OK, it's not spring here, not even close. It's January, and we're having a classic January inversion (it's the Utah word for winter smog). It's cold, and the air is nasty, and any day now the state legislature is going to start its annual nonsense. But here on the blog, we're cleaned up!
Those of you who are return visitors, welcome back! You may notice that my kids' names have been replaced in both past and current posts with pseudonyms: Wilder for my son, who is now 17 years old, and Cassie for my daughter, who is now 14 years old. I should have made this change years ago to protect their privacy, and to be totally honest the challenge of changing the archive of posts held me back from using this blog much in the last few years. Now, however, I'm done. Those readers who know us personally, please help me out and use their pseudonyms instead of their real names in any comments you would like to add!
I've also pared down the list of links--for now. I'll repopulate it as I update it with more useful and up-to-date links! I've updated and tidied up my profile. I don't think anyone needs to know my favorite books and movies here, and I don't need to share them with the data collection robots on the internet. I'm still on the fence about using my actual face on the blog, but until the trolls come knocking it stays.
Those of you who are new, welcome. (I know, there aren't any of you yet, but a girl can dream.) If you decide to dig into my archive, you will see a pretty big difference between the posts that went up ten years ago and the posts that go up today. I had a very different perspective on life, autism, my kids, and myself back then. Some things, however, remain the same. And I think the contrasts and similarities across the body of this blog may be useful to some readers, especially those who are on the same journey of parenting autistic kids.
If any of you see something I missed or have an update to suggest, please comment!
