For Starters...

I am new to blogging and this being my first blog entry I thought I would start from the beginning...

My name is Kayla and I have the most wonderful man in my life, Ralf, and together we have two adorable little boys Gavin (5) and Rafe (1).  Ralf and I have been together for eleven years (I was 16 and he was 18) and still we manage to learn something new about each other almost on a daily basis.  He's very quiet and introverted where as I am loud and extroverted, so I guess you can say we are the polar opposites of one another but it works for us.  Together we have done everything backwards and I mean EVEYTHING!  By that I mean we became pregnant and had Gavin first then two months later we purchased our first home (which is the home I grew up in), and four years later had our second son Rafe.  Now I do believe it's time for marriage and I'm sure we will tie the not in the next few months but right now we are truly happy with our family and the road which has been paved for us. 

Our youngest son Rafe just turned one today,Happy Birthday Poodles!  He is a ball full of energy and I honestly think I have never seen a child crawl as fast as he does.  He hears and door open and ZOOM! he's there in seconds.  Washing clothes is a weakness of mine (oh how I loathe laundry) and with him it seems to never get done.  My washer and dryer are in my garage and as soon as he hears the kitchen door open to the garage he is out the door before I can get the clothes from the dryer to the couch.  So I have devised a plan to help the situation...I turn the kitchen faucet on before opening the door and therefore he doesn't hear the door open, now my plan isn't always fool proof but it seems to work 80% of the time...I'm still in the process of tweaking it a bit.  He has been high maintenance from the get go!  He had colic until he was five months old and wants to be held by me every time I turn around.  He enjoys taking 10-15 minute cat naps and is good to go for at least 5 hours after them.  He is constantly on the go and rarely takes a breather.  He definitely has my personality because I'm not sure who's louder, me or him?  He's constantly laughing and wanting to wrestle with his big brother Gavin.  All in all he's a little toot but I love and wouldn't trade him for anything.    Now I am sure you are asking yourself, "Why does she call her son Poodles?", and that we can all thank his Nana (my mom) for.  I cant quite remember where she came up with it but it caught on quickly and now all of his cousins and Aunt's and Uncle's on my side of the family call him Poodles.  He is also called Rafie Rafe and my personal favorite Brownie.  Rafe has a dark complexion which many people think he gets from Ralf's family (because he is Hispanic) but he honestly gets it from my side (and we are not Hispanic).  This child is so brown Ralf said he is considering calling him Midnight!  I don't think I ever laughed so hard in my life when he said that to me!  Ha!  It still cracks me up!  Sorry Ralfie, but Midnight has been officially shot down!   But I do call my son Brownie because of his beautiful skin complexion.  His older brother Gavin is the complete opposite of him all the way around... 

Unlike his brother, Gavin is extremely white!  Gavin doesnt look like he has an ounce of Hispanic blood in him but he is most definately half!  Gavin was a very laid back baby, very easy going and the best shopping buddy any mommy could ever ask for.  I would call him my "road dog" because I would take him everywhere with me and he would be a perfect angel.  I always told my mom God knew what he was doing when he gave me such a perfect, well behaved little guy.  While pregnant with Gavin, both my sister and sister in law were preggo and we were all having boys that were due six weeks apart and Gavin was the last to be born.  As the three boys grew into toddlers I noticed Gavin was falling behind the other two.  While they were speaking clear words Gavin was babbling, they were playing with one another while Gavin was playing parallel to them and not with them.  As my two nephews were excelling in their toddler-preschool milestones Gavin was slipping further and further behind.  His vocabulary, comprehension and social skills were no where they needed to be and both Ralf and I grew very concerned because Gavin had been in daycare since he was three months old and should be excelling in these areas.  At the age of 2 we started the ECI Program and once or twice a month they would send a speech therapist out to work with him.  I expressed my concerns of possible Autism in Gavin and they told me he isn't Autistic just speech delayed.  So I went along with it and after some time I quit the services because I couldn't take another morning of the speech therapist putting ky son in time out because he didn't want to look at her or participate in a activity.  A year or so later he qualified for speech through our local district.  Again I expressed my concerns about him possibly being autistic so the speech therapist arranged for an Autism Specialist to come in an observe Gavin.  Her conclusion was that he has some autistic tendencies but wouldn't classify him as being autistic.  Another year went by and this passed fall I was able to get him into the Pre Kindergarten program at the Elementary School where he was attending speech the previous year.  I knew I had to raise concern again about Gavin possibly being autistic and finally the ball was rolling.  Just earlier this month Gavin was officially diagnosed as Mild to Moderate autistic.  As a mom I have always known there was something different about my son, and in my heart I have always felt it was autism but when I heard the words come from the Diagnosticians mouth and saw it in black and white I just broke down.  I truly wanted it to be something else other than autism because with autism there is no cure. 

So as you can see my oldest son Gavin has been diagnosed as Autistic.  I have decided to write this blog to talk about our journey as a fmaily in batteling this disorder.  Right now I plan to post once or twice a week so keep checking back!  Have a great week!