One of the more difficult tasks I have as a special needs parent is having to treat my kids differently. I hate having to treat one of my different than another.  This is however,  one of those unavoidable things I have to do as a parent to 3 very special little boys. Part of what is so difficult about this inevitable situation when dealing with 3 boys,  in different places of the Autism Spectrum,  is having to exclude someone from something.  Feelings are almost always a causality.   The Lost and Tired family has had to deal with this for many years. Despite those many years of having to do this,  it never gets easier or feels any better.  In fact,  as the kids get older,  they become more aware of…

Have any of you ever experienced intolerance while out in public with your child?  Maybe a clerk in a store or perhaps a fellow customer?  How did you handle it?  I thought it would be interesting to share our stories.  Here's mine.  Last year while hunting for a van,  I was at a car dealership,  actually one of the largest in Ohio.  I was explaining to the salesman my family's situation and what we needed.  He stepped away for a fewinutes to crunch some numbers.  To my left,  there was a couple of sales people watching the news.  One of them,  a woman,  was very opinionated.  The story on the news was about a mother boycotting a restaurant for not allowing her Autistic child to enter the establishment because he…

Elliott has been asking for him and I to go do something.  I thought today would be a good day to try and hang out. He has been dying to go to Chuck E. Cheeses,  so I figured what the heck.  We could never do this with the other boys,  especially Gavin,  as it's way,  way to overstimulating.  Elliott is really excited and I can't wait to go spend some special time with my little man.  He so deserves some time away from the chaos. Update: I'm pleased to say that Elliott and I both had a really,  really good time.  He played tons of games and had pizza for lunch.  This was so worth it......

Have any of you folks ever had to deal with a manic child?  I don't believe it's very common. Having asked that question,  I want to vent about what is going on in the Lost and Tired house right now. Gavin is manic,  very,  very manic.  When he goes manic,  we experience a myriad of symptoms.  For starters, he kicks into extremely scattered mode. When he becomes extremely scattered,  he talks constantly,  about random and often incoherent things.  When I say constantly,  I mean constantly.  He never stops talking and it drives me crazy,  as it's doing now. He will walk into a room and just start talking,  and he doesn't seem to care about who he interrupts.  This is very likely do to his lack of impulse control,  which…

Gavin is done with his 5th antibody infusion.  I actually thought this would be his last one for the year but we will be back on December 30 for number 6. He did really well,  all things considered. I promised him ice cream if he did well,  so I will have to pony up.  :-)

While we were waiting for the IV infusion to complete,  we had a surprise visitor. We got to meet Rosie the Chocolate Lab and her owner,  Don. They come through oncology every Friday to visit with the kids and help to cheer them up.  It was a really nice visit and Gavin got to give Rosie a treat.  Then Rosie accidentally got tangled up in the IV line,  totally freaking Gavin out.  It was a complete accident and no harm was done.  It was really nice to have this little visit to help break up the time.  :-)

Gavin has begun his IVIG infusion.  This will take several hours and Gavin is manic so he's talking nonstop right now.  This is going to be a very long morning/afternoon. After the infusion is done he with receive a small flush of about 250cc's of normal saline. Then he will be disconnected and released into the wild.  :-) This would be relatively relaxing if it wasn't for his incessant talking.  I have my headphones on and am listening to music and catching up on a few shows.  However,  every 30 seconds,  he's asking be some completely random question and repeats itself over and over until I respond.  Really?  I mean he has the PS3 to pass the time and all I want to do is read my book,  watch the…