Season 1: Special "O" Snowshoeing #Wordless Wednesday

Our First Family Photo Session #Monday Listicles

It has been a while since I have done a Monday Listicles post or any post for that matter. Summer was suddenly here and my usual writing routine went out the window. I have a strong feeling that things will not be improving in the coming month.  :(

After reading some fellow "Listiclers", I was inspired to dig out some photos and get back into the game for this week’s topic "10 Photos of Life with Kids”. The first thing I noticed…how on earth did we ever survive before digital!!

I came across some old proofs (circa 1997 - Riley was 3) when we first started having family photos taken. Long story short it was a fundraiser in preschool/elementary school where you got a professional sitting and one 8x10 for $10. Of course they knew you would not be able to refrain from buying at least 1 print of every photo right?? Even still…how could I say no?!?!

Weeeell…at the time of our first ever family photo we were at the very beginning stages of Riley World. It was a time when the word autism was only a word. It was a time though when most everything was SOOOO-O-M-G exhausting!

Out of the 20+ photos that were taken our choices were narrowed down ummm naturally for us. Seeing these pictures was another reminder to me of how far Riley has come in the past 15+ years.

We had tears almost before we got started. *sigh*

Ahhh yes...the ol' arch the back pose.

Looks can be deceiving...R was NOT happy...

He had progressed to the maniacal screaming at this point...

YES...I remember.

Let's move to the floor shall we?

At this point I remember telling G & J2 to just keep smiling,

smiling, smiling...just keep smiling (use your Dory voice here)

as I broke out into a sweat trying to keep R seated.

A:  R was active so I had to make an adjustment to a vice new grip.

B:  Shirt fully untucked but we would persevere. 

Thankfully we got one photo where 

the beads of sweat were not visible 

everyone was "smiling".

As luck would have it the photographer was the same year after year. We chose to believe he remembered Riley's name because of his charming qualities.  :)  He did figure out how to get the best shots and 5 years later Riley had it down pat.  

  J1, J2 & Riley (circa 2002)

Be sure to head over to Stasha's to see her amazing Instagram photos (she is a professional if that makes you feel any better) and if you like photos (like me) check out some of the others. Have yourself a great week!

Best Caricature EVER!!! #Wordless Wednesday

A grad present that had even Riley looking twice!

www.stooart.com

Riley World Enters Adulthood...

What a crazy couple of weeks! If you follow me on FB...wait...whaaa...you don't?!?!?   Oh.   Ummm...this is a little awkward. Weeelllll...you can either click on the FB icon over on the right or any of these red words and you will be kept in the loop on the latest news in Riley World.  :)

Today will be Riley's last day of high school FOR. EVER. aaand he will be turning 19! Gah!

I know I have been promising to blog about all his grad festivities. To be honest it has been more overwhelming than I expected so I have been operating on a day-by-day basis and staying offline for the most part. Once I get my head wrapped around everything I am sure I will be able to blog about it or ummm...not. Eeep.

But for today...it is a special birthday in Riley World so that is what we are celebrating. If you manage to stay tuned in for the entire ~3-1/2 minutes you will get to see some of those soon-to-be blogged about moments.

How was THAT for a teaser???

Click here or on the photo to see a slideshow/video of the first 19 Chapters in Riley World **

Happy 19th Birthday Riley-man! We are all so proud of you!

** I apologize for missing TH and KP...I could not "locate" pics of you and R.  :(

Halloween Costumes #Monday Listicles

I will admit when I was a kid Halloween was one of my favourite occasions. Dressing up and running around the neighbourhood at night getting candy for doing absolutely nothing…doesn’t get any better than that!

OK...slight exaggeration.  

I remember going out Trick or Treating and having to go home at least 2-3 times to “unload” our bags/pillowcases of goodies because they got toooo heavy to carry. Something that is unheard of these days with the size of the so-called “treats” that get handed out. Ya ya too much sugar isn’t good…pre-packaged treats only…blah blah blah. Why when I was growing up…oh. Sorry.  Got a bit carried away.

Anyways “10 Halloween Costumes” is this week’s Monday Listicles. Apparently a very hot topic for Bridget, Brandee, Robbie and Sisterhood of Moms who all made the same suggestion to Stasha.

(Begin sarcastic font here) Being the eco-friendly family that we are (End sarcastic font) we recycle costumes. Dressing up was not exactly something the boys looked forward to (especially R) so I included a few years of yours truly to stretch out my list. 

Numbers 1 and 2:  Little Red Riding Hood (circa 1962 and 1963)

Left to Right:  Me & My Sister (1962)

Numbers 3 and 4:  Devil and Vampire

(1994)

(1995)

  


























Number 5:  Skeleton and Devil: The 2nd Coming

(1997)

Number 6:  Pirates I

(2000)

Number 7:  Cat in the Hat and Vampire II:  In J2’s final days of Trick or Treating and much to my surprise he actually donned some make-up for his Vampire II appearance. 

(2002)

Numbers 8 through 10+:  Pirates II:  Once J2 was done with Halloween I was so relieved that we no longer had to be concerned about dressing up. Or so I thought. When R entered high school you can imagine my shock when the night before Halloween Riley was excitedly talking about getting dressed up. Wait.  What?  When.  Tomorrow?  Really?  Thus the beginning of the Pirate II Era.

Thanks to Johnny Depp and Pirates of the
Caribbean...lots of pirate paraphernalia around.

As you can see we aren't exactly a family that goes all out. Thank goodness we have a lot of black and red in our closets. Ha!  Do you like getting dressed-up???  Don't forget to go check out what everybody else came up with.

Summer Blast from the Past...#WordlessWednesday

J2 & Riley - Summer 2006 

It all started 18 Years ago Today...

Riley's 1st Birthday - June 21, 1995.

Daimasu...here we come!!!

Enough with the Shirt Shredding...Not so #Wordless Wednesday

Boredom, stimming/self-regulating, or a symptom of seizure activity (hopefully the first or second)...your guess is as good as mine. Riley has taken to picking at the threads in his shirts and unravelling them to the point that the shirts become "pop tops" which is NOT a good look for a teenage boy or he is basically left wearing a poncho because he's ripped out all the seams (sorry I don't have a visual for this look).

   














<== Going for the "Pop Top" Look

The latest is the "Cuffless Sleeve" Look.  

(Hard to see but the bottom hem has been taken apart)

Waiting for summer as we're running out of shirts and hopefully we'll be able to figure out what's going on. Oish.

#WordlessWednesday

Picture from Google Images

"Harmony" on #WordlessWednesday

Homemade Fresh Daily at Harmony Donuts - A North Shore Icon

#WordlessWednesday

Riley's Social Success Puzzle (Part 3): Extracurricular School Activities

Earlier I promised to write about some of the things we did as follow-up to the “How to Be a Great Friend” and “Friend 2 Friend Autism Demystification” programs that we found to be successful in building a supportive community around Riley so...here we go.

In-class Activity - Making Posters
After the completion of both programs, Riley's teacher assigned the class a project. They were to pick their favourite "Friend Tip" from either program and create a poster.  They were displayed in the classroom and around the school.  

Recess/Lunch Activities
It is pretty much a given that recess and lunch are the most social times at school. These can also be some of the hardest times for Riley to figure out and participate in. Luckily in elementary school, in particular the primary grades, a lot of the time is spent playing. When Riley was younger he was very active and enjoyed most types of physical activity so we just needed a way for Riley to get involved. 

Bocce Ball Challenge
For two years in a row Riley's FG (Fairy Godmother) organized the "RT Challenge Cup". It consisted of four kids (Riley was always one of the kids from his class) on a team from each of Riley's grade classes. It was a round robin tournament with a final "Cup" game with trophies and treats all around.

During the final "Cup" game kids were making signs and cheering on their class team. So cool! 

In-class Activity - "Riley Rules" Book
Another year FG came up with the idea of having R's classmates write a set of "tips" on how to best engage Riley. The students came up with nine tips and the name "Riley Rules" for the booklet. With the generous support from Student Services and the school the booklet was produced which included pictures of Riley and his classmates role-playing each "Rule".  At the end of the year each student received a copy.

I welcome any comments or questions you might have about any of the activities I've blogged about. The final “chapter” (I know you're probably thinking FINALLY) to Riley’s Social Success Puzzle will be about the positive benefits of both programs. The main and, I think, most important one being “friends”. Thanks for hanging in there with this epic post. I promise I won’t do any more.  :D 

  

#WordlessWednesday Hashtag

Another hashtag on Twitter is #WordlessWednesday.  I know, I know...I'm just discovering this NOW!!! Needless to say I'm ecstatic 1) I can save the post I had written for the next time 2) I can share these pics of R just because and 3) I'm done for the day and it's only 10am.

I promise my next #WordlessWednesday won't have any text.  :)

 

Linking Up and Showing My Shame...

One of the funniest tweeter/bloggers that I follow can be found at Yeah. Good Times.  Her most recent post was an invite to anybody willing to "show their shame" whatever it may be...within reason of course.  How could I not submit something?!?  This is our "gathering place".  Its true purpose is a table in case you couldn't tell.

It's actually looking rather clean since the laundry has been put away.  Guess I'd better clear it off as company's coming tonight.  Yikes.

You can visit Jill (here's her pic)   here.

Sharing my shame...D

It CAN Get Better

One of the things I’ve been noticing is how few blogs there are out there written by parents of teenagers (special needs or not).  I’m thinking mainly because if your teens are “typical”, you as a parent have probably moved on to other things whether it is work, travel or even better…play.  Although there are always the frustrations that go along with parenting a teen/young adult, the chances that you would want to blog about them is probably not at the top of your list.  Babies/toddlers/kids are a different breed.  The urge to want to share your vents, rants and raves or just plain laugh/cry with someone…ANYONE is overwhelming.  I found the need for adult conversation and company to be especially therapeutic when the boys were young. 

So many years have past and it's sometimes easy to forget what it was like back when the boys (now 19 and 17) were little and soooo very needy (both of them) although  I can still remember J2 as a toddler/ preschooler standing in the driveway in his PJ’s tears rolling down his face as he waved goodbye whenever I went out on my own.  One of my “alone” times was my once a month book club.  It started as a group of preschool moms and 15 years later we are still getting together.  Some things have changed over the years.  We no longer are racing in with drool/food on our clothes barely saying hello before that first gulp of wine.  We are much more civilized these days…now our clothes are clean.  ;P  I digress…

Fast forward 10 years.  Sure the meltdowns aren’t occurring daily (or even hourly) as when Riley was younger nor are we having to spend the hours of sensory stimulation (usually soft touch to his head/arms/back) throughout the day to help keep him grounded.  Yes he is better able to cope with change without said meltdowns and his need to be constantly moving has decreased substantially to the point where he is able to “usually” stay in class for the entire 80 minutes!  I know…pretty amazing when I think about it. 

Since pictures speak louder than words, here are a few of life with Riley when he was younger.  We finally decided that having a meltdown in order to get a picture wasn’t worth it anymore so we have a large gap where there aren’t many pics of R.  

Riley's 2nd Birthday Party.
He was not happy when it came time to open his gifts.

His cousin Sara's 3rd BD Party.  Riley - 2-1/2 years old.
Even family parties weren't exactly his cup of tea.

A Company Christmas Party (age 3-1/2)
What were we thinking?!?!?

Riley at 8 plugging his ears as
we sang Happy Birthday.  Surely
it had nothing to do with our voices?!?

So when I blog about life with Riley these days, it may seem as if our lives are relatively typical compared to those early years.  We are able to travel, go out to restaurants and even the odd movie together.  But trust me when I say it hasn’t always been that way.  One final picture taken this past New Year’s in Mexico. 

"I'm relaxing" (as R likes to say).
Ahhh...life is good!   Age 17.

 Yes…things CAN get better...D

  

Bloggers Block...

I was afraid this day would come…”Bloggers Block”!  AUUGGHH!!!!  I have about 25 posts started; OK…so some of them only have a title or one sentence.  But something's just not working when I have to think to hard.  :(   So to save you from my whining and droning on (like I am now) I think I will try something else. 

Maybe I will update the look of my blog.  Yea…”Something Different” again!!!  Hopefully that will get the creative juices flowing again (hey…stop laughing).  In the meantime, I’ll leave you with my To Do List (courtesy of my Fairy Godmother)...

Don’t stay away…I’ll be back soon!  D

#youmightbeanautismparentif...

Although I consider myself a "Twitter Newbie" because I am still trying to figure out just exactly what's going on, I fear I’ve developed a bit of an addiction and may soon require some type of intervention. There is a wealth of information out in Twitterland. Some very informative, some amusing, some LOL funny and some…well let’s just say don’t fall into any category.

Twitter is limited to 140 characters so has developed its own “language”. There are all sorts of shortcuts and MORE acronyms to learn. Hash tags (#) are used to categorize topics or at least that is my understanding. There is one that I found of particular interest #youmightbeanautismparentif… This was started by a couple of moms as a birthday game just over 2 months ago and is still going strong. One that I particularly liked and related to was “You might be an autism parent if you share funny things your child says but are in no way trying to make fun of them or offend others on the spectrum.”   I personally include “things your child does” as well.

Last night I was looking through some of our holiday pictures that were posted by the relatives and came across a couple that I just had to share. Almost daily at our resort there would be water aerobics. Loud thumping upbeat music would blare across the lagoon in the hopes of getting people out of their lounge chairs and into the water (with or without drinks in hand). I, of course, chose to watch from above, cooler cup in hand and stand guard over our borrowed beach towels.

I absolutely LOVE these two pictures!!  They capture R's uninhibited enthusiasm and individuality to a T!  Cue music.  Can you guess which one is my Riley???    =D

Have yourself a fantastic day!!!  D

Happy 19th Birthday J2!!!

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Riley's first Christmas with J1 and J2

     Although J1 was born and raised on the west coast,                  At almost a year old, J2 was NOT thrilled
        having both parents who were born on the                          to sit on Santa's knee (neither was Santa  
      prairies he was destined for all things country.                          by the looks of it). Future visits were
        No Santa hat for this 18 month old cowboy.                           ruled out even before Riley came along.