We try not to have too many why her/why us moments as it is a slippery slope but sometimes it is hard not to. I just don’t get why this has happened. We did everything right. Why her? Why us? Evie is 2 years and 9 months old, currently non-verbal and being assessed for autism. We first thought that Evie may have developmental issues early on, around the 12-month mark, when she didn’t start talking, pointing, waving and all the other usual things on the autism “check list”. However, we…
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So, yesterday was a low point in the life of a mom. For those of you with typical kids, take pause, and stop for a minute to read this. I promise you, by the end of this, you will be more thankful for having healthy children. Let me first preface this by saying, I don’t journal. I don’t have a diary, and I don’t write about my journey everyday. I don’t blog, though, I have thought about it. This is my only outlet to let go and process when my…
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When I was pregnant with my first son, I signed up for all the groups. The Bump. BabyCenter. What to Expect when you are Expecting. I wanted all the information I could get my hands on. I was so excited for his arrival. And I wanted to find moms like me that I could connect with. I also wanted to know when my little dude would reach his milestones. When would he roll over? When would he sit up? Crawl? Say his first word? Be potty trained? These websites were…
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I’m 7 months pregnant with my second child while sitting anxiously with my husband and 17 month old child in a waiting room of a speech and food therapist office. Every time the door opens to the waiting room I can feel my heart racing faster, and then Zachary’s name is finally called. An hour and a half later our very first evaluation is over. I’m left feeling more empty in my car then when I came into the office there. It’s hard to rationalize and almost defend your child…
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There are many topics in the world of special needs parenting that are taboo to talk about. Self Injurious Behaviors. Aggression. Puberty. Depression. Jealousy. As parents we don’t talk about them out of fear. Fear of being judged by people outside of our world. People that don’t understand. Or we worry that people will think badly of our children. Or our parenting skills. So, we stay quiet. I know this unique isolation all too well. Well, lately I’ve been feeling an emotion that I don’t feel very often. It’s even…
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It was a beautiful warm day in Hawaii. I was sipping my favorite tropical cocktail and watching my boys, ages 13 and 11, splash in the pool. We had just started our three week summer vacation. I should’ve been in the ultimate state of relaxation but, every few minutes, I hear my youngest. He’s been making his way from pool to pool in an exact pattern for the last half hour and, every time he gets close to my lounge chair, I can see he’s having a rough time. He…
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Dear Lindsay, Our friendship is officially old enough to have a drink this year. I wanted to take a few minutes to thank you for all that you’ve done for my family through the years and to tell you how much you truly mean to me. When I met you at Chuck E Cheese back when we were 16 I admired you so much. I never told you that before but I did. Me being a “rookie” was welcomed by you and the other girls. I thought you were all…
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While individuals diagnosed with autism and other sensory disorders can have a broad spectrum of symptoms, there is one symptom that seems to be more universal than others: sensitivity to noise. For those of us that aren’t as sensitive to noise, it may not be obvious, but parks, playgrounds, restaurants, shopping malls, busy city streets, airports, birthday parties, movie theaters, school cafeterias (the list goes on), can all feel painfully loud for individuals with autism and other sensory disorders. While you can try to limit your child’s exposure to loud…
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Most kids love YouTube. And many autistic children really, really love YouTube. My son loves the never ending stream of Barney and Thomas videos. He loves the music and the variety. He can easily move from trains to Daddy Shark. And honestly, I’ve never really worried about it. Jamie or I are always near him. We monitor what he watches. We listen. And even giggle when we hear Barney speaking in German or Spanish. But unfortunately, some frightening news is surfacing about the platform. The same things that make YouTube…
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There’s probably quite a few things we, as an autism family, do that seem completely typical to us, but totally out of the norm for other families. And we haven’t realized these things aren’t typical until others have pointed them out to us. Here are a few points we’ve learned aren’t typical for most families but are vital for ours: Always on the defense In our house, we are always on the defense. We’re always waiting for the next “thing” to happen. The next meltdown, the next dysregulation, the next…
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