My aunt forwards me several emails a week.  Admittedly, I don’t read them all.  This one caught my attention and I sat awestruck for over five minutes as I watched Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic savant from the United Kingdom, recreate Rome after taking a 45-minute flight over the city.  Absolutely amazing.

Okay so the video is a year old and I’m sure the majority of the Mindless Mommy blog readers have seen it, but just in case you haven’t - check it out!

Wiltshire also has several other videos up on youtube

April is Autism Awareness Month.  Here is my first contribution to raising autism awareness in April of 2008.  The faces of autism spectrum conditions in my house.  I have never posted a picture of my children before on this blog, meet my two sweethearts.

Easter fun with the cutest little Basset Hound puppy watching.

On a marathon hike with Pops checking out some local wildlife (non-venemous of course).

A lot of media attention this month will play to those that “suffer” from autism.  Autism can most definitely be trying for parents and those dealing with the condition however I wanted to put a happy face to autism.

My Mindless Mommy Blog is one year old!  I’ve had the domain for longer than that but on 3/10/07 I created my Mutterings of a Mindless Mommy blog dedicated to my life as the mom of two children on the autism spectrum.  At the time I started the blog, I only knew I was the mom of one on the spectrum.  Since then I’ve been promoted to mom of two great spectrum kiddos! 

Here’s a look back at some of my favorite and more popular posts.  I’m going to start with March and April of 2007 as I have many favorites and I don’t want to spam them all here in one post. 

An Introduction - My first blog entry!

The Dreaded Autism Tantrum - Blogged from our hotel in San Diego after a fun day at Sea World.

Having Autism vs. Being Autistic - Two completely different statements and one may be offensive to a certain part of the autism community and the other offensive to another part of the autism community.  The power of words, truly amazing.

Autism and Terbutaline- I get visitors to this post every day from Google searches on the topic.  Not many comments but by far one of my most popular posts.

“She Should be Potty Trained” - Not my shining glory moment of educating others about autism, but some days you just have to say what is on your mind.

A Neat Little Package Called Asperger’s Syndrome - This post was made shortly after my son’s diagnosis.

April is recognized throughout the United States and in many countries across the world as Autism Awareness Month.  The symbol most commonly associated with autism awareness is the puzzle.  Sometimes the images have a puzzle piece missing representing that bit of information that is mysterious with regards to autism spectrum conditions.  Some people find the puzzle symbol and even more-so the missing puzzle piece offensive.  While I understand the reason behind this, I kind of like the puzzle symbols (without missing pieces).

Here’s my thinking - my children are most definitely little puzzles.  They aren’t those nice puzzles with flat edges that neatly go together, they are those tricky 3D puzzles.  They aren’t missing anything, well except maybe for some sleep, but other than that they are most definitely whole.  However, I think children are all little puzzles.  Trying to figure out what your child needs and/or wants can be difficult at six months, six years, and even harder at sixteen years from what I’ve been told.  So in an essence, everyone is a puzzle.

My goals, with regard to autism awareness, are to help people understand that autism has many faces.  Yes my little girl who will look you dead in the eye, smile, and say hi is on the autism spectrum.  At this point outsiders see her as a sweet little girl.  I want them to understand that next time they see her if she’s having an all-out meltdown that she’s still that sweet little girl and not some spoiled brat who’s throwing a tantrum because she’s not getting her way.

Autism is not a death sentence for our family.  We embrace the differences that our children have from their peers and provide them with the necessary tools to enjoy life.  In the end, that’s all we want right?  To enjoy life.

Jenn over at Good Job Mama! posted that Bertolli (the pasta company) has followed Lowe’s and pulled their ads from the Big Brother show on CBS.  A representative from Bertolli called, as in picked up the telephone and made a personal phone call, to Jenn to inform her of their decision to pull the ads.  Fantastic!!  I am going to go buy some Bertolli pasta to show my support!  I wish they made organic but I’ll make an exception in this case.  Jenn, YOU ROCK!

So I watched Big Brother on Tuesday night and had this horrible feeling of resentment everytime I saw Adam Jasinski.  Grrr.  Then I’d laugh because he’s sitting there absolutely clueless about the horrors that await him once he gets evicted.  Oh how I’d love to see his face.  Too bad it is likely that it won’t be discussed in his exit interview. 

I woke up from a rather sleepless night (one child with an asthma flare-up and the other with a toothache) to see that Angela from Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy awarded me with the E for Excellent blog award.  I’ve seen these fun awards floating around many of the autism-themed blogs I subscribe to and today I get to join in on the fun!  Angela found my blog after the EOnline article mentioned mindlessmommy.com.  I’ve since subscribed to her blog and traded a few comments.  She’s a cool momma - from her blog “earth-loving, organic food cooking” - my kind of momma. 

Now it is my turn to award a blog with the E for Excellent Award - Feebeeglee is an amazing momma.  Whether it is patience in the midst of a sensory-seeking binge or knitting the cutest lil bum covers for her new wee one, Phoebe has got it together and is a wonderfully positive person. 

Autism News Direct is reporting that Lowe’s is the first company to pull advertisements from Big Brother in light of Adam Jasinksi’s foot-in-mouth comment calling the autistic children he works with retards.  In the entry Lowe’s Pulls Advertisements From Big Brother After Jasinski Comment, a press release from Autism United announces that Lowe’s has pulled out and that plans are underway to work on other big name advertisers like Taco Bell, Saturn, and Geico. 

It is nice to see some action on the part of the advertisers, it would certainly be nice for CBS to come out with more than a simple statement about this.  A lot of people are comparing Jasinski’s comment to Don Imus’ “nappy-headed hos” comment that ended with his termination.  It will be interesting to see how the rest of this plays out in the media. 

My daughter has made tremendous growth since she was diagnosed the day before her third birthday.  In the past 18 months or so, she has gone from one word echolalia to 4-5 word spontaneous sentences.  She’s gone from no clue about when bodily functions occur to potty-trained during the day with only a few accidents a week.  She can drink from an open cup now and she can even write her first name.  Her expressive communication has gone through a big jump and her receptive has increased a bit as well.  If, however, you spend a bit of time with her you’ll quickly realize that there is more than meets the eye (no she’s not a Transformer hehe).

Her sentence structure is just all screwy.  Verb tense is off, pronouns are hokey, and sometimes the words she puts together just don’t mean anything.  Her understanding of what we say is also just way off.  She was discharged from occupational therapy in January and the therapist wrote that yes she could follow three-step commands with “minimal prompting.”  Over the last week I’ve probably tried 20 times to get her to follow a three-step command and without massive amounts of prompting, she didn’t get a single three-step command done.  The test example was “clap your hands, go to the door, and sit down”.  She’ll clap her hands and sit down or she’ll clap her hands then go to the door then forget what comes next.

My parents even worked with her on it and out of about six requests she completed zero.  No way does my sweet little girl follow three-step commands with minimal prompting.  She’s also likely to test out of speech therapy as well.  This is where I get concerned - she’s a “fall through the cracks” kind of kid; thankfully she’s in the kind of family that won’t allow that to happen.

She’s going to test out of speech therapy but her speech is still going to be completely wrong.  In my family we have bets as to whether she’ll test back in to speech in kindergarten or 1st grade; I’m guessing 1st grade and my mom has her money on kindergarten.  However in some families if parents were told “hey your kid’s speech is age appropriate and she can follow three-step commands” then they might leave it at that.  Fast forward a few years when the child is failing 1st or 2nd grade the parent might not realize that her child is actually delayed.  I think in education circles these children are called “slow-lows”.  My baby girl will NOT fall between the cracks.

I just received my google alert for “mindlessmommy.com” and noticed that my blog entries on Adam Jasinski were referenced in an article published on EOnline.  In an article called Another Big Brother Brouhaha by Josh Grossberg, he says:

The blog mindlessmommy.com has reported that the Website was only registered last December, just before Jasinski’s stint on Big Brother was about to begin.

The same article is also printed on Yahoo TV.

Woohooo, I R FAMOUS.  *laughs*

Thanks to Carol O. for posting this in response to “More on Adam Jasinski and the United Autism Foundation”

Good afternoon,

This email is an Official Apology for any and all irresponsible, misleading and unprofessional comments made by Adam Jasinski on Big Brother 9, a CBS Reality TV Show, about children and adults who have been diagnosed with Autism.

In the name of the United Autism Foundation, I would like to apologize for all disrespectful comments made by Adam Jasinski on Big Brother 9 to the entire Autism Community as well as all children, adults and families who are affected by Autism.

I am aware that Adam Jasinski hurt many people in our country, but please understand that Adam does not represent the United Autism Foundation with his personal point of views or his personal believes.

Please accept my apologies and please keep in mind that the United Autism Foundation is committed to help special needs children in order to improve our society today. UNIAF is committed to support our community, and we need your support to make a difference.

The United Autism foundation is not about Adam Jasinski - UNIAF is trying to create awareness in order to help and support all those who have been diagnosed with autism.

AGAIN, I AM SORRY AND I DEEPLY APOLOGIZE FOR THOSE COMMENTS MADE BY ADAM JASINSKI ON BIG BROTHER 9.

Respectfully,

Olaf Hampel
President
United Autism Foundation

Carol goes on to ask where the apology from Adam and CBS is plus what are our assurances that Jasinski is no longer associated with the United Autism Foundation.  Very good questions Carol.

 One thing that comes to mind is houseguests are completely sheltered from outside goings-on.  They have no access to any press so Adam Jasinski might not have a clue what is going on out here in the “real world”.

I have to say that I am happy about the amazing amount of traffic and buzz that this has generated.  I’m up to over 1000 visitors over the past two days and it is heartwarming to see the overwhelming support.  Thank you all for taking the time to comment here, write to CBS, etc.  Together, we have one loud voice!