I had a hard time to get him to stay centered, so finally gave up and just recorded. But it is cute.

My son is such a couch potato. If I do not have the tv on he will turn it on. If he does not like the channel he will cry. I do tire of Disney Channel all day every day. Even if he is not watching Mommy cannot change the channel. I know another boy who has Asperger's Syndrom and he ios like Michael always TV TV TV

Monkey Trouble was on last night, and then repeated today. Michael loves that movie. The whole time he is sitting here yelling MONKEY. I may have to buy the movie. If it will help him work on his real words I am not going to complain about the tv.

On a much wetter note.. My mother is out of town this weekend, and rented a car so that I can have hers and go feed her pets... I woke up to a beautiful dawn thunderstorm. It was the type of rain that makes you just curl back up and sigh. I left the car windows open last night... I just know the seats are going to be soaked when we go to leave...

My friend Mr. John Wooler has worked with the practice and facilitation of relaxation using visualization techniques for years. When he met my Autistic son, Nicholas Miller, Mr. Wooler simply asked Nick; “Would you like to learn to relax more?” My son Nick answered “yes!” without any hesitation.  Nick followed a request to go into a quiet room in our house without distraction, and followed Mr. Woolers? additional instructions which were to sit down in a comfortable position and to close his eyes. In a short amount of time I saw my son Nick begin breathing more slowly, & remaining in a calm sitting position with no fidgeting and squirming. Nick?s body language and facial expressions demonstrated to me that Nick was indeed in a very relaxed state . He was also responding to questions and was talking with Mr. Wooler about how relaxed he was feeling. Some of the conversation during this relaxation session between my son and Mr. Wooler was about how Nick my son could help himself to feel relaxed by returning to his “quiet place” that Mr.Wooler was prompting Nick to describe in detail by asking Nick “What did this quiet place have in it?” The visualization activity seemed to motivate Nick to stay involved in the personalized relaxation activity.

I have started making Michael nap again... Only he is sleeping for several hours. He is still going to bed like an angel. Normally a parent would rejoice in this, but he is getting up before 7 in the morning and coming out to watch TV.

Waking up to the TV blaring some Disney show is not a pleasant way to wake up... So I usually have to make sure I change the cable back to Disney so he has something in the morning to watch. And I need to make sure I leave a cup of something to drink out for him. Like me, Michael is not into eating first thing in the morning, so I can usually lay there in bed for a little bit longer. 

But just one morning I want Michael to sleep in rather than waking up early to run to his best friend, the TV.

I found something fun for our picky eaters. Chicken shaped like dinosaurs. It nukes up fast and my picky eater loves 'em!!

I accidentally spilled an entire cup of tea on my keyboard the other night. It then started acting funny when I towelled it off. So silly me took the blow dyer to it. I deformed one of the keys. Well needless to say the keyboard was toasted. So my Ma picked me up a new one the next morning. She hated mine anyways because she needs to be able to see the letters on the keys. I set aside mine and Michael came up and asked "My Turn?" So I let him play with the old keyboard. He loves sitting there typing like Mommy.

I had to go without a mouse once, but I tell ya, the keyboard is much more essential... I was in the middle of a Yahoo conversation with someboebody I actually am starting to like-like. So I ended up on my Yahoo on my Cell and that really is not fun unless you have the cool phones with a keyboard. I personally want a LG UX260 they are nifty. Maybe when my contract is up I can get one. I think I have a few months left. The guy better feel special because my thumb was numb.

Before you all get excited and go around singing "Holly Met Somebody" he lives 2 hours away and we have not really talked about Michael or Michael's dad. David is usually able to become a problem in my other relationships without him even being around. It is like I am not allowed to care about anybody else, especially the father of my child.  Or people expect me to cheat and it would happen with him. Who knows. But I have been hesitant to bring it up because it feels like the guy actually likes me and I am not wanting to scare him off before while we are just friends. And the idea of somebody else takingup my time other than Michael feels like too much for me to handle. It is a decision only I can make, and my heart has to want it. So no telling me to just go for it. If it feels right, I will, until then it just feels nice to know somebody may like me...

One observation I've made so far is that it's mostly Mom's around here doing the blogging. I sometimes feel like I'm the only dude around here.

Do you think that guys don't need to express themselves as much as women? Is it because guys don't have the time to blog? Are they not interested in meeting others? Is it the baby blue site? What do you think is the reason? What do you think we can do to get more men using AB?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. 

I love this picture of Carl. He's looking at Marcel in the pool with daddy....,

I love it because he's tickled to see his nephew having so much fun in

the pool =)

The internet seems to be such a big place to escape. We blog, we research, we find games. You can even find love. I wonder what I would be if not for the net. Probably some puddle watching the same movie again and again. I think I escape from all the stress way too easily with the internet. Neopets, Myspace, DeviantArt. They all provide a world to escape to and pretend that all is well.

We recently had a GREAT experience at Six Flags, http://autismparents.net/six-flags-autism-friendly-park/ , but I am wondering if we just benefited from their policy not being enforced???

You are supposed to go in thru the exit, and schedule a time to get on the ride.  The idea is you have to wait as long as the regular line.  The kid running the ride is supposed to estimate wait time in the regular line and pencil you in to come back after that time passes.  

In actuality, this is WAY TO BUREAUCRATIC for the teenagers running the rides.  We basically got right on most rides at the STL park, not because of their policy, but in spite of it.

If we had to go in thru the EXIT and then leave to come back, that is MORE likely to call a meltdown.  Here we are at the ride, now leave.  You would have to send one parent or someone ahead to schedule.  Seems like in this day and age they could use technology to help with this.  Like you scan disability tag at the ride and get assigned a time from computer, etc.  They have a similar thing for the speed pass thing you can buy.

 With that said, I cannot say enough good things about OUR experience.  

This note is to Shootingstars, private message wasn't working for me today for some reason.  Anyway, I just started reading this library book, Bitsy's Bait & BBQ and I don't know, I thought you might like to check it out because it sort of reminded me of you and your horse farm dream.

http://www.amazon.com/Bitsys-Bait-BBQ-Pamela-Morsi/dp/0778324230

In the book, a young single mom (Katy) buys, with settlement money, what she thinks is a Bed and Breakfast, off of the Internet, because it is her dream and she wants to make a nice new life for herself and her son.   But it turns out to be a Bait & BBQ!  Also in the book Katy has a bossy sister whom she loves dearly.  Another thing in the plot is that the boy's grandmother is trying to win custody.  The book is written from a bunch of the characters point of view, so you get to see a slice of the boy's father's life, Katy's thoughts, the bossy sister, and the grandmother.  The reader reviews on Amazon are better than the official book reviews.

Are any of you guys going methyl B12 shots?  I have to say that this is the treatment that gets the most bang for the buck around here.  Since we have been doing the shots, my daughter is LOTS more aware of everything and more interested in US.

It was worth it alone for the time we came home from being out of town at the Green Our Vaccines rally a few weeks ago. We were gone4 days and she was on cloud 9 to see us.  Lots of kissing, laughing, huge smile.  She pulled us all together and we had a group hug.  She was saying "DADDDDDDDYYYYY".

 Her sense of humor also seems to have improved and she sings a lot.  She has actually done things to make us laugh and you can tell it was on purpose.  She has lots of laughing now days.  She started laughing at something yesterday and I swear she was doubled over and even slapped knee.  

 The MB12 is not a cure and it hasn't done a lot on speech for us, but still it's the treatment that I would say is the best value so far.

 PS - Starting Specific Carbo Diet and I thought GFCF would be tough.  Gulp.

 Fielding

http://autismparents.net

http://autismretort.com

They say death comes in threes. Today three of Michael's five birthday tiger barb fish died today. I feel so terrible. I was so certain they were all alive earlier when I fed them. But then I realized I never really looked. I had to yell at him getting him out of my way so I could dish out the dead ones at the bottom of the tank. I wanted him to get upset and run to his room so I could get them out before they risked the remaining two's health any more than they already have.

I just sat there staring at the last two feeling like a failure. I do not know what killed the three. I wanted to start crying, but scared to let loose in front of Michael...

He looked in and knew there were fish missing. I ignored him because I have no clue what to tell him. I have a bad feeling the other two will die tonight.

I know fish die. They are just fish. But they were Michael's fish... Something he did so well at feeding, and loved to sit and watch. Since he was a baby he has always loved fish. These were all his. He did not have to say goodbye to them at a store.

I belong to a ton of niche sites such as this one. I'm always leary when people use their first post to sell something or to put a link to their site or blog. You know they're never coming back. They don't want to be a part of the community. They are just using the site as a marketing tool. I'm not pointing the finger at anyone here, I'm just ranting.

My goal for this site is to be a place where people can post freely, share things, open up, be a part of a community, and help others, without being spammed or sold items.

Some ideas for your first post:

• Introduce yourself
• Share your story
• Tell about your family
• Answer someone's question
• Share a great autism resource (not your own site or blog)

Sure if you have something that will be helpful to the group, go ahead and share it, but if your one and only post is a link to your site or product, this seems more like a marketing tool than helping the group. If you do have a product that should be marketed to the group, create a post or two that is useful to the community. This will help your credibility and build trust.

To avoid people blatantly marketing things on this site, I'm going to begin moderating these type of posts.  

Sometimes when you are lost, the only option is to wait until darkness falls and you can find your star leading home. When this is done figuratively, it cannot be done simply when the sun sets. There are emotional clouds that need to be blown to the side so that the stars may shine and sparkle.

My absence was voluntary so that I could take some time to think for myself and try to find my way. Cutting out all the extras is sometimes how I concentrate on what needs to be done for myself. I feel as if I have been lost in a maze. Every time I think I have found the path out, I find myself facing another wall.

I think when you read somebody else's story you only see the black and white. You can think about what you would do in that situation, but in truth you cannot honestly gauge how you would react. You may think you would be one way, but in truth you cannot account for how the path or fall into that life would change you. Often that part of the story is not shared either. To another the story is black and white, but to the person the story is narrating, it is full of grey shadows and hidden print between the lines.

None of us have the right to tell somebody else how to feel or act, especially to act without considerations for another's feelings. We can give our suggestions, but pushing our thoughts and morals onto somebody else will only bring them down on themselves. I think by putting ourselves out there, we invite judgement when in truth we are looking for support. Also, sometimes we think we may be dishing out a platefull of wisdom meant in a supportive way, it comes accross as judgemental or is misunderstood. The internet is a very opinionated place. A crime we are all guilty of is pushing our opinions on others.  read more »