I was reflecting the other day on all I have learned from my children as a special needs father over the years.   My Autistic children have taught me: 1) True, complete unconditional love exists. 2) How to be patient in the most challenging and frustrating of situations. 3) To ALWAYS keep trying and NEVER give up. 4) I should ALWAYS appreciate the "little" things. 5) NEVER take ANYTHING for granted. 6) To be a better person and more "in tune" with my surroundings. 7) How truly meaningful a hug or kiss can be. 8 ) How to overcome seemingly, insurmountable odds. 9) ALWAYS stand up for what is right, even if I'm the only one. 10) NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER.  

So I have mentioned before how much pride Emmett takes in his clothes, in particular, his shirts. So I thought I would try to do "Shirt of the day" post with a picture of Emmett's shirt. I say "try" because Emmett won't always wear a shirt but he loves posing for the camera. Maybe this will encourage him to wear clothes more often. Anyway, this is Emmett's shirt of the day for Tuesday, June 28th, 2011. It features Monsters vs Aliens, the movie.  

When your child or children are dx with ASD it can become a scheduling nightmare. We are experiencing one of those weeks. With the van acting up and gas VERY limited for us until payday we have to make some tough choices. We have about 6 appointments with week at ACH (Akron Children's Hospital) between the genetics department, Gastrointestinal and Allergist. Let's not forget all the local therapies this week as well. We will be rescheduling some of these trips because of the van and simply the lack of fuel. Some of these are just follow ups and not a big deal like the generics department. Some are important like the Gastrointestinal and the Allergist, so they will have to stay. This is just a particularly difficult week but we…

First Gavin and now Elliott and Emmett are both awake. Elliott had a nightmare and Emmett isn't feeling good after today. It's about 1am and Elliott is back to sleep and in bed and so is Emmett. Hopefully they will both sleep through the night. - Lost and Tired Please Vote for Lost and Tired (just click the link) and help me spread Autism Awareness. Everyone can Vote once a day :)

Gavin is still awake at 11pm. He's awake because he is obsessively thinking about playing Elliott's DSi. This has been a long standing issue with Gavin and the reason we have limited his time with video games. Gavin can never just really be "into" something. He obsessed over it, whether it's lego's, video games or those little annoying hamsters (Kung Zub pets). He can't seem to find a nice little balance between liking something and becoming obsessed with it. It's s going to be a looooooooolong night. - Lost and Tired Please Vote for Lost and Tired (just click the link) and help me spread Autism Awareness. Everyone can Vote once a day :)

So Emmett has this thing with going potty. Sure he is potty trained but we still have a few things to work on. You see, Emmett can't go potty until he has completely disrobed. The funny part is that today while at the doctors he had to go potty 3 times and each time was the same routine. At least 2 times were false alarms.  Baby steps....... - Lost and Tired Please Vote for Lost and Tired (just click the link) and help me spread Autism Awareness. Everyone can Vote once a day :)

Lately Elliott has really been into fruit. So we are embracing that trend and allowing him to eat as much as he wants.......within reason of course. We have all but eliminated junk food and replaced it with apples, grapes and bananas. Veggies are still a problem but I feel this is at least a step in the right direction. I buy bananas by the pound, every few days and the kids, especially Elliott, are just inhaling them. They are eating dark red grapes and strawberries whenever they want a snack. We have even been freezing the grapes and the kids love eating those now. So I feel like we are making progress even if we still have a ways to go.  

Today Emmett was due for 3 vaccines, MMR, Hep A and something else...can't remember. While I'm pro-vaccines I still like to talk to the doctor about them before they are given go our boys. I was introduced to a family that had a child seriously injured by the MMR. It's a real life situation and while I still don't think vaccines are linked to Autism I do know that some kids are seriously injured. These are well documented cases and my heart goes out to these families. Elliott was hospitalized after the MMR and so I have concerns about Emmett. Dr. H discussed those concerns and collectively we decided to split everything up. He received the other 2 vaccines today and the MMR as well as Elliott's chicken pox booster…