Next stop Europe...

Well, for Lotte anyway. One-sixth of the Tripped Up Family is heading to Chicago now and then boards a plane to Warsaw, Poland to begin a 15-day European Choral Tour. She's competing in the World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia as part of her high school's European Tour Choirs. They will visit Prague, Vienna, and Budapest along the way. If you're interested, you can follow along with the Rockford Choirs via Twitter, their Facebook page, Instagram, and of course their blog.

Today's office

No pictures of Lotte leaving for Europe today because when you're holding onto two 5-year-olds' hands while keeping track of where the other 5-year-old wanders with periodic glances, not only do you not have hands to take a picture, but you also don't have the eye focus. That's okay, I would have gotten water (tears) all over my phone anyway. How can I end up not crying during graduation but end up balling when I drop her off for her Europe trip?

Closely averting two meltdowns while 57+ people gathered with all of their luggage and send-off people (on a windy day that even Pooh would find slightly mentionable) and still managing to get Lotte there early and well prepared, I'd say that was an afternoon of work. Here's hoping today's office environment will calm down all the rest of the emotions, for Tripped Up Mama and all three triplets, one of whom cried the whole way home because she didn't want to leave her sister. Mabybe later I'll just take another look at those photos of Prague & dream of seeing it all myself.

Response to 1 in 68

The CDC has released its latest numbers on autism. Now we know that 1 in 68 children have an autism diagnosis compared to the 1 in 88 of the past.

The report also indicates that boys are 5 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism, but in various reports I've been reading this could be simply because the symptoms in boys are more prominent and also because professionals have been trained to look for it more often in boys than in girls. I believe we will see autism diagnosis equalize between genders as the years go on.



This clip features my friend Kim from NJ with her lovely daughter Ava. Kim was one of my own first supporters when we received the autism diagnosis on Angel and Princess triplets. In fact, without knowing Kim and her story, I don't know if I would have finally pushed to discover the real issues in our own daughters.

The report also indicates that once you know, you can get early intervention. Oh if that were only true for everyone. Certainly, I support early diagnosis. Certainly, I support early intervention. I guess I just want to bring to people's attention that whether or not you get the type of intervention you really need depends on more than just the diagnosis. It depends on your insurance. It depends on your state. It depends on your school district. It depends on your income level. It depends on how adept you are at finding, applying for and being awarded available grants. It depends on how determined you are to work with what's available until you can obtain what's actually needed. It depends on how easily you accept the following answers relative to your child: "No," "Not now," "We don't have those kind of resources available," "Since you're self-pay we can only...," "I'm sorry, but" and the list goes on and on and on and on.

If you have any concerns about your child, I strongly suggest you seek out answers as soon as possible. However, you need to be ready to fight for your child and his/her needs from the beginning. An autism diagnosis is great and in some places, that's all you need to make sure you get the needed services. In most it's really not. Dig, research, talk to parents and never allow yourself to believe that one professional knows all the answers. Don't allow yourself to remain in denial or fear for very long. When you have a child with autism, you may need to be much more than just a parent. Your roles will also include therapist and advocate. Get used to it, that may not change for years.

Warning: Romantic Gushing via Social Media

Today Tripped Up Daddy surprised me by following me on Twitter. My initial reaction? Uh oh... (Where after all will I send out those random passive aggressive tweets he's never supposed to see?)

Tripped Up Daddy just started following me. Oh no! There's nowhere to hide now! No more passive aggressive tweets. #firstworldproblems

— Lisa Roberts (@trippeduplife) March 13, 2014

So I have to tell him I know, via social media, of course. And before you know it, the romantic gushing on social media begins.

@trippeduplife Already following you to the ends of the earth. Might as well on Twitter too.

— Brett (@trippedupdaddy) March 13, 2014

Heart = Melt #inlove #gush RT @trippedupdaddy: @trippeduplife Already following you to the ends of the earth. Might as well on Twitter too.

— Lisa Roberts (@trippeduplife) March 13, 2014

Yes, I know, it's cheesy, but it's what you do when you're in love. You gush. And I think I'm proud of it. Almost 8 years of marriage that has definitely been filled with its share of life struggles, and yet, we're still gushing. I think it's good, I think it's fabulous, I think I like it :-) So deal with the gushing already.

Intensive potty-training - Day 1

Today marks the beginning of the New World Order in our house. Angel triplet is learning to go potty. TODAY. It's Midwinter Break so we have 2 days off from school. Tripped Up Daddy is in charge of Princess and Sunshine triplets today. I've hired a babysitter to watch the other two triplets tomorrow and Tuesday so Angel triplet and I can live in the bathroom.

We're following a regimen indicated by her ABA supervisor, and it normally works after about 2 to 3 days.

It's insane. It's programmed potty times with only 10 minute breaks in between. That's 15 minutes of sitting on the potty, then a break, and then back to the potty. We've done 4 cycles already, had one accident, and only a little balking. She can play with anything she wants while she's on the potty, and if she goes two amazing things happen: 1) SHE GETS CANDY! 2) We get to wait 45 minutes until the next scheduled potty time!

So far the best potty time activities are her Barbie B Bright computer toy and My Pal Violet. Oh and Mommy's reading electronic potty books whenever there's a lull in interest.

Tripped Up Daddy and the others went to church leaving me alone in the insanity. Actually, I think I could do this if it were just her and me. Of course, nothing, absolutely nothing else, will be accomplished today.

Wish me luck. If it works we'll be down to just 1 triplet still in pull-ups

It's no secret we're behind on this daily living skill (the girls are 5, after all), but that's not unusual when you're dealing with autism or other developmental delays. If you've followed along with us in the past you're used to reading about the potty training dilemma, if not, you can catch up pretty quickly by looking at the earlier posts (linked in this paragraph).

Two inches of success

Sometimes it's really hard to do life. I mean, sometimes you realize that every single place you look in your home there is another obvious example of a task left undone or, in my house, more like 10 tasks left undone stacked up on one another. At those moments everything feels overwhelming and it's scary to even try to look at a task list because the priorities are too confusing.

Today is one of those days where the mountains of undone tasks, disorganization, strewn toys, unfolded laundry, dirty dishes, leaking shower, broken van (and I could go on and on) all grew far higher than my normal tolerance level. Overwhelming, paralyzing, hopeless.

Me whining to Tripped Up Daddy: There's isn't even 2" in this house that doesn't remind me of something left undone or some other way that I'm failing.

Sunshine triplet at the very moment I said the word "failing": Mommy, look at my picture I drew! See it's me and you and Daddy. See the pink bubbles and the sun and all the tall grass?

Me to Sunshine triplet: This is awesome, honey. I love it.

Sunshine triplet: I love you Mommy! and she bounces off to her next activity

Tripped Up Daddy to me: I think you just got a whole lot more than 2 inches of proof that nothing you're doing could be called failure.

I don't think the interchange made it any easier to address my lack of organization and mountains of undone tasks, but it did remind me that my success/failure measuring device might need some recalibrating.