10 Things I would love everyone who knows me and Noah to know...

I didn't write this but I wish I did.   The author (found at the blog below) called this post "10 Things my Autistic Children Wished You Knew".  I can't honestly tell you if Noah cares if you know this stuff or not, but I would love for everyone who knows me, my family, and my sweet Noah to know this.

http://lostandtired.com/about-me/

Written by me, Rob Gorski (Lost and Tired) and dedicated to my amazingly beautiful children. 

1. I’m sorry I have fits but I’m not a spoiled brat. I’m just so much younger on the inside than I am on the outside.

2. I’m easily overwhelmed because I see and hear everything. I hear the lights hum and clock tick. Everything is so loud it makes my head hurt all the time and my eyes hurt from all the bright lights.

3. I’m not stupid, I’m actually very smart. I just don’t learn the way you want me to. Please learn about Autism so you know how to help me better understand what you are trying to teach.

4. Please don’t be mad at mommy and daddy because we don’t come over for holidays or birthdays. They really want to go but I don’t do well at another person’s house. It’s too overwhelming for me and they know that. They don’t go because they love me, NOT because they don’t like you.

5. Please have patience with me. I try really hard to make good decisions but I can be very impulsive at times.

6. Yes, I have Autism but that doesn’t mean I’m less of a person because of it. If anything, I’m actually more of a person in spite of it.

7. My house might be messy sometimes. It’s because my mommy and daddy spend all their time trying to find new ways to help me or teach my brother to talk..

8. Just because I can’t talk doesn’t mean I don’t understand what you are saying. My feelings can be hurt just like yours.

9. I wish my mommy and daddy knew how much I love them. I have a really hard time with emotions and I don’t always like to be touched. But I love them more than anything in the world, even more then my Lego’s.

10. I know I can be frustrating but don’t tell me I won’t amount to anything because I have Autism. If you love and support me I WILL do great things in my life in spite of my challenges.

A Pause in Adventures...

We have had to take a little break from our adventures for a couple of reasons.  All of us came down with that nasty cold, that I have taken to calling the Black Plague.  We are heading into week 4 and still are all coughing with sore throats and head congestion.  No fun at all.

Last Saturday, I was at the beach for my annual Beach Bunco girls' weekend and Geoff had planed a fun weekend of visits with Grandma and going to the toy store with the boys.  The first hitch to their plan was that both boys were borderline sick.  Owen had stayed home from school Thursday and Friday and Noah seemed to be coming down with the cold too.  Then Saturday morning Noah experienced a huge seizure.  This seizure started out like his regular seizures and then after about 4 minutes Noah went completely limp and started to struggle to breathe.  Geoff gave him emergency medication and after another minute the seizure ceased and Noah went to sleep.  The combination of the medication, the seizure and the cold wiped Noah out for days.  He couldn't walk for a day afterward and missed Monday and Tuesday at school.

Noah's seizure is a reminder that all of our plans have to be tentative.  We never know when Noah will have what we call "bad days" and we need to spend time at home with him.  Those days are an odd combination of fear and boredom where you worry about Noah and sit next to him watching endless hours of preschool television.

But we will be back, in a week or so...

Adventure #11: Apple Orchard

In order to enjoy a gorgeous fall weekend day, we decided to visit an apple farm!  One of the great things about living very close to a rural area is the access to farm stands, pumpkin patches, Christmas tree farms, and all that good, fun stuff.  The one downside, it occasionally smells a little like cows outside.  And by a little, I mean a lot.  

We drove about 5 minutes from our house to Oregon Heritage Farms.  If you have driven down Scholls Ferry Road you may have noticed their cute rhyming signs that lead you to their front gate.  This farm is not a u-pick, but picking the fruit sounds suspiciously like work, so I am great with just purchasing at their quaint store.

We have a routine when we go, explore the grounds, then hit the store.  We start with the animals, goats and pigs are live in pens right next to their field.  And, if you head to the far back fence, there are some secret horses.  No one seems to notice these beauties, but we head over there every time we go.  They usually will let Noah pet their noses.

After our animal visit, we climb into the hay ride wagon!  Then we go through the hay bale maze.   Owen loves the hay bale maze, which as you can see from the photos is intended for children.  Noah doesn't like walking around the grounds too much.  Uneven ground makes him feel especially unsteady.

We finish up in front and I head to the store with Noah while Geoff takes Owen to the bouncy apple.  If you don't mind being crammed into an apple shaped bounce house with billion kids that you have seen no where else on the farm grounds, then this is for you.  It is a little to much for Noah and I so we gather serveral different apple varieties to purchase.  We also browse the cute store with other produce and crafts.   We grab the kids honey sticks, bag up our apples and head home.  Fun Autumn adventure for just the price of some apples!


If you go:  2 apple farms that are close enough to each other that you can easily do both in one outing.  They both have upcoming festivals, but are also open each weekend for impromptu farm fun.





Apple Fest at Oregon Heritage Farms -http://www.oregonheritagefarm.com/
Sunday, October 9th
22801 SW Scholls Ferry Road, Hillsboro, Oregon 97123. Phone: 503-628-2775. We will have Good Old Country Music, Face painting, Hay Rides and other activities to help raise funds for the Aloha and Southridge High School Ski Teams. 


Heirloom Apple Festival at Smith Berry Barn -http://www.smithberrybarn.com/scripts/openExtra.asp?extra=6
Saturday, October 16th and Sunday October 17th
24500 SW Scholls Ferry Road, Hillsboro, Oregon, 97123 Phone: 503-628-2172. Many other fruits, vegetables and nuts, honey, jam, hayrides, country store open daily thru Dec. 23, & more. Local crafts, antiques, gifts, and much more. We also feature herbs, perennials, and hanging baskets.  March - Dec. 23, Monday to Saturday. 9 am to 7pm, Sunday 10am-5pm , 

Adventure #10: Bad Times at the Costco

Yeah, I know, Costco isn't much of an adventure.  Sometimes though Geoff and I will make a fun trip out of places like Costco or Lowe's.  We will take our time and browse the holiday decorations, look at the toys, in the case of Costco, eat our weight in free samples.  So, that is what we decided to do last Saturday.  I was working on a cold, which I have convinced myself is Whooping Cough, or maybe Avian Flu, so something pretty low key seemed best.

We looked at electronics and kid jammies before making our way back to the books.   We all like the book section and spent some serious time here.   Then we headed for toys, where no good things happened.  Costco has tons of toys right now as they are getting in all their Christmas merchandise.  So we are looking and playing with different toys.  Owen calls us over to see a Lego set he has his eye on.  We all go over, Geoff and I and Noah in the shopping cart.  Owen is subtlely begging for this Lego set as are two other boys who call over their mom.  As their mom walks by our cart Noah goes and smacks her upside her head!  Those of us who know and love my little Noah have all been smacked upside the head by him.  But we generally try not to let him tag perfect strangers.  Geoff and I both apologize multiple times and Geoff adds the "he's Autistic" just so she understands his badness is part of a diagnosis rather than we just raised an asshole.

We tell Owen to grab the Legos just so we can get off that aisle and go hide somewhere else in the store.  We grab a big stuffed bear so Noah has something to occupy his hands.  That lady was a wonderful person, she just blew it off as no big deal.  I really appreciate she didn't make us feel any worse than we already did.

We continued our shopping at Costco, ate some samples and grabbed some things we needed.  Noah, ironically, was an adorable angel the rest of the trip.  He just kept resting his head on his big teddy bear.   We were able to conclude our trip with no more mishaps.  Day in the life of raising my special needs kid often keeps me on my toes.  Really all we can do is apologize when Noah is inappropriate and laugh.

Adventure #9: The Beach

I hate missing out on any sleep, ever.  I love my sleep.  We wanted a trip to the beach this summer, but didn't want to stay the night.  Until we get Noah used to a regular bed we don't plan to spend any more sleepless hotel nights.  We realized something, when you live in Hillsboro, the beach is only a little over an hour away.  There and back in one day is not only doable, but makes a beach trip incredibly affordable too.

 Packing a lunch, kite, sand toys, and more clothes than a day trip should ever require (but weather at the Oregon Coast is fickle) we set off for the beach.  Now we were pretty sure we had all the makings for a great day.  All the supplies were packed, Owen loves the beach, and Noah lives in his sand box.  Here we are taking him to the world's biggest sand box.

We found a parking spot in Cannon Beach right next to beach access and walk on down.  Two initial obstacles hinder us.  We have a ton of stuff to lug down the beach.  Geoff just wants to give up and set up our spot pretty much as soon as we hit sand.  I insist we trek closer to the water for water play and sand castle glue.  While Geoff and I have our hands full we are making the kids walk.  Owen has no problems, Noah however, quickly decides he is not walking.  At first I wasn't giving in.  It took me a minute to understand what his reaching up to me while trying to stand on one leg meant.  Noah has terrible balance and never tries to stand on one leg.  His little piggies were burning up on the hot sand!  So, we re-shuffle gear, so I can carry 50 pound Noah and fewer toys.

The one photo of our cameraman Geoff, his fingers!

Noah is a happy little clam all set up with his sand toys and a bucket of water to play with.  Owen is my surfer, heading straight for the water regardless of how freezing the Oregon Coast Pacific is.

We play and eat lunch.  Geoff and I remember why we hate eating on the beach as we enjoy our rather sandy sandwiches.  Owen decides he doesn't like seagulls when they fly off with his chips.  We were there on the one non-windy day, so Owen's totally awesome fighter jet kite doesn't really fly.  He had fun running around with it, trying to get it to anyway.

Before we go, I want to try out the water with Noah.  He has never been in the ocean.  He loves swimming pools and bathtubs, but this is totally new.  We go down to the waters edge and the first wave totally startles Noah.  The water is cold and rushing fast.  I think he couldn't quite decide if he liked it or not.  He would reach out to me with each wave.  When Noah decided to pelt the waves with wet sand, I think he was declaring he did not like the ocean.

As we finished up, we hauled wet kids and all the gear back to the car.  We changed each kid into dry clothes and headed home.  We had such a fun day.  And outside of gas money, it didn't cost us a thing.  

Future Adventures

We went on vacation once without our little Noah and we all missed him so much.  As we are planning our future vacations we are trying to find places that can accomodate Noah.   It is a tall order, we need a place that we would all enjoy, that doesn't overwhelm Noah or us, and where his quirkiness wouldn't be too big of a problem.

There was a great article on Ability Path about traveling with you special needs kids.  Here is a link to it:

http://www.abilitypath.org/health-daily-care/daily-care/playing/articles/travel-guide-disney-special-needs-disability.html

Adventure #8: The Oregon Zoo

One of my own personal goals is to live more during the week.  You know, not save all the fun stuff for the weekend.  So to further that goal I took the kids to the zoo on Tuesday.  The Oregon Zoo http://www.oregonzoo.org/  offers a great deal with $4 admission on the second Tuesday of every month.  This typically means that the zoo is insanely crowded.   However, by getting there after school at 230pm many people with preschoolers are heading home, so it wasn't too crazy.

Usually Owen and I get into an argument at the zoo because he just wants to rush around to whatever animal pops into his head, "let's see the polar bears!  Now let's go to the farm!  Now the bats!"   Whereas I prefer to do a more orderly exhibit to exhibit.  We compromised by starting in the zoo where he wanted, Stellar Cove, and then followed the paths around the zoo.  Watching the sea lions is amazing.  The exhibit is a full wall of windows into their swim tank.  Both boys enjoy watching the sea lions surprisingly serene swimming in the water.

As we walked around I realized a real problem with the zoo.  Many of the exhibits, especially in some of the older parts of the zoo aren't very wheelchair/stroller friendly.  Noah couldn't see the animals in most of the exhibits because the viewing area is at waist height.  So Noah was just hanging out while Owen and I looked at the animals.

There were a few animals Noah did really get to interact with.  The goats were in their petting zoo pen.  We were able to stick our hands through the fence and pet them.  Noah is always more engaged if he can use more than one sense to notice something.  For example, with the goats he could see and touch (and smell) them.  When we used the hand sanitizer afterword Owen just kept pumping the lever.  It took me a second (and Owen about 6 pumps) for me to realize Owen couldn't feel the sanitizer because it was foam.  He thought he wasn't getting any.  When I told him to check his hand he had a mount of sanitizer about 5 inches tall and 4 inches wide!  We were very clean.

Baby Sumara

After finishing up the African area of the zoo we went to get a snack.  I enjoyed this part the best.  And no, not because I love to eat!  It was really nice just to sit down with the kids and talk about what we had seen.  Noah loves salty foods, so he had some potato chips and Owen has a wicked sweet tooth, so he had cotton candy.  I let Noah hold his own bag and he did well not dumping all the chips out.  When Owen was done with his cotton candy, he looked at me to ask if he had any on his face.  I swear the entire lower half of his face, from his eyeballs down, was covered in cotton candy!  We cleaned up and finished the zoo.

We walked up the Great Northwest exhibit on our way out.  Noah liked the salmon I think because he could really see them and the water was splashing a little out of the tank onto us.  His hands down favorite was the bears.  Two of the bears were really lively.  They were snuggling and playing with each other.  Noah tried to crawl into their exhibit!  Mostly, I think he wanted to play in their dirt.  

We left the zoo after two and a half hours.  I was pretty pleased with getting out and having a fun afterschool afternoon for $12.  The very best part of my day was when Owen spontaneously hugged me and told me "thank you for bringing us here".