1st Day of School

Today was the boys' first day of the school year.  They were all up early, excited for a new year.  After a pancake breakfast it was clear nerves were high.  Easton was excited to start the 1st grade.  He was eager to get going.  But Christian and Charlie were both a bit nervous.

Christian started telling me over and over that he didn't want to go and wanted to stay home with mom instead.  I reminded him it was ok to feel nervous and that some of the other kids in his class were probably nervous too.  The brave boy of mine started Kindergarten today!

Charlie also started Kindergarten today and showed his nervousness by being hyper-focused on his collection of keys.  Charlie literally has hundreds of keys (like trains, it's one of the items he gets focused on) and today wanted one specific key- "you know mom, the one that's really shiny!"  No, my love.....the majority of your keys are shiny, I really don't know which one you are specifically looking for.  He started focusing on that one key about 10 minutes before we had to leave for school.  I was finally able to convince him to carry a different one in his pocket but he wasn't thrilled about it. 

But we were all able to get packed up.  Sunny got suited up in her service vest and away we went across the parking lot.  Yes, we literally live right across the parking lot from their school.  Kinda handy at times!  When we got into the school everyone was gathering in the gym for the first day.  Sunny and I walked the boys to the gym where they all gave Sunny hugs goodbye for the day (and mom got one hug too).  Since Sunny is not able to accompany Charlie to school all day, we will plan to have her drop him off and pick him up each day.  Our hopes are that her presence in that simple way will help Charlie transition to and from school each day and hopefully he will handle the transitions during the day well enough without her.  

At the end of the school day, Sunny came with me to pick everyone up.  When Charlie spotted us he came running and gave Sunny a big hug.  Knowing the first day was tiring for everyone we had some down time at home where Sunny helped Charlie transition home and keep calm.  

Nothing better than having your dog and your trucks

Charlie's special education teacher assured me Charlie had a great day today and was surprised he did so well.  Great report for a first day!  Now a long weekend (they don't have school tomorrow or Monday) we'll see how a full week goes for everyone!

Family Retreat

This past weekend we had the amazing opportunity to camp at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch and attend their first ever Autism Family Retreat.  Let me start by saying, we needed this.  My family really needed this weekend together.  We were able to take the weekend to enjoy each other, relax and have tons of fun.  When our daily life is generally stressful and full of therapies, we needed this break from every day life.

We chose to bring our camper and stay in their campground.  We know Charlie is comfortable in our camper and we would have a familiar place to go if he were having a hard time.  Overall the weekend went well!  We definitely dealt with a handful of meltdowns, that was expected....but the nice thing....we didn't have anyone staring, wondering what was going on, or why our child was having a catastrophic tantrum.  Because everyone we were surrounded by knew exactly what we were going through.  Meltdowns are their normal too!

Kuddos to Ironwood Springs.  This was their first time putting on this event and it couldn't have gone smoother.  They had a day packed full of activities for all the families and if you didn't want to attend a certain activity, you didn't need to feel like you HAD to.  They had alternate activities to choose from or you could simply have quiet time in your room or anywhere on the grounds that you chose.  

They had archery, BB gun shooting, horse riding, tractor rides, horse painting (yes, you read correctly, we painted actual horses) and even zipline!  The boys loved ALL of it!  They had gatherings at their fire pits in the evening for families to come together if they chose. They even had a resident camel, named Clyde- Clyde is a camel after this mama's heart as he LOVES coffee!

Archery and BB Guns were our first activity of the day and the boys could have spent all day there.  They were all pretty good!!

Spending time with the horses was easily another favorite.  They all got a turn to ride a horse around the arena.  This was their first time horse riding!  They also had horses outside in the pasture that would come up to the fence and love all the snuggles the boys would bring. 

You read correctly....the boys got to paint horses too!  We've never heard of such a thing, but they had so much fun doing it.  You guys, these horses were amazing.  They were the most patient and gentle horses I've ever met.  They stood still the entire time- barely moving and let all the kids paint all over them.  All of our boys were entertained by this for quite some time, but I've never seen Charlie so calm, still and occupied for such a long period of time (almost 40 minutes)!  He absolutely loved it.

We took a tractor ride to their petting zoo where they had Llamas, goats, tons of rabbits (yay *she says sarcastically), deer, and peacocks!  They had some of the rabbits on the tractor ride for the kiddos to hold.  

Easton and Charlie (as well as mom and dad) had fun with the zipline too!  We have some video of that, but have a hard time loading them there.  Both boys got suited up and hopped on the zipline without any hesitation.  They truly amaze me every day.  

This event was run so well.  They definitely put a lot of thought into everything they did.  They had noise canceling ear muffs at each station for those kiddos with noise sensitivities.  They even had a sensory room inside the lodge where kiddos could retreat to for a break if needed.  I wish we had heard about that.  For some reason we missed the memo on the sensory room and didn't get to see it, but from what we heard- they did a great job with it.  Meals were provided throughout the weekend and they did a great job accommodating special diets.  They had tons of gluten free options and even had almond milk available for those who are dairy free.  Amazing really.  Anyone staying in the rooms in the lodge also had their own mini fridges for those who still needed to bring any other special dietary needs or had any medications that needed refrigeration.  

At the end of the weekend they had a Q&A session for the parents to talk with the organizers of the event.  Overall consensus was that everything went well, but gave suggestions on what they could do a little differently to make it even better.  It sounds like Ironwood Springs wants to do this again or even provide other gatherings throughout the year for Autism families.  We are so grateful we had the opportunity to take part in this.  We haven't had the opportunity to socialize much with other autism families and this was perfect.  I think we found our tribe. 

Fundraising Updated

We did it!!  We've reached our fundraising goals and we couldn't have done it without your help!

THANK YOU!!!!

We've wrapped up a couple of our latest fundraisers.  One of them was a second t-shirt fundraiser.  That batch of shirts have arrived and are going out to their new owners.  This second t-shirt fundraiser raised and additional $133!  We've also had a few anonymous online donations that have helped us reached our goal.

Some of you have sent us pictures of you wearing your shirts and we love seeing those pictures.  Send us an email, text or tag us on Facebook of a picture of you wearing your Paws for Autism t-shirts, we'd love to see more!  Check out the picture below of a friend of ours wearing her t-shirt (woman on the right) as she travels the world!  In this picture she is in Thailand!

We have heard from several people recently who are just hearing about our story and our fundraising.  We've officially ended our fundraising efforts.  However, we will have ongoing expenses for Sunny and if it's in your heart to support our cause please feel free to contact us directly for any donations.

As always, please help us reach others and share our blog.  If we can be of help of just 1 person from sharing our story then our hearts are happy.

Email: kayla.king17@gmail.com

Phone: 507-421-6047

Facebook: Kayla King

Instagram: essentialkings

#charlieandhisdog

Public Training

Busy days working on training and getting Sunny comfortable at our house.  She spent all week with us, we have her this weekend and will have her all next week as well while the trainer is out of town for another client.  We've encountered a few bumps in the road, but that's to be expected.  We need to re-frame our thinking and training techniques to turn things around and all will be well.

Earlier this week Charlie and I had a chance to go out in public with Mike and Sunny to work on training.  It was a great training session where we both learned what we do well while handling Sunny and what we still need to work on.  We walked around downtown Rochester, went inside Mayo Clinic and on busy sidewalks downtown, practiced crossing busy streets and navigated stairs, elevators, and escalators.

Sunny doing her "block" command to keep Charlie from entering traffic

We have some practicing to do around navigating stairs- Sunny often rushes up or down stairs and pulls Charlie with him.  We need to remember to tell Sunny to "wait" so she doesn't end up pulling Charlie on his face.  In the picture below you can see how Charlie walks with Sunny while holding on to a short leash while mom or dad helps to handle Sunny from another leash

.  Charlie also has the option to hold on to a loop that is on the back of Sunny's vest.  Charlie goes back and forth on which he prefers but we plan to get a shorter leash for him to hold on to so it keeps him closer to Sunny.  I had to remind him numerous times to stay close to Sunny so he isn't running into people coming from the other way.  Same goes for walking on sidewalks on busy streets.  

Walking the skyway in downtown Rochester

We stopped to take a break and help Sunny to learn to wait patiently (which she does fine with).  In the picture I'm explaining to Charlie that we will get a shorter leash for him to hold on to.

Practicing waiting in a patient waiting area in Mayo Clinic

We had a great morning training with Mike and Sunny and we have started seeing a small bond starting with Charlie and Sunny.  On our car ride home Sunny was very snuggly with Charlie with her head in his lap.

All of this....over trains

Man, oh man, tough night at the King household.  It all started during the witching hour (usually around 5:30pm- you can count on something going down almost every evening at this time) when Charlie became hyper-focused on getting new trains.  He knows I have a stash of new trains hidden that he can earn (incentives).  He knows what to do to get his hands on his new trains, but likes to try to fool you into thinking he doesn't.  Well tonight I wasn't giving in when he wanted a new train....."just because."  If you know Charlie well you know he is obsessed with trains.  I'm pretty certain we have every train imaginable at our house.  When he becomes hyper-focused on something he sits and chants.  Tonight it was "I want a new train" over and over and over again.  I tried my best to carry on with cooking dinner (and Tyler wasn't home yet) but Charlie became more and more upset.  The chanting turned into a meltdown- toys thrown, head banged, screaming.  

When Tyler got home we tried to work with Charlie and Sunny together.  Charlie was sitting in the living room chair and decided to get Sunny to "lap" on Charlie to provide some deep pressure.  Tyler was trying to distract Charlie with pictures on his phone while I helped Sunny figure out what was going on.  Sunny did great, but Charlie was in a tough mood tonight.  

 Charlie calmed down slightly and Sunny went elsewhere in the room.  But Charlie went from meltdown on the chair to meltdown on the floor.  So, we gave Sunny the command for "full lap" where she is to lay on top of Charlie.

Now, obviously Sunny can't lay totally on top of Charlie (there is a slight size difference ;) but she did  what we asked her to do.  And I love how she looks like she's smiling in the picture.  She's totally loving it.  But Charlie wasn't.  He was so incredibly focused on his trains and so distraught it was hard for him to calm down even with Sunny's help.  

This was our night....over 3 hours of a meltdown over trains.  Trains, my friends.  Just trains.  Now, excuse me while I stay up way later than I should just to listen to the quiet.

A Weekend for Friends

Our Summer is winding down yet we still find ourselves busier than ever.  I've taken a small break from updates on here just because we've been so busy with everything going on (and a little stressed as well).  We have been really focusing on dog training the last several weeks and have started having Sunny stay a couple nights/days each week so she can get accustomed to our house and us in general.  Hoping by doing this it will make the transition to living with us full time a little easier for everyone.  And that transition to full time should be happening very soon.  Within a few short weeks.  

Some time away from our usual chaos was in order.  We spent this last weekend in Wisconsin with some dear friends of ours. We pulled our camper to their house and had some much needed relaxation and soul searching.  We met these friends 5 years ago when our boys were in the NICU the same time their youngest daughter was.  There's no mistaking God puts certain people in our lives for a reason.

We couldn't have asked for better weather and our boys were so busy and having fun.  All the kids played so well together.  And Charlie was so content.  There were no meltdowns all weekend.  ALL.  WEEKEND people!  It was like his body and his mind were able to relax and regulate with no problem at all.  It helped that he had one of his most best friends with him too.

Charlie had Brinley by his side all weekend.  These two have been on such a similar track their entires lives and their bond is so untouchable, it's incredible really.  

One of Brinley's sisters captured some great pictures this weekend and you can see their happiness shine.  These genuine smiles are just beaming.  And they were like this the entire weekend.

We enjoyed an outdoor movie, friendship and fun through the entire weekend and it was just what the doctor ordered for our family.  We needed this.  

But of course, the transition to leave and go home was too much to handle and resulted in an hour and 15 minute meltdown on the car ride home.  I was sad to go too, but Charlie just doesn't know how to handle transitions and these tough emotions like most people do.  He has since been doing ok at home but has asked for Sunny a handful of times and has looked at the pictures from the weekend more times than I can count.  I keep reminding him these are great things to do when we are missing our friends.  He has also asked numerous times to buy some new trains....a good indication he is trying to hold it together as best as possible as trains are a coping mechanism, a stress reliever for him.  So, as we launch back into routine we take a deep breath and keep marching.