All you need is love!

if we had to choose a song to describe Deqlan, it would be “ All you need is love”

A more lovable, gorgeous, adorable, hugable, kissable, loving boy we could not imagine.

Deqlan loves giving us his hand to kiss when we ask him for “ kisses in the hand” Since Nanna has been looking after Deqlan, when leaving in the afternoon, Nanna would always give Deqlan kisses in his hand. A couple of weeks ago , Nanna asked Deqlan” can i give you kisses in your hand?’ and low and behold, he gave Nanna his hand to kiss! Ever since then, when any of us request kisses in the hand, we are so blessed to get them.

Deqlan loves pushing Mark and I together or Nanna and I together to give each other Tubby hugs – we think he learnt this adorable act from his favourite show at the moment, Telly Tubbies – he actually goes to fetch Dada and Mama and pushes us both together. The latest one is taking Dada and Mama’s hands and putting them together.

Deqlan cant go to sleep without both Mom and Dad lying on either side of him. If either of us is not in the room yet, he goes to fetch us and makes sure we are in position for his bedtime routine. Deqlan then put his arms around us, hugging us and kissing us, even giving little love bites on our noses.

Deqlan will sit us in a circle and put his hand out and go from Mark to me to Nanna and around again, giving us his hand to kiss – he has ever done so with a few close friends and family members we are delighted to witness our lovable guy.

Another ‘trick’ Grandpa has taught Deqlan is to give high fives, they are so cute to see!

We are THRILLED at Deqlans progress – each and every single day Deqlan says or tries to say something new – i cant believe that 4 months ago or boy could only say Mama and car – now his words and understanding seem to be exploding and expanding every day! He is even trying to repeat what we tell him – of course not all the time – but the times that grab his attention – especially while watching his beloved dvd’s and tv shows are the best to work on his words.

The best dvd’s we could have ever have gotten are the Telly Tubbies – and having them on c beebies every day is wonderful! Deqlan is enthralled with these creatures and their antics . There are definite favourite episodes and portions – one of them being the brown bear and the scary lion chasing each other – Deqlan goes into fits of laughter, right from his tummy – laughing so hard he has to stop to take a breath, its the most fantastic thing to watch Deqlan so happy!

The other segment he LOVES is a little boy looking for a Chameleon in a garden – he makes us rewind the dvd to watch this segment over and over again by saying ‘again again’! He has learnt to say “mel’ he is trying so hard to say meleon! Not bad for one of his first words hey?

Other words Deqlan is saying / trying to say/ we have heard him say
Mama, Car, Train, Elbow, Knee, Tree,Banana, Dada ( said once but we working on it), Kiss ( said once but knows exactly what it means!), Bye,Oh oh, Again again, meleon, more, Pig, Mar”k”, LG ( LIKE THE BRAND LG, DEQLANS SAYS EESHIE), birdy, kitty

Deqlan is also trying to say coo cook clock – he is fascinated by clocks at the moment – and Nanna and grandpa have one in their lounge which he loves, but unfortunately doesn’t work anymore because i think me made the coo coo bird come out one to many a time!

We have never heard Deqlan ‘babbling’ as much as he is now – every sound , every tone is heard – its such beautiful music to our ears. Thank You Lord for another miracle unfolding right in front of our eyes.... imagine if i could work really hard with Deqlan an get him to say Dad on Fathers day or Marks Birthday ....

He watched so intently each word we say, he watches our lips and he is just so much more switched on to words then ever before!

Another 2 new favorite shows at the moment are peppa pig and 3rd and bird – although Thomas is still definitely high up on the list of favourite, Telly Tubbies is in the definite lead at the moment!

Mark has also taught Deqlan to roar like a lion, although a very soft, tinny little roar, but at least Mark gets a response when he asks Deqlan what sound a lion makes – to beautiful to see and hear.

Deqlan has discovered the wonder of flushing toilets – thats right – the first time it happened i thought this would be a great way to start and encourage potty training – but now Deqlan goes to all the toilets in our house and Nanna’s a few times today to make sure they are flushed – could be a stimming thing or he just does it cause he is in control of something – clever boy!


Cars still are the love of Deqlans life – we enjoy many tours around the estate in our cars, and now recently Nanna ventures out each day to find new and exciting places to visit on their drives

Deqlan and I get in the car , take a slow drive around our estate and turn up the volume on cold play or bob marley – which i really think he enjoys – both seem to calm him – i love these moments , Deqlan sits next to me on his little seat and often hold his hand on my arm – we drive around the estate looking for all the things that intrigue him – the samsuny and lg airconditioners, the sign posted bakkie, the water meter, the favourite drive way we run up every day – he is so switched onto these things that he looks for them a few seconds before we reach them.

We take long walks and runs around the estate, looking at his favourite items – we have had to introduce ourselves to a few residents in our estate, explaining we stand in their drive ways 3 or 4 times a day, just looking at their cars – most have welcomed us and told us to enjoy it!


Deqlan loves his toothpaste – but not just any toothpaste – its got to be the oral b winnie the pooh berry flavour – we figured out possibly why ! It could contain gluten, one of the things thats a huge no no in Deqlans diet ! So luckily they company we get Deqlans vitamins from, have a toothpaste which is clean from gluten! So we going to give it a go and lets hope it gets the stamp of approval


Last week we met with a lady who has nearly 10 years experience in assisting children with autism with therapies and home based programmes. She is wonderful and so down to earth and willing to help – we are investigating the possibility of her creating a programme for Deqlan which Dad, Nanna and I are going to do with Deqlan at home during the days. We really have done so much investigating and researching on what therapies we can do to help Deqlan focus and learn and reach his full potential – we just were not happy with what we found – but Liezl seems to take the best of every therapy she had dealt with and teach us the techniques to use with Deqlan. We will hear more from her this week and the next steps to take – we are very excited to get going . We have stopped speech and occupational therapy for now as Deqlan just doesn’t want to be there, he doesn’t want/know how to focus on the specific activities – so we feel we need to first give him some additional tools to help when we resume with those therapies again! Will keep you posted


Along with the new therapy options, Dr Lindenberg has asked that we try a few new supplements and vitamins . One of them being olive leaf extract which assists in breaking down bio film ( a covering preventing us from penetrating the candida roots) It sounds wonderful and does wonderful things – we got Deqlan to drink one dose of it in pineapple juice , also used to break the biofilm down) but now, forget it , he aint touching the stuff! So we will continue trying to come up with very creative ways to get Deqlan to drink it – besides these two – we got to give Deqlan de activated charcoal which latches onto the toxins remaining from breaking the biofilm down and pulls them out his body – that is going to be another story on its own....

The side effects of the olvie leaf seem to be an upset tummy , but i to had an unhappy tummy over the weekend, so we could have had a little tummy bug , time will tell, if its the olive leaf – i would’nt be surprised!

Poor little Logan had a bladder infection and Keaton bad sinusitis! Grandpa also had an upset tummy and sinus infections. Please pray that they all get better soon!

So i am glad i managed to do a proper Deqlan update with as much detail as i could cram into one post and there will be many more Deqlan updates to follow as Scrub a dub dub comes to an end this Friday when we do our hand out ...if anyone wants to join us please contact me for the details!

Have a super day everyone, God Bless, Lots of love
Mark Samm Deqlan and Logan

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD