Posts Tagged ‘speech delay’
I See You…Perfect For Today
I am so glad I saw this today. On the way to work this morning I was thinking about how hard it is to raise babies. It’s exhausting and challenging and tiring and wonderful and amazing. For any of you that know me you probably saw on Facebook that Sawyer put sand in my lawn mower gas tank last night. And then stripped down naked and ran around my front yard destroying plants. As I chased him around my yard screaming I had a silent chuckle at the neighbors watching…
Read MoreCheerleader Asks an Autistic Boy to Prom
I’m on this mission to share stories of autism that give us hope. Mostly, stories that give me hope. Enough sadness. I’m very vocal that my greatest fear is that people will be mean to Cooper. It could be a fellow child. It could be a teacher or a caregiver. Or it could be a complete stranger. There is a handicapped boy that works at our local grocery store. He is slower than the other people that work there. He is harder to understand. But he is the happiest person…
Read MoreJoining the Club
I received an email from a fellow autism parent. It was so raw I actually cried when I read it. I wanted to crawl through the computer and hug this person. It resonated with me so deeply. This person reads my blog so I know they will see that I used their email. I just can’t stop thinking about it. I could have written this myself. I so get it friend. I read it this morning. I actually stumbled across it in my junk mail folder. I almost missed it.…
Read MoreThe Proverbial Straw
There are four sides to autism. At least that’s the way I see it. There is Cooper. He has autism. Then there is me and his dad and his brother and family. We have different expectations and emotions about Cooper. There is the rest of the world and how they perceive Cooper. There are teachers and aids and therapists and insurance companies. Doctors, financial aid workers. You name it. Cooper has it. And then there is the business side. Yesterday, while working an 8 hour day, I answered 4 phone…
Read MoreThe Isolation
I took the boys to the beach this past weekend to soak up some of the last bits of summer. The beach is kind of our place to go. Cooper does his thing and I play with Sawyer. Cooper loves the sand and will spend hours (if I let him) throwing rocks and sand into the water. So yes, it is best if we go when no one else is there. He doesn’t notice if people are in the way. He just throws. This is the isolation I always talk…
Read MoreI Thought By Now…
I thought by now I would have mastered autism. I truly did. And that I would be the one giving advice to other mamas. I thought by now that my nonverbal boy would be talking away. And potty trained. I thought by this time we would be so much farther along. We are not. In some ways we are in the same spot. Standing still. I just spent 5 minutes scrolling through Pinterest. I entered one word into the search box…Autism. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. Maybe hope.…
Read MoreThe Sounds are Starting to Come
Jamie and I had a late night conversation last night about the nonverbal struggles. We both agree that although nonverbal is hard…it’s the delays in ‘understanding’ that is harder. There is no waiting. There is a little tiny bit of ‘first this, than that’. There is very little reasoning. And holy moly can that kid carry on. At times I am secretly impressed by his devotion to the things he loves. If only his devotion didn’t have to be so damn loud and shrill. I truly believe the language is coming. I…
Read MoreWe've Been Hiding Out
So where have we been?!?! Soaking up summer the good old fashioned way! Cooper is done with preschool for the summer and is only attending Fraser. Which is still five days a week. He is also getting speech 1x per week and OT 1x per week. He handled the transition like a boss. As rigid as he can be that kid can go with the flow on so many other things. We found out that Cooper knows all of his letters and numbers up to 10. He also knows his…
Read MoreCooper Updates at Age 3 1/2
I realized that I haven’t done an actual Cooper update in a long time. I tend to get very caught up in how I feel about all of this and often my posts take on a sad feel. And I don’t want it to be like that ALL the time. Cooper has come a long way. I know that in my heart and need to remind myself of it daily. He is adorable and so sweet and so loving. He gives and gets a million kisses a day. He enjoys…
Read MoreIt's Not His Fault Kate
Last night Cooper refused to eat dinner. (What’s new, right?) There was kicking, screaming, head hitting, throwing, etc. The whole ordeal lasted a little over an hour. I got it into my head that this kid was taking one bite of pasta. And I wasn’t giving up. After the first time-out Cooper took a bite. And then pulled out the gagging. And spit it out. He shoved his plate, threw his fork, dumped out his milk, and dropped a few handfuls of pasta on the floor. I went about my…
Read More