There are so many things that are hard to manage when you have a child/children with autism. The  pain often out ways the joy. Fewer things are more difficult than trying to manage your "typical" children along with your autistic ones. It's a constant struggle trying to make sure they don't lost in the shuffle. One of the things that I'm really having a hard time with right now it that fact that Elliott Richard is the "big little brother". By this I mean that Elliott Richard (even through 6 years younger) is Gavin's big brother. Instead of Elliott Richard having a big brother to look up to and be watched over by it's the other way around. Elliott Richard looks after Gavin. He is always reminding Gavin about good choices and…

Emmett John learned to high 5 today. Up to now when I would hold out my hand to high 5 him he would simply put his face or head in my hand. It was kind of our little thing. But today he started actually high 5'n me. He was so excited and I was so excited. We high 5'd all day today. It the seemly little things that have the biggest impact. LT

When you have a child like Gavin and now possibly Emmett John how do you handle certain situations that typical children need to experience. Over the years we have learned that Gavin CANNOT handle even mildly stressful situations. He does not handle birthdays well for example. It is way to stimulating. He will be impossible to control for days afterwards sometimes. So we have learned that Gavin just can't have birthday parties. So we have adjust them so that people kind of filter through over the course of the week and he seems to handle that better. Also if we do have a small low key gathering for him (which again is rare) we have it at someone else's house. The reason for that is because we can physically leave…

On an unrelated note. I received in to Dell computers for repair today and got them repaired and returned in only a few hours. Completely re-installed windows and everything. Beat that Geek Squad!!! LT

We had our big meeting today. I think everything went pretty well for the most part. The teachers aide that we have had struggles with still is reluctant to see Gavin as anything other then perfect. But as far as everything else goes it went well. He has lots of sensory issues that we are going to have to figure out how to help him with outside of OT. So I walked away happy with how everything went. LT

In the morning we are meeting with the school. Gavin's main therapist, Dr. Patti is going to be there so we can try to fix some of the issues we are having with the schools approach with Gavin. This has been a long time coming and really needs to go well. My main goal for tomorrow is for the teachers to recognize that Gavin IS NOT your typical aspie.. He is extremely complex and can't be treated the same way. ironically we want them to be tougher on him. Most times parents want the teachers to lighten up but not in our case. We need them to crack the whip so to speak. Gavin has to learn there consequences for his violent outbursts. It's the only real chance he has.…

Vaccine, it seems to be like the grand canyon of the autism community. You find yourself on one side or the other and there is no middle ground. I will start by saying that I don't subscribe to the vaccine theory nor does my wife for that matter. The reason I bring this up is because Gavin's psychiatrist has suggested we consider withholding Emmett John's MMR vaccine. Now before you grab your torch and pitch fork hear me out. He is one of the best in his field. We are very lucky to have him here. What he said was that vaccines as a whole are absolutely a good thing. There is no research to show otherwise. Majority of kids handle vaccines without any problems (which is why you should…