Posts Tagged ‘Spectrum’
Unexpected Spectrum
When my wife Tammy and I met, we had four children between us; two from her first marriage, and two from mine. After a few years of being married we became like any other couple. We talked about having a child. We had yours and mine, and now we wanted the ours. Tammy, having her tubes tied after her second child, made it a little more difficult to get what we wanted. We could choose the surgery route to reverse her previous procedure, which costs a lot of money with…
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 MoreTough Conversations
Today the school psychologist came to our house to do the final in-person evaluation. Our IEP meeting is set for the day after Memorial Day. We are so damn close. The phsycologist recently observed Cooper at daycare and was shocked at how he acted like a different kid in different settings. I totally get this and could said it until I was blue in the face. I actually gave up trying to tell people becaue I started to sound like a broken record. At the school evaluations Cooper resembles Lucifer. And…
Read MoreHow to Tell the Difference Between a Tantrum and a Meltdown.
I just saw this on Pinterest and it really struck me. It was an ah-ha moment I guess. Cooper is obsessed with getting a reaction. Pretty much everyone that has met him will admit this. He is driven by reactions from others. If Cooper gets mad for whatever reason he goes into full blown tantrum mode. Since he can’t speak he tends to knock over chairs. Or maybe knock stuff off a table. (It’s exasperating!) But the odd part about it is he waits until you are looking. He will…
Read MoreJust Be Patient Mama. It Will Get Better.
I mentioned yesterday that my whole family is sick with a cold….including one of our dogs. I think our house should be quarantined at this point. The boys stayed home from daycare with Jamie and he text me around 10 that something ‘questionable’ was draining out of Cooper’s right ear. First, I am not surprised. He has been acting like a lunatic lately. I wish he could just tell us when something hurts. I hate the thought that he is in pain and I don’t know it. Second, what next? And…
Read MoreFinding 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 MoreIt 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 MoreInstead of Answers We Have More Questions
Yesterday was really tough. And for more than one reason. I actually thought about sugar-coating it because I feel like lately I have been posting such bad/sad stuff. But if we can’t be honest in our blog what hope do we have! A guy that I went to college with committed suicide last week and the funeral was yesterday. Tuesday night the whole gang from college got together. It was one of those moments where you haven’t seen each other for 10 years and all of a sudden you are best…
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