Practicing The Hard Things.

I wouldn’t want to spend our weekends any other way!

Today Savannah had her first show of many.

Is it hard to take everyone on these long days, of course it is.

I could keep Harper and Dallas home and Dereck could take Savannah.

But we enjoy doing this because we can do it together as a family.

Do Harper and Dallas have meltdowns, yes!

Do the cry’s and screams come at the worst time, yes normally they do.

I have to fully prepare for days like this. Snacks, toys, tablets, drinks, and sensory toys but I also have to prepare mentally and emotionally for days like today. I know that my head will be on a swivel at all times. Someone is going to run, climb or do something unsafe. That’s just a fact.

Times can get tough. I have to make sure that I can go into the day with the patients and emotional space that I need to meet Harper and Dallas where they are in the hard moments.

It’s not always easy but my prayer is that if we keep doing the hard things maybe one day it won’t be so hard.

I won’t steal all the great moments and memories from them because of their autism.

Harper smiles so big watching Savannah and Dallas loves to just be in the barn playing in the dirt.

Some things are to hard and I try my best to use my judgment on if something is to hard which means we wont go or if something will have hard moments and we go and do our best.

Just because we have hard moments doesn’t mean it’s all hard, the memories are worth it.💜

Comments

Speech Device.

Speech Device. A huge misconception about speech devices is that they discourage children from using their verbal language. This could not be further from the truth. Keeping a communication tool away from a non speaking child is not a way to get them to speak. Harper and Dallas both started with PECS. A picture exchange system to express their wants and needs! As a mom of 2 non speaking children getting them to use PECS as a means of communication was a life changer for us. Now Harper has her speech device. Dallas’s is in process and will hopefully be here soon. Since getting Harpers device that has verbal output when she presses a button to make a request. She is able to answer so many question and let us know what her wants and needs are. She is also repeating the words after she hears her device say them. Harper can answer me with her device when is ask, What’s your name? How old are you? When’s your birthday? What do ...

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I remember before diagnosis. There was a stretch of time where I was just a tool for Harper and Dallas. They only needed me to get them food, change them, open items and that’s it. There was no verbal communication and not much non verbal communication. Communication consisted of crying. Dallas when he would want something he would just cry. There was nothing that led to the crying. He was either fine or crying. If he wanted a drink to let me know he would cry. Harper would just drag me around. She would grab my arm and pull me to the fridge and it was a guessing game of what she would want. If I grabbed the wrong thing she would cry. If I grabbed the right thing she was silent. For both of them there was no pointing or reaching. This time of our life was hard! But this time of my life taught me so much! I learned so much about my kids. I compare it to a newborn. When you have a newborn you are in tune with them. I remember I learned diff...

Autism On The Farm

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