About Us

About Us

I am a *cough* 43-year-old mom of 4 amazingly active little boys. Jack is almost 8, whip-smart, has a smile that will melt your heart and high-functioning autism. Lennon is my 6 1/2-year-old little devil with the face of an angel – he is also apparently made of moxie and rubber. Kieran is my 4 1/2-year-old baby monkey, determined to do every single thing his brothers are doing. Kai joined the team this past fall, and he’s the pride and joy of his big brothers. My husband David is my co-zookeeper.

 

This is Us

I am a stay-at-home-mom (sahm) with entirely too much education for my own good.  I need somewhere to exercise (and exorcise) my English degree, and this is as good a place as any.  I’m pretty sure the folks at the elementary school and on Facebook will agree.

We lived in Hollywood until three years ago, when we packed up and moved to Canada, just South of Vancouver.  We went from surreality to Beautiful British Columbia, and as is usual with us, there is never a dull moment.

It’s been an interesting trip, this parenting road we’re on, with more than a few bumps and pit stops along the way. Autism has been more than a passenger, it’s become part of the trip itself. And as with any good trip, the journey is as important as the destination. So why not make the journey fun?

I would like to share our experiences, our trials and our adventures. Autism colors everything we do, but it’s not always a bad thing. Autism has afforded us opportunities we wouldn’t have had otherwise, and insight and patience we definitely wouldn’t have learned quite as quickly. It’s also a handy-dandy excuse for living life a little off the beaten path. Not that we needed one.

Welcome to our adventure.

**** Wendy

Parenthood is A Trip                   Parenthood is A Trip, Too

photos: Chris Weeks

 

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And now for the caveat…

There are a lot of politics surrounding autism.  We don’t know what causes it definitively, but we do know it can’t be “cured.”  The spectrum of disorders is as vast as the opinions surrounding it.

I will say definitively that I don’t believe vaccinations had anything to do with my son’s autism – I know he was born this way.  That doesn’t mean I don’t think there haven’t been instances where vaccinations have damaged children, creating spectrum-like disorders. While not taking anything away from the very real pain and suffering these families endure, I simply don’t believe that is “true” autism.

I don’t wish to engage in heated discourse about the causes of autism here – I want only to create a place where parents and families and individuals touched by autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can come to laugh and share about it.  Laughter is a much better medicine than most, and let’s be honest – autism is funny.  In every definition of the word.  So let’s not fight – let’s laugh.  Together.

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