…Bliss. Or even remotely close to it. Throughout the 7 years, 6 months, 4 weeks and 2 days that Greyson has been on this Earth, Derek and I have heard it all. From “he is the sweetest, cutest, most loveable boy”, to “I don’t know how you all raised that child” or “doesn’t he do anything besides run around in people’s yards?”. We have done a lot of observing others as they often observe us and Greyson, and there is definitely a particular age/race/demographic “pattern” that we are seeing when it comes to the rude people and nasty comments/looks we receive. I may have alluded to it previously, but because Autism is a condition not visible, Greyson is often seen in public as a “naughty child” or a child who “needs a good spanking” (I have heard this one SO many times, it’s sickening), but the minute that we put his medical helmet on him, people don’t even bat an eyelash at him or us. It’s sad that we have to use the helmet out in public so people can see that we aren’t bad parents or that we can’t control our child, but he has a medical condition that requires multiple adults accompany him everywhere he goes and a helmet to eliminate the possibility of him hurting himself.

Over the past couple of weeks, Greyson has been exploring his independence a bit more. We no longer are requiring him to hold onto our hand as we wait for the bus in the morning, allowing him to walk 3-6 ft ahead of us or his RBT/Nurse while in the front yard. He has been doing very well with this, but decided to take that distance a bit farther and ran into an elderly neighbor’s yard this week and needless to say, she did not appreciate it much. She made some rude, ignorant comments to his workers that would have been extremely hurtful if I had been outside when they were said. Funny enough, the minute that I came outside, her entire demeanor changed and she was sooooo kind, polite and was trying to be “understanding”. This is another thing I have noticed from people recently, too. I feel like we have been very transparent with people we meet at the park or out in public that he is Autistic and has many special needs, which is why he typically travels with 3-4 adults that are constantly on top of him, yet I can’t help but feel as though I shouldn’t have to explain ourselves to anyone. What has happened to the compassion people used to have?

2024 has started out fairly well. We have been trekking along towards summer. We did begin sending Greyson to the Autism center in Mount Joy (about 35 min away from our home) through his ABA provider, every Wednesday and Friday from 2-5 PM. That gives him a solid 6 hours per week that he is getting one-on-one training specifically towards skills he will use as he continues to grow. We are very hopeful that spending 5 days per week at the center this summer, will be even better for him and we will begin potty training! I will be so incredibly happy when we are done with diapers. He has been doing such a great job with telling us immediately when he has gone, so we are really optimistic that he will be able to tell us before he has to go. Though I’m pulling him from school early 2x per week, and driving additional time, I see how happy he is at the center and see how many skills and independence he is developing and it makes it all worth it.

Our 2023-2024 resolutions of taking him out more is continuing to progress as well. Two weeks ago, he did another outing to our local grocery store. He was able to help push the cart and even has begun to push the cart to items that HE likes and picks those items off of the shelves and puts them in the cart. Derek is a sucker because as soon as Greyson started putting candy in the cart, Derek caved and got him some odd stuff that I didn’t even know existed. We also went to my nephew’s birthday party in February, and Greyson was able to stay (almost) the entire time! We only had to leave because he had a seizure during the last 20 minutes of the party and we needed to bring him home to rest. He had a BLAST at the party!! It was held at a gym, and he had so much fun running around, playing basketball, throwing balls and playing with my Dad’s cane. He did so great and had a wonderful time.

Last evening, my same nephew had a fundraiser event at our local SkyZone indoor trampoline park and I had never been there before. Greyson also had never been there either, but Roslynn has been a regular there. He was able to tolerate wearing the special socks that have to be worn to jump/play in the equipment and he was having a ton of fun playing in the arcade/game area. He was set on winning a rainbow ball from a claw machine, but we were convinced it was rigged because one of the sides to the claw was loose. So no ball for Greyson. After 2 hours of jumping, running around and unsuccessful claw games, we called it a night and went home. The kids had so much fun and enjoyed spending time with their cousins. It helped to knocked them both out pretty well, too!

The end of Winter and early Spring always brings a very full calendar for our family, especially when Easter is early and in March, like this year. I feel like we completely bypassed the beginning of this year and are leaping into summer. Next thing you know, we will be discussing back-to-school for August!!! My plan for the summer is to enjoy time with the kids. Roslynn will be returning to Summer camp for 4 weeks, not all 8 like we did last year. I felt like having a week-long break between camp weeks was probably a good idea, since she was getting really worn out being outside in the heat all day everyday, all summer long. We decided to send her every other week for the entire summer in hopes that she will still have time to socialize, but not sit on a tablet all summer long.

The first of our five-book children series is still on pre-sale, set to be released this June! The series features our family, a real-life family who is impacted by Autism at all different levels of the spectrum. Each book will come from a different family member’s prospective, such as- Roslynn’s, Greyson’s, Mom’s, Dad’s and even Duke’s! The first book is from Roslynn’s point-of-view, who also has Autism. The book is SO cute, I really hope that you will consider buying it. It is the perfect series to help explain to younger kiddos what Autism is, what some characteristics are like, how it effects everyone in the family, and what it means to live with the disorder. You can pre-order at the link below, an please tell your friends, therapist and education employed friends, and family members about the series!

https://buy.stripe.com/eVa02D0br9cufDy00u