This Autism Dad went on a date today with my lovely wife of almost 10 years.  We actually made it out. There have been many times that we have tried to get out but it simply doesn't workout.  Today however, we actually made it to a movie.  We went and caught a matinee of Iron Man 3. We couldn't afford dinner but we did have a great time anyway.  It was so nice to walk into the theater holding hands with my soul mate and best friend.  We hardly ever get time to ourselves and so we are so incredibly grateful to get whatever time we can.  Today we have our parents to thank for this time alone.  :-) We got home a little bit ago and are just crashing…

We may actually be sneaking out to a movie.  :-) The boys just left a little while ago and before Lizze's Mom got I to the car to leave, she handed Lizze some cash and told her to go see a movie.  This is really cool.  I feel guilty going because we are so far behind on the mortgage and car payments.  With that said, I think Lizze and I deserve a break and in all honesty, breaks like this only happen once or twice a year for us and we don't always get to take advantage of them.  I also think that it's important that Lizze and I still date each other and do things as a couple.  Lizze really wants to see Iron Man 3 and I'm more…

OMG...... I will never, ever tell my kids they're going anywhere until the last minute.  Elliott and Emmett are both on overload from the anxiety and anticipation of going to their grandparents to spend the night.  For about the last 45 minutes, Elliott has been freaking out.  Typically, we would never give them a weeks heads up to anything because we know this is going to be the likely result.  However, we were both so tired of being asked about when they will get to go, we caved.  I mean they were literally constantly asking, especially Emmett.  It was like he was a scratched record and kept repeating the same questions, over and over again.  Out of repetition induce insanity, I told them they would be going and when. At…

Emmett is in rare for this morning. I think that part of the problem is that he's been anticipating going to grandma's for a week now.  He's been so excited about going that he's literally been asking is it time? , is it time? every 5 minutes for the last few days.  Now that he's down to the last few hours before he and Elliott leave, he's on overload.  I think that the moment he leaves, he'll feel much better. This site is managed via WordPress for Android, courtesy of the @SamsungMobileUS Galaxy Note 2 by @Tmobile. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me. ;-) Check out my #Autism Awareness Store to find really cool and unique #Autism Awareness Clothing and Accessories, designed by me. ;-) For more ways…

When you have a child like Gavin, life is exceptionally challenging.  Any one of his individual challenges would be difficult on most families.  The combination of his physical and mental health issues makes things......um...what's another word for impossible? Even after having moved Gavin to his grandparents life has gotten any less challenges.  What a lot of people don't understand is that when you send a child away because of safety issues, like we did, you often times simply trade one problem for another one. I know that seems counterintuitive but it's so very true.  Here's a fee examples of what I mean.  Since moving Gavin out of our house, his health issues have been infinitely more difficult to manage.  Without the first hand knowledge of his symptoms, we never know…

Lizze woke up this morning with her migraine raging.  When it gets this bad, her sense of smell seems to get enhanced because she can smell everything.  Unfortunately, everything makes the migraine worse.  We have this lilac bush in our yard.  It's huge and by huge I mean 2 stories tall. For me, it smells amazing.  However, for Lizze, this enrages her migraine even more. Every year this is a problem and every year we say we're going to take the lilac bush to the ground.  As you can probably guess, it never happens because something always comes up.  By the time we get around to it, it's Jo longer blooming and therefore less of a priority. I was hoping to at least go to a dollar movie today.  We…

There was another shooting within earshot of our house on Thursday.  It took place a few blocks north of us and is honestly really scary.  This poor and very innocent man was simply walking his dog, when a van pulled up and someone inside, shot him in the chest. This appears to be a totally random.  My guess would be gang related.  How are we even supposed to feel safe stepping outside of our house? How are we supposed to let the boys even play in the yard? This site is managed via WordPress for Android, courtesy of the @SamsungMobileUS Galaxy Note 2 by @Tmobile. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me. ;-) Check out my #Autism Awareness Store to find really cool and unique #Autism Awareness Clothing and…

On Friday, I was scheduled to check in with Gavin's autonomic specialists office and touch base on how the alpha-blockers were working. The truth is that they don't appear to be doing much of anything, one way or the other.  Gavin has been complaining about chest pain again and it's been awhile since we've seen that.  However, his resting heart rate is still in the 130's.  I explained that because his metabolism is so elevated, it's now affecting his already compromised immune system.  Basically, things are getting even more complicated now.  Unfortunately, Dr. Moodley is out of the office until the 20th. The nurse said that basically, because Gavin is so complex, no one would want to touch this and make medication changes, unless it was an emergency, until Dr.…