We have arrived at our home away from home,  Akron Children's Hospital,  for Gavin's 6th and final Antibody Infusion for this year. He has been weighed and had his vitals checked. He is watching TV in the waiting room until we get called back to his room for further preparations. Gavin is very excited because this is the one time every month that he gets to play video games. He never knows if it will be a PS2 or a PS3 but he's happy either way. Even though Gavin +  Video Games = meltdowns,  we figured he deserves this while he sits still for his 4 hour infusion. Posted from WordPress for Android

I'm just curious on this one.  What is it about dry, uncooked Ramon Noodles and kids on the Autism Spectrum? If I let them,  my boys would live on uncooked,  crunchy Ramon Noodles. If we happen to be out,  they love eating uncooked pasta,  especially Emmett. I used to think it was just my kids but after mentioning this before,  I learned that many of you experience the same thing. I was wondering what your thoughts were on this topic?  Personally,  my thought is that it's a sensory thing. Maybe it's that they get some desirable feedback from the crunching. Maybe they just like the taste. To me, it would be like chewing on tree bark,  not that I've actually tried that,  but you get my point. How many of…

Today's Victory is brought to you by Mr. Emmett John.  Today,  out of nowhere,  Emmett wanted asked for cereal and milk. This is a rare occurrence in the Lost and Tired house.  While Emmett can't have regular milk,  he can have his chocolate soy milk. I was happy to do that for him as I wanted to encourage him to try new things. He actually ate most of it.  For a kid with major sensory and texture based issues,  this was a really big deal. Normally, his food can't even touch,  but today he actually mixed them together. Fanfreakintastic Emmett,  I'm so proud of you. Posted from WordPress for Android

Okay,  for starters,  this is going to be a very sensitive topic.  I realize that and so I want to handle this in a way that is both non-offensive but gets my point across at the same time. So please keep an open mind. Having said that,  here is the question I want to ask you. What do I say to Gavin when he talks about having kids when he gets older? Please keep in mind that I'm not making a blanket statement here at all.  I'm only referring to my particular situation and asking you for advice. I'm in no way shape or form, making a blanket statement about Autistic persons in general. The reason I'm asking this is because for awhile now,  Gavin has been talking about having…

This is not a good day. Gavin has been all over the place and is continuing to drive me crazy. During one of his recent meltdowns, Gavin cracked his bed frame. Today however, he finished the job and actually broke it. For safety reasons, Gavin will once again have a mattress on the floor. No more bed frames in the foreseeable future for him. This pisses me off because now I have to pull the rest of it apart and haul it downstairs and out to the trash. This is one of the big reasons why Gavin's room has be pretty stripped out. Everything in there just gets destroyed. I don't know exactly how he broke it today, but I do know that if he hadn't been kicking it during…

I thought this was something that might benefit other families so I decided that I would share it here on Lost and Tired.  If you are a regular reader then you have probably already seen many of the videos I have posted pertaining to my oldest son, Gavin, and his meltdowns. For many years we have been dealing or rather, trying to deal with these meltdowns. Over the years they have become much more aggressive and potentially dangerous, not to mention disruptive and often times destructive. When he has these meltdowns, he is essentially holding the people in the house hostage. He doesn't seem to show regard for how this behavior negatively impacts the people around him and that is something that I'm trying to address. I have always said that I…

It never seems like Christmas without snow,  at least here in Ohio. Mother Nature was a few days late when it came to the snowfall,  but better late than never...right? Incidentally,  this is the weather that truly keeps Lizze down. The cold weather is really bad for her arthritis and her muscle pain.  She really needs to live somewhere like,  Arizona. Any of my readers reside there? Posted from WordPress for Android

Alright,  the day has already started to go downhill.  I went into the bathroom this morning and found a mess.  It had all the hallmark signs of Gavin being responsible.  I simply asked him about it and he immediately began,  what I'm going to call the Monkey Dance. He began jumping up and down,  all while dramatically flailing his arms above his head. All I did was ask him if he had made the mess.  His response,  aside from the monkey dance,  was to say,  "probably yes and probably no".  I said to him in reply,  "Gavin,  you either did or you didn't".  All he would say,  while continuing to jump around was,  "I don't know, probably yes and probably no". I get why he was answering this way.  He…