December 2009 - The Joy of Autism

Moonstruck

I am moonstruck in Miami. I kid you not that while this is an Internet image I’ve just found, it just about looks what I saw this evening rising at sunset. My dad, the photographer, got some real shots of it which I may post tomorrow. It’s...

Published Thu, Dec 31 2009 6:57 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Adam, Family, Joy

Do You See?

“You didn’t see me.” That must be the most popular line of relationship distress we’ve all ever heard and the reason for much heartache. With those who are closest to us, we yearn to be seen meaning, we want to be seen for who...

Published Tue, Dec 29 2009 7:33 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Critical Disability Studies, Writing, Book Reviews

Merry Christmas

I’m wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas, and if you get caught in the snow, may a fire let you gather with those you love and warm your hearts. Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 23 2009 3:53 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Uncategorized

Tis The Season To Love

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Barb and Tim Farlow and Justice for Annie. She has been interviewed in Bloom, Bloorview Kid’s Rehab’s magazine in For The Love of Annie. I’ve known Barb for a few years now and the work she has done...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 1:07 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Acceptance, Joy

Rethinking Autism…dot com

Rethinkingautism.com is a site that has taken The Autism Acceptance Project goals to a new level. “One video at a time,” they seek to use the same tools that media use in shifting and reframing the dialogue about autism: Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 12:34 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Celebrity Advocacy, Activism, Websites, Acceptance, autism, Autistic Self Advocacy

The New World of Single Motherhood and The Autistic Child

Wow. I’ve been reading blogs in my time alone since Adam went down to Florida with his dad. I’ve got a week to myself and I suppose because of the worry about Adam the past two weeks, my own immune system went down and I spend my week alone...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 8:30 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Family, Single Parenthood, communication, To Get To The Other Side

Just because he’s laughing….

All of us have encountered ongoing misunderstandings about our autistic children. Adam, going through something at the moment, could also very well be going through stress. Perhaps delayed, perhaps not, what really worries me is the assumption that just...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 9:33 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Adam, Family, Discrimination

Home, home, home

I always knew Adam was a tough little egg. As I had written earlier today, he defied the sleep aid in the hospital that would knock, likely, a typical kid on their back. Not my Adam; he was fighting this sleep. Maybe he was determined to defy any hospital...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2009 6:51 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Adam, Single Parenthood, Joy

One tough little egg at the EEG

Well, we attempted the EEG with zero success. Adam is an antsy kind of guy and even chlorohydrate does not put him to sleep as hospital staff had hoped. From past dental surgeries, I knew it would not, but I was hoping it would make him drowsy enough...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2009 12:59 PM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Adam

We’re in the “struggle” part

When I wrote The Joy of Autism blog, I wrote a mantra with one line that said “because joy doesn’t come without struggle.” I don’t know if it’s part of the way I think about things, something about me, but my friends certainly...

Published Sun, Dec 13 2009 6:38 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Adam, Discrimination, autism

Waiting to hear….

I’ve decided to use this post for community feedback. We are at a new point in our autism journey that we have not yet figured out. Adam is in a state of pain that seems uncontrollable. It began over a month ago, longer perhaps, when Adam began...

Published Fri, Dec 11 2009 4:37 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Adam

Oops they did it again… on CNN

Every time I watch a new episode on autism from CNN, I’m ready to turn off all phones. For certain, I’ll get a call about ABA, and that maybe Adam “should have had more of it,” and then there is all that dark talk about autism...

Published Wed, Dec 09 2009 10:42 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Autism and The Media

Ready, Set, Go!

I hear Adam’s cherub voice, Ready. Set. Go! in my head as I’ve returned from Paris with fifty-two pages of something I think is finally good. It’s a little more than the weight and size of the limited edition of Jeanette Winterson’s...

Published Mon, Dec 07 2009 7:28 AM by Estée Klar

Filed under: Writing, To Get To The Other Side

“Relating is an act of life”

Anais Nin is a woman who is true to herself and true to her writing from a woman’s perspective. I hope to visit her house in Louveciennes this week. Perhaps this short portion of the talk is a way for us to think about how true we are to ourselves...

Published Tue, Dec 01 2009 12:59 PM by Estée Klar