The Terrible Two's

I'm treading on new water here. Shawn rarely threw a temper tantrum and when he did, I just ignored it and after he saw that it didn't have any affect, he would stop. Joshua has turned into a different little boy this past week and I'm not liking it one bit! He is cutting teeth right now. He only has 8 teeth right now and I've been feeling around and I can feel all 4 molars coming through. We've been having a problem with hitting, throwing toys, and falling over screaming and thrashing arms and legs about, lol. The other day I run into Shawn's room after I heard him screaming to find Shawn holding the top of his head and crying and Joshua standing next to him with a wooden train track. Can you guess what happened?

I think it's only natural to compare your kids when you have more than one. Now that I have a half way normal kid, I am really concerned about Shawn. Shawn has never been tested for Autism and it's not that I want him to have it but in the back of my mind I've always wondered about it. There is such a huge spectrum for Autism so it's hard to look at him and say "oh yeah, he's definitely autistic". One of Shawn's friends from his EELP class has been diagnosed as a highly functioning autistic. I would have never known he was autistic if his mom hadn't told me. Mikey socializes ok and that's what comes to mind when you think of Autism but there are many signs, including speech delay. When I think back when Shawn was a baby, I can pick out several signs of autism. When he was crawling around but not yet walking, I would try to play with him but he really didn't want anything to do with it. If I sat down next to him to play with him, he would crawl away and play with something else. He always seemed like he was in a world of his own...once he was focused on something, nothing else distracted him. Of course the whole speech delay is definitely a sign but another sign is sensitivities. Shawn has always had trouble eating and not just because he was picky but he has a very strong gag reflux. I had a very difficult time transitioning him from Stage 2 baby food to Stage 3 and other solid foods. It was like he didn't know how to chew or he didn't want to. He was about 15 months old before he stopped eating baby food. I had to cut up his food really small and give him things that would slide down easily if he didn't chew his food. He still has a problem with chewing. I strongly believe he must have some sort of sensitivity in his mouth. I don't know if it has to do with taste or texture but I watch him chew certain things, for an example: every once in a while I try to get Shawn to taste a fruit or something, this particular time it was an apple. It looked like he wasn't chomping down all the way and just gnawing it like he didn't have any teeth. Another sign is having to stick to a certain routine. The first thing I think of is Rain Man but Shawn does have a routine that he needs/wants to stick to. His morning routine has to be the same or he gets upset and it's the same thing for the evening routine. If you try to have him do something out of order, he won't have it and gets upset. Of course it's no where near as severe as the movie Rain Man but he still has his routines. Part of me feels guilty for thinking there is something wrong with him. He makes friends easily and so far he's doing well in school but if there is a problem, I just want to get him the help he needs before it starts to affect his school work. I'm a little disappointed in his speech progress this year. He still sounds like a 3 yr. old talking. He still says " I hungry" instead of "I'm hungry". He still gets him, his, she, and her mixed up. I just don't think his vocabulary has improved much even though we read every night and he's practically reading himself now. He just looks like he really has to think of what to say instead of just saying it. I need to make an appointment for his 6 yr. well check and I'm definitely going to talk to his doctor about it and see what he says.