The word of the day is MoGo. That’s really two words. It’s a two-word sentence, asking for More of Ready, Set, Go!

My son used a two-word sentence! In response to the question, “What do you want?” when he was in his swing (see the pictures from Tim).

It really is the little things that make parents smile. I know there are a lot of parents out there who think something like “MoGo” isn’t anything to write home about – or to blog about.

It totally is.

MoGo. Word of the day!

What a difference a week makes! J-Man has gotten into his medicine groove with the fish oil! This has been the ritual with everything else he’s taken in the past - several days of karate and fighting it and then a grim acceptance. He never likes it, but makes his peace with it. Of course, none of his other medicine smelled like a fish camp.

So it looks like that part of the equation is good for the duration. I can’t say as we’ve seen any major improvements, though it does seem that his eye contact and interaction are getting better. As Mary says in the above post, we may be seeing a trend toward improved communication!

Again, this is by no means a scientific report and we don’t have any foolproof method of charting his progress. We don’t have any standard by which to measure what ’success’ means here either. I guess we’ll just know it when we see it.

For me, “I love you, Daddy” will be more than enough.

What started out as a manageable-enough process of giving him fish oil in an oral syringe turned into full combat after the first couple of days. If I knew a martial art it might have been easier, but I doubt it.

The last couple of days have been a bit better - a relative concept. It has made giving him his other reflux meds harder as he distrusts everything we give him now. He holds a long grudge about these things. I personally don’t blame him. It’s not the most pleasant stuff in the world to take.

So far, no noticeable improvements in speech or otherwise as far as I can tell, though he has seemed more chatty in the last few days. I didn’t do an in-depth statistical analysis or anything, but I think he’s been using syllables a bit more often rather than his normal R2-D2-like moans and grunts. I haven’t seen any physical side effects so far, so that’s a big positive.

It’s supposed to take a while to notice much in the way of improvements with Omega-3s. It’s hard to be patient when you pray everyday that something will work. But it’s a lot less messy than offering animal sacrifices, so we’ll hang with it.

We went to our friends’ little boy’s first birthday party today. Of course, it was scheduled for almost exactly when we try to the J-man down for his nap (not that he sleeps every day, but we try!). He had a good time running around their open floor plan house, although in the beginning, he felt it necessary to drag me along too.

There were probably 10 other kids there. I would say maybe 2 of them were near J-man’s age. They talked, maybe not clearly, but with actual words. They ate real food. They played with the toys provided, and even to a certain extent with the other kids.

My kid? He walked around and around, and played with the front door and the chair-rail on the wall. Other than that, one of us was holding him. I don’t believe there was any voluntary interaction on his part. Yes, if someone were in J-man’s way on his trips around the downstairs, he would push them out of the way. There was a playroom set up – J-man refused to go in there (although it WAS pretty loud). He ate – nothing. He drank – nothing.

When J-man was 22 ½ months old, he finally started to walk by himself. There wasn’t a physical reason he couldn’t do it before then; he’d been cruising since he was 1. We had to teach him how to fall safely, because it didn’t occur to him to put out his arms to block his fall, and he ended up face-planting the two times he tried letting go. Finally, one evening he just started walking. None of that “take 2 wobbly steps and sit down” stuff for him. The next day, he started running. It was like he had to make the decision to Just Do It.

Sometimes I want to say, “Just talk already! Just eat already!”

We’ve read and been told by a handful of people that giving kids with severe speech delays (and other developmental issues) fish oil supplements can make a world of difference. Sometimes we wonder about the wonder-drug-like claims made about Omega-3 fatty acids, but at this point we’d face a strong north gale and pee into it if we thought it would do any good.

So after doing our typical obsessive amount of online research, I went to Whole Foods and picked up some fish oil in liquid form. There is no way in hell and Georgia that J-Man is going to take pills or eat those chewy things that some egghead thought kids would actually ingest. Unless they can bake it into a tortilla chip, eating it is out.

I lucked out and found a liquid that required only 2.5ml (half a teaspoon) to get to what is generally considered a therapeutic range for toddlers. That’s less than the Reglan (reflux med) he takes, so we were hopeful we could get it in. About 5ml is his breaking point we’ve discovered.

Supposedly, the therapeutic dose for toddlers is about 500mg of combined DHA and EPA per day, though there are no definitive studies about this. God knows I’m not a doctor, so talk to your pediatrician first, preferably one that has a clue about supplements. I did learn to be careful about one thing, though. Some Omega-3 supplements contain Vitamins A and D, so be careful since above-recommended levels of those can be toxic.

The first couple of days we tried masking it in his applesauce but that was a total bust. He is super-sensitive to taste, and probably smell too. The shove-it-in-before-he-has-time-to-fight-it method looked to be our only shot.

Yesterday, I got the fish oil into an oral syringe (thank you Target for our endless supply of them) and got it in him, though not without some ju-jitsu from both of us. It’s strawberry-flavored and it doesn’t smell or taste that bad to me. Mary thinks it smells like an abandoned fish market. It does have an aftertaste, but ‘after’ is the operative word there. After it’s in him, I don’t much care. I gave him some iced tea to wash it down and he seemed OK with it (which is all relative).

It’ll take a while to see any difference, assuming we do. If it doesn’t, I guess we’re on to burnt offerings and word-saying. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that. It’s probably against our HOA covenant.

To put it simply, this is primarily a blog for parents - particularly of ’special needs’ kids - who feel either stupid, occasionally or perpetually inept at parenting, or, most likely, both. This doesn’t mean you really are stupid or inept, but if you’ve ever been so mental that you’ve made it to the mailbox in your underwear before realizing it, you definitely will start to question everything. If you didn’t realize your ‘garment deficiency’ until your neighbor asked you about it the next day, you’ll really feel at home here.

We’re the proud parents of our 2 1/2-year-old son, who is the bright star at the center of our universe. He has an exuberance that can brighten any room. He also has a great many struggles, but he faces them bravely and with a determination that inspires us. He goes to various therapies during the week, all of which we’ll cover in future entries.

Some of his issues have a fairly clear diagnosis; others do not. The most obvious one is Sensory Integration Disorder. You’ll also see this referred to as Sensory Processing Disorder, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, and a few other things. The idea is essentially the same.

There is a growing sense that he also has apraxia of speech. He uses very few words and the challenge has been to understand why. He also has some issues with coordinating fine motor movements, which is most likely related to his sensory problems. As a result, he can’t really sign either.

He’s also very delayed in his eating skills. He was in feeding therapy for a long time and still is to a lesser degree. He only eats a few foods. It became clear that he’s not ‘picky’ but instead has sensory reactions to many types of food. It’s complicated, but we’ll get more into it later.

The good news is that he seems to understand us quite well and follows instructions as well as most two-year-olds. He’s a social kid and gets along well with most anyone. Thankfully, he has very few tantrums, and when he does they are very short.

The complicating problem is that he also has some other indeterminate developmental delays. Autism has been bandied about, but none of his therapists currently think that’s likely because of his social skills and general ability to tolerate situations and activities that kids with Asperger’s or autism usually cannot.

So, we’re on a quest to help our son decipher the world and grow into his full potential. We know other parents are going through this too, often without support or understanding of what to do. Our hope is to connect with parents who are struggling to understand what is going on and share whatever insights we have with each other.

I guess you could say that this is our way of talking through things in hopes of discovering the answers to our countless parenting questions. If we can find common insight and community with other parents and help each other figure things out, then we’ll have accomplished something here.

You don’t need to have a child working through anything we’ve mentioned above. If your child is having a hard time and you feel clueless or frustrated, you’re in the right place. We know that a lot of parents of special needs kids feel isolated, stupid, and frustrated. Be welcome here! You’re in good company.

This will be a tag team blog. My wife will share her wise and sage-like thoughts, and I’ll do whatever it is I do. We’ll try to keep it light-hearted and fun, but we aren’t bouncy, chipper types so who knows what else will come out of our fingers.

So, here we go!

Oh - in case you’re wondering, it comes from the saying, “He can’t find his own ass with both hands and a flashlight.”