My Typical Child "Super Savannah"

Incredible things are happening in our house tonight, Savannah my 12 year old, is teaching her brother, we home school but for some reason he responds really well to her teaching him.



School/Play room is messy but it works for us!!




Working TOGETHER!!  AWESOME!


Sometimes I think I forget what an important part of the plan she is that God has for life as a family.  Autism is a family centered disability; our "typical" kids/siblings are such an important piece of the puzzle.  She needs an outlet to express herself she does it through drawing, hanging with her friends, watching movies, we go places together just she & I.

This past Saturday we went to the mall UGH I DO NOT like going to the mall, but we really needed to do something together, so we went.  they were having "Chocolate Fantasy" at the mall we went to tickets were $18 that's about $18 over budget.  We were headed to the Food Court an a lady stopped and asked us if we were leaving the mall.  I told her we were headed to the Food Court, she worked for a local radio station and GAVE us 2 tickets to the Chocolate thing.  COOL Right, WRONG Meme called Noah was having a mini- meltdown because he couldn't find me, I told him we were leaving for a little while, I guess in his opinion we were gone long enough.   So I tell Savannah and she is SO understanding, she look a little disappointed, but we still had the Chocolate tickets, it was only 2pm & it ended at 5pm  we don't live far from that mall.  So we came home, pull up in driveway, Noah is on the porch swing by himself, Meme is behind the door watching him, Savannah opens her door and Noah comes to the car and said to me,"I was SO worried about you!"

I apologized and reminded him that I told him I was going with Savannah.  SO I spent about an hour with Noah, Savannah & I loaded back up and headed to Chocolate land we had a great time.  She is such a great kid, she loves her brother so much and looks out for him, do they fight? Yeah, their brother & sister.  Do they get "sick" of each other? YES especially since they are home schooled.  Time away from each other is a valued asset for them, however them being together all the time gives Savannah a little more insight to him, triggers, likes & dislikes.  Our life is so crazy as it is, if I had the power would I change some things SURE I would.  But God has given me this Special Family for a reason, and it was through Noah's autism diagnosis that I finally figured it out.  Life is too short to not enjoy EVERY moment that we can.  As parents of kids on the Spectrum we don't take ANYTHING for granted anymore. We take it as it comes and do the absolute
BEST that we can for our child. THANK YOU to our "typical" kids we couldn't do it without you!!

Noah & the iPad

We were so fortunate to win an iPad the week before Christmas; I had entered every contest I could find to win one because I could not afford it.  So we won it from a Law firm in Arizona, Arizona Family Law, it has truly been a blessing.  It has made homeschooling so much easier; what used to take 30-40 minutes to complete a worksheet now takes around 15-20 minutes to complete on the iPad.  We are able to complete so much more work, than before. 

Noah absolutely loves the iPad, we have a book about candy on it when we were at Vanderbilt last week I look over and Noah is licking the iPad, there was cotton candy on the screen. LOL

If you are in need of a visual scheduling app I have found the one that works best for us (I had tried two others) called Choiceworks App, it is $14.99 it might seem like a lot but it is cheaper than the other two I tried.  It is so easy to use & Noah loves it; Savannah has us put a schedule in for her & a chore list.  I really want to thank Arizona Family Law for having their contest and providing us with such a great tool that has enhanced our lives SO much already & I know this is the beginning of GREAT things!!!

Arizona Family Law, Law Offices of Scott David Stewart

Crazy Week

What a crazy week its been and it's only Wednesday AHHH!!  We have really great days lately, except for a little door slamming and screaming.  We are much improved with other behaviors though, like biting and hitting.  Yesterday we (I say we and not he because we are in this together) had the mother of all meltdowns, and I do not know why…  I got punched in the face two times, he then he grabbed the hair on the back of my head and started shaking my head, sounds funny now but at the time it WAS NOT FUNNY.  Then he “suckered” me he approached me with his arms open as if to hug me, so stupid me I thought the meltdown was over, HA he punched me in the face. 

We are in the study at Vanderbilt in Nashville for a new medicine to help kids with ASD and their social skills, it's a placebo study thing, he may or MAY NOT be on the medicine.  I think we may be on the medicine because we have some really great things happen lately I will fill you in with some later posts. 

We are a home school family both Noah 9 with autism & Savannah 11 who is neuro-typical are home schooled, this is good & bad we are ALWAYS together, you can see how this would get old.  I will not let Noah EVER attend public school again & am not financially able to send him to a private school so here we are.  I got to go to Target tonight by myself, it was a little strange I have to say.  What a treat to go somewhere with the kids WOW!! 

 It's the little things that mean so much to Autism Families, I really think that we were chosen because we can step back & learn a great deal from this wonderfully made child.  We have SO much love to give no matter what, if we are being hit, bit, kicked,spit on, we take it because we know that there is a reason why & this child is not mean or vindictive he is simply trying to communicate!