Random Acts of Kindness During this Quarantine

As we continue through navigating our new "normal," one thing in particular has stood out to me as far as parenting Dominic goes. No one can make it alone through this. I'm sure you have heard the saying, "it takes a village to raise a child."  Never has that been more true than doing these unusual times we are currently living in. After I had Lauren, I had two miscarriages. When I got pregnant with Dominic, I was worried every single day that I would have another miscarriage. I think I knew deep down from the time he was born that something wasn't quite right. When he was diagnosed with Autism at age 2 1/2, it surprised me, but not really. As the diagnoses started stacking up, ADHD and Generalized Anxiety Disorder at age 3 and then Complex Partial Epilepsy five years ago, I knew that we needed additional support. Say what you will about Facebook (I know not everyone likes it), but for those parenting children and adults with disabilities (such as our family) it's very much a "lifeline." Isolation was HUGE for our family in those early days of Dominic's diagnosis of Autism. During that time, our daughter was having significant health issues and we were taking care of my husband's parents back in Cleveland. It literally was all I could do to function each day. I guess you could say, "I was going through the motions." When everything settled down a bit, I then starting looking for my "village." It's not like you can go stand on your rooftop and say, "hey, I need support here!" I wish it was that easy, but it isn't. When I started posting on Facebook years ago about important milestones Dominic reached, my on-line "village" would comment and/or like my post. During this Quarantine, Dominic (and our family) have been the recipients of many "random acts of kindness." At the beginning of the Quarantine, a neighbor down the street gave Dominic a puzzle because he knows from my Facebook posts that Dominic loves puzzles.  Five days ago, another neighbor (who just happens to be Dominic's old music teacher) brought down five Magic Tree House books that her daughter picked out special to let him borrow because she saw on my Facebook page that Dominic was reading them:

This past Monday, I met up with one of my closest and dearest friends in a high school parking lot (so we could social distance) and she gave me six puzzles, three of which Dominic has already done and yesterday afternoon, Dominic's special friend, Madelyn brought over four puzzles.

Wow, I'll tell you, I am overwhelmed and humbled by the generosity of my "village!" Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and please know this, it is very much appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How a Daily Walk Has Helped Me Through this Quarantine as Someone with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

I used to make a daily walk a priority. As I had gotten more and more busy over these past few years, I would find every excuse I could to not walk. I'm too tired, I'm too out of shape, I have a heart condition, etc. My husband tried to encourage me, but I ended up taking offense at his not so "gentle" suggestions. He stopped after a while.  Up until the past four weeks of this Quarantine, I would come to the end of the day and realize I hadn't set foot outside of our house at all! Not even to get the mail from our mailbox.  Yikes.  Lauren has been temporarily living with us and she kept asking me to go for a walk. I kept telling her no, until I decided that for my mental health, I really needed to get out of the house at a minimum, once a day. I am so incredibly thankful to her and her persistence, because we are now on week 4 of our family "walks!!" The first week or two, I had to come home and lie down after our walk because I was exhausted.  I have slowly built my stamina up and don't need to do that so much anymore. Dominic's private speech therapist has built his speech therapy into our walks. He has to find three things he sees on our walks and write them down in a spiral notebook.  During his weekly Zoom sessions with her on Saturday mornings, he is able to have a conversation with her about what he saw on our daily walks. Pretty cool, huh? For consistency and routine purposes, we aim to go at the same time, 11:30 a.m. Lauren asked me recently if I was going to continue my walks even after the Quarantine is over. I told her YES!!!

It's a "Group" Effort

Since going to the local barbershop is still not allowed where we live, it fell upon us to figure out the best way to shave Dominic's beard and mustache. Typically, Dominic goes to our local barbershop to get his haircut and his barber (Vince) also takes about 30 seconds to shave the beard and mustache. This August, it will be five years that Dominic has been going to Vince. That in itself is a huge milestone as anyone with a child/adult with sensory sensitivities knows. Anyways, earlier in the week my hubby, Lauren and I had all noticed that Dominic's facial hair definitely needed some assistance. I mentioned to Lauren that I needed to find a "social story" about getting a shave. Before I had a chance to find one, she took it upon herself to find one and print it out, it had both an electric shaver and shaving cream/razor stories!

That meant so much to me, because she didn't have to do that, she wanted to!  I showed the social story to Dominic and said with tons of enthusiasm, "we are going to shave!" His response was a resounding "no." I just kind of casually left the social story out on the kitchen table and more than once, I caught him taking a look at it. Since he showed some level of interest, the hubby and I discussed it last night and decided that today would be the day!! I wasn't sure what time the big shaving session would be. After we did a family walk (a new Quarantine activity) and the frozen pizza in the oven for lunch was almost done, I heard my husband say something like, "Daddy is going to shave and then it's going to be your turn!" My husband switches up his shaving "routine." He either uses his dad's electric shaver, which I am guessing is at least 50 years old or he uses shaving cream and a razor. When I rounded the corner to the bathroom, my husband was making his best effort to shave Dominic's facial hair. It didn't appear to be working because either Dominic has too much facial hair or the electric razor just couldn't handle it. The noise was really starting to bother Dominic too and he put on his headphones. When my husband went upstairs to get the shaving cream and a razor, I told Dominic what were going to try next. My husband put some shaving cream on Dominic's face and he actually laughed!! The hubby also got some shaving cream on Dominic's lips which I wiped off. It took longer with the shaving cream and razor, but Dominic handled it like a pro!!! Lauren, the hubby and I kept telling Dominic how great he looked and Lauren made the comment that it was a "group" effort to get Dominic shaved. A few hours after the shaving session, I asked Dominic what he preferred, the electric shaver or the shaving cream and razor combo. He said the shaving cream/razor combo. I was kind of surprised because Vince uses the electric razor. I asked Dominic why he preferred the shaving cream and the razor and he said it was because the electric razor is "too loud." I don't know if we would have had the same fabulous results if it weren't for all of us coming together as a group to achieve the ultimate goal!