The night before Joe took the kids on their holiday, Richard and Nic watched Shaun of the Dead, a British zombie movie that is more comedy than scary. Emma insisted she be allowed to watch too, and while Richard was worried it was too gruesome and that even though it’s a comedy she might be frightened... Read more →
A Staycation
For Richard’s birthday, Joe offered to take both children snow-tubing and to an indoor water park for three days and two nights over President’s Day weekend. Both Richard and I leapt at his offer. Don’t misunderstand, we love, love, love our children. But it’s really nice... Read more →
Research & Books on Autism
My mother sent me a fascinating article in Discover Magazine by Carl Zimmer, entitled The Brain. A neuroscientist who specializes in autism, Eric Courchesne, has detected a pattern in the MRI scans of individuals with autism. He found that within the first year of life the brains of children with... Read more →
A Blessing or A Curse
I rewrote and submitted my Waging War post for the Huffington Post. They changed some of the tenses (I hate when they do that) and published it last night – click here. Someone commented, “It is great that you come to the realization that you can accept your child for who she is. However,... Read more →
The Shower
Emma washed her hair this morning. By herself. With almost no input from me. Emma is ten years old. Emma has autism. I used to think those few sentences would suffice. Keep it short and sweet, age, diagnosis, what more needs to be said? But I was wrong. Most people who do not live with... Read more →
Richard, Oxytocin, Literacy & Love – Not Necessarily in That Order
Today is Richard’s birthday. No, really, it is. That his birthday happens to fall on Valentine’s Day is, in Richard’s estimation, a boon. The way he sees it, he gets to give to others on his birthday, and that makes him very, very happy. Because that’s the kind of guy... Read more →
Autism: Emma Goes To A Birthday Party
Emma does not get invited to many birthday parties. In fact I can count on one hand the number of times she’s been invited to a birthday party in the last year. Okay, make that one finger. Don’t misunderstand me, there is no resentment here. The children with whom Emma goes to school... Read more →
Waging War – Not So Much
I think of myself as pretty determined. Someone who doesn’t take “no” for an answer. A person who doesn’t give up easily. When Emma was diagnosed I thought of “autism” as something to battle, wage a war on. I saw it as something we needed to get rid of, a detrimental... Read more →
Waging War – Not So Much
I think of myself as pretty determined. Someone who doesn’t take “no” for an answer. A person who doesn’t give up easily. When Emma was diagnosed I thought of “autism” as something to battle, wage a war on. I saw it as something we needed to get rid of, a detrimental... Read more →
Autism: In A Doll’s House With Emma
When Emma was a year old, in a moment of impatience we bought her a baby doll for Christmas. Despite the fact she showed no interest in dolls of any kind, despite the fact she showed little interest in any of the toys we tried to entice her with. Emma was much more of a doer than a child who sat... Read more →