Today's Victory is brought to you by my youngest minions, Elliott and Emmett. While these two are typically at each other's throats,  mostly because Emmett enjoys picking on Elliott,  they got along really well this morning while Mommy was at the doctor's.  The two of them actually snuggled on the couch and watched TV.  I wish I knew how or why this happened so I could reproduce this on demand but I may never know. Either way,  I'm grateful for the time they did spend together in peace and harmony. I'd certainly call that a victory. Gotta love that cheesy grin :-) Posted from WordPress for Android

Elliott began his anti-anxiety medication this morning.  As much as I hate the idea of medicating my 5 year old,  it's the right thing to do. We kept him home from school so wrong could keep an eye on him.  Even at the low dose it does appear to be producing a sedative effect.  It will take a little while for us to know if it's actually helping to reduce his anxiety or not. Hopefully this will help him to just be a kid and let go of at least some of his worry. Posted from WordPress for Android

Today's Victory is brought to by Mr.  Emmett John. This afternoon,  Emmett and I spent some 1 on 1 time together while Gavin was at therapy and Elliott was at Grandma's house. Emmett and I were looking for a snack,  and, of course,  he found the cookie mix. He just had to make cookies,  so we worked together and baked so double chocolate cookies for after dinner. He did really well and listened to the instructions and very carefully mixed everything together.  At first he didn't want to touch the cookie dough but he gave it a try and found it was really fun. I'm really glad we had this time together today.  We need to do this more often.  :-) Posted from WordPress for Android

In the morning,  Elliott will finally begin his anti-anxiety medication. It took forever to get the script worked out between the doctor and the pharmacy.  Elliott will start 5mg of Zoloft in the morning.  This is a very low dose because we are treating anxiety and also,  Elliott is really tiny. If things don't improve in the next 2 weeks we will double the dose and see if that helps.  We plan on keeping him home from school tomorrow because with a new medication, we never know how he will react.  We prefer to keep an eye on him to make sure there are no side effects. I pray that this will help him to relax.  He's wound pretty tight and is always worrying about something.  I hope this can…

I made this movie, based on my very popular post, "10 Things My Autistic Kids Wished You Knew". Please feel free to use this video to help spread Autism Awareness, or to help educate those people in your life that may not understand the challenges our kids on the Autism Spectrum can face. If you do use this, please link back to this page. :-)   [youtube width="720" height="480"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFyN4zsR1nY[/youtube]

Something I have slowly come to realize is that in my attempts to protect my kids from themselves, I'm robbing them of the independence they are capable of having. It's very true that I have to protect my kids from themselves. This is especially true when it comes to Gavin. Gavin lacks common sense and as harsh as that sounds it's the truth. When I say he lacks common sense, I mean that he is oblivious to things that would be obvious to most other people. As an example, if I have something cooking on the stove, Gavin will reach for something, almost burning himself. I never occurs to him that the stove is hot. In fact, I could tell him several times and he would still do the very same…

Today's Victory is brought to you by Gavin.  This one is actually a day late because I fell asleep before posting this. This is a huge,  huge win for Gavin’s independence.  Last night,  after Lizze and Emmett were in bed,  I gave Elliott a bath and Gavin needed a shower.  While I was bathing Elliott,  Gavin asked me if he could do his shower all by himself. Reluctantly,  I said yes and reminded him to be very careful.  I paid close attention to what he was doing. To my complete amazement,  Gavin started the shower and adjusted the temperature,  all by himself.  Then he showered and cleaned up -for the most part- as well.  I'm so proud of him.  That is a huge win in the independence column for him. …

Emmett, my 3 year old is the biggest player of app based games in our house. His current favorite is a game called "Where's my water". It can be found in the Android Market for like $1. The game is really neat. Basically, you have to problem solved in creative ways. The goal is to get the water to the alligator so he can take a bath. Emmett loves this game and is really good at it. There are a ton of levels to play and the developer is adding new levels frequently. Check it out...... Download from the Android Market: Where's My Water