Woody and Buz

James got some Woody and Buz pajamas from his Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday.  When he opened them he was really excited to put on "Woody" and Mikey grabbed the other set and said "Buz, Buz!"  Every night since then James has worn his Woody pajamas to bed.  He doesn't want the Buz ones, only Woody.  Last night I was at the store and Doug couldn't find the Woody pants, there was a major melt down!  Tonight I tried to get James to wear Buz, but he just said, "How bout Woody?"  And Mikey of course had to wear "Buz".  They are such cute friends!

"Woody" and "Buz" getting ready for bed

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

James is 4!

WARNING:  there are A TON of pictures.  This will probably be a LONG post.

Saturday James turned 4 years old!  What a big boy.  To celebrate we decided to take him to Carlsbad Caverns.  He and Doug both had Friday off so it was the perfect weekend.  We drove down on Friday, went swimming, had dinner, walked by the river and went to bed.  Then Saturday was the big day.  We thought the caves would be a huge hit because James LOVES tunnels.  

The Birthday boy!

He decided to open his presents right away.  Too excited to wait.

He got a life jacket for swimming.

A Camera since he loves to take pictures. 

Some gardening tools from Grammy and Grandad 

After breakfast we headed to the Caves.  It was a free week so we thought it might be packed, but it wasn't!  We didn't even have to wait for the elevator.  The elevator drops 750 feet in 1 minute, so about halfway down James started freaking out.  Once we got to the bottom he was pretty panicked.  We decided to wait by the snack area for a while and see if we could get him used to it.  No such luck.  So we started waking to see if we could distract him.  Again, no luck.  By this time he was really freaking out so we decided that I would take him back to the top and Dad and Mikey would see the cave. I didn't mind since my back was hurting so bad I could barely walk.  Mikey LOVED it.  He didn't stop talking the entire time.  He kept saying "I see a rock" at one time someone said, "Your going to hear that a lot today".

Me and James had fun hanging out at the top, playing with his camera and doing some of the other activities they had for the kids.  Smokey the Bear was there and James liked taking pictures of him.  He also saw a giant bat, did a puzzle, and colored a helping hand.  

James and "Mickey" in the visitor center

James took a picture of Smoky the Bear

James and Smokey

James and the bat

Mikey and Dad with the bat

After the caves we decided to take Mikey back for a nap while Dad and James went swimming.  Mikey didn't actually take a nap, but James had a blast swimming with his new life jacket.  Then James got to pick his Birthday dinner.  And what do you choose when you are 4-years-old?  McDonalds!  We tried so hard to get him to pick something else, but no such luck.  

After dinner we decided to go swimming again.  Mikey had gotten over his fear of the water by now, and loved jumping in the pool to us.

James loved swimming in the hot tub.
We could not get him in the big pool for too long

After swimming we went back to the room for cake.  I had made James a tunnel/cave cake but it didn't really make the drive.  So it didn't look too good.  But it served it's purpose.

 Sunday we were just going to drive home, but Doug was feeling really bad that I didn't get to see any of the caves.  So we decided to go back for a little while so I could see it.  We decided to try again with James, this time walking in instead of taking the elevator.  We didn't get much closer than this before James refused to go any further.  So me and Mikey went in and James and Dad went hiking around the park.

Family picture at the cave

Dad took a picture of James

Then James took a picture of Dad

James took another picture of Dad

 It was really cool!  And again Mikey was talking the entire time.  It was so funny.  Walking in was much further than we thought it would be and it took an hour to get to the big room.

A pool of water

I think this was called Whales mouth or teeth or something

Once we made it to the big room I was so tired that we decided to take the "short cut" and didn't get to see it all, but we saw plenty, plus Mikey was asleep in my arms at this point.

Finally made it to the big room

Once we got home James had a few more presents waiting.  He got this bed tent from Grammy and Grandad which he LOVES.  You can see why we thought he would love the caves.  He was so excited to go to bed in it he didn't even ask to sleep in Mom's bed.

We had a really fun weekend.  We love our little 4-year-old and are so glad to have him in our family.

A Birthday and Other Fun

It's been awhile since I posted.  This pregnancy is wiping me out!  Today I decided I hated feeling so tired all the time so I had a Dr. Pepper and now I have plenty of energy. 

3 weeks ago was my birthday and it was so much fun!  Doug came home from work early and we had a delicious dinner.  Then the boys gave me my present, stuff for a garden!  I was pretty excited about this.  I have wanted to have a garden for years, but never did it because I am the only one who would eat the stuff.  They also got me some flowers for the front.  James loves taking care of my flowers.  It is his favorite thing now.  

Then we had cake, and the boys sang happy birthday.  We couldn't even get all the candles lit because they kept blowing them out while we were lighting them.  Also they did such a great job singing happy birthday.  It was maybe my favorite birthday ever.

Doug also brought home this floor from work for our "dining room".  Finally we are not eating on carpet.  Now if we could only get the carpet out of the kitchen and bathrooms!

Last weekend Doug had a meeting in Utah and since my parents were going to be in Utah and Mikey can fly for free I decided to send him to Utah to spend some time with his Grandparents.  I have to say it was mostly selfish.  I loved the thought of having some time with just James and some alone time while James was at school.  I have to say it was everything I dreamed of!  3 hours a day to myself, not having to be stuck at home.  On Saturday James and I made cupcake pops.  He helped me with the whole thing and they turned out pretty cute. 

Autism Understanding and Acceptance: Open Letter to the World

Awareness is not enough. 

We (The Autism Community) need for you to know what Autism is.
We can only achieve that through Autism Understanding and Acceptance. 

Awareness of autism has risen dramatically in the past few years, and awareness is certainly a good place to start. Increased awareness has helped parents get earlier diagnoses for their children, and it has helped secure funding for research. However, it hasn’t done much to change public perception of what autism really is. 

This is a call out to the world to understand the people and the disorder.
This is a call out to the world to accept the people and the disorder. 

You can not understand or accept the people until you understand and accept the Autism they have. 

Autism is a part of who they are. 

The media has focused almost entirely on children with autism – but children grow up. In a society where one in 110 children is diagnosed with autism (the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control), no one can afford to ignore the significance of this disability. People with autism are children, teenagers, adults, men, women, scientists, programmers, engineers, unemployed, in care homes … too many of them continue to be bullied, to be judged, or to just be ignored. 

Each person is unique. Each person has their own unique set of strengths and weaknesses just like you or I. 

The charities, the organizations, the groups, the parents, the people with Autism themselves... we ask you... no, we need you to know what Autism really is. 

Today, we ask for your Autism Understanding and Acceptance. 

This is what Autism is to us...


Autism means we never know what is going to happen when we leave the house.  A trip to Dairy Queen is usually a huge treat, but if James is having a day where his senses are more out of sync it could be very painful and result in having to leave with no treat at all.  

It means meeting "friends" at the park and watching James choose to play alone because he either doesn't want to interact or doesn't know how to interact depending on the day.  It also means listening to other children ask their parents for friends to come play, but never James. 

It means trying to deal with meltdowns in public places and seeing the looks on other parents faces that indicate their opinion of your parenting.  And me thinking "if you only knew what I was dealing with, you wouldn't judge me".  

Autism is wanting so  badly for your child to express some likes or dislikes.  Wanting him to tell you what he wants for his birthday, or Christmas, or even dinner.  But having to be content with guessing.  When he is feeling sick all he can tell me is "hurts", not where or how, and it becomes a big guessing game of what is wrong, until he throws up.  

Sometimes he is so absorbed in his own world it is more work then it is worth to get him dressed.  Things I know he can do for himself become major tasks because you just can't get him to focus long enough to do it.  I often feel like a broken record asking things over and over again with no sign of comprehension until 30 minutes later when he miraculously goes and puts his shoes on to go to school.


And while they are much harder to see, there are so many good things about Autism.  To me being "Autistic" explains so much about James' personality, his likes and dislikes, and how he thinks and learns.  


It means so much more work at teaching him things that come naturally to other children, but at the same time there is so much more cause to celebrate.  We get to celebrate each and every bit of progress he makes, no matter how small it is.

It means having to look so much harder for his strengths.  But once we find them he can progress so much more quickly.  He is such a smart and talented boy.  

It means that he may not answer our questions very often, but when he does we know he is being truthful.  James has never told a lie.

I am so much more appreciative of each and every smile or brief bit of eye contact.  

While his social skills are lacking, I see the way he interacts with his brother and it gives me hope.  He is truly concerned for him at times and worries about what he is doing and if he is safe.  

Autism is a huge part of who James is.  When we first found out about it the doctor told us to make sure to remember that he "has Autism" he is not "Autistic".  But through this past year I have come to realize more and more that while he is "James" first, he is still "Autistic" and I don't think I would change that for the world.