https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775 Made with a wink and a smile en-us 2021-06-10 18:33:38 UTC 2021-08-03 01:21:14 UTC hello@padlet.com em907 https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1620379726 Reno and I found out we were expecting right after christmas. I told him "it is our little christmas miracle! I am so excited to start shopping for our new little baby! We plan to find out at birth what the gender of our child is. I have always wanted to do this since a little girl. In just a short 48 hours I plan to go in for an induction and begin the laboring process. Our nursery is all done and I have decorated in a beautiful pale yellow and light grey. I have done the old wives tale tricks and our baby is currently a boy according to the ring over the belly. I have prayed to god for a safe deliver due to the high risk nature of my pregnancy. About haft way through the pregnancy I found out that the baby was under developed. I have been on a strict diet to help the baby obtain as much nutrition as possible and gain weight. We have decided that if it is a girl we plan to name her Judea Ann Williams. Ann of course being the family middle name on my side so I want to pass it down. If we have a boy we plan to name him Aceson Gregory Williams. Aceson has been a name that I have loved for some time now and I could just adore having a baby with that name. 
Reno and I are walking into the hospital. I have many emotions running through my body but mainly excitement. I am ready to meet our baby and see the beautiful little creation we have made. Life as we know it is about to change. 
3 hours after induction it was time to push already. After just three short pushes we meet our beautiful baby boy. Before I knew it the doctor was telling me I had to deliver the placenta and umbilical cord. Our baby was taken to the nursery where they discovered his sugar was low and rush him to the NICU.  I had to remember to stay calm not only for me but also for the sake of the baby. When it had been 72 hours after the birth they finally released the baby and I to go home. I have been a nervous wreck to take care of Aceson being he is only 6.9lbs. I never imagined I would have such a tiny baby. Reno had to go out and pick up some premie clothes because I honestly thought our son would of gained more weight. When Aceson is around three months I see major changes in his day to day behavior. He is starting to stay awake for many hours of the day. Just the other day he rolled over and then rolled back to his back. I am so proud of him too because he reached and did not give up and got the toy he wanted. Reno and I have been working with him on color songs because it is never to early to teach/learn. A few moms and I get together every week because the babies get to interact with each other. Us moms even get to talk about the struggles that only moms understand. Aceson has been wanting to eat a lot more lately so the doctor said it was okay to start giving him some cereal with breast milk in the mornings come month five. We are about one week away from having a healthy five month old. We have been working with Ace when it comes to sitting up on his own. Currently he still needs the support of the boppy pillow but in a short time he will master it. Currently Ace has been laughing and giving smiles back to Reno and I when ever we play peak a boo with him. By month 7 I have a baby that is wanting to be in the jumper constantly because he is always on the move. Ace also has been showing more interest in the color songs and currently he lights up when he sees the color blue and we sing the blue song.
When Ace turned nine months old he started army crawling around the house. I plan to be a  stay at home mom until Aceson is in kindergarten. Due to my previous experience as a daycare teacher Reno and I intend to save money with my just teaching our son. Everyday we work on crawling and strengthening our legs to prepare for walking. In the morning I take Ace in the pram so he can get some vitamin D but also enjoy the many things to look at. Once home Ace and I will sit in the living room and we read books and play peak-a-boo. By month 12 I have a one year old that is holding on to things and walking around. We bought him a walker the other day so he has been learning how to steady himself so it won't go to fast and he can walk and not run. Reno and I are taking him to the zoo for his birthday because he has never been. I am excited because this will be something Ace will love. He loves to point to the zebra in the touch and feel book. He will be disappointed when he can not touch the zebras fur. 
Now that I have a toddler on my hands I like to take our walking beautiful boy to many places during the week. I like him to experiment to learn what he can and what he can't do. When we go to the children's museum he loves to paint on the walls. I show him that mixing red and blue together makes purple. Earlier in the day we read books and I read him a book on how colors can be mixed together to make other colors. Reno and I also just purchases a water/sand table combo. This will go in our back yard so Ace can have some water fun during the day. I will teach him that pouring it through the top will result in a waterfall. Ace is doing wonderful when it comes to color recognition. Around 14 months I started to notice he would say the color with me when I sing. Now being 16 months he knows the color without me having to prompt him! When Ace was a baby he would babble and smile but other then that he just would look at us very intently. Now that Ace has found his voice he loves to use it. From the minute he wakes up he starts babbling. He even says mommy now. I hear him over the baby monitor every morning around 9am when he wakes "mom,mom,mom" he will just repeat it until I get into the room to feed him. When I finally come through the door he has the biggest smile on his face. He is a morning person just like him mom. Reno wants me to be done breast feeding at two and I think if Aceson is showing that he is not interested then we will stop. Currently though he only gets to have breast milk for a little morning breakfast in his room. We then go  downstairs and eat fruit or whatever I prepare. Ace then will get some milk before nap time and bed time. Ace has taken a bottle before every nap and I do not plan to stop until he is two. Ace also does a wonderful job in his own room. Everyday a new thing is occurring with Ace and I love to watch him develop. I like to have Ace now that he is two do a shape sorter. I like to also have him do lacing beads to work on fine motor. I enjoy working with him on growing his cognitive capability. ]]> 2021-06-22 21:15:59 UTC https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1620379726 em907 https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1653446575 When finding out that Ace was on the spectrum my heart did not drop. I knew and know we will be okay. God has prepared me for this moment. Now my husband I can not speak for but I know he is worried. Children already picking on our son hurts me just as much. I do not want to see him hurt from missed friendship opportunities or miss birthday parties due to his diagnoses. For me personally it just means we will have to start working with Ace even more at home. We will better ourselves to better his life. I plan on making list and laminating them so he has a checklist of for example everything to bring home from school. I think that him also having an outline schedule will benefit him for the better. 
6-8 I plan to set up an IEP meeting with the school to discuss his education path. I would like Ace to be moved to a special education class to receive the best care and education for him as possible. Reno and I are looking into a university that is able to take children with intellectually disabilities and give them a much better education. If Ace does stay in the public school system I want to ensure he gets recess time with his peers. My main reason as to why we want Ace in a class with a certified special education teacher is to ensure that he is receiving the best care as possible. Up until now Reno and I just pushed his being slower out of our heads. But when it affects his education we want to make sure he is in an environment where he is not stressed at the course load. Overall the diagnose does not scare me in real life truly. If I had a child with ASD I would know what to do. I have been exposed to many intellectual disabilities and I would love my child to death. 
From 9-11 we will continue there IEP meeting and maybe start best buddies so they can form some new friends! I would enroll my son in fishing because he loves it and excels at it. Ace is calm during fishing so we often say if he has a good we at school we will fish on the weekend. This could be bad but Ace can be problematic at school. He does not like any one coming up to him unless it is in the classroom. We are working on exposing him to the gym. This fear is misunderstood by the school. They do not understand that Ace is scared of upperclassman. We are currently taking Ace to a speech therapist to help better develop his speech delays. She says he has some work to do but he will start being able to express feelings more. ]]> 2021-07-17 19:06:09 UTC https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1653446575 em907 https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1653449115 During ages 6-8 Ace attended a public school and his teacher was great but did not offer him the best possible environment possible. We has a lot of issues with him acting out toward other kids and also the un willingness to participate in school actives. When Ace is home he talks to Reno and I none stop about fishing but when at school he completely shuts down. I just fear that he will not get over this hump in his education. He needs to learn life skills if he plans on being able to move out one day. 
When ace turned 9 we threw him a big birthday with family and he actually expressed the want of having his classmate at the party. When we saw him engaging in play with action figures it made Reno and I so happy. We found Eric's mom and dad at the party and started discussing our sons and saying how they will need to have a play date when its not a party! Jessica Eric's mom shared that he to is diagnosed with ASD. I am sad and happy at the same time when hearing this because I know the struggles of having a child who is on the spectrum. I am also happy because we have never seen him this engaged before in a friendship. I am happy to because we have someone to finally talk to about our struggles and they relate. We plan to continue his education at a public school that way aceson and eric can remain friends. I want this so he can have a friendship and maybe come out of his shell more in school. At his IEP meeting they are already talking about where he will go to middle school at. It is hard for me to even think about middle school since he could potential have three options. Reno and I have talked about it and we want to pursue the middle school that also helps build life skills. Such as showering alone at this age, or learning to put deodorant on. Basic microwave skills and so on. Ace learns better when a teacher will lead by example. We have found that the visuality process helps best. ]]> 2021-07-17 19:16:08 UTC https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1653449115 em907 https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1653459704 At about 6yrs old we found at that Reno's position as manger was in jeopardy at the Peoria location and that they wanted him to transfer to a new branch in Arizona. I told him he needed to fight for his position as Ace would not do well under change. Ace did hear us biker a few times. His speech therapist told us about how he did not enjoy hearing that. So I ensured that Reno and I would always go to the park before we start discussing the moving process. 
When Ace turned 7 we knew we would have to move because Reno had no choice. We packed everything up and told Ace it would be okay. Our home will be a home to someone else and we will have a new one. He was excited for the car. Ace was not happy when we got to Arizona and our grass was not grass but rather sand. This was the first time Reno and I experienced a texture problem with our son. Reno and I saved up money until Ace's 8th birthday when we put fake grass in the backyard. It felt like real grass and that was the first time in over a year we saw our son smile. The grass means so much to him because of the fluffy feeling it provides around his body. 
From 9-11 Reno and I had very few moments where we fought. The only time we had confrontation was when it came to Ace's friend life at school. The teacher discussed to us how he likes to sit in the bean bag corner during school. He is not social with the other students besides this boy names Eric. Reno and I have yet to meet this Eric but in a few weeks when we throw Ace's 9th birthday bash we will meet him and his parents. The teacher disclosed to us how Ace and Eric both sit in the bean bags all of school. It makes me worried that they are not paying attention to school and talk back to the teacher when asked to do school work. She says they rather talk about toys and fishing. It is hard to discipline Ace at this age since he really will not listen to us. He does not like to get his fingernails chopped at all so I can not imagine the struggle the teacher has with art. If we could get his self esteem up it would be great. That is why we have scheduled an appoint with a doctor down here to hopefully help us better understand our son currently. Maybe Ace has moved up on the scale. By age 11 we found out that Ace also has partial hearing loss and since obtaining hearing aids we have found that he is doing a lot better in academics. He wanted to be left alone most likely due to the high pitch noise. We are happy that our son is finally making friends and enjoying academics. ]]> 2021-07-17 19:58:47 UTC https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1653459704 em907 https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1655166633 For the past years I have raised a child names Aceson who is diagnosed with mild ASD. Reno and I have done our best but of course have things we wish we did differently. I wish during his first couple years of life I did not struggle with depression. I freight that could have had something to do with his cognitive development. I wish that I would have been more patient with my husband Reno when it came to moving. I hope that in the years to come I can develop a stronger bond with my son. Ace is now 11 and Reno and I only hear him talk when he is discussing fishing, and hunting he does talk when talked too. We try our hardest to get him to go to school and talk but he does not like it. So we have arranged a three day week school program for him. He goes for haft days because it causes him a lot of stress. We are currently working on trying to do three full days but he does not like it at all.
The things I have learned about child development is how crucial it is to make sure you stay calm in situations. Another thing is that some rough play may need to happen. One of the most important things I have learned and what I tell my friends is that you have to learn that failing is okay. Raising a child is not easy and succeeding is not in the title. I know Ace has helped me better myself. I hope if I ever have another child is that depression does not come back. 
 Reno and I have loved having Ace though for the good and the bad he is our son. Something we enjoy the most together is fishing as a family. Reno and I have fished since we first started dating. We enroll Ace in fishing tournaments which he enjoys a lot since we take our bass boat out. The thing I look back on is when Ace was going to grade school full time and how he liked to do art with animals. We have recently gotten a puppy who Ace is very found of. We named it Pike as in Northern pike. Since getting the puppy Ace has enjoyed when him and I go on walks. Reno and I are currently engaging in a lot of puppy play since Ace is still growing towards him. We are acclimating Pike to the water so we can take him on the boat. We are hoping that Pike and Ace will grow and be happy friends together. One thing we would love to see is verbal skills. 
My hope for Ace is that he will think about a life he wants. I like to watch movies with him so he can see what could potential happen. When it comes to his educational path I pray he will go through a life skills program because I would love to see him live in an assisted home program here they visit if you need to. I hope that he will find a passion that he would want to pursue as a forever. We invest a lot of time into our fishing because he could have some fun for his life. I hope that Ace will find someone that loves him as much as his father and I. I hope more then ever he finds his verbal skills. ]]> 2021-07-19 23:01:23 UTC https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1655166633 em907 https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1667194429 Since the day Ace was born Reno and I made sure to use happy tones. We also liked to work on singing because Ace seemed to respond best to singing. His eyes would light up whenever you sung to him. I enjoy hearing him laugh for the first time around month four. It was a belly laugh and it was wonderful to hear. I didn't hear to much cooing when it came to tummy time till month six when he could hold his head up and see himself in the mirror. I enjoy working with ace when reading books and showing him colors. Around months 10 is when Ace finally started to talk single words. His first word was ma. He then started saying dog dog. He loves our dog and interacts with her daily. When ace turned a year old we could work with him on not biting his friends. His vocabulary will not grow so I can't expect him not to bite. Around month 16 is when we finally started to see him use a few words in a sentence. I enjoy showing him sight words because it will help grow his cognitive capability. I enjoy seeing my sons learning capability grow daily. It gives me a reason to wake up. Around 2 years is when he started using sign language and words together. He knows over 30 signs but can speak many words. We are growing his vocabulary now since he is of age to learn more. ]]> 2021-08-03 00:25:28 UTC https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1667194429 em907 https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1667204290 Since his second birthday we have been working with Ace on art and fine motor. More fine motor and lots of gross motor since at this age it is more important then art. Ace enjoys being able to string a cherio on to a string he also enjoys sneaking a few for himself. On thing I enjoy doing with Ace is when he turned 3 I was able to start enrolling him in swim lessons. This helped Ace become more confident in his daily tasks. It also eases me because he is learning to swim. I enjoy seeing my sons cognitive capability grow daily. One thing we enjoy doing as a family is going to the park. Ace enjoys the freedom of running around and it also gives him the opportunity to hangout with friends his age. I love seeing my son grow and the years go before my eyes. When he got enrolled into daycare we saw a huge growth in his cognitive development. Having the structure of potty's helped potty train him by 4. He is also learning the way structure works. Ace has been learning to share. Reno and I are talking about having another child now that Ace is excelling so much more. When Ace is in pre-K his teacher told us how he is very good with puzzels and she allows him to do brain teasers. We realize that Ace enjoys the challenge. We have seen a decline in the year in talking. He is smart and knows what he wants just will not communicate. ]]> 2021-08-03 00:36:32 UTC https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1667204290 em907 https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1667233755 At two years of age I decided to go back to work so that meant Ace would have to go to school. We enrolled him where his cousins go so he would see some familiar faces. At first it was nice drop offs were hard sometimes but pickups were always good. After being in the 2yr old room for two months he is starting to show aggressive behavior. He hits friends when a toy is took or he does not get what he wants. For some reason he will hit himself when told no. Something unlike him is to not nap and his teacher is saying that he won't nap. On the weekend though he naps perfectly fine in his crib. I asked what the environment was like and they said that they do leave some of the rooms lights on and I know Ace prefers a dark environment to sleep. The director of the preschool says that it is just a phase and he will grow out of it. Reno and I are working at home on him expressing his emotions more since he has reverted to throwing fits. I hope that within time he will grow to out grow this phase. The director and I have been working together and think taking Ace to get a speech screening would be a good idea. After hearing the speech therapist ideas Reno and I think it is best for him to be seen twice a week as recommend. He apparently showed many behaviors we see day to day. By age four we are seeing signs of him talking because he is starting to use words more and more. We also have success with sign language. Ace best reacts to fishing because it is something he likes to do. He is young but he enjoys the calm environment I think the most. We are seeing mixed emotions about school still. I fear that by kindergarden we will see bad behavior. I pray that his emotions will mellow out. About age five is when we see him finally enjoy school. He talks about his teacher at home so it makes me think it is because the teacher is wonderful. She is very engaging and has figured that Ace gets overwhelmed very easily. We are working with Ace on using words a lot more because he still does not form the best of sentences he should. I am excited to get a dog and see if Ace enjoys having the company. Within a short 6 months Ace will be going to public school. I hope that he can thrive in a classroom environment but the director tells us to prepare for special ed classes. ]]> 2021-08-03 01:07:12 UTC https://padlet.com/em907/6706qor9nzb59775/wish/1667233755