The boys have left the building, although for a slightly shorter time than originally planned. My back still hurts so I don't know if I'll make it shopping or not. We have Dr. Pattie's at 4pm and the boys should arrive home in time for that. Once again, we're both super grateful for the break..
The boys are going to spend the day with my Mom. I think they're getting picked up just before lunch. Lizze and I have no plans, aside from grocery shopping today. I do want to try and get some things done around the house. Frankly, thays only ever really possible when the kids are not home. At the same time, not resting during the time away from the kids can be a mistake. The challenge is finding a balance that works, without tipping the scales to one side or the other.
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…
We have a big day ahead of us. Provided that everything goes well for both parties, a play date will happen this afternoon. The boys will be hopefully playing with some friends from school this afternoon. I say provided everything goes well for both parties because our other families have unpredictable lives and things simply don't always work out. Having said that, everyone is planning on being there this afternoon, and fun should be had by all. This is such an exciting day for me because I want so badly for my kids to have the kind of childhood I had, but our neighborhood and the challenges associated with Autism, make that nearly impossible at times. Frankly, I'm not sure who's more excited, me or the boys.. ☺
I woke up this morning and my back is completely out. I have a major back injury, and for the most part, I'm okay. Sometimes however, things can get bad, and significantly impact my ability to do just any anything. Thankfully, Lizze is reviewing a portable tens unit and I'm currently zapping my lower back with jolts of electricity. That may sound bad, but OMG does it feel amazing. Hopefully, this will losen things up and allow me to walk today.
We had a really challenging day. Rather, Emmett had a very challenging day, and subsequently, so did the rest of us. Any parent would gladly take away their child's burden and shoulder it themselves, but when it comes to Autism, there's no possibility of that. No matter what we do, sometimes we just can't help him. For me personally, this was an emotionally draining day because Emmett was completely out of sorts for most of it. The main issue for the first part of the day was clothing related. He couldn't wear any shirt. There's one shirt that he can wear, and we can't find it. It's got a picture of a pug wearing sunglasses and headphones. It's nowhere to be found. His other shirts are bothering his shoulders. He…
It was a rough night. Emmett woke up after a really bad nightmare and never went back to bed. He woke up shortly after midnight, just as Lizze and I were going to bed. There was zero chance of getting him back to sleep and in order to prevent him from waking anyone else up, further complicating things. As per the usual in situations like this, we moved to the living room in an effort to salvage whatever sleep I could. My efforts were fruitless because he never went back to sleep. This of course, sets a terrible tone for the day, that I'll have to attempt to overcome.
The boys are in their way home and I'm feeling slightly recharged. That's about as good as it gets when you're an Autism parent. If you ever get a break, it's never enough to fully recharge. What you end up getting is just enough of a recharge to keep puttering along. Autism parents expend so much energy on an hourly basis, I'm not sure it's even possible to ever fully recharge. Do you agree with that statement? Please explain.