a little background

hi, my name is mandy and I have two amazing little boys. My oldest son, Ty, has been diagnosed with autism (which is what you will read most about in this blog); I also have Tripp, who is an amazing little brother to Ty (who you will also hear alot about). I was encouraged to start this blog to document our journey through life and life with autism... my world has been rocked in last few years and i have responded in good ways and bad ... but Jesus has gotten me through all of it...





i hope i can be an encouragement to you, and for the friends and family that will read this - maybe this will keep you posted indepth on what Ty is learning! :) and the adventures of Tripp too





thank you for reading, and if you have any questions, comments or smart remarks; feel free to post them.



Monday, May 23, 2011

May update...

Random words
Ty has done alot this month! We were leaving church one wednesday night and as we are pulling out of the parking lot I hear Ty say "ba...ba... bye" of course I stop and praise him until he giggles and then Tripp says "bye bye momma"  waiting for my acknowledgement so I praise him too until he giggles and then we head home. Then we were leaving "Granna's house" and Tripp was crying bc he wanted to go back to Granna's house and I heard Ty say "naa  naa" which I assumed to mean Granna! And last weekend at my parents house Dad said that Ty said "papaw"(he has been using his p's alot here lately, he will just run around the house making the "p" noise)! That is a lot of purposeful talking for my not so verbal child :)  and one happy momma!

new places
I have just switched the boys to a new daycare and Ty's therapy schedule is changing for the summer time so there is a lot of adjusting going on in our little world. This is not always an easy task, Ty typically handles new things well (which is not typical autism) but arranging mine and Sam's schedules around the new times is a challange and teaching new people how to help Ty function in a daily routine is definately not easy. I dont want to come across as overbearing but sometimes I feel like I should go to the daycare/therapy or whatever for a day and show them how we function. (yes i know that sounds silly) but really, I can tell someone(teacher, babysitter, daycare worker, etc) how to take care of Ty until I am blue in the face, I can give them all my little tips and tricks on what works at home... But until they watch us play, feed, encourage, rock to sleep, change a diaper, etc.... I dont think they really understand what I am talking about. I will almost always get a nod and smile, and then they will say "we'll call you if we need anything and he will be fine" ... so then I start to wonder/worry about how they are doing today. I'm sure Tripp has adjusted fine and will have them eating out of his hand by the end of the day - and I imagine Ty throwing his food on the floor, loving running outside but screaming when they had to come in, stealing crayons and toys from his class mates, climbing on the tables and chairs, slamming any cabinet he can find, crying everytime a door opens and he cant play with it and fighting whoever it is that tried to make him take a nap and I see him doing alot of crys with a but bounce (bc thats what he does when he gets mad)... so I kinda dread going in the afternoon to get them (not bc I dont want to pick up my kids but bc i dont want them to have that "pitty" face; the face that says "oh what have we gotten ourselves into" or the one that says "you poor thing")
What I want to do is have a Ty day.... where they can see him in his happy place and watch me redirect him from potential "fit" starters into fun play times and how to get him to eat properly and how to keep him happy for most of the day. Granted you cant please all the kids in a daycare, this I know, but I feel like I try to give extra knowledge about my awesome son and its rejected as if this is something that they already know? So when I call to check on him and he didnt eat well and they tell me he is fine but just got mad when they had to come inside...then i start to worry again, bc maybe he isnt adjusting like I thought he would? are they telling me everything? do i need to leave work and go check on him? But I cant just sit around and worry all day, and i cant just leave work every hour to make sure they're ok, I do have a job to do and besides that the bible tells us not to worry right!? doesnt mean its easy....

verse for the month
James 1:2
consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of any kind

this has always been a favorite verse of mine, and i was having a really bad day when i heard this verse on the radio... and then i thought - "pure joy" really? how is that possible? i started thinking about all the people who have been through storms and tragedies recently. How can you have pure joy during trials? But i guess if you really think about it Joy is different from happy go lucky - I think Joy is a deeper emotion that is kind of like Hope ... it gets you through bc you know what is waiting on the other side.... its not necessarily a smile or laugh its much more than that...

well i think i've rambled on enough - thanks for reading and feel free to comment :)