Emmett John Archives - Page 27 of 85

How my son with #Autism blew me away tonight

We had a really nice evening. Truth be told, it was actually extremely stressful for me but that doesn't mean there weren't some awesome memories made. I'm just going to skip to the end of the day because that's where the true magic happened. I took Lizze and the boys out to dinner. We don't do that very often for a number of reasons but we went to IHOP for dinner because everyone loves it there. ☺ Everyone ordered what they wanted and had a great time. The truly amazing part comes into play with Mr. Emmett. Emmett is historically very difficult to feed. He so many sensory issues and it makes him incredibly sensitive to things like food. Anyway, it's a struggle on the best of days and a…

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February 24, 2018

Emmett John / My thoughts / Today's Victory

Today’s Victory: Pants

I want to take a second to remind everyone to celebrate the victories. As Autism and Special Needs Parents, we're all to aware that even the smallest step forward still means forward movement. Focus on those victories, even on the really bad days because it helps to maintain perspective. That being said, I want to share a victory we celebrated yesterday and again today. It may not seem like a big deal to the uninitiated but trust me when I say, this is huge. For the first time in as long as I can remember, Emmett has worn a different pair of pants to school. This has been a nightmare and we have not been able to find a pair of pants that he will wear to school, other than…

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February 21, 2018

Emmett John / Family Pets / Ferrets / My thoughts

Whatever makes him smile

Things are looking good going into another four day weekend. Yup, that's right. Another four day weekend is upon us. Lizze isn't feeling well but it's because of the weather and fibromyalgia. Thank God we don't seem to have flu or anything like that going around. I don't mean to minimize what she's going through because she's absolutely miserable. I was just clarifing that it's nothing contagious. Fibromyalgia is a bitch and it's hard to wrap your brain around something that can't be seen or quantifed. I assure you, the pain is real, even if you can see it with your eyes. The boys and I are going to bathe the ferrets tonight and clean out their pen. Emmett's super excited because we have a new shampoo to use. Whatever…

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February 15, 2018

Autism Parenting Heartbreak / Emmett John / My thoughts

When #Autism truly breaks your heart

During therapy tonight, we spoke with Emmett about his tummy aches. He wasn't super forthcoming, which doesn't surprise me. We asked him if anything was bothering him because sometimes that can cause a tummy ache. The way we word things is critical to communicating with Emmett. He's so incredibly literal, it's very difficult to talk to him sometimes. By sometimes, I really mean most of the time. It's one of the things that makes Emmett, Emmett. Over the years we've figured out ways to work around these obstacles when we can't work through them. Unfortunately, if there's even the slightest emotional charge to a conversation, it's often a lost cause. It's becomes a live to fight another day kinda thing. When we spoke with him tonight, Lizze, myself and Dr.…

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February 14, 2018

Emmett John / My thoughts

Emmett is struggling this morning

Emmett is struggling this morning. His tummy is upset again and he's not in a good place. He's on the verge of a massive meltdown and nothing is helping. I don't know why his tummy hurts or if it's something else that's bothering him and it's causing a tummy ache. I suspect Emmett is dealing with anxiety about something and just isn't able to telling us what it is. I'm taking a short break from trying to help him work through it because it too early and I'm already getting overwhelmed. If I don't take a break, I'm going to be of little use.

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February 13, 2018

Emmett John / My thoughts / PFAPA

We might be approaching the end of the road

This fever flare is driving me nuts. I know it's worse for Emmett but I'm still having a really hard time getting him to eat anything. He's had a bit of yogurt, some pudding and I just got him to eat some brown rice. The brown rice was a pretty big surprise actually. The problem is that he's not eating much and there's very little that we can pack in his school lunch and be sure he'll eat any of it. He's not being picky, he's just in a tremendous amount of pain. He's getting a new sore on his cheek and that's probably what's keeping him from eating now. He's been complaining about it today. Thankfully, that's one of the only new sore he's presented with for a couple…

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February 5, 2018

Emmett John / My thoughts

He’s not a typical kid and this isn’t a typical situation

I'm concerned that Emmett is going to be very difficult to get to school in the morning. His mouth sores are getting better but he still has a big one on the inside of his lip and it hurts me just to look at it. Poor Emmett is still in pain but we're sending him to school and as of bedtime, he's okay with that. He was worried about his pants but we told him he can wear his old pants. Shirts won't be too big of an issue and neither will his crocs. The big issue, or rather the two big issues will be his lunch and his makeup work. He's very worried about what he's going to eat for lunch because a lot of things still hurt his…

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February 5, 2018

Emmett John / Inspirational Posts / My thoughts

#Autism can be so goddamn frustrating at times

I've spent the weekend working with Emmett on his make up work from school. While we were working through this pile of papers, I noticed a couple of things. I should begin by saying that we never made it through all the makeup work because of frustration and massive meltdowns. When Emmett works on things like math or sciences, he does quite well. When we works on anything that requires him to use something other than logic, he struggles. I learned something during this nightmarish battle over homework. Emmett excels in things that deal with facts and absolutes. Math, science and even spelling are all very ridged in the sense that there is a clear right and wrong. There's one right way to spell his spelling words and only one…

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February 4, 2018