Special needs parenting is no walk in the park.  Life is challenging on the best of days,  and down right impossible on the rest of them.  What happens when one parent becomes chronically I'll and can no longer carry as much as they once could? That is the situation that I have ever found myself in.  I have three amazing and challenging boys,  all on the Autism Spectrum. I also am married to the most amazing woman I have ever met.  However,  over the past few years,  her health has dramatically suffered to the point of becoming disabled.  She does everything she can to help but pays a very heavy and painful price for anything she does. My wife has fibromyalgia and for those who aren't fimilar,basically,  her body interprets…

Threshold,  that's an interesting word. Threshold basically refers to a point of satuatation,  essentially meaning nothing else can be absorbed. We often hear things like,  she has a very high threshold for pain. I actually say that about my wife because she can she can cope with extremely high levels of pain. I also will frequently refer to thresholds when talking about my three boys with Autism.  Usually I'm implying something in regards to sensory overload. Let me say it this way,  while at Thanksgiving this year,  Gavin hit and exceeded his sensory threshold,  resulting in overstimulation and subsequently, massive meltdowns. As time goes on,  Gavin seems to have and lower and lower threshold for everything.  This puts us in a very precarious position.  We have to significantly reduce the…

I've mentioned quite a few times that Gavin is moving very rapidly.  He doesn't seem to be able to walk,  or use slow and controlled movements.  Part of this is related to the neurological issues,  the fact that he's manic and honestly,  I don't know what else.. I know that it's driving Lizze and I crazy.  This afternoon,  Gavin once again forgot his walking feet.  This time resulting in him slamming his foot into something and sending him into a massive meltdown.  This happened so fast and was so loud,  it sent Emmett and Elliott running away in terror.  They jumped onto the couch and coward behind Lizze. She wrapped them up in a big hug and shielded them from meltdown. I got Gavin settled down and the boys had…

Gavin got a brand new pair of slipper socks from Grandma,  about a week ago.  These are really thick socks. We noticed tonight that he has already destroyed them.  There are at least 2 holes in each sock. I have no idea what to do anymore.  We also found a stash of his missing clothes tonight. I don't know how to deal with this.  Lizze and I informed him today that he will be buying his next batch of socks. Hopefully,  but doubtfully (I think I just made that word up),  he will realize that he needs to take better care of his things.  I don't know of a better way than to make him pay for his next batch of socks.  Maybe that will help to instill a sense…

One of the things that I want to start this holiday season is the building of new traditions. Because of Gavin's very unique and demanding special needs,  we will be forced to avoid all the holiday excitement.  To be completely honest,  this is very distressing for me as seeing family and friends at the holidays is very important for me. However,  I'm trying to turn this into a more positive thing.  I'm going to do this by creating new holiday traditions.  So instead of staying back because of necessity,  we will stay back in order to observe our new traditions. The first one we are going to start is with the donating of old toys to the Domestic Violence Project.  This is a place for women and chdren that are…

The past few years we have been pretty conservative as far as decorations on the Christmas tree are concerned.  The reason is pretty simple.....Emmett. Emmett is endlessly curious and most of our decorations are glass. Also,  Lizze's cat like to climb the tree and play with the glass bulbs.  Many a glass bulb have met their fate at the paws of Cleo.  As far as Emmett concerned,  we don't want him breaking an ornimant and subsequently injuring himself. The other side of the coin is that Gavin gets way to excited and can't seem to settlement down.  So we have opted to keep things more....um...low key. This year however,  the boys decided to take things into their own hands and decorate the tree with their toys. So I've dubbed this…

One of the more difficult tasks I have as a special needs parent is having to treat my kids differently. I hate having to treat one of my different than another.  This is however,  one of those unavoidable things I have to do as a parent to 3 very special little boys. Part of what is so difficult about this inevitable situation when dealing with 3 boys,  in different places of the Autism Spectrum,  is having to exclude someone from something.  Feelings are almost always a causality.   The Lost and Tired family has had to deal with this for many years. Despite those many years of having to do this,  it never gets easier or feels any better.  In fact,  as the kids get older,  they become more aware of…

Have any of you ever experienced intolerance while out in public with your child?  Maybe a clerk in a store or perhaps a fellow customer?  How did you handle it?  I thought it would be interesting to share our stories.  Here's mine.  Last year while hunting for a van,  I was at a car dealership,  actually one of the largest in Ohio.  I was explaining to the salesman my family's situation and what we needed.  He stepped away for a fewinutes to crunch some numbers.  To my left,  there was a couple of sales people watching the news.  One of them,  a woman,  was very opinionated.  The story on the news was about a mother boycotting a restaurant for not allowing her Autistic child to enter the establishment because he…