Nicholas has been getting mb-12 shots every 3rd day since November 3, 2007. We all believe Nicholas’s changes are significant. Significant because we feel like we have a different child since we started these shots. (By we, I mean parents and all grandparents) We started seeing improvements in his speech the day after the first shot. Nicholas was repeating what people were saying for the first time ever and using words like “dinosaur”. He started to become interested in what other people are doing, such as watching me cook eggs. He wants to be involved in the whole process from getting the eggs from the fridge to carrying his plate to the table. He never had this interest before. He’s calling Daddy, “daddy” and Grandpa, “pappa” – he’s also calling the Grandma’s “mamma” and calling Mommy, “mom” when I’m holding him down to change his diaper. His level of awareness has increased dramatically – he is noticing things that were always there in front of his face for the first time – example would be my wedding bands.

I did not inform his teachers that he was starting this. He started school right before we started them, so they didn’t have much of a baseline to go on. In the past week, everyone commented on how well he did that week and told us to keep doign whatever we were doing. I reviewing my daily journal, it is not hard to see that he is at his best on the days he actually gets the shots.

Nicholas seems to be more active than he was. By active, I don’t mean hyperactive, I mean that he seems to be moving/getting involved more than he was – kind of like he has more energy, but good energy – it’s like he’s come to life, so to speak. I think this can also be attributed to the new awareness he has to things going on around him. For instance, he could stand at one end of his train table and play, switch tracks, etc – for quite some time. Now, he’s on one side, then another and it seems as though he’s moving around more and also seems to see the big picture (i.e. the whole train table and not just the part in front of him.) Another example of the awareness was from just last Sunday. We were sitting in McDonalds and there were pigeons flying outside across the parking lot. Nicholas points at them and is hysterical laughing because they keep diving to the ground looking for food. A couple of months ago, he would not have even “seen” through the window.

I am so impressed with how alert he has become. We have tried and tried, to no avail, to get Nicholas to look into the sky to see planes, etc. Just the other day, as we were leaving for school, he pointed up and yelled, “PLANE!!!!!!” I didn’t point it out – he saw it by himself! We’ve seen various levels of alertness in Nicholas while adding supplements, etc – but it was like someone flipped a switch last week. Suddenly, it was like he was awake – he noticed his sweater had a number 3 on it. He’s worn it many times without even noticing. He noticed another child had the same bookbag as him at school, usually he could care less what the other kids were doing. He noticed my wedding band sparkling and wanted to get a closer look. I took them off and he was twisting them to make them sparkle in the light. He’s suddenly made the connection between his diego toys and the cartoon, where I never felt he truly ‘got it’ before. He’s climbing up things again to get closer looks at things and seems to be going through an exploration period all over again – just watching him, it seems like everything is new to him. And yet, nothing is new. He’s pointing at everything, labeling everything. Never a wrong answer either. All of a sudden, he’s alive. It’s amazing. Another example is daddy was instigating him at dinner – and Nicholas pushed his arm away and screamed, DAD! – in that leave me alone tone.

Nicholas has always been affectionate with his family, but since starting the shots, he’s run up to his teacher’s aide and given her a HUGE hug. It was completely unprompted and took both her and me by surprise. His grandparents are temporarily living with us and have taken over our bedroom, Nicholas’s favorite thing to do is jump in between them in bed and snuggle and watch tv. He never did this before, not even close. He wants us to snuggle with him at night when putting him to bed and he’s always been the kid who just lies down in his crib and goes to sleep. When he’s with you, he’s engaged. His eye contact is great, he’s really trying to communicate – he is always pulling grandma up to his room to play with her. He says hello and goodbye to other adults/children wherever we are. He also tries to pull me to talk to neighbors just because he wants to say hello.

Every day we feel as though Nicholas is becoming more and more age-appropriate. He’s playing correctly with toys the same way his peers are. He’s participating in circle time in pre-school, singing, dancing, doing hand motions to songs, etc. One night last week, Nicholas starts doing this circular motion with his hands/arms. Then he started saying, “beep beep” while doing it. It took me a second – then I started singing, ‘the wheels on the bus…” – he was completely engaged with me acting out the different verses. It was amazing to see. He learned that song at school and brought it home and was doing it on his own. Fantastic! When that was over, diego came on. There’s a part of the show where the music comes on, diego is flying down a vine and spinning. Nicholas starts mimicking the flying and spinning right along with the show. He’s also now participating with Blue’s Clues – talking back to them, Saying hello and goodbye, pointing out clues, etc. He could not wait to get dressed up for Halloween. He put on his costume on 3 separate occasions before Halloween and put shoes on and waited for me at the door – when I asked if he wanted to go to grandma’s – he said yes!

Regarding allergies, his seasonal allergies are springtime ones. I have not noticed a difference regarding his food allergies/intolerances.

Nicholas is becoming a pleasure to be around. Going out is getting a little easier – and that in itself is HUGE. We went out to dinner for Thanksgiving and he sat at the table the entire time. No fussing, no tantrums, no wanting to run everywhere. We did bring a new toy for him and this kept his interest, but in the past, a new toy only lasts so long then he’s done and ready to explore. (Notice I said toy and not toys. In the past, I have had to carry a HUGE bag full of brand new toys to get through a meal – and it hardly worked unless I picked the perfect toy for him.) So this was HUGE.

Nicholas is enjoying school and it seems like the children are enjoying him. When he was out for a few days with a cold, his classmates were all so excited to see him when he came back. I was shocked they’d even care, but they seem to really like him.

This one is huge…. Taking Nicholas for a haircut is something that I dread weeks in advance. He doesn’t want to sit in the seat – he doesn’t want the scissors near his head. 2 minutes into the haircut and he’s being held down in a headlock (by me or daddy) – and it’s just a horrible, embarrassing experience for all of us. Last week, Nicholas got his hair cut and he was an ANGEL. He sat in the chair, let the girl cut it – he said “ow” a bunch of times and wasn’t fond of the buzzer, but no tantrum, no fight getting him into the chair. I am still in amazement over it!
When we were at McDonalds last week, he actually sat the whole time and ate his lunch. When he did get up, he found a highchair, climbed right in and insisted that I fasten the seatbelt. Imagine my shock there.

Within hours of the first shot, Nicholas started using harder words, words that we had not focused on – and he was repeating them with ease. He sat on the floor playing with some toys with his grandmothers and one said, “Nicholas, look at the dinosaur.” He repeated “dinosaur” – other grandmother said, “I think this is Nessie, the lockness monster” and he repeated “Nessie” and continued to call the monster Nessie for the duration of his playtime with those toys. Nicholas has started calling people by their names – and is even doing it for his tv cartoons, blue, diego, dora, etc. He’s repeating a lot of what we’re saying now and he really wasn’t doing it before. A high percentage of what he is saying is completely understandable. He has said sentences like, “I’m going to take this over there” – which is so shocking since we’re used to only one or two word utterances. He’ll ask for eggs and ketchup for breakfast – and even want to help make it. He’ll open the fridge and hand me the eggs.

Nicholas has become quite attentive. He will actually come and see what I am doing and if it interests him, he will join me – or he will bring his toys over to play around where I am. If the doorbell rings, he runs to see who is at the door. If someone walks by his door, he’ll call out their name, welcoming them in. I think this also can apply to the new awareness he has – it used to be much easier to sneak by his room! My parents dog barked tonight and Nicholas was already in bed, he said, “oh no! dog, help dog!” I almost cried – it was so wonderful to hear that!!! He’s heard Max bark in the past and could care less – even if the dog was barking at him directly. It seems like we are having more and more good days. Bad days are generally explainable. The number of tantrums he had has been significantly reduced. He just seems happier, laughs more, definitely smiles more. I have noticed that the 3rd day, the effects of the shot have worn off – I don’t get the excited teacher commenting on his day like the 2 prior.

He’s not biting objects, but there were a few days where he was chewing on his hands. If he kept busy, he did not do this at all – but if he was bored, he would do it.

Nicholas is doing much better with transitions and changes to our routine. We were having a difficult time getting Nicholas out of the car and into school. He would want to stay in the car and watch his DVD’s and not get out. So, each day, I told him he could watch 5 minutes of diego and then it was time for school. Finally he’s understood this – and now he gets out of the car with no problem. Also, bedtime had started to become a bit of a problem – we used to be able to put him in his bed with his bedtime supplements mixed with some juice, put on a baby Einstein cd for a few minutes and he’d be gone. All of a sudden, that no longer worked, but what works now is even better – we tell him bedtime is in 5 minutes and at that time, the lights and everything goes off, he gets into his bed – and he goes to sleep!!!!!!! Fantastic!!! I have noticed, on nights I would sneak in to give him his shots (which I give in the am now) – that his sleep was very light, almost like he was anticipating me giving him the shot and he was more aware to people being in the room and he never was before. I give it to him now when I change his diaper in the morning, much easier this way.

Nicholas seems to have hit a higher level – he just seemed smarter all of a sudden. He always played with his train tracks, building new tracks – but now he just seems different. We had brought down a storage bin filled with geotrax trains on Saturday night to keep at grandma’s house for him. He got into them and had this really awesome track set up from in his bedroom down our hallway. None of his actions were repetitive. He was building, taking track apart and reconfiguring it. Then testing the train on the track and adding more track. He was at it for hours. It’s like he was planning it in his head, then working out the kinks in reality. His concentration on this has really been unbelievable. Some might suggest he is fixated on it – but he’s demonstrating pretend play, he’s changing the tracks around – he’s not lining cars up and rolling them back and forth in front of his eyes. He’s playing with the set like it’s meant to be played with.

Nicholas seems eager to help out – and to do what you’re doing. When you ask him to do something, he’s been much better at following directions and has even been cooperative in helping to select and prepare his meals. When given a choice of spagettios, ravioli, etc – he will pick the can that he wants, walk with you to the counter, watch while you open it, pour it into a bowl and put it in the microwave. Then, he’ll stand patiently and wait for us to count down from 10. Then, after I transfer it to another bowl, he will cautiously put the bowl on the table, climb up onto his chair and will sit and eat like an absolute angel.

Nicholas now likes to monkey around – and have a good time. If you ask him to stop doing it, he’ll continue on while he laughs at you for asking. For instance, if I am changing his diaper, he’ll wiggle and squirm and when I ask him to sit still, he laughs at me – and wiggles all the more. Nicholas sings now – with music and without. Granted, we’re not sure what he’s singing, but he’s got melodies going.