Bella and Maggie are more than our family pets.  They have become family members.  Bella in is pictured in the foreground and Maggie is in the background.  They are fantastic and bring a great deal of joy to the Lost and Tired family.  Bella is a pure breed brindle Boxer and has been with business since she was just 5 weeks old.  Maggie is a English Staffy with some Boxer thrown in the mix and has been with us for almost 4 years now. Maggie likes to be a foot stool.  She likes to lay on the opposite end of the couch and have someone,  usually me,  red their feet or legs on her.  Kinda weird but whatever. Bella likes to physically lay on or across people. It was cute…

The boys were playing with Play-Doh this afternoon.  Elliott created this fine piece of art.  It's a chameleon,  you might miss it if you don't look carefully.  ;-) I thought that was pretty darn creative. Nice job Elliott. **Thanks for reading**        -Lost and Tired Please join our Autism Help Forum Look for "Autism Help" app at the Google Play Store This was posted via WordPress for Android, courtesy of Samsung's Galaxy S III. Please forgive any typos. I do know how to spell but auto-correct is working against me.

Emmett John has hit another fever cycle,  as the mouth sores have begun to appear in his tongue. He's already miserable and you can tell by the way he's talking.  My guess is that he's got some appearing in his throat as well because he's talking like his throat hurts. So much for this week helping us to recover. The next 10 days are going to be hell for Emmett and all those around him. When he hits these cycles,  he's very difficult to console.  He doesn't want to eat because his mouth hurts,  but at the same time he's hungry.  It really is heartbreaking to watch and frustrating to live through because there isn't much that we can do for him. Here's to hoping this is a very quick…

I wanted to share this and see if any of you experience this as well.  Sometimes it's hard to know the difference between #Autism's traits and actually personality traits. Emmett has a certain order that he likes things to be done in.  For example,  when he tells me goodnight,  he gives me a hug first and then a kiss. It's always hug then kiss.  He's very particular about this order.  Sometimes I'll give him a kiss goodnight,  only to have him tell me,"no Daddy,  hug first and then kiss,  okay Daddy. " Does this seem familiar to any of you out there? Please share your stories in the comments below.  :-). **Thanks for reading**        -Lost and Tired Please join our Autism Help Forum Look for "Autism Help"…

We've been having another challenging issue with Mr.  Gavin,  that is less of a problem and more of an annoyance. For some reason,  he has been not wanting to use his words. This is really unusual,  at least for him.  Instead of saying,  "I'm hungry,  can I have breakfast?",  he simply walks around making weird noises. When he was in the hospital,  instead of saying "can I have a drink?",  he would grunt and point.  WTF.....???? He has exceptional language skills and the truth is,  most of the time we can't get him to stop talking. His psychologist believes this is simply part of the current power struggle and I have to say that I agree. We have told Gavin that ofbhe doesn't use his words that we can't hear…

I don't even know what day it is anymore.  This last stint at the hospital has thrown everything out of whack.  The boys are all thrown off and the friggin dogs are so stressed out that they have diarrhea,  not that you wanted to know that. Neither Lizze nor I have gotten much sleep in the last 7 days.  We're going to look at this week as sort of a reboot week.  Basically,  we're trying to get our bearings and taking this week to do so.  I can't stress enough how much of an impact something like your child spending a week in the hospital has on a special needs family. It think it would impact any family.  Hopefully,  things will clear up and I'll at least know what day…

Dicipline in the Lost and Tired household is extremely important.  Many kids on the autism spectrum benefit from strict routine,  predictably,  structure,  boundaries and dicipline. Gavin is our oldest and most complex child.  There are so many pieces to him that it's extremely difficult to know what to do or how to dicipline him.  The problem is that nothing works more than a few times.  We have tried so many different things and while many of them worked,  once or twice,  they failed the test of time. The only thing that we have ever had success with is oatmeal.  Basically,  we swap out oatmeal for whatever meal he's supposed to have.  This was suggested by MST.  And at home behavioral modification professional. We aren't withholding food from him.  We are…

I just wanted to share with you all how grateful I am that Bella came into our lives. She has become the best friend to a little boy you really needed a friend. Even though she's a dog,  she has helped Emmett to overcome so many obstacles in his life. She can be a pain in the butt, however, in this fathers opinion,  it's totally worth it. She's the first thing Emmett sees in the morning and the last thing he sees at night.  When we arrive home after a trip to the store,  he gives her a really big hug.  It just warms my heart to know that he has someone like this in his life.  :-) Do any of your kids have a friend like Bella?  Not all…