Posts Tagged ‘autism blog’
Who Wouldn’t Want a Brother like you?
To my son on his 3rd birthday: You’ve been through so much in your first three years of life. And no I’m not just talking about the eight surgeries you had before you were two years old. Or the daily therapy sessions and weekly doctor appointments. I’m talking about your relationship with your two siblings. Your brother has Autism and is sensitive to touch. Your sister prefers to be by herself and likes her space. I see you making friends everywhere we go. The park, the grocery store, restaurants, whoever…
Read MoreTell Them He’s Autistic Mama
We were swimming in the pool at the hotel. It was our fourth time in two days. My boys love water. It’s the one and only activity that the two oldest will actually do together. It’s also an activity that we can all enjoy. We would spend all of our time in the pool if we could. Sawyer is always drawn to other kids. He’s been that way his whole life. If he sees a little kid enter the water, he will be with him or her. Cooper, he’s oblivious.…
Read MoreWhere Would I be Without Autism?
I had an interesting experience this past week. My husband and I volunteered to be apart of a research study looking at how having a child with autism affects our marriage. There were a lot of expected questions like, “what things are more challenging when you have a child with autism compared to other families?”, and “how do you cope with the stress as a married couple”. Some of the questions were hard to answer, some were very easy. There was one question that struck me to the core that…
Read MoreAn Open Letter to the Person who Knows how to Cure Autism
Stop emailing me. Stop emailing parents like me. Stop. Just stop. Remove us from your mailing list. Leave us alone. Please. Because while I’m weathered enough now to not get my hopes up and fall for these things, many parents aren’t yet. You are preying on families. Moms and dads of newly diagnosed children who have just heard the word autism said out loud for the first time about their beautiful child. ‘Give your child this pill and their autism will be gone.’ ‘Have your child watch this video and…
Read MoreHas Autism Changed our decision to have more Children?
July 8th. That date will sit in my head forever. It was the day my son Carter was diagnosed with autism. As his mom knew for about a year before that Carter might have a delay or be “different”. He wasn’t speaking or doing simple things that other kids his age were doing. But before I really noticed anything with Carter his dad and I decided we wanted him to have a sibling. I grew up close with my sisters and I wanted that for my children. Being pregnant with…
Read MoreWhat it Could Be
A long time ago, back before the diagnosis, before autism was a word in our vocabulary, I had a little boy. He was two years old. He had blonde hair and hazel eyes. He was busy. So busy. He never stopped moving. Sometimes not even when he was sleeping. He was rarely happy or content. He screamed in the car. He screamed when we were outside. He screamed in restaurants and stores. No matter what we did, he wasn’t happy. I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t know what…
Read MoreYou See a Boy and a Baby
You see a boy and a baby. It’s so much more than that. I see an 8-year-old boy and a 9 month old baby. Brothers. The boy is sitting in his driveway. Outside. Near a road. Safely. Sitting. He isn’t running. He isn’t eloping. He is calmly sitting. Next to his baby brother. A baby brother who is touching him. Leaning into him. Reaching for his tablet. Touching his arm and his leg. If you could hear you would hear Barney singing the ABC’s. The boy is babbling about the…
Read MoreLiving our Kind of Normal
I was on YouTube the other day during one of my many research missions about autism and I came across a video. The lighting was poor and the camera angles were even worse. It made me a little nervous at first since you never really know what will pop up during a search, but the caption insisted it was an “interview with autism parent” so I kept watching. On camera was this person, who I can only assume was a reporter, and he was interviewing a distraught mother with a…
Read MoreIf it Never Gets Any Better…
Part of me started to believe it was going to be really hard forever. Part of me started to only know how to live in the intensity. The chaos. I learned how to manage. How to react. I found happiness there. It was my normal. I could handle it all. The running. The self injuring. The screaming. I perfected ‘first-then,’ token boards, timers, a speech device, therapy, calm body-calm hands, family skills…you name it. I could do it all. I made your happiness the center of my world kid. Willingly.…
Read MoreSometimes I Forget
Sometimes I forget. I know I shouldn’t. I mean, come on, it’s been 8 years. This isn’t necessarily new. And it’s been a long 8 years at that. It’s been so much trial and error. We’ve moved. We’ve seen countless doctors, therapists, and educators. They all say the same thing. Autism. And then severe autism. After that nonverbal autism. Level three and then level four and back to level three. Apraxia. Severe intellectual disability. Anxiety. In a way it’s like our life became checkboxes. Words on an evaluation. I always…
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