I find it amazing the way the mind works. It's fascinating how your brain makes certain connections that forever link the way you view things. Like how a song can instantly take you back to your senior year in high school. Or how the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies can transport you home and into your mother's kitchen. I used to make decorative lamps and sell them. One crafting season, I was making a bunch of coffee themed lamps ...
Autism Adventures
Stripping is NOT a Subject Taught in Public School
Boring is definitely not a word that comes up when thinking about my children. How could it with Bubba in the house? School is back up and running and my kids went back after homeschooling the last 3 years. I knew going into this that Bubba was going to have a longer and more challenging adjustment period than "typical" kids. (Duh, the kid has Autism. When are things ever easier?) So I was quite excited about him having a great first day of ...
Confirmed Bachelor
Here is a conversation that occurred on Friday between Sassy and Bubba:Sassy: "Bubba, why don't you like girls?"Bubba: "Because they like romance."Sassy: "Why don't you like romance?"Bubba: "What...kissing? Love? Yuck!"Sassy: "And you don't like kissing?"Bubba: "No! It makes me think of girls!"Hmmm...I'm getting the feeling that he has something against girls. I wonder if he knows that I pray God will find him a wife... ...
Autism Awareness
Today is World Autism Awareness Day and April is Autism Awareness Month. It was just a coincidence that last night I watched a movie called "Adam", about a woman who starts to fall for a man who has Asperger's. It came from Netflix and it's been sitting here for more than a week but I finally watched it last night.Take my advice and watch this movie. It's just beautiful. Hugh Dancy plays Adam and he does a wonderful job. Rose Byrne is Beth, the ...
World Autism Day
Today is World Autism Day. In honor of this day and of my Bubba who was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism at the age of 23 months, I wanted to share some stats about Autism. If your life has not been touched directly by Autism, you probably know someone who has. Please take a moment to read over this. Feel free to share it with anyone who may benefit. Autism is a neurobiological disorder for which there is no known cause, prevention or ...
Lost and Found
All year long my children have been looking forward to a special event--the Lego Convention (yes, there really is such a thing). Howdy is fanatical about Legos and the other 2 just think they're fun but we all enjoy going. It's held in Seattle and people come from all over the country to show off their Lego sculptures. They have a Space Needle that is taller than me, an Eiffel Tower, a 10+ foot Titanic. It's fun to see what they can come up ...
Smashed Potatoes
One of the things that you typically encounter with sensory issues is eating problems. Certain foods have too strong a smell or don't look right or the texture is not tolerable. For whatever the particular issue, you have a whole new set of hoops to jump through just so that your child will thrive.As I have readily admitted, I am quite possibly the world's pickiest adult. (MC's not too far behind me.) And as much as I have fun with the fact that ...
Long Overdue
How do you explain to your 8-yr old son that he has Autism? How do you explain to his siblings that you can't always treat their brother the same way, that things aren't always fair for them? This has been my recent dilemma. My children all know that Bubba is different. I've explained to them several times that his brain works differently than other people's and that's why he does some of the things that he does, like throwing fits and not ...
Living With Autism
It's already been an interesting morning. The kids started out this morning watching cartoons. The last show they watched ended with the bad guys getting away with some crystal while the good guys let them go. This was apparently more than Bubba could handle. He's my Autistic one. He was so upset by this. He actually started to cry because now the bad guys were going to rule the world. Yes, he understands that it's just a show and not real. But ...