There is a chance that Gavin will be home all next week.  This may not come to pass but until we know otherwise, I feel like we should be prepared.  It's no hard not to worry about the impact this whole thing is having on both Elliott and Emmett. In fact, for us, it's literally impossible not to worry about the behaviors we are seeing.  For example, both boys are afraid to use the bathroom by themselves.  Emmett completely strip off all his clothes to go potty and then can't get himself dressed again. These are both things we moved beyond,as the year. The past few months, we have seen a growing trend of returning behaviors, we once thought to be overcome. It's easy to say, don't worry about it,…

I was wondering if anyone else is struggling to find balance? I'm struggling to find balance in my life.  As a special needs parent, writer and husband, I'm constantly being pulled in a thousand different directions.  More often than not, I find myself of center and being unable to juggle all the things in my life.  Considering how long I've been doing this, you'd think I would be better at it but I'm not. No matter how hard I try I'm still dropping the ball somewhere.  One would think that I'm doing a really good job and if a few balls hit the ground along the way, so be it.  That's a great point and I'd love to agree with you.  However, if one of the balls that hit the…

The other day I was able to get Elliott to sit still long enough to pose for a picture with his old man, although I'm not really old.  :-) I don't even remember where we were at when I took this but I love this picture and wanted to share.  :-)

Something that I would think, many of you can relate to is the struggle of buying socks for your child with #Autism and sensory processing issues.  I'll be really honestly with you here, socks have been the bane of my existence for many years now.  All three of my boys on the #Autism spectrum, struggle with socks for various reasons.  However, Emmett is by far the most sensitive and subsequently the most difficult to buy socks for.  I would guess that this is absolutely something that many people take for granted and it's seems so simple.  There have been times that we have spent $30 or more, simply buying different styles, brands, textures and fits, in order to maybe find one style that Emmett's little feet will tolerate.  Yesterday we…

The other day,  Elliott decided that he wanted to go to Toys R Us and spend some of his money.  He also decided that he wanted to buy something for Emmett as well. This was an incredible act of generosity and words can't express, just how proud of Elliott I am. Elliott picked out some Super Mario Bros figures. Emmett picked out a Nerf dart gun. They are both quite happy with their new treasures and I am a proud #Autism papa.  :-)

Elliott, Emmett and I cleaned out and redesigned Perry the Tortoise's habit this afternoon.  It was pretty successful and they each helped out in their own way.  The boys are absolutely captivated by Perry and I like to take advantage of these moments for all they're worth.  We talked about why Perry needs things to be a certain way in his home.  We discussed how Perry eats and what kinds of things she eats. I explained why Perry needs the heat lamp and why,even though Perry is not an aquatic turtle, she still needs water.  In a nutshell, I used their interest in Perry to expand their knowledge and teach them about new and exciting things.  I like how they are learning responsibility and even some independence as they remember…

Lizze,  Emmett and I were driving to run a few errands.  One of these errands took us all the way to Fairlawn, Ohio. It's about a 30 minutes drive.  As I was pulling off the exit ramp, I caught a glimpse of what I thought was something beyond cool.  We made our way off the exist and navigated a few side streets and ended up behind a Holiday Inn Hotel.  There is was, in all its awesome glory. The friggin Batmobile.  I'm not talking about the crappy old school version either. We're talking the totally high tech, badass and unbelievably awesome Tumbler from The Dark Knight Rises movie.  It was being transported by Warner Brothers and was just sitting back there, all by itself. We stopped the van and Emmett…