Posts Tagged ‘apraxia’
I Thought By Now…
I thought by now I would have mastered autism. I truly did. And that I would be the one giving advice to other mamas. I thought by now that my nonverbal boy would be talking away. And potty trained. I thought by this time we would be so much farther along. We are not. In some ways we are in the same spot. Standing still. I just spent 5 minutes scrolling through Pinterest. I entered one word into the search box…Autism. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. Maybe hope.…
Read MoreSuper Cooper
Do you know that I was actually stressed about posting that video of Cooper making sounds online. I’ve been doing this for 3 years. I’ve been waiting for the words for so long. And I start to feel like my hope is like a broken record. Even today, I regretted it. I know the comments I will hear from people now. Don’t be sad…he’s making sounds. He’s close to talking. Someday he will talk. It will happen soon. It’s almost like these videos are ammunition of hope. But what the mom inside me…
Read MoreThe Sounds are Starting to Come
Jamie and I had a late night conversation last night about the nonverbal struggles. We both agree that although nonverbal is hard…it’s the delays in ‘understanding’ that is harder. There is no waiting. There is a little tiny bit of ‘first this, than that’. There is very little reasoning. And holy moly can that kid carry on. At times I am secretly impressed by his devotion to the things he loves. If only his devotion didn’t have to be so damn loud and shrill. I truly believe the language is coming. I…
Read MoreWe've Been Hiding Out
So where have we been?!?! Soaking up summer the good old fashioned way! Cooper is done with preschool for the summer and is only attending Fraser. Which is still five days a week. He is also getting speech 1x per week and OT 1x per week. He handled the transition like a boss. As rigid as he can be that kid can go with the flow on so many other things. We found out that Cooper knows all of his letters and numbers up to 10. He also knows his…
Read MoreEye Contact and Autism
When you google signs of autism…or talk to someone about autism….you typically hear the same signs. Lack of eye contact. Lack of affection. Withdrawn behaviors. Social delays. Cognitive delays. Playing with toys in odd manners. And the list goes on. When I used to ‘think’ about autism I would think of a really withdrawn child. I would think of a kiddo that didn’t hug or give love. And that wasn’t Cooper. So I told myself it wasn’t autism. I would lay in bed at night and mentally tick of the things he did…
Read MoreAn Honest Look at Playing with Cooper
I took this video of Cooper last night. We were ‘playing’ trains. I have so many memories of setting up this train track with Cooper and thanking God that he played with something. And telling therapists that he was fine because he played with toys. I was lying to myself. Lying to them. I set the train track up. I put all the trains together. If one thing is off he will destroy the track and throw every single piece. There is no putting things in the trains. No stopping…
Read More"Where's Cooper?"
I’m sobbing right now. I can’t even summarize how this video makes me feel. I’m not there in the journey yet. Every morning Sawyer wakes up and says, ‘Where’s Cooper?” He genuinely cares and wants to see his brother. And my heart hurts every single time because I don’t believe Cooper knows he has a brother. Cooper wouldn’t notice if Sawyer was gone. He wouldn’t question it even in a nonverbal way. I was gone for 5 days last week and got home late on Friday night. When Cooper woke up…
Read MoreSo This is New
When I first started entering the word Autism into Dr. Google it would typically come back with a few key signs….lack of eye contact, repetitive behavior, lack of imagination, etc. I was always tricked by the responses. My son has the eye contact, no repetitive behavior and zero imagination. I used to think it was ALL OR NOTHING. Nope. It’s a spectrum. Super Cooper has NEVER had a repetitive behavior. He’s too busy. Honestly, I’ve only seen him sit a few times and usually he is strapped into a booster seat. The…
Read MoreAsking the World to Change
I was at a retail store this past weekend and watched a mom struggling to manage her son during a meltdown. I started thinking about how not that long ago I would have never, ever, ever taken Cooper shopping. At least not on my own. He would run and shriek and I would sweat and cry and vow to never do it again. And finally, when Cooper was 1 1/2 or so I stopped. We stopped going to restaurants and events and whatever other places people go to. There is a…
Read MoreI Saw the Future
Our family spent the night at a water park on Sunday. Cooper comes alive in the water. It is the one and ONLY activity that he enjoys more than watching his movies. He puts his life jacket on and bobs around and swims. It’s pretty dang cute. And he is so independent in the water. That is wonderful to see. Usually I am the one talking about autism with people. So I was surprised when we sat down in the hot tub and I heard a women talking with Jamie…
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