Monday, August 11, 2008

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer, I can't believe that it's going by so quickly. Dougie just finished summer school, so we are packing up our RV and heading down to our house in Florida for a few weeks (before football season starts and Doug has to go back to work as a college football analyst for ESPN/ABC). Dougie does very well when we travel down to Florida, he enjoys riding in the RV (we drive because that eliminates the stress of flying for all of us) and we go to our own house so Dougie is very familiar with it and very comfortable there (which eliminates the stress of staying at different hotels). Our house is fairly close to Disney World so we are able to make day trips to the different parks. Dougie handles the crowds great and enjoys the lower key rides, his favorite rides are the Buzz Light Year ride and the Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom, but we only go to the parks a day here or there, a week straight would be to much for him (and us, haha!).

We spend a lot of time just hanging out at the house relaxing and swimming in the pool. Dougie has become quite the good swimmer this year. Our pool in Florida is salt water and only 6' deep (in the deep end) so now that Dougie is about 5'7" he can swim into the deep end and push his feet off the bottom and the salt water helps him to float better and because of this he has learned that if he kicks his feet and uses his arms he can swim back and forth across the pool. It's awesome, he just started doing this this summer, so now when we are home in our house in MA and he swims in the pool there (which is deeper and not salt water) he has the confidence and knowledge to kick his feet and use his arms, so now he swims great there too!! We are very proud of Dougie!!

I want to thank everyone who joined us for the Harley Ride and party at the Hard Rock Cafe on August 3rd. Everyone at Pitching in for Kids and the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation did a great job planning such a fun event, the Flutie Brothers Band played at the Hard Rock and we all had a great time!! Thanks also to Pitching in for Kids for being so generous to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation, we really appreciate your kindness!!!

Thanks again for your continued support and generosity! Don't forget the Eastern Bank Flutie 5K Road Race on September 14th! Hope to see you there!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Laurie Flutie

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing your swimming story with everyone. I bring my daughter to the local Y religiously in hopes that she will some day connect the kicking and arm movement with swimming. Your story keeps my hope up that it will, someday, happen!! Have a great vacation.

jeanette said...

Hi, i'm not sure if the 1st one went thru...i just found this site and love the stories....success ones and difficulties...which make me smile because i think of the difficult times i had with my son, Tyler.He is 8 and nonverbal autism.He has made my world a better place and made me realize that life is too short and enjoy every moment. I get so excited when he has a small success story and he gets excited too. He is in a danvers elementary school and loves his new teacher.i just did the autism walk in boston and it was overwhelming the amount of people that come together for a great cause. My family was so amazed with the turnout. Thanks again for all you do..jeanette

The Miller Menagerie said...

Just saw your husband on TV (Go Florida State!!) and it reminded me of your son who lives with autism. My oldest son, Newt, was diagnosed PDD-NOS this last summer. We're flying for the first time, since his infancy, next month to witness my mother-in-law's once in a lifetime promotion. We're apprehensive about flying, but then reading your blog, I'm even more apprehensive!

We're buying the Autism Speaks' "I'm not misbehaving" stickers. I'm hoping that Newt will meet people as considerate on the airplane, as your son, Dougie, has.

With Newt's younger brother still being a little nursling, I get apprehensive about all of these stories of breastfeeding moms and autistic boys getting booted off of planes.

Have a wonderful holiday season!