This happens every year. It shouldn't surprise me. Somehow, I hope he will outgrow being bi-polar and autistic so he won't go through such torture every January.Ian has had this post-holiday meltdown every year. It starts the day after Christmas and continues until mid-January. He wants more toys. He doesn't want to go back to sc…[more]

It would be nice if the world found peace this year, but I'll be happy if I can find it in my own home. Even when we try to keep the holidays low-key, this is still a very stressful time of year.Yesterday I announced the Christmas tree and all of the holiday decorations would be coming down today. You would have thought I had said, "I hope y…[more]

Early in his life, my son developed the inability to let go of a simple idea or problem that could not be solved to his liking. "Perseverating" is what the experts call it. To the untrained eye it is called "being stubborn". To the mother of an Aspie it is called "a huge source of frustration for everyone." It was one of the first signs o…[more]

It seems so long ago - half a lifetime for my son, four plus years to me - when our family was learning how to help our son with his sensory challenges. We bought a mini-trampoline for him to jump on when he needed to shake things back to normal. We also used it to help him learn to count past 100, by twos and tens, and any o…[more]

When my son was three, he began speech therapy through the school district we lived in at the time. He had serious articulation difficulties that we assumed were caused by his inability to hear properly. He had his first ear infection when he was ten days old, and they were back-to-back for three solid years.H…[more]

When your first child has problems they don't talk about in the pediatric manual on your shelf, what do you do?I didn't even realize the symptoms my son was showing were an indication that something was wrong because it wasn't in the book. By the time he was two and we were spending more time around other children his…[more]

My Trusera friend, Stimey, recently asked whether we feel the need to say something to parents whose children exhibit autistic symptoms. I stated that I prefer to keep my opinions to myself in those situations, especially if I don't know the family.Well, tonight I did the exact opposite. The mother of a young boy in my daughter's martial arts cla…[more]

My husband's grandmother has had Alzheimer's for several years. She resides in a lovely assisted living facility about 1,000 feet from my mother-in-law's condo. She is forgetful and knows it. Usually, she has a good sense of humor about it - at least she does around us. My mother-in-law deals with the day-to-day stresses of caring for…[more]

Several years ago, our family figured out that holidays should be spent at home whenever possible. Our children do not cope well with being in a different house with unusual sleeping arrangements and confusing schedules. We learned this the hard way.My husband and I agreed we would try to stick to the "holidays at home" ru…[more]

Not long after my son was diagnosed with Asperger's, I met a man whose son not only had Asperger's but was bi-polar as well. The difficulties he described to me made me cry I can remember thinking to myself, "I really feel for that kid and his family. We are so lucky there is only Asperger's to worry about with Ian."[Insert suspensef…[more]