Bug Bites

 I have been bitten, bitten by a writing/blogging bug. I'm not sure where this came from. It may have been inspired by my friend Colleen, who is writing a YA trilogy and Tweets/Facebooks/Pintrests all these really cool updates! She is an up and coming author, so make sure to check her out at on her blog http://cmalbert.blogspot.com/. It could also be inspired by all of the totally awesome blogs I have been visiting, courtesy of Pintrest. I am fascinated by these (most of them have been women but I don't want to discredit any men) women who have coordinated informative blogs on everything from gluten free casein free recipes to organization to crafts! (And let me just add that I have also been bitten by the crochet bug, but that can be another topic another day!) It could also be that I have family and friends' voices echoing in my head: "You should write a book, share what you know and what you have done." Now, the thought of a book scares the bejesus out of me! I will never say never but I certainly have not been bitten by the book bug. Now, are you asking yourself, at this very moment, what in the world could Heather contribute and what could she ever write enough about in a book?

If you take a look at earlier posts (um, yes, that would be way earlier. Oops, I fell off the blog wagon a while ago.) you will read about my beginning journey with Braden who had autism. Had you ask? Well, last year we had Braden reevaluated. It was a three year mark and I wanted to see, touch, analyze how far we had come with him. I knew that he had made progress. I knew that he could keep up with his peers, I knew that academically this kid was right on, I knew that he could make friendships and healthy ones at that. But sometimes you just need to see it on paper. And, a little voice was ringing in my head from our initial evaluation: "some children who have been diagnosed early grow out of the diagnosis over time." At the time I thought, ya right, don't give me false hope. But, with Braden, as his language grew and I saw him interact with friends, I began to hope just a little. After a month of testing, with multiple days of testing and observations of him at his school, the psychologist came back with hope. She said that he had traits of autism (lack of eye contact, trouble with transitions) but that he no longer actually fit the diagnosis, he no longer ticked all the criteria for autism. I love how she described it. She said that he is sprinkled with autism and she felt that an anxiety disorder would probably better fit him at this point. Now, did we jump up and start dancing on the ceiling? No, we were skeptical. We talked to her about all the implications of this and how this would affect Braden. We talked about the services he was currently getting and if they would be impacted. But everywhere we looked, we could not see how this would hurt him. All of the therapies he is receiving were private and paid for by us. He is attending a private school where IEPs are not governed by IDEA. (Let me just say that his school, although not governed by IDEA, has been wonderful and has worked with us to make Braden successful.) So maybe this is the beginning of where those voices started: share what you know, share what you did and even if it just helps one person, it will be one person who has been touched.

Has everything been peachy keen and roses and smiles since this reevaluation? No. We still have our issues and we still fight for Braden everyday. We even had a huge set back this fall that we are still fighting to overcome. Because, remember, he is sprinkled with autism. There are still issues there that "normal" (whatever normal is) kids don't have to contend with.

And for me, sprinkled with autism has been coined a term of affection for me. These sprinkles are sprinkles of special love, sprinkles that have made this family a better family, sprinkles that have made me a better mom and sprinkles that have made me try to be a better person. All of these sprinkles leads me to an idea for another post... I am playing around with the title of my blog and have been tinkering with this word, sprinkles. What do you think? Do you think I should incorporate "sprinkles" into a new title for my blog, to mark this blog bug bite? AND, for all those creative thinkers out there, any ideas for a new title? Sprinkles, special, love, family...I would love to hear any ideas you have! I promise to give credit! Share your ideas with me in the comments below.

Until next time, I hope your day is sprinkled with whatever you need: love, hope, or maid services ;)