Sensory Archives - Page 126 of 471

I’m feeling incredibly lucky tonight

We had a pretty great Christmas this year. The boys had an awesome day and we're really proud of them. Lizze and I got to bed relatively early last night and got up about 7 AM, so the kids could open their presents. Our rule is, they can raid their stockings after 6 AM but no presents until 7AM. Considering the level of impulsivity our boys deal with, they manage to do remarkably well with this rule. ☺ The overall theme this year was Nerf Laser Tag. We thought they would enjoy the change of pace and we were right. They love the new Nerf Laser Tag guns. They also got a bunch of other things but the Nerf stuff is what will likely be their focus. I'm really proud…

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December 25, 2018

Are you struggling with #Depression tonight? I know I am.

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I truly wish all of you the absolute, very best. Now on to something a bit more serious. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that I've been talking about depression quite a bit lately. There are a few reasons for that but most of them don't really matter at the moment. I feel that it's incredibly important to talk freely about mental health issues because we have to de-stigmatize the topic. We've made a ton of progress over the years but we still have a long journey ahead of us. There is absolutely no reason that anyone should ever feel shame for living with mental illness. The main reason I've been talking more about this lately is because…

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December 25, 2018

My thoughts / Reviews

Review: Quell 2.0 (@Quellrelief) may have just changed my life

The good people at Quell provided me with a free Quell 2.0 in exchange for honest feedback. All opinions and experiences are my own. Many of you are aware that I've been living in chronic pain since August of 2001. I was firefighter finishing up paramedic school and I got hurt on a call. I ended up with an L5/S1 left sided herniation and it changed the course of my life. Pretty much since that day, I've lived in constant pain. Over the last few years, I've been walking and that has made a big impact on my pain but it's always there to some degree. This pain, while better managed, still dictates a great deal of my life. I could sleep on the best mattress in the world and…

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December 24, 2018

Autism Parenting Advice / Confessions / Depression Management / My thoughts

Christmas can be rough for those like me with #Depression but I’m feeling pretty okay

When I originally started writing this post, it was just a basic update. As I was writing, it evolved a bit and will now serve a dual purpose. While this is still an update, I also wanted to share a bit about my Depression because it helps to remind or make people aware that Christmas can be hard for like me with Depression. Last night the boys spent the night with Lizze's parents. Lizze and I used that time to take care of a few outstanding Christmas related things. It's been a little while since I had some time off and I've been struggling with Depression a bit more than usual lately. When you're depressed, exhaustion is absolutely not your friend. For me personally, exhaustion makes it harder to fight…

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December 23, 2018

Artwork / Gavin

Guess what we celebrated today

I just wanted to share something we celebrated today. I get that some people might not get the significance of this but it's pretty significant to us. I'll briefly explain why we find this a reason to celebrate. ☺ Once upon a time, Gavin used to really enjoy drawing pictures. I would always take pictures of them to share here on the blog. He used to get a huge kick out of reading everyone's supportive comments and encouraging words. As Gavin's daily struggles began to interfere with more and more of his life, he slowly began to stop drawing or sketching. It's been forever since he sat down and drew a picture of anything. Out of nowhere this morning he asked me for paper because he wanted to draw a…

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December 23, 2018

Autism Parenting Advice / My thoughts

As parents we have to be able to adapt to change in order for our kids with #Autism to do the same

Today is just another day in the long, storied tradition of our plans never working out. Last night, Lizze popped her right shoulder out of socket while she was sleeping. This happens every so often and anyone with even a more moderate case of Ehlers-Danlos can likely relate to joint slipping out of socket. It's incredibly painful and in Lizze's case, her shoulder tends to not completely pop out all the way. Think of it as a sliding glass door that has popped off the track. The door hasn't fallen out but it also grinds when you try to open and close it. That's sorta what her shoulders like right now. Originally, we were going to a Christmas party tonight and then her parents were going to take the boys…

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December 22, 2018

Emmett John / My thoughts

The 1st rule of Fight Club is you don’t have it during a grade school Christmas program

It's the final day before Christmas break begins and the boys have their Christmas show this afternoon. Emmett's super excited and Elliott is not excited at all. The person most excited by a mile, is Gavin. Gavin has been talking about this Christmas program since Thanksgiving. I don't know why he's so fixated on it but totally is. It's nice to see him excited about something in the real world but it has gotten a bit annoyingly out of control. It's just the repetitive nature of it all, not the fact that he's excited. I hope you can recognize the distinction there. 😉 Unfortunately, Lizze and Elliott were both up all night with tummy issues and neither will make it today. That leaves Emmett's performance and Emmett's alone. Elliott wasn't…

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December 22, 2018

Autism Parenting Insight / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory / Shoes and Socks

This is what happened when I took my son with #Autism, shoe shopping today

I wanted to update you fine folks on how our shoe shopping excursion went this afternoon. I'm so proud of Emmett because it didn't go as planned but he adapted and worked through it. ☺ Emmett and I went to the Skechers outlet store, on a mission to find a very particular pair of shoes. There was no plan to deviate from what we know is working and didn't want to try anything else. We got there and discovered that they didn't have his size but it could be ordered. He didn't want to wait and also didn't want the shoes he was currently wearing. The only option was to look for something else and he was actually eager to do that. I was really surprised by his willingness to…

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December 21, 2018