Do you hear what I hear?

With Andrew's speech blossoming like crazy in the past month (thanks to little brother doing the same), I'm actually starting to hear more than just the little voices in my head talk to me during the day. Andrew is starting to express more frequently what he wants as well as getting my attention to share with me things that he observes...BIG steps for our Andrew!!! He's also starting to try and understand emotions; a complicated area for children with autism as emotions are not concrete things such as numbers, colors, letters,etc.. He gives me a status report on Sam every day as we pick him up from school; "Sam is awake. Sam is happy"
Let's not forget Sammy. His favorite things to say usually involve informing me that something just "fell down" or was dropped. "Uh oh, the melon fell down!", he announces a split second before he launches a piece of his lunch on the floor. He also likes to walk around the house and search for brother calling out, "Andrew, where are you?"
We are all pretty much healthy now as I am now on antibiotics for a sinus infection, but I'm feeling better. Demel is looking forward to a "week off" when the boys and I join grandma for a trip to Wisconsin for cousin Ian's first birthday over an extended Easter weekend. We're looking forward to that very much!

Stayin' Alive!

That about sums up the past weeks in the Gonzalez house and gives me at least a partial excuse for not posting in such a long time. It's amazing how your world can change in a matter of hours. Two weeks ago, the day was starting as usual. We went to church, then out to lunch with friends, then home for Sam's nap before the rest of our day's events. Shortly after returning home from lunch, however, I plopped myself on the bed and told Demel that I didn't feel so good. I thought maybe my lunch wasn't settling well. I then proceeded to take a two-hour nap. (A treat I don't normally enjoy) When I woke up, I felt worse. Sam woke up grumpy and threw up and I did the same. Oh no! Long story shorter...by midnight, all four of us were ill. Sam slept through the night without a peep which was a Godsend since Demel and I were tending to Andrew the vomit launcher while weak and queasy ourselves. This was some nasty virus that we had. My mom came over Monday to help us out, all the while exposing herself to whatever it was that we had. I was starting to feel better by Monday night and was fine enough Tuesday that I even shampooed the family room carpet as it had been on the receiving end of a few"episodes" when the bowl didn't make it to the child in time. (Anyone want to come over for a slumber party on our floor?) Well, things were starting to look better even though we were still having a hard time getting Andrew to drink anything, since he couldn't even keep liquids down on Monday. Wednesday morning started at about 4:15am for Sam and myself as he was having a little relapse and I went in his room to find that he had thrown up but has also, how should I say, exploded from the rear as well. Good old mom came over again to help on Wednesday as I was getting overwhelmed with sick kids and starting to stress out over the fact that Andrew was not eating anything and drinking only about 6 ounces of fluids a day, clearly not enough. In fact it was bad enough that his pediatrician suggested that we take him to the ER to get IV fluids. We spent 4 hours there in total, only to be sent home after they drained his bladder with a catheter and we managed to get him to drink some juice there...that was a waste of $100. This is a long story. Are you all actually still reading this... Okay, Thursday was not better, it was worse. Demel, Sam and I were on the rebound but poor little Andrew was showing no signs of improvement. I nervously took Andrew to the doctor's office that afternoon only to experience the worst possible experience with the pediatrician. While Dr. Karen (a friend of ours, by the way) was checking Andrew's throat, it triggered a gag and he proceeded to throw up all over Karen, himself and me. Sam trotted over to see what all the commotion was about just in time to "catch" the second round of Andrew's stomach contents. So now the two children in the room are both crying and the two adults are trying to calm them down and wipe off the yuck that covered us. Fast forward a few hours...Demel, Andrew and myself arrive at the hospital children's ER once again but this time, Sam is with us because my mom was now at home sick with the virus that she got as a thank you for helping us earlier in the week. Demel and Sam went home to sleep after the nurse told us that we would probably be there for a while. And were we ever. Andrew had two x-rays to make sure there were no blockages anywhere, since it had now been 24 hours since he had peed. They came back okay so it was determined the next step would be to get an IV going. Poor little guy was still pretty strong as it took myself and two nurses to hold him down and still so the third nurse could put in the IV. He was so dehydrated that the first two veins actually collapsed! After a 1000 mL bag of IV fluids he started to be a little alert... even though it was 4:00 in the morning. The doctor wouldn't release us until he peed and drank something. Well, he did finally pee...but it was an uphill battle getting anything in this kid's mouth. After trying for 5 hours to get him to drink I finally put it God's hands. I prayed and cried that he needed the help of his Heavenly Father because his Earthly mother has done all she can and is exhausted. Upon saying "Amen" I offered him his cup once again, and he took it and drank it down...all 10 ounces!!! Prayer answered, miracle performed!!!!! The road to recovery was slow, but we are just about back to normalcy in the Gonzalez house. Back to swinging dining room chandeliers and pushing each other down... ah, life is sweet!