I truly believe that one of the very best things I can give my kids is the gift of time, my time. That may sound like I have a high opinion of myself but I don't and I certainly don't mean it that way.  The truth is, kids love to spend time with their parents, especially when they are younger.  Emmett and Elliott are always asking me to play with them. Since I work from home, I'm better able to accommodate them.  However, I do have to work so I can't always say yes.  Sometimes I'm just too tired. However, I made the decision to spend some extra time with Emmett Friday  morning and afternoon, making turkeys out of construction paper. We simply traced each other's hands and turned them…

Visitation. I hate that word.  It brings back memories of the forced visitation that Gavin had with his abusive biological fathers side of the family. I swore that as a family, we would never have to endure that again.  However, this afternoon Gavin was home for about 2 hours.  It was a chance for the boys to visit with each other.  They spent the time playing 3DS together.  I made sure that everyone kept a to their own personal space but they all got along well, for the most part.  Emmett was a bit difficult but everything worked out.  The three of them took turns with Elliott's 3DS and did a great job.  After Gavin left, the boys have been a bit on the frazzled side.  Elliott has been crying…

I was listening to the radio the other day, and the local DJ was talking about medicating children.  In fairness, I didn't hear the entire show but his point was something along the lines of parents that medicate their children are just lazy parents. I listened to several callers go back and forth with him on the topic of ADHD.  He claimed that ADHD kids are just creative and that parents who give their child ADHD medications are simply stifling their creativity. He took the stance that parents should just work harder. He also made a statement along the lines that you can't trust doctors or hospitals because they just want to throw medications at your kids.  Now I will say that there are parents out there in the world…

Welcome to the return of Forum Fridays. Today's topic is on regression and can be found in the Autism Help Forums ------------> Here If you haven't already signed up for the forums you can do so quickly and easily. Even if you haven't experience regression with your child, perhaps you can provide comfort to those that have.  

As you know, Lizze and I returned to the Cleveland Clinic yesterday for an appointment with the sleep specialist. Lizze has been having significant issues with sleep over the years and we were not happy with the care she has received on the local level. Her new doctor is awesome.  She met with us for almost and hour and a half.  Lizze was asked more questions than she has ever been asked before and a very,  very detailed history was taken. At this point, she doesn't know for sure what's going on but Lizze is definitely suffering from chronic sleep deprivation. The doctor thinks that there are many factors contributing to this, among the worst of them is most likely stress. In the coming weeks, Lizze will be having another…

When you are a special needs parent, especially to a child with #Autism, you're used to things like missed milestones. The very nature of #Autism is that of developmental delay. The Lost and Tired family is no exception to this. In my family, we miss lots of milestones.  Having said that, we try not to focus on those too much.  I've found over the years that focusing on the milestones missed tends to take our focus off of moving forward. Missed milestones are important, don't get me wrong.  We just do our best to celebrate all of the milestones we do hit. Yesterday, Emmett celebrated a pretty big milestone, while not developmental, it's a milestone nonetheless.  My little Emmett John has officially outgrown his 5 point harness.  Now we remove…

It's been a little while since I updated everyone on my personal battle with depression. For those of you new to this blog, I have been very open and honest about my struggles with depression.  My hope is that by creating dialog, we can quash some of the stigma attached to depression. I've personally been on and off antidepressants for the last 15 years or so.  About a year and a half ago,  I went to my doctor because I was feeling the all too familiar pull of depression, beginning to pull me under.  I was put on 20mg of Paxil.  That worked well for a little while but eventually, the dose was increased to 40mg/day. Typically, I'm doing okay. I could always be worse but I could definitely be…

Thanks to my youngest minion,  Emmett,  I know that this stair case has 44 steps. Just to be sure, he took me up and down several times, counting each and every step. :-)