The day I found out my kids were autistic I didn't know what to think and do for them. I thought it was normal for my kids to not talk much because I was quiet and didn't like too much noise and crowded places when I was young.
The days were tough, I had to go to speech therapy for both and other classes specialized for autism. Finally I found some great babysitters. One babysitter told me she couldn't take my daughter in anymore because she climbs and jumps from the couch and she doesn't like the babies crying.
Richard was going to school so we signed him up and we thought he was starting the first day of school. They called us and told us that Richard was going from seat to seat having fun on the school bus. You just have to laugh at the situation. Principal had to call us to get him when he got to school.
Richard loved letters and I sang the alphabet song over and over. We watched Dora and Diego and Super why everyday. Richard became a little spelling and reading genius. I started with simple words and he never forgot how to spell them.
Isabelle loved painting and started to make rainbows over and over, rainbow on top of rainbow. She would line up all her open markers all over the table. She loved making slime because she can mix all kind of stuff in there.
She also loved being called a princess just like some Barbie movies. I would tell her that she is going to princess school and if she wanted to be a princess she has to brush her hair and take a bath and wear her nice dresses with nice shoes. It was the only way to get her to do anything. She has her moments that she starts crying and doesn't want to come out of the car and a few minutes later she is dancing all happy.
In my dreams, my kids and I were inside a game and we had to get coins like in Mario bros. At first, It was hard to walk with my kids in the game but if I tell my kids to get the bonus blocks they would help me get through the course faster.
In real life my kids became better socially and mentally even though they had their tantrums and I think it's because through my dreams I learned how to help them.
There was two times in my life that Richard almost died. On his first birthday we went to the beach and everyone was entertaining the kids until I noticed that I couldn't see him and everyone was searching for him. Someone stopped him from going in the water, sat him down and François found him seating with some people.
He was so attracted to water. When he was 9, it happened in spring there was snow and still warm and sunny. Richard was quick to find a toboggan and quickly slid down the hill. He came back and he still wanted to keep sliding so I said " You came back, that's great!" "Fine you can slide again. " I was watching very attentively and it was taking him longer than before and I started to panic.
I went quickly down the hill and still couldn't see him. I started hearing him crying and I kept yelling "I'm coming!, I'm coming!" "Richard where are you?" There was a man and his family and I asked them. "Have you seen a boy with a red sleigh." I looked down another hill and I could see the sleigh but my son was nowhere to be seen.
The man went on top of the hills and said he saw him so I went down the hill to see. My leg fell down knee deep down the bank of snow and there was a creek big enough for a little boat and it was dragging my son with his head up, under the bridge. I kept calling "Richard, Richard!." He finally looked at me and he held unto a big tree that had fallen. He tried to come back to me. I said to him yelling "Stay there Richard!" and then I saw the man that was trying to help me grab him and try to take some of his wet snow suit off.
My leg was caught on the snow still, I crawled out of the snow and I had enough strength to go up the little hill and I just needed to go half the big mountain.I ran to my car where my husband and daughter were. I told him that Miguel was on the river and couldn't explain what happened I was just hurrying to get to the other side of the bridge and I saw the man that helped us carrying my son. My heart was thumping loud and I couldn't believe how he survived this.
I took all his wet clothes off and tried to warm him up. His lips were blueish and I took my daughter's snow pants and other jackets and put it on top of him while François went to get his wet boots. There was a cop car trying to figure out why we were parking there and we told him what happened. He called the ambulance and they showed up really quickly.
The paramedics questioned us and wanted to know if he intentionally jumped on the water, all we could say was, he accidentally fell on the side and maybe he wanted to get to the other side of the water to get out of there. We were frightened but the weather was warm, at least. After we went to hospital we kept watch to see if he had any symptoms from being in the icy water. Me and François had terrible nightmares after that.
Every day we celebrated something different, even the little things. My son got potty trained at 8 months and we were so happy, we thought it would be like that forever, that wasn't true. My son had to be trained every 3 months and one day he was too big for diapers and he did well for 3 months and then terrible.
August was the worst because he had ragweed allergies and then he started eating strings, sand, foam, Sheetrock and made him digest slower and he was in pain. The doctor only said to give laxative and what he eats wil come out. I was always afraid he would die from eating this things. Sometimes he surprises me and he starts talking and being confident and he does everything well for the longest time and sometimes everything is getting worst and worst but every evening I put him in the bath to relax with healing and relaxing music and he got better and better.
Richard wanted to escape from the backyard to get to the park right infront of our house but after the last fright we had sliding down the hill. He became attached to me and had anxiety when he went out. He was holding my hand all the time. When we moved houses, he didn't escape anymore, he didn't want to go on trampoline, he didn't want to go to park and he was always constipatwd and in pain watching his tablet.
Isabelle started screaming and being moody but it was always her teeth that were bugging her. Her slime phase became a hobby or obsession and she would make slime 8 times a day and pile it on her dresser. I had to cut the slime with scissors in pieces and put it in a bag. It was so heavy I had to get many garbage bags and finally she started doing flour dough and it was much better for her health instead of having the chemical fumes in her room.
She would steal little toys from school , my room, Richard's room and everywhere she went and I had to explain to her that it is not hers.
Did I mention Isabelle was tall for her age when she was a baby she was so tall and her body was growing so fast. When she was 4 years old and Richard was close to 6 she looked like she was Richard's twin and at 11 she was taller by 3 inches. Even when they went to camp they called them twins and thought Isabelle was the oldest.
Either way I am proud of my kid's accomplishments. They have come along way.