We finally got Elliott to eat.  He's munched on things but not willingly. Yesterday, we decided to try him at Cici's Pizza. We met briefly with the manager and asked about the food and they use soy oil for everything. Elliott are 2 pieces of pizza and a bread stick.  That's progress I suppose. Having said that, I'm still worried about him.  He's just so sad all the time. He did ask to go back, so that something, right?

Recently I had the unique opportunity to take a look at another, unique board game called Stop, Relax & Think. This game is from Childswork/Childsplay.

This game is geared towards special needs children and focuses on impulsivity.

In this game, active, children with impulse control issues can learn motor

control, skills to help them relax, how to express their feelings as well as problem-solve. The instructions included in this game also provide information about how this game can be used as both a diagnostic and a treatment tool.

The players answer questions that are designed to make them stop and think, hence the game title.

An example of these questions are as follows:

You think you have more and harder chores than your sister. You don‘t think this is fair. What can you do?

You don‘t understand how to do your math homework and no one is around to help.

As with the previous game I tested and reviewed, I don‘t know that this is meant for home use. I can see this doing very well in a more therapeutic environment.

My kids are considered highly intelligent but they couldn’t really get into this game. As the instructions suggest, you really need some type of moderator to facilitate game play and help with the questions.

Having said that, as with my previous review, this game would be fantastic in a school or clinical setting. In fact, we actually donated the last game to our kids speech therapist and we will do the same with this one as well.

Our speech therapist was so excited to receive this game and it’s something she could use in therapy sessions.

In my experience and opinion, using this game in a more therapeutic environment makes way more sense than using this in the home, especially with younger kids like Elliott and Emmett.

That doesn’t mean that your child wouldn’t benefit from this at home. I think that my kids are maybe a little bit to young.

This would benefit the right people, in the right environment. It’s just not for us, in the home environment..

I will be giving one of these games away. Even if you don‘t think you could use this yourself, win this for your school or local therapist. It’s easy to enter and fun to win.  

This giveaway will run today, November 27, 2012 through midnight, December 5, 2012.

This would make a great gift for a special needs teacher or therapist. With the holidays right around the corner, now is the perfect time to snag gifts like this. Besides, who doesn’t like free?

(more…)

I'm actually pretty freaked out right now still and I feel kind of ridiculous but it is what it is. I was in the bathroom...um.....brushing my teeth. There was a bath towel on the floor and Cleo was playing with it.  She lives in the bathroom for some reason so seeing her roll around on the floor is a daily event. I was thinking to myself, man I hope there isn't a mouse under there and I really hope it doesn't run at me and climb up my pants leg... Then I sorta laughed it off like, what are the chances of that happening? Right? Not 60 seconds later, out runs a mouse and it friggin ran up my leg.  It literally ran up the inside of my pant leg. …

Lizze spoke with the school this morning about Elliott's new diagnosis. They we're very cooperative, as I knew they would be.  They also supported keeping him home until we get everything figured out. There is paperwork and they need their own set, as in two, epipens. These would stay at the school at all times.  We have to call the doctor about this because we only have two and those are for home. We spoke with the pharmacy and it's $400+ for two more pens.  Insurance will only cover 1 script per month.  I'm not sure at the moment, how we're gonna work this out.  I think the immunologist will have to fight for it, otherwise, how is he going to return to school? I mean, we can't give them…

OMG, Emmett is all over the place.  He needs more of a physical outlet because he's literally climbing on me all day long.. We used to take him to park in the warmer weather. With insurance refusing to cover OT, PT and speech anymore, this has become an even bigger problem. I'm grateful for what he's received but I'm angry and frustrated with their reasons for not paying anymore.  Essentially, they are saying that he hasn't reached the level of his typical peers and they don't believe he ever will.  In other words, Emmett to them is a bad investment. I don't agree with how insurance companies have been handling children and adults with #Autism. Anyway, Emmett desperately needs that physical outlet and he's made progress. Right now, he's sensory…

This is a huge week for the Lost and Tired family. Lizze will be returning to the Cleveland Clinic on Thursday. This time she will be visiting their headache clinic. We have both been waiting for this appointment for many months now. For those of you unfamiliar with what's going on, Lizze has had a migraine for most of 2012. She's literally had this migraine for almost 11 months now and it's been horrible for her.  The past few months have been the worst though. She is in so much pain that she's getting sick all the time and can't eat without getting nauseous. Come hell or high water, I'm getting her to that appointment. She deserves relief and I'll do what I must to help her obtain that relief.…

Last night I was cooking dinner.  We we're having real eggs, toast and some leftover steak from the other night. I said real eggs because we normally use egg whites instead. Anyway, out of the dozen eggs that we're in the carton, at least 6 of them had two yolks. These were supposed to be free range chickens, if that matters. In my entire life, I've only seen twin yolks maybe twice.  However, last night, the first half dozen or so eggs that I cracked open were twins. What are the odds of that happening? In the picture above, you can see the last 2 twin yolk eggs I found last night.

Last week Elliott was officially diagnosed with a tree nut allergy.  It's only been a few days and we're still trying to wrap our heads around this and figure out what we do at home. What do we do for him while at school? Lizze and I have decided to keep him home today because we need to speak with the school. I don't know what their policies are in regards to this type of allergy.  For example, Elliott only has two epipens.  Do we send him to school with one, obviously kept in the office? I would think that the school should keep at least one at all times.  However, I want to have more that one at home, just in case.  So we just ask the doctor for…