I wanted to take a few minutes and say something to all the parents that are new to the #autism journey.  I'm not an expert by any stretch of the word, however, I have accumulated a great deal of experience over the past decade.  One of the first things I can tell you is not to listen to everyone who tells you what to do.  I know that ironic, considering I offering advice but let me explain.  Autism is profoundly different for every person that's diagnosed.  This means that no two people with autism are exactly the same.  I find that all too often, people forget this truly important autism fact. They will try to tell you what to do because it worked for them.  Maybe it will also work…

Elliott and I have been playing MineCraft on Android for awhile now.  However, he just discovered that it's on the xbox 360 as well. I used the very last of my Microsoft points to grab it off of xbox live. Elliott is thrilled. MineCraft is a great game that anyone can play.  It encourages use of his imagination and fosters creativity.  He essentially get a blank pallet and can create anything his amazing mind can think up. I would recommend this game to anyone with a child. More importantly, I would recommend MineCraft to anyone with an autistic child that likes games and enjoys creating things.

I'm laying in bed trying to sleep and I have my two canine friends, Maggie and Bella snoring.  Maggie being an English Staffy and Bella being a boxer means they both have short noses, snouts or mussels, whatever the hell you want to call them.  This makes them excel at snoring.  They put my old partner from my paramedic days to shame and that's saying something. It's weird because it like they're snoring in rounds. At least Lizze is sleeping through it. I suppose this one of the downsides to the breeds. Thankfully,  the good far outweighs the bad.  Having said that,  on nights like this I really need to focus on the positive.  :-)

One of the greatest inventions known to man has got to be Play Doh. Play Doh is the coolest most versatile toy, if you even call it that. For a child on the #autism spectrum, Play Doh can be an absolute dream. Having said that, I would imagine that some people would have not like it for sensory reasons. However, my kids absolutely lovePlay Doh. In fact, a large portion of Christmas revolved around Play Doh. Elliott and Emmett got tons of Play Doh and Play Doh toys. My boys love using their imaginations and Play Doh allows them to do just that. It also provides great sensory feedback for them and I think that may be part of the drive behind their love for that colorful, mushy, shapeable fun.…

Every now and again,  Elliott and I have some guy time. Typically, this means that he gets to stay up a little later and we hang out. Sometimes we play one of his imaginary games and other times we might play a video game.  The bottom line is that we spend one on one time together.  It doesn't really matter what we are actually doing, it's simply the fact that we are spending time together.  This one of Elliott's most favorite things to do and mine as well.  Tonight Elliott and I spent some time together playing on the xbox 360. We played Bolt and Peggle until he was tired.  We took this picture to commererate the special time.  :-)