We had another busy week; which most of them are when you have four kids. We went to Cory's cousins house yesterday for his Aunt's Surprise birthday party; it was so great to see most of the family. Joey went to Grandma's while we were at the party since that would have been way to much for him and it is easier to pick our battles. I figure with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up Joey will have enough excitement.

Like I mentioned a few posts back; Joey LOVES the snow and when he saw that it was snowing yesterday he was so excited. He doesn't even necessarily like to play outside he just loves watching it come down and loves seeing it on the ground.

The kids just have three days of school this week which they are all happy about. Mom and I will be going Black Friday shopping this year, which we have been doing every year for as long as I can remember. Molly is coming with this year for the first time and she is very excited to be a part of the tradition.

Things have gotten better the last few days; I think it took the kids a few days to get used to me being back from vacation and understanding that Daddy was back at work.

We are back to our 2 times a week speech and 2 times a week O.T. for Joey, and our 2 times a week speech for David; the therapy center in Eagan sees a lot of the Cliff's.

Joey spent two nights this week with Grandma since Grandpa was out of town hunting; Joey told me this morning when he came home that he wanted to live with Grandma forever; when I asked him if he was sure he said "yes I will get me suitcase". It was very cute even if it hurt my feeling a bit. Joey loves Grandma so much as do we all; she is an amazing Mom/Grandma, and a wonderful advocate for Joey. She talks to anyone that will listen about Joey and educating people on what Autism is.

We will be spending Thanksgiving at my Parents house on Thursday; which can sometimes get stressful for Joey with all of the people and noise, we are preparing for that this year.

Joey cannot wait for it to snow; everyday that he wakes up he asks if it is snowing yet; it sounds like he might get his wish tomorrow ;-)

Thank-you to everyone for the kind words over the past few days and for following Joey's journey!

Hope---Fades

I was trying to find a way to write this post as not to offend anyone, but i'm not sure that's possible.

I got back late Sunday evening from a 5 day vacation to Florida with my Mom. We went to St. Pete Beach Florida for the National Autism Association Conference. The resort was beautiful, the weather was amazing, but the conference in one word "sucked".

I might be alone in saying this, but I am not looking for a cure for my son with Autism, nor do I believe that his vaccines caused his autism. All that I am trying to do is find ways to make life easier for our family. I have never in my life met so many people with such high expectations, I refuse to give my son 35 vitamins a day in the hopes that it will "cure" his autism; don't get me wrong we tried the DAN doctor's, the Gluten free diet, the vitamins, the B12 injections, etc. Until we realized that none of it was working and was just a way for these doctors to make more money from hopeless feeling parents.

This particular conference was a lot of parents saying that they know the vaccines caused there child's autism; which is fine if they believe that, it was a lot of telling me what I am doing wrong, and that I have a look of hopelessness. I actually left feeling like a bigger piece of shi* parent then I did when I got there; I am pretty sure that wasn't the point?

I should have known when I saw that Dr. Andrew Wakefield was going to be there, even after his autism-vaccine frauds were brought to light that it wasn't the conference for me. It was a lot of networking, people there that did not have an autistic child trying to get you to buy vitamins from them, ahh no thanks.

Don't get me wrong we are all doing what we can to help Joey out, but first things first lets work on him counting to 3 and learning his ABC's before we try and cure his autism;-)

We are all alive!!!

Well I realized while sitting here today that writing the blog is good for my sanity so I will pick it up again.

There is a lot going on in the Cliff household as of late.

Joey is in the 1st grade in the Autism classroom at Northview; he starts off in the "regular" first grade room and then transitions to his CIP classroom for the remainder of the day.

Joey is 6 years and 3 months old and is still not potty trained, does not know more than 1 color and can't count past 3. I know people always say "well it could be worse" sure this is true; but i still think this sucks.

Having a Son with Autism that can barely leave the house because of his flapping and squealing and the looks we get from strangers, trying to get Joey to do a simple thing like say "Hi" when someone says hi to you, a child that poops in his bedroom and then plays with it. Yes it could be worse; but when a good nights sleep is 5 hours these things make life pretty challenging.

Not only the challenges of raising a son with Autism, but finding the time to properly care for Molly, David and Abby makes life a little stressful most of the time.

Time to get the little ones to bed!!!