Run Mama... Zombies

So this post is more about me than the Tiger. One of things I find hard to do, is find time.
This gig is a 24 hour deal and the Tiger is usually up for 16 - 19 of those hours. I do have help
( Thankyou Daddybear). Also I'm a bit of a spazz myself, so that makes it a little easier to keep up with my relentless Tiger.
I swear that going to work is the easiest part of my day, especially since the peeps I work with are so awesome & how very accommodating my employer is. The only downside of my job is that I'm a desk jockey. For the last few years I've spent my working hours on my butt and it shows.
Also I've turned into a bit of a potato sprouting weird growths and abnormal cells since I've put on more weight than is healthy, especially in the last year.

I may have mentioned in an earlier post about how I talk and bake and eat as coping mechanisms.
Since I've been screened and all the new and fun parts of me are non cancerous I've drawn the conclusion that my body just has too much material to work with and that I need to eliminate some of that extra.

Sooo..... I need to watch my diet (gah I hate that word)
Cut back on coffee ( I'm not sure I can do this)
Find time to workout, but I need sleep.
Find a workout I can do with Tiger? hahahahahahhaahaaha
Find a workout I'm willing to get out of bed even earlier for.

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner

Zombie Run
This is what happens when you ask Daddybear to watch Tigerlily paint outside. I refused to let her in the house, pretended I was scared of the little zombie.

Anyways my bestie who is one of those super women who can do it all and look good while she's at it. Well she knows me well and took me out for a zombie run, its an app for the IPhone and its great.

I love it,
I've run through the free stuff already and I bought the subscription and new shoes FOR ME!
& I'm doing it folks.

Today I did a mission before hubs left for work and on my lunch break I put another thousand steps in doing a supply run for my little survivor base.

Tiger has even come on a supply run with me. ( we went to the park and I did laps while she played)

When the zombie chase came on she was so cute

Run Mama Zombies!


The High Functioning Life, just keep moving  runner # 5!


HFL Mama

Food... The Never Ending Story.

This is a long drawn out post. I've edited and edited and scrapped and written again. This is such a big deal and yet so simple, I just want my Tigerlily to eat good food.

First off, Tiger doesn't like to eat, she likes lots of different foods but chewing and swallowing are an issue. My little one has always struggled with chewing and swallowing.  The motor planning involved in eating is significant and if you have to plan your movements ...
lets just say Tiger will never, ever, be overweight.

& Yeah umm utensils are not our friend, enough said.

Tiger does not eat hot food.  Room temperature is the most she will tolerate. This made me crazy and it was an issue I kept trying to "fix" until an OT told me to shove it where the sun don't shine. OK she was more professional than that, but it basically boiled down to the problem being mine and not Tigers.  The OT explained that Tigers mouth was a hyper sensitive spot and that she could in fact feel like the warm food was burning her mouth, that kids do in fact gag from the texture of foods and that I needed to just accept it and move on to a battle I could actually win.

Tiger likes cold finger foods best, bite sized if possible and food made into pictures is great.






Tiger actually eats a wide variety of foods. I know some moms with kids on feeding tubes, so really the fact my kid likes her food cold is nothing to gripe about. My big problem with Tigerlily is quantity, she simply does not eat enough, because biting her cheeks and tongue hurts.
Yay summer is here and we can do the cold smoothie thing a lot more often.

Ok I can't resist I have to say it. I hate GFCF, I hate seeing it promoted, I hate any marketing that targets ASD parents, because I always think what if??? and the guilt people, the guilt of not being able to afford everything and anything that might help my kid.  The best organic gfcf sugar free all natural farmed by hippy saint foods makes me crazy. Watching people new to the lifestyle try to do these crazy diets just makes me angry.

Basically it boils down to this,

Tiger is not sensitive or allergic to any natural foods, her specialist, the doctor with a dozen abbreviations behind her name, broke it down for me. The problem is not the food, its the processing and chemicals added to the food. Our wonderful doc went further and gave me a list of no way foods and a please  try these supplements and food therapies.

First the supplements.
Vit. D, especially in the winter, this goes for every Canadian apparently
Omegas in large doses, apparently reduces swelling in the brain.
(coincidentally we started this at the same time Tiger started speaking, or is it a coincidence?)
Live probiotics until bowel movements are regular, after any antibiotics or any time there are tummy troubles. We use BioGaia it's horrendously expensive but totally worth it as it takes all the bloat from the tigers belly makes her regular and so much more comfortable.
Multivitamin to help when diet is limited.

Pretty simple right?

Well...... the no go list is quite long and so is this post, if you are still reading you are committed aren't you? Warning I read a lot of labels at the grocery store, I hate grocery shopping now and if I forget my glasses I just go home.

IF you can read the tiny print of the ingredient lists then the following list of ingredients mean you have to put it back on the shelf.

Tartrazine this stuff is evil! colour preservative has to be labelled, they are trying to ban it in the UK.
Aspartame, Sucralose, Splenda, Sweet n Low or any other artificial diet sweetener. No Deli meats.
Glucose, Fructose basically any ose is a condensed sugar and if its the first ingredient just put that crap back. Oh well this is taking too long how about this if you don't know what it is, and you can't pronounce it DON'T FEED IT TO TIGER.

Tiger ate a diet yogourt cup once, she went completely manic and couldn't sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time for something like 40 hours, some of the worst hours of my life, never mind the kid.
One time she got her hands on a fruit rollup, The school called me to come get her and I had to take her the doctor as the kid was doing contortions, her face was totally white with high red spots of colour on her cheeks and her heart was just racing ....  Fruit Rollups are loaded with Tartrazine.

It's not so bad, basically I go to the butcher for meat, and we reduced our meat consumption to match our budget. I do buy food at the grocery store but I always look at the ingredient list and choose the least evil option or make my own. We use butter and whole milk and unbleached flour etc.
I make most of our treats, since I love baking that's no hardship and we eat a lot of Snacky trays and salads. We almost never eat out or buy premade foods and after not eating them for so long frankly they make me ill, as I am no longer used to the chemicals either.

Alright if you are still reading this, my best advice to you is to watch this:
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/autism-enigma

It explains a lot about ASD and the gut thing

The High Functioning Life where we never ever forget the tiger snacks.

HFL Mama

Can't Wynne For Losing

Today I cried in public.

Not much and not my usual honking goose impersonation, but a few teardrops escaped and I needed to take a minute to compose myself.

We were discussing the impact of ASD children entering the school system without having received therapy, the lack of ABA training for EA's. The difficulties facing ASD parents when trying to get EA hours for their kids, and the effects of this on classroom dynamics, teachers and the kids themselves. With the new IBI  5 year olds being cut off and the new system of "Enhanced ABA" still a mythical element, that is supposed to be introduced in 2018 (can you hear my snarky tone there?)  a lot of teachers and parents are very scared of what their kids classroom experience will be.

My friends with "normal" kids are afraid that their kids will be ignored as teachers and aides will be swamped with special needs to be met.

My teacher pals are not therapists, and they feel it is unfair to both teachers and students to force them to try to be both a teacher to upwards of 24 children and a therapist to a special needs at the same time. They are being set up to fail and the kids are the ones who will suffer.

My friends with ASD spectrum smalls, just want what is best for their children, but some don't know what that is going to be. Public, homeschooling, private, keeping their kids out until they actually get IBI etc.


It seems that because of the liberal win in this province, we are all losing.



The High Functioning Life, where our elective representatives don't show up for the debate but magically appear at voting time.



#autismdoesntend@5

Broken Records

Honestly I sound like a broken record, one that is stuck in a groove playing the same song over and over and over. I went to a function the other day, and as always, the talk turned to our respective children.

Once again, I found myself explaining what Autism is, about my very high functioning daughter, the spectrum etc. I've had this conversation so many times I swear my family knows it by heart.  I'm not a private person, I'll answer most any question as I don't have anything to hide and I want my daughter to grow up in an understanding and accepting world.

I do feel for my friends and family though. I know that I talk about our challenges a lot, I know that I keep bringing up the same issues and problems. The thing is, that's how I deal with it, I talk and talk and bake and eat until I've wrapped my head around the issue or found a solution. Having a kid who is exceptional is very isolating. I'm so grateful for my online support groups, who discuss all the same  issues, in the hopes that someone will have a brilliant idea, that will help. Having the online community takes some of the pressure off my family and friends to be my sounding boards. Which is great because, I no longer have a lot of friends, eventually our little family kind of fell off  peoples' invite lists. I understand why, and frankly going places with Tiger is challenging, we know that changing the routine is going to mean some screaming and sleeplessness. Some people just got tired of hearing the same song about this weeks therapy, or meltdown or me whining about how I don't know what to do, my lack of sleep need for an IV coffee drip etc.

The few friends I still have, are family now. They are completely accepting and non judgmental about our lifestyle.  I know without a doubt that I can count on each and every one of them to listen to me sing the same song, and they won't hit skip. That they will still come over, even when we haven't managed to go there in months. They will let my rant run its course before changing the subject.

My life seems very much to be on repeat, we try to maintain the routine as much as possible, to ensure Tiger can sleep at night. The more sleep she gets, the better she feels and does.

I'll be honest, I get a little stir crazy. Tiger is forever trying to ritualize things and add things to the routine. I have the same arguments with her every day about the things she has to do. Today we have the same song holding the number one spot folks . So we'll play it for you one more time, after this quick message from our sponsors, so stay tuned to hear

Brush Your Teeth by HFL Mama




The High Functioning Life, where we would like to play you a new tune, but that's just not going to happen.