Pushing for Independence

Tonight I attended a support group at my daughter’s wrap around agency where they had a presenter who talked about a method called Rapid Prompting Method (RPM). The method seems really interesting but it requires the child to spell out what they are trying to communicate so I am not sure it is something my daughter at age 5 would be able to do. They start to work with children at age 4 so there may be a few things that start building on now. There are a few books available on this subject and I plan on shelling out the money for them and reading them in the precious little spare time that I have.

During this group and this presentation the topic of how much is actually going through the minds of our non-verbal kids came up and it was a reminder to me that I need to really start assuming my daughter is in there and understanding me. I really need to stop talking about her or treating her as if she does not have the ability to understand the things that I am saying. I need to start talking to her instead of at her even if she is not speaking back to me. This RPM method seems to have a lot of promise and I plan on researching it more, it is another method of giving your child a way to express themselves. I am not sure what method or system we will end up using but I will keep trying to work with Elizabeth to find a way to tell us how we can meet her needs. I know that she understands language, when I talk to her or ask her to do something she will listen and sometimes follow instructions so I know she has the ability to understand language.

My daughter just turned 5 last week and I really need to work on treating her more like a 5 year old and not babying her. I tend to just do things for her since it is how I have always done it instead of expecting her to do it herself. She has the ability to do so much more than I give her credit for. One of the things that she loves doing is taking all of her clothes off, she does this constantly but when I go to bathe her at night I still take off her clothes for her. I am not sure why I do this, I guess it is because I always have and she has never offered or attempted to do it on her own. Tonight for bath I asked her to take off her own clothes and she did it just like that. I really need to start pushing her more; she can do a lot of things that I just automatically do it for it. I really need to change my habits.

On another note I should probably buy stock in Lucky Charms, that has been Elizabeth’s food of choice lately. She mostly eats the marshmallows but every now and then she will eat a few of the cereal pieces as well. We make her use her spoon to eat it and here and there she gets a few cereal pieces on her spoon as she is attempting to pick out just the marshmallows, at this point with her picky eating I call that a win. Several times a day she takes my hand and leads me over to where the cereal is which her way of asking to have some.

Christmas time is almost upon us and I have already almost completed my shopping. My older daughter is hard to buy for because she really has very little interest in anything toy related anymore. My younger daughter is the opposite, she has a ton of different interests and the difficult part for her is narrowing down which toys to get her. For my older daughter I typically end up buying her a few toys that I hope she will like and a few sensory things. This year I bought a pair of noise reducing headphones and a sensory pillow for her, she will probably like these items much more than the toys. I love Amazon, I can find so many sensory things for her on there. I think that I probably do 90 percent of my shopping on there, it also helps to have Amazon Prime with the free two day shipping. I am very thankful for shopping websites like Amazon, prior to that I would have actually have to physically go to the mall and shop.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for any errors, I really hate proofreading.

Moving

So we have finally moved into the new house. My daughters have really taken everything in stride. It amazes me how well they adjust to living in a new house. This is our second move within the year since we had to move in with my grandfather for the summer while our house was being built. The kids have handled things way better than I have.

Currently we are still in the unpacking phase. We have a lot of things and really should go through all of those things and decide what to keep and what not to keep. The good part about this is that we are unpacking a lot of toys that we packed up when we were trying to sell our house. The girls are pretty excited seeing them again. I am pretty sure that after not seeing them for 6 months they forgot about them.

So while my older daughter is settling into the house well she is having some regression issues when it comes to her play skills. She has never really had great play skills but she at least had some interesting in toys. Lately she really only has a fleeting interest if any and its mostly stim related. I spoke to her teacher about this and luckily they can provide some developmental therapy for us to possibly work on that issue one on one with her. Most of her therapies are provided in a preschool setting so it is hard to address that particular issue there with so many other kids and things to focus on.

We have also been dealing with some aggression issues at school. I think this is possibly related to her inability to communicate her needs. We met with a behavioral specialist and he thought it was possibly her trying to have interaction with her peers or her sister but not knowing how. If that is the case I guess its sort of a good thing, at least she is wanting to interact. Now all we have to do is teach her how to interact properly, this is much easier said than done.

We are also going to look into getting her an iPad through school to just use for communication. Currently we are only working with PECS and that is going well. I think the biggest issue with using the PECS system is trying to remember to get out the picture book and making her use it. She seems to know how to use it but prefers to just lead me to the things that she wants instead.

So one way I got to escape the stress of moving was to go to an event that was put on by the Autism Connection of Pittsburgh. It was a nice event held at a whiskey bar. I was really hoping to have a nice glass of wine but they only had whiskey. My friend and I both tried some of the whiskey drinks, they were alright. I was not really a whiskey drinker before I attended this event and I cannot really say I will be a whiskey drinker after this event, but it was nice to try something new. The event was fun and it was nice to spend a night out with my friend. I get to see her all of the time but its not often that we actually get to go out and really spend time doing fun things.

Well that is all for now, time to get back to unpacking!

Days of Fall Fun

So today we decided to go out and enjoy this beautiful fall weather with my in-laws. It was a great day and we had fun for the most part. Outings used to involved strapping both kids into a stroller and off we would go, however at this point the kids are getting a bit big for the stroller. At almost 5 and almost 3 it is time we started going out without it. So that was our adventure today, no stroller. 

Overall it went pretty well, the upside was that no one ran away and we did not lose anyone. The downside was that my older daughter walks super slow. She toe walks so I am not sure if that is the reason why she is so slow or if its just her not being in any particular hurry. She also trips a lot, this also could be part of the toe walking I think. She was doing pretty well holding my hand but when she is walking with me and I am holding her hand it feels like she is constantly trying to pull her hand away. It is like a repeating cycle, we will walk a few feet while she is pulling on my hand to get her hand out of mine, finally she gets her hand out and I re-grab her hand. While this is not a huge deal it does make me worry that she is going to jet off one of these days. 

Another issue is parking, where we were at you have to park really far away. We happen to get lucky and found a close spot but in places like this without a stroller I think a large parking lot might really become an issue. I know that you can get handicap placards for kids with Autism but I had not considered it until now. I am still on the fence about it but I am going to think it over until her next doctor's appointment. I think my biggest fear is the doctor judging me like I am just being lazy and that it is not really a safety issue with her. 

I think for next year I am going to invest in a wagon. They may be too big for the stroller but a wagon might just suffice for a few more years. It will at least be something to put all of my bags in. Since my older daughter is not potty trained as of yet we still have to lug around a large diaper bag. It will also help out when they suddenly decide that they do not want to walk anymore. They both did this at various points today and they are getting way to heavy to carry. 

We had a lot of fun today even without the stroller. My older daughter did really well at the crowded restaurant and she even got to ride a pony. We went to a small petting zoo afterwards and she even seemed to enjoy that. I did not get to enjoy much of it with her since my 2 year old had an epic meltdown and we ended up going to the car. I think she was overdo for her nap. Next weekend is supposed to be another beautiful day so there will be more fall fun in store. 

The First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for both of my girls. My 4 year old is in her second year at a preschool through the intermediate unit that is a class specifically for kids with Autism. My 2 year old just started at a typical preschool in the two year old class.

It is kind of bittersweet to see my two year old. She seems to really excel and I think she will do really great at this preschool, but in the back of my mind I always think back to how we tried to do a typical 2 year old preschool with my other daughter. It did not go so well.

We attempted to start my 4 year old who was 2 at the time at a local church preschool. We only made it about a month and it was a terrible experience. Instead of even making the effort to get her to participate they would just stick her out in the hall with the teacher's aide. I ended up going with her the last day we were there and we both basically stood out in the hallway while they had circle time. They were alright with letting her do the free play but once it was something structured she was cast out to the hallway. They did not even give her the opportunity to try. We ended up getting locked in the stairway while we were out in the hallway, I had went down to the stair well since she was singing in the hallway and I did not want to disturb anyone. They did not even come to let us out of the stair well until the end of the school day which was about an hour later. That was the last day I sent her there. What is the point of sending her to a place that has no desire to even attempt to get her to participate.

The worst part was that when she was given her diagnosis I called them up to let them know and they assured me it was not a big deal and that they could accommodate her. I really wish that they would have been upfront with me about not even wanting to try. We ended up sending her to the Intermediate Unit preschool about a month later when she turned 3. I was so scared that we would have another horrible experience but instead it was great. They knew how to handle kids like her and were able to see her potential. She is in her third year there (the first year was only a half year) and she is doing great. She really enjoys school and looks forward to going there. This was a nice change to the crying and fighting me to go into the other preschool. We had only been going there for a month when we quit and she already hated it. I am really glad that she is in the right place and that she is happy there.

Now back to the my current 2 year old. She did pretty well, only a little bit of crying when the parents left the room. The other kids were all crying as well and they said that they expect that. She is very social and I am sure she will make friends easily. It is such a change from our last experience where going in I had "that" kid. You know the one who isn't potty trained, who doesn't talk yet, and cannot sit still. It was nice to not feel like all of the other parents are judging you, but also bittersweet.

I am too tired to proofread so I apologize if there are a ton of mistakes. Thanks!

Crazy Schedules

I have not written in awhile. It is mostly because things have been really crazy around here. It seems that around the time that the start of school comes around life just takes on a new level of insanity. You have to go and school shop, get backpacks, haircuts, shoes, ect. Then you  have to go and meet with new teachers and change around your schedules for the support staff you have for your special needs child. My two daughter are only in preschool so I am sure the stress will only increase as they get to grade school.

It is all so overwhelming; then add to that I have had this cold that does not seem to want to go away. My cold started with a simple cough, which turned into bronchitis, seemed to get better, but then got bad again. I am still wheezy and coughing but I really do not want to go back to the doctor and spend another $35 in copay. I have been there twice now so I am just going to ride it out at this point. =)

We still have not heard anything about our new house. I am really hoping it will be ready around mid Sept since driving Elizabeth to school everyday will be hard since I work everyday. I will also have to drive Samantha to school but at least I have arrangements made for her to be picked up the two days a week that she attends.

I am really hoping that the girls transition well to the new house. I think we may try to do another round of potty training with Elizabeth. What a great way to break in a new house with new carpet right?!? Any potty training tips or suggestions for kids with Autism please feel free to leave a comment. I can use all the help that I can get.

I have also signed up Samantha for a dance class. It is amazing how easy it is to find activities for children without special needs. I would really love to find a dance class for Elizabeth but I want something that is geared towards children with special needs. We have tried other things that were not and usually they want to stick us in the Mommy and me classes where its all little 2 year olds and us. I think that this point Elizabeth is too old to be in that type of class. I want to find something for her that is geared towards her needs and understands her. We did do gymnastics over the winter and spring but we were doing private lessons and while it was nice they get kind of expensive. So if anyone knows of a special needs dance class near Pittsburgh let me know!

Sorry if this post is sort of rambling and has a ton of grammatical errors.

Moving Forward!

When Elizabeth was first diagnosed all I wanted to do was learn everything I could about Autism. I remember reading everything I could get my hands on just to try to help me understand my daughter and her new diagnosis. The one thing that everything I read could not tell me was her prognosis. The reason for that is because no one knows, and that is so frustrating as a parent. The feeling of not knowing what the future holds for your child.

I guess in some ways not knowing may be a good thing. Not knowing means that the future can still be bright and that gives us hope. I think hope is important because hope is ultimately what drives us to keep going with our kids, to keep pushing them to be the best person they can be.

Autism changes your perspective, the life you thought your child would have may not be the life that they are headed for. That is still a hard thing for me to accept. I keep reminding myself that my idea of what her life should be may not be the life she is hoping for. I need to remind myself that as long as she is happy that is really all that matters. I need to push her to be the best Elizabeth that she can be and not the idea of what I have in my head of what she should be.

I think we need to remind ourselves that the outcome may not be bleak, it will get better. Elizabeth has come such a long way in the 2 years since she was diagnosed. It is kind of hard to realize that when you are in the thick of it all, but if I really take a look back at where we were 2 years ago I would see that she has come a long way. It has been in slow, painfully slow steps, but we are moving forward. She still does not have functional communication, she still has very poor social skills, and she still has some issues with sensory stuff and eating, but now she will lead me to some things she wants and that is a huge thing. Leading us to something was something she never did at 2 years old and now she is able to do that. Small steps are still steps!

Now I seldom read "educational" types of things on Autism. I stick more to personal things like blogs or inspiring stories. Most of the studies or the educational material on Autism all basically end up saying the same thing, they don't know for sure what the cause is and they don't know for sure what the cure it. I would rather stick to reading personal things like stories and blogs, things that help keep me going when I am having a tough time with my kids. Its nice to know that there are other people out there going through the same thing you are.I have even met a few other Autism parents here and there in the Pittsburgh area, its nice to surround yourself with other parents in your area that can help point you towards the good resources.

So anyway..........this was not even what I wanted to write about, but this is what popped into my head and came out so there you go. I guess I will have to change this post title from "Fun Summer Stuff" to something else. I will write about fun summer stuff another day.

I apologize in advance for any run on sentences and grammatical errors but I am a very lazy proofreader.

Comments are always appreciated!

Mom Fail

So last Thursday we had our 6 month dental appointment with Elizabeth at Children's Hospital. We go there for our dental visits because she is not the most easy patient to deal with and I figure if she has any issues in the future they can probably put her under for the procedures. So the last few times we have gone to there have been no problems, no cavities, ect. so I was not worried about this appointment. Well this time she had 3 cavities! Nothing makes you feel like a great Mom than your kid having a bunch of cavities, it is like you have a big sign hanging on you that says "hey I give my kid sugar all day and do not brush their teeth"

We do brush Elizabeth's teeth, at least as much as she will let us. She is actually pretty tolerant of it. I think the major problem is that we are still using baby toothpaste that she does not have to spit out. The baby toothpaste also does not have any fluoride in it. I am kind of at a loss as to how to teach her to use "grown up" toothpaste that you have to spit out. Her OT is currently working with her on brushing independently so maybe I will ask her. I guess it is like all of the other life skills that she is currently behind in, we just gotta roll with it until she gets to the point where she can do it.

The other issue is that to do the cavities they will have to sort of put her under, I guess they use a type of thing that puts her into what they call a twilight sleep where she will not remember any of it. The two options for this is to either give her a liquid to drink, which she will spit back out, or put the liquid up her nose, which sounds awful. So we are probably going to have to do the up the nose thing. The problem with the nose thing is after we do that Elizabeth is probably never going to go quietly into that office again. She already hates it and wants to leave right away, if we put a bunch of liquid up her nose she is going to remember that forever and freak out when we even get close to the room, not that I can blame her.

The first appointment that they had available was not until December. Fingers crossed that she does not get anymore cavities between now and then. I guess on the upside if she does at least they can take care of them while she is under.

In other news Elizabeth has also decided she likes to scream. She has always sort of screamed when she was mad or frustrated but now she is just screaming for the hell of it. I think she just likes to hear the sound of her own voice at full volume. Elizabeth is one of those kids who do not like loud noise, except apparently when she is the one making this noise, that is alright with her. Lucky me! =)

Frustration

So I am typing this on an iPad mini so I am sure there will be many mistakes made.

We are currently on vacation and things are going pretty well. Elizabeth has been doing really well, she is listening and not trying to bolt. Samantha is doing well behavior wise but has actually been sick. The first day of vacation she caught some type of stomach bug and was throwing up everything she ate.

So vacation over all has been good but the title of the post is frustration so I am sure you know it's not going to be all sunshine and roses.

My family including my parents and siblings are all down here along with my grandparents and my friend ( also babysitter) and her husband. My family always comes down here for a week this time of year. I am not sure if all families do this or if it is just a Pittsburgh thing to go to Ocean City in the summer. We have not come the past few years for various reasons, mostly having kids that were too young to actually enjoy the beach.

So tonight was the night that my friend was supposed to watch the kids so myself and my husband could go out to dinner and then have a night out. I was really looking forward to coming back to the hotel with the kids asleep and not having to do the usual bedroom routine. But that was not to be, instead I came home and the kids were still up and down on the deck with my family. That in itself did not make me mad, it was more what my Mother had to say about it. She had come up to the room and asked my friend to bring the down, again fine with me, and I am not upset with my friend at all over that. My anger is more toward the comments that were made.

She knew I was upset at her but the problem is that she cannot understand why. The reason I was upset and this is probably something that most of you reading this can relate to, is that I never get a night off and now seeing my kids I knew it would be me putting them to bed. What most people who only have "normal" kids do not understand is they I cannot just explain to my kid that Mommy wants to stay down here on the deck and relax so please go upstairs with the babysitter while I stay here. It just does not compute to my child, if Mommy is here she should be coming upstairs with me.

Instead of understanding where I am coming from I instead get comments about how I need to let my kids have fun and that I should be doing more with my kids. What she does not seem to get is that we spend every single weekend and even most weeknights doing things with my kids. I cam count on one hand the times that I have had a babysitter just to have a night out in the four years my kids have been alive. She will never understand what it is like to have a child that you always have to be on around, you cannot stop paying attention for even one second when your child lacks that safety awareness.

Right now Elizabeth is in a pretty good place but that is sometimes short lived. Overall though it was a great week. We all had a lot of fun and the kids were really good. They loved the beach and the pool. The weather was good and we only had one day of rain mid week.

I drove the whole way home because my husband caught whatever stomach bug Samantha had the first day.Of course the weather was fine until we got back into Pennsylvania where it started to monsoon. Seems to be the trend this summer in Pittsburgh, either rain or its so hot you cannot function.

Thanks for reading and if you like what you read please share it on Facebook!

Twas The Night Before Vacation

So this will be the first time we are going on a vacation since Elizabeth was about six months old and she is currently four now. We are headed to the beach for the week with my family. We are going to leave tomorrow night around 2 am with the hopes that the kids will sleep pretty much the entire way there. My kids have never been in a car more than an hour or two so a six hour car trip should be interesting.

There are a lot of considerations when you travel with children, especially if one of them has Autism. Will they be alright on the car ride to and from? Will they sleep in a strange bed in a strange room? Will I forget to pack something important for them? I would say that the single most important worry that I have is will Elizabeth eat down there. Elizabeth is in a very picky stage, she only eats a few things. She does not have any issues with textures or anything like that as some kids with ASD do but she will only eat a handful of things and they are mostly carbs.

We will likely eat breakfast and lunch in the condo and eat dinner out. Restaurants are always interesting, typically Elizabeth does pretty well. Except when she doesn't, and when that happens a bad time is had by all. Samantha is not always a complete angel either but at least her behaviors are kind of typical 2 year old stuff and we can usually redirect her pretty easily. We usually take the iPad's with us and that seems to distract them pretty well. The other issue with restaurants is that typically we order my kids either grilled cheese or chicken tenders with fries, and they cannot eat that everyday next week. I guess we are going to have to expand on our menu choices.

There are so many things to pack and so many things to get done before we leave and naturally I have put it all off so I only have tomorrow to get it done. I am also working an 8 hour day and will have to cook some type of dinner. Wish me luck!

Puke and other fun stuff

So there is nothing like walking into your child's room to check on them before you go to bed and immediately smelling something off. At first when I looked for the throw up I did not see it since the room was dark and she had kind of pulled the covers up over it. I assumed that maybe she had a really bad poop in her diaper. No such luck! Upon closer inspection there was puke everywhere. Apparently she threw up the last two weeks worth of stomach content, ok so that is a slight exaggeration but there was a lot. I am not even sure how all of that food was still in there and not digested at this point. So we gave her a bath and changed all of the sheets while airing out her room a bit. She seems happy and doesn't seem sick, which is good since this is her week of school for this month of the summer.

She has done this a time or two before where she has just thrown up but was not sick prior to it or after it. I am hoping that is the case this time as well since we do not have a babysitter tomorrow and if she can't go to school I have to take another day off of work. I had finally saved up a pretty good chunk of PTO time at work but with several appointments coming up in the next two weeks and our vacation next week I can pretty much say adios to that.

It would be so nice to just once take off work and actually do something that I enjoy but I am too scared to do that since I am always trying to save up my time for the numerous appointments my kids have throughout the year. I can totally understand how a lot of parents of special needs children cannot work, every other week I am having to take time off. I have been very lucky in that I work from home and that my boss has been very flexible when it comes to appointments and such.

 So now here I sit, waiting on the first load of bedding to get done in the washer so I can put in the second load. I do not want to let it sit overnight with the puke on it since the smell is pretty bad. Luckily there was a mattress pad on her bed since the puked soaked right through the sheets. I doubt I would ever be able to get that smell out of her mattress.

I am also really hoping that Elizabeth goes back to sleep. She is not the best sleeper and typically wakes up over night probably about 1/3 of the time and will not go back to sleep for hours. After getting pulled out of bed and given a middle of the night bath I will be amazed if she falls back asleep.

Anyway that is how my night is going, I hope you are having a better one.

Dinners and other related adventures

So it is almost 4:30 when the babysitter leaves for the day and that means it is almost dinner time. Dinner time in our house is sort of like a contest in which it is the kids vs myself. I try to assist one child getting a plate ready and as I am doing that the other one runs out of her seat. I wrestle that one back to her chair as the first one has dropped her plate all over the floor. I finally get both plates filled and on the table but as I try to fill my plate one of them will use it as an opportunity to either fight with each other, spill their drink (we are trying open cups), or instead of using a fork shove a handful of food into their mouths. Needless to say I do not look forward to mealtimes and often when its just me and the kids I do not get to really sit down to eat.

Making dinner in itself is a challenge. Typically Elizabeth is right under my feet trying to pull me one way or another as I am cooking up stuff in a scalding hot pan. While Samantha is aggravating Elizabeth to the point where they start fighting. I am amazed that no one has gotten burned so far. At my old house I had the kitchen gated off but since we are staying with my grandfather for the summer we are not able to do that in his style of kitchen so its pretty much a free for all.

This week is going to be spent preparing for vacation. We have not been to the beach in years so I am sure I will over pack everything as I tend to do. I need to make a list or something since I am very anxious that I am going to forget something important.

While a beach vacation sounds relaxing in reality going to the beach with a 4 year old with no safety awareness and a 2 year old daredevil is probably going to be anything but relaxing. Between hauling their stuff to the beach, chasing them down on the beach, changing diapers, and making sure everyone is fed it will likely be a rough week for me. Maybe I should buy a case of wine to take down to drink after they are in bed. =)

Swimming and Spreading Awareness

So yesterday afternoon I decided to stop at the grocery store with Elizabeth (4 years old) since we were a little early for her physical therapy. Elizabeth can really be hit or miss when it comes to going into stores, typically she is really good although typically I get a cart and put her in it. This time I decided not to get a cart since really I only wanted to buy us something to drink and a snack.

So we walk through the doors of the store and the first thing we see are a bunch of balloons. Elizabeth really loves balloons and wanted to play with them. I let her for a few minutes but then told her it was time to move on. Well you would have thought I was trying to kill her because she just began to do this whiny scream thing THE ENTIRE TIME! I just love walking through the grocery store getting those evil eyes from all of the old people. I could have taken her out to the car and not bought our drinks but I thought that I should probably just stick it out because if I leave every time we have an issue I would never be able to go anywhere. We eventually found what we were looking for and went to check out, Elizabeth had almost completely stopped yelling by that point. I guess we spread our awareness for the week!

That evening after therapy we decided to go swimming at my parents house. Elizabeth loved it! The only issue I am finding is that I cannot really decide on what flotation device to use with her. We tried the water wings (floaties? not sure what they are called) and a few other things. I ended up using one of those puddle jumper things (name??) on her and it worked alright. Elizabeth decided that she wanted to drink the pool water so as we were pulling her around the pool she kept taking big gulps of it. I am really hoping to find a special needs swim class for her but so far everywhere I have called does not have anything like that.

Samantha (2 years old) loved the water as well. She is such a dare devil. We opened the pool gate and she almost jumped in on her own. We finally got her flotation devices on her, and she jumped in. She loved the water and she really wanted to swim on her own without Mommy holding her which was a problem since we could not find a good flotation device for her either. It seems like everything we try their head still does down to far in the water.

Samantha eventually decided she was done swimming so we took off all of her gear and sent her out of the pool to NiNi (my mother) but the little trickster decided to jump in without warning. Luckily we caught her and she didn't go under or anything but man we are going to have to watch her closely around water.

We go to the beach in two weeks so hopefully we will get a few more swimming practices in before we go. We are lucky that Elizabeth is still only 4 but what do you do when they get older and are still in swim diapers. The place that we stay at will not let kids in diapers in the big pool, they are only allowed in the baby pool. I guess fingers crossed that she will potty train some day soon.

Sorry for any mistakes and misspellings!

Great Article

Here is a great article that I came across. So many of have so much guilt about not doing enough. I am one of them. Sorry no inspirational message in that but it is what it is.

http://www.fireflyfriends.com/special-needs-blog/specific/priorities-change-when-you-have-a-child-with-special-needs

Selling the House

So here we are, I actually had forgotten that I created this blog. Hence the no posts in 2 years.  We have sold our current house and are now living with my grandfather for the summer. It is going to be a very long summer and things were super stressful for the last few months. On the bright side my daughters have actually adjusted to the change really well. We are building a house and it is supposed to be ready in September. 

As for the Autism thing, it has gotten a bit worse lately. Elizabeth is in this super aggressive mode where she keeps attacking my younger daughter. I am trying out various ways of handling this but so far nothing has helped. She is also doing it to myself and other adults, which makes me think that maybe it is an attention thing. Her teacher agreed with me on that. I just wish I knew a way to stop it. On the bright side her teacher did say something along the lines of doing something for attention was a higher level of thinking (or maybe purposeful thinking?) and that was a good thing.