Whoo-hoo! I was out of town on a girls’ weekend where I could FINALLY relax and not think about autism.
The second night, I called my husband, Greg, to see how things were going. He sounded a little down, but that was to be expected since he was in charge of chasing our three young kids for a few days. “Ha!” I selfishly thought, “He is getting a taste of what my life is like every day, all day long.”
Greg showed great self-control that night on the phone not telling me what had happened earlier that day with Lizzie. He knew it would have ruined my ability to enjoy myself on a rare weekend away. I found out later that he had had the scare of his life.
He had taken the kids to the nature preserve to play at the park. Seems simple enough, right? Run around the park, swing a little, and maybe go down a few slides. That would surely kill an hour or two.
Only it wasn’t simple. The park was super busy that Saturday. Our youngest, Noah, had to be carried or in a stroller, our oldest, Andrew was an extremely active 6-year old, and then there was 4-year old Lizzie, a wanderer with autism, who had no understanding of danger or the consequences her actions could bring.

Since I have been “doing autism” for almost 10 years, sometimes I feel like I have heard it all. I go through periods of time when I really want to dig deep, research and tackle the issues that Lizzie is facing. Other times, I am overloaded with information, and I am really just trying to keep my head above water as I run the daily activities of my family.
Recently, I was asked by a friend to go to a seminar on autism. I wasn’t excited because lately I have been in that “overloaded with life” frame of mind. But, I went anyway, and I was glad I did!
I heard Dr. Sandy Gluckman speak on the how we can impact our child’s body chemistry just by controlling our words and stress level. Wow! Did this hit home!
I run my kids from therapy to activity to more therapy. We are so hurried and stressed for time that it never even occurred to me that I could be undoing all that therapy with our stressful schedule! It never occurred to me that I could actually positively affect the chemistry in Lizzie’s brain just by choosing to slow down and say the right words to her!
Rather than try and recap what I learned, I thought I would have Dr. Gluckman share with you some important information that was news to me…even after 10 years of autism.

As I sit in an airport in Austin, the words from a Garth Brooks song ring vividly in my head,
Stuck in an airport in Austin,
and all of the flights are delayed.
As the rains keep fallin’
The memories keep callin’
me back to another time and place
For the first time in a long time, I am alone in an airport, traveling by myself. No whiny children sitting on my lap demanding food, no tantrums from a little girl who doesn’t understand why she has to wait so long, and no Dora DVD playing in the background. I don’t have to keep my eyes darting from child to child to child to make sure one of them doesn’t disappear. I am free.
Yet, I still have an uneasiness that stems from the feeling that I should be doing something more. What I am forgetting? Oh yeah, nothing. So I give myself permission to relax and do what I have always loved to do in airports…People Watch.

As I might have mentioned once or twice (or possibly ten thousand times), autism takes its toll on the mind and body. The lack of sleep alone can kill any desire to do anything fun and leaves us feeling as if we have nothing left to give. As parents, we just want to get through another day, so that we can lie on the couch and watch a TV show that will take our minds off our troubles – even if it is only for an hour.
When Lizzie was almost 3-years old, life was really hard. We were in the middle of a 30 hour-a-week behavioral home program. I had a very active and challenging 4 1/2 year old who was bored at home, and we were trying to sell our house so that we could move to a better school district for Lizzie. Oh yeah…did I mention I was 8 months pregnant?
I literally ate my way through that pregnancy. If there were a contest in stress eating, I would definitely have won! Anxious from decisions with Lizzie and the stress of having a child with so many problems weighed heavy on my mind all day long. I went to bed with the same knot in my stomach that I woke up with, and my sleep was restless at best. Chocolate was my medication, but unfortunately, I had a bit of a tendency to over-medicate! Fudge and brownies were a normal breakfast for me during that time, and so as you can imagine, 8 months into the pregnancy, right around the time my 31st birthday was a approaching, I had already gained 50 pounds (all baby, of course!).

Did you ever see a pumpkin, a pumpkin, a pumpkin?
Did you ever see pumpkin with no face at all?
With no eyes, no nose, no mouth and no teeth?
Did you ever see a pumpkin, with no face at all?
So I made a Jack O-Lantern, Jack O-Lantern, Jack O-Lantern.
So I made a Jack-O-Lantern with a big funny face!
With big eyes, a big nose, a big mouth and big teeth.
So I made a Jack-O-Lantern with a big funny face.

In her second guest blog post for us, Stacy Baugh tackles the topic of shopping for new clothes with her precious daughter who lives with Sensory Processing Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome. How many parents out there raising kids with ASD and/or SPD can relate to this?
NEW SEASON, NEW CLOTHES
By Stacy Baugh
Each year I enjoy looking forward to Spring – new leaves on the trees, flowers blooming, weather just right for leaving the windows open. Unfortunately this change of season also brings a need for new clothes for my daughter, Emily. Time to put away the blue jeans & long sleeve shirts and bring out the shorts & t-shirts. Not only that, but it usually means getting an entire wardrobe of brand new clothes since she’s usually grown a couple inches since the previous year. For some people this might be something to look forward to, but for my daughter this twice-a-year excursion is something we dread and try to put off as long as possible.

In her first guest blog for us, Stacy Baugh shares about her daughter's very first sleepover. So many parts of Stacy's post ring very true for me; I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have and find many things with which you can relate, too. Please help me in welcoming Stacy as our newest Guest Blogger! ~Leigh
TO PREPARE, OR NOT TO PREPARE
By Stacy Baugh
Recently our 7 1/2 year old daughter, Emily, had an opportunity to have a sleepover with a friend. It would be her first one ever. I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of the idea of sleepovers that are held away from our own house, but this was with some very dear friends who we knew well and who we completely trusted with our precious child. I wasn’t nervous about her safety, but I was incredibly nervous about how she would handle such a new and different situation. Emily has Asperger’s & Sensory Processing Disorder and is a true creature of habit. She likes to do things a certain way and do them the same way every time. She’s not a fan of unexpected changes, and when she’s out of sync her SPD is more pronounced. It’s one thing to go to someone’s house to play for a few hours, but to spend the night?