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Little Victories

 

Every October, the schools have a week off for a Fall break. Luckily for a us, that break coincided with a band, that we all like, playing concert in Los Angeles. Since we were going to be there anyway we decided to go to Disneyland and catch a volleyball game at USC. We would also visit some family members while there so it was going to be a busy 5 days. We were careful to keep RS informed of the schedule.  Read more

Middle school will be the death of me

I haven’t posted anything in a while. Things have been very smooth, with school in full swing and volleyball going on again. RS is all about her routine! With a schedule and a routine in place -life was good in our house! Of course, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I hate that I can’t just appreciate the moment and live in that moment, but I think when you are dealing with Aspergers you are always waiting for the next hurdle. Read more

Believing

RS has school volleyball tryouts this week and for the last 2 weeks she’s been so negative and down in herself. She’s saying things like ” I won’t make the team.” ” I’m not that good.” Then we had a situation with a mean girl at school telling her that she goes to so many volleyball camps because she sucks and needs the help. ( Which is not the case!)

We have been watching a lot of Olympic volleyball this last week and noticed that beach player April Ross was wearing a Giving Keys necklace. Read more

People just don’t understand

This week I learned that unless you are living with Aspergers on a daily basis, you don’t understand it. I was talking to my dad a few days ago and made a comment about RS and autism. His response was “Well she doesn’t have autism, she has Aspergers.” I had to explain to him that Aspergers is high functioning autism, he genuinely had no idea. This made me realize that people just don’t know or understand. Another person this week told me that they were sorry when I told them of RS’s diagnosis. I wanted to be mad about this, there is nothing to be sorry for – its not as if she is ill, but then it occurred to me, again, that people just don’t know. They don’t understand so they don’t know what to say. Read more

Sometimes it’s okay to bribe your kid…..

One of the larger struggles for a child living on the Autism spectrum has to do with social anxiety, and our daughter is no different. She has difficulty in social situations, so much so that she is still very shy around even family members. Sometimes it takes her an hour to warm up to cousins who she hasn’t seen in a week, and may not say more than a handful of words to them over a 2-hour period. I worry people think she’s being rude. Read more

Meltdowns and Aspergers – It’s not a Tantrum!

I came across an article on TheMighty.com and felt like it needed to be shared. Its an eye opening look at what goes on in the mind of a person experiencing a meltdown. To an outsider a meltdown might look like a temper tantrum, but that could not be more wrong.

When a child throws a temper tantrum the tantrum stops when they get what they want. A meltdown is an involuntary response to a person with autism being over stimulated. There is very little that be done to stop it other than, trying to remove the things that may be causing the over stimulation and letting time pass.

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There is no “I’ in team…

This is going to be a difficult post for me to get through without getting emotional.

2 years ago RS decided she wanted to play volleyball. RS never really liked to try new things, new experiences really make her uncomfortable. We had tried playing softball and she did not seem to enjoy it, so we were a little hesitant. Eventually, we signed her up at the local YMCA and she got on a team with a fantastic coach. The coach was great with the kids-it was obvious she enjoyed doing it. RS was pretty good as it turned out, and really liked it so she would spend hours in the back yard practicing. Read more

Game Night was a Success!!

This morning I sit at my desk struggling to get my mind in to work mode because I can’t stop replaying last night’s event in my mind, grandma hosted a family game night. As I think about, and over-analyze every moment leading up to, and during the evening, I can’t help but wonder if we took a giant gamble by going. The potential ‘pro’s’ certainly outweighed the possible ‘cons’ though. Read more

Broken Record…..

Our daughter, we will call her “R.S.”, is really funny. She also talks A LOT. Saturday night she was in a particularly upbeat mood so the talking was off the charts. We were driving home from a volleyball game she had played and were listening to music. We were listening to “Crazy Ever After” by the Rescues.

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Remembering Our 1st Dr’s Appointment

This is Dad’s 1st post, so I’m sure it’ll be a little dis-joined, but I’ll get the hang of it:

For nearly a year now, we’ve been seeing a therapist with our daughter, but I’ll get back to that in just a minute, or possibly another post or 2 or 10, it depends if I can get through this first memory.  I, often, try to remember how we got here.  Things are moving, and changing, so quickly these days that I’ve either blocked-out some of the early symptoms and challenges, or I’ve been able to shift my focus to what’s next.  Knowing what I know now about the challenges of Asperger’s; I think it’s the latter.  It has become all about the planning, what do we need to know for tomorrow?

A year ago, when mom and I decided it was time to get serious about helping our daughter figure out ‘what was wrong with her’ (which, I know now IS SUCH A WRONG STATEMENT), we scheduled an appointment with her pediatrician.  None of us knew what to expect, and mom and I did nothing to set an expectation with our daughter about why we were going, or what to expect (something else, I know now, created even more anxiety in our daughter).  We thought we HAD to get a referral to a therapist from the pediatrician. Read more