I remember there was a point when DC was much younger that I realized that because of his autism I was coddling him a bit and doing things for him that he was really able to learn to do himself. I did understand that he had to be taught just about everything and was not […]
The red balloons are all over town today. The red balloons that DC loves to much…. It must be close to ‘Co-lation’ (Graduation) Day at the high school…. From June 2015: We may never pass this way again – Happy ‘Co-lation’ It’s that time of year when the red balloons decorate mailboxes all over town, […]
Having grown up in the 60’s and 70’s, I was very aware of the Vietnam War. I may not have understood the politics of it, but I was acutely aware of the turmoil that was going on in the country at the time. I do remember desperately wanting to be a “hippie” so that I […]
Back in the “Olden Days”, stimming was actually something that we (parents and the school system) worked hard to stop. We were trying to normalize (their word, not mine) our children – we did not know any better. In our minds, we were trying to overcome autism and teach our children to behave the […]
DC always has written me little notes or drawn me pictures of hearts and flowers. Some of the time it happens when he thinks he might be in trouble for something but I do also get notes and flowers occasionally for no reason at all. Lately, any time there is a craft or project to be […]
(This post and it’s counterpart “Autism in the Old Days: Diagnosis via St. Elsewhere” are written strictly as a remembrance and as a comparison about how times have changed and how much in the dark we were as parents back when DC was diagnosed. It is about all of the things we did not know and […]
At 24 years of age, DC started having seizures. **I worried about this when he was younger as I knew autism and seizures often go hand in hand. I had also always heard that in many cases, if your child has seizures when they are younger, they might stop when they hit puberty or if […]
I never felt as if I had a “hometown”. Of course I do, but I don’t have a special affinity to the town where I was born. We moved away from the town where I was born when my mother re-married. I was five and my brother was 4. We moved away from her hometown […]
The following was written a few years back. It was written more about the discourse within the autism community and not about autism awareness or acceptance. In actuality, I suppose it could be looked at as a piece supporting the awareness, acceptance and respecting the differences in the ways parents view autism. There is far […]
If my posts seem to be a little more “downbeat” than usual lately, it is because that is the way I am feeling with all that has gone on and is going on with heath care, medicaid, (let’s not forget our whole Social Security fiasco) and now new regulations regarding work/agency programs that can also […]
