Fall is getting colder and Christmas is coming up and along with it plans for presents and pictures and sending out cards. Hopefully I send them out this time. Hasnt worked so far but I have good intentions. :P Anyway along with these expenses comes gloves hats and boots for the winter (thank God their coats still fit!) So I realize saving money for an IPAD and the Proloquo2go app is a bit out their but Im hoping to put a little bit away every month starting in January and hopefully by December of next year we can get the IPAD which is a start. Im hoping to access some funds through the kids' many workers to help finance the program but Im getting really excited about what it will unlock with my children! They are using an IPAD in speech therapy and Im amazed at how much they can express with it! Im working on getting a kinda electronic touch communication device for Angel to use in school to maybe help with the echolalia. Isaiah can communicate a bit better than her even though he has trouble forming the words. I can only do one at a time. He is next. Currently Im using sign language songs modeling what they should say and repetition and phone calls to daddy and gramma and auntie becky which all helps along with the picture schedule and I will continue these things but just add the ipad into the therapy program. Im excited to see what it helps them unlock!

School Days

This school year has been particularly challenging because Angel started Kindergarten and Isaiah is in preschool still which means different times for pickups and only one mama. I should add to further complicate things that the bus stop is on the opposite end of our one way street and I need to use the double stroller to safely get them there. I've been dealing with this by leaving Isaiah in his room waiting till the last minute and running Angel to her bus early in the morning but social workers don't like that even though given my situation they admitted they would probably do the same thing. Then Angel started having severe muscle weakness and seizures from stress and fatigue after school so I arranged an IEP meeting to shorten her day to Isaiahs times and she's much better now. Man does it suck to go through IEP meetings alone. It feels like I won a wrestling match. They continue to guilt me about what she's missing out on but I remind them she has Art Therapy Speech Therapy Stage Play and Polinsky after school so she's covered. And  I offered to do homework with her after school on the math class she misses but so far the teacher hasn't sent any home. I'm also sending cold lunches as I discovered that gluten and processed foods and dairy mess up their tummies. I am taking a 2 week break due to a torn meniscus in my knee but as soon as I return this will be our routine: school 10-3 mon-fri. Art Therapy and Stage Play Mondays Pacific Child Autism ABA Behavior Aid Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays Speech Therapy Wednesdays and Polinsky Thursdays. They go to dadys on weekends and he has them now so I can recover. We also have pcas during the week so they can take the kids to do things mama cant cuz of my knee. Angel has an mri on halloween so keep her in prayer.

Greetings

Hi Blog earthlings,Tony here... best friend to Missy.I'm the mentor,the sage,and well guy if you need somethingill get you it.I'll be co running this blog with her so i think its best you know me just as good as you know her.First off I'm a ninja i don't mean Hollywood ninja either i mean healing powers foresight type of things and i can good all the stuff you would except a ninja to do its one of those things you would have to see.Anyway I'm from New York and I'm very proud of that.I'm FBI(Full Blooded Italian) and i can good and eat anything.Now if you are close to Missy you have probably heard stories of me good and bad(probably bad).Its all good you see it dont bother me.Well thats about it for now

The Life That's Chosen Me

The Life that's Chosen Me

by Missy Wharton on Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 11:06am

We had such expectations, we would soon be giving birth! To the next Chopan the next Einstein, the greatest child on earth. And we'd be the perfect family, soon we'd have the perfect kid. We'd never have a challenge or a problem God forbid. Oh but life had different plans. So I need for you to understand. Don't desert me, don't ignore. I need friends now more than I ever did before. Show compassion but please don't pity me. I'm a parent just like you it's true. But I have Special Needs. I need you to notice that my life's different from yours. I need you not to judge me don't compare and don't keep score. I'd love an extra pair of hands or just a hug or two. I need you to acknowledge that i carry more than you. Got the world here on my back. So I just thought I would ask. Don't desert me. Don't ignore. I need friends now more than I ever did before. What you take for granted comes so hard for me. I'm a parent just like you it's true. But I have Special Needs. I need answers I need help. It's so much work. And a miracle or two sure wouldn't hurt.Don't desert me, don't ignore. I need friends now more than I ever did before. It's not the life that I have chosen but it's the life that's chosen me. I'm a parent just like you it's true. But I have special needs. Oh I have special needs. I need someone to listen, oh I need you to care! Oh I need your understanding. I need you just to be there. I need your friendship. Or maybe a hug or two. Oh God I need a miracle!

Love Language

My children have Autism. I know it seems like a simple statement, but you’ll never know the amount of struggle and pain that lies behind it. Parenting is difficult as a rule, but when children are autistic, it changes a lot of the rules. I have to be more tuned into specific issues regarding the Autism, as well as typical childhood misbehavior. I cannot discipline them for their Autistic symptoms – so I have become obsessed with learning everything about Autism because I need to learn the difference between the Autism and them being preschoolers, and discipline accordingly. I want them to let me into their world, not force them into mine. They have to learn to adapt to my world that is a fact. But I can’t help them do so if I don’t attempt to understand their world. And you know what? I think I like their world better!
There is so much hype about Autism in the media today, and so many of these children are portrayed as lost, sad, trapped in their own world, and even retarded! Parents lament over not being able to hold their child, and the children are viewed as not being able to express or receive love. Very few people have seen happy, well-adjusted, and yes – Autistic- children! My kids are not stuck in their minds and unable to come out! My kids aren’t sad and they are very good at expressing their love – and receiving it! My children’s world is bright, vivid, and fun! It has the typical cast of characters dear to young children – Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, Rugrats, etc. They love to play with play dough and blocks and stuffed animals. They sing and count and learn their alphabet, much like other children. It’s just not in conventional ways.
I called this article Love Language because that is how my kids are with me – our love for each other is the language that bonds us. My children can’t talk to me as other 3 and 4 year olds can. There is no “Mommy, why is the sky blue?” No “He started it!” They cannot tell me what they want for Christmas, or if they are sick or hurting. I have to be extra careful to be tuned in to them and figure these things out, because as far as I have discovered, there is no piece of paper coming out of any orifice I’ve checked that will tell me what’s going on with them! But my children have the brightest smile when I walk into the room! They have the most beautiful, intensely blue sparkly eyes, and their complexity of emotions is expressed in them, there for me to clearly read if I take the time to. They cannot tell me they love me, but they show me every day. And this is the part that will really boggle your mind – they WANT connection! My kids try everything POSSIBLE to connect with me too! We mostly have found connection through song.
Everything has to be song. Last night as I was tucking them into bed and doing our ½ hour long bedtime routine, Angel realized that I knew theme songs for some of her character toys. So she would bring up Winnie the Pooh and sing “Wiee ah Poop” and grin, waiting for me to sing it. Then she’d bring up her big stuffed Dora the Explorer and sing “D-d-d-d-d Dowa!” and wait for me to sing it too! This is not apathy here – she WANTS to connect! She brought a stuffed monkey to me and started singing the Monkeys on the Bed, and her brother climbed up in my lap and TOTALLY interacted with the song using sound effects, and mimicking character voices and “counting” on my fingers to see how many monkeys were left! And later when I went to check on them, they were both sleeping in the same bed!
This is not failure to communicate! These children have amazing minds! Their minds are like tape recorders – they record information mostly put into song or on videos. My daughter can remember whole scripts from her favorite shows and acts them out with character voices and emotions. She also uses scripted language to tell me what she wants. For example, she says “C eeh ah cookie! Ahmnumnum!” She is acting like Cookie Monster, when she wants a cookie. My boy will copy me when I play with play dough, play many hand/song games with me, and excitedly run at me with big hugs when I come home from work. This is our love language.
So as a parent who has children with Autism, I can go two different routes. In writing this article, I could have easily described my broken heart, broken dreams, and “broken” kids, lamenting Autism and obtaining your sympathy. A lot of people go that route. I could describe my kids as disabled. But I don’t think they are the disabled ones! People with the true disability are the ones who judge a parent because their child has a meltdown in a store due to sensory overload. The disabled ones are people who tell you of great group homes you can ship your child to, or institutions, because they obviously can’t be cared for by conventional parents in a loving home. Truly disabled people are the people who don’t understand or don’t want to understand the nature of Autism, but find it easier to lay judgment on the parents or call the kid a brat because they are so much better than you. That just makes our job as parents more difficult, and isolating. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have jealousy over my friends’ typical kids. My life is hard, and it can be isolating. It revolves around therapists and doctors, medications, PCA’s and IEP’s. But it is also quite joyful and fun! My dreams for my children are broken, shattered on the floor. But all that means is that my children and I can build new dreams! My children are not disabled, they are differently abled.
The message I want them to get from me is that they are my very special gifts – angels that left their wings for me, to quote my sister’s poem. They are loved and cherished, and valued for their unique minds. They are not broken. There is no limit to what they can do! They don’t need to understand us. We need to understand them. And give them every advantage to adapt to our world.