We had a pretty awesome experience today, with our kids first real play date. In all our years, the kids have never had a real play date because play dates for kids with Autism isn't always easy, or ever easy. Without spending a great deal of time on this, I'll simply say that trying to find actual peers for kids with Autism can be an enormous challenge. Even if you do manage to find a peer, there are literally a million things that can go wrong. Putting two or more kids together with the many issues that can go along with an Autism diagnosis, can be a disaster. One example I can remember from the kids just interacting with classmates has to do with boundaries. Some kids with Autism have…

It turns out that we're looking at another break today, and that's amazing. The boys will be going to Lizze's parents for the night, and we will get some time to ourselves.  This has been an unusual week in the sense that we're getting so much time off, but it's an absolute blessing.  Lizze and I have zero plans at this point, but that may or may not change. I'd really like to go for a nice long walk, but the weather is rather hit or miss today. We have storms in the forecast, and we'll have to see how things go.  The bottom line is this. We are incredibly grateful for the time off provided by both sides of our family. I know that not everyone gets breaks like…

The boys left around lunch time and will be back around dinner time. Lizze has been hard at work on a class project, and I took a solid, three hour nap.  That's about the extent of our travels.  I can't explain how exhausting my daily life is. When I have a chance for some guilt free sleep, I take full advantage. Would it have been nice to do something? Of course it would have, but sometimes it's just not in the cards.   The level of exhaustion felt by an Autism parent is indescribable.  In many cases, sleep is a luxury we dont have, and neither is free time. When we do get a break, we have a choice. We can either gets some desperately needed sleep, or try and have…

The boys are in rare form this morning. Emmett is refusing to wear clothes and Elliott won't stop talking. There is so much needless noise, and it's ironic because the loudest people in the house, are the ones who hate notice the most.  I would love to have some quiet but I don't think it's in the forecast..