Autism As A Whole: spectrum disorders

Showing posts with label spectrum disorders. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Snow

Unknown 1/04/2011 0 Comments

We tried doing this activity with him the other day and it ended in a huge melt down. It went wonderful yesterday and he was interacting with his sister.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Every Wednesday over at Jillsy Girl She does a One Word Wednesday, Here she posts a word and you can link up adding a song, post, picture to describe what this word means to you. For me it is a great start for a post and leaves me thinking about it for a day or two. Most people will think of all the fabulous gifts that they could give or receive during this season, but in my home gifts are not of that importance. I mean, my kids love them but I try not to allow them to fall into the commercialized trap of Christmas. There is so much more than that. We used to make cookies and bring them to the Veterans hospital but since my dad passed away, that has been extremely hard for me to do.

I have the gift of children (although sometimes I wonder if this is a gift or a curse). For the moment, as they are sleeping in their beds, and I am drinking a nice hot cup of ~~coughing~~ coffee while hacking my brains out, it is peaceful and quiet and I may think about all the wonderful times I have with my children. I can consider whom I would be without them and like who I am with them. Perfect?? Nope, not even close. But I do what I can do and it isn't easy. It is heart warming though when they give you snuggles and on weekends when they awake and crawl into bed with you. These are the gifts that I receive with open arms.

The gift of children and family

While some may disagree, I feel that Autism was a gift for my family as well. Yes, it causes struggles and can be painful (in many ways), but it has made my family stronger. It has opened our eyes to whole different view. That I am thankful for. Now, I appreciate the smaller, finer details in life. The moments that I feel I had taken advantage of with my older children. The hugs, kisses, long chats.... I love you Mommy's when things are really tough. I look back and notice that at those times I would just say yeah, I love you too but now I find myself engulfed in the moment. Autism has changed my life and it isn't all for the better but it has changed my perspective. My kids are amazing and I have gained so much strength from the struggles and the triumphs.

The gift of acceptance

The gift of friends

The greatest gift I have found this year, and no I am not kissing any butts, is my friends and some family, I have found here and on Facebook. Whether you know it or not, you guys do a lot for me. Commenting on my craziness, acknowledging the difficulties, and filling my mind with funny and enlightening ways to cope. This helps me get through my, sometimes seemingly endless days (and sometimes nights). I have compiled many friends, some who are more like family than my own, that openly have opened their arms to accept my quirky family and I. I thank you all for that. The gifts that I have are right under my nose and really don't take a lot to think about. I just had to redefine society's interpretation of gift as it means so much more to me.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Capturing the Beauty, Life, and Emotion in a Photo

Unknown 12/07/2010 5 Comments

In the world of motherhood, I find that it isn't too often you get to slow down and really be in the moment. A moment happens and before you even get to fully process it another moment is happening. It is kind of like running on a treadmill. You run and run and run and time goes by but when you are done you haven't really gotten to far. Still in the same place but many happenings later. I carry my camera everywhere and I have many shots of my children. I have pictures of them extremely excited, sad, mad, hurt, being brats... LOL... you get the point.

Some look at me and ask why? Why do you take a moment to snap a picture during these times. Well, I want to share a little insight into this. While I can state that my son got his knee stuck in a tree when he was climbing. Can you picture that? It made him very upset, and while we were waiting for help, I snapped a picture. Can you feel his emotions at the time? Thirty years from now I can look at that picture and remember the situation and feel the same feeling that were evoked that day.

Image by Frozen in Time Photographers via Flickr

Or, for instance when my daughter had surgery on her tonsils and adenoids. Can I successfully pull off explaining the look on her face and how she went into the OR with Pee Pas thumb-print on her Mickey so that he would be with her when I could not? I don't think I could throughly describe the emotions in the room or the way she looked at me as they were rolling her away.

Come on, I could tell you that I make some pretty neat cakes for my kids birthdays, but you don't have a visual, right. Is this better? My son and daughter are Irish twins and because I am insane and still chose(notice the past tense), to provide them each with a special cake, I would end up with two extravagant cakes to make and always finishing them while the party was started. This was the last year I did 2 cakes for their birthday. Now, I buy one and make the other. At least until I can find a willing volunteer to help make them. Any takers???

How about the look on your daughter's face when she bites into the juicy strawberry that she picked herself?

Your son's emotional breakdown when you tell him that his tree toad can not come in the house. LOL Yes he cried for like an hour. He really loved that toad and he still talks about him today.

This is a great photo that I really love. This is my son "riding" his trike with his treasured pillowcase in the back. He wasn't pedaling cause he didn't know how yet but it was a great photo to be treasured forever.

There are so many memories to be had throughout their childhood and some you may not be able to recall as clear. Don't feel ashamed to grab your camera when they first fall off their bike, or are in the hospital. Although I forewarn you to check if they are OK first. Catch that memory and savor it. It gets harder as they get older to capture those moments, but it is easier for them to tell the stories to their own children with some visual reminders. Hey, and you have blackmail photos for the boy/girl friends. LOL!!!

They say a photo is worth a thousand words, well, thanks to my obsession I have acquired a lot of words in just typical photographs of my children.I have shared some memories with you, will you share some with me as well? What memories have you captured to have conversations about in the future? Are they all happy or do you capture it all as a whole. This is life, it is real, and everything is not happy happy joy joy. So, live in the moment of a picture that says way more than any blog post I could write. Enjoy!!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Wrong Again

Unknown 11/13/2010

Raising children can be very difficult. You learn something new everyday. Four years ago I had my fourth child. I thought, "OK, how hard can this be I have three others, I can do this." Well, I was so wrong. My son is four years old and I honestly feel as if I am raising an alien on another planet. Let me explain, for the first time in my parenting time I felt completely lost and alone. I gave birth to an amazing little boy. He was 7lb. 12.9 oz. He was perfect in every way as were all my children. However, he lacked connection to me. He did not smile at me and coo. He screamed constantly and I was clueless. After about a year and a half of discussing with the doctors about my son and getting nowhere I started a video diary. This opened the doctor's eyes to what was really going on. I was correct there was a problem.

On Jan. 20th 2010 my son was officially diagnosed with PDD-NOS along with a list of other disorders that he fits into. Life now is about learning how to cope and teaching him how to cope. I cannot even imagine living life lacking the common skills needed to communicate and understand what is going on around you. My son is now verbal but this took 3 years. It actually took almost four years before we could understand what he was saying. His communication skills are still delayed and he is 4 ½ years old. While he can speak and make requests, he fails to do this when he is overwhelmed or injured. He has trouble asking for what he needs and letting me know when he is hurt. Just two weeks ago, Charlie was playing at a park and he jumped 4 feet head first off the playground equipment. Yes, I said he jumped, willingly at that. He cried for 45 minutes, which is very unusual for him. He cut his lip open and his two teeth were bleeding, but I figured he was scared. I put ice on his lip and waited it out, asked him if he hurt anymore he said,” No mommy”. I thought that was the end of it. I was wrong. I tend to say that a lot anymore.

The next day as he was in the tub, I was washing his face to get the face paint from the party off his face and he started flapping his hands screaming,” me no like that me no like that!!” The flapping was normal and I was using a different cloth so I chalked it off as a sensory issue but again, I was wrong. Later that day I noticed that is face near his eye was shiny and swollen. We went to the hospital where they said that he had fractured his nose. Although I know that the hospital staff were only doing their jobs they questioned me about his injuries and the marks that were on my sons neck and arms. I haven’t mentioned that he self-injures. I told them that though. I told them he was autistic, they continued to ask what I felt were stupid questions. It took the doctor pressing on my son’s nose and my son not even flinching for the doctor to realize exactly what was going on. Then he got it, he finally understood. He wrote a note for the school and told me what to watch out for.

There have been many incidents with my son like this and each time they are scary and make me fear for him. One night right before I was going to go to a meeting about children with Autism wandering, I told Charlie we were going to leave in five minutes. I do this often as it gives him transition time. I had never had a problem with him wondering except in the grocery store and him crawling under the register. Well, it got very quiet in the house and I went looking for him. I called his name several times but he did not answer. I was so scared. I was running down the road calling his name and my boyfriend thought to look in the car. Thank god, he was sitting in the car all buckled and ready to go. I have heard about these types of children to wander off but geez..... I had prayed that he did not ever wander off but now I see firsthand and now I know that, I must do something to prevent it from ever happening again.

I hope that you will feel free to share your moments and comment on mine as well. There will be scary moments and wonderful joyous moments but it is wonderful to be able to share them with all of my readers.

Related Articles and Blogs:
Facing Autism in New Brunswick: Autism's Wandering Children

Joy's Autism blog

Teaching Police to deal with Wandering

Saturday, November 6, 2010

November 5, 2010

Unknown 11/06/2010 0 Comments

A clickable map of Australia's states and main...

Image via Wikipedia

Today started as as any other, hustling to get the kids ready to catch their bus, preventing melt downs with Charlie, helping him get dressed and ensuring that my twelve year old is wearing clean clothes and brushed her hair. I don't know if this is just a typical phase but I thought girls were very aware of hygiene. I guess I thought wrong. LOL.... My afternoon was calm being there was no one here, but all the craziness returned as my son and daughter came home. I decided since I was in a lazy mood that I was going to wait for them to come home and then go shopping. What was I thinking? We went to the first store and Charlie had to pick up some items for his pen pal in Australia. I know that might seem odd being he can't write but his mom and I have been doing online diary's of autistic children and the children seem to really enjoy the interaction. My son has even made up songs about his friend Jake. He picked out some really nice things and it was really uneventful until.... I heard my son shrieking at the top of his lungs. Can you imagine? This was a small store and as I approached my son from behind there were other people gawking at Charlie and I. What was the issue? He didn't see me and freaked out. I calmed him actually pretty quick and we were looking for a present for Krystal's birthday when he saw something he wanted. You would assume it would be a toy of some form and I guess it was, for a dog!!! He found a "Comfy" unstuffed fox with squeakies that he doesn't like in it's head and tail. The thing cost ten dollars and I have no idea why I bought it. But he loves it. Then came the real feat of my evening, we had to pick up Jocelyn and Jacob, then food shopping. This was seriously a backwards day. Everything I procrastinated to do all day now had to be done with four children and an overwhelmed mother.
Off to the grocery store which I must say was the worst decision all evening. I now had four overexcited children with one of them having severe sensory overload. Throughout the shopping trip though I must say that I only acquired and 500 weird looks because my youngest decided it was necessary to lick the doors of the Pepsi dispenser while my six year old was climbing on the hood of the nice car themed grocery carts. We did survive the shopping trip although I probably resembled someone whom had just stuck their finger into an outlet cause my children really ran me crazy. The cashier just looked at me and said,"Do you need someone to help you to your car?" I replied, "I need a lot of help but I don't think it is in your job description." She said this all normal and it will get better. If she only knew the whole story. As we were loading the cart my son decided he was needing to crawl underneath the benches, I thought at least I know where he is. Suddenly he bolted for the door, I bolted too and picked him up kicking me the whole time and grabbed the cart and my children and left the store. I guess it could have been worse. I mean I have had worse shopping trips and those only included the twelve and four year old. We made it home and had pizza for dinner, mind you I don't do red sauce, and in all the chaos I accidently put my pizza back. So I made dinner for them popped a movie on and let them all slumber on the floor. Boy, you ever notice how innocent and angelic they look when they are sleeping? After such a hectic day Mommy was ready for sleep to, but first I had to take some pictures.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

November 4, 2010 - Alien Abduction??

Unknown 11/04/2010 0 Comments

Today started out as a little hectic. Charlie was NOT motivated and I can't say I blame him as who is motivated at 7 am? He didn't want to get dressed and so I had to try and dress a child that was ever so resistant. After he got dressed he watched his morning show and ate breakfast. We missed the bus and today I am really not sure how so I drove him to school and dropped him off. Then I tried to visit the school he might be going to in the Fall but they have to schedule an appointment for a tour. I am nervous about next year and it is extremely important for him to be placed in the right school in order for him to obtain the proper teaching so he can learn. This is such a struggle and it rubs off on every other aspect of my life. Being under the stress has made me exhausted and he has been really over stimulated. It has also been so hard on my daughter and I am not even sure that she knows that I understand. I do understand, sometimes I just can't relate as I am so adjusted to it. Well, I have to share the rest of my day because I really think my son was abducted by aliens!! Seriously, I sent him to school and he was having a rough time but when he came home, he was a completely different child. One very small melt and then he was fine. He went shopping with Krystal and I which was a little rough but that was typical. Helped me through the register and Krystal did all the bagging. She is such a sweetheart. I can't believe that in four days she will be 12 years old. Wow... feels like just yesterday!! He got this slimy stuff that makes weird noises and it occupied him all night. I am pretty certain that the aliens will return my son soon, probably tomorrow, but I have to thank them for giving me some time to re-energize and gain the strength to endure it all again for another unknown period of time until they come and take him again. LOL