HOORAY ETHAN!
Ethan's teacher has informed me that after less than 2 weeks into the school year, Ethan has a friend! An NT friend from one of the typical first grades! I know that the aide facilitated the friendship, but Ethan reciprocated and that is the coolest! And now they look for each other on the play ground during recess! Every time I say (or write) about this, I get more than choked up, tears just pour down my face. This is something that I so want for my boys, but have always been afraid to hope for. A friend.


DYLAN
Dylan hasn't been having any seizure activity lately that we've seen. He is still enjoying school. Smiling when he gets out of the van. He will even allow the aide to get him out of the van instead of me. His language is getting better, although we have some really tough moments when he is trying to tell us something and we can't understand it. He becomes so frustrated and goes into a total rage sometimes. We are working on this with the behaviorist.

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU'RE REALLY SQUEAMISH ABOUT "FEMALE" MEDICAL ISSUES
Or why I haven't written in so long
The lithotrypsy turned out to be worse than I had expected.... lots of pain, blood in my urine, not many stones passing. And then something odd happened. You may or may not remember back in May when I had a "uterine ablation". It was supposed to cauterize the inside of my uterus and relieve all my menstrual problems by relieving me of having a period. Well, 5 days after my kidney stone procedure, I started my period again! So, I don't know exactly what part of my insides are hurting and I can't tell if I'm passing stones, cuz there is blood everywhere (sorry!). It seems the radio waves from the lithotrypsy "reanimated" my uterus. Tod calls it "Frankenwomb". Anyway, I feel awful still, I'm in pain still and I'm still waiting to see both the urologist and the gynecologist... and wondering when the villagers will be arriving with torches.

FISH FIGHTS
I went to feed the boys' fish the other day - two Betas, Pish and Fish - and found both fish on the same side of the tank. If you know anything about Betas, they are Oriental Fighting Fish and you never put them in the same tank because they will beat the crap out of each other. So Aunt Nancy bought our Betas a tank with a see through divider, so they can make faces at each other but not do mortal combat. I don't know if one of the boys moved the Pish into Fish's side or if Pish jumped or if Fish grabbed her and pulled her over. Anyway, Pish got the crap beat out of her. She is pale (she was the red one), not eating well and her fins have been pretty shredded. Fish, on the other hand, looks gorgeous with dark iridescent fins that make him look like he's strutting around the tank. It will be interesting to see if there is a rematch.

WEATHER
Really cool here lately. I was getting so tired of 95+. It's 75 during the day and low 50's at night. No air conditioning. Jeans and sweaters in the mornings. Beautiful blue skies, nice breezes, no bugs. I love this.

til later.....