Day #13

Not glamorous in the least and maybe a bit disturbing to some but aggression and self injury are a BIG behavior to deal with from some autistic children, including Maeve. What you see here is Maeve's forearm which out of frustration and anger she bit hard enough to cause bruising. She is also prone to biting her knees, biting others, hitting, pinching, shoving, pulling hair, kicking etc due to her inability to communicate her frustration. PECs help to a degree in her ability to communicate her "wants" but do nothing for expressing her "feelings"...I hope someday she will be able to look at me and say in her own words exactly how she is feeling rather then act out aggressively.

Day #12

Look at that concentration! Josie is practicing fine motor skills by lacing her piggy during in-home ABA Therapy session today. We are so lucky to have an in-home program (4 hours 5 days a week) and such a GREAT team!! Thank you, we love you Ginger, Pam and Emily!!

Day #11

Crafts with Beth from ATCAA Headstarts in-home program, our usual Monday morning routine. Today we made Mardi Gras (yes, we know it was last week) hats, played with some musical instruments, listened to some music and read a couple stories. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Day #10

Josie loves getting into tight, little, cramped spaces especially the corner behind the couch where she has hung out on and off today. She brings her blankie sometimes, maybe her pillow, most definitely her two favorite toy mice share the space and she just has her quiet moments of regrouping there. We all need a place like that :D

Day #9

This is what Maeve gets up to when mama decides to shower while the girls are awake. If you can't tell what's going on she has pushed the closet door off the runner, opened and emptied all 6 dresser drawers and made herself a nice little nest inside the closet. She is too gorgeous to be mad at of course and having all the clothes out in the open helped me to size them up and donate all of the outgrown pieces. I won't say she did me a favor but it worked out. Note to self: get up early enough to shower while they are still in bed sound asleep!

Day #8

Thank you Auntie for the new glove! We are trying this to see if we can keep Maeve from sucking her fingers because I have already had to take her to the doctor to have an infection lanced and now the cuticle is pulling away and splitting up her finger. So fingers crossed she will learn to accept this glove! So far she has sucked on it, chewed it, and gotten it off a billion (maybe a wee exaggeration) times but mama is bull headed enough to keep putting it back on and eventually I am hoping she will leave it alone long enough to break the finger sucking habit... I will let you know :D

Day #7

A zen swing moment for Josie, she just looked so peaceful and adorable. They both LOVE the swing, thank you Emily, this is going to help us out a lot :D

Day #6

OT (Occupational Therapy) is so fun, such a good experience, release of energy and building environment. We LOVE OT!  From the swing to the tunnel to the ramps and mats, trampoline and tummy board, we love it all :D We are so lucky to be able to go to our local elementary school and use their OT room even though we are in an in-home program, thank you Cathy!

Day #5

I think I need a better system, baby gates do NOT work anymore! Maeve is TOO smart for that, she just pulls a chair up now and hops right over and the middle bar latching ones she is TOO tall for so just reaches over and pops them right open! She is getting too big too fast and has not quite gotten the whoa on her yet...have to think of a better way?!

Day #4

We have been having a splattered egg kind of day...a series of unfortunate events for example Maeve climbing kitchen counters and getting into the fridge where she discovered eggs are very fun to play with, tempers, tantrums, aggression, I don't chalk anything up to a "bad day" just a series of moments, some good and some not so good...lavender bubble bath and fresh jammies helps though.

Day #3

Josie brushing her teeth...although she usually likes to suck all the toothpaste off before she brushes...but visual schedules help. We prompt her each step of the way and she is really getting the hang of it!

Day #2

Here is Maeve choosing what she wants out of her PECs book, our BC makes the PECs for Maeve, I started out taking photos of everything around our house and laminating them myself but the generalized icons are so much handier. It is the one she started with through her first ABA provider B.E.S.T. and we have tweaked it a bit and I added an old camera strap I had but it is sturdy and goes everywhere we do, what you see are her food choices then we have pages for colors, self help, places, items ie toys books etc, we are just now tallying how many times a day she uses it and unprompted about 15 just of her own accord, but with some prompting she is well about 30 times per day.

Day #1

Here Josie and Maeve have decided to hold hands for the very first time ever on our walk this afternoon, seems like such a small event but in our world this is HUGE!

Why?

Good question...why would I want to do this? Well, to show what autism really looks like. It is such a misunderstood disorder. It is so much more then the television glamorized versions of savants or the horrific back of your mind visions of children sitting in a dark corner banging their heads against the wall. Not saying these types of autism do not exist it is just not the norm. So to let others view what MY autism lifestyle looks like I will post a new picture taken each day for a year...where we go after that we shall see.

A little background I guess...I have two daughters, Maeve 4 and Josephine (Josie) 3, that have both been diagnosed with an ASD. Maeve is severe, non-verbal (but VERY vocal) and Josie is mild/moderate with speech that is limited but improving daily. I cannot explain in words what autism is but I can visually show just our little world of it.

I am starting out with quite a few blog posts up to today's picture because I actually started this idea between friends on facebook just a few days ago and quickly decided to start a blog about it, so here we go...