The Killpack Clan

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

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Like Father Like Son

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Look at how much these two look alike. You can totally tell they are father and son. Love it!

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Easter "Egg"stravaganza

Easter found us in our new house ready to do some old traditions:

This was fun this year. Grant took part in it and enjoyed himself. He especially liked this egg that we wrote his name on:

Audrey, who like pink, her egg didn't turn out as dark, but we still had fun coloring all the eggs. Audrey really loves stickers, and decorating the eggs was great fun for her this year.

I love how proud of herself she is!

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For President's Day in February, James and I thought it would be fun to take the kids Vegas, for a short mini vacation. At this time, Grant and Audrey were both interested in Looney Tunes (Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island), so we thought it would be fun to see the Chuck Jones exhibit at Circus Circus.

Ummm...yeah. They were thrilled. Needless to say, it is geared toward adults and older kids. We did find this little guy for a photo op:

And this is about the most excited either one of them was to be in this place with a ton of Looney Tunes all around.

This also marks a milestone in Grant, in that he waited for Audrey to have her picture taken too, before moving on. Lots of great improvements with this kid!
Not much happening in the Chuck Jones exhibit, so we moved on and tried to forget the huge chunk of money we just spent on 15 minutes in the whole "Chuck Jones Experience." So we moved on.
To Circus Circus's Fun Dome.
When we had planned this trip the Chuck Jones thing was going to be the big thing that we did. That didn't quite pan out. We took one look in the Fun Dome and decided that the kids could just have fun on all the rides they could go on. James and I paid for just them to go on some rides, and it was money well spent.
They had a great time!

The lines were small, some of them non-existent. Grant did great. He waited when he had to wait, and followed the directions from the park workers. He had a great time!

Audrey looks a little scared in this one, but she loved it!

Grant even did great on things I thought he wouldn't like.

So fun! I wish they could stay little forever! :)
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Brain Balance Boy

So, one day James was listening to the radio, and he heard an ad for the Brain Balance Center. Pretty tall expectations for this program that claims to turn around the symptoms of autism. But I digress.

When Grant was born, he had the stroke, and was king of a different baby. Me in my being a first time mom, just didn't know what to expect with him. I got him the proper therapy he needed from the time we came back from Denver Children's Hospital. And then just went with the flow. I watched him meet milestones a little later than most kids, but I had the mind set, that he met them, and just went along with him.

Then my Audrey came. And I was floored just how hard Grant could be. His toys had to be perfect to play with or he would completely melt down. Things had to go perfect. Books cannot fall down, cars cannot be out of line, letters had to be formed perfect. The list goes on. He couldn't talk to us about what was wrong, but would scream bloody murder for us to fix whatever it was that needed fixing. He could talk, but only a few words at a time.

I stopped working at the end of May of 2012. Then I got to spend every waking minute with my kids, but most of my time would be spent making sure Grant was happy. Not an easy task. The TV would run all day long, just so I could get some things, and Grant could just sit and relax. Going to the park was fun, as long as he didn't run away from me, which as soon as it did happen, we put the kibosh on that. I felt so bad for Audrey. I couldn't spend any time with her except when Grant was at preschool. I love both of my kids dearly, but life simply could not go on this way.

Then came Brain Balance. And what a difference.
We started this program in February of 2013. We did the Home Program for three months just so we could see if this program really worked, so we didn't waste a bunch of money. They gave Grant a test on his gross motor and fine motor skills. They gave us a bunch of scales to fill out. Lots of paper work. Then they handed us a binder. The binder was filled with things we could do to help Grant's right brain become stronger. Grant had a right brain deficiency in which his left brain was growing at a faster rate than his right side. Sounds funny, and we were very skeptical, but we were also at the end of our rope, and our patience. Something had to change.

So we changed our lifestyle.

Grant had to have a blood test to figure out which food causes his brain inflammation. Foods like beef, bananas, gluten anything, could not be had by Grant. We changed his diet. And what an improvement.

Grant started to talk us. Actual sentences! Actually telling us he needed help, or something doesn't work.

Also we started to do some exercises that would help his right brain catch up. We did things like snow angels, push ups, and sit-ups, cannonballs, lizards, side planks, balancing on one foot, crossing the mid line, a whole bunch of activities.

And we started to notice improvement. About a week into the program, James asked Grant to pick up some books and put them back on our book shelf. We had a lot of books that had fallen. Quite a few. Grant put some on the shelf, and then some fell down. This would have warranted a huge tantrum, But what did Grant do. Reached down and put them up again. A few fell down again, and Grant continued to put them up until every last book was put away. We were amazed.

We noticed little things like this all the time when he was on the program. Things that showed improvement. The talking was huge. Grant's teachers also noticed some things at preschool. I will never forget her coming out and telling James and I that "Grant actually participates with us now. He never really did before." They filled out a behavior scale for him in January, where he was definitely in the warning signs for autism, They filled out another one in April, and he was more in the at risk area. A huge improvement. Also another major huge thing is that Grant is in a regular classroom. James and I had gone to an IEP (Individual Education Plan) where they were basically telling us that Grant had to be in a Special Ed classroom.

Grant started going to the Brain Balance Center in St. George three times a week starting in the middle of April. We continued to see huge improvements. His speech continued to improve. He could follow directions accurately. He could stay close by us with out running away. We could take him out to eat, and have him behave himself, without people looking at us like we were the most terrible parents ever. Grant can sit and focus at an activity he likes for a little while rather than abandoning it completely and running around wild. He has changed so much. People who do not see him all the time will tell us what a transformation he has made. He has made connections with his grandparents which is so fun to see. He is aware of people around him, and is getting to know social cues better.

He still has a bit to go, but our lives, including his, is so much better. It was worth every penny.

I feel like Brain Balance gave us our little boy.

Good job Buddy! We love you to pieces! xoxo

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Happy Birthday Audrey

-My little sweet girl turned three on January 10, 2013. She woke up to this Minnie Mouse Happy Birthday banner and pancakes in the shape of threes:

I think she was trying to make the number three with her fingers. She is so funny! I gave her her gift in the morning, so she could enjoy her day and play with even more new toys. She received a Minnie Mouse that you can dress up, which she absolutely loved.

We had a party for her that next Saturday and invited our families to come join us.

Those pink balloons in the background were a great source of fun for Audrey and Grant. They loved those and were completely entertained by them for much of the party. At one point, I considered putting them away so Audrey could focus on the family and opening gifts, but then decided it's her birthday! If she wants to play with balloons, then let her! :)

Do you think she likes Minnie? I don't know... Between the Minnie toys and her shirt and banner, I think the jury is still out on whether she likes Minnie Mouse or not! :)

I love how Grant thinks he needs to help Audrey with the gift opening. This is something that Audrey has down pat!

Gifts for Audrey included a purple outfit from Grandma Jeanne, a super soft Hello Kitty blanket which started a whole new Hello Kitty obsession with her :), a Cinderella puzzle from Uncle Dave and Aunt Becky. Overall she had a pretty great birthday!

This cake was a big hit. The kids adored the little figurines on it, and still play with them till this day!

The big moment...blowing out the candle and making a wish.

Again, Grant thinks that he needs to help her, which she did need a little help. I think we relit the candle and let both of them blow it out. Is that against the rules? :)