Day 2 ~ 258

I read up on Bay Area Autism and found a really great magazine that has tons of useful information. There's a therapy called RDI that I am very interested in trying, an ABA company called Stepping Stones that sounds exciting, and On pg. 10 in their Jan issue, there's a great article on communicating with the non-verbal. They also talked about an experimental drug that reduced Autism symptoms in lab mice. I'm not sure I would want to use a drug that inhibits neurotransmitters (or whatever), but I'm glad to know that progress is being made.

When you spend all your time altering your world to make your child comfortable (or happy, if you can), it's easy to forget that your ultimate goal is for them to be living in the real world--maybe not the real world of bullies and creeps, but the real world of being able to go out without you someday. It's also easy to forget who you were before you were not allowed to listen to your music, keep your house clean, display your treasures, go places (without having to put on the armor that protects you from looks, stares, judgement), eat normal meals, etc.

Whenever I read about Autism families, I always feel like they're barely holding on. Like they're five minutes away from disaster. It's hard to remember your dreams when you don't get any sleep and all of your goals center on finding ways to reduce chaos. Nutritionists write articles about getting your child to eat veggies and fruits, and they say, "It's hard, but it's doable." When your child has gone three days without eating anything because you did something different, or when they get diarrhea because you tried a new food, and when eating causes behavioral issues, the last thing you want to do is mess around with their diet. My child eats gf chicken nuggets, veggie sticks or veggie chips, and gf cookies. She drinks diet berry tea and v8 splash. For a child with Autism, it's a pretty well-rounded diet. I've known kids who eat nothing but Cool Ranch Doritos. My child used to eat nothing but fries.

There's always something more we could be doing, but what everyone fails to realize is that we have a thousand small things we have to do everyday just to keep things relatively calm and even keel.  Sometimes it's hard to gear up for that one more small thing, and believe me it's only small to someone who doesn't have to do it all the time.

Day 1 ~ 259

Had enough of this life....

Quit my job

Packing up the house

Moving to the Bay Area

Going back to College

Ready...Set...Go!

Why not?

Because I don't like change, but I'm going to get over that one pretty quick, since I don't like things to stay the same when they suck either.

 

This doesn't suck!



 

I will have something that nobody I know has~free time. I get to pick what I spend my days doing: cooking, cleaning, exploring, etc. I plan to be a real wife and mother as opposed to an exhausted/half-assed wife and mother.

 

Later ~

 

Thank goodness my best friend just came over and helped me for like three hours, so I made unexpected progress today. Packing is so much more fun with friends.