During the month of April in honor of Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month I am going to post a picture showing our autism. Autism is a spectrum. When you know one child with autism you know one child with autism. This is our autism.

Her feet…Courtney loves to be barefoot. She won’t wear shoes in the house, she won’t wear them out to eat. She won’t wear them in school she loves to have bare feet! This is our autism!

During the month of April in honor of Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month I am going to post a picture showing our autism. Autism is a spectrum. When you know one child with autism you know one child with autism. This is our autism.

The talker…Courtney is considered non-verbal with apraxia. We are starting to hear verbal language but she is very difficult to understand. She uses a talker to communicate her wants and needs. She has made some amazing gains with her talker and it has been beautiful to watch. This is our autism.

During the month of April in honor of Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month I am going to post a picture showing our autism. Autism is a spectrum. When you know one child with autism you know one child with autism. This is our autism.

Car rides…Courtney has been soothed by car rides since day 1. That is as long as the car was moving at a decent speed. If she is in distress it is one of our strategies to calm her down. There have been many of nights where we have put her in the car to put her to sleep. This is our autism.

During the month of April in honor of Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month I am going to post a picture showing our autism. Autism is a spectrum. When you know one child with autism you know one child with autism. This is our autism.

Oral sensory seeker…Courtney puts EVERYTHING and ANYTHING in her mouth. That is except most foods. She doesn’t do it to eat these items. She either chews or licks them. Alyssa will some day have to tell her teacher that her sister ate her homework. This is our autism.

During the month of April in honor of Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month I am going to post a picture showing our autism. Autism is a spectrum. When you know one child with autism you know one child with autism. This is our autism.

Climbing…lots of climbing. Climbing to heights that are scary. This is our autism.

Today is Autism Awareness Day. It’s just another day for us because we live and breathe autism every day. So for today and everyday…be aware of autism, accept autism, heck love someone with autism. I know I do! This is our Autism!

April is Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to honor it and came across an idea shared by another blogger. You may have heard the saying “if you have met one person with autism, you have met one person with autism”. What that means is Autism Spectrum Disorder is a spectrum and not one person with autism is alike. Each one is unique in their own ways. So for the month of April I am going to try to post a picture sometimes with a description that shows our autism. So here is day 1…

The headphones…our autism is wearing headphones 24/7 to help with auditory sensitivities and anxiety. This is OUR autism!

As the phrase goes, “love needs no words”. I agree. It does not. Courtney tells me she loves me when I’m the one who is able to calm her during a meltdown. Courtney tells me she loves me when she cuddles up to me in the middle of the night. Courtney tells me she loves me when she grabs my arms and puts them around her. Courtney has never said, “I love you mom”, but loves needs no words. I know she loves me. Courtney is now telling me she loves me when she uses her talker to say, “want mom”. She is asking for me. When she wants her mommy, she is asking for me.

Love needs no words but we still yearn to feel their love however they may show it. So when I get a task from my husband and the nanny both stating that Courtney communicated that she wanted me, you know darn right I cried tears of joy as I felt her love grab on to me. I love you too, Courtney.

Picture is of me FaceTiming with Courtney after she communicated to the nanny that she wanted me. Nanny got me on FaceTime to show Courtney that she can still see me even when I am not home.

A year ago we had just gone in to lock down. Schools across the country were shutting down. At this point we had no idea for how long. As a special education teacher and an autism mom I was in panic mode. What was this extended break (ha…that’s an understatement) going to do for not only my students but my daughter with autism.

It was early on in the lock down that we had Courtney’s annual IEP meeting. I remember feeling so proud of the progress she made up to the lockdown yet so scared that we would take a step backward for every week she wasn’t at school.

Weeks turned into months which turned into a whole year. A whole year of schedule changes, a whole year of unknowns of what will happen next. A whole year of bumps and bruises, tears and frustration. A whole year of wanting nothing more than getting back to our “normal”.

Here we are a whole year later and having her annual review again. Not only did she get through this past year but she got through it while continuing to grow. Progress did not stop. Progress continued! She flourished in ways I could never imagine!

This couldn’t have happened without our amazing village both at school and at home. I will forever be grateful for every single one of them! We needed caregivers to step up in ways that most caregivers would probably say no to. Therapists and teachers had to get creative in how to meet her needs. I had to learn how to trust that it will all be ok.

I found myself very emotional after today’s meeting. How can you not after having to recap anything from the past 12 months. But we did it , Team Cranston. We got through these last 12 months not only healthy but stronger than ever.

The picture I chose for this post was used in a previous post but I felt her “good job” was perfect for today! Good job, Courtney! You are a rockstar!

When Courtney is agitated she is very vocal. It’s a distinct sound and you know aggression will usually follow. That sound immediately puts Alyssa on high alert. She usually immediately stops what she is doing and fearfully searches out me or another trusted adult to protect her from what may follow that agitated sound. Alyssa does this because there are countless times that she has been the target of the aggression that sometimes follows that sound.

It breaks my heart to see Courtney get so agitated at times and it breaks my heart to see Alyssa actually fear her sister during these times. When these moments happen Alyssa usually wants to stay away from her for a little bit. I try to remind myself it’s not her sister she fears though. It’s the behaviors. as Alyssa gets older and grasping a little more of an understanding of Autism, we do try to talk about these moments. We talk about why Courtney may be frustrated and why she gets aggressive.

Today I watched Alyssa go from fear to then ready to help make her happy. She knew Courtney would enjoy playing in the sensory bin that she had out so went out of her comfort zone and asked Courtney to play with her. Sure enough it made Courtney happy.

It’s another example of how Alyssa as a special needs sibling is expected to mature in ways a 5 year old shouldn’t have to. It’s another example of how Alyssa is up for this challenge and handling it beautifully.