Andy and Jon with Snuggly Friends

None of my boys have been real into stuffed animals, at least that I known of. For some parents this would be wonderful since their homes are overun with them! A few have shown up here and I keep them in the toy box. One morning about a month ago (yes, that is when these pics were taken, I've been slacking on the blog updates)Andy found a Beanie Baby dog in there. I honestly didn't know we had this. He just kept holding and looking at it. He handled it so gently, there were times it almost looked like he was trying to "talk" to the doggie in his own way.


What a big smile!


I LOVE this picture of Andy. If I didn't know better, I would think he was "talking" to that dog. He was holding and handling it so gently. Andy's been having a hard time the last few days handling his frustrations. Earlier today I gave him doggie during one of his moments and he calmed down. There is a golden retriever at the house next door that he loves too. Mommy would love to have a real dog too, but I don't think the landlord would appreciate that. These 3 wonderful little boys keep me out of trouble :-)


I put up the edited version of this because it looks so much cooler than the blurry original. These boys look so comfy here. Jon is holding a Care Bear. I believe it's Goodnight Bear. It's blue with a moon on it's belly. We've had this for about 5 years. I bought it for Eric but he had no interest. It made the last 2 moves amazingly. Jon is the only one that will touch this.




Jon found a very soft cuddly teddy bear. His name is Mr. Jones. It's the mascot of his dad's employer. He will hug the bear, but most of the time Jon wants to throw it like it's a ball??? Whatever works, I'm glad they are finally getting some enjoyment out of these toys.

School Pictures

Just got Eric and Andy's school pictures. For most people this isn't a big deal. Sometimes the quality of school pictures isn't the best. I do have to say this year I was pleasantly surprised. The boys love it when I take pictures of them with my camera at home. The lighting, equipment, the strangers throw off these little guys when portrait studio or school pictures are taken. I wrote a note to the photographer and teacher on picture day telling them to do their best to get a shot of them that looks decent. Don't try to pose them, don't try to make anything perfect. Quick as possible is the best with these guys. Here are the results!

Eric's 2nd grade picture

He actually smiled better last year, but this still looks awesome!

Andy's 4K picture


Here is my handsome hazel eyed boy. I wish I knew where those eyes came from! This is beyond awesome! When he was about 2 1/2 years old I took him to Sears with Jon to have pictures taken. Andy would not even stay in the room, let alone let them take his picture. At the end they did one close up shot of him that did look nice with some of their enhancements. That was not a fun experience to say the least. Last year they had trouble getting him to sit, the photo was OK but you could tell it was done really quick. This year he did great. I first seen this picture on the Safe Kids ID that we got for free. Thankfully the photographer let me order these later without the inflated costs of reprints. I could not pass these up.

Autism Night Before Christmas

This is a poem written by one of my Facebook friends and autism activist Cindy Waeltermann in response to family frustrations that come with the holidays. Cindy is the founder of AutismLink and the Autism Center of Pittsburgh. Links are in the resources. Thank you for letting me post this here.

Autism Night Before Christmas
by Cindy Waeltermann

Twas the Night Before Christmas
And all through the house
The creatures were stirring
Yes, even the mouse

We tried melatonin
And gave a hot bath
But the holiday jitters
They always distract

The children were finally
All nestled in bed
When nightmares of terror
Ran through my OWN head

Did I get the right gift
The right color
And style
Would there be a tantrum
Or even, maybe, a smile?

Our relatives come
But they don't understand
The pleasure he gets
Just from flapping his hands.

"He needs discipline," they say
"Just a well-needed smack,
You must learn to parent…"
And on goes the attack

We smile and nod
Because we know deep inside
The argument is moot
Let them all take a side

We know what it's like
To live with the spectrum
The struggles and triumphs
Achievements, regressions…

But what they don't know
And what they don't see
Is the joy that we feel
Over simplicity

He said "hello"
He ate something green!
He told his first lie!
He did not cause a scene!

He peed on the potty
Who cares if he's ten,
He stopped saying the same thing
Again and again!

Others don't realize
Just how we can cope
How we bravely hang on
At the end of our rope

But what they don't see
Is the joy we can't hide
When our children with autism
Make the tiniest stride

We may look at others
Without the problems we face
With jealousy, hatred
Or even distaste,

But what they don't know
Nor sometimes do we
Is that children with autism
Bring simplicity.

We don't get excited
Over expensive things
We jump for joy
With the progress work brings

Children with autism
Try hard every day
That they make us proud
More than words can say.

They work even harder
Than you or I
To achieve something small
To reach a star in the sky

So to those who don't get it
Or can't get a clue
Take a walk in my shoes
And I'll assure you

That even 10 minutes
Into the walk
You'll look at me
With respect, even shock.

You will realize
What it is I go through
And the next time you judge
I can assure you

That you won't say a thing
You'll be quiet and learn,
Like the years that I did
When the tables were turned…….

Another Goal Accomplised

For the longest time Eric would not accept anything on his head. This is a thin plastic fireman's helmet that Andy got from school when the fire department visited. Now if he'll keep the hat on outside during winter weather... I could not get a picture where he kept his eyes open. Like mother, like son.

Time to brush

Brushing Eric's teeth has never been a fun job to say the least. It's always a fight. The therapists and I decided to teach him how to brush his own teeth. In time he started accepting the brush in his mouth without a fight. We have worked up to him doing most of the brushing himself. He's now ASKING to brush his teeth. I never thought I would see the day.



I'm enjoying this excitement while it lasts. The next step is kid's toothpaste. I've been using baby toothpaste because he don't get the rinse and spit thing yet. If we're able to help him get this far, it will come.

Budding Artist?

Most likely not, but this is still awesome. A year ago it was very hard to get him to sit down to paint, color, ect. He just isn't interested in it. At school they say he'll go along with them to do these kind of projects to get it over with. One day while I was at the dollar store I bought some watercolors thinking the therapists would like to try this with him. I was right. It took some prompting and hand over hand to start, but he eventually took the brush and started painting. He was just stroking it wherever on the paper, but we were thrilled to see him doing it.





One of the therapists is an art major. She's interested in art therapy. Last weekend it was really nice outside so she brought Eric outside with sidewalk chalk. I was out with a friend so I didn't see them do this. This is what I came home to



I asked this therapist when she was here if Eric actually helped her with this and she said he did. Sidewalk chalk is something I am not fond of touching, so for him to do it was surprising to say the least. I'm quite impressed at how this turned out, and with Eric being willing to participate in something like this.

Fall Festival

On Friday night I was able to secure some respite time so I could take Eric to the fall festival at his school. It was a great chance for me to spend some one on one time with Eric. It's a good thing I didn't have to take the other 2 boys, we would have never even gone in. When we got there, the line for the tickets went out the door. I never expected to see this many people. I was very tempted to just to leave, but I didn't want to waste the respite hours and wanted to give Eric a chance, and to see how he would deal with this. I bought $5 worth of food and game tickets, the line went faster than I thought it would. The food line wrapped around the cafeteria the whole time we were there. Forget about buying supper for me there, Eric would never tolerate that line, nor would I...

We looked around some more and saw activity in the gym. They had different contests there, one was a hula hoop, there was a basketball one and a scooter race. Eric could not hula hoop. That's OK, so we went to the scooter race. The kids had to sit indian style on the scooter and one of the volunteers pushed them. Eric wanted to ride his own way. I pushed him along with the race, but he didn't count. This was the highlight of the evening.



We were able to do this twice before another child asked if he could have the scooter. Next we tried the cake walk. He was antsy at first waiting, but once the music started and we started walking he got the hang of it quick. He was even following the lead of the other kids. The lady running this was Eric's para, so she was nice enough to let me walk with him. We did this twice, didn't win anything but that's OK.



After this we tried a beanbag toss, but he wasn't interested after the wait. All of this lasted an hour, the whole time with lots of people, noise and activity. He held it together quite well until this point where he was just done with it. Not that I could blame him. The food line was still long as ever, and I had enough with all these people myself. He kept leading me to the door, and so we went. As you can see, he had enough.



I'm very proud of how Eric handled himself in this very busy, and unexpected situation. An hour for him in this is excellent. The school put together a very nice event. They did make the best effort to accommodate to Eric. I wish we could have stayed longer and done more, but this was still an awesome time for me and Eric.