Ring Around the Rosy

I haven't posted in a few days but everything has been going pretty well.  We have had our good days and we have had our bad days just like any other!  However, today turned out to be a pretty good day! I watched 2 of my nephews today and so Dylan saw them just before he went to school.  When he got home (which by the way, as soon as he got off the bus he looked up at me and held out his arms wanting me to pick him up! Can you say, "acknowledging a parent!") I mentioned that he missed his cousins.  He immediately lead me to the van and was ready to go.  I wondered if he wanted to go play at their house because he has gone there a few times lately and so he may have been expecting to play with them when he got home!

We ran a few errands and anytime we passed a fast food place with a playground, he broke out crying.  We had to get creative and drive down some back roads to avoid any more melt downs.  We got home and made dinner and Dylan did his thing of watching shows on our bed and downstairs, just his regular routine.  Brandon mentioned that it seems like he comes up to get us more often than he used to if he is left alone by himself for too long, so that could be considered being more aware of his surroundings, right?

After dinner was cleaned up and put away is when the night got really fun and made this old Mom super dizzy!  He was really trying to interact with us, mainly Brielle and I.  He was super happy!  I just love his little smile when he gets in these moods!  Brielle has really been going out of her way lately and really trying to involve him as much as possible.  I think Dylan has caught on and is starting to open up to her, which I absolutely LOVE!  While we were at the store earlier, he was having a little melt down.  Brielle said she had it under control and grabbed his hand and walked with him!  So while we were playing at home it continued and Dylan kept gravitating toward Brielle and I.  Before long we started to play Ring Around the Rosy and Dylan full on participated!  He was even coming and grabbing our hands and initiating the game himself.  Desi and Boston got involved a bit, but anytime it would have made it so Dylan had to hold Desi's hand, Brielle made sure to hurry and switch it up so that me and her would be the ones holding his hand.  She knows that he will not hold Desi's hand for some reason, so she wanted to keep him involved.  However, I have noticed in the past week or so he is starting to tolerate Desi a teeny tiny bit more.  He lets her lay by him for a short amount of time sometimes now! We honestly played for a good 30-45 minutes, so you can imagine the spinning in my head now almost 2 hours later!  But to get that kind of interaction and playing that we were seeing, I would do anything for, even if it makes me sick!

Potty Training

Well potty training hasn't gone so well today. We started out thinking We would attempt both kids but after Brandon ran Brielle and Boston to a movie with Cody and his kids and I ran up and downstairs atleast 10 times(getting new pullups, running the poopy pullup to the garbage, coming back down after to see Desi decided to poop more on the floor, etc. and Dylan had pooped on the couch earlier) in the time Brandon was gone for 30 minutes or so.  I decided we would just focus on Dylan for the time being!  I tried to take him to the bathroom every 30 or so minutes but I think he only peed a handful of times.  Maybe I am jumping the gun or maybe I(and Dylan) am not really ready for this.  I don't want to wait too long and have him just get used to it and think that this is what you do, but I hate potty training!  I think I will just continue to put him on the toilet as often as I can and then next week when he is out of school for the holiday maybe we can help it connect.

In other news, Brielle is an amazing big sister!  She is always, more recently, really trying to get Dylan involved.  I think Dylan really has a bond with her.  She started talking to him and let him lead her upstairs.  After a few minutes they came back downstairs with some bubbles.  Brielle said Dylan threw her hand to them, so he chose them.  She literally had him playing and interacting with her for a good 20 minutes.  I can't get him to focus that long!  She was blowing the bubbles and would try to get him to blow bubbles too.  He was really trying!   He kept hugging her once in a while and just smiled!  It was so fun to see and see the love he has for his sister!  It made this Mom's eyes fill with tears of joy!

We also decided to try the hair cutting thing again... Lets just say this time was a little better!  I would say his reaction was more of being tortured rather than killed.  He was downstairs while I was getting things ready so Brandon went to grab him.  When Brandon brought him up all it took was for him to see me cutting the garbage bag( I lay this down so hair doesn't get on the floor) and he lost it.  He got a little amprehensive when Brandon wouldn't let him go, he panicked.  His little heart started beating out of his chest and he was sweating up a storm before I even was ready to get him in the chair.  However, by the time we started cutting his hair he was already calmer then he was when cutting his hair last time.  He cried off and on the whole time and squirmed a little bit but compared to the last few times it was a lot less dramatic.  Hopefully this gets easier as time goes on because I delay his hair cut as long as possible for this reason.  I have been tempted to take him to get it cut to see if cutting it with scissors rather than hair clippers would be easier for him, but Brandon had a good point today and really didn't want him to cause a big scene at a salon.  I was so tempted to just stop in the Walmart hair salon while we were there today and test it out, but we decided not to.

Mom(meaningful use) and some random things

Proud Mommy Moment:
When I walked to the bus to get Dylan today they told me someone was excited to be home!  They told me that when they turned to come in the Cul De Sac Dylan started saying "Momma" and got really happy!  Now if all his jibbering lately with the "mamamama" isn't saying "Mom" then I don't know what is!
Also, I got an Iphone a couple weeks ago and it has the health app that tracks your steps.  Lets just say following this kid around has its perks!  There has been some days that I have walked 3 miles and that is not leaving the house and not having my phone with me constantly!  On average it says I walk about 2 miles a day, ha ha, who knows how many he does! He will get this Mom in shape one of these days!

At Dylan's IEP meeting a couple months ago his teacher was talking about him following commands but more or less implying that he follows the ones that are consistent and that he expects.  I mentioned one day I told Dylan we were going downstairs and he headed right down.  She seemed to think that was because that is a normal routine of ours, but I just shrugged it off because I didn't feel that way but felt he actually listened and did as I asked.  Anyway I bring this up now because tonight we were having Boston play the Wii because Dylan brings that remote to us which means he wants someone to play so he can watch.  Boston is usually very willing to be the one to play.  After a little while Desi wanted to play and tried to get the remote from Bos, so I told her she would need to find the second remote so she could play(it actually won't work on this particular game, but she is 2 and doesn't need to know ha ha).  Well before I knew it, I was being handed that second remote that was clear across the room, not by Desi but Dylan.  Now you can't tell me that is a "routine" command and that he did not understand what I was saying. I wasn't even talking to him in the first place.  That just made me pretty excited!

We have a note!

Dylan has been back in school for almost 2 weeks(9 school days) and we got our first note today.  Last time Igot one almost every day(or so it seems) the first week back, so hopefully his body is adjusting a little better this time.  The note said that "he did not eat his lunch and just cried off and on throughout the day."  Nothing too big, but not the happy boy he had been lately.  He was super happy when he got home and don't worry he ate for  10 the rest of the night!  I was surprised by the note because he left for school happy where as the past 2 days he kind of put up a fight.  He even threw himself down one day as we were walking to the bus.  The Bus Aide commented and said, " That was new!"  At least to her but to us we see it all to often!  That was because he discovered a chocolate snack cake thing my Dad had given the kids right as the bus got there, so he was not happy I took it away.

He is continuing to strip down naked again!  We had got to where we didn't worry about him and let him do his thing on his own for a while, but that freedom is gone for now.  I told Brandon I need to listen to my intuition more often when it comes to this because I have the thought to check on him for that reason and when I do most of the time it is correct.  In fact, it saved me twice today!  I went and checked on him once and he was naked and just about to use the bathroom, on the floor.  I got there in time to get him on the toilet and save me from a disaster!  Later in the evening, we had just had dinner and I was cleaning up while Brandon was looking at something.  I had that feeling again and told Brandon that I was feeling he needed to check on him.  I honestly expected Brandon to come up and say he was fine and disprove my comment earlier, but he came up with a naked little boy and said I was right, ha ha.

He seems as if he is stripping down when he needs to go to the bathroom, so I told Brandon that we are going to work on potty training this weekend!  We will see how it goes and if we follow through or not ha ha.  I figure we will try the route of taking him to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so this weekend, so that gives us 2 full days to test it out before sending him back to school.  The problem with this is Brandon and I usually go stir crazy and need out of the house when we have had enough of following Dylan around and getting him out of the fridge a million times an hour, so hopefully we can stick it out and it clicks for him!  I also figured we may as well try it on little Desi while we are at it because she is starting to show signs of being ready too!  Wish us luck!

The not so good, but not so bad day!

Today has been good but we are seeing a little bit of regression.  He is still a happy little boy but the regression we are seeing is the one I would much rather not deal with at all, ever again in my life.  He has started to strip off the clothes again, which leads to the diaper, which leads to poop being spread who knows where.  He came home from school and I went down and he had a poopy diaper, so I changed him and I figured we were good and safe for the night.  I was making dinner and Brandon went down to check on him and came up and asked me if I would like to clean Dylan or clean up the mess.  I chose Dylan, ha ha.  I never actually saw what it looked like but Brandon said it was a good(aka: not good) one and had it on the couch and walls and floor.  After I bathed him, he went down again and I finished cleaning up the kitchen from dinner.  Brandon went down again 20 minutes or so later and this time Dylan was naked but luckily not messy this time.  This may be the beginning of the regression stage, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

The Wrestling Match

This morning Dylan and Desi were standing at the fridge deciding what to have for breakfast.  The problem is Desi had spotted the Pepsi earlier and I was trying to hide it from Dylan because we are trying, unsuccessfully but trying, to decrease our sugar intake around here.  Anyway, I purposely had the half of the fridge shut so that Dylan wouldn't see the Pepsi and went to grab a cup to get him some Apple Juice.  In that minute that I walked away to get the cup, we had a wrestling match break out!

Desi was trying to point out the Pepsi to Dylan but I think she got to close to him for comfort.  For some reason he allows the others to get close to him, but he does not like when his baby sister gets close.  I hear some really sad and heartbreaking cries break out from both of them.  I turned around to find them on the ground and Dylan pretty much has Desi in a headlock.  I thought about being the nice Mom and hurrying and grabbing my phone to take a picture, but the cries were too sad.  I broke them apart and Brielle quickly came and comforted Desi while I comforted Dylan.

 I don't think Dylan liked what he had done and seemed to be really sad about the decision that he made.  Tears just fell from his eyes and he cried his really sad cry.  It really was not a cry like he was hurt but a cry of sadness and the look on his face you could just see how sad he was.  Poor little Des just really was trying to help him out and had no idea why she just got thrown to the ground(pretty carefully though, I never heard a crash).  And incase you are wondering, he spotted the Pepsi and that was his drink for breakfast, that and frozen waffles(actually still frozen) that seems to be his go to meal lately!

ATEC Scores

A lot of parents have mentioned this online test that you can do called the ATEC and so we have done it twice now, once in February before stem cells and then again at the end of September before the second time of stem cells.  I don't remember if I posted about this before, so just for my own sake I wanted to document both of these so we can look back and see the differences.

February 21, 2015 results:

Speech, Language, Communication: 24
Sociability: 24
Sensory/Cognitive Awareness: 19
Health: 19
Overall Total: 86

September 27, 2015 results:

Speech, Language, Communication: 23
Sociability: 20
Sensory/Cognitive Awareness: 21
Health: 15
Overall Total: 79

So it went down, not a lot but down is the direction we want!  The goal is 0 and when you are at 0 that means there are no characteristics present of Autism.  This is a test anyone can do on the internet and it is based on what we, as his parents, see, but we are also around him the most so we should be able to judge accurately.  We try to answer as honest as possible and sometimes that is difficult when you know he should be doing these things but doesn't.  So if it is something he does once in a while we don't give him credit while doing this test.  We want to be honest with ourselves and not try to rank him higher just because he may have said something once in like 3 months or something.  I hope to see these results go lower and we will try again in a couple months and see what it looks like!

Sleep over in Mom and Dad's Room!

We have had a great week at home, but nothing new to report.  He is still saying "Mamama" but I can't decide if it is Mom or More.  From what I have picked up on, he seems to say it when he comes to me but it also seems to come out when he is trying to get you to get more of something.  Either way, I'd call that a word and progress none the less.  He has remained his happy self so we haven't seen a regression as of yet and I hope to just move forward!

We put him in bed last night and then I got in the bath.  I could hear him being himself and running around and laughing in his room.  That is normal for him and varies on how long, but I usually make a point to check on him when it is quite and I am sure he is asleep, just to make sure he is safe!  Last night, after the laughing, I started hearing him cry his sad cry.  I was sitting in the bath wishing I was out so I could go and check on him because it breaks my heart when I hear that particular cry.  After a few minutes, I heard his door open and Brandon talking to him.  Usually Brandon goes down stairs to watch TV but had stayed upstairs this time.  I think the cry got to him too and I heard him bring Dylan into our room to watch Team Umizoomi on the Ipad.

When I came out he was laying in bed with Brandon watching his show and had a big grin.  He actually laid there and watched his show until I could tell he was getting tired and I fixed the pillows so he could lay down instead of kind of sitting up.  Within 10 minutes he was asleep.  So he had his first "sleep over" ever in our bed!  Brandon usually takes him back to his room because he won't settle down and is all over the place, but not last night.  When Dylan woke up in the morning, the first thing he did was reach over to feel for me.  I think he was checking to make sure he was not alone and probably shocked that he actually got to have a "sleepover!"

First Day Home

First things first- Boston's scavenger hunt!  I bought this harness while in Panama because I always think about it and forget about it, but I saw a kid walking with one so we stopped at this store and they had one.  It may come in handy(like right now when they wanted to make sure he followed along on the scavenger hunt ha ha) but it may not.  He likes to randomly fall to the ground if he doesn't want to do something so that may make it hard, but we will test it out!  At the airport we used it and he decided he wanted to crawl a lot.  I felt like I was being watched before that, but "walking your dog/child" you are REALLY being watched, ha ha.

Dylan was quick to get back to his routine of DESTROYING THE HOUSE!  He headed right down stairs and tore the couch apart and took all his food down there.  He made 100 trips up and down the stairs each time finding something new to bring.  Our downstairs literally looked like Christmas morning in a matter of minutes!  But.... I kept hearing "Mamamamama" throughout the day!  When he would say it, it was directed to me!  Usually when he wanted something or wanted me to come with him.  I will take it.

Brandon kept trying to get him to say "Daddy" but he was always greeted with one of Dylan's sweet kisses which he does when he wants something!  As much as it melts my heart when he does this, I know we needed to stop it because he can't just be giving out all sorts of kisses to who knows who when he wants something, ha ha!

Grandpa Jack stopped by and I told Dylan to tell him Hi and so he waved to him.  While I was talking to my Dad Dylan kept wanting me to go get things for him.  So I kept saying can you say Hi Grandpa and at one point he may have muttered the word "Grandpa."  Grandpa Rick and Grandma Lori stopped by after they went to see Trever's house that he just fixed up and sold and Rick said at one point he grabbed his hat and thought he may have said, "my hat."  Of course, we are looking for these words and so we may be hearing what we want, but lets hope this becomes a reality because speech and communication is all I really want, the rest is and will be a added bonus!  I am still trying to keep his school in the dark just so that we do have that unbiased opinion and see if they find any improvement that amazes them not knowing what route we are taking.  So now we are at the waiting game and the roller coaster ride will continue for the next 6-8 months and then we will see where to go from there!

Coming Home

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to head back home.  I was a little nervous because the flight was 6 hours long and we had just slept through the night, so I wasn't sure if Dylan would get restless or not, but luckily he was pretty good.  He fell asleep for an hour or so, but was entertained with his Team Umizoomi episode of "Shape Bandit" that he has only watched a million in a half times!  He did start to get antsy when they were bringing drinks around so I thought he may have wanted a drink.  I kept telling him we would get a drink but he needed to be patient.  (on a side note:  I had bought a few drinks once we got in the airport so that I would have for this reason.  However, they make you go through a second security check right at  your gate and so you can not take anything over 2 oz on the plane and I had to throw them away.  Last time this happened in Panama, we thought it was extra security because Obama was there, but apparently it is the norm in Panama.)  Once we got the drink he wanted nothing to do with it, so then I was a little nervous, but I remembered I had the Lavender oil and Chris(a lady from my old neighborhood and is a pro at the oil thing) had told me about being on a plane and some kids freaking out.  She put a few drops of this oil on a blanket and handed it to them and said it was a magical blanket and they calmed down.  So I quickly rubbed it on his feet and put a little drop on his seatbelt so that the smell would get to him, and sure enough he calmed down in a minute of two.

We landed, got our stuff, called a taxi, got to our car and was on our way home!  Since we flew out of Vegas, we still had 5 1/2 or so hours of driving.  We made a stop in Cedar City to eat and let Dylan run around and dropped Lori off just before 9 and was home by 9:30.  Dylan had fallen asleep so I just got his jammies on and sent him to bed.  Boston had prepared a Scavenger Hunt for Dylan to do to find the Halloween candy they had kept for him, but I told them they would do that in the morning.  The kids were anxious to see their souvenirs and when I told them I was their souvenir, Boston quickly let me know his disappointment, ha ha.  I gave them some Oreos and they acted excited but I could see the even bigger disappointment and then I gave them the real thing.  It wasn't anything related to Panama but some chocolate egg things that had toys in them(Kinder Eggs) that they had seen on the You Tube videos they have watched and had always wanted them.  When I noticed them in the grocery store, Lori and I decided that was going to be the thing to bring home to them.  They seemed pretty excited about it!

Day 4 and 5

Each visit got a little easier and he started to interact with the staff.  He gave them 5 and would laugh when they took his temperature(under the arm) as if it was tickling him.  He even climbed up in the chair on his own.  When the nurse came out to get him one of the days, he went up to her and grabbed her stethoscope and put it on his heart as if saying, "Here I will just do this and then you don't have to worry about it."

He always knew though when it was the final grab of the hand to find the vein and that is when he started putting up a fight.  However, the fighting was no where near what it was last time.  Lori held him and I held his legs, while 2 Drs. and a nurse focused on the arm where they were doing the infusions.

His labs came back great!  They are now running a couple different tests that they did not do last time.  Dr Barnett thinks they must have started just after we were there because it is standard now.  I wish they would have ran them because 2 of them are ones they typically see in Autistic patients, but Dylan's came back negative or good.  One being the gut inflammation, he does not have any!  Very good thing, but who knows if he had it prior to the first stem cell treatment or if Dylan was ever one of the typical gut kids.  If he was then that has improved and maybe the cells will work in another area this time!  Everything looked great except he is a little low on Iron, which we know is from the way he eats and he was a little dehydrated.  She said most patients are because they have just done lots of traveling so they don't really worry about that one too bad.  So we have some improvements from last time but I just wish we knew how is gut was to begin with!

We haven't seen much change in him however, one of the days as we were on our way to the pool, Lori asked if he wanted to go swimming and we swear he answered with a quick, "Yeah" and then she said something else about swimming and once again we heard the quick, "yeah.  Friday we saw some rain that we had been told we would see all week, but we were in the hotel room so it didn't really matter to us.  I am just glad I didn't go out and buy rain boots like I had thought about buying, ha ha.

Dr Barnett and Dylan

Javier and Dylan

Day 3

Todays infusion went a little smoother.  In the waiting room he was busy playing on the couches.  When we went back he started stressing just a little bit and even climbed in the chair himself, until the nurse got closer.  He didn't resist too much when they were taking vitals and was playing with the staff giving them 5.  Once it got serious and he knew they grabbed his arm this time for the poke, he put up a bit of a fight, but nothing like the other times.  Maybe tomorrow will be better?!

Being a holiday week, there is only 4 patients this week.  Dylan, Georgia, a little girl that has Cerebral Palsy, and an older guy but we only seen him once as he was leaving so I don't know much about him.  Georgia's Dad and Grandma are really nice people and are always watching for Dylan.  Jeff got down on the ground with Dylan while he was throwing a minor fit and got him laughing.  He mentioned how Dylan's eyes were focused in and following himrather than wandering around.  He said that is a very good thing.  I told him that is an improvement from last time.  I am excited to keep in touch with them and see how Georgia does.  She is 15 and this is her first treatment, so it will be great to see what improvements they see too!

We went back to the hotel and went swimming, because the day started out a little rough.  When we went to have breakfast he noticed the pool and put up a fight at breakfast.  Other than that we walked around the Mall here and around the area a bit.

Views from our hotel

Dylan made himself at home on this extra long couch and ran around on it and stacked up the pillows

The mall across from our hotel started decorating for Christmas.  They had this table full of these little houses and reminded me of my Mom.  She loves this stuff or at least I think she does because I always made sure to get her them when I was younger ha ha!

Day 2

We had our first injection today and it went just as well as back in April, but maybe a tad bit better.  Once we got to the clinic and was in the waiting room he started whining a bit and wanted to go.  Once we went back he really started to stress out, but Lori sat in the chair and held him and I held his legs.  They tried in his wrist but it came out, so they had to retry and got it in his arm.  Then we were good to go!

We had Javier, the driver, take us to the Panama Canal so Lori could see it, but Dylan was wanting out of their pretty quick.  We got there right after the last ship until evening had just pulled in, so for the 15 minutes we were there she was able to get a glimpse of how it was done.  Later that afternoon we decided to walk to the other Mall that Brandon and I had gone to.  I realized we are only about 5-10 minutes, walking, from where we stayed the last time, so we headed that way.  They had some life sized remote control cars, kind of like the animal riders in the Provo Mall.  So I drove Dylan around for 15 minutes, except the first one broke down and we had to exchange it.  I don't think there is enough room in the Provo Mall for these or I would suggest it.  It was pretty fun!

It is Panama's "Independence Day" so they have a few day long celebration with some parades. We haven't really seen the parades but put on the Tv for a minute and was able to catch a glimpse of it.  They seem to have a lot of  Marching Bands type things.  The receptionist at the clinic said the schools practice from like April until now for this, so they take it very serious!  The plus for us is the traffic is pretty much non existent because they close the roads down, except the back roads which Javier knows well!  Brandon and I had talked up how crazy the traffic is but now we look like we were nuts, ha ha.  Javier said it will be back to normal on Friday, so we will see.

Day 1

Today we had our first visit which consists of meeting with the Dr and getting blood drawn.  Once we got to the clinic Dylan realized where we were and started stressing out. He wanted out of there and quick.  The only door in the waiting room he could open was the bathroom but he would have been fine hiding in there if i would have let him.  He laid on the floor and cried.

When it was time to go back his cry got a bit more nervous.  We met with Dr Barnett this time and talked to her about improvements, changes, anything we felt she needed to know.  Dylan had got sick last Wednesday and threw up then he got a rash all over his legs, belly, arms, face and the rash is still here a little bit.  I told her I took him to the Dr and they said it was a virus leaving his body.  She seemed to agree but felt we should put an antifungal, antibiotic cream on it to clear it up and prescribed it so we could go pick it up.  She said being a topical ointment wouldn't mess up the stem cells so that works!

When we went to the next room for the blood draw, dylan was really starting to stress out.  They opened the door and our new friends were in there.  Jeff immediately said, "it's our friend Dylan.  We knew that was him and was all about comforting him". We went in and they got ready for the return of "the strongest 3 year old". I sat down to hold him but by the time they were ready, he had wriggled loose and so Lori sat down with him and held him tightly.  I helped with his arms and legs and kept talking to him and telling him he would be fine.  After they got the blood, we just had to make the payments and then was time to go.  Now tomorrow is the big day and we have our first injection!

I love this picture because it is him jumping in the water and caught him mid land!

Dylan loves swimming so we did a lot of this!

Fuimos(or something like that) A Panama

Out to lunch with his family before we left

We drove down to Las Vegas to catch our plane to Panama on Halloween.  We had a great ride and Dylan was amazing! We stopped in St George to eat and let Dyl run around, but other than that just kept driving.  He didn't even fall asleep until the last 30 minutes of our drive.  Our flight left at 11:36 pm but got into Vegas around 8 so we had plenty of time to let Dyl stretch out and use up some energy.

While we were in the airline check in line I noticed a teenaged age girl walking on her tippy toes, like Dylan, and instantly wondered if she was on the spectrum.  A little bit later Dylan was kind of stirring in his stroller and wanting out.  This teenaged girls Dad started talking to him and just making small talk to comfort him.  A minute later the girl let out a scream which confirmed my suspicions, then I wondered if they too were going for treatment.

We got through check in and security pretty quick and went and sat down near our departure area.  Then Lori started walking around with Dylan and letting him go up and down the straight-way escalator thing.  After a while they came back and sat down.  I took on the turn of walking with Dylan.  As I was walking away I thought maybe I should grab my phone and bag because I wouldn't have an ID or phone, but shrugged it off thinking I would just be right there.....WRONG!

It only took Dylan a few minutes to discover another escalator and run over to it.  As he got on I went to grab him but then noticed another escalator to the side and figured we could just come right back up, so I decided to just follow him and got on.  Well we got to the bottom and went to go back up, but quickly discovered, it also went down and not up.  I then noticed baggage claim and started stressing thinking we just made a huge mistake.  I found a set of stairs that went up across from where we were and sure enough we came up at the check in spot.  I was freaking out!  I didn't have my phone, ID, money, except $10 in my pocket, we were screwed!!

I went to the  heck in station and explained that Dylan is Autistic and got on the escalator so I followed him down and didn't have my phone or ID.  They said they could page Lori and hope she got the message and come meet us, but that was about it.  I found a phone and tried calling her and even Brandon, who was home, collect.  I assumed Lori had turned her phone off because it went to her voicemail and Brandon did not answer.  I continued to keep asking the airline employees if they had heard from Lori and call these two phones for what felt like an hour(probably at least 20 minutes). I was freaking out, Dylan was bawling and trying to run from me.  I was trying to use the phone while he is screaming, I put him down because he is screaming and I can't hear the operator instructions, he tries to run off.  I grab him and pull him back, he falls to the floor screaming.  I say some mean and pissed off words(which Brandon just informed me tonight Nov. 2  that my other son has picked up on a not so good F word and yes I am to blame!) to Dylan and I am sure this scene looked very mean and chaotic, but I had no idea what to do.  We had an hour or so until boarding and I figured we would have to go through security again"if" Lori got the message and was able to gather everything up and come find us, whew it was chaotic!

I asked the airline lady if she was sure I could not talk to security somewhere and get them to help me. She was probably so sick of me and finally the Supervisor went to the gate to find Lori.  A few minutes later I look up and there she is! I was so glad it all turned out and we had enough time to go through security again.  This time through my bag was stopped for some reason and when they checked it she asked if I had anything sharp in there.  When she looked inside and saw the wet wipes she said she thought that was something else.  So beware of scary wet wipes, I guess.

We got back to the gate with half hour or so to spare and was not going ANYWHERE again ha ha.  Lori took Dylan back on the straight escalator but I warned her "Do not let him see the other set." The guy from earlier came and asked if that was my brother or son, so I let him know he is my son ha ha. We found out they are taking his daughter, Georgia, for her first round of Stem Cells.  His name is Jeff.  Both Lori and I have admired his patience and how sweet he is with his daughter.  I told him what happened and the fun we had had.  Turns out they were a couple rows behind us and when we got on offered to hold Dylan while we got adjusted.

The. Flight was great! Dylan fell asleep right before we took off and slept until we landed.  We didn't sleep that well, but dozed off a little bit.