Autism Archives - Page 416 of 715

We finally have a night to ourselves

The boys are gone for the night. This means Lizze and I have our first break in about three weeks or so. I'm not gonna lie, we absolutely need this break. We didn't do much of anything, it was a chill out and watch a movie kinda night. We ordered pizza and watched the rest of Iron Fist on Netflix. Awesome show by the way.. ☺ It's been a long few weeks and we're both exhausted. Between everyone being sick, the boys being home for seven straight days and the major server issues, my stress level has been through the roof. I've not been sleeping well and I've been struggling with my healthier diet. I plan on sleeping well tonight, sleeping in and if I'm feeling better, sneak in a…

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March 25, 2017

Elliott / My thoughts / School Related Issues

The heartbreaking letter my son with #Autism wrote

Before we go into this post, I want to be clear that Elliott wants me to share this personal journal entry of his. He hopes other kids will learn something from him. There's so much to catch you up on, and I'm trying to get there, but it's been one problem after another. This is something that I wanted to get out there for Elliott because it's important to him. The other day, Elliott fell down the stairs at school. He banged his body up a little, and he's sore, but otherwise physically okay. The only reason I even found out about this, is because he was in tears when he climbed into the car after school. I asked him what was wrong and he explained how he'd fallen down…

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March 24, 2017

Gavin / My thoughts

When good news is heartbreaking

I wanted to share some insight into what it's like to be heartbroken by good news. I know that sounds weird but let me explain. On Tuesday, we were informed that Gavin has graduated from speech therapy. He had brought his scores up in several areas and he no longer fit the criteria that would enable him to continue. On the surface that sounds like amazing news and in some ways it is. Gavin's worked very hard to make some of these improvements and we're proud of him. The heartbreak comes when you see beneath the surface and understand what this graduation really amounts to. The reality that my wife and I face is that we're so happy and proud of Gavin for doing so well in speech. On the…

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March 24, 2017

Autism Awareness Month / Inspirational Posts / Vivint Gives Back

Why I’ve had a change of heart about #Autism Awareness month

As one ages through life, one tends to gain wisdom and insight that they were previously lacking. What I mean by wisdom is learning from one's past and gaining insights into different ways of thinking. I'm absolutely no exception to this, and I want to share something that I've recently had a change of heart about. We all know that April is Autism Awareness month. This is the one time of year where the world's eyes and ears are pointed in our direction (the Autism community). In the past, I've taken a pretty hardline stance on the Autism Speaks Light it up Blue campaign. I've been very vocal about how I feel that buying a blue light bulb is more about padding the bottom line than raising Autism Awareness. While…

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March 23, 2017

Announcements

Here’s what happened

It's been a few days and there are a few reasons for that. The biggest however, is that this site went down and it took me almost three days to fix it. I'm still not sure what happened but I've rebuilt from the ground up and I think everything is in the exact same place it was before. I've been extremely frustrated since this while thing began and I dislike not knowing what's actually wrong. There's still a few things that need to be located, identified and fixed but I'm waiting on the guys at Automattic to get back to me. I just wanted to apologize for the down time and thank you all for sticking around. There's a lot to update you on and I'll do my best to…

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March 22, 2017

Autism Parenting Woes / Emmett John / My thoughts

Why getting my youngest with #Autism to school is so exhausting

Remember last night when I said that I suspected Emmett was going to have a difficult time this morning? That turned out to be the understatement of the year. Emmett was beside himself all morning long. Lizze and I tried forever to help him through whatever emotional hurdle was in his way but we didn't manage to do that. We did however, manage to get him to agree to go with me and talk to his teachers. In order to further redirect his attention away from his anxieties, I picked up donuts while getting gas on our way to school. We ended up being thirty minutes late but we made it. He didn't even need me to walk him in because the redirection was a success.. This is great news…

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March 20, 2017

Gavin / My thoughts

It’s the not knowing that kills me as a parent

It's becoming clear that Gavin's struggling more and more. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if this is another leg of his journey with Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, the result of changes to his medications or just par for the course. His level of functionality is decreasing and doing so in weird areas. Things like self-awareness are slipping. There's never been a great deal of that to begin with, so this change is noticeable. What do I mean by self-awareness? Gavin had an ice cream sandwich this afternoon. About three hours later, I took the boys to the park to hunt Pokémon for short while before picking up their pizza for school tomorrow. I wasn't paying attention to Gavin's face, like I usually do before we leave and I was caught…

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March 20, 2017

My thoughts

I feel like I’m being held hostage by my sick kids

Both Elliott and Emmett we're home from school, as I mentioned earlier. Both boys also seemed to be doing better during the first half of the morning. Unfortunately, shortly after the lunch hour, things went downhill. Lizze and Gavin were both sleeping. It was just the E's and myself in the living room. Elliott fell asleep on the one couch and ended up sleeping for well over four hours. The poor kid would stir a bit, cry and fall back asleep. 🙁 Mr. Emmett climbed up on my lap and fell asleep in a really awkward position. He was clearly comfortable but I was far from it. I was twisted in a weird position and all I wanted to do was straighten my leg out but I couldn't without moving…

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March 16, 2017