Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jan 24, 2012, 6:52 pm
So, over the last month or so, Jaymes has developed kind of a weird obsession with traffic lights. He loves toy traffic lights, and nothing pleases him as much as watching the toys go from green to yellow to red. Unfortunately, his love of toy lights does not extend to the real thing. For example, o...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jan 16, 2012, 10:19 am
First off, I want to thank you all for the wonderful, kind messages and well wishes- it means a lot to me. I know the blog has not been as active as in the past, but now that my funk is medicated away, it'll be better. Jaymes is doing wonderfully. He's here part of the week and with his other family...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 13, 2011, 11:05 am
I know it has been awhile, I've had this post written in my head for quite some time, but I've been putting off posting it for two reasons. One, I didn't want to be judged a bad mom or a bad advocate for my son, I didn't want my fellow autism moms to think I'm a failure. Two, I have a lot of friends...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Nov 7, 2011, 3:11 pm
“Are We There Yet?” Traveling with a Child with Autism By Pamela Levac Autism Asperger’s Digest,Nov-Dec 2007 issue (www.autismdigest.com) Family vacations can be stressful under the best of circumstances. Throw a child or two with autism into the mix, and it can seem overwhelming an...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Nov 4, 2011, 12:31 pm
This is a very brief update, hopefully my sanity will allow for more posting soon but not right now. Jaymes is at a 30 day respite home, to give both him and us a much needed break. He is thrilled, and just loves the people and the home, so I'm happy about that. We're working on our own issues, and ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Sep 12, 2011, 2:51 pm
As evidenced by a major lack of posting lately, things have not been going so well with Jaymes. When Jaymes isn't happy, no one is happy and when Jaymes stops sleeping, so do the rest of us. Jaymes doesn't sleep anymore. He talks all night long, and slams his bedroom door all night long. Then when h...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Aug 1, 2011, 9:41 am
This article has me feeling ambitious, so Jaymes and I are going to cook today. I have not decided what we'll cook, but I think it will involved peanut butter. Wish us luck, safety, and a controlled level of mess! GFCF Cooking Together: Learning Can be Fun! AADigest Exclusive Reprinted with pe...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jul 26, 2011, 11:18 am
I’ve been spending a lot of time outside, attempting to tire my children out in time for the nap that I would love to one day get to take around 2-3pm on a hot summer day. Unfortunately, my success has been limited- to tiring myself out and energizing the little ones even further! I’ve gotten Si...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jul 10, 2011, 9:36 pm
Sensory Savvy Parenting! By Britt Collins, M.S., OTR/L Reprinted with permission from a featured article that appears in the just-released July/August issue of Autism Asperger’s Digest magazine. Learn more, www.AutismDigest.com. Your first child. What an exciting, wonderful, and anxious time it i...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jul 5, 2011, 12:57 pm
Today I’ve got another book review! This one is a MUST HAVE for everyone who is in some way affected by autism. There are all kinds of books out there that give us ideas on ways to play with our kids, but many of those advocate very expensive toys and therapies. For the first time, I’ve found a...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jul 4, 2011, 6:37 pm
I was contacted by a teacher trying to get her students a real playground. Just watching my own child play on a playground, and seeing the opportunities that play equipment provides for kids like Jaymes to connect socially with their peers is a powerful thing. Our school is incredibly blessed to hav...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jun 18, 2011, 11:46 pm
Enjoy! A Father's Moment By Patrick Paulitz Reprinted with permission from a featured article that appeared in the September/October 2005 issue of Autism Asperger’s Digest magazine. Learn more, www.AutismDigest.com. All of us make daily choices in life. Most of these choices are triv...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jun 13, 2011, 6:50 pm
I have been in my happy little hermit-hole here at the house. When I get stressed out, as illustrated by the last not-so-enthusiastic blog post, I tend to avoid everyone and just do my own thing. Not sure why I’m that way. I guess I am not really much of a people person to begin with, and when I�...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - May 24, 2011, 10:03 pm
I know I have not been blogging much at all, despite school being done for the summer (mine, not Jaymes's) and everything settling down somewhat. There has been a lot of craziness going on, and both myself and my husband are really coming to realize that no matter how hard we push Jaymes to get out ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Apr 21, 2011, 9:41 pm
First of all, may I just say, happy autism awareness month! Though life has kept me far from the computer, Jaymes and I have been making our own unique brand of awareness. I will share that here, and once the massive mountain that is my school work due in the next couple weeks has gone down some, I...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Apr 10, 2011, 8:56 pm
(Last photo is my mom and Boo at the Cultural Center in Port Charlotte, FL) I hate that I have been away from the blogging for so long. Seems like everything has gone to hell in the last month. We found out my mom is very sick, and she recently was released from the hospital after an 8 hour surgery....
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Mar 23, 2011, 9:42 am
We have a lot of "stuff" going on, and it's really eaten up a lot of my spare time to write. I am coming back to write a real post though! Jaymes is doing well at home, apparently not so much at school. Lots of behavior issues. They finally gave in and put him in the classroom I wanted him in- with ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Feb 27, 2011, 10:10 pm
Put that OCD to work! The topic of this next post is one that is currently serving me very, very well. You always hear (when asking advice about meetings or anything else school related) that documentation is vital. If you’re anything like me, ‘documenting’ means you try to keep track of at ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Feb 24, 2011, 7:35 pm
Team means team… The single most important thing I have learned though all these meetings has nothing to do with tactics, with laws, or with evaluations. It isn’t something that had to be deciphered out of a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, and it wasn’t even anything all that complex. But as si...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Feb 23, 2011, 4:58 pm
I have learned a lot about IEP meetings since Jaymes started going to public school four years ago. A lot of what I’ve learned, I learned by totally screwing up. Some of those mistakes were no big deal, some of them were huge. All of them taught me something. I remember the first IEP meeting I ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Feb 12, 2011, 6:15 pm
You may have noticed this blog has remained pretty much untouched for the last couple of weeks. First, I managed to sprain my elbow, resulting in a really ridiculous looking sling and quite a bit of pin. Then, almost exactly one week later, I sprained my wrist. This resulted in my getting the pleasu...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jan 26, 2011, 12:39 pm
Check out this article! Yes, I know some is cut off, blame my evil scanner.
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jan 25, 2011, 5:49 pm
As a belated birthday gift from his grandmother, Jaymes was treated to a fun day of bouncing at Bumper Jumpers, in Greensboro. I thought that because the gift was belated, it would not be too horrible for the post talking about it to be belated as well. We’ve been to Bumper Jumpers three times ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jan 16, 2011, 8:19 pm
I meant to do this post a long time ago. Like actually around Jaymes' birthday. Obviously, that did not happen. Meant to write it last week. Didn't happen. Meant to do it a few days ago... Again, didn't happen. My official excuse is a lack of time, and it's actually a good excuse given the insanity ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Jan 8, 2011, 3:08 pm
This newest book that I recently finished is a little bit different than the usual ones. Not only is it not autism specific, it’s the type of book that you don’t necessarily have to read all the way through. It’s more of a handbook that one can refer to when needed. The book is called Behavio...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 29, 2010, 8:06 pm
In the last few months, I have been trying various methods to get Jaymes to calmly do the assorted daily living tasks that Sierra does on her own. Tried the PECS, and it was just too hard to keep up with because Jaymes has a habit of squirreling away the cards.Tried a written schedule on a white boa...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 21, 2010, 10:12 pm
Update before the post... I finally made a Don't Bite the Dog Facebook page. Please "like" the page and share with your FB friends! Click Here. A few days ago, I decided to impose a family activity on my unsuspecting family. My mother in law had brought us a gingerbread house kit at Thanksgiving...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 17, 2010, 6:18 pm
I am in the middle of the insanity of preparing for the holidays, dealing with the insurance company and body shop after my husband mutilated my poor little Kia, and finishing up all of this semester's final exams.... So, until I have some actual time to write, enjoy this fantastic article with idea...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 16, 2010, 9:10 pm
We live in NC, and every time we get a tiny bit of snow everyone panics. And by snow, I mean less than an inch. School was canceled, and the weatherman made it clear that while we were not going to get much snow at all, it would be freezing rain all day. Every inch of the great outdoors is covered w...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 14, 2010, 1:51 pm
I don’t know that I have ever actually discussed Jaymes’ jellyfish obsession on the blog. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it when he’s lost one, or something like that, but it’s about time I shared his love of the Jellyfish. It all started about a year ago. Jaymes’ loved toy of choice had bee...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 11, 2010, 10:21 am
Christmas is nearly upon us, and the insanity of the holidays at our house has certainly set in! I have been kept very busy between protecting the Christmas tree from Jaymes, removing candy canes from his hair, and wiping red and green paint off his (fairly) new shoes. Thankfully most of our Christm...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 6, 2010, 10:38 pm
Black Friday is a tradition my husband got me into. Actually, prior to marrying him, I’d never even heard of it. In general, the idea of waking up in the middle of the night to stand in line out in the cold with a bunch of cranky, sleepy people intent on pummeling everyone else in an effort to gra...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Dec 6, 2010, 5:22 pm
I have a ton of posts I want to write, and will be working on slowly. There was so much blog fodder during the Thanksgiving holiday. Everything from Black Friday shopping to hiding in the liquor section at Walmart, to watching a fruit fight (yes, you read that correctly) in the produce section of Wa...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Nov 24, 2010, 10:20 pm
Every year I like to force myself to look past all the stupid little stresses in my life and think about the things that I am grateful for. Sometimes that's hard to do, especially when being licked by an almost seven year old, while running back and forth from the bathroom puking as a result of last...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Nov 18, 2010, 11:25 am
Jaymes is doing really, really well in general. I love it. Yesterday we spent our afternoon making Jello Jigglers until it was time to get Sierra from pre-school. Jaymes poured the water into the bowl, pushed the microwave buttons, and when the water was hot enough, he opened all the Jello packets a...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Nov 11, 2010, 11:20 am
In Jaymes' mind, anyway. The stores, namely Jaymes' beloved Target, put out their Christmas stuff the day after Halloween. On one hand, I'm glad the Halloween stuff is gone, because Jaymes was obsessed with that section to the point of it being a nightmare to take him there. He'd desperately try to ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Nov 1, 2010, 10:36 pm
I'm sure most of you have already seen the article and video about the "crazy bus dad," but I wanted to share my feelings on the situation. If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, click here for the article and video and then return to my post. This kind of situation is one we can all relat...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Oct 26, 2010, 9:56 pm
It's funny, but when I think about it, I realize that I subjected my poor little guy to loud, decidedly NOT classical, music (the horror!!!) at a very early age. Early, as in three months before he was born. I was very pregnant when I decided to go to my first concert, Toby Keith/Blake Shelton in St...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Oct 19, 2010, 9:00 pm
First the school update, following up on my post earlier today... If you didn't read that, none of this will make sense, so read the first one before this one! I got Jaymes' school planner back with a note that led me to believe Jaymes' teacher has some kind of reading comprehension trouble. How...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Oct 19, 2010, 10:43 am
So, Jaymes has been doing really well lately. Still lots of yelling and angry sounds and some minor hitting with a newfound interest in pinching (especially mommy's chest, go figure), but really it could be worse so I'm happy. I took him to our first school "fun type" activity last week- the Fall Fe...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Oct 12, 2010, 10:47 pm
No time, no time, much homework and housework and everything else work to do, but I thought it was kind of neat that I was mentioned in this article, at the top of the list no less! Better watch myself, lest my ego get the better of me ( ;
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Oct 7, 2010, 7:41 pm
It's been a wild couple of weeks. You'd think life would slow down a little bit, wouldn't you? Well, apparently not. Tuesday night was Curriculum Night at Jaymes' school, and this year we actually managed to get there. The last couple years there always seemed to be time conflicts. The other issue i...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Oct 4, 2010, 2:43 pm
The following blog post originally comes from this blog, I found it on one of my horse discussion boards, posted by a fellow poster. It really is a good read, and I have a feeling every one of us can find at least one thing in the post that hits awfully close to home- it sure gave me a lot to think ...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Sep 26, 2010, 6:02 pm
No time to really blog much for the moment, it's been a crazy weekend of wonderful birthday insanity, but I do want to pass this info along to you readers! Just a quick note that Monica Holloway, author of Cowboy & Wills will be holding a live video chat on the Cowboy & Wills Facebook page on Tuesda...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Sep 21, 2010, 10:33 pm
This morning was one of those mornings that I spend lots of other mornings dreading. Nothing like having to be at the surgical center no later than 8am. I know you all want to hear a story... The morning began wonderfully. I was bright eyed and bushytailed, and both children were incredibly enthusia...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Sep 14, 2010, 1:49 pm
The couple months we had after Jaymes' hospitalization were really wonderful. We finally had a happy, calm, pleasant Jaymes. He was happy, we were happy, and we could really do things as a family again. I should have known that it probably would not stay like that! I had actually meant to write this...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Sep 11, 2010, 9:31 pm
I know that in the past I have commented on the fact that Jaymes gets respite care hours through Easter Seals... Been getting that for the last couple years. Recently we were approved for personal assistance hours. 144 hours per three months. So that equals out to... 3 hours, 4 days a week. We met t...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Sep 7, 2010, 8:46 pm
Jaymes has been in school a couple weeks now, so he's settling in pretty well to his routine and his new classroom. Unfortunately, seems like there is already some tension between myself and his new teacher. I had hoped we'd at least manage to go a month before I had to unleash my inner bitch... But...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Aug 31, 2010, 10:21 pm
Jaymes has survived his first few days of school. He seems to like his new teacher, and I know he loves the classroom assistant, because she was the person last year who went out with him to the regular ed classroom. They get along so well. I still wish we had Mrs. Colditz- the woman is amazing, and...
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Amber L. posted an article on Don't Bite the Dog: Life with an Autistic toddler - Aug 26, 2010, 7:58 pm
A couple months ago, right before all the assorted major Jaymes issues, I got an email asking if I would like a copy of a book written by the mother of a child on the autism spectrum, and would I write a review. I generally really like doing reviews, because I love to read, although sometimes those ...
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