Loving Ourselves Through The Process

I’ve been getting to know a lot of other autism mama’s and as we share our stories there are always some common threads. One is the weight of autism. Wherever you are in the journey you can still feel the weight of having a special needs kiddo. And the weight of the unknown. Sometimes I can’t breathe because I am so scared. Another is the loneliness. And I don’t mean loneliness in the sense of physically being alone because I am never alone. Hell, I haven’t pooped alone in 4 years.…

Read More

The Sweetest Boy

I don’t know a lot about other autistic children. Hell, I often feel like I have the only nonverbal autistic child in the world. Which I know can’t be true. But it sure feels that way. When I think about a child having a disorder that affects socialization and language my logical (or ignorant) side always assumed they wouldn’t be sweet. Or crave love and affection. But that is the opposite of Cooper. Cooper is so unbelievably sweet. This kid physically doesn’t know how to be mean. Or how to…

Read More

The Lesser Evil

When Cooper was (mis)diagnosed with a moderate hearing loss in both ears at age 2 I thought the world was ending. Dramatic…YES. But, I am an honest person and that is how I felt. I kept picturing him getting teased. He had just turned 2 and it was the beginning of the bad. (although I didn’t know that at the time.) I had a new baby and I was fighting the baby blues and nursing and I was told that my 2 year old would never hear birds chirp or…

Read More

Wishing Your Life Away

As I was getting dressed for work this morning I tried on 6 or 7 shirts, two pairs of pants and multiple sweaters. And no, it’s not that I LOVE my fashionable clothes. It’s the opposite. I am still working on losing this last 10 pounds of baby weight that feels the need to stick around and NOTHING fits me right. And there is nothing I hate more than being uncomfortable at work. I keep telling myself that I will buy new clothes once I get to my ‘goal’ weight.…

Read More

Find People That Understand. It Will Help You More Than You Know.

I can’t say enough how much blogging has helped me with my Super Cooper journey. Honestly, I can’t even put it into words. But what I can say is there are some pretty amazing people out there. I have to thank Life in the Autism Lane, for her absolutely breathtaking post this morning. She gets it. She gets me and she gets Cooper. And we haven’t even met. Just knowing that she is out there means so much. Click HERE to read her post about her son. It’s powerful and…

Read More

This Isn't The Life I Pictured

I called my mom and cried today. I haven’t cried in quite some time over all of this. I was able to get out of the house alone and run some errands and as I was driving I finally broke down crying. I have been holding it in for a few days and it just got to be too much. The day-to-day with Cooper is so hard. Let me rephrase that. If we let Cooper do whatever he wants life is easy. If we challenge him all hell ‘can’ break loose.…

Read More

Finding Cooper

I’ve been staring at my computer for a while now trying to figure out what to write about our meeting with the child psychologist. A few words come to mind. Acceptance is one of them. It’s time now. Time for me to accept this. Right now, today, Cooper has special needs. It may get better and it may not. Honestly, the meeting probably had the best outcome that it could have. So, in that sense it was great. I’ll give you the facts first. Then I’ll give you the feelings. They…

Read More

It Is What It Is.

Cooper had an amazing speech appointment today. To put it honestly, he was perfect. And that is something I don’t get to say all the time. He played, giggled, flirted, vocalized and interacted. He did it all and he had a smile on his face the whole time. I was riding high. I was even relaxed and enjoying myself. And then his therapist said something that was supposed to make me feel better. At least I think that’s what she was doing. She said, “my boss wants me to diagnose Cooper…

Read More

The Evaluation is Done.

Quick post today. Cooper had his evaluation with the psychologist yesterday. Thank God that is over. We meet next Wednesday to get her feedback. According to her and his daycare provider the visit went well. Cooper made perfect eye contact the whole time, greeted parents and greeted the psychologist. Oh, and followed directions. But, what I didn’t hear is how he interacted with the other kids. And I was too scared to ask through email. So, Wednesday it is. Will this wait every end??? I wanted to share a little…

Read More

My Son makes Fun of the Autistic Kid in Class

I know bullying happens. I am not naïve to that. But what I didn’t know is that sometimes parents think it is funny too. They promote it. They laugh about it. They condone it. And they even brag about it over a cup of coffee. I was sitting with a few co-workers the other day having a cup of coffee and we were sharing stories about our kids. We were laughing about the drama around little girls and the laid back personalities of little boys. I was hearing about dance and…

Read More