He Has Autism - But it Doesn’t Have Us!!

i plan to use this blog to share a lot of things. first and foremost - i want to share with you all the joys of our lives. yes - liam has autism. yes - that can make life VERY hard. we’ve been through some really rough times. from him getting kicked out of his first preschool, to constant comments from strangers, to the tantrums and anxiety we must deal with on a daily basis. i could go on all day. life is never normal. but, i made a decision early on to live my life to the fullest, and offer my family the most typical and wonderful life possible.

there have been blocks in the road. i had to give up working full time when liam was diagnosed, to co-ordinate his care. from this, we lost the beautiful apartment that we had when he was a baby. i still miss that place!

but - i ramble.

the other thing i want to focus on with this blog, is what is available to us, and how we use it all to make our lives the best that they can be. there is a lot of resources in toronto for a child with special needs. in fact, as i’ll share in another blog, i’m in college right now, furthering my education (i got my ECE a few years back) to be a resource teacher. i have learned so much about the system, that i want to be able to help other families to embrace their lives the way that we have.

so, a trip to the dentist seems like as good of a place as any to begin. the good news for us is that the dentist is at Bloorview Kids Rehab (here’s their page ) Bloorview is the coolest place ever.
first of all we went in february, and the temperature was -15c (or 5 fahrenheit) BEFORE the windchill!!! so - we took a cab to bloorview.

this is a waiting room for many different services, including the dentist. liam could wait in this room for hours!
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and he LOVED the dentist. the spit suctioner is technically a vacuum, right? that was all he needed, as he ’s a little obsessed with vacuums.

i took a couple of shots of the lobby as we left.

god bless canada - none of this costs us a penny!

then we ventured into the super cold temps and went to play at the giant mcdonalds down the street! i remember while we were there, someone said to me “he doesn’t LOOK autistic.” i gotta tell you all - that’s one of my #1 pet peeves. how does someone look autistic? he just looks like a kid! it’s not like all autistic kids have a big A stamped on their foreheads. please, never say that to the mother of a child with autism.

taking a break!

and home we go!!

he just looks like a kid because that’s just what he is!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 10:23 am and is filed under autism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.