hide-n-(sensory)-seeking

It may seem odd to choose that word to describe this past week, but it has several meanings for me. The fact that I have been piecing together eight of the ten blankets that I am behind in making for new (and some not so new, more like 1 1/2 already) babies is obviously the literal application of the word for this week. But those blankets and the thread that binds them together also hold illustrative value for me this week. The reason I am so far behind in making them is because the tapestry of our life ran into some huge snags and snarls around the time several of these new babies were greeting the world. All my energies, all my attention, all my everything was being poured into surviving the last two plus years. So pulling out the sewing machine was not even on the checklist. Autism has a not-so-funny way of doing that. Of pushing to the fore, even when things are going smoothly. It's like being left-handed, in that one always is. A lefty  can learn to do just about an...

Here is a link to a wonderful post about sensory seeking written by an adult with Asperger's. I love how she talks about how the activities made her feel. I had so many seeking tendencies growing up, and so did Victor. Every day at recess in fifth and sixth grade, my best friend and I would swing as high as we could, then jump off. Then one of the boys showed us how to back-flip off the swings and we were hooked! The first couple times was terrifying, but after that it was pure exhilaration! Until my best friend broke her arm, not even from a high jump or a back-flip, just a little jump! And the only person who would ride the Zipper or Eggroll with me at the fair was my Uncle Joe (who was kind of like a big kid himself) because I couldn't get enough of the rolling and plummeting toward the ground upside-down! I did manage to talk my older brother into riding the ejector seat with me one year though. Oh the blissful ignorance of potential injury and steel stomachs of ...

It's not an epidemic. It's not a disease. It's not a death sentence. Nor even necessary a life sentence. It is hard. It is different. It can even be scary at times. But if you look deeper, there is amazing beauty. I choose to focus on the beauty!

There are certain things that only happen at the point when all the elements come together. Creating an in-house obstacle course was, for us, one of those things. It sounds really easy. And is so awesome, everybody really should try it sometime. And I have been wanting to make a more large scale one for the kids for a long time.  But in order for this to happen, the house has to be decently in order, the kids have to be relatively rested, I have to have a small surplus of energy because my kids are not at all self-sufficient at organizing this kind of thing yet, and vast amounts of coffee have to have already been consumed before we start.  These are great rainy/snowy/step-outside-and-your-boogers-instantly-freeze day activities.  Ours is highly sensory organized, but remember that a lot of kids are not really getting the real amount of sensory input that their bodies really need on a daily basis. My kids just literally fall apart if they don't, while th...

I have many moments when I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. That I am not helping my family to progress or work toward our goals well enough. Like many mom's, I become overwhelmed with guilt and doubt. And all the things I'm doing wrong seem to stare at me and follow me around nagging at me. And after a while you do begin to believe it. Even just a little. And then you question yourself, a lot. But every now and then you also get a glimpse of what you're doing right. You suddenly realize that all the work is beginning to show and that your seedlings are bursting up toward the sun. We like watching plants grow in time lapse because the actual real time practice is arduous, painful and often boring. Sometimes waiting for our work as parents to sprout can be just as little fun. Until...that moment when you see it! That breakthrough, no matter how small! And you almost forget the back ache and mud on your pants, because... Look! It's here! It...