My thoughts

#Autism Parenting: What’s the point of getting a break? 

The boys are on their way home, while Lizze and I are just starting our day. We have lots of sleep under our belt and are feeling pretty good right now.  I've no idea what the boys are going to be like when they return but I feel like we're in a much better place to handle whatever comes our way. That's sorta the whole point of a break for us.  It's not really about getting ahead. It's about gathering the strength and courage to keep fighting the good fight. 

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December 18, 2016
Elliott / General Update

A long overdue update on Elliott

It's been a really long time since I've updated on how Elliott's doing, outside of the shit that was going on with the bully at school.  There's actually quite a bit to bring you up to speed on. There's lots of good news but also some struggles as well. With Elliott, things are kind of a mixed bag right now.  For starters, the bully situation seems to be completely resolved at this point and Elliott's attitude about it has changed for the better. He no longer feels like a victim and that's huge.  He's also doing better with the after school program. Both he and Emmett go on Thursday's only and that seems to be the compromise that works best. Continued on next page Lastly, as far as good news…

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December 18, 2016
Discussions

Does your child with #Autism still believe in Santa Claus? 

We all know that Santa Claus is a huge part of celebrating Christmas and believing in him is part of the magic. There are many things that can impact the way our kids with Autism perceive the world and that got me thinking.  I'm wondering if your child with Autism still believes in the magic of Santa Claus?  Our three boys on the Autism Spectrum are hardcore believers, especially our oldest who's almost 17 years old. The other day, Gavin had made a mistake and broke something on accident. He was so upset and there wasn't anything we could say to him that made him feel better.   Once he settled down, he explained that he was afraid Santa was watching and wouldn't bring him any presents because he broke…

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December 18, 2016
Discussions

I wish we had the energy to do more. Can anyone relate to this story? 

Lizze and I have had a large part of the day to ourselves.  The boys are at her parents house and won't be home until Sunday afternoon. We spent the afternoon relaxing before running some errands and having a nice quiet dinner at home.  I want to get to a point where we have the energy to actually do something fun when the boys aren't home.  When the boys leave, Lizze and I tend to go to sleep because we're so exhausted. While we desperately need the rest, I also feel like we're missing out on things because we're so tired.  Anyone out there able to relate?

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December 18, 2016
Emmett John / My thoughts

My son with #Autism needs everything to match. Does yours? 

I woke up to the boys fighting this morning. Emmett was freaking out because he needs everything in his life to match and when it doesn't, he panics and melts down.  This mornings disaster was caused because Elliott had been playing the Xbox for about an hour, while Emmett had only played for about half that amount of time. That was simply the way it worked out.  Emmett began to get really upset because the times didn't match. He wanted to play the exact number of minutes needed to match Elliott's time but that wasn't possible at the time. This led to a pretty shitty start to the day a massive meltdown.   All of Emmett's life, he's had to have things match. Christmas presents, pizza slices, how much drink…

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December 17, 2016
Gavin / My thoughts

Gavin continues to regress and it’s horrible to witness 

This will be a good news - bad news entry but I'll begin with the good news.☺  The good news is that since Gavin's peeing blood situation earlier in the week, there hasn't been anymore instances of this happening again. Assuming it happened in the first place, perhaps it was a one off kinda thing and we won't see this again.  That's really the end of the good news for now but you have to admit, not peeing blood anymore is definitely a good thing.   Unfortunately, the rest of what I have to share is of a sad and even heartbreaking nature. 🙁  Gavin's been very mission oriented lately and that means he's continuing to lose touch with reality. Almost every morning this week, Gavin has rushed off to…

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December 17, 2016
Bad News / My thoughts

We received some bad news

I really like to focus on the positive side of things but sometimes, life just sucks. No matter how it's painted or candy coated, there's no escaping the gravitational pull of this dense ball of negative shit. If I don't talk about this stuff then you don't have a true image of what our lives are like or the challenges we face while we're going through everything else. With that in mind, I'll share the shitty day I've had.  There were quite a few littler things that hit us today but the single biggest thing is that we lost the dispute with our bank over the $500+ in unauthorized transactions. It was two transactions and they found that no error was made. We've appealed but it's gonna take another two…

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December 17, 2016
Read more about the article Having some upgrades to our @VivintHome system today
My thoughts / Vivint Gives Back

Having some upgrades to our @VivintHome system today

I'm pretty excited because we're having so equipment upgrades to our Vivint Smarthome. My house gets automatic upgrades when updated equipment comes out so I can both test, review and then share my experience. Today, we're being upgraded to the Nest thermostat and Amazon Echo integration. The boys are excited about the Echo and I'm excited about both. Once I've had a chance to play with these upgrades, I'll share some pictures and thoughts. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge deal but I'm really proud of this partnership and since I love tech, it's something I really look forward to. ☺

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December 16, 2016