3rd...

Very excited to start 3rd grade! Hunter has a wonderful teacher, and is now only needing minimal support from the Special Ed Teacher and aide. He no longer needs OT & PT, only on a consult basis and his time in the Gen Ed classroom is increased to 95%! An amazing thing happened in the middle of his 3rd grade year, there was a note that came home for the talent show. Hunter like I have said, always loved to sing, but he had never done it by himself, in front of anyone let alone his entire school. Hunter on his own decided to do a song from High School Musical, called "You are the Music in Me" which was a duet, but Hunter came up with his own solo version. I can't even begin to tell you how overwhelmed with happiness I was when I saw him up there for the first time on stage, all by himself, and so comfortable, like he had being doing this his entire life. He entertained the entire school, all of his teachers from Early Childhood, Special Ed and all of his General Ed teachers were watching him. All of the office staff, Principals & Specialists were watching him. There were many tears from many people that day. It is one of those days you don't ever forget! It was the start of Hunter wanting to become an entertainer! :)

2nd...

Grade 2 started off a bit rocky. Because of a mix up with his assigned teacher, we had to meet with the Principal so he did not get to go to school on the first day. That is hard for any child, but especially for a child with Autism. He still asks about it today. He was devastated and did not understand why...I felt horrible!!! Hunter's love of music is enormous. One of the positives that year, the Music teacher noticed that Hunter had a sweet little voice and asked him to be in his Choir class, he was so excited and absolutely loved it. They did a performance for an At Risk school and Hunter loved performing there. Unfortunately, that was the last year that Mr. "S" would be the Music teacher - he decided he needed to move to an At Risk school to help children in need...he was truly missed and there has not been a Choir program since which was unfortunate for Hunter because Choir gave Hunter a feeling that he was part of something special!

1st...

We really felt like this was the year we wanted to retain him, it was our best chance to do it. We figured it would not effect him if we did it when he was so young, but Hunter knew he was 'graduating' from Kindergarten and moving on to 1st grade. The school again fought us and told us he would do awesome. I had no doubts about how well he would do academically, he was definitely above grade level, but sometimes socially/emotionally is more important and they did not want to listen to that! Hunter sat in on a first grade class and they were sitting on the floor, learning how to look up words in a dictionary. Hunter thought that was so cool, he loved dictionaries (still does)! Then they played a game called 'SPARKLE' - when you stand in a circle and spell out vocabulary words by taking turns with the letters and if you mess up, you sit down. Hunter was one of the 3 left standing, and remember this was a 1st grade class a few weeks away from being 2nd graders and he was one of the youngest in Kindergarten. When I met with this teacher to ask her how he did, she was amazed - she  would become his 1st grade teacher within a month (Hunter's school is year round) and he adored her right away...there was no turning back. Hunter was placed in 1st grade, spending 90% of his day in the General Ed classroom with an Aide that was nearby. The other 10% was spent in O.T, P.T and Speech, he also qualified for Adapted P.E since he had many gross motor challenges and really low muscle tone. There were alot of new things he got to do as cool 1st grader - this was the year they would start Specials; Music, Art, Computers, Science and P.E. They also ate lunch in the M.P room with their class and since there were around 1,100 kids on year round schedule, the Principal kept a tight ship, it was really run like a Private School. You can imagine the noise level at lunch but he did an amazing job at keeping it as quiet as possible. Hunter still needed to have cotton in his ears in the beginning to soften the sounds, but overall he did great. Hunter's teacher updated me almost daily on how he did, I really appreciated that. At the end of the year, his class did a little play for all the parents, he memorized his lines immediately and he was one of the few that was not scared to get up in front of everyone. I will never forget that feeling of being the proudest mom in the world...

Kindergarten...

Very emotional day, my little boy is only 5 and starting Kindergarten, wow! No more self-contained class, he was now mainstreamed with an aide nearby if he needed her. Hunter did a half-day program in the mornings and then got home and worked late into the nights doing intensive therapy. He also did some outside Occupational Therapy. He never complained or protested. I think the structure of his very well-organized day was really good for him. He met many kids his first week, there were 36 in his class, and by the second or third day, he had memorized all of their names. The girls were the most helpful, like little mommies wanting to help whenever they were needed. Hunter thrived in Kindergarten, he had a wonderful teacher that really cared about him and knew he was capable of anything so she did not treat him any differently than any other child. To this day, he still talks about the one time he got in trouble in class. It was an innocent mistake, they were working with geobands and Hunter's came off and shot across the room. It was his first time in trouble at school and he took it really hard, he has never forgotten it and still wants to talk about it...Hunter never forgets anything...

you are just so smart...

As I mentioned before, Hunter's B-Day is in September. Most kids that have September B-Days wait until the following year to enter Kindergarten. I don't regret too many things in my life, but my biggest regret is not giving him that extra year that he desperately needed! Everyone from his school told us that he should definitely enter Kindergarten at 5, that he was way too smart and that if he waited another year, we could see behaviors due to not being challenged enough. Hunter was reading at a 1st grade level and testing above grade level in math and vocabulary. To this day, there have been very few 'behaviors' that he has exhibited at school - I now believe they were wrong but at the time, I had nothing to compare it too so I trusted his IEP team. Anyone that is going through that same dilemma, go with your own instincts, you know your child better than anyone else. It is now too late to retain Hunter, so he is the youngest 5th grader in class, and socially not ready for middle school but our hands are tied unless we move him to private school. Also, Hunter wants to remain with "his friends"... it is very tough!

Pre-K years...

Hunter loves school, always has and I hope that never changes! Today as I write this, his elementary years are coming to an end which scares me, but I can only hope the next 7 years are as good as the first 7 have been! Pre-K was awesome, he was in the program from the moment he turned 3 to 5. He loved going to school, he loved his teacher and her aides, and he loved his little friends that were just like him. The class also had "typical peers" that they used for little role models which was a great thing! The class was totally self-contained, they even ate in class but he loved that little safe world. Hunter loved circle time, of course he adored Music, he excelled in Art, loved doing calendar time, was one of the best puzzle masters in class (when most kids were doing 10 pc puzzles - Hunter was challenging himself with 100 pcs) - he just loved learning about anything new. It was 2 of the best years of his early childhood. It was hard to let him go into the large Kindergarten class but there was no stopping Hunter, he was just ready!

the first workshop...

It was 8:00 am, a Saturday and the day was finally here, it was sometime in January 2004. Today was our very first workshop. I was really excited, very overwhelmed and a bit scared to start our ABA therapy.  We had 3 consultants and 2 tutors that would be designing Hunter's program. We had heard that the kids do not always like the workshops, that they tend to protest to "coming to the chair" and that it can be a difficult transition. Not for our boy! He loved every minute of it, maybe it was because he is an only child, and loved all the attention, or maybe he knew that this was going to give him the tools that he so desperately needed to survive in this very big world!? They called him to the chair for the first time, and he went right over with a gigantic Hunter smile that melted the entire room! Everyone clapped and cheered, he just looked at them like, "are you guys crazy"? They did some basic questions, he nailed them, then they told him to "go play". He looked confused but followed their lead and everyone cheered again. It only took Hunter about 2 times for him to get that he would get all this positive reinforcement with cheers and clapping when he would do something correctly, and boy did he LOVE it! By the third trial, he looked at everyone right before he was going to answer their question with this cool look on his face and little swagger, like I know I am going to nail it and impress these strangers and get them to cheer---he was right! His reinforcement that first day was raisins, he was working for raisins (M did not want him to have candy or sugar when he was little) so that was his treat, and he worked so very hard for them! I think by the end of that first day, probably in the 6th hour or so, he was also working for rocket ship rides in his chair from one of the coolest male consultants. Hunter was on his way...

the diet...

ABA really seemed to be working for Hunter but we also wanted to put him on a gluten/casein free diet which we had read so much about. Under a gastroenterologist's care, we tried this specialized diet for 6 months but personally, we did not notice a big difference. At first, the doctor thought he had Celiac Disease but it turned out to be a false positive. After the 6 months, we limited his gluten intake and just tried to feed him as healthy as possible. Hunter had alot of sensory issues with foods and their textures. He went to a 4 week food camp, they met for 2 hrs once a week and tried to get the kids to touch the food, keep the food on the same plate even though some kids did not like the food touching other things on their plate, they needed to tolerate it, tough love, huh? They worked up to touching it to their lips and hopefully by the end of the camp, they would be able to eat certain foods. Hunter brought a note home that said, "great job today, I kissed a grape and ate a piece of corn and did not care if my watermelon touched my peas", woohoo!! :)

the program...

In 2003 there were only a few programs supported by the school district, the one we were lucky enough to get was the Lovaas program through UCLA, it was also the one program that showed actual data of children showing signs of recovery...we knew this was the program for us! I remember meeting some of their consultants and other families for an orientation about the program, and I remember meeting a little boy around 10 yrs old (Hunter's age today) - hoping one day he would be doing as well as that little boy, he seemed remarkable and it was hard to tell that he had Autism. I also remember them asking Hunter questions like shapes, he knew all his shapes, he recited the alphabet, counted to who knows what number and was able to say his name and age when asked. They were very impressed and said Hunter would do great with ABA, they said he already had so much going into the program, plus we found out that he had an extremely high IQ for a child with Autism which was another positive. So, Hunter would be going to school from 9-12, come home eat lunch, do an ABA session from 1-3 and sometimes another one from 4-6 on Monday's  through Friday's. He would also do at least one 3 hour session on Saturday and sometimes another one on Sunday. He was a very busy little guy, working harder than anyone I knew, and I soon became what M likes to call "principal to a one pupil school" making sure I digested everything that was taught to him on a daily basis so we could both apply it to his everyday life outside of programming and school.

the move...

All settled into our fabulous new house by the first of September - Hunter has no problems adjusting, he loves it and is okay with the big move and the really big house with stairs, yeah! We are now just a few days away from his official 3rd birthday so now we can get our appt with ChildFind here in NV. Again, more questionnaires, more tests and then we finally get the paperwork to register him into school into a Pre-K Special Ed program. His actual diagnosis was Autism, he did not meet criteria for Asperger's, he did not have the language for that diagnosis. We were told he had 'High-Functioning Autism'. His delays were about 1 1/2 years behind the typical child, that was extremely hard to hear but I believed in him and we were going to work very hard to make sure that gap did not get any wider. I am now okay with his Autism, I now understand, and I will not let a "label" get in the way of what we need to do! We are beyond lucky to get a first year teacher, so sweet and caring, a complete angel named "Miss P", a tiny little colorful classroom with fun toys and cool things and only 2 other lovely little boys in the class at the time. Hunter also received Occupational and Speech Therapies in school which were also a big help! We are off to a great start...we know being in a school with others is going to help, since Hunter is an only child, we just knew he would thrive being around other kids his age. We also knew from our research that we wanted to get started in an ABA therapy home program as soon as possible! During our first IEP, we were lucky that his teacher and school believed that Hunter could really benefit from an intensive therapy program like ABA so we were able to get it through the school district. Super lucky this was not during all the horrible budget cuts like we are going through right now! Something else remarkable happened a few months after his 3rd B-day which won't sound to impressive to most but it was everything to me. Hunter never pointed, which so many babies do when they want your attention, or want to show their parents something. We had just pulled in the Target parking lot and got out of the car, Hunter pointed to something in the sky, I almost died. He did it again and said "plane". This was the very first time he pointed, I was shocked and so happy I remember calling M at work to tell him. It's the simple little things that some may take for granted but they mean everything to a parent that has a child with Autism!

the big "3"...

A big party was already planned, even though I did not want to celebrate this year. It was all of his mommy & me girlfriends and their parents which were all very supportive, his music teacher was coming to the park to do a "Music Together" birthday party surprise (which I was a little fearful about), his friends from music, some friends from our jobs at EarthLink, childhood friends of mine and our family that lived in the area. I was praying for a happy day for all of us...it actually turned out great and it would be the last time that we would see all of those friends together. Timing was a bit scary for us at this point, but we had just sold our house and M had just taken a job in Las Vegas (where we still live today). We researched the programs/school info that was offered to children with Autism, it definitely was not as good as CA. but there was no turning back now. We spoke with a local support group called FEAT and to this day, they are still a very valuable resource to so many families just like ours. I was super scared about the move, but looking forward to a new beginning. We made sure that our house was near a good elementary school since we knew Hunter would be able to start school after getting our final evaluation from the State of NV. At this point, I feel very blessed, my little boy is amazing, healthy and happy! We had already committed to ourselves to do everything we possible could in the very important "informative" years where his little brain was mold-able. I had a vision that day that when Hunter gets older, he will be able to make a difference in the Autism community, at that point, I didn't know how or what it would be but I just knew that he would - call it mother's intuition :) I make a promise to myself to never look at his Autism as a negative, just a positive, a beautiful gift and I have never looked back, just moved forward full steam ahead which I knew would be the best gift I could ever give to my son!

next step...

After the neurologist's appt. I asked M why he was not so happy, he said that he thinks he just sugar-coated the diagnosis for us for our sake. He remembered reading that PDD-NOS was under the Autism umbrella, the very large spectrum that it is. Within minutes of leaving that office, I was devastated again. Next step, to get an appt. with the Regional Center in CA. I was excited to get in there right away, almost wanting to prove the neurologist wrong. We had to wait for over a month for his appointment, another really lengthy questionnaire and when the day finally came, a really long day with a battery of tests with Hunter. They had a room set up with tons of toys, but he did not seem to want to play, when she handed him a circle to put in the shape sorter, he could not seem to do it, he did not make eye contact, and just sat at the table looking at a puzzle. They did not give us their official diagnosis that day but it was soon after. His diagnosis, Autism but she told us that we were lucky, lucky I thought?! She said he was on the very high-functioning side of the spectrum that is why the original diagnosis of PDD-NOS was given. She thought the future looked bright for him with early intervention and getting him into a program within the public school system as soon as he turned 3 which was just a few weeks away...

the good news is...

After all of M's research, we started to see some big differences that were not as easily explained as a 'boy thing'! Now with our music teacher and a total stranger sharing their opinion, we needed to get into the pediatrician today, stat! Then I remember something from a few years prior, I remember clearly being in the doctors office and asked if our baby could have Autism because of this little event: Hunter was 11 mos old and was suppose to be down for his nap but we heard the little song bird so we quietly walked in his room. He was sitting there, super happy, just rocking his little body, we quickly nicknamed him Ray-Ray for Ray Charles because he was humming, swaying his head back and forth and smiling, it was adorable. The doctor said oh no, he does not have Autism and you can not diagnose a child until after they turn 3 (this was in 2000). I remember both M and I feeling relief that day at his almost 1 year check up. I also remember another funny thing around the same time where again, he was suppose to be napping and we walked in to check on him and he was standing up looking into his little fishbowl aquarium, not the tank where the pretend fish swim, but the little hole on top, like it was a TV or something, it just seemed a bit strange to me. Okay, back now to 2003, right before his 3rd B-Day we go to the pediatrician and this time, they do not say anything other than they cannot diagnose a child with Autism, that they would give us a referral to a neurologist which he did that day. It took a few weeks to get in as there was only one childrens neurologist in our area and that wait seemed to take forever. We filled out a questionnaire and sat in the room while the doctor did some tests, and asked alot of questions, some to Hunter but most to M and I. I remember us disagreeing on alot of the answers but in any case, at the end of the almost 2 hr appointment he said, "The good news is...he does not have Autism, the bad news is...he has PDD-NOS". All I heard is the GOOD news, the great news, my baby boy does not have AUTISM!!! He suggested we get him evaluated by the State of California for school purposes etc...I remember walking out of that office extremely relieved, with tons of happy tears...M, not so much.

music together...

We were in a music group called "Music Together" - it was the one activity that the 3 of us always did together every weekend! Hunter has always loved music and this was a super fun class to experience as a family, especially in the beginning, just the 3 of us, the 3 musketeers. We sat in a circle, played with instruments, sang songs and danced together. Hunter did not like to sit down, in fact he was the only one that would not sit but the teacher was really good about it. He was always moving when the music was on, almost moving to the beat. He learned the songs really quick and would hum them in a perfect key, we thought it was amazing and lovely. Hunter did not like when a song would end, or when it was out of order and there were a few meltdowns but his meltdowns usually happened in relation to music and not in our everyday life. There was also one point during one particular song with a really strong beat, that he banged his head on the floor and said, "I'm okay" - I am grateful that he never continued with that behavior, but during that song, it always seemed to happen whether we were at class or home. I remember talking to the music teacher and telling her about what the woman at the playground had said to me, she then looked at me with a really serious face and said that she had thought about it too based on some of the things she saw him exhibit in class, and also from another student similar to Hunter that was just recently diagnosed. That was a sad day for me...

me & mommy...

So...we finally joined a mommy & me group, excited to have a social outlet for the first time in awhile. Met an amazing group of other 'first' time mommies. In the beginning, Hunter was the only boy in the group, and as you can imagine, super popular! ;) Hunter spoke with very few words, while most of the girls were saying 3-word phrases, I was amazed but everyone told me that 'boys' are always slower at speaking, what did I know, I'm a first time mommy. Hunter also liked being on his own a bit more, where as the other girls liked doing things together. I thought, 'boy thing' again, he was surrounded by girls (some things never change as you will read in later posts) who wanted to do girly things and he probably just wanted to play with trucks, right!? There were some amazing things that Hunter did that others did not seem to do. He always seemed really happy, hardly ever cried, took 3 hour naps and would wake up smiling & singing like a little song bird. Everyone use to say, "wow, I wish my baby was like that - he is such a great baby"! He knew all his upper and lower case letters by age 1, and in the sweetest teeny tiny voice he would also go through the entire alphabet saying "b is for ball", "c is for cat" etc...He also seemed to be able to read and perfectly pronounce words on the Scholastic website that he and M would look at, hmmm baby genius? He did love the Baby Einstein series, it must be that! He loved everything educational and by 1.5 he was reading a numbers book and counting up to 100 in increments of 10. We did flashcards, I guess they were really paying off but he seemed to be able to memorize anything he saw. Another thing he loved was foreign languages so I bought him baby videos of French and Spanish and within a few days, he was naming things like apple in 2 other languages; pomme, manzana....wow! Other things he did that were a bit different and not as positive, Hunter covered his ears alot, especially when we would walk into a new place/room/store (especially Target)...he also seemed to walk on his tiptoes. I will never forget when some woman walked up to me on a playground and said, "not sure if you know anything about Autism, but your son is walking on his tiptoes and playing alone and you may want to research it". I was devastated, scared and really mad! Who was this stranger and why did she feel the need to speak to me like that? I remember crying all the way home and then as soon as M got home from work, telling him all about it. He then surprised me by telling me he had been researching the little things that Hunter had been doing for awhile too, and every time he would search a new topic, all the google searches would point to "Autism". So, not only was I mad at this strange woman, I was now really angry with my husband! When I asked why he did not talk to me about it, he said he wanted to be sure before he started to worry me...all I could think of was NO, NO not by baby boy!!!

the beginning...

Hunter was born on September 4th 2000, Labor Day! 24hrs of labor to be exact. I had an amazing pregnancy, super healthy, felt great and loved every minute of being pregnant! My husband loved it all too! We chose not to find out what we were expecting, but I knew, I knew in my heart that we were having a boy...and that his name would be Hunter. The moment I saw him, love at first sight, that unconditional love that you hear about but don't really experience until you have a baby. There were a few complications but overall, a super healthy, very beautiful, really long and a little chubby baby boy was born.
The first few years of his life, everything seemed picturesque perfect! I did not go back to work, and I started a small home-based eBay business. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home with him and enjoy every single minute of every single day with him. I loved dressing him up and taking pictures of him, he was a beautiful baby with a beautiful smile, porcelain skin, fat juicy kissy lips and the biggest blue eyes you have ever seen! We went on walks, outings to the mall, yoga for 2, played with toys, read lots of books, sang tons of songs and joined a mommy & me group. Up until he was about 2 years or so, he seemed to meet all his milestones, at least in our opinion. It wasn't until the mommy & me group started that I noticed he was a bit different than the other babies...

starting today...

Hi I am Lisa, Hunter's mom.

It's our 4th day of Spring Break and I can't tell you how long I have wanted to start this blog about my son Hunter. He is now 10, I should have started this when he turned 3 or maybe even earlier, but no looking back, I will start today, Thursday April 21st 9:14 am. Why today, because I don't want to go another day without documenting his remarkable story. April is also special to us as it is Autism Awareness Month! I promise to update you alot and with that being said, I will share with you my amazing little boy, who is an inspiration to so many. There may be some tears along the way, but this is a story of love, hope, laughter and a little thing called Autism! I want this blog to show the positive and beautiful things about Autism...this is our journey, this is the beginning of Hunter's Voice...