Happy New Year!

Here's my favorite picture from 2009, I guess. It's hard to decide! I would do better to do like my friend Hannah, month by month, but I have no time for that. Maybe later.

I'm sure Anthony has no resolutions, but I do, with regard to him. I pray for it every night when I am saying our prayers, but I hope that Anthony's mommy and daddy (I'm not being cute, this is just what I say in our prayers) can have all the patience and love that they need to get Anthony where he needs to go. We are thankful for his school and therapists and his family, all of whom love him so, so much. I am sometimes despondent over how our days go, but not our years. Anthony has come a long way in 2009 and I am bullish for the future.

Nice Lid

 
Anthony got that hat from Mike's mom, it's super cute.

Ol One Eye

 
So cute. It's only Tuesday and he is antsy already, I can tell. I have a cold and I don't want to go out but I might see if we can take a walk later or something, just to get out.

Together

 
This is from Mike's phone so the quality's not great, but she was hugging him and he was laughing so we had to get a record of it. It's hard, for Maria, Anthony doesn't want a lot to do with her but she tries. If she doesn't have a shirt on, of course, he wants to hug her just for the skin fix and she's always like "OK!". Poor stupid baby.

snow

 
 
He doesn't love it, necessarily. I think he likes it more than Maria, but that's not saying much. He was kind of antsy today, he woke up before 4:00 this morning (ugh), so I thought he'd want to go outside, but he wasn't out there long. I thought it looked so pretty but he won't wear gloves, and he doesn't like his hands to be so cold, even though he kept digging in the snow. Poor stupid baby. :)

Oh for Pete's Sake

 
cute! He had a good Christmas, I suppose. He just now quieted down and it's 9:30. He was good at my mom's and at one point wanted to go outside. I told him it was cold and rainy but he kept persisting. So I took him out to the garage and then we went outside, for just a few minutes. I finally said, come on Anthony it's cold. "Cold!", he said, going back in. "Cold!" I think he was maybe overwhelmed and I'm glad he was able to get me to figure out what he wanted. I hope by next Christmas he can say Merry Christmas! or Thank you! or Here's your present, Mommy. Ha!

This is an article that I read recently, the author is a mom whose blog I read. She has three kids, one of whom is autistic, and she is married to a government attorney, so I like her a lot, naturally. HA!

Anyways, she talks about Jim Carrey, the self-appointed "autism whisperer" who has no more career, I guess, so now he goes on Oprah with his girlfriend/whore to be seen by the masses. He tweeted, I guess, about how it's going to be impossible to have healthy kids if the autism rate keeps going up.

Anthony has many issues, but honest to God, it has never occurred to me that he is unhealthy! He is very healthy, I'd say. He's had one ear infection in his life, he had had a lot of colds and stuff since he started school but man. He is not unhealthy. And it blows my mind that Jim Carrey, who is supposed to be an ADVOCATE for people with autism, would imply that just because someone is autistic, they are unhealthy. When he implies things like that about people with autism, I think people are likely to believe him, because a) he's a celebrity and b) he supposedly cares so much about autistic people. This is dangerous because if more people believe that people with autism are 'unhealthy', they might not want to be around the autistic person, maybe they think they'll catch it or something. It's the same as that stupid Jenny McCarthy - I saw her on Oprah one time talking to a mom who had BOTH HER ARMS REMOVED - JM told the woman that she knew how she felt, not being able to hug her child, because autistic kids don't like physical contact. Sigh. I'm sure she meant to say SOME autistic kids or maybe just SOME KIDS, but she didn't. Jerks.

It is hard enough to care for our kids with autism, especially (I daresay) for our kids who can't talk, to literally have to be their voice, without having to combat these IDIOTS who are using autism as their cause to get themselves noticed. IF Jenny McCarthy's son has autism, and I say if because I believe she says now that he is cured, but if he does, why doesn't she just mind her beeswax and her own child? Why make it so hard on the rest of us?

Loony Bin

This weekend, like every weekend, Anthony wants to rub his belly all over my back. At his party yesterday, I had to be careful every time I got down on the floor (which can be often, I am sometimes getting Maria or Veronica), because he whips my shirt up. At home, obviously, I don't mind as much as I do out in public, but it's challenging anyway. Sometimes by the afternoon, my back is HOT with hives, I can't stand it. I also don't like that he'll whip up my shirt, rub against me, and then leave me there with my shirt up! He doesn't even have the decency, I tell him, to pull down my shirt, what the hell? Laura was over today and we were laughing - Mike said maybe I should just wear a bathing suit around the house and that way Anthony wouldn't have to pull up my shirt. I said sure, a bathing suit, combined with the shower cap that I should wear so Veronica can't pull my hair, that says sanity to me! Good God.

Watching Santa

 

Party

 
Here's Anthony, sitting in the kitchen at school during his holiday party yesterday. His therapists mentioned it must be nice for him to have a cookie or whatever without having to say "want" 1000 times first. He saw Santa Claus and seemed happy to see him, and he pulled his (real) beard, but he had no interest in sitting on his lap or having his picture taken. One of the directors of his school said, we have to keep trying!, and I thought the hell? I thought it was a very successful first visit with an old, semi-creepy man in a red suit. :)

Pizza

 
He really likes pizza and he's eaten so much this weekend. Some days he just can't get enough food and other days, he won't touch the stuff.

4.5

 
Did I say he was four and a half this week? I may have. I am tired, God knows what I've said or just thought. Last night I went out with some friends and I called Mike on my way home, around 10:45. He told me the only person who was sleeping well was Anthony! Ha! We should know we're in trouble if Anthony is the only one sleeping well. He goes to school all this week and then next week, just Monday through Wednesday, I think. He is not very excited for Christmas, but maybe next year. I feel like I say that a lot but it's possible, right? I hope so.

One year and one day ago

 
Anthony is at school, but I just read this sad outcome to a story of a missing autistic boy and I wanted to post it. That poor baby and his poor family! I got to the last part, where they said they were calling out "pizza" and the dog's name, to try and find the boy. Then I started thinking how we would probably do something like that, and then I really started to lose it. I think we should all say a prayer for this little boy and his family.

sunday

 
They used to look so much alike, and they really don't anymore, do they? Oh, Anthony, what kind of day we've had with you!

He woke up around 3:00, for the day and he never took a nap. I put him to bed and he wouldn't even go to sleep, he was so charged up. I just said good night and he banged around in there for a while, but is asleep now. Now I am just hoping he sleeps all night. He is so, so, SO loud and noisy, it's hard to believe. I wish there was a way to tone it down, just a bit, but there's not. He has to get out whatever he has to get out. I get really freaked out sometimes because I think how will we ever be able to take him anywhere? How will he ever go to church with us? But it's stupid to worry about, maybe some day he'll just stop in the same way he just started. Maybe.

Tuesday

 
Back to his old school today again. It's going well. His OT said he was 'placid', but she also said he smiled, so I guess that's good. Mike was home today because Veronica has been sick so that was nice. I am ground down to the bone so I can't say anything else. Happy Tuesday!