A few years ago we were struggling with bedtime,  even more than we are now.  After consulting our many doctors,  we decided to try Melatonin.  We were nervous about "drugging" our kids,  just to get them to sleep.  However,  we did a ton of research and our docs are top notch,  so we decided to give it a try.  OMG,  I don't know how we ever got along without it. Melatonin helps the boys peacefully drift off to sleep,  when it would normally have been a struggle. We only use it when it's needed but Melatonin has been proven safe and effective,  with few, if any side effects. We have found it work very quickly. Elliott,  for example, will take 2mls and be asleep before we finish reading his stories.…

For over 6 months now,  Gavin has been having his blood drawn every 7 days.  This is done to monitor is white blood cell count.  He's only a medication called Clozapine for schizoaffective disorder.  Clozapine is the most tightly controlled drug in the US. For the first 6 months,  he needs bloodwork every 7 days,  in order to refill his prescription for another 7 days.  We have reached a point where he will now be getting 14 days worth of pills at a time.  This means that he only needs his bloodwork done twice a month now.  It may not seem like much but to Gavin it's a pretty big deal. After today,  it will be two weeks before he needs stuck with a needle again.  As far as today's…

I wanted to share this with all of you because I'm soooooo proud on my little Emmett John. First let me start out by saying that a few times this year, I got into debates with a few parents of Autistic children who said an Autistic child can never be successful. I was really struck by this because, to me, it felt like they had given up on their kids before they even had a chance to prove them wrong. I suppose, that in the end, it comes down to how you define success. In my opinion, success is a very relative term and I truly believe my children are successful with every little victory we celebrate. It seems that some people define success by money and power, at least the parents I was…

I thought I would update everyone on Operation: Get my kids to eat their vegetables. My little green ops mission has been met with both, success and set back. The success has been mainly with Gavin and Emmett.  Conversely,  the set backs have involved Elliott,  who is,  hands down,  the pickiest eater in the Lost and Tired household. My goal is to get them eating their vegetables,  even without their knowledge.  I have found a why that has been largely successful,  the smoothies. I've been doing this for myself for a few years now,  but haven't applied this to the kids until more recently.  The deal is that if they want desert,  which they always do,  they have to have a smoothie first. This seems to work,  especially with Elliott, …

I have spoken a few times about our struggles to locate all of Gavin socks that have mysteriously disappeared. The thought crossed our minds that maybe we couldn't find them because they were gone.....and by gone I mean digested.  Youay think that sounds far fetched but the reality is quite to the contrary. You see,  Gavin struggles with PICA.  PICA is where someone eats none food items,  like,  paper, blankets, paper clips,  plastic fish,  toilet paper, body fluids,  the stuff between your toes and the smudge inside the drain of the bathroom sink. It sounds disgusting,  I know.  However,  those are all confirmed items,  that have been on the menu for Gavin at some point. Knowing that he has at one point in time,  ingested each of these things,  makes…

We got a call this morning from Lizze's parents. They wanted to take Lizze, myself and Emmett to breakfast.  It was really nice to be able to get out.  After breakfast,  they took Emmett with them to Amish Country to look at furniture.  I took to replacement her favorite pen and do so window shopping. It didn't last long because she couldn't walk anymore and needed to go home and sleep. It was fun while it lasted.  It may not have been a lot of time,  but I'm grateful to have spent it with her.  Thanks for taking us out to breakfast and hanging out with Emmett.  :-)

The boys are having a penny war at school.  Each class room is collecting pennies and the one to collect the most,  wins a special prize. All of the money collected will go to a family the school has adopted for the holidays this year.  So everything is for a very good cause. Typically,  what we have done in the past was collect pennies and turn them in on the last day,  as kind of a surprise,  "here's a crappy load of pennies". Now that we have to boys at this school,  they are essentially competing against each other as rival class rooms.  I had to take a different approach this year. I wanted to boys to feel special and really help their respective class to win.  So I decided…

Today went from being,  insanely busy to an empty schedule. Emmett's therapies were canceled today cause the therapist are doing continuing education.  As much as Emmett benefits from the therapies, I'm grateful for the day off.  I spent all afternoon there yesterday,  with Gavin.  I can sit here and say,  "that I want to use the time to get the house in order",  however,  I'm smart enough to realize that will likely not happen today.  I'm physically exhausted and still fighting off this head cold,  so the likelihood I going to accomplish anything major today is quite remote. While that upsets me that I can't accomplish what I need to,  the other part of me is saying screw it. I've been going pretty much nonstop for the last couple of…