Unboxing and Review of U-Lace No-Tie-Shoelaces

It's not very often that I become aware of a product or service that I absolutely love. In the past, it's really only been Vivint Home and Project Lifesaver. Having said that, I was recently introduced to a company called U-Lace. They may sound familiar and that's because you probably saw them on Shark Tank. As for myself, I missed that episode and so I'm learning about them now. Before I get into my brief review, I want to show you the unboxing video for U-Lace, so you can see for yourself what they're all about. :-) https://youtu.be/vfbX5UnGvSw As the above video demonstrated, U-Lace helps people gain independence by transforming tie shoes into slip-ons. This can be of enormous benefit to people with Autism, fine motor issues, arthritis or even cognitive…

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It was amazing

The family and I did something spontaneous last night. I spoke about the initial fallout from me trying to surprise the boys with tickets to see the new Justice League movie. We actually ended up going and I'm pleased to share that Emmett is just in awe of the movie. His exact words were, "it was amazing". Gavin loved it and Elliott enjoyed himself as well. I loved it and can't wait for the rest to come out. Lizze really enjoyed it for the most part but fell asleep towards the end. We had a great evening as a family and while we got off to a rough start, everyone had a good time. That means a great deal to me. ☺ In a couple of the pictures, you can…

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An #Autism parent for almost 17 years and I’m still learning

After a few bumps in the road, the boys are in a pretty good place. Things got a bit out of hand when I tried to surprise the boys with going to a movie tonight. I thought it was going to be something everyone would be excited about but I wasn't even kinda right. I'm about 17 years into this journey and I'm still learning new things everyday. As soon as I told Emmett that we were going to go see the new Justice League movie, he freaked out, and not in a good way. Elliott wasn't too excited either but he didn't have the extreme reaction Emmett did. It hadn't occurred to be that Emmett might not do well with being surprised. I was caught up in trying to…

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I’m so excited about this Thanksgiving

It's been a stressful week and I'm content knowing it's soon coming to a close. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I'm really, really looking forward to it. I'm excited for a couple of reasons. The biggest is that it's going to be really small. At this point in time, it's going to be us, my parents and my Grandmother. It's going to be hosted by my parents and as soon as they tell us what we can bring, we'll be contributing to the cause. ☺ What's so nice about this is that in a small group like this, not only do we get to visit more, but the kids tend to do much better as well. The boys have never done super well with large crowds of people.…

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It could always be worse. At least that’s what I tell myself.

Last night was Hell on Earth but it could have been worse. A couple hours after putting Emmett and Elliott to bed for the night, Emmett woke up with can only be described as restless legs. He was beside himself because his legs were driving him crazy. If you've ever dealt with restless legs before, it's horrible. My Mom deals with restless leg syndrome, as does Lizze. On occasion, I've experienced it myself and I swear to God that when you're dealing with this are 2 AM, cutting your legs off seems like a viable option. Emmett's never had this happen before and we tried all the tricks we know about to help him, but nothing worked. We tried massage, weighted blankets, warm water, walking around, tensing/relaxing his leg muscles,…

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1 rule we have for starting our kids on a new medication

When it comes to either beginning new or making significant changes to a medication in regards to our kids, there's always one rule that we follow whenever it's possible. My wife and I never like to make changes to medications during the school week. There are some times when it doesn't matter or it's medically necessary to begin a medication during the week, but for the most part we like to wait. The reason for this is very simple. We take medicating our kids very seriously and when it's deemed necessary to put one of our kids on a medication, we want to insure that they don't experience any side effects. In order to do that, we need to monitor them closely for changes. Again, I'm talking about medications that…

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I totally forgot to tell you

I was so completely overwhelmed by the doctors appointment this afternoon that I forgot to mention what happened with Elliott's bloodwork. I gotta be honest, Lizze and I both were exhausted after the appointment. The boys were such a handful and like the Energizer Bunny, they kept going and going. Anyway, as far as Elliott's bloodwork went, it didn't. While we are making some progress because he's now able to talk about it without freaking out, he still wasn't ready to go today. We've talked it over with his doctor and while they'd like him to just get it done, the understand and agree with our approach. We're looking longterm on this and not just a fix for this one time. I'm hoping that the Prozac will help him relax…

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We don’t medicate our kids all willy-nilly

Today worked out pretty well, at least better than expected. Gavin goes to my parents every Wednesday and spends a few hours hanging out. This gives Lizze and I a reprieve from all the talking. Something had come up for today and he wasn't going to be able to go but last night, my Mom sent a text that we were still on. I knew Gavin would be excited because all week, he's been talking about how Grandma has to go out of town and he won't be able to go on Wednesday. My Mom picked Gavin up and Lizze and I took the boys to their doctors appointment. Not having to drag Gavin along, made it much easier and worked out well considering how challenging the boys ended up…

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