Did You Lose A Set of Steak Knives?

Today we were informed that due to the fact that my husband was medically retired from the Army Morgana and Iain will no longer be receiving ABA Therapy which has been vital to them.  I had called Tricare and asked if it would be covered even though my husband was medically retiring from the Army. They told me yes. In fact, it is NOT. Turns out that because my husband is no longer active duty means they are no longer enrolled in the ECHO program, which is the only program that covers ABA; therefore all therapy received after his retirement would all have to be paid out of pocket. Morgana's ABA Therapy for a month cost about $2150. I have no idea how much Iain's will be. I need everyone to please check out this link ( http://cmkaa.org/ ) and send a message out to your Congressman or woman. This is not just for Morgana and Iain but for all medically discharged or retired men and women who have children with Autism and need these services. If my husband was medically able to stay in the military he would have. Why should our children be the ones paying the price too for his sacrifice to our country? They can have their steak knives back. Tell the Pentagon and the rest of the military that this therapy is not just an educational therapy. This therapy is also behavioral and is necessary to help them become an independent member of society.

2 for the price of 1

So Iain woke up crying today. He said, "My ear hurts I need to go to the doctor." I wanted to go back to sleep because I had been up and down all night blowing my nose and dealing with uber tight weave I got yesterday. But I figured might as well get up and make the trek to good ole' Madigan ER. Woohoo. *insert sarcasm here* So we get in there and barely anyone in the waiting room. It looks promising but as you know looks can be deceiving. We have now been waiting for about an hour now and it looks like we might be waiting another hour to be seen. Hooray.

Aries x 2 +Virgo + Hormonal Piscies +Scorpio= Possible Bedlum

Lord grant me me the wisdom to deal with the fits of rage, the attempts on her brothers life and the ability to intervene when all the autistics in the house are on edge at the same time.  Amen. Our Morgana has begun her journey into becoming a woman. I realized that this would be a challenge but DAMN! I had to get new clothes the other day for both of the kids. Fun but not. I have to do most of the clothes shopping without them with me so that entails letting my hands get as dry as humanly possible and touch every part of the fabric that would touch her body. If it doesn't feel comfortable on my dry hands it won't feel comfortable to her. So the chore of buying new bra's with actual cups was the most difficult part of this venture. I bought her many outfits, 4 pairs of shoes and 3 bra's which almost all needed to be returned for larger sizes. She is dealing well with the fact that she has to wear an over the shoulder boulder holder but there was one bra in particular that she was not jiving with. Of course it has to be the one that can be converted into a strapless. I informed her that this is one of the prices we have to pay for being born a female. She wasn't buying that. Not at all. Not one little bit. I then proceeded to inform her that one of the other prices would be much higher than expected. Yes, the dreaded "P" word. I feel like we are watching a ticking time bomb here people! We sit back and deal with the love/hate relationship with our "little" brother and having to remind her that she cannot hit, sell or kill the boy. Also the spending copious amounts of time in our room screaming like we are being murdered or something and for no apparent reason behind it. Now I am not a believer in astrology but if I were lets do the math. In my house is 2 Aries, born on the same day mind you, 1 Virgo, 1 Pisces and a Scorpio. I, being one of the Aries in question and being female, under the same roof as a Pisces female starting to go through puberty....Fire vs Water....logically speaking the water would put out the fire, but because I am older and her mother, this fire is gonna dry up waters attitude and that will be that. I hope. It is bad enough that I butt heads with Jason (the other Aries) a lot of times but then to be extinguished by my own daughters hormonal attitude...I don't think so! I am the HNWIC!! I must and will always reign Supreme!! I remind our little fish that she is only a princess in this house but I am the Queen!! Will this all be forgotten with she actually starts her period....maybe. Will this placement of rank in this house be challenged when she approaches her teen years....Maybe. But I must and will always reign Supreme!! Well, at least at my house. Unless my mother comes to visit or we visit her. Then my rank is...*Poof* A C'est La Vie.

It's good to try new things baby.

Iain, my little Iain. He use to be my big time carbovore (loved the carbohydrates, comes from the Davis side) but today was a carnivore day. We tried MEAT!! The pepperoni beef stick from the Butcher that he received for being well behaved...He loved it! The New York Steak that we got from the butcher and grilled oh so lovely on the cast iron grill...He loved it!! Oh and there is the vegetables...HE ATE A VEGETABLE!! God be praised it did happen...of course said vegetable, which will surprise you, was cooked with bacon, bacon fat and a pat o' butter. But he ATE it!! (BTW it was Brussel Sprouts!! Ya I know, Right!) For those of you who have never been around an Autistic child let me just fill you in. I, said parent of not one but two autistic children, rejoice at every milestone or what I consider a milestone that parents of neurologically-typical children would merely shrug off as another day of dinner!!! I REJOICE AND SING THE SONG OF NEW FOOD!! "There's a party in my tummy, say yummy, say yummy!!" AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS!! Oh what a blessed dinner for Iain smited it with his fork and knife and it was good!!

HNWIC's Wild Kingdom

Attention Ladies and Gentlemen

I present to you now for my first blog

HNWIC's Wild Kingdom

starring:

HNWIC

My Husband Jason

My Ex-Husband Jon 

and our kids (aka little nigglets)

Morgana and Iain.

As co-starring our critters:

Hoshi (HNWIC's Cat)

Casper (Jon's Teacup Pomeranian)

Boo Boo (Jason's Cat)

Yogi (Jason's Bullador)

and last but never least...our 2 ferrets

Zena and Trigger

We open this blog to a 5bd 3 bath home in the middle of our street with my lovely blended family...yes that does include my ex-husband Jon. To answer the questions that are possibly circling around in head...Yes, he does live with us. He is my daughters father. No, my husband doesn't mind him living with us. In fact, he encouraged it. They both are best friends. To you it is strange to us it works. The bonus in all this for me is that together they make the perfect husband. :D

Now that we are done with that. Welcome to my blog. I am most appreciative of you reading it. This blog will hopefully do some of the following things as you read through each post I make:

1) Inspire those of you with Special Needs Children

2) Identify and/or console you

3) Inform you of information you didn't know about

and finally 

4) Make you laugh.

So grab you snacks, sit back and I hope you enjoy

Our House in the Middle of Our Street

NOT Double My Pleasure, But Double My Fun

Let me introduce you to my offspring. Morgana Maeve and Iain Thomas. Otherwise known as my nigglets. They, like my brother and I, were born a little over 4 years apart. They have a typical brother and sister love/hate relationship but with a twist. They both have Autism. Morgana has Kanner's Autism, which is a mid-range, while Iain has a more higher functioning form of Autism. But Iain also has ADHD which adds that extra bit of HOLY CRAP! that every parent of Autistic children need. We kind of knew that there was somethings up with Morgana when she totally regressed at the age of 2 and her father Jon and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to figure out what she wanted because she couldn't communicate what she wanted. If you have ever seen Katt Williams' stand up in American Hustle where he is talks about his adopted baby girl that is what we were doing. I feel ya Katt!! Morgana had us running around like fools trying to figure out what she wanted and if you don't figure out what she wanted in a specific amount of time let me tell you...

ATOMIC MELTDOWN in 5...4...3...2...1.

But eventually, we got things figured out and worked out and she began to communicate more after we got her the help she needed. 

Now Iain was a completely different story. His father, Jason, just wanted a healthy baby. I, on the other hand, was more specific. I thought that this would make a difference. I forgot that God has a sense of humor. Knowing a little more than I did before about a childs development had a feeling that Iain was not developing like he should. He did not completely regress like Morgana but there was enough to have him start Preschool. It was in preschool that it was brought to our attention by his teacher that Iain might have ADD or ADHD and to get him evaluated for that. So we did and he did. Since Jason was in the military we were assigned a Developmental Peds doc who also wanted to test for other things. Last August we did the screening for Autism with Iain. Now lets do some math shall we.

Me (assumed NT) + Jon (undiagnosed Aspie)= Morgana (Kanner's Autism)

Totally understand. But then they called and set up an appointment to go over what the testing showed for Iain and I ended up with this equation...

Me (assumed NT) + Jason (ADD)= Iain (Autistic/ADHD)

Does not compute!

How did I hit this genetic lottery twice? Not like I was sad or disappointed. I have one autistic child and I was aware of the challenges I would be up against. The only differences is Iain never stopped talking. In fact, when he started getting the help he needed the boy talked more. And more. AND MORE! You know when you have a child you start in with the "I can't wait until you..." Let me tell you from experience dude...WAIT! You might not be able to keep yourself from saying that but certainly try because once they do they don't stop. You will learn that what comes with the statement "I can't wait until you can talk to me" comes with the words "Shut Up!" 

All and all I love me little nigglets and now that they are 11 and 6 my next post...Let's Get Ready to Rumble!! will be coming up soon. Very, very soon.