We have come to accept and embrace Autism in our lives. Life is always difficult and there are days (many to be honest) where I wonder why God picked me for this job. Then there are the days where maybe Emmett learns a word or Gavin goes a whole day without a meltdown. Those are the good ones. We are now facing another challenge that I don't remember if I've spoken about before. It appears as though Elliott might be dealing with ADHD as well. He is ALL over the place. This started a some months ago. I had thought it was or maybe just hoped that it was anxiety. Man, I just don't know. The only thing that holds his attention (at least at home) is his DS. He…

Gavin has been struggling more and more lately. The other day we took the kids to the park. Gavin was out of control. He pushed Emmett out of the way while trying to get to the slide. Emmett hit his head on the metal bars as a result. I made him sit off to the side for a while.  I explained to him that he MUST pay attention to the people around him. I let him come back and play.  Not 5 minutes later Emmett is walking under the monkey bars. Gavin decides he going to swing across them but doesn't pay attention to the fact that Emmett is in the way and was standing there before Gavin decided to do this. Gavin swung his feet out and I had…

Being a mother is a sacred thing. Being a special needs mother is in a class all their own. No matter how much my wife is suffering just never gives up trying to help. Even is it's just the little things. She does what she can....even when it hurts. I shot this while I was playing COD Black Ops on the xbox360. That's what the gun fire is in the back ground. I looked over and saw Lizze sitting there with Emmett teaching him signs and colors. Today was a really bad day for her pain wise and so I was just amazed watching her work with him. I know it hurt for her to do this but she did it anyway. Lizze I love you. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvbbWdtZgRo[/youtube]

Here is the banner that my friend Johnny Bravo from ppcgeeks.com helped me to design. He did a great job with this banner and I simply made a few changes to the text. Autism Awareness has taken root in the PPCGeeks and xda-developers communities. Many people are showing support by using this banner in their signature. Others have created their own. There are several threads now dedicated to Autism Awareness and I think that's awesome. This is proof that Autism Awareness can work in even the most unlikely of places. Thanks everyone for the support.... Here is the one associated with my ROM. Here is an unbranded version as well.

I thought I would take a pic of some Elliott's artwork from the walls of his class room. He is so proud of these and I'm proud of him...    

I have reached a point where I feel it may be time to re-evaluate a lot of things. Raising 3 special needs kids and trying to care for my wife is like 4 full time jobs. It literally requires every ounce of everything I have. If I had an unlimited supply of "everything" then it wouldn't be a problem. You may have guessed that I don't and so it is....a problem. I'm stretched WAY to thin and it's like I can feel the fibers that make me who I am beginning to snap under the constant, ever increasing tension. I need to re-evaluated my priorities. When you have to quit your job to stay at home and take care of your family there are sacrifices you have to make. You…

My day started at about 2am this morning. I rolled over and opened my eyes to find Gavin standing there just staring at us while we were sleeping. Let me tell you, the "creep factor" was in FULL swing. He scared me to the point I jumped out of bed. Then he looks at me with a smile on his face, acting like he'd been awake for hours and says "I flooded the bathroom". He says this as he's giggling and walks out of the room. I go into the bathroom to find the carpet soaked. Turns out he over flowed the toilet. Now that actually takes some effort to overflow our toilet. I have had this conversation with more times then I care to remember. I tell him that…

Despite my best efforts to manage everything I'm failing. There are times when it's less obvious then others and there are times it just smacks me in the face. Today was one of those days for me. It was a rough day to start with but I was managing pretty well I thought. I was in the kitchen eariler today and when I walked back out into the living room I saw something that just killed me. Lizze was on her hands and knees trying to crawl up the stairs to the second floor because she couldn't walk. I was hit with the realization of how bad things have actually gotten. I realized just how much I'm not able to do for my family. I can't ease my wife's burden…