Astounding Ava!

Today my youngest, Ava, completely blew our minds by writing her name! She has a dx of autism and is nonverbal, however we have noticed that she's showing an interest in books and seems to have some letter recognition.  Although we were happy about her curiosity and looking forward to teaching her, this was such a surprise!  Recently I had been thinking about teaching her through RPM (Rapid Prompting Method), which I've mentioned in previous posts for teaching Aidan.  I wasn't sure if I would just start with Aidan and get her started at a later date, but I'm going to take that as a sign to begin ASAP!  I'm currently learning the method and will be figuring out where to begin over the next few weeks.  It will take a bit more work to work with both kids, but will be well worth the effort....I plan on documenting our progress in this blog, so stay tuned!

Love is not enough

It's been over four months since I've posted to this blog, and I've barely noticed the time slipping by except for the occasional glance at the date of my last entry and a brief thought along the lines of "holy shite, that was July?!".  Anyway, to say it's been crazy wouldn't really cover it, but it's been crazy!!
We decided to get all of our children re-evaluated to get a better sense of what their needs are, and along the way I'm gaining a lot of perspective.  It's too easy to get caught up in the day to day chaos of getting everyone dressed, fed, and bathed and getting to spend a little time with each.  At the end of each day, no matter how challenging they were, I think about them and how much they mean to me.  And I feel so stuck.  Being so caught up in the chaos has kept me from being the parent that these kids need, and they need SO much.  It's not enough that I love them with every fiber of my being, that I would kill or die for any one of them at any given moment, that I can cry when Aidan is frustrated by being unable to communicate or Lillith can't stop the voices in her head from upsetting her.    The love I feel will not help ease Devlin's anxiety, help Aidan and Ava communicate, or quiet Lillith's voices.  My husband once said, "Our most important job as parents is to teach our children how to live" and nothing is more true. We have to teach them, fight for them, travel to the ends of the earth if necessary, and adapt everything in our daily life to their needs.  As hard as that sounds, I think that will calm the chaos (a bit!) and maybe keep the grownups a tad less insane....
Anyway it's also a goal of mine to post several times per week to record highlights and progress, and also just to keep writing.....I promise they won't all be so long and ranty...........:-)