About an hour ago, Gavin was officially, if not temporarily, moved out of the house. Lizze's mom arrived after work to pick him up. As I mentioned earlier today, this is a very bittersweet moment for the Lost and Tried family. On one hand,  our 12 year old son has moved in with his grandparents and that's difficult on all of us, especially Elliott.  On the other hand, we can all finally take a deep breath and relax for once.  The boys are pretty upset right now and who can blame them. This is one of those things that will hopefully get easier with time.  The goal here is to get the funding together that's needed for Gavin to be placed in residential treatment,  while Gavin's at his grandparents.  The…

Today is a bittersweet day for me, well for the entire Lost and Tired family. This evening, Gavin will be moving in with his grandparents.  They have agreed to allow Gavin in to live there, for the short term anyway.  The reason this is taking place is because we need immediate relief and there's simply no way to know if or when,  funding will come through for residential care. Lizze and the boys desperately need him out of the house and Gavin will likely do well without all the emotional expectations he has at home.  In truth, we're not sure how long this will last before he becomes to much for them. It's not an if he becomes to much, it's a when he becomes to much.  We are fully…

Emmett is in a relatively good mood this morning, especially for being sick.  He's snuggled up with his favorite boxer and English staffy.  He was watching some cartoons this morning but is now chillin out and playing Lego Batman. I'm hoping and praying for a good day because this has been the week from hell already and I'm exhausted.  Right now,  all signs point to good day. :-)

I wanted to share this little present that Elliott created while at school.  This was created for both Lizze and myself. He's so proud of it and was extremely excited to give it to us.  It's a 3 leaf clover and he wrote Mon and Dad inside of it.  I feel so lucky that not only do we have Elliott in our life but also that he thinks so highly of us.  :-)

My article for this week has been published over at the Childswork blog. The topic is on how having a special needs child can affect other siblings. I would love to hear your thoughts on this over in the comments at Childswork. Please remember to share, like and comment. It really does help and I would really appreciate it. See you over there. :-)   The Sibling Factor

I know that letting your little boy play with dolls or a doll house can be sorta tabu in some circles.  Truthfully, when I first became a father and this issue arose, I was sorta closed minded about it.  However, having grown in experience and realizing that there's nothing wrong with my son playing with dolls, I have actually found that it can be a really positive thing.  While at Dr.  Patti's office,  Emmett wanted to play with the dolls and giant doll house.  I was more than happy to play with him.  Maybe some of you out there are like,  OMG why would you let your son play with girls toys, you're just going to confuse him. I think that's a very outdated way of thinking.  Emmett's not confused…

You all know that I'm very transparent about our lives, including the struggles and joys that we face as a special needs family. What I'm about the share with you will be no different. When I went into this meeting today, I was already pretty upset. Truthfully, I was on the warpath. I'm so used to people not understanding that I was already assuming that the person in question at the school would be the same way. However, despite my rather heated beginning to the conversation, she never lost her cool and maintained a spirit of cooperation. Basically, once I had purged a little bit and I was fine. I felt really bad but I was in a much better place.   I still don't agree with how this was handled but…

I've mentioned before that my little sister had moved out to the East Hamptons to work as a physical therapist for the rich and famous. He just moved back home because she missed the family too much and couldn't stand to be away. This morning, Lizze and my sister Kate, reunited after quite some time.  Lizze and Kate are pretty close and she was greatly missed while she was gone.  Lizze was so happy, she was crying and I caught the moment.  It was so nice to see Lizze crying tears of happiness for once.  :-)