to the screaming...you have no idea how much the screaming of a kid on the edge sounds....especially after 2 hours of it. You do ANYTHING to make it stop. I drove to MacDonald's and it was like a switch!!! BUT the problem I had then was that every time we drove past MacDonald's the screaming started again if we didn't get him his bloody fries!! Years ago my sister in law organised a birthday party at MacDonald's for her son...she helped us map out a way to it (2 hours drive) so we didn't have to drive past one...I loved her for ever for it.

Over the last few years we have welcomed broccoli into our diet, along with carrot (as long as its cut Julianne style) and the occasional corn on the cob.

3 weeks ago Mario decided he liked the look of the fettuccine carbonara I had made...and ate a bowl full...OMG I cant tell you how dame excited we were....he actually ate mushroom AND SAUCE..a HUGE step for us.

Tonight The J man and I were in tears. I had made the usual 2 different meals....yes I cook 2 different meals EVERY night for my family.....but tonight Mario asked for the cannelloni....had a taste and promptly ate 3 servings of it. Whilst eating it Mario asked what was in it, to which I told him everything and he came back with...wooo hooo I'm like Popeye now.
I honestly cant tell you how much I want to rain out into the street screaming that my boy is eating something he would have flipped out about 6 months ago...its such a high to be on after years of cooking him the same food over and over and having him detest new foods.
All I can say to those who are in the same boat, never give up...one day the light bulb will be changed and it might just light up ♥

Milk...moooo mooooo

Its been a flat out road last 6 weeks...so many things have blown over my head and yet here we are - June and I cant tell you why I sat in the doorway in the hall way and cried my eyes out last week let alone tell you what was for tea last night.

Tank has started swimming lessons....yay great...NOPE!
Mario was a water freak, LOVED it...so me being a clever dick thought she saw the same 'traits' forming in Tank and smartly booked in for swimming lessons for the little man..Second thought this clever dick concocted was that it might help Tank with his Cerebal Palsey as he has noticed that he was tripping more lately and getting frustrated and his body so the movement in the water would be fabulous for his muscles.....only problem was that I needed both for it to be effective for either.

Tank saw the water and clung to me like a tight wet t-shirt. He screamed when the swimming instructor took him out of my arms and up and down the pool. Click, light bulb moment, I signed to him ok and happy. Teacher looked at me and smiled...Tank settled. Used wait, finished and sit signs later on and the teacher asked me what they were so she could use them.

WOO HOO...bingo...tank started liking swimming as off last week :)

Yes, we sign to our guy's...its easier in a crowd were the words get swallowed up and eye contact hits the wrong person. Hand move, catch your eye and are so much louder in saying something then anything else on this planet.

Signing has become a third language in our house.

Its been our savour!

It can totally make your day....take for instance if I am making a milo for the amigo's I ask for someone to get the milk from the fridge and make the sign (which look's like your milking a cow)...not to long ago I got out of the shower and Tank was standing there, with the J man chatting.......and one look at my 'girls' and Tank starts saying mmmmmooooooooo (as in cow) and starts doing the 'milk' sign. He then did it out shopping at another mum breast feeding the next day.

Its funny yes, and cute...and your probably chuckling...

but for me I felt like jumping mountains, for me it was more then him doing the sign for milk and mooing....it was that my little man understood that milk comes from cow's...that we mum's give our babies milk. He understood fully that milk came from more then the fridge, something that a 'normal' child would know. It made the me forget about the screaming he had done for hours on end today, the hitting he placed upon me, the throwing of his toys at his siblings.......its all flew away, out the window, even now, thinking about how awesome that my son knows and has communicated it to me.

To often I feel like we forget the little stuff, we take so much for granted that we forget to take the time to enjoy watching cloud's move quickly, the joy of a breeze hitting a small child's face and how much our children really so take in what we say

♥ to you my little Tank..you totally inspire me to be a better mum every day, even when you scream no at me over and over for hours on end.....your smile and love makes it all fade away.

Id like to share this link with you all now.

http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/beware-mask-syndrome-autism-332341

Before you go judging a mum of a child for not being social and cutting her self off, have a read and you might realise its something bigger then they thought

with a sky full of sunshine and ♥ to you all