Dogs as Therapy

So Wesley's therpaist has suggested that we get him a dog to use a therapy. He will be his best freind, and Wesley will be able to confide in her and tell her things that he doesn't want to tell us. She is also there to calm him down in a meltdown, and help him rela. Also she said that she will be a good distraction to him when he is trying to meltdown. Instead of getting upset he can do something for her, or play with her. I thought it sounded like a good idea, so we added a member to our family. A cute little black lab girl. Her picture is posted at the bottom of the blog!

One smart boy!

Okay, I leaned something form my 6 year old this morning. He watches a show on PBS called Sid the science Kid. This show talks about science, which is something that Wesley loves! So he told me that he learned that if you make banana bread then you can not make it back into bananas and that is called irreversible change, but that you can make water into ice, and ice into what and so on, and this is called reversible change. What 6 year old knows about that stuff? I have such a smart boy!

Hello everyone,
So today I was productive. I made homemade potato soup in the crock pot, and even made some homemade Irish soda bread to go with it. Thank goodness I decided to that earlier, cause the kids are going crazy right now, and there is no way I would get any cooking done. I have been doing a lot of research for my college comp paper about autism, and am finding some great information. I will share some of it with you all in a later post. Things have defiantly been better the last few days than they have been in the past. Nothing outrageous to report today but that may change by tomorrow! Have a great night everyone!

What does autism look like?

Does autism have a look? I was in the store the other day with Wesley, and he had a bit of a tantrum because I wouldn't let him buys something that he wanted. I had a man stare at me and give me a dirty look, so just like I often do, I said to him "He is autistic." Then the man says "He doesn't look autistic." If I had not been busy trying to control the meltdown, I would have asked it what exactly autism looks like, because I didn't know that it had a "look".
We have a had a rough last couple of days, but we have also had some good times in between. Wesley has been attending summer school and enjoys the fact that he gets to eat both breakfast and lunch at school, it is the bees knees to him, and of course Damien is enjoying his mommy time again without "bubba". This is just the norm around here. Lots of time spent in time out, but still lots of fun, dancing and laughing. we cuddle, tickle, and tease just like normal families, we just have to watch that we don't overstimulate them, or else the melt downs will be bad. I hope that everyone is having a great summer, and that they are enjoying their time with their families. Have a good night!

Listen to Brandis Playlist

Okay, Today is one of those bad days that you hear about autistic children having. This past weekend out family was involved with the relay for Life in our county. We spent all day there on Saturday which was a lot of over stimulation for the boys. Apparently last nights sleep was not enough for the to recover, because ever since they woke up they have both been very touchy and moody. This morning, I needed some things from the store, and Wesley wanted to come with me,so I took him with eon the condition that he would behave himself. Yeah right! We started getting things into our cart, and then he started to act up. So I simply left the card where it was and picked up and half carried, half dragged him out f the store, but let me tell you, the kid is 62 pounds. So it basically took me a good 15 minutes to get him outside. Meanwhile he is screaming and flailing his arms and legs. I am used to this, because it happens a lot. What I am still not used to is the staring people. They stare at us and shake their heads at me. They make rude comments about Some parents! This is the part that I don;t think that I will ever get used to. For the people who just suit there and stare I will say"He is autistic, any questions?" Then they will stop, or make another comment. Some will even apologize. Sometimes, I wish that I could just put some kind of sign on him that says"I'm autistic" so that when things like this happen, people will just know. But would that really solve things? Or will people still think that this is all just my fault, and bad parenting?

Okay here it goes. For those of you that don't know anything about autism, and would like to learn more about what to look for or what the parents of an autistic child go through on a daily basis, I found a great link that you can get all of the information. I will post of your you to read at your earliest convenience. I myself have been dealing with it today. My 3 year old rocks and bangs his head on the wall, it is a way for him to calm himself down when he is upset, tired, or just bored. He is also very specific about how his toys should be lined up, and if you be move them out of place, May god be with you! LOL. Although at times I find my temper flair up, and I get frustrated to no end with my children. I could never trade them for any "normal" child in the world, because they are mine, and I love them. I hope that you enjoy the website, and I will be posting more in the future.
Here is the link:
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/asd.cfm