Mision Statement

I created this blog because I am giving my mother stress. I cannot continue to siphon my troubles onto the person who gave me life. The cloud can handle my angst a little better. There is more room for diffusion. No one needs to read this and if they do they will likely think I am small, egocentric, immature, vain and impatient. (As a class clown and sarcasm as defensive shield type, I am accustomed to claiming my own insults before anyone else can.) I just need the catharsis.

You might think that the whole concept of a blog is simultaneously so yesterday and so self aggrandizing. Who doesn't have stress? Why am I so special? Well, granted I'm not but I'm not coping so well with having a child with Autism and this is cheaper than therapy.

I have a four year old daughter, Eleanor, who was diagnosed with Autism at age three. Eleanor is not like most four year old girls and is not all that much like most other children with Autism. She is a unique snowflake!

For starters, she is a girl and Autism diagnoses are overwhelmingly made to male children. She is not typical for being not typical but she has more in common with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) crowd than any other. She is verbal but in a primitive scripted way. She has limited social skills. She has a hard time understanding directions or following along with a group. She has phobias and hang-ups -- milk, ponytails and socks just to name a few. Her strengths are visual and spacial skills. She is echoic - she repeats what you say. She is autodidactic (self teaching). She depends heavily on modeled behavior and visual prompts as it can be hard for her to understand purely auditory instruction. She is a sweet person and she has no concept of malice or dishonesty. She is uninterested in interacting with strangers but bonds closely with those that spend significant time with her.

She is my delight and despair.