Posts Tagged ‘autism blog’
Maybe Someday
‘Dear 1st and 3rd grade families, We will have our winter programs on Friday, December 13th. The first grade will perform at 9 am and the third grade will perform at 10 am.’ When I read that email I felt the familiar twinge in my stomach. Ugh. What are the odds that those two grades perform on the same day? Why? I do everything I can to avoid third grade boys. See, I have a first and a would-be third grader. Except my third grader doesn’t attend school with his…
Read MoreOur Kids Matter
My son has never won an award. He has never sung in a choir concert or scored the winning goal. In fact, he doesn’t even know what any of those things are. You won’t find any of his accomplishments in a yearbook. Or on Facebook either. And that makes me sad for him. Because he matters. He matters a lot. I’ll admit to you that for a lot of years I didn’t celebrate. Yup, that’s the truth. We had more hard than good. We mostly just survived. And I focused…
Read MoreBeing Social Isn’t As Easy As We Make It Look
I take notice of every body of water now. Every stream, every river, every pond, and every lake. I’ll count the 5 gallon buckets that sit unattended in your yard, filled with rain water. I know exactly where your dogs water bowl is. I’ll shut your bathroom doors, and make sure you didn’t forget to drain your bath water. I see every candle. I panic when we come over and they are lit. I’ll feel badly when I ask you to blow them out, and set them up. I pray…
Read More‘TIS THE SEASON
As I reflect just on the last year alone, the holiday season for us has been so drastically different. Last year at Thanksgiving Caleb was almost 3.5 and we were hyper aware of the holiday festivities being newly diagnosed. We’d researched how to prepare him and considered all of the recommendations. We opted out of going to see family for both Thanksgiving and rather had family over, hoping Caleb would be better off in his own home if we had to be around people we didn’t see too much throughout…
Read MoreThe Truth About Autism
Autism. You may have heard that word a few times before; although it may not mean that much to you. It probably doesn’t stop you in your tracks when you hear it. It probably doesn’t make your heart drop to your stomach when someone is talking about it. It probably doesn’t relate to you in anyway at all. But to me, it is such a heavy word. It’s a word I will have to carry around on my shoulders for the rest of my life. You see, I have two…
Read MoreWhat Word Describes you in 2019?
Here we are in the last month of 2019. Wow! Where did the year go? While doing a late-night Facebook scroll, I read a post from a lovely neighbor that read “what will be the word that describes you in 2019?” I thought about that intently. I am different than I was one year ago. Forever changed by one word. Acceptance. I have a horrible memory and often times can’t even remember why I opened the fridge! Although, there are moments over this past year that have been ingrained…
Read MoreGetting Help as a Special Needs Parent
I’ve been having some minor medical stuff going on. Nothing huge but still annoying. I finally broke down and went to the doctor. Which never happens. Simply put, I don’t have time. I explained my symptoms. A cold that never ends. A cough that keeps me up. Extreme fatigue. Exhaustion. Anxiety. Trouble sleeping. She asked if I was under stress. I laughed. Manically actually. I told her about my life. My job. About my 3 boys. Their ages. Their schedules and needs. I told her about my Cooper. About autism.…
Read MoreI Don’t Know How You Do It…
Last night I shared a video on Instagram of my autistic son ripping paper and books. It’s a new behavior. It’s really loud. And messy. I shared it for a glimpse into the beauty and reality of our world. I could tell you why he does it. He wants to have all the pieces of the magazines and books in his hands. He’s a sensory seeker. He likes to see and touch. To spread the pages out. To line them up. It makes sense to him. It makes him happy.…
Read MoreWhen you Take the Lens Off
I am not new to the autism world, in fact, I’d like to think of myself as almost a professional autism mom. Many times, I am called in by a lot of my social media friends to be the one they connect to, when another mom has a child that is showing developmental delays, or behaviors that just don’t seem very typical for the age. My son is almost twelve, and we’ve been through so much since the day that 6-pound 13-ounce baby was placed into my arms. When he…
Read MoreStop Asking Women When They Are Having Another Baby
I have two amazing sons. My heart feels complete. No, I don’t want to try for a girl. No, I won’t change my mind in a few years. Some questions sit a little differently after you have a child on the spectrum. This one, really raises my blood pressure. I have always wanted 2 children, I thought I would have 1 boy and 1 girl and life would be complete. I had 2 boys, almost SIX years apart. My 2nd has Autism. I knew from the time he was a…
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