So I've found a new subject for my amateur photography hobby. Right now I'm loving taking pictures of Ruby. For one thing, she's adorable and the other is she's super cooperative. 
The ferrets are impossible to photograph clearly because they never stay still. I need a way better camera to capture them. Perhaps someday... Anyway, I took this one of Ruby while she was napping on my lap this afternoon.
Gavin will be turning eighteen years of age on January 18th. Unfortunately, he's unable to survive on his own and is also unable to make his own decisions, at least not without major help. His cognitive ability is continually declining and we have no choice but to seek permanent guardianship over him. We've never been through this process before but have acquired the paperwork and have the appointment with his psychiatrist to fill it out. I hate the idea of having to do this but it's unquestionably in Gavin's best interest. My goal is to share this new journey and help provide insight into this process. It's important to understand that not all kids with Autism will need something like this when they turn eighteen. Gavin is severely cognitively impaired…
I weighed myself today and I'm down two pounds. It's important to understand that whole this is a good thing, I actually gained over the holidays. I actually hit 333 lbs over Christmas. I'm not entirely sure what happened but part of that was poor choices and the minor surgery I had in my back right before the holidays. Anyway, I've been watching what I eat, when I eat it and I'm trying to be more active. As a result, I'm once again moving in the right direction and I feel good. I'm fucking sore from working out but I feel good. The one thing I'm really trying to focus on has to do with eating late at night. It's usually stress related and hard to resist but I'm really…
We all have our good days and our bad days. Yesterday was a blend of both good and bad but there were also some bright spots as well. I wanted to highlight a couple of these bright spots because they made me smile. First up is courtesy of Mr. Gavin. His new IVIG infusion pump finally showed up and he was able to use it for the first time tonight. He was excited and it was a pretty good infusion.. Gavin killed me with his super serious face but whatever... He's happy and that makes me happy. The final bright spot took place much later and was signed, sealed and delivered by Mr. Emmett. I mentioned in the previous post that Emmett wasn't feeling well last night. He…
There's something that is often overlooked when it comes to Emmett. He's incredibly intelligent and I mean scary smart. Academically he's way ahead of where he should be and just keeps going. This is something we feel blessed to be able to witness but there is a downside. Emmett is so smart and so articulate that it's incredibly easy to forget that he has a very, very difficult time with expressive language. Majority of the time, he's unable to tell us anything about how he's feeling or what's upsetting him. Tonight is a perfect example of this. Lizze and I are catching up on some shows we recorded and out of nowhere, Emmett appears. We can see he's in distress but the only thing he can say is I don't…
I'm working in getting my fitness goals back on track. The holidays were rough and so were the first couple of weeks of withdrawaling from Paxil. As I'm feeling better, I'm trying to make a consistent effort to get things back on track. There are a few key areas I need to focus on: Improved sleep (both duration and quality) Increasing my activity level Further fine tuning a more healthy diet Strength training As far as sleep is concerned, there's only so much I can do at this point in time. Most Autism parents struggle with sleep as well and there isn't always anything that can be done. Having said that, I want to make the best out of the hours I do get and make them as beneficial as…
Our first day of our four day weekend is off to a decent start. After this morning's meltdowns, things got better. The boys have been playing together without much problem and I love seeing that. Any plans for going anywhere or doing anything are shutdown because of the weather. We are currently in an ice storm and everything is covered. This will be followed up with a massive snow storm that is supposed to drop up to twelve inches on us today and tonight. I'm having the kids charge all their batteries so they can charge their tablets if the power goes out. We have food and water to last at least a few days, not that things will get that bad. I also realized that I'm going to have…
It was rougher night last night because Emmett woke up about 2 AM and was unable to go back to sleep. If at all possible, I don't like to go to sleep while one or more of the kids are awake, especially in the middle of the night. I've been known to grab a nap on the couch while the kids are watching a movie or something but I'm right there in case anything happens. I assume that Emmett had a nightmare again but he doesn't like to talk about it and if I ask, he gets upset. Generally speaking, nightmares will wake him up and make it difficult for him to go back to sleep. He and I ended up sleeping in the living room last night. It took…