Read more about the article Stir crazy, frustrated, and overwhelmed describes the day
Autism Parenting Struggles / My thoughts

Stir crazy, frustrated, and overwhelmed describes the day

It's the day before payday and we need to get a lot of things done tomorrow. The boys are going stir crazy because we don't have much gas to really go anywhere until tomorrow. I think what we're going to do is get everyone to the park and let them explore the creek. Elliott wants to find and study some salamanders, before releasing them back into the wide. He's getting into taking pictures and would like to get some shots to share on his private Facebook page. Lizze is frustrated with a project she's working on for class, and Gavin is driving everyone bonkers with his incessant questions. I've been working for most of the day. I'm creating new revenue streams, and I'm building new relationships with some awesome companies.…

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June 29, 2017
Read more about the article Some creative ways of meeting my kids sensory needs
Some creative ways of meeting my kids sensory needs
Emmett John / My thoughts / Photography / Sensory

Some creative ways of meeting my kids sensory needs

  I'm trying to find some creative ways to help meet my kids' many sensory needs. The idea is to find constructive ways to getting a sensory fix, without destroying our house. lol In the picture above, Emmett is running this rock wall, like it's an obstacle course. He loves it, and it seems to help him get what he needs. Unfortunately, he wants to continue increasing the difficulty level. The challenge for me is finding ways to do that without making things too dangerous. For now, this is working and it will buy me a little time... :-)

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June 4, 2017
Read more about the article I’m sick for a few days and it all goes to hell
My thoughts

I’m sick for a few days and it all goes to hell

First things first. The boys had a great day at school and received a big surprise when they got home, in the form of my Dad taking  all three of them to dinner. ☺ I mentioned in the title about things going to hell. That's in reference to this blog. While I was sick, I didn't access the site for almost three days. When I tried getting back on track today, it's honestly like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. There were all kinds of issues that began popping up and I spent most of the day trying to figure it out. It wasn't a security type issue but rather code corruption somewhere and I couldn't track it down. Long story short, it's all fixed and ended up being…

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March 21, 2017
Read more about the article It’s the not knowing that kills me as a parent
Gavin / My thoughts

It’s the not knowing that kills me as a parent

It's becoming clear that Gavin's struggling more and more. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if this is another leg of his journey with Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, the result of changes to his medications or just par for the course. His level of functionality is decreasing and doing so in weird areas. Things like self-awareness are slipping. There's never been a great deal of that to begin with, so this change is noticeable. What do I mean by self-awareness? Gavin had an ice cream sandwich this afternoon. About three hours later, I took the boys to the park to hunt Pokémon for short while before picking up their pizza for school tomorrow. I wasn't paying attention to Gavin's face, like I usually do before we leave and I was caught…

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March 20, 2017
Read more about the article The Autism Dad blog made #4 on the list of top 50 #Autism Blogs
Awards

The Autism Dad blog made #4 on the list of top 50 #Autism Blogs

I wanted to take a minute to thank Feedspot for an amazing honor. They've indexed thousands of Autism related blogs and pulled to top 50 for their list. I've been selected and placed in the #4 spot. This is pretty amazing for me and I know I'm in excellent company. Below is the quote from Feedspot on how they ranked everyone. Thank you Feedspot for this honor. :-)      The Best Autism blogs from thousands of top Autism blogs in our index using search and social metrics. Data will be refreshed once a week. These blogs are ranked based on following criteria Google reputation and Google search ranking Influence and popularity on Facebook, twitter, and other social media sites Quality and consistency of posts. Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review  …

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February 3, 2017
Read more about the article Some Good Gavin News
Gavin / My thoughts

Some Good Gavin News

I wanted to share a snippet of good news. Yesterday I mentioned that Gavin was having bladder issues once again. He was frustrated by this and understandably so. My concern was that we were going to see this becoming a trend and that wouldn't be a good thing. Thankfully, today seems to be a better day for him. He hasn't said anything about having to constantly go to the bathroom. My hope is that yesterday was just a fluke and things will continue to remain stable in this particular area of his life. Gavin certainly has enough on his plate, and if we can keep even one thing from piling back on, that's a very positive thing.      

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January 16, 2017