At the park last night, one of these boys played with boys his own age. He went up the slide and scaled the jungle gym like an acrobat. One of these boys chased after the older boys. They tickled him and he loved the attention. He went down the slide a hundred times and said…’mommy watch this!’ The other boy felt the mulch with his fingers, went down the slide twice because his mom asked him too, and spent the majority of his time tapping the metal garbage can and…
The email I just received said ‘I wish I had video of Cooper walking into school today. No one walked past him without him reaching out and then tapping his head to show off his new haircut. He was very proud!’ Last night Cooper had his hair cut. In our home. By a family friend. It was his best haircut ever. He sat the whole time and watched his iPad. We counted during the hard parts. Chatted about his rewards for being so amazing. Held hands. Took lots of deep…
I don’t think about autism really. Not anymore. Or about my son being different than his peers. He doesn’t have a label at home. Or even a diagnosis. We don’t speak in clinical talk or point out how he is different from other 10 year old boys. He is Cooper. He is not autistic Cooper. He is not nonverbal Cooper. He is himself. Perfectly made and one of my three boys. I think that’s the beautiful part that comes with settling into a lifelong diagnosis. In the beginning, the differences…
When I used to think about autism, back when the word meant nothing to us, and eventually when our son was first diagnosed, I used to think about the differences. Autism meant he would be different. And that made me so scared for him. Because I knew the world could be unkind. I would hyper focus at 3 am or while in the shower on all the ‘nevers.’ The differences. The worries that would drop me to my knees. He may never talk. He may never ride a bike. He…
See that little one there? The one with chocolate on his face and holding two nerf guns? He is 2 years old and came out of the womb independent. His favorite thing to say is…‘I do it mama. I do it.’ He needs help from no one. My now 8 year old was the same way. Cooper, who was diagnosed with autism at age 3, was always the opposite. He’s never, to this day, had any desire to ‘do it himself.’ He’s very happy and content having mom and dad…
A few minutes ago, Sawyer handed Cooper something and Cooper immediately signed ‘thank you’ to him. Sawyer responded with…’you’re welcome buddy.’ It was such a sweet exchange. When Cooper was a toddler, and we realized his speech was not developing, we focused on sign language. He picked up on some. ‘No, more, help, all done, please, and thank you.’ But he plateaued after those. He had no interest in learning any other ones. I think it’s because us hands wouldn’t cooperate. Sign language takes fine motor skills that he didn’t…
I had a terrible dream the other night. My son Jack was walking up our driveway. He was crying—sobbing, actually—but he couldn’t tell me what was wrong. I ran to him and asked him over and over again what happened. He just stood there, towering over me, taking deep gulps of air as tears streamed down his face. He was so distraught. And in my dream, I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t reach him. When I woke up, my heart was racing. I was sweating, and yet I felt a…
We are all too familiar with many of the struggles and negative aspects of Autism. Not only do we live these challenges every day, but we share them. Because they are the hard, the nitty gritty that we need to talk about..to educate, to make people aware and to foster understanding. My son, Stalen was diagnosed on the spectrum when he was 21 months old. He is almost 6 and non-verbal. Autism is not only a part of my son’s identity, it contributes to making him the amazing little boy…
My oldest daughter had a close friend growing up who’s mom was pregnant at the same time as me. The girls were around 11 at the time and both were excited to be getting baby sisters. After we each gave birth, about a month apart, we would compare how the babies were growing whenever we saw each other. I remember my daughter was much smaller than her daughter. As the months passed, her daughter crawled and then walked and formed words while mine didn’t. Mine drooled. A lot. Mine gained…
Why is Autism awareness important? There are many reasons, but to me there is one that is most important. I am the mom to a seven-year-old little boy who happens to be autistic. Before my son, I had no idea what autism was. Sure… I had heard of it, here and there, but I couldn’t tell you what it meant. I wouldn’t have seen the signs in a stranger. When my son’s autism was discovered, everything suddenly changed. I began researching and learning everything I could. The truth is you…
