Christmas, the Real Story

Yes, I know I'm a little late here. It really was awesome that the improvements Eric has made since starting the therapy really came out. All the boys did have fun with their new toys once they were opened, for a little while. There were happy times. With that said, this blog focuses on autism. Autism was definitely present on Christmas. For a while I had a hard time deciding how I was going to present this. Eventually I decided just to tell it as it is, with my real feelings and all. I'm thinking I owe that to anyone who is reading that wants to know about how autism affects our families life. So here it is, the real deal...


At Grandma and Grandpa's house. Jon playing with the ornaments as he always does. It looks cute, but lets just say this didn't go over well.


Eric chilling out and making the most of it. Thankfully he didn't go into meltdown mode. He's learned to cope with this type of thing quite nicely. Visiting other people's houses is hard. My guys have a hard time being out of their familiar surroundings. There are different people around, what they can do at home they can't do at other peoples homes, routines are off, we had some surprises coming in and they like to know what is going to happen. There are questions about why we do certain things, why they won't eat with everyone, why they don't show excitement with opening and receiving gifts. No, it's not because they are ungrateful and spoiled, it's because they are confused and can't express themselves. It is not understood why these kids are crying, cranky, tired and bored unlike the image of happy children we all think of at Christmas. We learn as we go, so we do this. The learning process is slow and can be painful but we will get there someday.


Christmas morning. Looks pretty doesn't it? This was one of the reasons I was up all night (along with my kids waking up and other things) I'm hoping everyone is taking a good amount of time to look at this, just as I did. If you want Christmasy themed photos, this is the best your gonna get. This looked so pretty and inviting to ME. When my sons woke up on Christmas morning, this didn't even warrant a LOOK from them. They wanted the TV on and to eat. This was just another day for them. Any attempt to draw attention to the wrapped presents failed. They couldn't care less. Finally I gave Jon a present and tried to help him unwrap it. He cried, pushed it away and hid under his blanket. Yes, he is 2 years old and he is young yet, but I expected some interest. On to Eric, I thought he was a sure bet to want to try to open a present. I picked out one I knew he would love, and brought it to him. He pushed it away, whined and continued to watch TV. I turned off the TV, a big tantrum from all 3 resulted from that. I started tearing the paper for Eric, he knocked the present out of my hand and stomped off. Andy, he wouldn't even look or touch the present. Again, more crying and tantrums. He didn't understand. There was no use in prolonging this so I tore the paper off of all the gifts that I wrapped. Just how everyone dreams of Christmas morning, as a child or as a parent. Nah, didn't think so. Disappointing, yeah for sure. This was hard.

Once they were unwrapped and Eric saw all his toy trucks, and Andy saw the bottles of bubbles that came with the bubble machine, then there was some interest.

He said "open please" and "help please mommy here". This year he was polite to boot! Yes, he was still persistent though! Too awesome!



This makes it all worthwhile.





No, this is not the set to the Lawrence Welk Show. Andy's bubble machine broke a few months ago and thankfully I was able to find one (things like this are seasonal items apparently :-( ) This was the one thing that made them happy in each other's company. It's nice knowing what they love and what will make them happy :-)


The ball popper was very popular among all. Too bad I can't find any of the balls anymore. Eric took this and closed himself in his room to play with it so brothers couldn't get it and I have no idea where the balls were hidden.


Eric has some competition for this fire engine. Andy loved it. He was actually playing with it properly, which was a very pleasant surprise to me :-)



The sensory balls and the bowling set seemed to be Jon's favorites. He was doing quite well with that bowling set too, he seemed to get the concept.

Yes, they had fun. Of course there were fights, stuff got broken, parts went missing, kids got overtired and cranky. I have to say that's typical for ANY children, young children in particular. So that part was normal and expected. Maybe my expectations were not totally realistic. I was very impressed with how Eric was talking, interacted and handled himself with the stress and change in routine. He's made big improvements there. It was nice seeing some toys being played with properly. Really, this went well all in all, for them especially. I do wish that we could participate in various activities with more ease. The total lack of interest, understanding and excitement on Christmas morning was what really got to me. But those are my issues. What counts is that the BOYS had a good time, which they did.