An #Autism parent for almost 17 years and I’m still learning

After a few bumps in the road, the boys are in a pretty good place. Things got a bit out of hand when I tried to surprise the boys with going to a movie tonight. I thought it was going to be something everyone would be excited about but I wasn't even kinda right. I'm about 17 years into this journey and I'm still learning new things everyday. As soon as I told Emmett that we were going to go see the new Justice League movie, he freaked out, and not in a good way. Elliott wasn't too excited either but he didn't have the extreme reaction Emmett did. It hadn't occurred to be that Emmett might not do well with being surprised. I was caught up in trying to…

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It could always be worse. At least that’s what I tell myself.

Last night was Hell on Earth but it could have been worse. A couple hours after putting Emmett and Elliott to bed for the night, Emmett woke up with can only be described as restless legs. He was beside himself because his legs were driving him crazy. If you've ever dealt with restless legs before, it's horrible. My Mom deals with restless leg syndrome, as does Lizze. On occasion, I've experienced it myself and I swear to God that when you're dealing with this are 2 AM, cutting your legs off seems like a viable option. Emmett's never had this happen before and we tried all the tricks we know about to help him, but nothing worked. We tried massage, weighted blankets, warm water, walking around, tensing/relaxing his leg muscles,…

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Is Sensory Processing Disorder controlling our lives?

Sensory processing disorder sometimes seems to be controlling our lives. It really is something that has an impact on so many daily functions, and unless you're living with or loving someone with this struggle, it's very difficult to understand. In my house, all three of our kids face these daily struggles. Their brains are hardwired differently and they do not perceive sensory input correctly. This leads to frustration, being overwhelmed, anxiety, meltdowns and yes, even physical pain. Truth be told, we gave up on a balanced diet a long time ago and now focus on calories. While sensory processing disorder (SPD) impacts many areas, but the most challenging for me as a parent, revolves around eating food. The most profoundly impacted are Elliott and Emmett, so I'm focusing here for…

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Teacher conferences: Proud and Pissed Off

We had conferences tonight and they went amazingly well. That doesn't mean there wasn't anything to deal with though. I'll begin with Emmett because he's going to be the easiest. We met with all of Emmett's teachers and not one of them could even think of a single thing that Emmett could possibly improve upon. It was twenty minutes of literally hearing nothing but them praising everything about him. Emmett helps other students with their work and essentially tutors them when they need extra help. His teachers kept saying they wish they could have 18 clones of him. ☺ What was really cool is that they told him how amazing he is and do so all the time. Emmett is so proud of himself and he loves school like crazy.…

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#Autism Parenting: Let this be a lesson in what not to do

I wanted to take a minute and talk about a mistake I made in regards to my kids with Autism, specifically Emmett. I've been working on this unboxing project and have had an unbelievable response from really big companies. A huge box arrived today from the awesome people behind Hexbugs.. Here's where I made my mistake. I was so excited to hear that they wanted to take part in this project by sponsoring a video, that I couldn't wait to tell Emmett. Emmett is a Hexbug fanatic and has been since he first discovered them years ago. I knew they would be arriving today, but I didn't know what was going to be in the box. I wasn't thinking when I told Emmett about this because I told him about…

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The black and white, very literal world of #Autism

It seems that the boys had a decent day at school today, although Elliott said it was terrible because of all his makeup work. The moment Emmett got into the car though, he just screamed and screamed. He screamed the entire way home, because communication is a challenge. Yesterday I told Emmett that I would try to swing by my parents house and pick up their candy, because they were unable to go trick or treating. As it turns out, I took Gavin to get his bloodwork done and I realized that we were very low on gas. I don't get paid until Wednesday, assuming everything comes in on time. The bottom line is that I didn't get their candy bags and he had been counting the minutes until school…

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