I sat Friday night for Sierra and Hayden. Sierra slept like the princess and the pea...again...and since she won't sleep alone I got little sleep...until I cleared the snot out of her nose...LOL...and of course Hayden kept me up until after midnight anyway and they were up at 6. :) So after Rachael picked them up I slept a few more hours at my brother's house, then picked up a little, and left.

The other day when I visited Micah's school I decided to eat there. I was the first in line and behind me was a woman with a boy, I'd say about 14 there. I noticed right away he was autistic. The woman was the aide. It was a little like a window into Hayden's future, though I think Hayden alreaady says a few more words than this boy. But the behavior of the boy was now so familiar to me that it didn't surprise me at all whatever he did, like reach out and pat my hair. "Hands," said the aide. "Remember, hands," she told the boy. I knew couldn't just tell the woman, "oh that's okay" because the woman has to teach the boy, but it didn't even feel strange at all to have this kid reaching out to grab my hair. It took me a few seconds to realize it wasn't exactly the norm.
Hayden's in a stage now where he likes light switches. At night he constantly goes about turning all the lights off. Sierra complains, "I can't see! I can't see!" so I turn them on again, Hayden turns them off...and likes to wander in the dark...
He is saying "hi" to his classmates at the autism treatment center. And "car". Every time he gets out of a car he likes to circle the car twenty or thirty times just oohing and ahhing the tires, the bumpers, just the whole concept of this awesome thing that moves.
Likes to line his toys up in a row- something I think I may have introduced him to when I lined up his cars in a row once- I had read somewhere that autistic kids love to line things up- well now he lines everything up- I'll put his cars in a row and then he'll put something else in the lineup, like once it was a food wrapper, or it could be one of Sierra's dolls, anything. Sierra then says, "That doesn't belong in the line! It's not a car!"
Sierra now has more princess tiaras, more princess dolls, more princess books, more princess everything, than possible- she's SO into princesses, I took her to some websites a couple of weeks ago to show her some real princesses (well, besides HERSELF, that is). I showed her pictures of, for example, Eugenie and Beatrice, and she's become a fan of those girls. I explained they are also normal girls "just like you, Sierra! They like to run and play and they go to school and do the same things you do!" That mesmerized her to think those girls were like HER and didn't live in the clouds or something. :) I showed her William and Harry, I said they are real princes, and she likes Harry a lot. I tried to find a few other royals...I found the Jordanian princesses, too--regal and gorgeous- they were a little older than the English ones so I think she related best to Fergie's girls. She wanted to see little girls. Sierra is so cute.
I will be a bit more involved in the care of my brother's kids for a little while, since my mom's being hospitalized for sciatica and now Dave has them all nights. His schedule changes constantly so sometimes he's busy going from coast to coast to coast daily, other times he's off for a week or more.
There is some research now that indicates autism may be related to some people retaining more mercury or lead in their brains, not releasing it into the bloodstream so it doesn't show up on standardized lead tests. Steve just did a research paper about lead testing and added that as well. Would chelation of some type help autism? I wonder. If it's true will the medical community at large ever come to face it...they're in denial about so much else.
Mom is in treatment for severe sciatica. Can barely move and is on a lot of cortisone and other pain meds. Was in pain management center today. They're going to decide if therapy's next or operation, or what. Sciatica ops are sometimes successful, sometimes not. Steroid treatment in the works, too.