Last night I dreamed that my son could speak. The details are fuzzy. But I do remember that it was not some miraculous binary shift; he did not start uttering amazingly long, eloquent phrases, a fact which made the whole thing seem that much more real. But he did tell me what he wanted. And…
Year: 2012
The Defensive Stance
A few weeks ago I took my daughter in for her first dental visit. The appointment was at Children’s Hospital in DC. This location meant that we would have to park in a large underground garage, take an elevator to a large thoroughfare/lobby area, and walk down at least two large hallways, along with anybody…
Filmstrip of Memories
This has been THE blog post that I have avoided writing, ever since I started gathering my thoughts about my son’s autism. I have been putting this one off for a long time in order to avoid ruining the rest of my day. But I need to document, document, document. *********************** Me, standing over his…
Different. But Equal?
I’m about to work out some thoughts on the Interwebs that I should probably just keep to myself. Because I’m sure that if anyone stumbles across these, I will surely receive a slew of comments accusing me of being “ableist” or “hateful” towards my son and all other Autistics out there. The fact is that…
New Clothes, Rage and Guilt
So the weekend started out promisingly enough. I stopped work early and went to the mall for a rare (and I mean RARE) two hour wardrobe update experience. Not to get too far off topic, but I just need to confess that I don’t even bother shopping on sale. I get to the mall about…
On Not Being a Very Good Mother
So I feel like [insert bad word] today about my parenting skills. I’m questioning the wisdom of posting this plainly on the Interwebs, where strangers can judge me. But I’m committing more fully to writing these days, as I’m finding it effective in helping me figure out just who I am these days. Yesterday, my…
The Human Squeeze Machine
Yeah. So I just squeezed my son to sleep. Well, not literally. He just needed to calm down. Hubby gave up trying to coax my son to sleep after lying in bed with him for half an hour and failing miserably. (My son is at that nap/no nap transition at the age of four, but…
Photojournalism Project – What Autism Looks Like in My Home
A lot of photographers participate in 365/52 projects, where somebody establishes a theme, and each participant then hunts around for images in their lives that illustrate what that theme means to them. I briefly thought about signing up for one of these projects. And then I thought about how crazy my life is, and how…