I just felt the urge before I ever talk about my feelings of negativity, to share something amazing with you all. My daughter was about 2 1/2 before she started talking. Her first words were not actual words. They were letters and numbers. Within 2 weeks of her first utterance, she was counting to 100, and knew all her ABC's. After a few months, she knew all her colors, shapes, days of the week, months of the year. She was so smart, I wasn't sure what to teach her next. So, I decided one day at dinner to give her a little test. I asked her who the first President was. Her response? "The first President"! After I told her she used good logic, I told her it was George Washington. It took a few tries, but she eventually was able to say his name properly. Later that night, I told her who the "President now" was...George W. Bush. Then I decided that it was pointless to teach her without showing her. So I went to a website that had each of their actual Presidential photographs, and clicked on "George Washington", and then "George W. Bush". She seemed interested, but I didn't want to overwhelm her. The next day, we were shopping for a birthday present for one of her classmates, and while in the wrapping paper aisle of Wal-Mart, she kept smiling and saying George Washington. At fist I thought it was cute that she was remembering so clearly something we had talked about the night before, but after a little bit, it got kind of annoying. Finally I asked her what she was talking about, and I saw her look over to her right. There, on the wall, was a set of flashcards with 2 pictures on the front. Guess who?! George Washington, and "Dubya". So I got them down, and asked her who the other person was, and she said "George W. Bush"! We bought the flashcards! Within 2.5 weeks, my daughter learned every single President in U.S. history. She even knew when they were out of order (shocker, right? who ever heard of an autistic child sensing when something was out of order?? LOL!). She would become very upset and say "No, No!" before their names. What a brilliant little girl!

I know some of my postings won't be the cheeriest, but I want people to get a glimpse of the daily life of a parent of a child with autism. With the rates being 1 in every 166 children born today that are diagnosed, odds are good that you know someone that either has autism, or has a child with autism. Today I felt like being positive. Tomorrow, who knows?

Thanks for reading my rant,
Leslie

Well, that wasn't so bad (creating a blog). I guess now I need to talk about myself a little. I will be 30 in a few weeks, so that sucks. I guess. I hear it's all uphill after that though. Obviously, those people are crazy. Anyway, I live in Florida, and I am married to a man who, at times, can be the greatest guy on earth. At other times, he can be an insensitive slob. Depends on the day, and whether or not I've taken my meds. You laugh, but that wasn't a joke. I'll get to that later.

I have 3 kids. My oldest, a boy, will be 13 in October. Obviously, I had him at a rather young age. Fortunately, with the support from my wonderful parents, we did pretty good. He has a different dad than the other two, and I'm pretty happy about that. His dad has taken a lot of wrong turns in his life, and let's just say he's not around much. My middle child is also a boy, and is 5 years old. He has been diagnosed with severe autism. Then there's my daughter. She is 4 years old, and has also been diagnosed with autism, although hers is a higher-functioning form. I will talk plenty about my kids in the future, so for now, I'll be self-centered, and stick to me.

I grew up in rural Indiana, and still have some friends back home (ha-get it? Back home! LOL). My parents were great, and I also had 3 brothers, all of whom were a lot older than me, so they weren't really around when I was growing up. I had a great childhood, went to private school, all that jazz. Then they moved me to Florida when I was 11, and I went crazy. I felt like I didn't fit in here, so instead of being me, and letting things happen as they should, I forced it, and changed myself to fit in with Florida. BIG mistake. I had a pretty rough time as a teenager. I was never one to go out and do illegal things, but I always wanted to be out, and it caused a lot of problems between me and my parents. We understand each other now though, and have both apologized for being jerks to each other. But those were some pretty rough years, and I put my parents through more than I ever should have. They say having a baby changes everything...it did. It changed me back to being me.

My father passed away last year, and it hurt. We were cool with each other for several years, and had gotten close again, so I had a really hard time dealing with it. I still do, to be honest. One day I'll share that time with you, but not yet.

I don't want to make my first post long and boring, so I will share a few quick things with you. First, I am a HUGE Indianapolis Colts fan. Always have been, always will. I am thrilled with Tony Dungy being our coach, and I really like Peyton Manning. I think the entire team has wonderful character, and love the fact that they are respectable. From their personal lives, to their team ethics, I couldn't be a prouder fan. For those of you who don't know this, the high-school basketball team manager that has autism, and made headlines for scoring 6 3-pointers in the final minutes of the championship game, now works as an equipment manager for the Colts. I actually cried with joy and pride when I read about that! Other than the Colts and my family, autism is my life. I run a local autism support group, I belong to all kinds of autism organizations, and if I have a spare minute, I am usually online trying to read about autism.

I decided to blog because I can never find paper around here to write down my thoughts, and I know there are so many families out there going through the same things I am. Whether it's funny, sad, or an amazing accomplishment, I intend to share it. I keep hearing that I need to write a book. I guess one of these days we'll see if I do.

Thanks for reading,
Leslie