Posts Tagged ‘Nonverbal’
What Autism Looks Like To Me
I had a conversation with a friend this weekend about how everyone’s life looks amazing on Facebook. And how it’s all a load of shit. Nobody’s life is perfect. But nobody takes pictures of the sad moments. Or at least we don’t share them. Why would we. We don’t want the reminders. Or the questions from people about them. Or, pity. I am sitting here looking through the pictures of Coops birthday party. He is overstimulated and extremely stressed out in most of them. I would not call it a…
Read MoreSounds Like Hi To Me
I am pretty sure Cooper says hi in this video. And it also shows Coopers inability to sit still and focus. It ain’t happening folks. He’s all over the place. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqIyYbcJV9o&sns=em
Read More2 Month Update
Cooper has been at Fraser for 2 months. That is absolutely crazy to me. When we considered moving 3 hours away, with the main reason being for his care, I secretly thought it would never work. Not the us part but the school part. Traditional therapy has been a nightmare for Cooper. We started with having the school district in our home, then went to traditional speech and OT at the hospital and then tried ECFE and lastly speech at a specialty clinic for kids with language disorders. ALL FAILURES. That sounds…
Read MoreA Conversation with Myself
A couple nights ago Cooper was being a real bear as I was putting him to bed. I read him a story, tucked him in, put up the gate at the door to his room, grabbed the baby monitor, and went downstairs to continue my never-ending packing journey. We were moving in a few days. A new city. New services for Cooper. As I suspected Coops did not want to go to sleep and screamed/yelled at the gate. Normally, I don’t let it bother me. Sleep is not something he…
Read MoreSaying It Out Loud
So for the first time ever I had the words, “I’m sorry…he’s autistic” on the tip of my tongue and couldn’t bring myself to say it. We are getting new carpet in our basement and on Sunday two people from the company came over to show us carpet samples and measure. Jamie went downstairs with the guy and I stayed upstairs with the boys to look at the samples. The woman was showing me the different styles and had them spread out all over the floor. As usual Sawyer was…
Read MoreI Need To Step Up My Game.
So, how did Halloween go? That is the question on everyone’s mind. Cooper rocked it. He wore his costume and went to 10 or so houses. He even grabbed or took candy and even waved to every candy giver when asked. Towards the end he would get in the stroller in between houses but refused to stay in the stroller when his cousins went up to the house. It was pretty damn great. Little stuff like that means a lot to me. Towards the end he started trying to peek by the…
Read MorePretending You Don't Care
I think I am pretty good at pretending I don’t care about things. It comes with the territory I guess. I can’t get sad about every thing that happens. That is no way to live. But holidays and autism will forever devastate me. And the holiday season is right around the corner. I care a whole bunch about Halloween and Christmas and Birthdays. Judge away people. I know someone will want to tell me….”You can’t make Cooper celebrate. You are sad for yourself. You are sad because you are missing…
Read MoreHis World is About to Change…
Cooper’s first school drop off…in pictures:
Read MoreA Therapy Break
Cooper got kicked out of therapy. Yup, you read that right. I can spin this two ways for you. First, Cooper’s speech therapist decided that it would be best for Cooper to take a break. The sessions aren’t going well. Cooper hates it there…he loves his therapist…but he doesn’t want to do the stuff she’s doing…ever. It’s so frustrating. Trust me. I leave exhausted and sweaty and questioning everything we are doing. And also thinking, ‘is there ever a time where therapy is more detrimental than good???’ Part of me…
Read MoreWalking the Fine Line of Hope and Giving Up
When Cooper was little and his quirks were just starting to show I silently blamed myself. I’d tell people I didn’t but I really did. I never believed the whole autism and vaccination correlation. Cooper was different since the day he was born. Deep down I knew right away. At that time I silently doubted everything I had done while pregnant. Maybe I ate the wrong things. For a hot minute I thought maybe I used too much bug spray or even used to much hand sanitizer. And then when…
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