special needs Archives - Page 10 of 521

I’m getting divorced: What I’m grateful for and few other updates

The boys are still sleeping and Gavin's IVIG Infusion is going. The only noise I hear at the moment is the filter in the aquarium because the tank needs water added. It sounds like a water fall but not the calm, relaxing kind. It's super annoying and I will dump some water in when I'm done with this. After the inauguration, I just sorta crashed. Trump, COVID and my divorce, I have had me extremely stressed out and the last few days have been one long exhale. I figure there's no time like to present to get you an overdue update and so here I am. As I mentioned, the boys are still asleep. It's a no school day and I'm letting them sleep. Frankly, aside from the fish tank,…

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January 22, 2021

Divorce / My thoughts

I got a break for the first time since September

It's been a couple days and I wanted to share something before I crash for the night. This will be brief because I'm exhausted and I'll try to follow up later. The other day, I called Lizze to find out if they'd been locked down for at least 14 days. They had been and so I suggested making arrangements for the boys to go over for a few days. It's been since September and that's really hard on her and the kids. We had decided to shut visits down until COVID was under control. That's the only reason she hasn't seen them. Since the insurrection at the Capitol Building and the current threats for this coming week, as well as how much worse COVID is getting, I thought we should…

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January 16, 2021

Gavin / My thoughts

Communicating with my adult #autistic son

I've mentioned this a few times before but Gavin and I have a unique relationship. We're very very close and direct with each other. I've learned over 20 years that Gavin needs people to be very direct with him. If you give him any room to interpret the meaning in your words, he will often struggle to understand. That's just part of who he is and that's okay. From the outside, it can seem like I'm being mean but in reality, I'm not. If I used this approach with someone else, I might agree but sometimes we have to cater our approach to the needs of the person we're trying to approach. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. If Gavin is talking too much, which he's known to…

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January 10, 2021

Inspirational Posts / My thoughts

We need to have a talk

So apparently I was on TV again over the last few days. I didn't know anything about it. My brother messaged me last night to say that he was going through the guide on his TV and he heard my voice in the background. He clicked over and BAM there I was. I guess is was a supercut from several of the interviews I'd given ABC News in 2020. I don't know because I haven't seen it. I had been hearing from people over the last few days that they'd seen me on TV as well. These are people I've never met before and they felt compelled to reach out after hearing me speak. Everyone was very nice and I love hearing from my readers/followers/listeners. What was a bit worrisome…

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January 3, 2021

Divorce / Inspirational Posts / My thoughts

How I’m choosing to handle parenting during and after my divorce

If you're new to this blog, you should know that I use this a sort of a personal journal. Many times, I'm writing about things that I'm experiencing in real time and you go through that process with me. This is one of those times. I woke up this morning and I'm finding myself very easily annoyed. Gavin is definitely pushing my buttons, whether he means to or not. For the record, I don't think he does. His brothers aren't too far behind either. I've been on edge and irritated today and I wasn't sure why until I started writing about this. I remember why and since the kids are already aware, I feel comfortable talking about it. This week, I meet with Lizze and my attorney. We will be…

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December 28, 2020

My thoughts

Can you guess why it’s so hard for me to sleep?

I've been talking about how tough it's been to sleep at night when Emmett is dealing with separation anxiety. The last few days he's been doing really well in regards to sleeping in his own bed. Last night was a bit of a struggle. He ultimately made it into his own bed but he had to fall asleep in my room first. If you ask him why he needs to sleep in my room, he'll say something along the lines of he feels more comfortable. Sometimes it's because he has a string of nightmares that really upset him. Yet on other occasions, he's said that he's afraid that if he's not glued to me at night, he's going to wake up in the morning and I'll have left in the…

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December 27, 2020

My thoughts

Why the holidays are tough for us

One of the challenges for me as a Dad going through a divorce, is managing the holidays. I don't mean fighting over who gets to see who because thankfully we don't have that problem. I'm referring to things like simply navigating the day. Before all of this happened, we had our holiday traditions and everyone had a role to play. When people are missing, the role goes unfilled and it sometimes changes everything. We were in a remote location with no other people around. We took out masks off for the picture. This was earlier this in the Fall. Even if the traditional activities are still possible, there can be emotional baggage associated with them, especially for the kids. This is our second Christmas on our own and we're still…

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December 24, 2020

My thoughts

Avoiding conflict by encouraging my kids to communicate with each other

I spent a large part of today breaking up fights between the kids. They seem to be at each other's throats. I was just recording a speech for an upcoming summit yesterday and I mentioned something about this. I was pointing out that not everything I'm dealing with in my house is related to autism, at least not directly. There's a large portion of the daily challenge that's autism related but there's other portions that are simply typical kid behavior. The boys fighting is something that brothers do. That's pretty normal for brothers to fight and I totally get that having 3 brothers of my own. Autism tends to make things a bit more intense because of triggers and a difficulty reading body language. This is especially true when it…

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December 16, 2020