I'm writing this post and feeling quite overwhelmed and frustrated.  Gavin is back to having meltdowns each day again. We had experienced a lull in number of meltdowns he has had in recent months.  However,  that period of peace and relative tranquility has come to an end.  Gavin is back to having meltdowns over anything that doesn't go his way and I'll be real honest with you here,  it's driving me crazy. We had at least two meltdowns today alone.  I don't remember what the first one was about,  but the second one involved a decision he made causing Emmett to get hurt.  He starts out by bending his fingers back to the point of almost breaking them.  Then he slams his foot to the side so he's standing on…

Featured Android app of the day   Today's featured app comes from Intellijoy. The app is Kids Connect The Dots<---- Click here to download Lost and Tired  fully endorses this Android application by the great developers at Intellijoy, and have personally used this app with my 3 boys on the Autism spectrum. This app is basically a game of connect the dots. Your child will practice the chronological order of number and be rewarded for finishing the puzzles with a bright colorful picture. As the time this post was published 2:50pm, 12/10/2011, this app was on sale for $.10 as part of the Android Market's massive 10 Billion downloads sale.   My kids love this app. This is actually one of the reasons Emmett has begun counting so well. This is…

Perfectly imperfect,  sounds like an oxymoron,  right?  True,  but beneath the surface it means a great deal more to me. When I tried to come up with a word or phrase that describes my family,  more specifically,  my three boys on the Autism Spectrum,  I came up with perfectly imperfect. My family is far from perfect.  Having said that,  who's really is?  Even the most typical of families has their problems.  Granted,  most aren't dealing with the same struggles that we are.  Sometimes,  people think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence,  but I think you'd be surprised.  Life for the Lost and Tired family is beyond stressful and overwhelming.  We experience setback quite often. However,  we also experience victories,  maybe not big ones but a…

So,  last night I was feeling kinda froggy,  so I thought it would be nice to get everyone out of the house for a bit.  I ended up deciding to take the family out to dinner. I think we've only done that one other time this year because of how challenging it can be to do that with 3 boys on the Autism Spectrum. Last night's excursion went off without a hitch.  The boys did great and everyone enjoyed their dinner.. What a pleasant surprise.   :-) This has been posted to WordPress via Galaxy S2 Epic Touch 4G by Samsung, without the use of proper editing tools.

Today's Vitory I brought to you by my oldest son,  Gavin. We get our water from a company called Clear Water.  He have a 5 gallon water cooler and so we have to refill the jugs about every week or so. Sometimes,  Gavin will tag along and always wants to help.  Typically,  Gavin can't seem to get the timing of shutting the water offer before it sprays everywhere. However,  on this occasion,  he did the entire process on his own. He put in the token and filled up the jugs without soaking himself in the process. He even wiped them down when he was done. This seems like an arbitrary skill but the reality is that he needs to know this kind of thing in order to function independently in…

After taking Lizze to the doctor's and running to the school to pick up the boys,  we finally arrived home. Upon approaching the front door,  all I wanted to do was get out of the cold and finish up some things around the house before Lizze got home.  The boys however,  had other plans.  They discovered that that bird bath was frozen over.  They wanted to feel the ice and poke at it with a stick. As tired as I was,  I remembered to take some of my own advice and seize the moment and help them to learn something new.  So we played with the ice for a few minutes and talked about what ice was and why it was there.  After a few minutes,  their natural curiosity was…

As a special needs father to 3 boys on the Autism Spectrum and husband to wife that is chronically ill,  I have quite a bit on my plate. For that reason,  I need to take great care in what I put on my plate,  my dinner plate that is. Over all I'm a healthy guy,  but that doesn't there aren't things I need to work on.  I need to get my cholesterol back in balance and a bit lower,  as well as lose weight. Before I became a special needs parent,  I was is amazing shape.  I worked out with a trainer 6 days a week,  and was built like a tank.  That all changed after I hurt my back on a run as a paramedic back in 2001.  I…

As you know,  my littlest minion,  Emmett,  struggles with speech and language.  Subsequently,  communication can be rather challenging at times. It's taken a great deal of time and effort to sorta......bridge that communication gap. As part of this communication gap, we have a hard time conveying requests to Emmett in a way he can understand. Having said that, Emmett has made huge progress this year. However, despite this progress, we find ourselves many times unable to effectively communicate back and forth with Emmett. Recently, we had a breakthrough of sorts. I don't remember exactly how we discovered this but how we discovered it, really doesn't matter. What does matter, is what we discovered and how well it has been working. I thought I would share what we have figured out in hopes that it may…