With Gavin back at his grandparents, we have to begin the recovery process once again. Elliott in particular has a rough time with the transition. On one hand, he absolutely adores Gavin but on the other hand, he fears him as well. That's a sad predicament for him to be in, not to mention a confusing one. We spent a large portion of this past evening trying to help Elliott decompress and relax.  He and I spent some time just snuggled on the couch.  He's pretty clingy and needs to feel safe. I spent as much time with him as I could before Emmett required my attention.  Lizze and I tried to tag team the boys tonight. Lizze gave everything she had to these guys and honestly she wasn't even…

I've spent the last hour with Emmett, trying to console him, unsuccessfully I might add.  He's in a horrible place right now and has been screaming nonstop. Between Gavin having been home and what is very likely the beginnings of another fever flare, Emmett is beside himself. I know that I don't need to explain to most of you what it's like to endure the constant screaming.  What so difficult for me as a father is that there is no consoling him.  Aside from either figuring out what he wants or why he's upset, if that's even possible, there's very little that can be done.  I let him know that I'm there and I just try and remain present, incase he needs me.  Sometimes I can even snuggle him while…

Gavin will be moving back in with his grandparents tonight.  Christmas break is over now and school resumes on Monday.  Gavin has been very well behaved for the most part but he was only here for a short time.  He can do pretty well over a shorter period of time but struggles after a while.  I'm grateful that things weren't any worse than they were.  At our wraparound meeting yesterday, it was brought up that Elliott is paying a very high price for everything going on with Gavin. Gavin's behavioral problems have resulted in both Elliott, Emmett and Lizze being traumatized over the years.  The simple fact that he's in the house is enough to trigger Lizze's PTSD and send Elliott and Emmett into overload.  Even though Gavin was well…

I forgot to let you know how the appointment with Geek Squad went the other day.  To refresh your memory, we had to Geek Squad come out and service our TV while the warranty was still good.  There are black bands that appear on the screen now and they have been getting worse over the last year or so.  Geek Squad came out and determined that the LCD panel is bad and needs replaced. He ordered the panel while he was standing there.  They are scheduled to install it on the 12th of this month.  However, and this is what I'm absolutely hoping for, there is a good chance that the replacement panel isn't available anymore.  If by the 10th day, the panel hasn't arrived, they will give me a…

Elliott came downstairs this morning to let me know that Emmett had said something that really upset him.  I assumed this was just more bickering and perhaps a bit of tattling. However, I was completely caught off guard when he told me that Emmett said "I want to kill myself". For those of you that don't know, Emmett is our 4 year old little boy. He was officially diagnosed with #Autism about a year and a half ago.  One of Emmett's challenges has to do with speech and communication.  While he has made great strides he still struggles with expressive language and can be very difficult to understand.  This makes him very frequently frustrated and understandably so. Apparently Emmett had become very frustrated with himself over something he was working…

I can't tell you how often I get asked by parents about medications.  While I will never offer advice on whether or not you should medicate your child, I'm happy to share our personal experience with medications.  I've realized that there are a great many questions that parents have about whether or not medication is right for their child.  This is a rather sensitive issue but one that is important.  I like to see people sharing information, based on their personal experiences, even when it comes to medications. Let me just say this.  Please do not confuse the sharing of experience with actual medical advice. When medications are discussed on this site, it is never with the intention of replacing actual medical advice.  You should never start or stop a…

I wanted to take a minute and explain some of the recent changes I've made to Lost and Tired. As I'm sure you are aware of, I've been having a nunber of server issues lately.  You may experience instances where this site won't load or load properly. I've been working with Bluehost to get these issues addressed.  Basically, the problem comes down to overwhelming amounts of traffic.  Obviously, this is a good thing. It means lots of people are benefiting from this site and lots of #Autism Awareness is being spread. However, the downside to this is that I'm having to implement things like Cloud Services in order to spread out the load, so as not to overwhelm the server. These solutions seem to be helping but they cost money…

So,  I went to crash on the couch for a little while and I felt this lump underneath me.  I sat up and saw what appeared to be a bunched up sock, under the blanket I was laying on.  However, when I tried to move the sock, this is what I found.  Now, I happened to remember Mrs.  Clause being told that Silly Puddy was not a good idea.. The Gorski boys like to leave that kind of thing laying around. Santa suspected something like this would happen.  Mrs.  Clause however, decided that they really needed it anyways.  :-) All I can say is that sometimes Santa knows best. ;-)