Alex, aka Mr. Busypants, was born in January 2003. He was diagnosed with sensory integration dysfunction at 21 monthes, a diagnosis that was updated to classic autism a year later. I enrolled Alex in our county's EI program immediately after his initial diagnosis and watched him grow and change in big ways and small over the next year and a half.

During that time, he received services including occupational therapy 2x per week (once at home and once in the nearby clinic); speech therapy 1x per week (at home); developmental therapy 1x per week (we changed this to music therapy about 6 months into the program); and a weekly ST/DT play group that met at a local clinic in St. Charles, Illinois. My husband and I also participated in the Hanen group, which is a parenting group lead by a ST, who video tapped our interactions with our kids 4x over a 12 week class and helped up learn to better communicate with them.

Initially after the diagnosis, my husband Scott and I freaked out and traded in our minivan for a sedan, deciding we weren't going to have any more children. But God softened our hearts and weeks after we made a decision to leave the decision of whether to adopt or have another child, I got pregnant with Jordan (aka Miss Chattyshoes/Jorie).

Let me tell you, our typically developing two-year-old is going to be much harder to raise then our mild-mannered, focused Mr. Busypants.

Currently Alex is preparing to enter first grade (fall 09) and Jorie will be enrolled in a parent's day out program a couple days a week so I can teach online writing classes at two Chicago-area colleges.

And by the way, my name is Jeannie, aka Mamabusypants. I started blogging about the Adventures of Mr. Busypants soon after his initial diagnosis on a semi-private, anonymous blog on xanga. I loved writing stories about his busy antics and found that others enjoyed reading about them. Some day, I hope to publish The Adventures of Mr. Busypants, a collection of fun-filled essays about the quirky habits of a kid with autism.

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