Gavin / General Update / My thoughts

UPDATE: My son with #Autism ate raw chicken because that’s just how our life is

If you miss the first part of this story, please click here to get caught up.  I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. It really means a great deal to us and speaks volumes about the amount of love and compassion that's still in the world today.  It's been about twenty hours since Gavin accidently ate raw chicken and so far, he seems to be doing okay.  Franky, I hate to even say that out loud a use I don't want to jinx it. Having said that, we feel a sense of guarded relief that things are still going well. Hopefully, this will continue as we move forward.  Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers.... ☺ 

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February 4, 2017
Gavin / My thoughts / Thoughts and Prayers

PLEASE keep Gavin in your thoughts and prayers for the next few days

The boys and I went to Walmart yesterday, and picked up some groceries. Right now they're into eating chicken, so we stocked up on chicken beast, chicken tenders and things like that.  At dinner tonight, Gavin wanted to make himself some chicken tenders. He took a couple large ones from the bag and heated them up in the microwave. He's capable of using the microwave or toaster oven.  After he was done, I put some in the air fryer for Emmett and as I was putting the bag back in the freezer, I noticed that the bag said ready to cook, raw chicken.  As soon as I saw that, I ran into the other room to stop Gavin. I yelled at him to stop eating..  When I looked at his…

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February 4, 2017
Gavin / My thoughts

The potty dance has returned 

My day has gotten back on track. Unfortunately, I needed a nap for that to happen.   Gavin and I are currently waiting for Lizze to be done with an appointment before we run a few errands. I'm noticing that Gavin is obviously having bladder issues because he's dancing around the backseat, in what's known as potty dance.  He hasn't said anything to me about it yet and I'll wait for him to say something because he's seems to be trying to work through it.  Anyway, that's about it for now.. ☺ 

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February 3, 2017
Gavin / My thoughts

Compulsive Questions

Gavin is driving me absolutely crazy. He keeps asking me questions and I haven't been awake long enough to be able to cope with that just yet.  I swear to God he's thinking of random questions, just so he can follow me around and ask them.  Unfortunately for me, it seems like Gavin is in one of those places where he's compulsively asking questions. There's no rhyme or reason for what he's asking and that makes it exceptionally annoying.. 

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February 3, 2017
Read more about the article How literal interpretation leads to meltdowns 
Emmett John / Homework / My thoughts / School Related Issues

How literal interpretation leads to meltdowns 

I promised that I would write about why Emmett's school report led to so many meltdowns over the last week or so. The reason can be summed up in two words, literal interpretation.   The instructions provided simply said to write about three things you like to do in the snow. Seems pretty simple and straight forward, right? Wrong.. Emmett was so fucking stressed out over this because he takes the instructions quite literally, and is unwilling to deviate from them in any way for fear of breaking the rules or lying. When we sat down to work on this last week, we began by coming up with three things he liked to do in the snow. That proved to be so much more difficult than it sounds. The way…

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February 3, 2017
My Personal Victory / My thoughts

I’m super proud of myself because of the dumbest thing

For the last couple of weeks, all the unwanted attention I receive from chronic sleep deprivation has rendered be useless during the day while the boys are at school. After getting the boys to school, I would come home and basically crash for at least a few hours because I was so exhausted. It's really frustrating for me because I want to sleep and night and not during the day. As an Autism Dad, I have a take what I can when I can, beggars can't be choosers kind of approach to sleep. The reason I'm proud of myself today is because so far,  I've made it without a nap. That hasn't happened in a long time and the crazy thing is I'm feeling pretty damn good right now. Gavin…

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February 2, 2017
Elliott / My thoughts

We faced several challenges this morning 

I was able to nab a whopping four hours of sleep last night. Surprisingly though, I don't feel too bad today.  We started off the morning convincing Elliott that he had to go to school, even in he didn't like his hair. He actually took more work this morning than Emmett did in regards to putting his shoes and socks on.  When we arrived at the school, I walked the boys in because I promised Elliott I would let the school know he was upset about his hair.  We ended up speaking with the principal about it and he said that he really liked Elliott's haircut but that he would let the teachers know that he's stressed out over it.  When I left the boys and headed home, Elliott was…

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February 2, 2017
My thoughts

The Good, Bad and Ugly: The Bad

Now that we've discussed the good and the ugly, it's time for the bad.  The bad began very early in the morning with Emmett and his shoes/socks. It took forever to work him into them, so we could head out the door.  The meltdown was significant and had a lasting impact on all of us, especially poor Emmett.  Perhaps the worst part of the bad from yesterday is in regards to Elliott. One of the errands we had to run was getting the boys haircuts. We were finally able to convince Elliott to get his hair cut shorter. While his hair looks really good now, it ended up being shorter than he'd wanted.  Rather than take it in stride, it controlled him for the rest of the day.  He said…

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February 2, 2017