Holy crap...  I was just looking over the weeks appointments and so far we have 17 freaking appointments.  The scary thing is that I know there are at least 1 or 2 more for Lizze that haven't made it to the calendar.  Five of these appointments are out of town at Akron Children's Hospital.  Elliott has the developmental neurologist and the immunologist on the same day.  Gavin has his 5th antibody infusion on Friday and Gavin and Emmett see the ENT on Wednesday.  Emmett is there for a surgical follow up and Gavin is there for a surgical consult.  Lizze isn't moving around a whole lot right now so I'll be escorting everyone through most of the week on my own,  unless she feels better. The only reason I'm looking…

I was to vent a little bit right now, so please bare with me. Right now I'm really frustrated with Gavin because of his recent relapse into sexually aggressive behaviors.  I'm once again having to protect his little brothers from his unwanted advances.  Right now,  he very into kissing and so he always seems to be looking for an excuse to kiss one of his brothers.  Tonight,  Lizze caught him making out with a Mario plush doll,  which of course,  lead to Emmett doing the same thing.  I'm ticked off because I'm constantly having to make sure Gavin is supervised when he is around his brothers.  This makes things so much more difficult because they can no longer just go upstairs and play.  Like I didn't already have enough to…

I'm making a conscious decision to try and be more positive in 2012. I won't be fluffy or fake but I also want to spend more time on the little victories. I will always be realistic about things as I truly believe that is the very best approach to Autism Awareness.  I just want to celebrate my children's accomplishments more publicly going forward.  I want people to take comfort and know that they are not alone in the struggle and heartbreak that can go along with Autism.  I want people to understand that it's okay to feel overwhelmed and even resentful at times.  I think I have done pretty well so far with that. However,  while it's important people not feel alone,  it's equally, and arguably even more important to…

So I battled the insane traffic, both on the road and in the grocery, to grab a few things before we have to give the car back to my parents.  My goal is to make a big pot of chicken soup. I love cooking,  and it's something I can actually do for my family.  Assuming of course I can get the time away from the kids to get this done.  Lizze is not feeling well again so I don't know if she will be able to watch the boys long enough to get this done. I hope you all have a safe and stress free weekend.  :-)

I thought I would take a few minutes while things are quiet and talk about what I'm thankful for. All to often, I get wrapped up in what's going wrong,  that I forget all the many things I have to be thankful for. I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful that Gavin is doing as well as he is.  I know we are still struggling but it has been so much worse than it is right now.  All things considered,  he is doing remarkably well and I'm extremely proud of him. I'm thankful that despite the elusive diagnosis, we have many dedicated people working to help Gavin with everything that he is going through. I'm thankful that Elliott is doing so well at school.  He struggled with the transition at…

OMG are my kids overstimulated from Thanksgiving. They are each driving me crazy in their own unique way.  :-) Emmett has screaming for most of the day,  Elliott has been whining and Gavin has been in a really bad mood.  Lizze has still not found relief from her migraine and so she is absolutely miserable. I think we will be getting Elliott or Emmett over to her parents for the night...hopefully. Lizze and I have decided that based on their reactions to a very low key Thanksgiving,  we are going to seriously reevaluate our Christmas plans for this year. While we may still visit immediate family,  we will limit our time away from home.  The boys simply are not coping well with the whole get together thing.  I hate doing…

Thursday morning about 12:30am, I woke up because Maggie was barking. I took her outside and found that police were scouring the area for someone who had gotten away or something. I don't know what this person had done, but whatever it was, they definitely wanted him. The police were walking around my house with their guns drawn and the little flashlights (on the guns) turned on, as they searched for the person they said was hiding out in either my or my neighbors yard. What a great way to welcome Thanksgiving morning. Sigh..   [youtube width="720" height="480"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJftVZ_jd5U[/youtube]

I realize this is a very touchy subject but I think it's one we should be able to talk about.  For the past few years,  we have been dealing with sexually aggressive behavior,  from our oldest.  Things like groping,  fondling and what we dubbed as creepy kissing have all been an ongoing issue. Last summer,  the behavior just stopped and we were very,  very grateful.  We haven't had any problems at all in over a year...that is..until recently.  We are beginning to experience these problems again.  I don't really know what to do about this behavior at this point.  However,  I do know that I need to protect the younger boys,  as they appear to be the main target. We had an incident yesterday and again today.  Elliott came to…