Wow how things change.

We are approaching week 4 since my husband left, and I have seen a remarkable change in my daughter. I know that she is having a hard time dealing with out having her daddy around, but she is truly making such remarkable progress. I have finally made great progress in her potty training journey. I have not changed a wet diaper in 2 1/2 weeks now, yes we are still dealing with bowel movements in the diaper) but I can remember just two short weeks ago I was still changing on average 5 to 6 pee pee diapers a day.

Her anger is still real strong at times, she still asks for her dad but tonight she actually called him Clayton instead of daddy. Threw me for a loop there. She has also learned the letters: A, B, G, J, K, L, R, Y, & Z by looking at her flash cards. She actually attempted to draw a picture of her family and you could pretty much tell that she was trying to draw people. I am so proud of her. She is eating dinner with the family at night and not 2 hours after everyone else has eaten. She is also eating with her silver ware.

After seeing all of the progress in the past 3 weeks I am beginning to wonder if maybe she is not as delayed as we all thought. Maybe she was just feeling the same stress as I was and it was holding her back.

Single Motherhood.

Please do not think by the title that I am expert on this subject. I know I am not since I am very new to this. On the Friday before Father's day my husband and daughter's father walked out on our marraige. It has been very hard I know the trauma of it is is just beggining to rear it's ugly head.

I know that my daughter can feel my anger and hatred towards her father. Every time I hear her say daddy it really just grates my teeth. I really do hate that but must make sure that she does not see what it does to me.

No matter what pain I am feeling I know that she is also having pain. Since she has autism she can not express her self very good and when she does in is through anger and often violence. All I know to do is let her get it off her chest and not show any emotion in front of her. I feel like I have to be a huge stone. No fear no emotion.

For this reason I have not been able to write on here. I had recently started back to college befor all of this happened and wether I had wanted to admit it or not I actually seen all of this comming for a few years now. I will continue to try to blog as much as I can and share with you any things that make not only raising an developmentaly challenged child a bit easier but I will also try my best to tell you single parents out there what I am finding works best.

My first tip is every time your child says I hate you or I hate this just remember your child is angry just like you and is frustrated. She or he will change his or her mind before bed.

The Movers and the Shakers Part II

Photo gotten from http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/04/americas-next-top-model-finalist-turns-to-game-design/2

Heather Kuzmich, born April 19, 1986, in Valparaiso, Indiana. She is an art student and an American Model. She currently lives in Chicago, Illinois, where she is studying to be a video game designer. She is best know for her fourth runner up position on America's Next Top Model, where it was made known that Heather has both Asperger's and ADHD. She was diagnosed with asperger's at the age of 15, right around the time that her father passed away. She has said in interviews that it was not the easiest time in her life. She says that she struggles with approaching people and with her communication skills.

The movers and the shakers.

Image can be found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin

Given that April is Autism Awareness month, I thought it would be nice to do a little segment on famous people with Autism. Some are high Functioning some have Asperger, and some are just on the spectrum.


Today's high light goes to Temple Grandin.

Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is a doctor of animal sciences and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry in animal behavior. As a person with high-functioning autism, Grandin is also widely noted for her work in autism advocacy and is the inventor of the hug machine designed to calm hypersensitive persons.

Grandin was born in Boston, MA, to Richard Grandin and Eustacia Cutler. She was diagnosed as autistic in 1950. Having been labeled and diagnosed with brain damage at the age of two, she was placed in a structured nursery school with what she considers to have been good teachers. Grandin's mother spoke to a doctor who suggested speech therapy, and she hired a nanny who spent hours playing turn-based games with Grandin and her sister.

At age four, Grandin began talking, and she began making progress. She considers herself lucky to have had supportive mentors from primary school onwards. However, Grandin has said that middle school, and high school were the worst parts of her life. She was the "nerdy kid," the one whom everyone teased and picked on. She would be walking down the street and people would say "tape recorder," because she would repeat things over and over again. Grandin states that "I could laugh about it now, but back then it really hurt."

After graduating from Hampshire County School, a boarding school for gifted children in Rindge, NH in 1966, Grandin went on to earn her bachelor's degree in psycology from Franklin Pierce College also located in Rindge) in 1970, her master's degree in animal science from Arizona State University, in 1975, and her doctoral degree in animal science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1989.

All of the above information can be found, and was copied from here.

Temple went on to have one of the greatest achievement in the livestock industry. She realized that the treatment of cattle at the slaughter yards was to stressful on the animals. She invented what was known as weeping curved corrals, which helped lower the stress level of the animals being lead to slaughter. She was quotes as saying: "I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect." —Temple Grandin. Her hard work towards the respect for animals up for slaughter, were proved to be time and money saving investments.

As a mother with a daughter who is a high functioning autistic, here is one of those stories that gives me hope that my daughter can be any thing that she puts her heart to.

On the job hunt.

I had 2 job interviews yesterday, and thanks to the wonderful managers who interviewed me I found out that after almost four years of staying home, all I am qualified to be is a mom. Some days that are real trying on me I really feel like I am not truly qualified to be a mom. We have regressed recently Elizabeth was doing so good about doing #1 in the potty and now today she has had nothing but accidents. I sit here and wonder what it is that I am doing so wrong that causes her to take so many steps backwards. All of my friends keep telling me that it is just because Elizabeth has autism, and to tell the truth all that statement does is anger me. I do not see my daughter as a person that needs to use this as an excuse so it really upsets me when others do it for her. It is almost as if saying that because she has aspergers autism that will be her life long definition. I feel totally different I do not want her autism to define her I want her to have the ability to define her autism.

Free Pull Ups potty training dvd

I am struggling with potty training my three year old. I do not know about any of you but I have been told that potty training a child with autism is almost impossible. When I was first told this by my daughters doctor all I could think was "Oh no we can do this she is high functioning." So far with a year into potty training we have her broke on wetting herself, but she is still having bowel movement accidents, and I guess since she has only ever went poo 2 times in a potty, and she will tell you I will not go in the potty. I hold it, I do not believe these can be called accidents any more. We were recently interviewed by out local Head Start and we were told that if she has not been completely potty trained by the new school year she can not attend. Every 30 min in my day I take the time to put her on the potty. She will not tell me when she needs to go ( unless it is in the middle of the night). When you ask her " Elizabeth do you need to go potty?" and you know she does she will still tell you no. As soon as you put her on the potty she pee's so much. I have been searching for tips on helping her go potty. I ran across this offer and figured I would pass it along. I know it is only available while supplies last. Click here to fill out the form to get your free potty training tips DVD.

I need a favor

Please take a second of your time to vote for my entry for a Fry's reusable bag design.
Click here to go straight to my entry.

Lots to do.

As I have been blog surfing recently I have found so many that are great. To all of my followers he is a little list of my 5 most favorite.

1. It's All about the Savings this girl always has a ton of stuff to take part in. She has great giveaways and reviews. She also has a ton of money saving tips.
2. Life of Logan For any mother struggling with an ill child, this blog will inspire you. It makes we smile every time I go there.
3. Mama to 3 blessings- Our Homeschool Blog I love this blog because it has some great advise on home schooling. in this day and age with our schools being so horrible I am considering home school. It is great to know all those tips and tricks. Plus she has great giveaways.
4. Hearts Make Families I love to go to this blog and read her great stories. She really does take away the mundane in a boring day.
5. All About Entering Giveaways The name says it all. All this lady does is post giveaways she finds on her blog sufin' days.
   

Fire station visit

Izzy really did have fun today. Of course it all had to be on her terms. We will be going back out for she would only talk to the female firefighter and at the end of the visit all she did was talk. She refused to look at the trucks. She would not get dressed in an outfit. Over all it went well she learned the difference between hot and cold for many things. Even though we have gone over them at our home it seemed a firefighter really helped to ingrain it in her. At the end of the visit when they re asked the question what should you do if your house is on fire she still gave the answer hide under the table. :(

Did you know

This will not be long but I figured I would pass this along. Did you know that if you are using an older child safety seat you should look on it for an expiration date. If it has expired you need to replace it because it truly is no longer safe to use.