My Family's Experience with Autism: The good news is.....

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The good news is.....

......it's nearly 9pm on November 3rd, and my attitude is still vastly improved over the last several months. The bad news is I'm EXHAUSTED!!!!!! Daylight savings time ending, in theory, gives you an hour of extra sleep. However, since entering parenthood, I have NEVER experienced that phenomenon. I have "lost" the hour sleep when daylight savings time begins, however. Why is that?

The frustrating thing right now (but still cute) is Simon's new habit of climbing into Rachel's bed every night. She's fallen asleep like that 3 times, Simon twice. They are just so adorable seeing them like that, but Simon really is bothering her at times when he's in her bed. I do think that she's inviting him i

n though. When he first noticed it, Kevin called for me to bring up the camera -- apparently, they were "spooning". By the time I got the camera up there, they had both changed positions and I never got to see the image that Kevin described. But they were still adorable to behold and it was another chance to see that picture that I had from the moment I learned we were having twins -- the two of them lying in bed together. I expected this when they were newborns -- wasn't planning on it when they were nearly 3 years old -- but I'll take it!!!!!

But things have been really going much better lately. I don't know if it's because of that "day off" we took last week or something else led to this change, but I'm feeling much better about everything right about now. Maybe I've just gotten used to the look of the calendar (with the kids schedules filled in almost completely). Either way, I'm just grateful that life is better these days.

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A Little Bit About Me and My Family

Every once in a while, something happens to a family that seems to change everything, whether that change is positive, negative, or in an uncertain direction. One such thing happened to us in March 2009, when we were informed our 26 month old twins (girl/boy) were BOTH on the autism spectrum. Their older brother (nearly 4 at the time) had always been ahead of the curve for most developmental milestones, so we had never really considered that some of the delays the twins were having had anything to do with autism. Well, we were wrong. Since then we have been learning about learning techniques and doing everything we can to make sure they get any and all help they need so that they can live normal lives. This blog chronicles that journey.

The Autism Pizza

I don't know where this came from originally, but I found it on a post on Circle of Moms. It's a good explanation of how things line up on the spectrum.

1. The Crust: Lack of Social Interaction (poor eye contact, not sharing interests with you, no pointing/gesturing)

2. The Sauce: Impaired Communication (possibly no speech, poor conversation skills, repetitive language, echolalia, no make-believe play)

3. The Cheese: Stereotypical Activities & Interests (extreme routine, strong interest in certain things, stimming [flapping, atypical play, etc.] -- like spinning wheels, lining toys up, stacking, etc.)

If you have all of those things: crust, sauce, cheese, you made an Autism pizza. It might have different toppings, but you can look at it and know it's still a pizza. If your pizza doesn't have sauce, that's Aspergers's. If your pizza is missing more than that but still kind of looks like a pizza, that's PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified)