April is Autism Awareness Month. I’m not sure when this tradition started. Does anyone out there know? I would research it but I’m in the middle of eating a huge, yummy cinnamon roll from Cinnabon and I don’t feel like multi-tasking. But it’s a curious thing, this awareness. When my sister and I were kids, […]
Every year I write each of my children a letter on their birthday. These letters describe the person they are at that particular age; their likes and dislikes, favorite activities, and overall temperament. The following is an excerpt from the letter I wrote my oldest son when he turned twelve yesterday. Dear Joey, The day […]
A lot of times people ask me if my 10-year old son Jack’s autism is high or low functioning. And I almost always answer the same way. “Um, I’m not sure.” I mean, for the most part, he is high functioning. He talks and carries on conversations and is in a regular classroom and eats […]
Last winter my husband Joe and I took five red suitcases, four messy boys, and one pink girl on a Caribbean vacation. As soon as our second son, Jack, climbed into the shuttle to the airport, he made an announcement to the driver. “None of us. Smoke tobacco.” The driver looked back at me in the […]
Dear Duff, A couple of weeks ago I used one of your mixes—specifically, the tie-dye one—to bake a cake with my 10-year old son, Jack. I noticed a part on the box where you asked people to write to you about their stories and experiences and loving family moments. I figured, why not? Maybe we’d […]
Dear Jack, When you were about year old, we saw a bunch of doctors and specialists to try and figure out why you didn’t talk or point or look at us. And at that time, many people told us not to rush to give you a label. “Be careful with a label, because it will […]
Dear Christopher, I’m not sure if you remember me, but we were in the same class in third grade. I was tall for my age, and I had long, blonde hair that I usually wore in messy braids. You had very dark hair and brown eyes. You were a little chubby, and I remember you […]
The first chapter of the book I wrote is a letter to myself the day Jack was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. It’s everything I wish I knew about him and me and autism way back in November of 2006, when he was a chubby 18-month old who made me frantic because he wouldn’t talk or point […]
My second son, Jack, was diagnosed with autism when he was 18 months old. Now he’s almost eleven, and let’s just say there are certain, well, unique parenting skills that I’ve learned in the past decade or so. Because of autism, I understand the acronyms for ASD, IEP, and PDD-NOS. I know what sensory processing […]
