A little piece of heaven

Today we had dinner with some lovely, wonderful new friends. Meet Catalina and her parents, Cybell and Patricio:

Nathan went gaga over Catalina. He kept trying to hold her hand and smiling at her. Maybe since Rocio rejected his affections, he felt that he had to move on 🙂 We had an absolutely wonderful time at Catalina’s house and were just amazed at how many similarities we have in our approach towards our kids and in our experiences. Although Catalina is a little bit older, the two of them have a lot of similarities in their behavior and personalities as well. We all just had an incredible connection and we totally “clicked”. We talked and talked and before we knew it hours had gone by.

One of the most beautiful parts of this journey that Nathan has brought us on has been to meet fellow warriors. We have been so blessed to have the chance to meet absolutely incredible children and the families standing behind them. Sometimes people ask me why I feel that Nathan has brought us nothing but beauty. This is one of the reasons why. As part of this journey he has brought us to people who respond to difficult circumstances with grace and strength.

Nathan had a wonderful time, he stood and watched TV for a long time and displayed some of the best trunk and head control that I’ve seen in him. We then ate dinner and then hung out playing with the kids and taking pictures.

And the beautiful news. We now have a camera! Cybell and Patricio loaned us their camera so we can continue tracking our journey. So expect many pictures and videos in the coming days!

This week I witnessed the true power of the GFCF diet. I adopted the diet for Nathan about a year ago simply because it made a lot of sense to me. Even though everyone thought I was crazy, I saw autistic traits in him and decided to try it. For all these months I’ve kept to the diet simply because I believe in the science behind it – that the gluten and casein peptides are harmful to children with neurological conditions.

After Mary left last Friday, we had 2 days where we didn’t have any good food available and we ate what we could find – mostly cheesy bready things like quiche and empanadas and lasagna. Since I was already breaking the diet I even gave him chocolate and a few other bad things. I figured it was okay to break the diet once in a while, I didn’t want to be too extreme.

On Monday, however, I noticed that Nathan’s eyes looked glassy, he was fussier than last week, and less “present”. He was a lot less energetic and Ramon noticed that he wasn’t as effective in his Medek sessions. Tuesday I saw a little bit of the same but slightly reduced as he got back on his diet on Monday, when the new nanny started with us down here. I could see how every day he had a little more energy, was a little more present, and was less fussy. As he detoxed from all of the casein and gluten peptides he recovered more energy and ease. He also was horribly constipated over the weekend and at the beginning of the week. It wasn’t until yesterday and today that we were able to get him regular again and when he finally got rid of all the backlog in his system.

I wanted to write a post about this because for the first time, I saw such an obvious, clear connection between these foods and Nathan’s behavior. Is it only Nathan? Maybe. But I know that when I stay off gluten and casein myself, I feel better too. Slowly slowly I’m following in Nathan’s footsteps, as I can see the clear benefits to freeing my body from those harmful peptides.

To finish this post, I will post a recipe that my mom sent me that is wonderful. We’ve been giving it to Nathan for breakfast and it makes him poop within 20 min’s. It is very healthy and keeps his body very clean:

6 prunes
1 banana
1 cup oatmeal (make sure it’s gluten free)
1 large spoonful of honey
7 ounces of rice or almond milk

On another note, today was Nathan’s 20th Medek session. I can’t believe 2 weeks have already gone by. Nathan continues to do really well! Today was the first time Ramon was able to get him to stand up in the air only by holding his feet. He only lasted 2 seconds but it’s a start! From 2 seconds to 10 seconds is a small jump, and from 10 to 20 is another small jump, and onwards and upwards.

We are thrilled with the progress we’re seeing!

I saw this on one of the Yahoo groups I read:

Chunc Wheelchair

Here are pictures of the little girl in the wheelchair.

It looks really cool!