Read more about the article Grocery shopping with my dudes and learning life skills
Gallery / Life Lessons / Link / My thoughts / Unboxing / YouTube Video

Grocery shopping with my dudes and learning life skills

I meant to share this the other day but like many other things in my life, it's fallen through the cracks. The other say, I took the boys to the grocery store, along with our recycled bags. I picked them up after school and went straight to Giant Eagle. Taking kids with Autism anywhere can prove to be very challenging. Taking two of them is challenging.. lol One of the reasons I like to bring them along, is because I want them to be a part of what we bring into the house. Feeding them is becoming increasingly more difficult and my hope is that by helping me pick out the food, they'll be more likely to eat it. They actually did well on this trip. They didn't fight too much…

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November 9, 2017
Read more about the article Unboxing the Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II Noise Canceling Wireless Headphones
My Projects / My thoughts / Unboxing / YouTube Video

Unboxing the Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II Noise Canceling Wireless Headphones

Big thanks goes out to Bose for sponsoring this unboxing video and helping me generate some attention for Autism as well as for organizations that do good work within the community. Today's featured organization is Wishes Can Happen. They can be found here. Wishes Can Happen grants wishes for kids with terminal or life threatening health conditions. They do amazing work and don't get nearly the attention they deserve. The Quiet Comfort 35 II by Bose are amazing headphones in their own right. The quality is spectacular and the sound is second to none. What really sets them apart in the Autism world is their Noise Canceling technology. For kids who are easily overwhelmed by noise, this is a must have. They're expensive but the impact they can have on…

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November 9, 2017
Read more about the article Parents play a huge role in their children’s education
Autism Parenting Advice / My thoughts / School

Parents play a huge role in their children’s education

Lizze and I have teacher conferences scheduled for tonight. Unfortunately, we have some concerns about Elliott's teachers and want to hear their side of things. Elliott has been struggling with his math makeup work and according to him, he's asked for help a few times this week but his teacher won't help him. This isn't our first rodeo so we don't assume that Elliott's accurately perceiving what's taking place inside the classroom. At the same time we aren't assuming that Elliott's wrong either. We know enough to know that teachers aren't perfect and that things happen that we wouldn't think would happen. I've not known Elliott's teachers before this school year and so I have no history with them. They're newer and it's always a good idea to make every…

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November 9, 2017
Read more about the article I’ve been sick
My thoughts

I’ve been sick

For starters, I've been sick since last night. I'm not sick sick but rather I ate something that made me feel like I was going to die. Lizze was kind enough to take over so I could sleep for most of the day. I'm not feeling 100% but I was able to pick the kids up for school and manage the rest of the day. The boys have had a pretty decent day and I'm so proud of them for doing so well today. I'm also really happy to say that Gavin's doing better. He's been feeling so much better than he has been the last few nights. I promise I'll write more tomorrow and get you all caught up of everything that's going on. I need a chance to…

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November 8, 2017
Read more about the article #Autism Parents: Too often we forget to do this
My thoughts / Unsolicited Advice

#Autism Parents: Too often we forget to do this

This falls into the category of unsolicited advice and I don't usually like to provide that but this is too important not to. Yesterday was absolutely Hellacious. Lizze and I are really feeling the stress and there isn't any fix to it. Being an Autism parent pretty much guarantees that your life is going to be more challenging than most. It honestly doesn't take long before life begins to take its toll. Something I've learned along the way is that no matter how bad things get, never neglect what matters most. In my case, the kids are never neglected but there are two members of our family who sometimes are. Always, always make your marriage a priority (assuming you're married). Lizze and I sometimes get lost in our lives and…

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November 8, 2017
Read more about the article My heart breaks for Gavin tonight
Autonomic Disorder / Gavin / My thoughts

My heart breaks for Gavin tonight

For the second night in a row, Gavin is going to bed sick to his stomach. I'm not sure what's going on but it was so bad that he went to bed before 6:00 PM. I don't think he's actually sick sick but it might be autonomic in nature. These could be mini to moderate crises. They aren't anything that will send him to the hospital but it's enough to knock him off his feet. When these things come around, the absolute best thing he can do is go to sleep. Going to sleep helps his body to stabilize and when he wakes up, he's usually better. We haven't seen anything like this in awhile and I could totally be wrong but the symptoms do fit. If he were to…

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November 7, 2017
Read more about the article We survived the day and have the pictures to prove it
Gallery / My thoughts

We survived the day and have the pictures to prove it

Today's appointments have me completely and utterly exhausted. Everything is okay with the kids and it does appear that Elliott is dealing with a fever disorder, pending some extensive labs. I'll fill you in on the details but while everything turned out okay, but the there were some problems. For now, here are some pictures from our day.. [foogallery id="67370"]

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November 6, 2017
Read more about the article Focusing on the positive
My thoughts

Focusing on the positive

Gavin's appointment with Dr. Reynolds went as good as it really could have. He's doing about the same and so there aren't any changes at this point. We're going to monitor his labs once a week from this point forward and try and keep everything the same until we get into Hematology. I don't know. Perhaps this is part of what's eating me alive? I'm so worried about Gavin and it's exhausting. I need to cope a little better because things aren't likely to get better, The reality is that things will only get worse as time goes by. I have to be able to deal with this in a healthier way. For right now, I'm focusing on the fact that Gavin is doing okay. I'm grateful for that and…

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November 6, 2017