I'm laying in bed trying to sleep and I have my two canine friends, Maggie and Bella snoring.  Maggie being an English Staffy and Bella being a boxer means they both have short noses, snouts or mussels, whatever the hell you want to call them.  This makes them excel at snoring.  They put my old partner from my paramedic days to shame and that's saying something. It's weird because it like they're snoring in rounds. At least Lizze is sleeping through it. I suppose this one of the downsides to the breeds. Thankfully,  the good far outweighs the bad.  Having said that,  on nights like this I really need to focus on the positive.  :-)

One of the greatest inventions known to man has got to be Play Doh. Play Doh is the coolest most versatile toy, if you even call it that. For a child on the #autism spectrum, Play Doh can be an absolute dream. Having said that, I would imagine that some people would have not like it for sensory reasons. However, my kids absolutely lovePlay Doh. In fact, a large portion of Christmas revolved around Play Doh. Elliott and Emmett got tons of Play Doh and Play Doh toys. My boys love using their imaginations and Play Doh allows them to do just that. It also provides great sensory feedback for them and I think that may be part of the drive behind their love for that colorful, mushy, shapeable fun.…

Every now and again,  Elliott and I have some guy time. Typically, this means that he gets to stay up a little later and we hang out. Sometimes we play one of his imaginary games and other times we might play a video game.  The bottom line is that we spend one on one time together.  It doesn't really matter what we are actually doing, it's simply the fact that we are spending time together.  This one of Elliott's most favorite things to do and mine as well.  Tonight Elliott and I spent some time together playing on the xbox 360. We played Bolt and Peggle until he was tired.  We took this picture to commererate the special time.  :-)

While at Lizze's parents last night,  Elliott had shrimp cocktail. The shrimp was free from cross contamination and completely tree nut free.  However, Elliott's throat became scratchy after eating only one.  This is the second time this has happened.  However, the last time was prior to his recent tree nut allergy diagnosis and so we hadn't put two and two together. We gave him benadryl and he felt better.  Elliott will be returning to Akron Children's Hospital to have more allergy testing done ASAP. until then, we will simply avoid all seafood.

I was wondering how your kids held up this Christmas? Did you see any meltdowns or overstimulation? If you could do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything you did this holiday season?? Will you be doing anything differently next year?

Last night while we were at Lizze's parents for Christmas, Elliott and Emmett spontaneously began wrestling each other. The were giggling and laughing, without a care in the world.  To be completely honest, I was a bit annoyed because I was trying to get them ready to leave and they wouldn't cooperate with me.  However, taking a step back I realized that they were actually getting along and having fun. That in my eyes is victory.......  :-)