Hi everyone! We hope you are all doing well. We wanted to give you an update on Gabey baby. Yes, even though he will be six years old in January, he is still 'my baby'.

During July and the first two weeks of August Gabe hit 95% mastery on all the targets introduced during that time. He had great focus and his therapists were really impressed with his attending. They described Gabe as being 'on fire' with his language program. He has three binders that contain hundreds of flashcards with words on them and he can identify a lot more words than we knew he knew. This was a fabulous ending to his full-time therapy as he knew it and a good transition into his next adventure which was starting kindergarten.

In mid August Gabe started in a special education kindergarten class. Gabe has made tremendous progress in his therapy, but we did not think he was ready to be in a regular classroom. The goal is for Gabe to be integrated into a regular classroom, but that is going to take some time. One sensory challenge Gabe has is noise overload and as you all know, school can be a noisy place. If there is too much noise or information coming at him at once and he can't filter some of it out, he becomes overwhelmed and upset. He then needs a quiet place where he can calm down. So starting Gabe in a smaller, more specialized classroom was a good move for him.

We think Gabe is well prepared for this new learning environment because of the intensive therapy he's had. Angie our senior therapist attended several meetings with us at the school and did a great job outlining all the programs Gabe has worked on. We provided them with a list of all his mastered items, what his strengths are, what areas he needs work in, what motivates our little guy to work, and we explained the strategies and principles used in his therapy to get him to learn and be successful.

Gabe seemed just fine with his new surroundings right from the start. I was the one who was kind of freaking out and Ronny had to calm me down. This wasn't the first time and won't be the last time honey-sorry! All the moms out there know what I am talking about.

A big focus for Gabe in school is 'generalizing' - making sure what he has learned at home can be transferred into the classroom. Many autistic children have trouble transferring skills from one place to another. We've seen Gabe correctly identify letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and he is a matching pro so now they are working with him to make sure he can do all those things in his new environment. Another challenge of 'generalizing' are the actual targets or supplies used. We know Gabe can differentiate between many animal figures at home, but will he be able to identify the specific cow, horse, dog, and cat that the school uses?

So Gabe does face some challenges at school but again, we know this is a good thing for him. The opportunities for socializing and peer play are wonderful for Gabe. We had some peer play in his home therapy, but it was not as consistent as we would have liked. Gabe still prefers to play with mom and dad and his grandparents over other children even his little brother Grant.

Grant is Gabe's shadow and Gabe does not like this. When Grant tries to play with Gabe, Gabe normally picks up the toy and moves to another spot in the room. Grant is a persistent little guy and he just follows Gabe everywhere. Gabe will then make protesting sounds and we just explain to him that Grant loves him. Gabe normally looks less than thrilled about that news. So again being with other children is good for Gabe.

Since Gabe's one-on-one therapy time has decreased the main focus is on communication and language, but it is very easy to throw in other targets that deal with matching, imitation, following directions and working on his fine and gross motor skills when focusing on communication. So I like to think he is getting the best of both worlds.

Well that is it for now. I will write again soon and let you know how Gabe's progress is going. Thanks to everyone for your support. May God Bless you all!

The Millers

Hello everyone! Yes, we're back! We are sorry it's been so long since we've last updated this blog, but please know we haven't forgotten about you. You are the reason Gabe is still in his therapy program and we remain forever grateful for your support.

The first half of this year has been full of exciting things going on in Gabe's therapy. His therapists now refer to him as "super smarty pants".

Gabe continues to amaze us with the progress he is making. We've had a few WOW moments where we couldn't believe what we saw him do specifically in his new programs reading and quantities. In his reading program, Gabe is asked to identify words on flashcards and he is doing a great job. Gabe has always been a visual learner so it is not surprising to see him do well with matching picture flashcards and finding different objects when asked, but we had no idea he could do the same thing with words. We knew he liked letters, but did not know he was understanding them to this extent.

We also knew he liked numbers and that he could recognize certain numbers on flashcards, but when we saw a therapist ask him to give her five blocks and he did it, then she asked him to give her eight blocks, he did it, she asked for three blocks, he did it, we were like "Are you kidding us?!" It was very cool to watch him. Another activity he is working on is identifying how many objects there are on flashcards. His therapist showed him a flashcard that had 10 dots on it and asked "Gabe, how many dots are there" and he touched the flashcard with the 10 on it. He went three for three at that meeting choosing the correct number of dots each time. Like I said above, Gabe is now called super smarty pants because of accomplishments like this.

Another new program Gabe likes is the cooking program. No, we are not making him cook us breakfast -yet- heck I don't even do that (sorry Ronny), but he helps his therapists make food. He's helped make jell-o, cake, muffins, cornbread, and pizza. He helps them stir, pour, and shake and enjoys doing this with them.

Communication remains a huge concern and focus and he continues to work on sound imitation and vocal play every day. He doesn't use any words, but his therapists work hard on pairing sounds with words like "pah" for potty, '"ba" for ball, and "yum" for eating. Some days Gabe is very vocal and makes a lot of different sounds while other days he mainly gets stuck on the "Mmmm" sound.

Gabe is still working on his fine and gross motor skills doing various activities to improve his hand-eye coordination, pincher grasp, and motor planning process. He is bouncing balls better than ever and gets the giggles when he chases the ball around the room and the yard. I love bouncing the ball with him. He is also doing a lot more art projects every week. He is getting more comfortable with holding crayons and markers for longer periods of time with less sensory issues.

Gabe continues to work very hard in therapy. Now that it's summertime, going outside is a huge reinforcer for him because he still likes to swing and play in the water. We have a Slip N Slide that he loves being thrown down. Yup, we grab a leg and an arm and toss him down the slide. He likes splashing in the little pool of water that forms at the bottom of the slide. He always comes back for more!

Last but not least, you might be wondering how Gabe likes his little brother Grant. Grant is now 10 months old and I wouldn't say Gabe likes Grant, he is tolerating him. Grant is an early walker and tries to follow Gabe everywhere. This annoys Gabe and makes us laugh. Gabe does not like to share his toys with his brother. What 5 1/2 year old does right? One night we watched Gabe continually get up and move to somewhere else in the room every time Grant tried to play with his toy. They went from the living room to the kitchen 7 or 8 times.

Finally we made them take turns playing with the toy and Gabe protested by making a loud 'Oooo' sound and patting Grant on the head. This was in no way a gentle love pat either, but rather the kind of pat he does in therapy when he touches a flashcard for an answer to a question. I think Gabe thought if he patted Grant on the head like he pats a flashcard, that Grant would go away so he could get the toy/reinforcer, but that did not happen. It was a nice try by my super smarty pants, but giving Grant that attention only made him want to be next to Gabe even more.

Thanks again for all your support. We appreciate you all very much!

God Bless,

The Millers

Hello everyone! Yes, we're back! We are sorry it's been so long since we've last updated this blog, but please know we haven't forgotten about you. You are the reason Gabe is still in his therapy program and we remain forever grateful for your support.<>br<> The first half of this year has been full of exciting things going on in Gabe's therapy. His therapists now refer to him as "super smarty pants".<>br<> Gabe continues to amaze us with the progress he is making. We've had a few WOW moments where we couldn't believe what we saw him do specifically in his new programs reading and quantities. In his reading program, Gabe is asked to identify words on flashcards and he is doing a great job. Gabe has always been a visual learner so it is not surprising to see him do well with matching picture flashcards and finding different objects when asked, but we had no idea he could do the same thing with words. We knew he liked letters, but did not know he was understanding them to this extent.<>br<> We also knew he liked numbers and that he could recognize certain numbers on flashcards, but when we saw a therapist ask him to give her five blocks and he did it, then she asked him to give her eight blocks, he did it, she asked for three blocks, he did it, we were like "Are you kidding us?!" It was very cool to watch him. Another activity he is working on is identifying how many objects there are on flashcards. His therapist showed him a flashcard that had 10 dots on it and asked "Gabe, how many dots are there" and he touched the flashcard with the 10 on it. He went three for three at that meeting choosing the correct number of dots each time. Like I said above, Gabe is now called super smarty pants because of accomplishments like this.<>br<> Another new program Gabe likes is the cooking program. No, we are not making him cook us breakfast -yet- heck I don't even do that (sorry Ronny), but he helps his therapists make food. He's helped make jell-o, cake, muffins, cornbread, and pizza. He helps them stir, pour, and shake and enjoys doing this with them.<>br<> Communication remains a huge concern and focus and he continues to work on sound imitation and vocal play every day. He doesn't use any words, but his therapists work hard on pairing sounds with words like "pah" for potty, '"ba" for ball, and "yum" for eating. Some days Gabe is very vocal and makes a lot of different sounds while other days he mainly gets stuck on the "Mmmm" sound.<>br<> Gabe is still working on his fine and gross motor skills doing various activities to improve his hand-eye coordination, pincher grasp, and motor planning process. He is bouncing balls better than ever and gets the giggles when he chases the ball around the room and the yard. I love bouncing the ball with him. He is also doing a lot more art projects every week. He is getting more comfortable with holding crayons and markers for longer periods of time with less sensory issues. <>br<> Gabe continues to work very hard in therapy. Now that it's summertime, going outside is a huge reinforcer for him because he still likes to swing and play in the water. We have a Slip N Slide that he loves being thrown down. Yup, we grab a leg and an arm and toss him down the slide. He likes splashing in the little pool of water that forms at the bottom of the slide. He always comes back for more!<>br<> Last but not least, you might be wondering how Gabe likes his little brother Grant. Grant is now 10 months old and I wouldn't say Gabe likes Grant, he is tolerating him. Grant is an early walker and tries to follow Gabe everywhere. This annoys Gabe and makes us laugh. Gabe does not like to share his toys with his brother. What 5 1/2 year old does right? One night we watched Gabe continually get up and move to somewhere else in the room every time Grant tried to play with his toy. They went from the living room to the kitchen 7 or 8 times. <>br<> Finally we made them take turns playing with the toy and Gabe protested by making a loud 'Oooo' sound and patting Grant on the head. This was in no way a gentle love pat either, but rather the kind of pat he does in therapy when he touches a flashcard for an answer to a question. I think Gabe thought if he patted Grant on the head like he pats a flashcard, that Grant would go away so he could get the toy/reinforcer, but that did not happen. It was a nice try by my super smarty pants, but giving Grant that attention only made him want to be next to Gabe even more. <>br<> Thanks again for all your support. We appreciate you all very much!<>br<> God Bless, <>br<> The Millers<>br<>

Happy New Year Everyone!

We had a first this Christmas, Gabe opened his first present by himself. It was a Thomas The Train song book and he tore the paper and was excited when he finally saw it.

Gabe has been working on mastered skills this past month. This is done to test his ability to retain all that he has learned and he's doing great. One day, he had over an 80% success rate, while testing over 100 different skills. Pretty impressive.

We have had a few naked episodes lately. He is starting to understand that he needs to take off his pants and diaper to go potty, but he is missing one crucial step.....actually getting to the bathroom :)

And it happens so fast. Ronny helped Gabe get dressed one morning and left the room for 60 seconds. Upon his return, Gabe had taken off his diaper and pants and peed on them. Ronny asked, "What happened?" and I didn't know because he was completely dressed only moments earlier. Man he's fast!

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas. Thank you all for your support. You have truly made a difference in Gabe's life.

God Bless The Millers

Hi everyone! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had three Thanksgiving dinners this year, how great is that?! Gabe even ate his mashed potatoes. Normally when we give him mashed potatoes he instantly makes a funny gagging throw up face. This would be the same face Ronny makes if someone tries to make him eat green beans. I mixed Gabe's mashed potatoes in with his turkey and gravy and he ate the whole darn plate - no applesauce disguise was needed. Yah! Unfortunately this fix does not work on Ronny.

It's hard to believe it's December already. The progress Gabe has made in therapy this year has been outstanding. There is no doubt that without this treatment Gabe would not have made the gains in his development that he's made. He might very well still be playing with the wheels of his toy car for hours on end never tiring of his obsession with spinning, never seeking us out or any other stimuli for that matter, never trying to communicate his wants and needs to us. But that is not the case. The way he continues to change and grow is exciting and something to truly celebrate.

In the past month Gabe's been working on a lot on his verbal behavior skills with his sign language signs and doing mands, tacts and intraverbals or requesting, labeling and filling-in-the blank and answering WH questions.

Examples:
Mand - Gabe signs juice when he is thirsty and he gets to drink his juice since he requested it
Tact - Therapist holds up his juice container and asks 'What is this?' Gabe signs juice
Intraverbal - Therapist asks 'You drink what from a cup?' Gabe signs juice or therapist asks 'What is something you drink?' Gabe signs juice.

Gabe is not making as many sounds which is a little disappointing. We used to hear the "P" and "T" sounds a lot but lately all we hear is the "Mmm" sound. Getting Gabe to make sounds is a continuous work in progress every day.

Other activities he's been working include identifying certain objects in books and following two-step commands such as take off lid and get out ball and drive the bus and open the door. The therapists have also been working with him on differentiating between directions they give him so he doesn't see an object and think he can only do one thing with it. For example he learned how to pound his toy hammer on the table. The therapist asked him to shake the hammer and his first response was to pound the hammer. She asked him to give the hammer to her and again his first response was to pound the hammer. Another example is with blocks. Gabe is a master block stacker, but when asked to place a block next to another block Gabe first tried to stack the blocks. So they worked through it and then Gabe was soon following the directions given to him. So this is a great activity that helps make sure Gabe is really listening to the request and differentiating between the tasks.

Mr. Independent is now into shutting doors. I took him to the potty the other night and he shut me out of the bathroom. I know he wanted his privacy, but not because he was going to sit on the potty, he wanted to either play in the toilet water or turn the faucet on and play in the sink. He hasn't figured out that we are on to him yet.

Gabe has taken a big interest in his Thomas the Train video lately. One night I asked him to choose a video from his bin and he picked Rolie Polie Olie. After about ten minutes, Gabe came upstairs and brought me his Thomas the Train video, and then he signed "movie". So we walked downstairs together and he pushed my hand towards the TV several times as if he was saying "Hurry up lady, I told you what I wanted!" This kind of communication is awesome. And taking a break from The Wiggles is kind of nice too.

Thanks to everyone for your support, we appreciate you all!

The Miller Family

Hi everyone. Happy early Halloween!

Gabe has been working hard on his fine motor skills to increase his muscle tone and coordination. One activity that has been going well is putting coins in a piggy bank. We first started with a Fisher Price piggy bank toy that had thick, colorful plastic coins. Gabe had to pick up the coin with his pointer finger and thumb (pincer/pincher grasp) and put the coin in the slot. After he mastered that he graduated to a regular piggy bank and real coins, which is considerably harder, but he is doing well at it. I admire his determination as he tries so hard to pick up a penny or dime with just two fingers instead of grabbing them with his entire fist. He has also been working on pushing a bead on a bead maze with one finger and lacing beads.

Gabe has also been playing with a few age-appropriate toys. Even though Gabe will be five years old in January, his favorite toys are the musical ones for children in the 12 - 36 month age range. So this past month Gabe has been learning how to play with a Thomas the Train train set and a Hot wheels car set. I think Ronny might like the train track a little more than Gabe though. The other night he put the track together and was helping Gabe make the train go and long after Gabe lost interest, Ronny was still playing with it. That's ok though, Ronny has walked into the room several times to find ME watching Playhouse Disney instead of Gabe.

Gabe has really been into his books lately, especially his Rolie Polie Olie ones. I watch in fascination as he studies each page wondering what it is that is capturing his attention so intently. We've even had to remove his RPO books from his bedroom at night because we've found that instead of going to sleep, Gabe likes to brings his books into bed with him and look at them for hours. We will put him to bed and within five minutes he gets out of bed, turns his light on, find a RPO book, and gets back in bed with the book. At first we thought putting the book away on his shelf and telling him to go to sleep would work, but it didn't. He would flick his light on two minutes after we left the room and the book would instantly be back in bed with him. Although it was super cute finding three or four books in Gabe's bed in the mornings, we also noticed he was often very tired from staying up late.

We have a few other fun Gabe moments to share with you.

First, Gabe took a nap with me. Prior to this monumental nap, the only time Gabe has taken a nap ON me (not really WITH me) is when he's been sick. So this nap was special. Grant woke up at 5:30 one morning and his crying woke Gabe up. After I fed Grant, he fell back asleep - YAH for me! Ronny went into work early that morning so the bed was calling my name. I gave Gabe his favorite blanket and I turned the TV on the Disney channel. I laid him down next to me and cuddled with him. I watched his long eyelashes blink as he watched TV and I wondered how long he would lay still next to me - maybe five or ten minutes and then it would be time to play. The next thing I knew it was an hour later and I woke up cuddling Gabe in my arms, and he was still sound asleep. We did it, we took a nap together and it was awesome.

Then we had a funny dressing mishap. Gabe does pretty good putting his shirt and pants on with a little support from us. One night after I helped him put his pull up on (we still have exposed butt cheek issues), I told him to put his pants on. He grabbed the waistband of the pants and sat down to put them on. I went into the kitchen for a minute and when I came back he had put his pants on his head and was just quietly sitting on the floor. He could not see at all, and was so calm about it. He then started to put an arm through one of the pant legs thinking it was a shirt - a very odd shirt. With a permagrin on my face I spent the next five minutes labeling his shirt and pants and asking him to put them on a few times each so he could understood the difference and he did great.

And last but not least, a cute moment between the boys. One night Grant was hanging out in his Fisher Price glider and Gabe was playing with a toy nearby. Grant sneezed and Gabe immediately burst into giggles. Grant sneezed three times in a row and by the third one Gabe was standing by his side looking at him with a big grin on his face. I realize Gabe's smile was not a 'Hey, I like you little brother' smile but rather a 'Hey, do that sneeze thing again' smile but I'll take it anyways. It was neat to see Gabe looking at Grant like that. Gabe then grabbed my arm and pushed it towards Grant. He wanted me to make Grant sneeze - like I had some magical way of activating this live 'toy'. Since I couldn't persuade Grant to sneeze again, Gabe went back to playing with his toy. The reason this was a cool moment is because for a second there was a connection made, no matter how small or silly it was, and that means so much.

Thanks for all your support and God Bless you all! The Millers

Hi everyone! Greetings from the sleep-deprived Miller household :). We are all doing well. Grant is almost 6 weeks old and no longer has little skinny chicken legs. He is eating like a champ and several nice chunky legs rolls have developed. He has really filled out and changed a lot since he was born.

Gabe is doing better at not getting so upset when his little brother cries. He just kind of gets this look on his face - a combination of confusion, concern, and annoyance, in which I think the latter one is probably pretty normal for a sibling to feel right, especially when the baby is crying at 3 in the morning. :)

A new activity Gabe recently started working on in his therapy is recognizing play errors. This is a part of learning appropriate play skills. His therapists will put certain objects upside down or on their side and Gabe has to correct them. We like this activity because it makes Gabe figure out that something is not right and he needs to fix it. Being socially unware of many things in his environment is a big part of autism and there is no one magic thing we can work on to help this. All of his therapy activities play an important part in increasing his awareness.

In his receptive program Gabe is learning how to recognize his own body parts, and also the body parts or features on stuffed animals. The therapists ask Gabe to find the ears or eyes on a stuffed animal, and also ask him to 'Find the one with a tail' or 'Find the one with legs'. So far he is doing well.

Gabe continues to make great progress and keeps us smiling and laughing all the time. Last week one of the therapists was helping Gabe play golf with his little Walmart golf set. Gabe got the clubs, balls, and holes out. The therapist helped him grab the club and asked him to hit the ball. He gave it a little swing and missed the ball. Gabe definitely gets this from me because I usually miss the golf ball when I try to it hit it too whereas Ronny does not have this problem at all. He is a good golfer. The therapist told Gabe good try and asked him to try again, but this time instead of using the club, Gabe kicked the ball. I thought this was actually good problem solving and appropriate golf play because how many of you golf lovers out there have sent a ball in the trees and kicked it just a few feet for better positioning? Okay, maybe you haven't done this, but I bet you've wanted to right? :)

Gabe's increased interest in playing with balls is great and makes us smile. Gabe will often take a small ball from his ball maze and start throwing it around the room. What is funny is that you never know where the ball is going to go. Gabe throws it forward, behind him, straight up in the air. I don't even think he knows. After he throws the ball, he starts to giggle and chases it down so he can throw it again. Sometimes he gets so excited he'll do his happy dance and get off balance and fall down. Falling down just makes him laugh more, and then we can't help but laugh with him. We like throwing the ball around with Gabe, it's a lot of fun for us and therapy-wise it promotes shared attention and taking turns.

Thanks to everyone for your support, love, and encouragement. God bless you all.

The Millers

Greetings everyone!

On August 13th we welcomed our newest little blessing Grant Michael to our family. He was born at 9:50 am and weighed in at 8 lbs 8 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. I had to have a c section for medical reasons so Grant's birth was very different than Gabe's 29 hour labor and delivery. We were so excited to get to the hospital because we knew we would be able to see our new baby boy very soon after we got there. Ronny did some videotaping and although he did not videotape the actual surgery, he did capture the moment Grant's head popped up out of my stomach. Some of you might be saying GROSS, but it's actually pretty amazing!

Grant is doing great. He is peeing (sometimes on us), pooping, sleeping, and eating like a champ. And no, he does not have a ton of thick black hair like Gabe did when he was born. Grant has some brown hair, but it's nothing like Gabe's helmet head was.

So this is a very happy time for our family. God has blessed us with another beautiful child and we couldn't be more thankful for everything we have in our lives. Grant is grandchild #2 for my family and grandchild #24 for Ronny's family.

We've been asked several questions about Gabe such as "Is Gabe excited about the baby?" and "Is Gabe excited about being a big brother?" The honest answer is no. Gabe is aware that there is a baby in the house who cries, and sometimes the crying makes him upset, but Gabe is not aware that the baby is his new little brother. As you know autism is a communication and social disorder and Gabe is not socially aware of the concept of being a brother at this time, but we hope to teach Gabe this in the future. Right now we are working on having Gabe simply look at Grant.

Gabe continues to do well in his therapy. Since I am home on maternity leave, I get to hear how excited his therapists get when he achieves a goal. They call him a superstar, tell him he is amazing and so smart, that he is a genius! That's my Gabe!! :)

Two new programs he is working on is associations and patterning. In associations, he is asked to 'find the one that goes with ______ '. Categories being worked on include vehicles, toys, things that go with a baby, things you see at a park, and animals you see on the farm and at the zoo. In the patterning activity, Gabe has to finish the pattern the therapists set out. So they might set out colors - blue, red, blue, red - or shapes - circle, triangle, circle, triangle - and then ask Gabe what comes next and he has to finish the pattern.

For receptive language, they are working on letters and numbers. Gabe is doing great identifying the letters and numbers they ask him to. With self-help, they are focusing on washing his hands after he goes to the potty. They have broken everything down step by step - turning the faucet on, pushing the pump on the soap dispenser to get soap on his hands, rubbing his hands together to wash them, rinsing his hands under the water, turning the faucet off, and wiping his hands off on the towel. He can now turn the faucet on and off by himself - what a big boy he is! We just have to make sure he doesn't turn just the hot water on and burn himself. He has also recently learned how to turn the light switch on and off by himself.

Gabe is also just starting to learn the sign language signs for cracker and juice. So he is staying very busy and learning a lot. We thank you all for your support of Gabe's therapy program. We could not keeping it going without you. God bless you all.

The Millers

Hi everyone! Happy August!

Gabe continues to do very well in his therapy. He is still working hard on his gross motor and fine motor skills doing various activities. A new addition to his program is peer play with another 4 year old. In his peer play time with Claire, he is working on social and imitation skills, as well as taking turns. It is going well so far! He is also working on some new flashcard categories that include community helpers and actions. While he learns how to recognize what a firefighter, police officer and doctor look like, and what actions such as sitting, jumping, running, and brushing teeth look like, his therapists always test Gabe on categories he has already mastered. So he still works on identifying colors, shapes, animals, household items, body parts, letters, numbers, vehicles, adjectives such as big versus little, long versus short, spotted versus striped, and lots more. He is also working on pretend play with a new play kitchen he has. I think his favorite thing is that the blender spins- ha!

Gabe loves being outside and he's been getting a lot of playtime on the swings and in the water this summer. Instead of riding in the toddler swing, he has transitioned to riding the big boy swing now, it's awesome. We have to tell him to keep holding on and that he can't hold any toys while he's on the big boy swing, he really is doing great. Thank you all for your support of Gabe's therapy program. We really appreciate it!

On our next blog, we'll write about some fundrasiers people held for Gabe, and about or newest addition to our family! We are having a baby boy today! HOORAY!! We are very excited! God bless you all! The Millers

Greetings. We hope this blog entry finds you all doing well.

Gabe is working hard in therapy. In his continued work on learning the actions to the song 'If You're Happy and You Know It', Gabe is clapping and stomping on cue with the song now. His stomping is adorable. The therapists call him 'Happy Feet'. We have not seen that movie yet, but I guess the happy dance Gabe sometimes does when he is excited and his cute stomping movements remind them of 'Happy Feet'.

In his fine motor program Gabe is working on picking up a pencil and scribbling on a piece of paper. Gabe needs a lot of work in the fine motor area and I think anything related to art and writing would be on Gabe's 'if I could talk I would give you a piece of my mind for making me do this' list. So right now his therapists do a lot of prompting to get him to scribble on paper.

In object imitation Gabe is working with a play bowling set. He has to imitate the therapists setting up the pins, and then next they'll work on rolling the ball towards the pins. He also still works bouncing a ball. He seems to be more into balls lately. Last week, one of the therapists told Gabe to chose a reinforcer for an activity they were going to do and Gabe chose this big purple ball. I about fell out of my chair. Was this the same child who wouldn't give a ball a second glance not that long ago? It was fun seeing him roll the ball and pat it to make it bounce.

Gabe is also doing well with his self-help skills. The therapists take him to the potty every hour. Gabe is not potty-trained by any means, but he is getting a lot of good practice. He is doing an even better job at pulling his pants up and down. We still have to help him when one of his little butt cheeks is not covered up, but he tries very hard in this area. Another thing that makes us smile is that sometimes he looks at a book while he's on the potty. I need to get a picture of that!

With his vocalizations, the "P" sound has taken over lately so everyone is working on getting him to stop spitting and making it a clearer sound. Ronny and I have not heard the "K" or "M" sound very much, it's all about "P". What's neat is that he is making the "P" sound more while he is playing. We've told you how quiet Gabe can be so it's nice to hear a little bit of chatter from him when he is playing.

So as you can see Gabe is staying busy in his therapy sessions. Thanks to everyone for your support!

Aside from therapy, Gabe has been attending one on one swimming lessons. Some of you might be asking, "Wow, can Gabe swim?" and the answer is no way. Like his Grandma Smith, he would sink to the bottom of the pool (Sorry mom!). My original goal for these lessons was to have Gabe learn how to hold his breath. When he is in water, he will get so close to putting his head under, but stops himself because he doesn't know how to hold his breath. So when his head or face accidentally goes under, he either swallows water or gets it up his nose and we all know how that feels - not good.

After watching the lessons he's had so far, I don't think he is going to learn how to hold his breath just yet, but I am happy with what he is doing. I think this experience is good for him. The instructor lets Gabe walk around and play and splash as she works to connect with him. That is so important or he won't do a darn thing for her later on. Then she helps him float and works on getting him to put his ears under water so he gets comfortable with that. He wears bright orange ear plugs since he has tubes, you can't miss him. She then supports Gabe's body and asks him to kick and move his arms. She switches him from his back to his tummy and man when he is on his back he is a kicking machine! The first time I saw him kicking away on his back, I was like "That's my son! YES!" I think I told Ronny that Gabe is awesome at the backstroke, which is obviously not even close to being true, but I was just so proud of him for doing what he was doing. He is my shining star!

I know that Gabe's struggles with coordination and cognitive processing makes everything that much harder for him, but seeing how much enjoys being in water and watching him splash and kick, I think someday he will learn how to swim and that will be a great relaxing outlet for him. So the swimming lessons will continue on...

Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July everyone, God Bless.

Greetings everyone. Happy June!

Gabe's therapy sessions are going well. He is still working on learning the actions to the song 'If You're Happy and You Know It'. He is really into that song and it's great when he starts clapping and stomping to it.

His therapists have him working on a lot of two-step object imitation skills and he is also doing an obstacle course in his play sequence program where he has to imitate several gross motor activities. This is also a good activity for learning turn taking skills. At our meeting last week, Gabe had to follow the therapist and first kick a ball, then pick up a straw cowboy hat and put it on, then sit down in a chair and stomp his feet. My favorite is when he puts on the straw cowboy hat because he pulls it down all the way on his small little head until he cannot see. It makes us all smile.

Gabe is working on identifying the therapists using pictures. They will spread out in the room and one therapist will direct him to another therapist. So one person might say "Go to Tina" and then hold up a picture of Tina for him to look at. He then has to find Tina. Once he does that, they all celebrate and then Tina will direct him to another person "Go to Amber" and he looks at the picture of Amber and has to find her, and so forth. Gabe is doing well at this activity. He is a very visual little guy and he likes looking at pictures.

A visual token system has been added to Gabe's program. First Gabe gets to pick out a video he wants to watch. The therapist places a picture of the video on the bottom of the token board to show Gabe what his reward/reinforcer will be. Then they decide how many tokens Gabe has to earn before he can watch the movie. Gabe gets a token for completing the activities or demonstrating "targeted behaviors". The tokens we use are pictures of different objects that are velcroed to the board when earned so Gabe can see his progress. He seems to be catching on to the token system pretty well. He has many videos to pick from and surprisingly, he does not just pick the Wiggles. He's picked out Barney, Elmo, Rolie Polie Olie, The Koala Brothers, and others.

His therapists are trying out new places for outings where they work on mastered skills to make sure he can generalize them in the new surroundings. Recent trips were made to Nobbies and Target. I don't think the therapists have tried PetSmart yet, but I prepared them for when they do. My parents and I took Gabe to PetSmart not knowing how much he would like it. His favorite spot to hang out was in the fish aquarium section. Oh my goodness! He was super vocal making a lot of different sounds to express his excitement. Of course he wanted to touch the water and couldn't, but he still liked looking at all the aquariums.

Then Gabe got a case of the giggles when we walked by the grooming area in the back of the store. Every time he heard a dog bark, he started to laugh, and it was one of those deep, hearty laughs that made us laugh too. We played with a few of the puppies we saw and then walked by this one dog in a cage that had a sign on it that said the dog did not do well with children. So as we started to walk by, Gabe was still giggling and this dog started barking like crazy at him. A little girl who was nearby got scared and hid her face in her mom's shirt, but not our Gabe, this dog's angry barking just made him laugh more.

We quickly passed by the dog because he was obviously upset and my mom thought the dog wanted to eat Gabe for dinner. I told her there was no way the dog could break out of the cage, but she did not want to take any chances. Gabe can't tell a happy bark from an angry bark. This goes along with not being able to read facial expressions or body language in general, so these are things we really have to watch for when he is playing outside or at a park. He just thinks a dog's bark is funny period.

Gabe's therapists have noticed him stimming a lot more lately by spinning in circles, and Ronny and I have noticed it as well. We are not sure why this has increased so we are all working to stop this behavior by redirecting his focus.

One night Gabe started spinning in circles in the kitchen. Ronny said "Gabe, stop spinning" and Gabe stopped and went and sat in his little chair in front of the TV. We thought this was interesting because we had not redirected him to the chair, he went there by himself. After a little while, Gabe got up, went to the kitchen and started spinning in circles again. Ronny said "Gabe, stop spinning" and he stopped and went and sat in his chair again. The next time he got up, Gabe thought he would outsmart his dad so he came over to where I was standing next to the stove so he was out of his dad's sight and he started spinning in circles. I said "Dad, Gabe is spinning in circles again" and Ronny came into the kitchen and before he could get out the full sentence, Gabe stopped and went and sat in his chair. Then the spinning was over and Gabe started to play with his ABC leapfrog toy. I guess he figured since his mom was a tattle-tail, he needed to find something else to do. :)

We have also been seeing a little bit better eye contact which is always exciting for us. Every time I get a slightly longer gaze from him, my heart melts. We make sure we acknowledge when he looks us directly in the eyes by saying things like "Good looking in my eyes".

So all is going well in Gabe-land. Thanks to everyone for your support. It means a lot to our family.

Hi everyone! We hope this blog finds you all doing well.

Gabe is keeping very busy in therapy. The sound identification program is going awesome. The therapists have been very impressed with Gabe's ability to listen to an audio file and then find the picture of what he just heard.

In his object imitation and play sequence programs, they are working on two-step tasks. Just think about how hard the therapists have to work to get Gabe to focus and complete one task, well now they are asking him to complete two-step tasks. He is doing very well. As Tina put it "Gabe has been a superstar this week".

In fine motor, Gabe is still working hard on opening the ziplock bags. The therapists had to make an adjustment. Since Gabe does not use his pincer grasp where you grab objects with your thumb and forefinger or pointer finger as I like to call it, opening a ziplock bag without the slider is tough for him. So they put tabs on the bag that Gabe can grab and pull to get the bag open. They will keep trimming the tabs making them shorter and shorter until Gabe does not need the tabs anymore. His therapists are good at adapting certain activities to fit Gabe's needs. They have also introduced the new target of unwrapping boxes. We always do the honors of unwrapping Gabe's Christmas and birthday presents because he has no desire to do it himself. He doesn't understand the concept. So we are anxious to see how this new target goes.

In gross motor, one of the skills he is working on is catching a ball. At first the ball would just bounce off his chest and he would bring his hands up to catch it a second or two late, but you could see how hard he was trying. This still happens sometimes, but he is getting a lot better. This activity is good because it works on hand-eye coordination and reciprocal play. It also works on visual skills like depth perception. They are still working on throwing a ball too. Ronny and I had a lot of fun working on throwing and catching with Gabe last weekend. He was really into it. He kept giggling when we would cheer for him and he wanted to do it again right away. Sometimes he would throw the ball straight down to the ground and then do this little happy dance. It's very cute. So we worked on him throwing the ball with a little air time under it.

In independent play, Gabe is working on matching letters and for directions, he is working on learning the actions to the song 'If You're Happy and You Know It'. The actions are clapping hands, stomping feet, covering your eyes, and putting your arms up in the air (for "Hooray"). Gabe likes this song so I think this target will be fun for him.

And last but certainly not least, in the vocal area Gabe is making a lot of "P" and "T" sounds. With the "P" sounds comes a lot of spitting so that is a lot of fun! We are all trying to shape that "P" sound into words he knows such as papa, potty, and push (when he is on the swings). Hopefully we can get him to keeping saying that sound and try to get him to add letters to it. With the "T" sound, sometimes it sounds like he is saying "tie" and other times you can hear an "O" sound with it so we try shape that into "toy". He's had a very vocal week with these two sounds which is great.

So as you can see, Gabe is keeping busy and doing well. Thank you all for your continued support. It really means a lot to us. Have a wonderful and safe Memorial weekend and God Bless.

Hello there. We wanted to let you know how the fundraiser in Ronny's hometown of Arapahoe went. Gabe's auction was a huge success and exceeded our wildest expectations. We would like to sincerely thank all the people who helped make it such a success - the people who donated items, the people who ran the auction, and the people who came to the event and who donated money to Gabe's therapy program either through bidding on auction items or buying wristbands and magnets.

When I (Jenn) wrote in a previous blog that Arapahoe was a small town with big heart, that statement rang true in every way possible at Gabe's fundraiser. I had to hold back my tears when Ronny told that packed room of people how grateful he was to be from Arapahoe - to be faced with a challenge like this and then to see all these people come together to help you, he said it's made him truly appreciate where he is from. Ronny was blown away by your support.

The auction for Gabe was a part of another event Arapahoe was having which was a wild game feed and raffle to raise money to buy a new roof for the Izaak Walton building. As we drive to the event, Gabe's name was scrolling on the bank clock and there was also a sign in the street with Gabe's name on it. It was like Gabe was famous.

At the event, it was fun to see Ronny, his brothers Mark and Alan, and their dad Royal chatting with so many people. I had the opportunity to meet and talk to many people as well which was great. Gabe was on the go from the moment we arrived there, I think everyone there can attest to that. He did a lot of walking around outside since there was a lot of open land all around us. As you all know Gabe loves the outdoors so this was perfect for him. Getting him to go inside the building was sometimes tough to do, but we managed.

The event was buzzing with people. There was tons of food. I am not sure what wild game I actually ate, but it was delicious. Ronny and his brother Mark tried to tell me that beaver was being served and for a second I was like "Shut up, are you serious?" but then Mark added "And horse too, but only the really wild ones," and I knew I had been had. Then they raffled off some guns and then came Gabe's auction. Again thanks to everyone who participated in the auction, and to those who ran it. We were so impressed with all the items donated and of course what you all bid on the items. I wanted to bid on a picture I liked, but Ronny told me that would not make much sense - ha!

I was sorry to miss something really cool that happened while I was outside chasing Gabe. Ronny told me that someone who won one of the guns in the raffle decided to auction the gun off for Gabe. So they did and then the winner of that auction turned around and auctioned off the gun again. I could not believe that. This is that heart of Arapahoe that I mentioned and it was bulging at this event.

I also want to mention something Gabe did that I will always remember. The last item auctioned off was a motorbike. One of the nice gentlemen running the auction rode the bike down the path in the middle of the room to show the bike off and then turned around and rode it back to the front. Gabe was standing in the back with me, wanting very badly to play in the water in the men's toilet, when he saw the motorbike's wheels spinning. He was mesmerized and he wanted that bike! As the gentleman started back to the front of the room, Gabe took off running after him. I yelled for Gabe to stop, but of course he did not. We still don't have that following directions from parents thing mastered. So I ran after Gabe and he chased the bike until it stopped. We had explained to many people that Gabe likes things that spin so I think most everyone knew why he had chased that bike.

I guess it was all meant to be because Gabe's own Grandpa Royal won the bid on the motorbike, and Gabe got his picture taken on top of it. I still smile when I think of how fast Gabe tore after that bike. I think another reason that memory sticks out to me is because of the thought that came to me later that night when we were trying to get a very awake, happy, wired little boy to sleep at 1 in the morning.

There Gabe was, running after that motorbike, totally focused on what he wanted and he wasn't going to stop until he got to it. In a sense, Ronny and I are running after something we really want to - a successful future for Gabe. We are totally focused on that dream, and because of your support, and all of our other family, friends, and co-workers support, we are able to continue chasing that dream. We may not know what the future holds for Gabe, but when it's all said and done, we want to be able to look back and say that we truly did everything we could for him. We want Gabe to reach his highest potential possible, and with everyone's support, we won't stop until he gets there.

So dear Arapahoe, a mighty town of 900, Gabe might not know how many of you are rooting for him and supporting him, but Ronny and I know, and we will never ever forget it.

Hi everyone!

Gabe's therapy is going well. 98% of the skills taught in the past three weeks by his therapist team have been mastered and maintained. This is a huge accomplishment. We have a big binder where the therapists keep all the data from their daily sessions with Gabe. Each program is broken out into targets being worked on so the therapists can see who worked on what skill and when. They keep all their data sheets here too so Gabe's progress can be tracked. They also write daily notes about how their session went. We enjoy looking through this binder to see how Gabe is doing.

Gabe has been working a lot on learning readiness and grabbing and releasing. With learning readiness, the therapists will say 'Time to work' and ask Gabe to sit on his chair or come to the table for the activity. The idea is that Gabe will do so and then wait quietly for the therapist to give the instruction. Sometimes he will try to grab at the object in front of him before he is given the instruction on what to do with it. He needs to wait for the therapist to ask him to do something with that object.

With grabbing and releasing, the therapists work on this throughout their shifts. Gabe has a habit of not releasing the object once he has completed the target skill. For example he might place a block in the correct place he needs to, but then he won't let go of the block. Many times he will pat the block like he is making sure it fits where he put it. He is getting better at letting go of the object once he completes a task since the therapists have been focusing on this.

A new program Gabe is working on is sound identification and he is doing great at it. We have several CD's that have various sounds on them such as a phone ringing, cat meowing, baby crying, person clapping, and much more. Gabe listens to the audio and then has to identify what he heard by touching the correct flashcard. This activity helps improve auditory processing skills as well as attentive listening and receptive language skills.

We have also been doing some parent training with Angie every other week. This has been a good learning experience for us. We have a list of targets to work on with Gabe and we work with Angie to make sure we are doing them correctly. Gabe is a very smart cookie. He knows mom and dad are not the same as his therapists and boy, does he test us! For example, Angie asked him to touch the red object and then find the circle and he did it with no problem. Then one of us asked him to do the same thing and he decided to touch whatever objects HE wanted to. Little stinker! And he was grinning too! Double stinker! He just needs to learn what mom and dad's expectations are.

So Gabe is staying very busy in his therapy. He is having a really good week too despite the staples in his head. Yup, you read that correctly. On Sunday, Gabe was playing in his room after his nap and he decided to try something new. We think he was trying to walk from the nightstand to his dresser, and he missed and put a nice small gash in his the back of his head. We are both still very surprised Jenn did not faint when she saw the blood on his shirt or on her hand from when she was hugging Gabe trying to calm him down. After calling our pediatrician, we went to urgent care and Gabe had two staples put in his head. It really didn't phase him one bit. He's a tough kid.

Thank you all for your support and prayers! We appreciate you all very much!

Hi everyone. We hope you are all doing well. Gabe is working on a lot of new targets in therapy. For gross motor skills, he is doing a great job at throwing a ball underhand. Playing with a ball is not high on Gabe's preferred toy list. Even though they are round and spin when you roll them, playing with a ball does not excite Gabe that much. So it is great seeing him learn things to do with a ball. Other items he is working on is stomping his feet, bouncing a ball, and balancing on one foot. Yes, balancing on one foot, how long can you all do that for?!

For fine motor skills, our little buddy is working on opening ziplock bags (both the slider and pull apart top kind) and squeezing a glue bottle. Gabe needs a lot of work on his fine motor skills. Aside from his current targets, Gabe does a lot of other activities throughout his therapy sessions that help him work on his motor skills and hand-eye coordination. The therapists are always mixing in mastered skills during his sessions so they can make sure he is maintaining what he has learned, and building on those skills.

One thing we really like about his therapy program is that many of the individual programs are inter-related so when he learns how to do something in one area such as object imitation, directions, fine motor, gross motor, etc, it can often be used in another area in a different way to help him learn something else.

One of Gabe's new targets in his directions program is prepositions. The therapists ask him to put an object either on top of, next to, under, behind, in front of, or in another object. He just started this target and we're excited to see how it goes for him.

For self-help skills, the therapists are still working diligently on pulling pants up, but they are also teaching Gabe how to pull his pants down. When we get his clothes out to dress him in the morning, he is more aware of what we are doing now and he makes a lot more effort in trying to get his clothes on.

He still really likes his shoes and is always bringing them to us so we can put them on him. One day it was raining and we told him we could not go outside right now so we did not put his shoes on him. We have learned our lesson and do not take Gabe outside to actually let him feel the rain because he does not mind it one bit. He likes to stick his tongue out to catch the raindrops. So he was not very happy with us about our decision and he went upstairs to his room upset.

After a little while it got very quiet in the house, we didn't hear Gabe at all which was unusual so we decided to check on him. We found Gabe quietly sitting on the floor with one of his shoes trying to figure out how to get it on his foot. He was really concentrating and trying different things with his foot, but he could not get it on. It was very cool seeing Gabe try to problem solve instead of staying upset about it. Of course Jenn was then so proud of him that she put his shoes on and took him outside in the rain. Now who has the upper hand again?

Thank you all for your support of Gabe's therapy program. We will fill you in on how the fundraiser in Arapahoe went in our next blog. God Bless.

Hello everyone. Jenn here.

Last weekend, Gabe participated in his first Easter egg hunt at his grandma and grandpa's house in Bellevue. Gabe's nana hid six eggs (in plain site) in their backyard for Gabe to find. Gabe had on his winter coat and hat and Ronny led him around the yard and helped him gather the eggs and put them in his Elmo Easter basket. At first Gabe was not too excited about picking up the eggs until Ronny showed him what was inside them, yummy Goldfish crackers! Gabe was then more motivated to find them so he could stuff as many crackers into his mouth as he could.

Gabe's therapy is going well. To work on his gross motor skills, Gabe is still walking on a balance beam, and other targets are rolling on the floor from side to side and walking backwards. Gabe impressed the socks off Ronny and I on Wednesday night. He started in the living room and slowly walked backwards to the stairs. Gabe then proceeded to step up the stairs backwards. He went slow and used the wall to help him with his balance. Gabe was really focused on what he was doing. Once he made it to the top of stairs, we cheered for him, but it wasn't over. He then walked backwards down the hallway until he got to the doorway of his room. He then quickly turned almost falling into the wall and ran into his room to play.

We were impressed because Gabe still gets wobbly sometimes when he walks up and down the stairs facing forward so to see him concentrate so hard and succeed at going up the stairs backwards was a big deal for him. This was also a good way for him to work on body awareness.

On Saturday, the 14th, we are heading back to Ronny's hometown of Arapahoe, NE for a fundraiser for Gabe's Gang. They are holding a wild game feed and auction and we are really looking forward to going. Ronny enjoyed growing up in Arapahoe and he has a brother Mark who still lives there. So we are also looking forward to visiting Mark and his family. Ronny has made many friends for life in this town. Arapahoe is a small town with big heart.

This coming Sunday, the 15th, Autism Speaks is holding a walk in Lincoln at the SouthPointe Pavilions Shopping Center. It begins at 1pm. Gabe's therapists are participating in the walk and will be sporting t-shirts with Gabe's face on it. We will be walking as well. Autism Speaks raises money to fund autism research. The founders of this organization have a grandson with autism. If you would like to know more about Autism Speaks, you can visit www.autismspeaks.org . We don't know what the weather will be like, but if anyone would like to join us on Sunday, we'll be there.

And last, but certainly not least, the Gabe's Gang wristbands and magnets are in HOORAY! Please let us know if you would like to help sell these items to raise money for Gabe's therapy program.

Thanks to everyone for your love and support. God bless you all.

Gabe continues to make more sounds and we did recently hear him say the coveted word "kitty". It wasn't a completely clear "kitty" like you or I would say it and we heard it among a series of other sounds, but the "k" and "t" were definitely there and our eyes lit up when we realized what he had said. His therapists continue to work on making it meaningful so he knows it's an actual word.

During the week Gabe made two other sounds that got us pretty excited. He said "dadada" and "tatata". On Wednesday night while the therapists were sampling the targets he is working on, Gabe got pretty verbal to communicate his disappointment of not being outside. Even though it was cold out that night, Gabe still wanted to go outside and play in the backyard.

So while Gabe sat in his chair working on putting Mr. Potato Head's body and feet together, he was verbally protesting by making all sorts of sounds and blowing spit-filled raspberries. Among the sounds were "dadada" and "tatata". He kind of interchanged the "d" and "t" sounds. It was great.

Gabe has been able to make the "mmm" sound for a long time and he has said "mama" before, but it has never been really directed at me-Jenn. Anytime Gabe says anything close to sounding like "mama" I become kind of a freak and I get excited and usually exclaim "Yes, I'm the mama!" and I try to get him to say it again. A lot of times he ends the excitement by becoming quiet as a mouse, but there have been times to my pure delight that he continues to make the "mmm" sound, and those moments are the best.

But the "d" sound just hasn't ever been there so Ronny had never heard "dadada" before. I hope we start hearing it more when he is babbling.

We know we don't need Gabe to say "mama" and "dada" to show us he knows who we are. Every time he glances at us and every time he smiles at us, he is letting us know. I think it's just one of those milestones every parent wants their child to reach. So we hope someday Gabe is able to call us mom and dad or my sweet mother and my old man, whatever he prefers.

In therapy, Gabe has been working hard on attending. Gabe is much more successful when he is truly focusing on the activity he is doing. Sometimes when his focus is off he will try to look at the reinforcer he is working for. Other times he will stare at his hand or fist. This is one of his autistic self-stims.

We are not experts, but this is the best way we can explain self-stimulation behaviors. Autistic individuals process information in their environment differently than others do, and no two autistic people have the exact same response to sensory stimulation. Some might feel over-stimulated while others feel under-stimulated and self-stimming is a way to get the sensory input they need. A few common examples of stimming behaviors are hand-flapping, rocking back and forth, and mouthing objects.

Self-stimming is something an autistic individual might do to gain control and focus or understanding if they are feeling confused or overwhelmed. He or she can provide themselves with the kind of sensory stimulation they need to feel calm.

Some autistic individuals engage in self-stimulation actions because they are happy or frustrated. Some individuals also engage in harmful self-stimulation behaviors such as head-banging.

When Gabe stares at his hands, to us it looks like he is trying to gain visual sensory input by the way he studies them so closely, as well as input about his body awareness. So if Gabe tries to self-stim while completing an activity, his therapists will interrupt him and redirect his focus. His therapists have done a super job of teaching Gabe how to focus during his therapy sessions.

They had to start with the basics which began with teaching him how to sit still. They would say "quiet hands and feet" and get him to do it for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, and work up to a minute. Gabe would be rewarded for doing it. Then they had to teach him to sit in a chair and look at the activity they wanted him to do. This is on top of trying to teach him the new skill itself. So as you can tell it's a lot of hard work and his therapists are superstars.

If Gabe is playing and we see him start staring at his hands, we will try to help him understand what he is looking at by labeling his hands, fingers, and fist and telling him things like "those are your hands" and "you clap your hands". We will show him our hands so he can see we have fingers too.

Another stimming behavior Gabe does is spin in circles, but he doesn't do this as much anymore. When he was a baby, he would crawl in circles quite often. But now we only see him occasionally spin in circles and it is very easy to redirect Gabe's attention to something else that will help him gain the sensory input he desires. As you know he loves his toys so getting him to focus on something else he enjoys and can gain sensory input from is easy. Or we can always give him some Nerds candy! Ha!

Have a super weekend everyone. Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

Hello everyone. We still have not heard Gabe say kitty so we continue to anxiously wait for that moment. On Tuesday night he was making the 'K' sound a lot, but never quite put the 'T' sound with it. We know he is definitely hearing the word kitty from us more though. We have stopped chasing him around saying it, but instead we are dropping subtle hints when we talk to him. "Gabe, let's find your chair for dinner time (kitty). Do you want your drink (kitty)? Gabe, let's go to the potty (kitty). What toy do you want (kitty)? Let's go outside (kitty)." So we hope this works.

We recently took Gabe to the Bellevue Public Library to do some therapy activities with him there. For the first 15 minutes we let him walk around the entire library. His little legs can go so fast. People got a kick out of watching him go in and out of the book aisles.

Gabe found the drinking fountains and we had a fun time trying to get him to drink from it. He kept opening his mouth as wide as it could go and sticking his tongue out so the water would just fall out. We kept tipping his head back trying to trap some water in his mouth for him to swallow. We got water up his nose three times and in his eyes twice, but he really did not seem to mind. He loved getting wet.

Gabe did a good job working on several activities and we want to mention the cutest and grossest thing he did while he was there.

One of the targets we asked Gabe to do was "Pick up Mickey Mouse and kiss". Mickey is a big stuffed animal. Gabe did this perfectly so we moved on to the next target which was "Put man in car and roll car". After a few prompts, Gabe was then a superstar with this target as well. He got Nerds candy for doing a great job.

Jenn then gave him one of his favorite books to look at so she could record the data from the activity, but Gabe was not interested. He threw the book on the floor, snatched Mickey off the table, and took off running full speed. As Gabe went racing around a table, we noticed he was kissing Mickey as he ran. He made it to the fish aquarium near the entrance. Gabe then stopped kissing Mickey and started kissing the fish aquarium, then started licking it! GROSS! The drinking fountain came in handy for the next 10 minutes. We then put Mickey in Gabe's bag and zipped it up so there would be no more sudden kiss and run episodes. We guess that Gabe figured if he was going to escape from therapy time, maybe it would be okay with mom and dad as long he did some therapy on the run. Nice try Gabe.

As for his weekly therapy, Gabe is working hard on his direction targets which are "wait", "come here" and responding to his name. Like we've mentioned before, we can call Gabe's name 15 times and he will not respond, but if we pick up a toy he likes and start playing with it, he will instantly look over at us. So it takes a lot of repetition and finding the right reinforcer to get Gabe to learn to follow directions.

Gabe is also working on a new puzzle with numbers. He is really into looking at numbers lately whether they are on a flashcard, on T.V. or in a book. He has especially been checking out the calendar. His grandma thinks he was checking to see when he gets a day off of therapy, but we know he was really studying the numbers.

Have a super weekend everyone. Thanks so much for all your support, we really appreciate it!

Hi everyone. We received a few questions asking about how Gabe lost his front teeth. This is a long, but good story that Jenn will tell you.

When I saw Gabe in the morning before he went to preschool, his front teeth were all in tact, but when I picked him up later from daycare, they were broken - pieces of his teeth were missing.

I called Gabe's name and he walked to the steps and smiled at me. When I saw his tongue peering out of the small hole in his front teeth, I said frantically "Where are his teeth?!!" I know that question was not really accurate since his front teeth were actually there, I was just shocked that they weren't whole anymore.

Gabe's daycare provider didn't know what I meant so she looked at his teeth and was surprised to see them cracked. She told me Gabe had not cried once, ate well, and was in a very happy mood. She said the bus driver did not mention anything happening at school either, and she usually did. I immediately got upset. I was confused how my little man broke his teeth and I was the first to notice.

I put Gabe in his car seat and as we pulled out of the driveway the cry fest began. No, Gabe wasn't crying, I was. Gabe was actually giggling in the back. I calmed down and called Ronny and asked him if there was anything wrong with Gabe's teeth when he took him to school. Kind of an odd question I know. Ronny said no and as I started to talk a mile a minute asking how is it that no one noticed his broken teeth but me, Ronny then told me that Gabe fell pretty hard in the kitchen that morning and cried. Gabe falling down was not uncommon as he was still learning how to step over or around toys and other objects instead of stepping right on them.

Ronny said he checked Gabe's mouth and did not notice anything weird. I told him I was 100% sure he would have noticed his broken teeth! After reading a note from school I found out he had hit his lip that day and it gave him a small mark, but that alone would not have caused his teeth to break. So I realized the fall at home was the cause, but I don't really know when the bits of teeth actually broke off. It could have happened when he hit his mouth at school or maybe if he was pushing on his teeth hard enough with his tongue. I think it's more likely they broke off during lunch or snack time. He had just had a snack about a half hour before I picked him up from daycare. So we'll actually never know.

So we got use to Gabe's little sharp broken teeth. We know his fall could have been a lot worse, and these were also just his baby teeth. We took him in for a checkup and the one tooth that had broke off to the gums had a tiny bit of nerve (pulp) showing and was turning gray because it was dying. This concerned us as well as how sharp both teeth were. Gabe also could not tell us if he was experiencing any pain (toothaches) from his teeth. After discussing his options, the dentist thought it was best to pull them so we did.

I could not be in the room for this so Ronny did the honors of helping hold Gabe still. I sat in the waiting room and listened to my little buddy scream. Yuck! While Gabe was at the peak of his screams, new prospective patients came in for a quick tour of the facility. You should have seen the look on the little girl's face when she heard Gabe screaming. She looked at me and I bulged my eyes out, frowned my lips, and slowly shook my head no - JUST KIDDING! I would never do that! The receptionist said something reassuring to the little girl and I told the family that Gabe had some sensory issues with brushing his teeth, which was and still is true.

Finally my boys came out and they were both a sweaty mess. Gabe had a rag in his mouth soaking up the blood. I took him in my arms and he fell asleep immediately. He was exhausted from the whole ordeal. Ronny said the dentist was very gentle and he was amazed at how easily Gabe's teeth came out. He also said Gabe cried more when the dentist cleaned his teeth, then when his teeth were actually being pulled.

So there you have, this is how Gabe lost his two front teeth. Thanks for the question!

Hi everyone. We have some big news, are you sitting down?! Most of you probably are sitting down while you check out this blog, but in the event that a few of you are standing up doing deep knee bends while you surf the internet, we ask that you sit down for this.

Gabe said kitty. Yes, you read that correctly Gabe SAID kitty!! Now stand up, yell WOO-HOO, and dance a jig! We don't care if you churn the butter, do the jitter bug, or start break-dancing, just do it and smile!

This happened yesterday. Angie, Amber, and Crystal are the ones who heard him say it. They were so excited. When we heard the news, we freaked out! We were like What? He SAID what? Are you serious?!? Like this is something his therapists would joke about right?

So this is HUGE! Now he's not saying it all the time and we could not get him to say it last night. Trust me, Ronny tried. He was chasing Gabe around holding one of the cats saying "Kitty, kitty, kitty, Gabe say kitty" and Gabe just smiled and kept playing with his toy. So he said kitty on his own terms a few times and his therapists are going to work hard to pair that word with the cats to make it meaningful, and of course try to get him to say it some more. The fact that he has put these sounds together to form this word is so great and we really can't wait to hear it ourselves.

The therapists also said they are hearing a lot of different sounds from Gabe lately which is very motivating. They are really working hard on the "mmm" sound still and doing a lot of pairing of sounds with words such as the "p" sound with the word push when he goes on the swings and the "ow" sound for when he wants to go outside.

So these are exciting times. We will keep you posted on the "kitty" progress and let you know the moment we hear Gabe say this word. Jenn might have to be given oxygen afterwards so we'll write a blog after we get back from the hospital?

We feel this message needs to stand on it's own so we will be writing another one tomorrow with a few other updates so be sure to check this out over the weekend for more news.

Thank you all for your continued support. It means the world to us!

Hi everyone.

Gabe is really into social reinforcement from the therapists this week. He is also having fun playing outside on his swing set. He loves being outdoors so his therapists are using going outside as both a reinforcer and also as something fun to do when they take breaks. Because going outside is so motivating, the therapists are teaching him the sign for "outside". We think he will be able to get this one quickly.

A new program Gabe is working on is an activity schedule. We have three bins that have different activities in them. What Gabe must do is grab a bin, bring it to his work table, take the activity out of the bin, complete the activity, put it back in the bin, and then put it back on the shelf. He has to do this with all three bins in order to complete this task. He is doing well. The activities are things they know he can do that work on fine motor skills such as stacking blocks, putting together a puzzle, doing a shape sorter, or activating a certain toy. And the actions involved are things he's worked on as well such as "taking out" and "putting in".

Gabe did really good last week with pulling his sock all the way on. They would put his sock on half way and then ask him to pull it on the rest of the way. This week he is working on pulling his pants up. He does a great job pulling the front of his pants up so extra attention is being placed on pulling the back of his pants up. What he does is pull the front up and he kind of forgets that his diaper butt is still exposed in the back. He is working so hard at it.

We wanted to thank everyone for their support of Gabe's program. Your generous donations are going to keep his program going for the next three months. We are sincerely grateful to everyone for their contributions, and also for your continued prayers. We know we are truly blessed.

We also wanted people to know that we will be getting the wristbands and magnets in during the last week of March so we will be contacting those of you interested in selling them very soon. We are excited about kicking this fundraiser off during April which is Autism Awareness Month!

Hello everyone. We know this will make you all very proud so we couldn't wait to tell you. Gabe pooped in the potty today! Can we get a Woo-Woo! Gabe is not potty-trained yet and he has quite a ways to go in this area, but his therapists take him to the potty throughout their shifts. Our prince does a pretty good job of sitting still on his little throne. We think his favorite part of the potty experience is washing his hands afterwards. He really likes the water.

For gross motor skills, Gabe is working on walking on a balance beam. Many of you might be saying to yourself right now, "I can't even walk on a balance beam". Gabe is doing good so far. He tries to do this little shuffle step across it where he steps with one foot and the other foot goes behind it, and the goal is to step right left right left.He is also working on shaking his head yes. This will come in handy when we ask him questions such as "Is daddy the coolest guy around?"

Gabe is always working on following directions. Right now the target they are focusing on is "Go get ______ and bring to me". The directions program is very important. Other targets they've worked on includes commands such as "Touch _____", "Pick up ______", "Give me ______", and "Go to _________".

So Gabe continues to work really hard in therapy. Thank you for all your support everyone!

We also wanted to share a lesson about leaving yogurt on the table.

Gabe is doing so much better at feeding himself now. He does a great job holding the utensils so the focus is now on scooping the food onto the utensil, and then getting it to his mouth without falling off. He is getting better at scooping all the time.

So last Thursday, I (Jenn) was home with Gabe because of the snowstorm. For an afternoon snack, I got Gabe some crackers and myself some strawberry yogurt. This is one kind of food Gabe will definitely touch. He enjoys shoveling lots of Goldfish and Gerber crackers into his mouth. I needed to leave the room for about 90 seconds so I put a few crackers on the coffee table for Gabe to have while I was gone. When I came back, my very own pink yogurt snowstorm had hit the living room.

I did not actually see what took place, but this is what I think happened. Gabe saw my yogurt sitting on the table with the spoon in it. I imagine that he grabbed the spoon and was able to get a good first bite of yogurt but then after that, it all went downhill. He hasn't mastered how to hold the container still with one hand so he can scoop with the other. So he probably stuck the spoon in the container again and tried to scoop and it fell over. He probably tried again and the container then fell on the floor.

When I came back, yogurt was everywhere! It was all over the coffee table, the carpet, Gabe, and his little chair that was nearby. He had yogurt on the front and back of both his shirt and pants, and all over his socks. His face and hands were covered in it! He also had some in one of his sideburns (he is in desperate need of a haircut). He was standing in the middle of the mess still holding the spoon in his hand. Poor guy! He must have tried so hard to eat that yogurt.

After I cleaned everything up and changed Gabe, I got another yogurt out and helped him eat it. I actually did not have to help him very much at all. He was a scooping machine. I only had to make sure the container did not get away from him. While we were doing this, our cat Potatoes walked by us and I noticed that she had pink yogurt on her tail. I REALLY wish I would have seen this child in action while he battled that yogurt.

Hi everyone. We hope this blog message finds you all doing well.

First we want to tell you what Gabe did on Saturday. Since Gabe's balance and stair climbing ability has gotten so much better, we let him go upstairs and downstairs as much as he wants. He likes to go downstairs in the basement because this is where he does the majority of his therapy so there are a lot of toys, books, and puzzles down there. We check on him a lot, and aside from climbing behind the couch to get to some toys that he knows are in hiding back there, he does really well in the basement. Saturday afternoon we heard him playing with one of his toys and then all of a sudden we heard a loud thud. Jenn ran down the stairs to make sure Gabe was not hurt. Gabe was not hurt and was actually quite happy. Gabe is becoming more aware of his surroundings every week, and this is a great thing. We have two organizers and the therapists each have a drawer where they keep pens and other supplies. In the midst of playtime, Gabe noticed the box of Nerds candy in Angie's drawer, and he wanted it. Like we mentioned last week, he is Nerds crazy. Since he did not know how to open the drawer, he pulled down both of the organizers and of course the drawers came flying out hence the loud thud. There were little Nerd candies all over the floor and Gabe was eating them up one by one. He was going to get his Nerds one way or another. :)

The block imitation we mentioned last week is going very well. He can place four blocks on four different squares now. The therapists have started taking Gabe on outings to Wal-mart and the library. On these outings, they work on certain mastered skills to make sure he can generalize and not only do them at home, but in other settings. On one of his outings to the library Amber said there were a group of children there and Gabe was watching them. Amber said he was a little timid but that he did take a step towards them, but then stepped back to her for his safety. Hearing that Gabe was showing some interest in the other children is a really good thing.

Two other activities Gabe is working on is play sequencing and movie exposure. In play sequencing, he is learning how to play with his Fisher-Price farmhouse appropriately. The therapists show Gabe that for example the pig goes in the mud and then he has to imitate them by placing the pig in the mud. The therapists say he is doing really well. Teaching Gabe how to play appropriately is very important. He lacks pretend play skills so the toy and what it can do has to be broken down and taught step by step. He likes his farmhouse because it makes animal noises so playing with it is very rewarding to him. With movie exposure, the therapists are trying to expand his interests and also teach him to sit appropriately and attend to the T.V. When we say sit appropriately, we mean sitting on his bum either in a chair or on their lap. Gabe often likes to look at the T.V. upside down or sideways. We've tried it and watching T.V. upside down is tough! Angie said he was really into the Backyardigans, Thomas the Train, and Lilo and Stitch videos. We know just about every Wiggles song out there so we as parents need to brush up on all those other characters children like. It's just the Wiggles are sooo good. HA! Variety is a good thing. We think all parents would agree with us. :)

We'll be updating his blog every week so tune in for more next week. Thanks for all your love, support and prayers everyone!

We would like to start off by introducing 5 key members of Gabe's Gang. Gabe works with four therapists and one consultant who oversees his program. Crystal is Gabe's consultant. The therapists are Amber, Angie, Katie, and Tina. We refer to these special people by their first name and wanted you to know who we were talking about.

Gabe is working on mastering his first vocal imitation. The 'mmmmmm' sound. He was able to successfully imitate this sound twice. For us, this is a huge update in his progress. Crystal said it takes a lot more thought process for non-verbal kids to produce sounds. So once this is mastered, it will be huge.

Object imitation is another cornerstone of Gabe's therapy program. He does a great job stacking blocks and can even stack a three foot tower. Tonight the therapist practiced block placement, instead of stacking. They use a piece of paper with two squares on it. Then Gabe has to place a lego block on each square. At first he tried to stack the blocks, because that's what he's learned to do. But after showing him what he's suppose to do and prompting him, he finally did it. Crystal said he is generalizing instead of differentiating this new task.

His therapists found a new and exciting reinforcer to get him to complete an activity. Nerds candy. He absolutley loves them. We couldn't believe how effective one little nerd was. He wanted the nerds BAD!!!!!!!!

Because he liked them so much they are going to teach him the sign for candy. The sign for candy is pointing your index finger, touching your cheek and twisting your finger back and forth. Gabe tried, but failed the first few times....instead he was able to stick his finger up his nose :) Ah, every parents dream. Eventually he did get it right.

As the therapists sampled his programs for us, we were very impressed with how well he sat in his chair and attended. Our therapists do an outstanding job with Gabe.

Hi everyone! Welcome to Gabe's first blog. We just wanted to tell you what you can expect to find on this blog. We will be updating the blog on Wednesday nights so you will be able to check it every Thursday to find out what's new in Gabe's world. We will let you know what he's working on with his therapists and how his progress is going. We will also share any stories with you that we think you might enjoy hearing about. So please tune in every week to learn how Gabe's therapy is going. If you ever have any questions or would like to know about something we haven't talked about, please email us at ronnyandjenn@gabesgang.com and we will make sure we get that topic in a future blog. We are very excited about sharing our experiences with you!

For this week, we wanted to take a moment to tell you what we did yesterday on Valentine's Day. No, it wasn't anything romantic, but it was very important to us. We attended a hearing in Lincoln at the Capitol building for an autism bill LB482. This bill is for a medicaid waiver that will help cover early intervention based on behavior principles for autistic children. What is being proposed is a five year pilot program where autistic children (under the age of 9) will receive intensive behavior therapy services. All the details of this pilot program has not been decided, but the idea is that in the first year 60 children would be involved in the program, and then it would increase by 60 more children every year. This program would be a huge step forward in helping serve autistic children's needs in our state. We know that the progress these children will make will show the state of Nebraska that intensive therapy is not an unnecessary expense, but rather a great investment and a critical necessity to their health and well-being. Although this bill would not reach all autistic children, it would be a great start. So we are supporting it 100%. Our hope is that because of this effort, there will be more autism services provided so even more children will be reached in the future!

We think the hearing well went. The testimonies given in support of this bill were excellent. It was made clear that our state is doing very little to help autistic children and their families get the financial help they need, and that this needs to change. Our state needs to invest in these children early so we can greatly improve their quality of life while saving tax payers literally millions of dollars per child over that child's lifetime. If the state helps these children now while they are young, the outcomes of their future will be better.

We will keep you posted on this bill when we hear any news about it in the future.

Thanks for supporting Gabe everyone!