The Ocean

Friend!!! I have so much to tell you I am stuttering and tripping over myself. Oh sweet divine- the thoughts are crashing about and I already feel an emotional hang-over coming on.  We-we-we-we- we went on a trip! To the beach! And it was GLORIOUS and brilliant and a big WHOOSH of air into my self. 


Remember a few weeks back when we went to Millerton Lake? It was solidified then- the way Grey reacted to the water like it was true love...There was an idea explosion...Greyson will experience the ocean. 
Real water- where people aren't sitting around eating entire bags of flaming hot something-or-others and it doesn't smell like old fish and there are no floating diapers. The real pound-sign honesttogoodness ocean. Like the Pacific Ocean-ocean. How lucky are we to live just a little road trip away?! 





Something happened to me after I had Parker....and then we soon after realized that Greyson was Autistic...I got hit with a baseball bat and landed to just now...right here...and slowly I am coming to, and realizing things...things that I want....and things that I need to survive. 



The trip there was a little of this...



And a little of that...



Parker had Reflux as a younger baby and road trips longer than...oh let's say 20 minutes just weren't feasible until recently.


Like all good road trips, it started out with some candy.

I....won.....can-kneeeee


Sour skittle face....







Like air and water, I need the ocean to survive...and I'm lucky that those needs are all self-serve. 




And I am happy to report that my boy needs it too...I'm pretty sure he's a mer-man and the Ocean is his first home.











I was uploading my photos from the weekend and scattering the "must shows" on my desktop like I do as part  of the process of putting together this here blog and suddenly I saw that I have almost 40 photos that I "narrowed" it down to. I really want you to come over so I can show them all to you and we can drink coffee (or wine from coffee cups) and talk all about it, but since that is not really plausible, I will break this post down into 2 bite-sized morsels.



I conducted a study...Fresno and Orange County: A study in absolute opposites. Sure, they are both in California, but that's where the similarities end. I love 'em both for vastly different reasons, but at the end of the day, I loved coming home to Fresno...and being gone made me realize just how much it feels like home to me now. I'm so glad I'm raising my kids in Fresno but I believe a "great place to raise your kids" can be anywhere as long as there are great parents to raise them. You can have a screwed up childhood in the best neighborhood on earth.


There were many things I had forgotten about Southern California...

Dogs are people there...and here they are just dogs...


And people watching is just as much fun in there as it is in Fresno but for different reasons. In Fresno people have a tendency to under do and in Newport they have a tendency to over do. 


This weekend reminded me again how lucky I am that this sparkly sugar-coated candy shelled life feels alive again. There was a time not too long ago that I had forgotten what it felt like to smile. A time I thought my life was determined for struggle and sadness. A time I thought having a child with Autism was a sentence on death row....I was wrong... For once, I love being wrong...


Parker loved it there too. 



Apparently sand is a delicacy to the refined baby palette. Note the sand goatee.



We enjoyed the simple things...like playing with the hotel phone and swimming in the pool.


And playing in the sand. 






I can't believe how much Greyson loved the sand. He would lay down face first and practically make sand angels. Some Spectrum kids have some sensory aversions-- sensory information may be sensed and perceived in a way that is different from most other people-- the difference is that information is often registered, interpreted and processed differently by the brain. Many Spectrum kids can't stand the feel of grass or sand on their feet. I knew he would love the ocean, but I thought he would hate the sand. (And PS- if he would have hated the sand on his feet you better believe that I would have made him walk in it every day. Everything is a learning opportunity when you have a Spectrum kid!)




I am just like you...in another town, in a different place...with another story...but sprinkled throughout our vanilla icing life are sprinkles of many colors...we are all so unique and so much the same. 

I tell you these words because I want to change the World. I want you to understand and share more about Autism so that the World is filled with more knowledge and understanding of this disorder so that my son Greyson can have the best life possible. 

Sometimes we can't change the world so we have to change our situation. I thought about that when putting on my sunglasses driving home. I wondered if the inventor of sunglasses first tried to cover the whole big sun, and once he realized that wouldn't work- he invented a way to cover the whole big sun, just two eyes at a time and came up with sunglasses. I just want to change the World with two eyes at a time too.

And you help me do just that. You are making a difference. When I was in the OC, an awesome reader friend recognized me from this very blog (hi new friend! Send me an email kellyc43@gmail.com). I've had a few people come up to me in Fresno and ask, "Are you Greyson's Mom?" because they recognize me from the blog and I get so tickled every time...but here we were 5 hours away...and I was so blown away...because that means that it is working...and with your help, I am reaching people...and I am so humbled because I'm really just a girl...with a computer....and a love for her son so deep and so raw that there's nothing I won't do to make his life easier in any way I can...and sometimes it's hard...and I want to give up...but God made that encounter happen to remind me to never give up because it's not just my son that could use understanding...it's all kids who are different...because behind every kid-- is a Momma or Poppa with a life mission to see their child happy... 

I still need your help. Please continue to help me share these words with the World. Tell your friends that they simply must read Life with Greyson and Parker...Tell them it's better than US weekly (sometimes it's OK to lie). Share this blog...sign up to be a member...(over there- the blue box on the right- you have to do it from a computer- not your phone though). You don't actually get anything when you are a member...but you give...you give me hope that I am not alone on this journey...And to my 166 members...Thank you isn't enough.....but thank you...

Look at these parking places I spotted by our hotel...

You see, inspiration is everywhere....we just have to notice the details...


So often I am looking for the finish line....that moment I can cross something and heave this huge sigh of relief...I made it...I did it... But it never comes because before it gets there another race starts, and then another one and then another one and I feel like I can't keep up.





I decided...I'm gonna stop looking for the Finish Line and just enjoy the run.