Emmett John Archives - Page 3 of 85

Shoe shopping online for my #autistic son

Let me just start by saying that I hate shoe shopping for Emmett, even in the most perfect of circumstances. I love Emmett to the moon and back. The issue is not that I don't want to spend the time or money, it's that sensory processing disorder makes finding things like shoes, socks and clothes difficult at times. Although, as he gets older, he's doing so much better. It can still be frustrating though, for both of us. I've talked about this a million times before but people suffering from SPD, and I use the word suffering on purpose, face challenges that the rest of us can't even imagine. In Emmett's case, he's very sensitive to things like texture, taste and smell. He doesn't like the feeling of clothes on…

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September 20, 2020

Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts

My kids cooked me dinner and I’m blown away

One of the things we've been working on during lockdown is life skills. I try to make the best use of all the time we have available to us and it's paying off. First of all, while Elliott and Emmett are both on the autism spectrum, they're incredibly high functioning. Aside from anxiety, SPD and ADHD, they do very well. The reason I point that out is because when I work on life skills, there's a difference between the way I approach the boys and the way I approach Gavin. They're two very different situations. For the last few weeks, Elliott and Emmett have been learning to cook. They never really showed much interest until recently and have picked it up very quickly. Elliott's big thing is scrambled eggs and…

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September 16, 2020

Elliott / Emmett John / My Personal Victory / My thoughts

Today was full of accomplishments

Elliott had his first day back today and it went amazingly well. I say first day back because we moved both Elliott and Emmett back to their old school. They're remote learning instead of distance learning and the experience thus far has been night and day. Emmett is supposed to start Friday, September 4th but we're still waiting on some things to be processed. I'll call in the morning and see what's going on. Maybe he can still get started. The setup is very different than what we've been dealing with these past two weeks. Elliott remotely goes to school four days a week and Emmett will attend remotely, three days a week. The off days are for homework and extra help if needed. Elliott had a great day and…

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September 3, 2020

Emmett John / My thoughts

Emmett’s birthday was a success

I feel like we had a pretty good day. Emmett's birthday, while not what I would have liked for him, made him happy and that's what matters. Lizze and her made a carrot cake for him and dropped it off. That was cool way for them to be a part of this important day. We ordered Quaker Steak for dinner and watched whatever Emmett wanted to watch. He still hasn't decided in a present but that's okay. No rush and no pressure. My goal was to get a new podcast episode released but I still had an ad that I needed to record and these goddam fireworks have been constant all day. Hopefully, I can knock that out in the am and drop the first episode of the second half…

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June 27, 2020

Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts / School Related Issues / Vaccines

We had some #vaccine related hiccups

I wanted to explain the hiccup with school that we ran into. I mentioned this in a recent post and never circled back to explain. I figured I start the day off with some writing and this is a good place to start. The issue we ran into is with vaccines for both Elliott and Emmett. Vaccines are extremely important and for the most part, we've maintained their vaccine schedules. There were, however, a couple of exceptions. Emmett's issues stemmed from his fever disorder. After consultation with his pediatrician at the time, it was decided to put off his MMR because he was constantly running a fever. We were trying to figure out his health issues and no one wanted to muddy the water. He eventually received his first MMR…

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June 26, 2020

Emmett John / My thoughts

This is going to be a rough birthday for my youngest

June 26th is Emmett's birthday. It's probably going to be a little rough for him, considering all that's going on in his life. As it stands, there isn't much planned aside from his special dinner. Emmett has become allergic or at least very sensitive to dairy products again and so a cake is a bit difficult at this point. He was getting really stressed out because he couldn't decide what he wanted for his birthday. I finally told him not to worry about it because there's no rule that he has to open a present on his birthday. He can take his time and when he's ready, we can get it. This will be his first birthday since Lizze left last year and that's not going unnoticed by him. He's…

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June 26, 2020

COVID19 / Elliott / Emmett John / Lockdown / My thoughts

Focusing on the positive

There's so much going on right now and our lives are on hold in many ways. The stress is getting to all of us and it's quite common for me to hear the kids fighting throughout the day. They are so overwhemled by everything and I just don't know how to help them purge some of that stress and anxiety. Anyway, I wanted to share this because it made me so happy to see. I was working and when I realized how quiet the house was, I went to check. I wanted to make sure everything and everyone was okay. It's not a common occurance for the house to be quiet during the day. When I walked into the living room, this is what I found. Elliott and Emmett were…

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May 6, 2020

Akron Children's Hospital / Behavioral Health / COVID19 / Elliott / Emmett John / Link / Lockdown / My thoughts

My kids had their first telemedicine appointment yesterday

It's been a few days since I've written. Things are getting rough here in The Autism Dad household and I'd be lying if I told you I was doing fine, because I'm not. Not at all. The kids are absolutely overwhelmed, anxious, overstimulated, angry, frustrated and fucking terrified. They're absolutely terrified and it's not easy to reassure them because they're too smart. They know how bad this is and while I constantly reinforce that we're safe because we're socially isolating, they aren't feeling better about it. I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom but this shit is crazy. This is about as serious as it gets and I can look out my window throughout the day and see countless people not taking this seriously. The boys and I…

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April 9, 2020