Easter, 2010

All in all, a good day. I took Lonnie to the Easter egg hunt at our church and then during church service, they had all the children come up front and they brought in a group of baby bunnies that the children got to hold and pet. They do this every year and Lonnie had been so excited about getting to hold a bunny. Unfortunately, her bunny got scared and in trying to escape, managed to scratch both of her arms. Nothing serious, but enough to sting. She did not have a melt down (thank goodness), and I ran some cold water on them to take away the sting. We went to my sister's house after church and had good food and another egg hunt there.

Just when you think it's safe to go outside...

Lonnie has free rein to play outside in our backyard. It is fenced in and secure, so she is in and out all the time when the weather is nice. Yesterday she had been outside for about 15 minutes when my husband went out to check on her. She was standing by the wall between our yard and our neighbor's to the west and appeared to be distressed. When he got closer, he saw that she had gotten her hand caught in a hole in the wall and she didn't know how to react. Of course he got her free promptly and we talked with her about not putting her hand through the fence again. She had been trying to pet the neighbor's dog.



This is another reminder to never get too complacent about an autistic child's safety - because the inability to recognize potential danger seems to be a fairly common issue.

Well worth the read

I just read a wonderful essay by a woman with two autistic children. It made me cry.

It's called "My Children Want You To Know" and is on her blog is at:

http://staticvox.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-children-want-you-to-know.html

So much of what she wrote is true of Lonnie, how she processes the world around her. I have felt the sting of unspoken criticism from strangers and family members when they judge her behavior out of ignorance and intolerance.

New Insight

I am so excited about a new source of information about autism. My sister and brother-in-law saw an HBO movie called "Temple Grandin". It is a true story about a woman with autism and how she grew to become a world renowned designer of livestock handling equipment. She has written many books and gives lectures from the unique perspective of a person with autism. I went to a web site about an upcoming conference on autism and from there to a site where I purchased a lecture on DVD and several of her books. I can see already that this is going to be a wonderful source of information for us as parents, for Lonnie's teachers, and for our family.

The web site is: www.templegrandin.com

Valentines Day has come and gone. Lonnie was very excited about making valentines for the children in her class. I helped her print their names on tags which she put on small bags of candy. She was really involved this year - making sure all the childrens names were accounted for and that all the bags had the same amounts in them.

We have a new addition to our family - a little dog named Jenny. She is very energetic, but small enough that Lonnie can carry her around and take her for walks. Lonnie is really excited to have Jenny here.

Christmas morning

Christmas morning got off to an early start this year - Lonnie got up at 5:10am. She was so excited to not only open her presents, but also to hand Bobby and I our presents and watch to see what we both got. Although she is still not grasping the real meaning of Christmas, she listens to my explanations and I can tell she is sorting it all out in her mind. I have faith that she will eventually understand and appreciate the wonderful story of Christmas.

We lost my aunt to cancer yesterday. It was expected, I'm glad she was able to have one last Christmas with the family, especially her 2 grandsons. I told Lonnie last night that Aunt Jan had died, not knowing if she would really comprehend or not. She looked at me very surprised, her eyes wide, and said, "she died?". I explained that she had been very sick and it was time for her to go be in heaven with Grammy and Kiersten. The permanence of death has been very difficult for Lonnie to grasp, but as she approaches her 12th birthday, I can see that she is beginning to understand.

As always, each day holds it's own miracles.

Christmas 2009

Lonnie is so excited about Christmas this year. This is the first year she has really been curious about what is in the presents. Before now, she has just been excited about the packages, now she is looking forward to what's inside! It has taken awhile to get to this point. When she was 4 she got so upset about the packages being opened (she wanted them to stay under the tree), that I had to take them in the bedroom, open them, and bring her toys back out to her.


We made sugar cookies for the family Thanksgiving gathering that were such a hit, we have been asked to make some again for Christmas. I guess we will get started on them tonight.