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A continuation of my original blog, "Surviving Motherhood". |
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Welcome to my world of middle school, high school, and motherhood. The life of a mom is never easy, especially as children grow, and especially when you have a special needs child. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| As predicted, September is flying by. We're already almost halfway through it. So much going on. Ryan's soccer is going good, they may or may not have a game tomorrow, depending on weather. Don's pleased, as most of his kids have shown up for the practices this year, as opposed to only half last year. Last game they weren't sure if they won or lost, as a lot of goals were scored on both sides. Apparently, no one was paying close enough attention. Almost kind of makes me wish I was there to witness it myself and count, but we all know that me and early mornings don't get along. Same goes for Journey. Ryan's schoolwork is getting tougher and tougher. He forgot his homework a few days ago, and missed out on grades that day. All that work for nothing. I was so furious with him for his lack of caring that I grounded him from his 3DS and tablet. He's still paying the price for his forgetfulness for that. If he can go a straight week doing his homework and not forgetting anything, then I will give them back, but until then, they seem to be proving a distraction, and his school work is more important than that. He even had to miss a soccer practice one night because he was behind in homework. Middle school is some serious stuff! He's pulling it together as best he can. So far, he has 4 A's and 2 B's. Math is a very low B, but it's still a B. Social Studies is a B as well, hopefully he improves his grade as that one goes along. Journey is doing good as well. She currently has 4 B's and an A. She's had a couple of rough scores on tests and things, but she's still maintaining good grades. I'm very proud of her. I told her to work her very best, and that's all I can ask of her, and she agreed that she would try. So far, so good. I just hope she keeps trying her best. I'm not going to get mad as long as she tries her best. I'll be disappointed in C's, and am hoping she'll continue with B's, but we shall see. I won't be hard on her about it. (I know it seems like I'm hard on my kids about grades, but honestly, I feel it's important that they try their best. I KNOW Ryan's best are A's, because he's proven it to me time and time again. I wasn't sure what Journey's best was, because this is the first year she's getting actual grades instead of VG's, S's and NI's. I was concerned with her struggles last year, and this year she seems to be doing okay. I'm hoping she'll continue with A's and B's as the year progresses, as she's shown me she's capable of that. I only expect what they're capable of.) Brownies is going great! I implemented my plan about acting out skits of each line of the Girl Scout Law, and the girls did a fantastic job acting them out! I'm so proud of them! My girls are doing a great job this year so far! I have a field trip planned to the volunteer rescue squad in October. I hope they enjoy that one! I plan to do the post office sometime in January. Our first badge is "Making Friends". It should be an easy enough badge to get. I'm still considering what other badges we should do. Maybe we can do "Fair Play" next. I should've ordered that badge through the mobile shop! Oh well, I can always get it in November. November is Court of Awards anyway. I'm hoping to fit "Making Friends", the Brownie Safety Award, and "Fair Play" in by November 19th, when Court of Awards will be. We shall see. Journey has a birthday party for her friend and Girl Scout sister this weekend. We're going to try to get her something Lego Friends jungle, so hopefully we find something and she enjoys it. Our weekend is quite packed. Tonight, we have to hurry through dinner to take me to the express care because I have an ear infection. I know I have one because I can't hear out of my right ear. This happens sometimes...it happened last year. Doesn't surprise me that it happened again. Anyway, off to the express care, and then from there we'll go to the store and shop for everything we need (which we're out of EVERYTHING). Then, tomorrow is Ryan's soccer game (if it doesn't get rained out, which Don is actually hoping it does), and Don needs to find time to go into the college and take some tests, and then he has to help a friend move a couch. Then Sunday is Journey's friend's party, from 1 pm to 5 pm. They said there's a water slide, so I'll probably be bringing Journey's water wings, just in case. And just like that, it'll be the middle of September by the time Monday rolls around, with two important appointments then as well. Hopefully next weekend we can get a break. Or, if we can, go to the fair. We'll see. |
Journey has been giving me sleeping troubles since she was 9 weeks old. Seriously. You can look at my old blog, "Invalid Item"  , read about when she was 9 weeks old, and you will see that sleep is something Journey wants nothing of. Considering that she's 8 now, it's been quite a struggle. The thing no one told me though, is that it's normal for autistic kids to have sleeping troubles. I never knew this until just last night, when I decided to Google it. So. Many. Articles. Wow, makes my head spin. And to think, all this time, I just thought shew as a reluctant sleeper. They say one of the problems could be that your child doesn't understand the cues for sleeping. I'm not sure if that's it for Journey. We run the same two routines every night-night 1, shower, pajamas, mom brushes teeth and flosses, place blankets just so, play Hello Kitty Cafe, turn on the CD player, turn out the light, night 2-pajamas, dad brushes teeth and flosses, place blankets just so, play small game, turn on CD player, turn out light. I've tried deviating from this routine, like taking out the game/Hello Kitty Cafe, but all it does is upset her to no end, and she spends hours crying over it. I'm talking HOURS. She needs the music because the darkness is just too quiet for her, and her ears are overactive. Her sense of hearing is astounding. She can hear us while we're downstairs, and her bedroom is upstairs. It's not that we're loud by any means, we even turn the TV down while the kids are asleep, but she knows we're awake, almost like she can sense it. I've tried putting her in a room with nothing stimulating (taking all her toys out of the room), but all she does is lay there and cry for hours. Instead of staying up till 12 am trying to console her (because she will get up and come get me), I decided to just leave her toys in there, and if she's going to play with them, let her play with them, with the understanding that no lights are to be turned on, and she has to stay in her room and be quiet, so as not to wake Ryan up next door. Those two things have actually HELPED get her to sleep a lot faster. At least, they've kept her in her room. She needs the night light because she will literally SCREAM until it's turned back on. Her night light bulb burned out and she was so terrified, she screeched as loud as she could until we woke up and checked on her, finding out the light bulb was burned out. They say a possibility of it is the anxiety of sleeping for autistic kids. I think that's a lot more accurate for Journey. It's almost as if she's terrified to sleep, and I don't know why. I know the dark scares her greatly, which is why she has a night light. I know her ears are oversensitive, which is why we play a soft CD every night. I've tried asking her if she's worried about sleeping, but she just says "yes" to everything, and "I don't like it" to everything else. It hasn't gotten bad enough to get to the point where we feel we have to use a sleep aid for her. I hope it never gets to that point. Yes, she may stay up until midnight playing, and yes, she may be a little groggy when she wakes up, but she's not difficult to wake up, and it doesn't seem to be affecting her school (such as falling asleep in class, or having a grouchy attitude), so we let her continue on with it. It's not perfect, but it's the best we've got. It took YEARS to get the routine that we have going, going. She used to fight us every step of the way. When it just used to be bath, brush teeth, put to bed, she was a wreck. She'd fight us every step, and then at the end, she'd be laying there crying, and I'd have to come bring her tissues and water all night till she was able to finally conk out. (When she was a baby, she'd sit up in her crib for hours, waiting for us to come up to bed. Even with a night light on (which honestly, we learned really quick that there had to be one or she'd scream all night), she'd still just be sitting there. We'd finally wind down and come up to bed, and she'd watch us get into bed while she just sat there. Don would roll over and fall asleep, but I would lie down and watch Journey watching me. I feigned sleep to see if she would finally go down, and most times, I actually fell asleep before her.) But yes, it took years for our routine. Even now, she requires certain things. Every step has to go in order. If it's done out of order, her whole night is shot, and we might as well not even bother at that point. She requires numerous blankets. At first, we thought it was because she was cold, so we blocked the air vent in her room to make it warmer in there. It didn't matter though, because she'd still request 4 or more blankets. It wasn't until my friend K told me that her son does that too, and the reason for it that I finally understood. Journey needs the weight laying down on her. It's a security thing. She needs to feel the heaviness of all the blankets to feel secure in her bed. So every night, we lay her with four blankets, a sheet and a comforter, which tends to keep her in bed more often than playing....though she does slip out sometimes to play with her toys. I would take her to a sleep clinic and let them see what goes on, and suggest what we need, but I'm scared they'll tell us to put her on melatonin, and I really don't want to do that. I feel guilty enough putting her on Concerta, even though it helps her out tremendously. I've read up on melatonin, and though it's helpful to some, there hasn't been any long term usage studies. I don't know how long it would work for her, or if it would change her chemistry, or what would happen. I feel like we change her chemistry enough when we give her the Concerta. I would love to ask a range of people if it would be helpful to her, or if it's best to just let her go the way we've been letting her go, but I'm not sure who to bring it up to. |
| It still shocks and amazes me that we're in September now. Time is flying by. So, my best friends have had a conversation running for awhile now. We all have a chat in Facebook messenger that's been running for the last few weeks, all of us talking together. I've accidentally been boring them with stories of my kids (bashful grin). There are so many things I'm noticing though that I discuss about Journey and her autistic tendencies, like the fact that she can't really handle choices and openness. Letting her try to choose an outfit for school is impossible, she gets so overwhelmed and confused. So, to save time, I pick it for her. She agrees if she wants to wear it or not, and we go on about the day. Her teacher gives her plenty of open options for homework assignments, and that confuses her greatly. Does that mean she has no homework? Does that mean she can not do anything? Nope, sorry Journey, that's not what that means. So, I picked a few of the options for her, and set her to do them every night. She needs the structure, the repetition. Weekends astound her, because we allow her to dress however she wants (within reason and season of course), and do whatever she wants, if that's reading, or drawing, or playing a video game, or watching a TV show...she's astounded by all these choices, as if to say, "Can I really do this and you'll let me? Are you sure?" Ryan thinks nothing of it, but of course, he's a neuro-typical kid. She's just astounded that we let her go so freely. Sometimes she doesn't know what to do with herself, until I offer up a suggestion. She just needs that guiding hand to get her towards the right general direction. School's been going good. Journey currently has 4 A's and a B in her grades so far. Interim ends at the end of September, so we'll see how each kid does from this point on. Ryan's got all A's except for one C in math. I'm hoping that he'll continue to keep working hard in that class to bring up his grade. He was supposed to turn in a packet in math to re-take a quiz, but he lost his packet somehow. He said the teacher told him he could re-take the quiz anyway, but I don't see the quiz listed on his assignments list in our home to school correspondence. Either she hasn't put it up yet, or she's not going to count it. Either way, I don't mind if she does or not. Ryan needs to learn that sometimes failure is a possibility, and that you have to work hard to overcome one bad score to get a better one. I'll keep an eye out, and talk to him whenever something comes up. As for Journey, I'm extremely proud of her. I wasn't sure what she was capable of (because last year she really struggled), but so far, she's doing fantastic. If report cards came out tomorrow, she'd be on the honor roll. She says she's going to try her very best to do what she can. I think giving her the insight to try for honor roll is important. She needs something to shoot for, and if she wants to put in the work for it, then that's what she can shoot for. I don't want to push too hard to get her to go for that, and I just want her to try her very best to get whatever she can. The first Brownie meeting went great! We were only missing one girl, which I hope she'll be there next meeting. We all had a good time, even though I think I bored my girls by sitting there talking about the Promise and the Law. It's definitely something we need to go over, because the one place where they really learn it (Daisies) was where 8 of them didn't get to learn. Better to cover it now that we're Brownies than be confused about it when we're Juniors. I have an idea on how to drive it home, but that would require more Brownies, and I only have 12, so....might not work too well. I'll figure something out, hopefully. OH! I think I have it!! I'll just let two groups of my girls pick a second group of the Law, and then they can act that out too! We shall see. Hopefully it works. Don's started school already, and is seeming to do alright with it. I'm worried he's spread himself too thin and he's going to burn out, but he says he feels as long as he sticks with just taking two classes at a time, he'll be okay. I sure hope so. We've run into a little snag as far as his math class and my SU meetings are concerned. I need him to drop me off and pick me up at them because I can't see in the dark to get home, but his classes start at 6 pm, when my SU meetings start at 6:30 pm. So he'll have already been in the class for 30 minutes before I have to be at the fairgrounds for the meeting. We'll figure something out I spose. So that's how September is running so far. I hope the weather gets colder soon, this 90 degree heat is too much to handle. I need Fall. Let's see how fast September flies by.... |
| I have much to do tomorrow. It's going to be a very busy day. Ryan's going to be missing school for the first time, because he has a dental appointment that will be parting him with 7 baby teeth that refuse to go. His dentist told him 6 months ago to wiggle those teeth and get them out, but he just refused. Now he has no choice but to get them removed. This is going to be a lot more sore and tender than if he would've done it himself with the aid of a toothbrush and his tongue. He'll learn all about that tomorrow. The doctors advised that with his mouth being numb for a couple of hours after, we may want to keep him home. I took up their suggestion, and will be sending in a note of absence for him tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the first Brownie meeting of the year. It sounds like most of my girls are prepared...I won't be surprised though if there are a few that are without the activity fee or health history forms. Oh well, we'll just keep plugging away, and we'll get there when we get there. I hold out hope that we'll have every girl health history form and ever volunteer adult health history form before we go to an event. Don starts school tomorrow, so I have to rush from the Brownie meeting to go pick him up from work, to drop him off at the college for his class. Lots and lots of running around tomorrow. I'm currently praying that whatever this nasty mucous is that keeps ejecting itself out of my throat/nose/mouth is NOT a sinus infection, as I don't have the time or the gas to go to a doctor visit to get that taken care of. The days of calling a doctor to come to you sound so fabulous. Off to put Journey to bed. |
| Yesterday, my beautiful, wonderful, amazing daughter turned 8. I can't believe it's been 8 years since I gave birth to her! I can't believe I've been blogging since I was pregnant with her! It's been an amazing journey, full of ups and downs, twists and turns, definitives and uncertainties, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. This little girl means everything to me. She is the daughter I longed for in my heart, and I'm so very glad she's mine. She's so special, and so fantastic. There are not enough good adjectives in the world to describe my daughter, or how much I love her. My love for her is beyond words or actions, it is infinite. I can't picture my life without her. We took her for a special birthday dinner or ravioli, and then as a treat, we took her to a frozen yogurt shop and let her get some to try. She's been begging us to take her to the frozen yogurt shop for ages now, but this time I was finally able to set aside a little cash so we could take her for her birthday. She was thrilled! I was so glad that I was able to do that for her. I feel like anymore, our dollars aren't stretching nearly as far as they used to. I made this a priority, to get her the frozen yogurt for her birthday. We also got the boys some haircuts, which they desperately needed as well. School is going well for the kids. Ryan says his classes are enjoyable right now, and he has a lot of fun in them. Just wait till they start giving out homework! But I'm pleased that he likes his classes, and I'm pleased that he's having a good time. My middle school experience wasn't nearly as good as his is so far. Journey's teacher and special ed teacher emailed me to let me know she's transitioning well into the class, and is having a good time. She seems to be working well with her peers, and she's completing assignments as asked. I'm very proud of her. Her medicine is doing a great job in helping her, and I'm pleased that she's paying attention and doing what needs to be done. Other than that, not much more going on. |
| The kids started back to school today. It was bittersweet. We had to wake up at 6:15 to get Ryan ready for school, and take him in at 6:40. I got to rest a little longer than that, as Don took him in, but tomorrow it will be my turn to take him in. We'll see how this goes. I was pretty much awake from the time the alarm went off at 6:15 to the time Journey woke up. She got up early for some reason today. Not a problem though, as we got her to school on time without any hassles today. It was nice. It felt so strange walking to the school, just her and me. I felt like an integral part was missing. I'll be waiting for Ryan to walk through the door at 2:15 after his day today. Hopefully we'll both walk to go pick Journey up from school. At least Journey will see Ryan then if he comes. So here I sit, bored and lonely. It's going to be a long day. Maybe I'll come back and write about how school went for them once the day is done. |
| Got to check the schedules of the kids' today. Ryan got his placement in accelerated classes, and Journey got the teacher we were hoping for. I'm very excited for them now. We know Ryan's full schedule, and are aware of where the classrooms are. Hopefully he has enough time to go from language arts to band in the 4 minutes they give them to get from class to class. We shall find out. All in all, I'm more excited about school for them now than I was at any other point in time this summer. Ryan also got his MSA scores in, and he did really well on them! I'm quite proud of him! These scores, along with the teacher's suggestion, and my asking, is what got Ryan the accelerated classes to begin with. I'm so proud of him! Some birthday gifts are coming in for Journey still. We used the Toys R Us gift card we got from our family friend to buy Journey two items off her Toys R Us wishlist, while her friend Olivia bought her the Hello Kitty pillow pet that she had been asking for. Journey is a very loved little girl! Jenn wasn't able to make it to her party that Saturday, but she's coming over on Monday to have a picnic lunch with us in the park and give Journey the adorable Hello Kitty flats Journey's been eying at Target for the last two months. I only told the kids that Jenn was coming, I want to surprise them about the picnic lunch and Journey's present! As much as I've protested about it, I think I'm ready now for the kids to go back to school. Seeing their schedules and who they got for teachers really helped me get over that last hurdle. Even though I'll probably still worry a little, I'm genuinely excited for both of them. Brand new chapters of their education have opened up, and they're growing and moving. I'm proud of them. This is a totally free check that we have coming tomorrow, and I've already plotted to spend a good chunk of it on clothes for the kids. They are in desperate need, so it's only fitting that I buy them some when we have the money to do so. I have a great deal going on from the Children's Place, so they get plenty of shirts and pants from there at a really great price. Next check, we'll be getting some shoes for the kids, as well as some haircuts! (Don's in desperate need.) I am now looking forward to the next week coming, especially Journey's actual birthday. Summer was very nice, and I'm going to miss it, but I'm ready for school time, and we'll see what it brings! |
| Yesterday was Journey's birthday party. Not many people came, but she had a good time nonetheless. She was so grateful for every gift she got, which is something Don's best friend that stayed at the party to hang out with Don said. She enjoyed her cookie when it came to cake time, and I think she had a lot of fun. Her friend Grace stayed for awhile, so she got to have some cake and watch Journey open her presents too. It was nice. I'm grateful to all the people that actually showed up. That meant a lot to Journey and me. There were so many people that said they would make it and didn't show up. I'm sad, but not surprised. Whatever. It is what it is. We have a family friend that's supposed to come over today and give her their present. I saved some cake especially for her. We'll see if she comes today. Still waiting on hearing from the school. Nothing yet. I'm growing anxious. I want to know if Ryan got into accelerated classes, and I really want to know if Journey made it into my preferred 3rd grade teacher's class. I'm going to be so mad if she didn't. According to my friend, a lot of people were asking for her, and that makes me mad. Their kids aren't special ed like Journey is. She needs a teacher that understands the ins and outs of an IEP and can give her the structure and organization she needs. I honestly believe she is the best teacher for the job. I don't think any other teacher could handle the situation as best as she could, and she's been an inclusion class for years. I really hope Journey gets in. It angers me that parents that don't have special needs children can ask for a teacher, whoever they feel like. My child has needs that need to be met, you're just being picky for your kid. That angers me. Not much else on the horizon. Just hanging out till school starts. Starting to get the kids ready for earlier bedtimes and earlier wake ups. My body is getting ready, I can tell-I've gone from waking up at 11 am to waking up at 8:30 am. Now to just get ready for waking up at 6:15 am... |
| Speaking of autism... Journey is famous on Facebook for the last two days. I went to this site to do a write up of how much she's overcome since she was diagnosed, and one of the awareness pages I'm on picked it up and posted it for all of Facebook to see. Journey was quite proud that she was famous, and loved that so many people liked her story and her picture. So many comments and likes...we were thrilled! I never thought the page would pick up her story and post it! It was a shock to me to log into Facebook and see it on there! So much support and love, I was ecstatic. One of Journey's good friends that I completely forgot about (I feel really terrible that I forgot about her...her parents don't have an email address, so I couldn't send out the e-invite to them to invite her) should be able to make it to her party on Saturday. It wasn't until yesterday that I remembered about her, and decided to call. She's a sweet little girl, reminds me so much of Journey. She's on the spectrum as well. She and Journey hit it off famously. I'm so glad I remembered to call her mom and ask if she could come, and I'm so glad she should be able to make it! That made Journey's day to hear that! Waiting to hear word of what's going on for the kids at school. I'm told we won't find anything out until a week before school starts, so I'll be looking closer to the 14th or 15th to get an idea of what's going to happen for the kids. Ryan is anxious to see his schedule, and I can't possibly wait any longer to see who Journey gets for a teacher. I hope it's the one I requested. I'm also curious to see if she gets to work with her old special ed teacher that she loves, or if it's the same special ed teacher she's been working with since 1st grade. Either way, I don't mind. Her recent special ed teacher has her on a system that I'm quite grateful for. Not to say the old special ed teacher couldn't implement it, I'm sure she can. I'm just saying, either way it's not a big deal. Not like it was when she went into 1st grade. Everyone be on the lookout for birthday party pictures after this weekend! Hopefully she has a good time. That's all that matters to me. |
| So, I just recently joined a couple of autism awareness groups on Facebook. I feel like I shouldn't be in those groups, but yet I feel like I need to be a part of this. I don't know. She's high functioning autistic. Does that make her any less autistic? Does she not qualify? Am I allowed to be on those pages since she's high functioning? I don't know. I don't know if I'm allowed to go out there and say "My daughter is autistic", or if I should just keep my mouth shut. She's high functioning, she doesn't need as specialized treatment as kids who have more pronounced autism do. She still needs help though. The thought of her graduating out of occupational therapy is scary for me. What does it mean? Is she really going to be okay without it? And then this summer, when she decided that she wasn't going to speech if Mrs. P wasn't there....I didn't want to fight her and make her go see someone else, but at the same time, am I doing a disservice to her? Will her skills regress? I don't know. Flying free for a summer scares the bejeezus out of me, but certain factors led to this. I really hope her speech pathologist doesn't get pissed at me for not making her go see someone else over the summer. No one else would do for her. I just...I don't want to fight her. An angry, sullen Journey is not one I want to deal with. I wish I could tell more if she initiated conversations with her friends when we went to see them...to be honest, I don't think she did. Then again, she also wasn't taking her medicine two of those three times...maybe I'm a bad special needs mom. I haven't worked scripts with her in a few months...bad, bad mom. Ugh. Just admitting this information is enough to make me think that they would revoke my membership in the autism groups. Nothing I can do about the past now, just have to remember for the future. Next week is her birthday party (two weeks early from her actual birthday), so I'll be sure to give her her medicine, and make sure she starts the conversations with what few friends are coming to her party. Gah. I feel like a horrible human being for short changing her like this. I need to be more on point!! But anyway...Don and I kind of refrain from saying the word "autistic", as though we're unsure if we're allowed to speak that word for her. I mean, we just got a diagnosis less than a year ago. Are we free to say our daughter is autistic? Does it still count if she's high functioning? Sometimes, when I say it, I feel like I'm doing it to get some sort of attention or something, and I don't want that. I don't want people to feel sorry for me, or think less of Journey, or be afraid of her, or be afraid of me. I assure you all she's a pretty normal kid, she just has to do some things a little differently, and prefers some things in a certain way. I dunno. Sometimes we meet people and they're like "she seems fine to me", and I feel like telling them "not everyone on the spectrum has the same symptoms". But then I wonder if I have the right to even say she's on the spectrum. I mean, she is, and she was diagnosed with it...but...I dunno. Some parents yank out that special needs card as soon as they enter a room. They're quick to say "my child has special needs". I'm not quite sure if I should be like that, or just keep my mouth shut and let people make decisions for themselves, and if they have any questions, they can talk to me? Is that how this works? I don't know!! We're new to this autism diagnosis. I mean...to be honest, I knew, in my heart of hearts, since she was 3 years old, and we were getting her interviewed with Child Find that she was. No matter what the developmental pediatrician was saying in Baltimore, I KNEW she was. Not to say that I wanted her to be. I didn't wish this on her. I don't wish this on anyone. But it's not damning that she has it. I just knew that she did before we got the diagnosis, and when we got it, I felt validated. All my concerns for my daughter, all the therapies I was putting her in, was all necessary, I was doing the right thing for her. I still hope I am. I guess, I don't want her getting attention just because she's autistic. She's more than autistic. There's much more to Journey than just autism. Does that make any sense? I want them to know that she's special and unique, but I don't want to have to point out that she's autistic for them to think that. And then, I had this amazing idea, that Journey could do a Girl Scout Gold Award project on being autistic, but then I was kind of like, well, should we announce it to the world just like that? I dunno. I mean, I'm torn between being the parent that says it everywhere we go "SHE'S AUTISTIC SHE'S AUTISTIC SHE'S AUTISTIC" to being the parent that doesn't say a word, and lets people think what they want to think. Which one is right? Am I doing this all wrong? I wish I had a group to talk to about this, my only help and mentor is my friend K, whose son is also on the spectrum. She helped me realize that Journey was back before we even talked to a developmental pediatrician. She felt just as validated as I did when we got that diagnosis from the autism specialist. She is my rock and my guidance on so much of this. I have two other friends that have kids on the spectrum as well, but one I hardly get to talk to, and the other hasn't even gotten her diagnosis yet, and is in process of fighting for therapies. (I feel terrible for her and her daughter, and it makes me very grateful for everything that we put together for Journey and how well her story is going.) I don't know anything. I know people say "go on your instincts", but my instincts are unsure, they don't know which way is the right approach to this. I feel like a horrible person when I say "autistic" to Journey's face. I mean, she is...but...I'm scared it's like an insult to her. I don't know if that's what she thinks...I'll have to ask her sometime when I'm not feeling so tetchy on this subject. Gah. |
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