Today's Victory is brought to by Mr.  Emmett John. This afternoon,  Emmett and I spent some 1 on 1 time together while Gavin was at therapy and Elliott was at Grandma's house. Emmett and I were looking for a snack,  and, of course,  he found the cookie mix. He just had to make cookies,  so we worked together and baked so double chocolate cookies for after dinner. He did really well and listened to the instructions and very carefully mixed everything together.  At first he didn't want to touch the cookie dough but he gave it a try and found it was really fun. I'm really glad we had this time together today.  We need to do this more often.  :-) Posted from WordPress for Android

In the morning,  Elliott will finally begin his anti-anxiety medication. It took forever to get the script worked out between the doctor and the pharmacy.  Elliott will start 5mg of Zoloft in the morning.  This is a very low dose because we are treating anxiety and also,  Elliott is really tiny. If things don't improve in the next 2 weeks we will double the dose and see if that helps.  We plan on keeping him home from school tomorrow because with a new medication, we never know how he will react.  We prefer to keep an eye on him to make sure there are no side effects. I pray that this will help him to relax.  He's wound pretty tight and is always worrying about something.  I hope this can…

I made this movie, based on my very popular post, "10 Things My Autistic Kids Wished You Knew". Please feel free to use this video to help spread Autism Awareness, or to help educate those people in your life that may not understand the challenges our kids on the Autism Spectrum can face. If you do use this, please link back to this page. :-)   [youtube width="720" height="480"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFyN4zsR1nY[/youtube]

Something I have slowly come to realize is that in my attempts to protect my kids from themselves, I'm robbing them of the independence they are capable of having. It's very true that I have to protect my kids from themselves. This is especially true when it comes to Gavin. Gavin lacks common sense and as harsh as that sounds it's the truth. When I say he lacks common sense, I mean that he is oblivious to things that would be obvious to most other people. As an example, if I have something cooking on the stove, Gavin will reach for something, almost burning himself. I never occurs to him that the stove is hot. In fact, I could tell him several times and he would still do the very same…

Today's Victory is brought to you by Gavin.  This one is actually a day late because I fell asleep before posting this. This is a huge,  huge win for Gavin’s independence.  Last night,  after Lizze and Emmett were in bed,  I gave Elliott a bath and Gavin needed a shower.  While I was bathing Elliott,  Gavin asked me if he could do his shower all by himself. Reluctantly,  I said yes and reminded him to be very careful.  I paid close attention to what he was doing. To my complete amazement,  Gavin started the shower and adjusted the temperature,  all by himself.  Then he showered and cleaned up -for the most part- as well.  I'm so proud of him.  That is a huge win in the independence column for him. …

Emmett, my 3 year old is the biggest player of app based games in our house. His current favorite is a game called "Where's my water". It can be found in the Android Market for like $1. The game is really neat. Basically, you have to problem solved in creative ways. The goal is to get the water to the alligator so he can take a bath. Emmett loves this game and is really good at it. There are a ton of levels to play and the developer is adding new levels frequently. Check it out...... Download from the Android Market: Where's My Water

About a week ago I launched the Official Autism Support Forums . This forum Autism Support Forums is an evolution of the Reality Autism Support group I founded on Facebook.  The Autism Support Forums are a huge leap forward from the usual Facebook groups.  I've have worked really hard to provide the community with a safe,  private and judgement free place to go and advice from, or just converse with other special needs parents.  In the last week or so,  80 people have joined the group and there are already several hundred posts. I'm really excited that this has taken off as much as it has. In the first week or so many new forums have been added as well as support for mobile access via the Tapatalk app.  This…

Something that has always bothered me is the parents that shoot those daggered looks of judgement. Most of you know what I'm talking about. When I'm out in public and my child with Autism has a meltdown or is otherwise struggling in the environment he is in at that particular moment. People unsympathetically look at me as though I should do something more aggressive than try and talk my child down or defuse the situation with calm, quite words. Granted, most people don't have the slightest idea what is going on and why I choose to handle these outbursts the way I do. However, is it really necessary to make snide comments about my child needing a firm hand? In the past 10 years, I've heard just about every sort of…