Finished the book..

Making Peace with Autism was a really good book, I was filled with ups and downs and spent every minute reading it processing how I feel about autism and my son over and over again. Our sons are not similar..autism comes in many forms, it's a spectrum disorder because like children, each manifestation of the disorder is different.

Elijah is going to be a wonderful person, and is now a wonderful person. I think that is why reading this book was good and bad. I was filled with hope for my son, but also filled with fear that if I don't fight hard enough, he won't get what he needs.

I feel like I'm so very lucky to be his mother, to have a chance to love this special, unique little boy.

In other news...I don't know for sure, but I think we might move to Gainesville this fall. I'm finding myself somewhat uncomfortable with the area we are in now and hope that a change will be good for our family. Tom is still wanting to find people with more in common and he knows people from work that live there that he will travel with. I like the idea of living in a college town with more progressive views and stores and fun places for the kids. We shall see. We will only rent so if we change our minds it's only a year.

Otherwise, we're having a nice, slow day. Last night the children both fell asleep around 7 and didn't get up until 8am this morning. It was amazing. I don't expect it to happen again!!

A very sweet moment

today I turned off the TV all afternoon and played with my kids. We read books, we rough housed, and we played games...

In the middle of rough-housing, I pretended to be hurt and cried...Eli reached with his sweet little hands and an expression of concern and touched my cheeks..it was so sweet I wanted to really cry then and there..! Such a fun and lovely boy..

Ramblings and Hippotherapy..

So here we are again, a fine Tuesday morning and Sophie is still sleeping in, so I thought I would review our afternoon yesterday.
1st Eli is in the midst of evaluations at school because next week is his IEP meeting and we are all getting ready to fight for what he needs. The schools in Florida are a little behind the times, just now learning to update their definitions of autism to include autism spectrum disorders like Eli's PDD-NOS as an autism thing and not just a developmental delay and language impairment like they have him classed now. The difference may not be plain to everyone, but it makes a difference so that he can get the appropriate classroom needs met. He still needs a lot of work and we need to fight for a lot. Florida is not known for great school services, unfortunately, and they also plan to cut funding to the disabilites department so that less children will get what they need. In this age of 1 in 150 children diagnosed with Autism, that is downright insane. More families will need more help in the coming years, not less. It's particularly hard for those of us who are known as "middle class", since we don't qualify for medicaid or state insurance, but we still don't have insurance companies covering enough of the things that autistic children need for treatment, and it's not like middle class folks make enough money to finance everything without incurring a ton of debt. Of course, this country thrives on debt.

But enough of my high horse..let's talk about Eli's horse!! His name is Jiggy and he's more of a pony for the smaller guys. Every week, Eli goes to Hope Therapy (www.hopetherapy.org), and rides Jiggy while recieving some occupational therapy atop the horse. He learns how to sit in good posture, how to direct his horse, and plays some motor skill strengthening games. There is a picture of this at the top. He loves this part of his therapy program. I'm excited to have him riding, as it was one of my childhood joys, too.

Back to reading. I am reading Susan Senator's Making Peace with Autism right now and while I've just started, it's helping me explore some emotions and thoughts that I had felt I'd already processed. I wonder if you can ever fully process the emotions you feel when you have a child with a special uniqueness like Autism. I'm not sure you can. So right now I'm only at the beginning but it makes me think a lot about Eli's infancy and wondering if I missed some signs back then that things weren't perfect. I believe in the individuality of all of us, so I think many times I chalked up his quirkiness as being himself. How would I have known otherwise? No one expects autism and starts looking for it from birth unless they've already got reason to be suspicious. No, we thought he was introverted and terribly gifted, but never thought autism. Every so often we'd notice a strange sensory type thing about him, but nothing that would make you stand up and take notice and get help. For example, he used to enjoy touching everything he approached with his feet. He used to find the sound of cardboard ripping unbearable, too. Later on, I remember him being really sensitive about being in loud, flourescently lit places. In any case, I'm sure there will be more of my ramblings as I once again make my own peace with autism. Let me just say, I adore Eli. I can't wait to see what life brings him and us as his loving family, but I'm still going to do all I am able to do to help him grow up. That's what all parents do.

Ok..enough of my rambling for today. I'm off to crochet while I can.

In OTHER news..nearly forgot, Alexis is now coming to florida circa June 1st, and will be living with my Aunt Margie down in Orlando instead of by me. So long lots of help and babysitting..but hello a better time of things and lots of support for Alexis, which is what really matters in the end. Orlando is at least only 2 hours away! Way better than 3,000 miles for sure.
And that's enough for this morning!