Week 77

So it is Sunday evening and we're in Pittsburgh.  We had an extremely busy weekend and the last thing I wanted to do was sit here and type this blog.  In fact, I just finished telling Phil that we really need to stop writing the blog because most weeks it tends to send a lot of stress my way... worrying if I have taken enough videos and pictures and straining to remember what actually happened that we want to share with everyone.  At 9pm I begrudgingly sat down to download pictures off of my camera and write week 77's entry.  Editing the pictures took about 15 minutes, and stalling to actually do the writing I checked my email.  And wouldn't you know I received an email from a former student and she mentions how she still reads the blog and is happy to hear about how Ryan is doing.  Gosh, what timing for that email to come when just an hour ago I wanted to give this up altogether.  I guess we can't do that just yet (but be prepared because it will happen in the foreseeable future!)  But not tonight, so here it goes...

Let's start with Pittsburgh since I already mentioned we are here.  We visited Phil's sister and her family for the weekend.  We feel very lucky that the kids are for the most part patient in the car since it is an 8-hour trip to get here.  We've had a busy couple of days.  Here are some of the pictures highlighting our visit. 

The kids playing together.

Shucking corn with Uncle Chris

Ryan, Kate, Julia, and Megan... they love spending time together!



Ryan with Aunt Anne, his godmother.



At the park.

Even before our trip to Pittsburgh, this week was a busy one.  Ryan has been getting more homework and it can sometimes be a struggle getting him to sit long enough to do it.  It sometimes takes a lot of bribing.  And on top of the homework, when he doesn't cooperate and finish his work in school, that gets sent home as well for him to finish as homework.  One of his assignments this week was on the "fun" side.  It wasn't writing letters so Ryan was a little more cooperative.  We needed to decorate a pumpkin to put up on their classroom's pumpkin patch bulletin board.  So out came the box of craft materials and I was able to get Ryan to work on his pumpkin for about 15 minutes.  He was very independent and wanted to do all of the cutting and coloring himself.  He was patient and he did a good job.  I was impressed!  But I could also understand why he may not finish activities at school.  If he doesn't stay completely on task he won't finish because he is on the slow side cutting, writing, coloring, etc.  I'm sure with time the speed will come but for now he's trying his best to be neat and accurate, and he's come along way in the past month. 

And there were more crafts to be completed when our neighbor Carol brought the kids a bucket full of Halloween gifts.  Here Ryan is making a haunted house.  He looked at the picture on the cover of the package and carefully replicated it.  Again, he was a very independent worker and he sat for about 15 minutes to complete this task. 



My friend, Bridget (one of our avid blog readers!) alerted us about the Theatre Development Fund piloting the "Autism Theatre Initiative", the first ever autism-friendly performance in Broadway history.  That evening we heard all about it on a Nightly News segment.  My explanation would not do it justice, so I'm just going to give you the link to the segment:  Autism Theatre Initiative


Recently I received a link from my mom and friend Marni, two more of our avid blog readers, about a heartwarming story of a set of parents preparing their adult autistic son to be out in the world on his own.  Here's that link: Seeking a Place in the Adult World

Well, that is all for now.  And don't worry, when we are ready to end our journey of blog writing we will give advanced warning!

DC