It has been almost 3 years since my last post...we have been busy. Narnia is now 4 years old and Noah will be turning 4 the end of this month. They both have therapy 20 hours a week and the changes we have seen in them have been incredible. Both Narnia and Noah are able to communicate and interact so well that Jim and I often get confused looks from people when we tell them that our children have autism. Narnia is able to do 65 piece puzzles completely unassisted and her coloring skills are out of this world. Noah loves to use his wooden train tracks and construct railway sets that would make any engineer jealous. They both attend preschool at a near by Christian school and seem to be thriving there. The past 3 years have been extremely difficult, good, scary, fun, and fast. Although both Narnia and Noah have progressed beyond what we thought possible, they are still autistic and we still have a crazy life. One thing we discovered a couple years ago was that we couldn't always do activities that families with typical children could do. We would try to take them on different outings and, more often than not, ended up leaving 10 minutes in with screaming children. Due to their autism, they tend to get overstimulated easily, especially Narnia. For example, a carnival or fair would be a child's dream outing; however, with so many options of things to do and so many people running around, Narnia and Noah would quickly become overwhelmed and start throwing a temper tantrum not long after arrival. So, we got creative and began doing activities that worked for us and started saying "no" to outings that would lead to frustration, tantrums, and tons of wine at the end of the day. Being a parent of children with disabilities, I can honestly say that it is a whole lot easier to stay home than to go out and risk one or both of my kids having a meltdown in public. So, to counteract the hermit life style, we began making bucket lists each season to make sure that we got out and did something fun together as a family. The outings are ones which we can come and go from as needed, have lots of space to run around in, and do not cost much, if any, money. Some of our favorite things are: visiting the zoo, going to the beach, playgrounds, and going for walks. We also started doing family movies nights, complete with a movie themed dinner,a craft and a game. Sometimes it is hard to not be able to take them out to eat or out to see a movie, but we do what works for us and our family is better for it.
Next time: Noah James
