I thought I would take a minute and update you all on how I'm doing.  It's been a while since I talked about my battle with depression. My personal war with depression is still raging on. Every day is a battle for control.  The depression wants control over me but I do everything possible to stay in control of it. With everything we have going on, keeping ahead of the depression is vital to moving forward.  In order to do that,  I take my medications (Paxil,  40mg per day) and really,  really try to exercise every day. I have my blog and maintaining it is extremely therapeutic.  Sharing our story from my perspective allows me to unload all of my feelings and leave it here.  By doing so,  it allows…

Today,  we had a really quiet,  peaceful and memorable moment.  Both of the younger boys wanted to snuggle Daddy at the same time.  Typically,  this can lead to a fight but they did really well and that's awesome.  These moments are definitely much lighter than many others.  I live for these moments because it reminds me of when they were babies and we didn't know any of the things we know own now.  It was just peaceful moments, find with hope for the future. 

Curious.  Can anyone point out something about this sign that bugs them?

Something that I have learned while on my journey as a special needs parent,  is that parenting is not an exact science. In fact,  in my personal experience,  parenting in general consists of a whole lot of trial and error. The very nature of trial and error means that mistake are bound to happen. However,  through those mistakes,  we learn to become better parents. This is an absolute truth with the Lost and Tired family.  I make mistakes all the time,  I mean it's not like there is an instruction manual that tells me what to do. Parenting in and of itself is difficult but special needs parenting...that's in a class all to itself. Sometimes the only thing you can do is guess at what the right thing to do…

Gavin has made it through a third day without a single meltdown.  So far,  this new approach is working.  I have to give Gavin a lot of credit because he's making better choices and that's all on him.  :-) So,  keep up the great work.  This has the potential to be a good summer.  This was taken at therapy on Monday.  Everyone was getting along and having fun.

Today was therapy with Dr.  Pattie.  The appointment was moved to Monday because of a conflict Tuesday night. Anyway,  Emmett decided to extra cute tonight and I wanted to share this with you all.

I was talking with my mother this afternoon and she mentioned an interesting conversation she had with Gavin yesterday. Gavin is prone to just sorta say whatever he's thinking and out of nowhere he'll involve someone in a conversation he's been having in his head.  Most people find themselves quite confused because Gavin assumes that they have been listening to his internal thoughts and so speaks with them as though they should know what he's talking about. The reality is that they have no clue as to what he's talking about. Anyway,  Gavin kinda did this to my parents yesterday.  Out of nowhere he started talking about his meltdowns.  He told them that he hasn't been having them and went on to explain why. He told mom that he's not…

The Lost and Tired family has been struggling with extremely violent meltdowns from one Gavin Alexander. We have been trying different things with little benefit.  These meltdowns are a manipulative tool that Gavin uses only when he's being held accountable for a choice he's made. These meltdowns hold the entire family hostage and need to stop. Out of desperation I have made the consequences of this behavior more severe. We don't hit and we don't spank.  We believe in a nonviolent approach to discipline. That said,  there are ways of making the consequences more painful without causing physical harm. In Gavin’s case,  I told him that with every meltdown he has,  I will remove something from his room,  beginning with his Teddy Bear and favorite blanket. Since the implementation of…