I spent some time this afternoon building castles with Elliott and Emmett.  We just used wooden blocks and I was teaching them how share what they each had with one another.  If Emmett had a block that Elliott needed,  I showed Elliott how to ask for it and even offer Emmett one of his blocks in trade. It went off without a hitch,  mostly.  :-) Here are some shots of the castles we built together as a team.

I've been a special needs parent for longer than some people and short than others. Sometimes I miss my old "normal"  life. I miss things being simple,  at least comparatively speaking, to the way they are now. I miss having friends.  I miss having a career and brotherhood of the fire department. I miss being financially secure and the ability to plan for my future without having to worry about making sure we don't lose insurance coverage for the kids. I miss not knowing what half of the medical conditions we deal with every day now,  are. I miss being able to pick up and go camping or going to work out,  without having to worry about anything. I miss having hair and being in shape,  both of which have…

I know that my kids tend to be a bit more complicated than some.  However,  I was wondering if your child on the #Autism spectrum struggles with allergies? Elliott and Emmett both have seasonal allergies and do not respond to typical allergy medications. Their immunologist has them on plain old benadryl.  Elliott gets it at night,  until schools out and then he will join Emmett in taking it in the morning and at bedtime. I was wondering if their lack of response to other allergy medications has anything to do with #Autism?  Do anything of your kids experience similar things?

I really love these moments.  You know the moments that you know someday you're going to miss. I love when my kids want to snuggle and I'm very aware that one day I'm going to miss this experience.  I've made it my mission to take advantage of every opportunity to snuggle my little ones while I can. I also consider myself lucky that my kids are naturally snugly.

My kids love cartoons,  as I did when I was their age.  However,  is it just me,  or the cartoon getting more and more annoying. Maybe I'm just getting old or perhaps,  my tastes have changed. Anyway,  I was wondering what you think is the world's most annoying cartoon or kids show? While we don't have cable,  we stream Netflix.  This gives the kids access to decades worth of cartoons and kids shows.  Their current obsession is Sonic the Hedgehog.  The cartoon is over 10 years old and has my vote for the most obnoxiously annoying cartoon.

Elliott and Emmett were waiting to be picked up by Grandma and decided that they would draw on the sidewalk. They both decided that they wanted to draw rainbows. I grabbed them some sidewalk chalk and they went to town.  They worked very well together and drew two,  beautiful rainbows. Bella and Maggie stood watch as the kids were drawing on the front walk.  :-)

While many of you are aware,  my wife is an aspie.  If you didn't know that,  we'll now you do.  It suffices to say that I'm the only neurotypical in the Lost and Tired household. I sometimes find myself at a loss because they way that I think and process things is one way,  and the way the rest of the household processes things is completely different. We have always taken a needs of the many over the needs of the few type approach to things. It's usually serves us well but it doesn't always work out well for me,  as typically, I'm the odd man out. Lizze for example,  has a certain way of doing things.  While most of the time it works for her,  it makes no sense…

Gavin has his 2nd day of home instruction at the library today. He's actually there right now and Lizze is reporting that he's already having problems. He's frustrated because he doesn't understand the clichés in the book he just read this week. I wouldn't expect him to understand clichés much like I wouldn't expect him to understand sarcasm. The problem is the way he reacts. He has a physical reaction.  His body gets really tense and like Bruce Banner turns into the Incredible Hulk, Gavin gets violent and aggressive. We've been working with him on better coping skills for many years but he retains very little. It's frustrating all around. Hopefully,  he'll pull it together and finish.