I’ve been sharing with you over the last few weeks about Disney Social Media Moms Celebration 2012.  Thank you first of all for allowing me share it with you. It was an amazing time from beginning to end.  I listened to speakers talk about going outside our comfort zone and how nothing exciting happens within it.  I heard speakers talk about facing our fears.  We hear all the words but do we take action on them? Sometimes we do, at other times we hear it, think to ourselves “yes, I need to do this” then we stay in our comfort zone and don’t do a thing.

But do you know what drove this point home for me? It wasn’t the speakers, it was was something totally unexpected. It was my son.  I saw him face his fears and the challenge he set for himself.  No he didn’t take on the thrill rides, he didn’t go on the scary rides or roller coasters.  It was much more subtle but amazing and poignant for me none the less.

At Magic Kingdom there is island called “Tom Sawyer Island” and so we took the ferry over to it to take a look and walk around.  There was a mine which was narrow and dark and this with it’s slight echo was trying for my Buggy but there was no going back and so he continued on.  Then as we walked further we noticed a barrel bridge.  It was wobbly and unsteady.  Daddy and sister immediately headed over.  Sister will try just about anything that girl.

Buggy and I stayed on the land by it and watched.  As a few others went behind Daddy and sister somewhere inside Buggy he made the decision to give it a try.  “Mommy, I want to go across. Just hold me.” I asked if he was sure and he said yes and started out. So we walked along the bridge slowly but surely and when he got to the end he looked back at me with the biggest smile and excitedly said, “I did it mom! I did it!”  He sure did. We celebrated as I tried to hold back tears. A fear faced, a challenge won!  Buggy 1 – fear 0

I thought this was it and we were both so proud then he surprised me and said, “mom I want to do it again but this time don’t hold me” again I asked if he was sure. Of course he said “yes, come with me but don’t hold me”.  So I quickly called over to my husband and told him to pull out the video camera, Buggy was going to do this on his own and I don’t want to miss it.  YES!  He did it! He got all the way across this barrel bridge on his own!  Buggy 2 – fear 0

He found the strength and courage to do what I’d heard. Step out of your comfort zone. He put it out there for me to see and learn from.  If my son can do it so can I. He has always been my inspiration and again he has proven why.

I paid a fee to attend the Social Media Moms Celebration at Walt Disney World. As an attendee I received discounted rates and additional perks enhancing the magical Disney experience. I was not asked to blog about my experience. As always all thoughts in this post are my own.

© 2012, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

It hit me like a ton of bricks when Bug handed me a pink sheet of paper from his backpack.  I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know it would be this soon. What was that pink paper? It was the sheet asking what elective Bug wanted to take next year in “Middle School”.

He quickly narrowed it down to his top three choices: art, beginning band and choir. Art used to be my thing so it did make my heart joyful to know that’s what he wants although any of his choices because they are what he wants to do would have made my heart joyful.

How did middle school creep up on us so fast?  It seems like just yesterday I was holding my first baby in my arms and rocking him to sleep, cuddling him and kissing his tiny hands and feet taking in that wonderful baby scent.

I’m scared of this. I’m not ready for him to go to middle school. I don’t think emotionally he’s ready for this.

What if he doesn’t get one of his choices?  What if he ends up in math lab and doesn’t even get the opportunity to take an elective.  What if kids take advantage of him?  What if they make fun of him for putting his hands over his ears ’cause he just can’t take the sounds? What if he cries when he becomes overwhelmed? What if, what if, what if?

It’s starting all over again. Can you feel my panic?  Just writing this I am feeling the panic once again. Can’t we just go back to when he was just my baby boy? When I could keep him safe from everything around him? If only I could, I would.

I must remind myself, he’s come such a long way.  But when I look at him I still see that very innocent, sweet baby boy of mine. Once again I feel myself in an unfamiliar area of life. What will this hold out for us all?

© 2012, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

As you may or may not know we have gluten intolerance in my family.  We’ve done the gluten free diet for some time but for some reason we just weren’t getting the results we were looking for.  Little did we know it was more than gluten that was causing an issue.

More testing resulted in more information and insight into what may be the problem.  Cross reactive food!  Yes, it wasn’t just the gluten in foods that were causing an issue.  It was some of the other ingredients in foods marked Gluten Free.  Allergies abound

Instead of using wheat in foods due to the gluten many companies use tapioca as a replacement.  Yep, you guessed it. We are intolerant/allergic to tapioca.  And sesame too. So all those gluten free foods we thought we could eat. Nope we can’t anymore.  This is really limiting our food options or maybe a better way to put it is that it is forcing us to think outside our typical food choices and try new ones.  I guess it all just depends on how you want to look at it.

So now I am on the hunt again for gluten free food that DO NOT contain tapioca as a replacement for wheat.  Here’s where I need your help.  If you have any recipes and I mean easy ones cause I am just not a good cook, could you share them with me. Or if you know of a gluten free website with simple dishes without a hundred different ingredients I’d love it if you could share it with me. It would be such a help.

© 2012, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

With my first child, I, like so many new parents probably didn’t know what questions to ask the pediatrician.

This is where I feel my child fell through the cracks.  You see my son wasn’t diagnosed with Autism until he was almost six years old, beyond the “early intervention” age.

It makes me mad that he wasn’t diagnosed earlier for many reasons. I’ve been frustrated at the doctors who saw him and didn’t catch it but I’ve also been mad at myself for not asking the right questions, not knowing what to look for.

With my second child, at one of her well-child visits the doctor had her demonstrate various tasks.  This surprised me alot as no one had done this with my first.

She was asked to jump up and down, jump from one tile to the next, walk a few steps, etc. to show the doctor her gross motor skills. She was asked to copy a smilie face the doctor had drawn on a piece of paper so the doctor could see her fine motor skills and ability to hold objects within her fingers.

Why was this never done for my son? No one ever asked him to perform any task like this including me.

In order to ask the right questions, we need to know where our child should be and at what age they should reach these goals and not just the typical goals that get asked about such as first time they stood up, or ate baby food or waved bye-bye or first word.  We have to look beyond that and make sure your pediatrican looks beyond those typical questions into these developmental areas as well:

Social/emotional
Speech and language
Cognitive/General knowledge
Gross Motor
Fine Motor
Self-Help skills

Sometimes we are so wrapped up in the usual big milestones like first tooth, first word or first steps that we tend to overlook other milestones that we need be aware of as well. And take note of each of these. I know that’s a lot to ask while your hands are full with caring for your baby but after doctor vists after doctor visit you get asked those same questions over and over and over again, it’s wonderful to be able to provide as full a picture of your child’s development as you can.

Had I know what to look for earlier, I would have known before age five and a half how my son was struggling and why.

© 2012, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

As I was cleaning out my desk drawers over the weekend, yes, it has been much too long since I cleaned out my file, what I found really took me back.  I came across a folder full of information we were given when Bug was first diagnosed with Autism.  I remember feeling so overwhelmed. There was so much information and this was but the tip of the iceberg.

The list of signs I missed. The indicators I should have caught but just didn’t see or maybe I just didn’t want to see them.  I kept reading the packet and as much as I didn’t want to see it, I couldn’t really deny it.  It wouldn’t have been fair to just close my eyes to it.  That wouldn’t help my son.  As much as I wanted to tell myself it wasn’t true, it was time to face the facts.  It answered so many questions and brought up many millions more. As scary as the possibility might be if you see these signs or someone suggests to you that you might want to get your child tested and as hard as it is not to getdefensive, take a close, honest look at what could be potential signs and find out.  It  may very well not be Autism but isn’t that beautiful child of yours worth the effort to find out? To even just inquire about with his/her pediatrician?  Of course he/she is.

These are just possible indicators.  I am not a doctor so don’t take these as facts just as what they are possible indicators that may be a red flag to you as a parent:

*Lack of speech or impaired speech
*Lack of eye contact
* Doesn’t respond when called by name
* Doesn’t like to cuddle
* Extreme distress for no discernible reason
* Spins objects
* Plays next to children not with them
* Has no imaginative play
* Echolalic speech (recites lines from t.v., etc)
* No fear of real danger
* Can’t carry on a conversation like peers his age

These were just a few of the things we noticed with Bug.

© 2012, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

I’m always on the lookout for autism related websites, organizations, groups, you name it.  Can never have too much information or support right? As I was looking over the site I hit upon their blog and their recent blog post titles caught my attention. They covered everything from clay to rewards including teaching your child to understand emotions, life skills – how to teach your child to wash his hands properly  (we are still working on that one), how to use picture cue cards to read and even what the best dog for your child with autism is.

They cover the different types of Autism (in case you are wondering what the differences are) including:

• Asperger Disorder
• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
• Classic Autism
• Pervasive Developmental Disorder
• Retts Syndrome

As well as provide information on Attention Deficit Disorder, how Autism is diagnosed, what high functioning, mild and severe Autism are, motor and sensory disorders and sensory processing disorder (as many children with Autism also have these disorders).  So much information for all those questions you’ve got.

• What causes it?
• What are the facts?
• What do you do after you get a diagnosis of Autism?
• And so many more questions.

First and foremost you need to surround yourself with others who understand what you’re going through, who can relate to what you are feeling and can help you find and understand the answers to all your questions. A community of support for those of us raising and loving our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, cousins or friends with Autism and bringing Autism awareness to the world, that’s AutismUnited.org.  Find them on facebook and join them http://www.facebook.com/theautismunited

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post but as you know, bringing Autism awareness to the front is very important to me and my family as Autism is a part of our lives as well.

© 2012, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

Since our first venture into gluten free living we’ve tried lots and lots of different brands.  One of the hardest things to find a replacement for are breads.  This of course would include muffins, bagels, sandwich bread which tend to be a staple in every home.  After brand after brand and $ and $ being wasted as we’d try something and then not like it or it was just too hard we were about ready to give up on any type of “bread” products.  Then we came across Udi’s Gluten Free products.

We couldn’t believe it! It was soft and tasty.  We could have muffins and bagels again!  In fact, we received a package from Udi’s containing just that bagels and muffins: (our kit included)

Plain bagels, which my son promptly devoured.

Cinnamon Raisin bagels, which I had for breakfast a few times during the past few days.

Lemon Strusel Muffins, which my husband really enjoyed and he’s a bit of a picky eater when it comes to bread products.

and Double Chocolate muffins, my daughter thoroughly enjoyed eating. That was a big feat as picky an eater as she is.

Something for everyone in the family, now that in itself is awesome to me.  ‘Cause trust me getting everyone to eat the same thing/brand is a rarity in my house especially with my littlest one who is not a big fan of gluten free foods.

It’s so nice to have options for breakfast foods other than eggs and/or ceral.

And their foods don’t just stop at breakfast. Their food line includes:  hamburger and hot dog buns, sandwich bread, muffins and cinnamon rolls, granola, cookies and even pizza crusts.

I think we’ve found our gluten free “bread” brand!

Disclosure: I did receive a VIP package from Udi’s for this review free of charge. No other compensation took place. All opinions are my own.

© 2011, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.

This morning, like every morning I drive to take Buggy and Princess to school.  And like every morning before they get out of the car and start their school day, I give them each a hug and big kiss and I get a big hug and kisses from them too along with a “bye mom” or “see ya later mom”.  Princess always and I mean ALWAYS looks back and blows me a kiss and I of course return the blown kiss.  It’s a memory I’ll always cherish. What a wonderful way to start my day huh?  It is, it really is.  Buggy gets out as he returns he teacher’s “Good Morning, how are you today?” with a “good morning, I’m doing good today”.

But as I was driving off today, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like a flood of memories all of a sudden. It wasn’t always like this.  Princess always gave me a kiss and has blown kisses at me every school day since her first day of kindergarten but Buggy no, things have changed.

It must have been the first two or three years of school that he would just climb out of the car.  He wouldn’t return my efforts to say goodbye  though I continued to try everyday as well as wish him a good day at school. He didn’t kiss me in the mornings after I’d give him a kiss.  He wouldn’t respond or even acknowledge a teacher’s greetings.  It was as though he didn’t even hear it. He’d walk right into the school without so much as a glance back.  All part of this thing called autism. I remember driving off in the car and crying, just wishing for “goodbye mom” or a glance or blown kiss but it didn’t happen. Not for so many school days.

Wow, that seems so long ago now.  He’s changed so much. He’s so social now. He won’t get out of the car if he hasn’t given me my morning kiss or at the very least blown me a kiss and say “kisses” if he’s being rushed out of the car by the school staff.  If we’ve had a rough morning and he gets out of the car still upset at me, I’ll still wish him a good day and tell him I love him. Sometimes he won’t respond but by the time I get back to the house I always get a phone call from his teacher and she puts him on the phone. He’s usually so upset that he didn’t tell me goodbye that he feels bad and needs to call and tell me.  I reassure him once again I love him and as soon as he sees me later that day, I usually get another apology, the biggest hug and kisses.

As emotional as those flashbacks can be, they are good reminders of growth. He’s feeling those emotions he didn’t feel before. He’s getting those connections.  It’s just simply amazing to see how much he’s grown physically, mentally, emotionally.

© 2011, Nanette Gomez. All rights reserved.