Month: May 2018

I feel like I get “preachy” when I talked about the little things being big things around our house.  I thought I’d share some examples from our day to let you see exactly what I mean:

Do you see that picture?  Correction, do you see that beautiful work of art?  My four year old did this at ABA therapy today.  Now, you might look at this and think, “Okay….kids do art projects.  No big deal.  It’s not like he’s a Picasso….”  and I say, “You shut your mouth!  He’s a wonderfully talented artist who is going places….maybe just going to bed here in a few minutes, but hey, that’s a place!”

One of his girls (that’s what we call his ABA therapists, “his girls,” but really, I think he tries to claim every single person who works there, not just the ones who work with him everyday…) walked out today, and I asked if she was working with him, how was he doing?  She had the biggest smile on her face and said that he was doing an art project.

An art project?!  What you talkin’ bout, Taylor?!  My boy doesn’t (willingly) do art projects!

She said, “Come here, look!”  I snuck in and saw him sitting there with Ciara, willingly and happily doing this art project.  So many good things were happening:  he was sitting at the table, working on a project and ENJOYING himself!

That picture is now proudly displayed in the entryway at his school…see, a masterpiece.  I told ya!

His allergies have attacked him hard core (such is the life a tortured artist, I guess).  I tried to take him straight home and inside today, but he protested and insisted that he go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  His brother had insisted on a campfire (even though it’s in the 90s here today), and Colin can’t resist a good campfire.  So they sat by the campfire, drank pop, and then rolled down the hill in the grass cuttings.  (Yay, allergies…)

But this was such a simple, typical little boy moment.  I love moments like this one…except for the itchy, swollen allergy eyes, not so much a fan of that part…

I was sitting in the waiting room at Colin’s school today, just reading a book.  I heard a familiar voice – but no, it couldn’t be!

As the voice walked out of the building, I said, “Is that Danielle?!” 

Yes, it was!

Here’s a cool story for you…

We live about 45 minutes away from Colin’s ABA school.  Fun fact, though:  we used to live in that very town where he goes to school.  We lived there for about six and half years.  We moved “back home” (where we grew up) when Colin was about three months old.  So that, in itself, is kind of ironic that we ended up right back there for him to get therapy every single day.

When we lived there, we had an amazing church family.  Making the decision to move back home was hard because we knew we would miss the people and would never find another group of people like that.  Danielle and her family were some of those special people that we hated to leave…

Danielle was the director of the nursery department at our church.  Back in the day, Finley was a needy baby.  He did not like being left in the nursery during church.  So, Danielle would end up carrying him around with her as she walked from class to class, taking attendance and whatnot.  He was happy as a clam as long as Danielle carried him around with her!  Danielle’s daughters were also part of the youth group/children’s department that Curtis and I worked with.  Her oldest was one of the first kids that I really connected with as a youth leader.  (And she is graduating high school this year…#ImOld)

So I got the chance to catch up with Danielle.  She was meeting with the director of Colin’s school to coordinate some community outreach programs.  Danielle runs a program for special needs kids and their families through the church. 

After she left, I sat and thought about how ironic it was that she would be there today….but I was wrong.  It wasn’t ironic at all!  Nothing about our autism journey has been ironic or happenstance.  God is planning it all!

I mean, how crazy is it that someone who was so important to us in our early years as parents would resurface now, five years later, as she is also involved in the autism community?!  It made me realize this:  the people who are meant to be in your life, well, they will be there.  God will make sure that everyone is right where they are meant to be.   

I could tell you so many stories of how my connection to this person or that person ultimately led us to where we are now…and today was just another reminder for me:  we are right where God wants us to be. 

They say your past comes back to haunt you, but in my case today, my past was gladly reunited with my present!  It might sound silly, but I felt like things came full-circle.  Like a connection was made from my “pre-autism life” to my “currently all about autism” life.  Like everything -particularly relationships- in my life truly has been in preparation for us to end up right here, smack dab in the middle of this autism journey.  God has been preparing us for this for a long time.  He has been putting all the right people in the right places at the right times!  It really is amazing when you think about it!!

And thank you, Danielle, for all that you do.  You take your job seriously, and you are amazing at it.  Not only are you reaching and teaching these kids the most important lessons in life, but you are reaching out and helping families who are often overlooked.  Families who probably need help more than anyone!!  Keep doing what you are doing, because I know that you are reaching more hearts than you will ever know!  The special needs community is being so blessed by your efforts and love!

To my best friend, Cara:

Thank you.

Since you are pregnant and hormonal right now, you might want to stop reading now.

……..Okay, so I see you are still here.  So here goes:

You have been my person for so many years now.  I really don’t know what I would do without you.  I also might explode if we had to go a day without texting.  That, and we question whether or not the other is still alive if too many hours pass.

You are the first person I confided in when I knew something was up with Colin.  I valued your opinion and I knew I could trust you to be honest with me.  You gave him a developmental test and helped ease my mind (because he came out “within normal limits” at the time).

I can always count on you for advice and your shoulder to cry to on.  You never tell me I’m being ridiculous, but also keep things in perspective for me.

I admire your desire to always better yourself as a therapist.  You are always my first line of questioning when I need help.  I hope your clients know how hard you work to help them.

I always say that Curtis is the smartest person I know, but you rank right up there too.  When it comes to parenting, feeding, therapy, and life in general, you always have the answers.  (Or at least the answers that I agree with too, so that helps!)

You are a mom that I look up to.  Your girls are so blessed to have you.  I love your “girls can do anything boys do” attitude.  You practice what you preach by letting your kids get dirty and make messes.  “You’re not a regular mom, you’re a cool mom.”

Apart from all the sappy stuff, you are for real my spirit animal.  We have the same sense of humor, and I can always count on you for the best memes, gifs, one liners, and comebacks.  Our shared loved of chickens gives a bond like no other…we are the crazy chicken ladies.

I am so thankful that I have been blessed with your friendship.  I also know that you don’t love any pictures of yourself alone, so I’ve fill this post with fun memes and gifs that represent our friendship.

For my loyal followers….

The eBook version of my book will be FREE on Friday, May 18, 2018, one day only!

Just trying to get some more people to read it and hopefully learn/relate/understand!!

I just ask that if you read it and like it that you please go on Amazon and leave a good review!  If you don’t like it, then you can keep your review to yourself…bahaha!  But really, I would appreciate your reviews! 

Oh, and please recommend it to your friends.  🙂

Happy reading!

I haven’t posted much recently with everything going on, so I thought that I would do a quick therapy update!

Colin is doing AMAZING!!!

He is so excited to go to “school” everyday.  He practically runs into the building now!  He even snuck in the other day….which is big, because just two short months ago, everyone knew when Colin arrived (because of the screams echoing in the halls!)

He goes in ready to play, and he steals any therapist that he can find, even if she isn’t one of “his” therapists!  He happily takes their hands and tells Mommy, “bye” as he heads in to work.

He is making progress so quickly, I am just so proud of him!

He is now completing the intraverbal “ready…..SET GO!”  Sometimes he does both words on his own!

He is being much more vocal, and getting some good word approximations all the time.

He is getting 100% on tons of new matching activities.

He is doing great with object imitation and starting to be super awesome with motor imitation too!

Overall we see so much improvement at home, from following directions to making requests to playing with his brother. Oh, and SLEEPING ALL NIGHT LONG! There, I probably jinxed it, but I’m so proud of him (and happy for me).

Bottom line, I want to marry ABA.  It’s my favorite.