Full days at Alpine are going really really well. And its only the second day. Also, he eats alot.

Today was day 2 of full days at Alpine.  We're off to a fantastic start.  Dominic has had minimal behavioral issues both days - yesterday there were 2 instances of non compliance all day, and today there were none.  Single digits for the other tracked behavioral issues (eg, today he had 3 hand licks *ew* and 4 yells)

Both days, they reported that he was chatty, but I don't know what the numbers are.  (yes, thats going to bug me).  I probably won't know numbers until our parent meeting which is generally the last week of the month.

We're going to be doing a followup adrenal/neurotransmitter test this week.  I just confirmed today that the doctor wants Dominic to be taking the adrenal supplement the day we do it.  We'll do it on Saturday - it involves a urine sample and 4 saliva samples spaced evenly across the day.

Dominic has been eating alot again.  i'm guessing we're gearing up for a growth spurt.  Today, I sent to Alpine 2 snacks - 1 was a whole sliced cucumber, the other was 1 1/2 oranges, sliced. And lunch which was 2 chicken legs, ~1 1/2 cups broccoli/carrot mixture, ~1C pretzels, and ~1 c raw veggies.   He ate every bite - they were in awe.   And then for dinner today he had 5 bbq ribs, a pile of veggies, and some chips. 

Since the fencing I put up has not kept Dominic and Shanti out of my veggie garden (they were going thru the gaps) I've added chicken wire to it.  They were both very sad to watch me install it.

We have the iPad in hand, and I just got an email from the folks over at GiveForward advising that the check for funds raised was sent yesterday.  I have a list from Alpine of recommended app's (most of which are in then under $2 range.) and we'll be spending some time this weekend downloading them.   I expect we'll be sending the iPad in to Alpine probably in a week or two.  They're working on how they'll incorporate it.

I've had so many nice notes from people who didn't get to contribute to the fundraiser before I closed it - don't worry, I'm sure we'll do another fundraiser down the road.  It seems that when there's something specific like the iPad, people really want to be able to help.   In the meantime, you can always email me (domsjourney at gmail dot com) if you want to make a tax deductible contribution to Dominic's ABA therapy (yes, there's a way you can do it so it comes out as a tax break).  We are so grateful to all of you who have been able to help, without our "village", we would not have been able to keep him in ABA therapy this long.  Right now, as long as nothing else in our lives breaks, we will be able to keep the therapy going until Sept 2012 at which time we have to make a decision as to if we keep him split between Alpine and public school (to do so would mean pulling our 401K's and taking the tax hit) or put him in full time public school and hope he's gotten enough therapy.   So we'll see how that all shakes out.  In the mean time, we are so glad to have all of you who are so supportive!