Thursday, August 31, 2006

Learning to see

I should be sleeping, but I just got Rowan back in bed. He had a night terror, you know the ones like  nightmares except they don't wake up from them. I hate those because its hard to soothe when they really aren’t even with you, and if you try to truly wake him, it makes it worst. Sometime because his eyes might be open you might think he's are awake and just scared, but he's not. He cries and cough that scared crying hiccupy cough, and I'll think that he just has a dry throat, but then I get him water and he doesn't see it, pushes it away, doesn't want it. So I hold him, he struggles at first, but soon he settles down and we rock. 5-10 minutes later he's relaxed under my cheek his breathing is clam and normal again, and I am left just thinking.

 John has blogged a little about our realization of the uniqueness of Rowan, I have so much to say but I always seem to put it off to another day, sometimes today seems hard enough with out adding to it. Yester day (Tuesday) was our first “session”, I guess you’d call it, with Ms.D the child development therapist from ECI. Our session are 45 minutes a week, 4 times a month, which is the max the program will allow. I don’t know if we are getting the max because they think he really needs it, or because we only have 6 months before he graduates out. Either way I’m glad and appreciate the time we will get. From the first time he met D he warmed up to her. He does that with a  select few people, so I am glad she was chosen for us. Already I am learning to see so much I guess I was blind to before. All these signs that things were not “normal” that I had just attributed to personality. He had sensory issues that had I know what I was looking at I might have seen even as an infant. I feel so fucking stupid to have missed it and I just keep replaying all the things that caught me as odd when he was a baby and realizing I should have brought it up to his doctor. I just didn’t know, and I thought, well different child different likes & dislikes. The stimming is a sign that he is overwhelmed, scared or frustrated. How could I not see that? I just thought he was being a goofy kid, examining his hands, jumping around. Sure he was different, but I didn’t see that he was needing something. My brave little man, so self reliant. I just want to come home one day and have him tell me “Mommy I love you, hold me” or even just “pick me up"





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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

My Incredible Family


I just got done watching The Incredibles for the gazillionth time and it was successful in making me miss my wonderful family even more.

I don't know if there's anyone out there that has not seen this excellent film but if not, don't waste anytime. Go rent it now.

Walking out of the theater we immediately drew comparisons between the baby, Jack Jack and Rowan. Even at that early stage we knew there was something special about him. He has so many talents yet at the same time doesn't exactly fit in with other children.


I guess we should feel blessed that he doesn't randomly burst into flames everytime he sneezes!





Our own little Jack Jack: Ro Ro

And at Jack Jack's age:




Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Aut TV



The folks over at Aspies for Freedom have a webchannel for people and families coping with autism.

All programs are created by children and adults who have been diagnosed with autism and wish to "strengthen autism rights, oppose all forms of discrimination against aspies and auties, and work to bring the community together both online and offline."

Aut TV

Also:

Mozart and the Whale is a recent film starring Josh Hartnett and Radha Mitchell about two adults with Aspergers Syndrome falling in love.
It is written by Ronald Bass: co-writer to the Academy Award winning Rain Main, and directed by the Norwegian Peter Naess whose film Elling was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Click here to preview a few clips.

Autism Speaks



Autism Speaks has a heartbreaking short documentary about the difficulties in raising a child with autism entitled: Autism Every Day.

I highly recommend taking 13 minutes of your time to see how the other half lives.

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Hopefully Rowan is not as severe as some of these unfortunate children are. We haven't even had him diagnosed. Our appointment is at 3PM on Tuesday August 22. Please keep him your prayers and wish him luck!