Trying to modify xml menu tutorial

Hi All! I recently completed the xml menu tutorial here on kirupa.com. I am trying to modify it slightly though and i have a question… currently all the menu items are being placed on the stage from the library, 1 immediately under the last. What i would like to do is set the text field in the menu item to "autoSize = true" so that the text field and menu item will expand vertically to allow for varying text lenghts on the menu items. Because of the way they are being laid out now, regardless of the height of the items, they are all being placed the same distance apart and overlapping. Is there a way to read the heights of the individual menu items and place them accordingly? I assume it has something to do with the line "curr_item._y = y + i*curr_item._height;" but i cant seem to get it to cooperate. Any thoughts?? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!