Just a Tish About Us #
We are a mid-30s couple with two kids, a cat, and a dog (more on them later). Waylon, my husband, and I met in high school as janitors. Yep, that’s right, we are high school sweethearts. This year marks 20 years since he first asked me out. What’s all happened in those 20 years? Well, we attended and graduated Iowa State University, then moved to central Illinois. I was pregnant with our son, Wyatt, when we graduated college, and due to high daycare costs, I became a stay-at-home mom. I loved every moment of it. A year later, we became pregnant with our next child, but unfortunately miscarried; we lovingly represent them with a snowflake, as it happened during a major snowstorm. Not too long later we ended up pregnant again with our daughter, Ayla. She entered this world as a 5 week early premie with lots of excitment and has never left us hanging in the drama department. Unfortunately, Ayla needed some surgeries to keep her thriving and her immune system struggled. For the first 2 years of her life we spend at least 1 week a month in and out of the hospital. This caused a struggle having an active toddler at home and a medically challenging child on the other end. Apparently my body felt left out as my medical struggles started to show in ways we could not ignore. This led to my NET Cancer diagnosis which fortunetly for me is currently incurable, but I am as “in remission” as you can get 10 years into the battle.
If this all seems chaotic, it’s because it is. My coping mechanisms are signing myself up for more than I can handle and proving myself wrong.
Just when you thought that was enough for anyone to tackle, well, we purchased our first home on 2/22/22. We were previously renting and had to rush to buy. Our home wasn’t perfect, but I have a vision in my mind, and plenty of Pinterest boards to back me up on the beautiful home it will turn into. I’m proud to say those dreams are starting to show, and I love our forever home.
The Teenage years are upon us. We are surviving with lots of sarcasm, some tears, and Waylon and I make quite the team.
I want to make it clear. Neurodivergence is not a negative personal trait. It is one that the world will challenge at every turn. Making it an extra struggle placed on their shoulders. Shoulders that already carry the weight of a complicated medical life at home. Both Wyatt and Waylon were diagnosed with Autism. A diagnosis that wasn’t shocking, but helped us gain an IEP and get the schools to truly listen to us when we try to explain various struggles he is battling. Waylon learned of this diagnosis as an adult. Meaning he was essentially punished for any signs of stimming or other behaviors that are normal for an autistic child. As an adult he’s one of the beautiful mind/extremly talented in a specialized task. For him, it’s coding. I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that, but the products he’s able to make are pretty damn impressive.
As Wyatt continues to watch Waylon thrive, he loves being just like him. He tries and picks up coding languages he hears Waylon talk about. He’s a genius when it comes to Minecraft (he’s been playing it since he was 3). Wyatt faced many challenges early on in the school system, and to save him from a deeper depression, we pulled him out of the public school system for 3rd and 4th grade and focused on both healing his trauma created by the school and life skills. He returned to school in 5th grade, and we have had success with the school actually wanting to work with us to help him. This year, 7th grade, has been the best yet. Wyatt is such a kind, loving, empathetic child. He can become very erratic and come off angrily at times. He gets very overwhelmed when plans change and doesn’t do well with constant reminders. Which, if you know any teenagers, it is a struggle.
Ayla struggles with sensory processing disorder. We believe this came from everything she had to endure as an infant. Until around 4 or 5, she had a major aversion to water, and getting her to bathe was such a challenge. We went to occupational therapy and thankfully overcame that challenge, but put her in any sort of rain and you are quickly reminded of the challenge. Currently she is doing okay with a lot of daily items, but I think she holds a lot in and when she releases that’s what we are seeing in the emotion taken out on all of us at home, in her loving safe space. She has noise-cancelling headphones at school, but doesn’t like to stand out. Yet she loves theatre, and the chaos of the music and dancing doesn’t seem to bother her. However, when the kids are not listening/following the rules, she starts to get overwhelmed. She really gets skittish when there is a chance she is going to get yelled at. However, the chaos in her room doesn’t seem to bother her one bit.
The Animals - I told you I’d come back to them.
If you lost track,so have we.
If this sounds at all interesting to you, or even a hot mess you can’t look away from, well, follow along!
Some Pictures #
@waylon added these for later
