Posts by Kate Swenson
The Therapists Who Take Care of Us
I have always been the caregiver. When I was little, it was for my younger sister. When I met my husband, it was for him, and still is. When we got pregnant with mason, it just came naturally. I went to every doctors appointment, took my prenatal vitamins, tried to eat healthy. I continued to work out and took care of myself, for my buddy that was growing bigger by the day. When he was born, he was perfect. The first time I saw him he looked exactly how I…
Read MoreThe Therapist Who Helped Me See My Boy
I want to thank and honor my son’s first speech therapist, Elizabeth. She, with one sentence, gave me the strength and hope for this journey we are on, and even though she isn’t our speech therapist anymore (he goes through the school district now that he is four), I replay what she said to me often. Sometimes daily. Sometimes multiple times a day. She helped me see my boy. The amazing boy he is. And not just an imaginary “what if” doom and gloom version of his life. One sentence…
Read MoreI had Expectations
I read a quote today on Pinterest while I was hiding in the bathroom for five minutes listening to the chaos of my life outside the door. Babies crying. Kids arguing. Jamie babbling about how I have too many shoes. You know. Life. The quote said something like…sometimes we create our own heartbreak through expectation. Now if that ain’t just the honest to God truth. Expectations. We all have them. We all set them. With adulthood, marriage, parenting, holidays, even our careers. We have them because we are human. I…
Read MoreThank you Mom for Giving me Strength
To the best grandma and mother, Thank You! Thank you for taking your two Autistic grandchildren once a week for 3 years so I could have a break. A break to recompose myself. A break to have a date night with my husband. A break to go to Walmart without screaming kids. A break to sleep. A break from being a special needs mom for a few hours. I could go on and on about the breaks I get to have thanks to you! Thank you for being the grandma…
Read MoreI’m Thankful for the Way You Take Care of Us
Meet Ted. His name suggests exactly what you’d think it does. A simple guy. A good ole boy. A guy who can fix your brakes or loan you his trailer. A guy who chops wood and knows how to do drywall. A guy whose humor is subtle, but hysterical if you catch it. A guy who loves any meal you cook for him. A guy who loves to hunt, but rarely gets to go. A guy with a strong handshake and even stronger integrity. A quiet guy, but great conversationalist.…
Read MoreWhat Color Shirt Was He Wearing?
The scariest moments of my life happened tonight. On a Monday in November. A normal day. A dark night. Not too cold. Sawyer left the house to play at 4:17 pm. I didn’t pay attention to what he was wearing because I was unloading the dishwasher and feeding the baby. We had just finished an argument about Pokémon cards. I told him he couldn’t take them out of this house. He disagreed. I yelled. He yelled back. So honestly, I breathed a sigh when he left. Silence. It had been…
Read MoreI am Thankful for the Most Amazing Uncle
My name is Corie and I am thankful for the most amazing uncle. I am the mom of two boys with one on the spectrum. My little guy was diagnosed “non verbal” and “low functioning” at the age of three. His name is Dante. He is now 12 and boy is he a firecracker. I would like to give a shout out so to speak to his Uncle Shane…AKA “Uncie”. A quick background on this “Uncie” character. Uncie is my oldest son’s father. So strange sounding but bare with me.…
Read MoreI’m Thankful for the Talking back
Last Saturday, a friend of mine came over. As we were sitting on the stairs chatting, the boys were upstairs with my parents. I heard them jumping up and down on the guest bed. I immediately called upstairs, saying, “BOYS! Come down here, now please!” Immediately, I heard my son Yuri say, indignantly, “NO!” And then, I heard, his brother Aki say, “NO!” Although I immediately said, “excuse me!?” There was still a big part of me that chuckled as my parents said, “they’re pretending to sleep now!” and I…
Read MoreI’m Thankful For Our Therapists
We’ve been doing therapy since my son Nicholas was 6 months old. He was behind from the very beginning, and wasn’t hitting his milestones at all. He was oversensitive to everything, would arch his back a lot, and needed help with most things. It was recommended by his pediatrician that he start seeing an occupational therapist (OT). Those were some hard therapy days. Nicholas was uncomfortable and cried a lot. We worked on tummy time, sitting, feeding, and fine motor skills with little success. Because of his sensitivity his OT…
Read MoreThe Importance of a Family Restroom
Before I had a son with autism, I feel like I was oblivious to a lot of things. I foolishly assumed that all kids went to restaurants, and used public restrooms and even transitioned from riding in a cart to walking. I didn’t know that some children are deathly afraid of automatic flushing toilets and hand dryers. I didn’t know that some parents are unable to go into gas stations or even go through drive thrus. But the biggest thing that I never even gave a second thought too…was public…
Read More