Busy days!

This past weekend was very busy. Saturday we took all the boys to Twinsburg, Ohio for the Twins Day Celebration. Last year it was quite a challenge given how Liam was with crowds and the fact that Aidan and Brendan were still 1. This year was a little different. Liam, the twins, and Seamus, were all a year older and this made things a bit easier. We got there and let the boys do some fun things to set the tone after the 45 minute drive there. The boys got to go on some carnival rides, complete with freaky carnival people. They all even got to ride on ponies before we went in. Once we got in we took our time looking around and looking at everyone there. The Twins day celebration runs all weekend and it has really grown. Twins and their families come to this from all over the world. Each year we get to meet new people. Looking around you really get a sense of how special it is to have twins. The neat thing this year was the group photo. The Discovery Channel was there filming it for a special on multiple births. They videotaped everyone saying “We will be right after these messages!” They did this a few times and each time the crowd got louder and a little crazier. Aidan and Brendan at this point were tired and ready to go. We ended up leaving shortly after that. The day was sunny and hot, and after being there for 4 hours the boys were done. Next year we hope to go with friends who have 9 month old twins, so hopefully it will be more exciting as the boys get older.

Liam through all this still had his moments. The crowd that used to be a problem for him no longer seems to be. Liam would continue to have small fits and be difficult during the day whenever he wanted something and couldn’t have it. These little fits repeating themselves wear on you. At one point Jill and her mom went to eat and I stayed with the boys at a playground. The playground was big and crowded. Trying to watch all 4 was quite stressful and tiring. Each was going in a different direction. My biggest concern was where Liam was. He has gotten better about not wandering off, better about not wandering off, but he can be easily be distracted when he sees something he wants. When Jill was done I was going to eat. Well, all the boys decided they were hungry. We brought them snacks, but they wanted the BBQ chicken I had. Liam was quite difficult since he wanted his own chicken, (which we knew he would not eat), his own bread, and his own pop. Jill ended up getting another chicken dinner to appease him. Overall, the twins were easier to deal with than Liam was himself. That should give you an idea of how it is. Now he wasn’t terrible, but it was just the repeated fits that put stress on the day.

Sunday we had a family over that has a 2 year old son who is Autistic. Jill got to know the mother through the school at Middleburg. As it turns out, her husband works at Sherwin Williams as well and I knew who he was. They also have twins, a boy and girl. Seamus has gotten to know them as he played with them while Liam was at school and Jill hung out with the other mothers. They have only recently found out in the past year about their sons Autism. If you were to look at a timeline of where we are, and they are, we are further along as Liam is about 14 months older than their son. A lot of the behaviors we seen in their son are the same ones Liam had at that same age. Talking to both parents, we found they had the same feelings of frustration, anxiety, and stress, that we had, and still have ourselves. The parents do the same things we used to do. They don’t go anywhere because of how difficult their son can be. I think Jill and I have grown through this whole experience with Liam. Liam has improved greatly in the past year and that has made things easier on us. Talking to the father I told him of how I remembered Liam was much the same way as his son is now. I tried to convey a positive message of taking it one day at a time and just not giving up. Jill and I will definitely get together with them again. Our kids played together nicely and we simply enjoyed each other’s company.

Tuesday Jill went to the Westlake Library a meeting about the Ohio Autism scholarship. We got to go over all the information she got to see what we can do with it. We looked into this last year and from what we could gather. Before Liam could be eligible, we would have to document everything the school has done and not done, and basically have the burden to prove the school was not working for Liam. Jill said it sounds like it has gotten easier so we will again take a look at it to see what is best for Liam. Jill also found out the Ohio Autism Society had a petition going to get an Autism Awareness vanity plate. She signed the petition and hopefully plates will be available soon!