Senseless Senses

Our First Parent/Teacher Conference for Austin this week and Austin's FIRST Sleepover at a friends house! Let's see, the parent teach conference did not exactly go as I expected. While there was mention of "fidgety", "anxious" and "frustrated" they were always followed by "but, I have a class full of children like this and they are only five years old". I guess my optimism of having a supportive teacher our first year in public school when I met her this summer was naive. During our first meeting she mentioned things like " I know exactly what you're going through...", "I have a daughter with SPD....", "Let me know about the testing and we'll get moving on an IEP as soon as we know something.."... Well... now we're in a "Austin's a typical kindergartener" type of conversation. HE IS NOT TYPICAL!  HE HAS SPD! I manuvered my way through the 20 minute conversation with a lot of ...

Someone once told me that our kids are brought to this earth to teach us things we haven't quite learned yet. I've given this a lot of thought these last few months as we've started having Austin evaluated for Aspergers, OCD and other disorders to determine if there's more to his world than we originally believed. See, I was under the impression that parents were here to teach their children. We're here to teach them how to navigate through this crazy world we live in. To ensure they are brought up understanding that each of us deserves respect and freedom to make choices and mistakes. Most importantly, to teach our children the importance of family and belonging, to know the power of loving someone. I am realizing I was wrong. I can and will teach my children as much about these items as I can, however, what I am realizing is that they can teach me far more than I can ever give back.  Austin has taught me:  To appreciate how important it is to understand tha...

Earlier this summer as I was trying to make sense of our world in our "Sensory Overloaded House" I came across a website that tried to explain to those of us who's senses seem to work as designed what it was like to have a sensory processing disorder. While this gave me a great way to help my husband understand what is was like for our son, it also gave me an idea to help those of us in this foreign world we call "home" understand Austin, not just "sensory processing disorder". So, I did my own "Imagine If..".. check it out... and this isn't even the complete explanation of Austin's world. I'm still trying to figure that out. I sit here typing this today as my other son, Cooper, stands next to me screaming because Daddy won't let him go outside while he cooks my special dinner (it was a bad weekend for me) ... oh and now we've just peed our pants!  Let the melt down begin.. Anyway.. here's something to think about fo...

It amazes me that my son can find anything to chew on. We spent a fortune yesterday on new clothes for the fall and he's been wearing a fleece pull over from Old Navy all day. Not because it's cold out, while there is a breeze it's quite beautiful today, but because he can chew on the collar without stretching it out. It's like his personal "chew toy". When I picked him up from school Friday the sweet, innocent teenager that was was responsible for his care pulled me aside and said "Um, are you aware that he has been chewing on his shirt lately?" .. :) Silly girl, isn't that normal? It is in my house. Yes, I calmly stated, that's normal behavior for us. "If you aren't comfortable with him chewing his shirt, please feel free to give him a straw to chew on, or something crunchy to eat". Chewing on clothing is a calming sensation for Austin, oddly enough it is for the dog Coco as well! I just can't see giving my five year old...