Baldo 'Bunch of Stuff'

I often feel like blogging and have lots to say but time prevents me from getting very creative and posting as often as I'd like. But I do still like to take time to brag on my babies and blab about our family :) Nothing really new to report. Everyone's doing great in school now and having a great start to the year. Laela and Justin are doing great at home and enjoying their learning time in the mornings. They amaze me everyday with how much they can learn and take in. Like little sponges. Most everyone knows about our hectic week with my friend's children but that's over and things around the Baldo house are back to somewhat normal. Thought I'd share a few recent pics too. . .

My little scientist at work. Jalen got a crystal making kit and this is his first go at it. He made rock candy! MMM!!

And just a few of the little munchkin, Justin. Just hanging around the house but sooo cute!

Latest and Greatest

So apparently some people do read this! LOL! I hope no one took that as offensive, I was just making a joke that I still babble on and on even though I thought no one was reading! :)

So, Jalen started second grade this week and he says he likes it so far. He said his teacher isn't as nice as last year and that it 'could be interesting'. LOL! So we'll see! He's a good kid so I'm not worried. He had his formal testing yesterday for gifted so we should be getting those results soon. He was pre-tested last year but they can't do formal testing until second grade. Glad to hear they are moving quickly on it. He was tested on the second day of school!

Ryan will be starting on Thursday of this week with his teacher from last year. Then Monday we're going to be letting him go to KINDERGARDEN!! I can't believe I'm saying that. I am NOT old enough to have a second grader and kindergardener!! LOL! bjjjjnn;'n;nnnnnnnnnn (this is what happens when i get up to pee-laela, the little opportunist, jumps on the computer as fast as she can to type something before i get back)
Okay, back on track-Ryan's teacher came over to our house yesterday to talk about him and her plans for the classroom. Let's just say, LOVE HER!!! OMG, I want to take her with us when we move. She is incredible!!! She has been an autism specialist for her whole career until last year when she moved here. She used to go from school to school to train teachers on how to implement proper procedures in their classes for autistic children. How awesome is that?!! Luck, I think not! God, you are so amazing!! Thank you for placing this woman in our path, even if it is for just a short time. I won't get into all the details she shared with me about how she'll be setting her classroom up for Ryan, but I am so excited about her and if it's any indication of what kind of services he'll be getting when we find the right place for him, I am EXTATIC!!!

So far, that's all that's changed with us. No more news to report. Eddie will be back in town tonight so hopefully the ball will soon be rolling on the re-assignment issue. It's already in the works but they need a couple more things from him.

As usual, more to come on the happ'nins of the Baldos! :)
LOVE!!!

DISCLAIMER: regarding last post

So, I realized that some of the people that might read this are not familiar with military life and thought I should add that dealing with the military and the assignments we get. . . we've learned to not believe anything until we see it. Official orders that is. So, trust us, we aren't getting too hyped up about moving just yet. But we'll be sure to let everyone know when it's safe to get excited about it :)

In Circles

UUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!
That is a very accurate description to how I am feeling pretty much all of the time these days.

I read over my last blog and gave myself a headache. I apologize to anyone else who was brave enough to finish reading that post. It was all over the place. Sadly, that's the nature of our life right now.

We are flying around daily and nightly trying to make sure we push for Ryan's services. New information coming in almost hourly and things are changing faster than we can keep up. Long story short, pretty much everything from our last post has changed. I won't bother with breaking down every tiny detail unless someone asks me to. In a nutshell, we could very possibly be moving, Ryan will get awesome services, our finances will be fine and we're leaving it up to God as best our human brains will let us. Constant struggle on that one.

I'm a pretty open book so there's not much I won't answer if asked. I don't even think anyone reads this other than the few people that get the updates automatically :) But it's sure therapeutic for me. :)

On another note, a welcome, happy one. . .Jalen started acting camp this week. They are doing Grease songs and he is having a BLAST! Can't wait to see their performance on Saturday. He is very excited too. Look for video footage soon :)

The two little ones are doing well. Justin is doing amazingly well. Laela is finally a healthy happy little girl. Her surgery in July was a big success and she has not had one runny nose episode since. This is the child that litterally kept a nasty nose for 6 months straight. No breaks. She can finally breath and SHE DOESN'T SNORE :) She is still a little delayed but she's getting services now and when she's three she's set to start preschool where she'll get even more. She's talking some and eager to learn which is great. She is HILARIOUS to be around and keeps us laughing all the time.

We will be going to meet teachers for the first time tomorrow so Jalen (and mommy) are very excited about that. Jalen will be going to gifted this year so he'll meet both his teachers tomorrow. Ryan will have the same teacher for the first few months until we figure out a definite plan to implement his services and find out if we're moving or not. We don't want him to be thrown around to too many different people since the possibility of moving exists.

Whew, I'm gonna leave this post at that. I don't want to cause anyone any more headaches from the chaos that is our life :) Like I said though, questions are welcome and trust me, there will be more to come when I feel like I need some blog therapy :)

Thank You Jesus!!

Most anyone who follows our blog knows that we just got Ryan's diagnosis. That said, we have been extremely overwhelmed and stressed out trying to prioritize finances and treatments in order to best serve his needs. Having an autistic child is not cheap. I should rephrase that. Healing an autistic child is not cheap. We have NO idea if treatments are going to work for Ryan but we can't give up until we try. He needs equipment as well to help keep him safe. The equipment he has needed for a while but we were waiting to see if insurance would cover it and they will but my goodness we have to wait a really long time to get through all the red tape and our child's safety is not something we want to wait for. He needs a harness to keep him from being lost or worse, hit by a car or something of that nature. He doesn't understand the need to stay close to us and it scares us to death. One time lost in the very safe very secure base BX was enough for us to freak all the way out and try to come up with a solution. I just can't imagine if that had happened in an off base mall or something. Uggh, it makes my stomach turn. We are planning to have lots of tests run to find out his biomedical needs so we can start that as soon as possible. These are the things that are going to cost us an arm and a leg but could be well worth it if it helps Ryan even a little bit. We are also planning to start the GFCF (gluten/casein free) diet which is no easy task in itself. All of this has been so overwhelming for us. I thank God that I have been researching Autism for the past three years because I can't imagine how overwhelmed I'd be if this was all new! Add to this stress, the worry that the military could send us back to the states due to lack of services here. Obviously we'd willingly go if it meant Ryan could get what he needed. But it would also mean a significant decrease in our pay and deployments for Eddie. Neither of these things would be good for Ryan or the rest of our family. We'd be less able to buy the treatments he needs and none of us would benefit from Eddie being gone for 6 months and home for six months, and so on. There is another issue that we were facing as well. With the current findings of Ryan's condition and permenancy of the situation, we have decided that it's best for our entire family if we separate fromt he military when our time is up in 4 years. Well, we have lots of debt to pay off first and lots of saving to do, in order to make that possible. We know it's best but it's going to be a lot of work. Being where we are it is possible. If we have to move back to the states, the paycut we'll take would make the separation close to impossible! Well, now for the reason for the title of my post. The two reasons we were possibly going to be sent back to the U.S. was because there was no pediatrician here to oversee Ryan's new medication. Also, there is a home based therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis that children with autism can benefit from greatly. That therapy is not offered here. Well, yesterday I received a call from the pediatrician that there is a child psychologist at a nearby base that will be available to oversee Ryan's meds and answer questions for us when needed. She also will be making periodic trips here to our base to see him. Then last night I was researching ABA therapy to find out what it involved in an attempt to see how much Ryan would/would not benefit from it. Well, in my research it seems he could benefit greatly. Okay, now for the good part. I found a very reputable source online that offers training programs for parents or care providers that are interested in conducting the therapy themselves. For instance, if you run a daycare and want your staff to be educated trained, you can buy the group training program. Or if you are just parents like us that can't access the therapy, you can buy the individual training program! The program was created because ABA typically is not covered by insurance and can obviously cost families an awful lot of money. For us, it's covered IF we had access to it. YAY YAY YAY!!! Happy news for the Baldomeros!!!! GOD IS SO GOOD, HE"S SO GOOD TO ME!!!

Autism it is

As most of you know, we have been at work for many years, trying to find out how to help our son Ryan with his many complex special needs. We have been getting lots of doors slammed in our face and not getting very far but thank GOD we haven't given up because it finally paid off. The military sent Ryan and I on a trip to Hawaii to visit with lots of specialists for 2 1/2 weeks to get to the bottom of it. It was concluded that he is autistic. He has Autistic Disorder. He also is in need of medication. We were able to get so many answers. Much more than we ever expected to. Saying that we feel blessed right now is an understatement. Some might find it odd that we have such a feeling of blessedness after just finding out our son has autism. We have been looking for answers for 3 years and this is something we are not surprised by. We are just beyond relieved to have the answers we need to get him the support and help he needs. I asked God a long time ago, why? And eventually I was given the answer of "why not". I am extremely humbled. Since receiving that answer the feeling that overwhelms me is that I do not in any way feel adequate or worthy of the blessing that is Ryan. But for some reason God thinks otherwise and for that I am grateful and humbled. Okay, with all that said, I have lots of great pics from Hawaii but they are on my laptop so I haven't been able to blog them yet. And can I just say, I have now found my favorite place on the planet. . . HAWAII!!!!!! I don't know what I would have done if all my kids and hubby would have been with us. I don't know how they would have gotten me to leave :) I told Eddie last night that I almost wish I hadn't been to Hawaii in a way because now I have an attitude about everywhere else we've been :) LOL! I'm all snooty about HUMID/RAINY Japan and swealtering Alabama and Georgia! And Alaska, do we really want to go there! LOL!! I suggested to Eddie that he send me there annually to keep me tolerable :) I'm only teasing of course but my goodness it's a wonderful place. Nutshell: Ryan is Autistic (duh!), Hawaii is amazing, and pics to come soon! :)

FOUND THE CHARGER! YAY!!

and just in time for ryan and i to travel. here's some pics of random stuff over the past month or so since we've been home.

laela with uncle stevie in the petting zoo
this pictures kills me! look at all those expressions!

jalen driving the princess around on the mini go carts

eddie fits nicely in the car don't ya think?!

sweet little girl in kimono gown. . .how cute is she?!

the first player of team BALDO BUNCH!

look at that 1000 watt smile!!

the whole lineup!

the gang

brothers!

my beautiful baby boy

justin ibrihim

"mommy, did you see that?"

sporty spice!

laela all ready for school on a rainy day

again with that million dollar smile!

laela all dresssed up for sunday brunch and what does she do. . .go play in the rocks!

ryan so proud of his 2009 baseball trophy

ryan at his end of year class party

ryan's BFF, danny and his favorite aid, miss toni

ryan and his teacher celebrating

ms. wolfe helping ryan bowl at the end of year party

"woo-hoo let's party" he was so happy to see his friends after our long trip to the states.

HOW CUTE IS THAT?! he's still my baby! jalen with his baseball trophy 2009

Long time, no post!

So an online friend reminded me the other day that I have been neglecting my blog. Sorry guys. We got home in early June then had out of town guests until today and I've been super slammed. This might be a long post to catch you all up on the Baldos.

1) We brought Ibrihim (now Justin Ibrihim) home in early June. Things are going well. The bonding was pretty much instant and he is in love with his new family as much as we're in love with him. There are of course things we've had to learn about adopting an older child (older than infant I mean) but that was to be expected. Can't say we were 100% prepared but we're getting there and doing the best we can but trying to keep in mind that the love we all share is what will get us through and before we know it we'll look back at this challenging time as a blink in time and we'll all be stronger and wiser for it.

2) Eddie's mother and sister came to visit for several weeks and enjoyed the kids so much. The kids have really enjoyed them and have been soaking up all the extra attention :)

3)We finally got the kids all well after the trip and have been able to enjoy the pool and we all LOVE it. It's so awesome for all of us. We have 4 little fish for kids :) Justin was TERRIFIED of water when he came to us but after just two trips to the pool he was ready for his life vest and swimming! :) It didn't take him long to want some of the action his brothers and sister were getting :)

4) We THOROUGHLY enjoyed July 4th festivities on base this year. There was a festival set up that was AMAZING for the kids. Complete with mini go carts, petting zoo, jumpy castles, the works! Then of course topped the night off with the best firework show I've ever seen! It was an awesome day! All the kids wore home made t shirts that I made to look like baseball shirts that had "Baldo Bunch" on the front and their names and "numbers" on the back (birth order). They were precious!!

5) Laela had her tonsils and adnoids removed and is slowly recovering still. Thank goodness she had it done this young because I imagine the recovery only gets harder the older they are. They said her adnoids were so enlarged they were growing into her nose! Poor baby. No wonder she snored like a freight train!

6) Ryan has been tested for Fragile X and tests were negative. Relief of course but now somewhat still confused about what's going on with him exactly. He and I will be flying to Hawaii for more in depth testing in a few weeks so hopefully we'll know something more by the end of the year. Who knows. Still pushing strong with his therapies and treatments and he's still making steady progress. He's picking up more words and interacting better lately. He's still a mess and keeps us in stitches. As my nephew recently said "that Ryan DOES make us laugh"! LOL! So true!!

7) Jalen has really enjoyed his Grandma and Aunt this summer and is really excited to still have a month of summer left. :) He's so loving the pool! And he's super excited to be going to acting camp next month. That boy is a born performer and we're anxious to see how he feels about it after getting his feet wet with it a bit. Watch out Hollywood, here comes Jalen!! :)

8) Eddie and I are doing well too. Luckily Eddie hasn't had any travel in a couple of months so that's been nice especially with Justin just coming home. He'll be starting up again next month but nothing we can't handle. Me, not much to report. Working on being healthier and exercising more. 30 came around this May and I started thinking about the woman I want to be for my kids to see and my grandkids. I wanted to make changes so that I'd be the lady my daughter looks up to and have characteristics my sons will admire and want for their wives.

9) Perhaps the WORST thing. . .I'VE LOST MY BATTERY CHARGER FOR MY CAMERA!! :( :( I have lots of cute pics to post and can't get my DEAD camera charged to put them online. Also, can't take any more cute pics with my DEAD camera! :( Trust me, I'm looking daily for that darn thing and will hopefully soon have a lively camera that can produce more pictures for your viewing pleasure :) LOL!

Here's some pics from our summer (before the camera died!)

Yep! Jalen and I went to see Shrek the Musical on Broadway while in NYC.

Jalen and I scared on a ride he talked me into at Sesame Place! LOL!

Me and my Ryan on his FAVORITE ride of all times. . . the merry go round.

Laela playing hide and seek! LOL!

For those of you that have adopted an older child, you'll understand this. . .this was a picture of BREAKTHROUGH number 1. . .Justin wanted to wear the shoes I bought/brought him instead of the ones he had already. :)

Look closely, Jalen was picked to be in the ELMO LIVE show at Sesame Place!

THA BOYS!!

Ryan's doggy facepaint at the Philly Zoo

Jalen's FIERCE tiger!

Philly Zoo

Justin tearing up his ribs at my birthday dinner at Chili's

and Laela doing the same :)

Eddie and Ryan not doing a bad job on theirs either :)

Jalen and his Great Grandpa in NYC

Jalen and Aunt Tami

Jalen in front of the HUGE Nintendo DS in NYC at Toys R Us

Ryan enjoying an NYC hotdog in the street

Brotherly Love

Jalen and Ryan meeting Ernie at Sesame Place