It's Spring!!!

I'm so happy! I love Spring! The kids are excited about Easter and I'm excited about all the pretty flowers! I am going to plant a garden of some kind this year, even if it's a container garden. The weather in the summer has been so hot here lately that I know everything will grow well! Happy 1st day of spring everyone!

Autism and puberty

I don't have a lot to say on this subject. I am in the midst of it with Parker and am kind of overwhelmed at how to approach it. I guess I thought the hard stuff was over, lol. Funny, the things you don't think about until they are here. Anyone have any good advice? I'm going to read up on it, find social stories and pray to God. Lol!

Obsessions and autism

It seems to me that lots of kids with autism tend to get obsessed with certain things. Movies, toys, characters, collections and books. Parker is currently obsessed with Firefighters, Spongebob, The Wiggles,The 3 Stooges, Dispicable Me, Fireman Sam and of all things, Noahs ark. He really is into Noahs ark. He's not amused that Noah is seemingly wearing a dress. That bothers him a lot. I told him it's like a long shirt. That seems to help him deal with it. He likes that Noah is old, builds a boat and has a bunch of animals. He must have 15 books about Noah. He likes to hear about the people being bad and the flood. Something about it really catches his attention. I'm glad he is interested in the bible. He picks out bible stories when we go to the dollar store. He seems happy about learning even though he does not like to think or talk about death. (It comes up a lot in bible stories) His obsession with firefighters is a daily thing. He likes to drive by the fire station and see if the doors are open or if anyone is there. (Its volunteer) He likes to look for people in fire station clothes and t-shirts when we are out. He asks me all the time why paid fire stations don't have the word, "Paid" on the outside of the building since volunteer ones have the word volunteer on the outside. He has many questions. Recently we had a big fire in our town and he went to see the last of the fire being put out. He was very excited but sad about the businesses being burned down. His major complaint was that he saw women firefighters. He is a little sexist when it comes to women in uniform. He always wants to know if each fire station has women working there. I try and try and reason with him but he always go back to not liking it. However, if he meets a woman firefighter he is still excited about it. He is a funny guy. He is very obsessed with his computer and its a chore to get him off it. He watches videos, plays computer games (easy ones) and looks up pictures of things he likes with my help. He is learning to read and spell but not enough to let him search for things. His obsessions make him very happy. I love buying him things that he is really into. This last birthday it was Spongebob and it made it really easy to shop for him. I hate it when he gets in his Fireman Sam phase because everything thing he wants is mostly in England. I have to search ebay and Amazon and half the time the dvds I order don't work on American dvd players or computers. All the toys you can order online are super expensive too. Right now it's still firefighters, Noah's ark and the 3 Stooges. Those are pretty easy to find. Whatever makes him happy I try and learn about. Boy am I glad he's out of his construction phase. It was hard remembering all the names of all the vehicles. Hopefully one day he'll get obsessed with something that he can do for a job. What are your kids obsessions? Here are a few pics of Parkers obessions. Notice the Mermaid Man costume for Halloween. I was Barnacle boy. It was not pretty, lol. For some reason it is not dividing my paragraphs. I'll have to figure this out.

It's almost April! I really look forward to Autism Awareness month!

April is Autism Awareness month and I am really looking forward to it. I love wearing my pin and telling people about autism in April. Local agencies and groups around here have lots of events for kids with autism. Something every week in April. I feel very blessed to live where I do right now. Parker likes the events but I like them more. I love the chance to talk with other parents of kids who have autism. Its so great to feel like you belong, like other people get it. I also like the feeling that Parker can behave any way he wants and it's accepted there.

Blogging again and Parker at church

I will try try try to keep blogging again. I don't know why I gave it up. I think it was because of Facebook. I'm sure tons have changed since I blogged before. Parker is 12 now. He is as tall as me. He is still cuddly and sweet. I love that boy so much. Molly is 16 and is awesome and Macey is 5 and adorable! Parker is in a special day class at a regular middle school. He likes it very much. His teacher is really fun. He is a new teacher but seems to have a way with kids. He used to be a respite worker. I just bought Parker a piece of "Chewlry". If you haven't heard about it, it's jewelry that kids can chew on. It keeps him from chewing on his nails, shirt collars and recently; random rocks on the ground. I'm so glad he likes it. The only problem with it is that it makes him all slobbery. Luckily he doesn't use it all the time. I know he likes it because he thanked me the next day after he got it. I can tell he enjoys chewing on it. Today we went to chruch. We've been going regularly for the past couple months. The kids really enjoy it. I feel so at home at this church. Parker does some singing, some dancing, but mostly plays on my phone. He looks at pictures and watches videos. He looks forward to it. He wears his headphones since there are little kids who could potentially cry. He does really good though. He's better behaved than Macey. One funny thing he does is always passing on the cracker during communion once a month. He's so funny. The people at this church are really good to him. The pastor told me to feel free to get up and go out any time to help him. It's great. This post is going to be short because it's Parkers bedtime. It feels good to be posting again.