Autism: What I Think You Should Know

I haven't blogged in a long time because... I just haven't wanted to.  I ran a marathon. My son got an autism diagnosis from school 2 years ago.  I kept running because the endorphins are addicting and it makes me feel like I'm trying harder in life.

This past week I attended the Autism conference and got to hear Steve Silberman speak.  I really hate celebrities but I DO love and look up to people who contribute to society and animals.  Steve is my celebrity. Temple Grandin, Chris Ulmer, my friends at SeaWorld who are fighting for animals and the list goes on.

Steve put in the time and research and wrote a history book for people with autism.  If you take a look at ALL the history books out there, how many are there on autism?  How many? Yet we can find books on black history, women's history, white people bringing diseases to America history (lol I had to, it's the truth).

Do you even know how many people HAVE autism?  1 in 64.

Unless you live like a hermit, you've encountered an autistic person in your life and most likely without even knowing it.  And yet, where are the marches for their rights?  Where is the outcrying for help for adults with autism?  I don't see it.  In fact, insurance companies will actually DROP autistics who do not show fast enough improvement using ABA by a certain period of time.  It broke my heart to hear adults with autism speak about their challenges in society as well as hearing Temple Grandin and Steve speak about the lack of assistance and rights that they have.

I like to describe my son as having a "beautiful brain."  Some people are blessed with beautiful looks and some are blessed with a beautiful brain.  The irony is that the beautiful brained people are the ones coding for Google so the "normals" can waste time on irrelevant shit like the Kardashians.  And yet those beautiful brained people are still, STILL fighting for their place in society. Teach your kids about autism.  Show them this video done by Sesame Street.   If it's worth it to you to march or be concerned for anyones rights then you should be equally concerned about the rights of the autistic community.  It's not that they should conform to the "normals" social ways but that the normals should be asking "how can we make our society a better place for the autistics to thrive?"   Don't be afraid of children lining up toys or obsessing over switches, vacuums or cars.  Don't be afraid of the adult rocking back and forth in public.  Don't treat these people and children like outcasts and outsiders.  I find the autism community to be freeing.  They aren't comparing their clothes to mine or their hair or makeup.  I actually put makeup on to attend the autism conference and by makeup I mean I put some 2 year old foundation on my face.  

 Hearing Steve and Temple speak has been one of the highlights of my year (Def Leppard and Miranda Lambert, watch yourselves). I can now present this book to my child when he's old enough to read and process it and say "Here, here is YOUR history.  Here are those that came before you that had beautiful brains."  My only regret is not being able to afford the entire Autism conference this year both in time and finances.  I can't say enough how important it is for society to read this book and educate themselves on Autism with facts. As a non-autstic person, it is ALL of our jobs to normalize autism.  How can we expect the autistic's to fight for themselves when many lack the social skills to do so.  It's OUR job to fight for them.   I will ALWAYS fight hard for society to make a place for my son.

Growing up at the Zoo

You know how in life it's a lot easier to take for granted the things/places/people that you are the closest to?  Maybe you don't tell your parents you love them often enough.  Maybe you get so excited about a new job that you forget to be thankful for the one you have.  We have been to SeaWorld twice and I blogged about it here and here. We had an amazing time each time we went.  Like I said though, we've only gone twice.  We visit our home zoo, the Minnesota Zoo, almost once a week! We've been doing so for over a year now.

Part of my major inability to blog about it is simply that I haven't been sure what exactly to say.  Marine life is great but it isn't the only life we should care about.  It occurred to me that I've basically been raising my child at the zoo, without really paying attention or being totally aware of it.  It's so easy to get caught in the moment and the day to day that you forget to stop and really appreciate it.

When he was 25 weeks into my tummy, my husband took me to do a dolphin encounter and it was incredible! I knew that I needed to involve the zoo in Evan's life as much as possible.  We received our zoo membership as a gift for his first birthday and I had no idea how much he would love it. The fall of 2013, we started our weekly visit to the zoo!  I noticed right away that Evan made a new connection almost every time.  As soon as he became strong enough to run, a stroller was old news for us.  This past year and a half, we have rarely made it past the Tropics Trail, Minnesota Trail and Grizzly Bears but we enjoy it every time we go.

My point is this, bring your little kids to the zoo!!!  Even though the little ones may not be able to ask the questions or even look at an animal for more then a few seconds, they are learning.  That small learning seed is so important for creating future conservationists.  You don't have to be a zookeeper or marine mammal trainer to help conserve.  Teaching kids to care at a young age helps them to get motivated to do the small things like recycle or help out the animals in their own back yards (Foxy Bunny). Every time we go, Evan attempts to say more of the animals names and remembers those names.

So without further any further rambling, here is our past year and half at the zoo! Yes there's lots of similar photos (he loves the bears and the river otters) and yes it's very difficult to get a photo of a moving toddler and a moving animal!

Thank you Minnesota Zoo for taking such great care of the animals and providing us with a place to learn and be inspired!

The Real SeaWorld Experience: Toddler Edition

Taking a toddler out of the house is a challenge, at least my toddler anyways.  If you don't have kids here's a trusted tutorial on what life is like: Parenting Illustrated by Crappy Pictures. Last fall we planned on attending my second cousins wedding the weekend after Christmas.  We had to abruptly change our plans due to unforeseen circumstances so I picked Orlando!  I planned Evan's second trip to SeaWorld!

The flight down was a total nightmare.  I "thought" Evan would nap on the plane.  He has napped in his car seat before. I was wrong. So very wrong.  He screamed for at least an hour.  My head was in my hands, silently questioning what I was doing and sort of wishing we were still home.  I was trying to keep myself together.

Once the nightmare was over, we were able to get him to his happy place right away: the pool.  The following day we were up early and on our way to Discovery Cove.

THIS was our view!!!!

We were ecstatic and Evan was enthralled watching the dolphins!  He spent the first part of the morning playing in the warm water.  Once I got in, I spent my time with CJ, a bottle nose/common dolphin who was quite the chatterbox! Swimming with him made me feel as though I was flying! At the end, they let Evan join us in the water.  I'll let the picture do the talking:

His little mouth couldn't have been opened any wider!  We were all in love and I was so thankful that Evan was able to touch them! 

Childhood dream to scuba dive-actual scuba license+Discovery Cove SeaVenture= PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

At the end of the day and almost time for the park to close,  I didn't want to leave.  Before we left, a little moment happened between a dolphin toddler named Finn and a human toddler named Evan:

This day could not have ended on a better note!  The animals are so well taken care of and so happy.  We all left with smiles on our faces and all I could think of is how I cannot wait to bring Evan back here!

Our second vacation day was spent at SeaWorld.  We spent the first part of the morning with the dolphins and that was a little rough for Evan as he's a plan maker, not a plan follower.  As a mom, I usually anticipate the worst and hope for the best.  He was interested in the dolphins again however he had his own agenda in mind.  We took a break to regroup and I was a bit nervous that our penguin encounter would be rough.  

Prior to this, we tried practicing with stuffed penguins.

Not too bad but we discussed the whole "don't grab the beak" concept prior to the real deal. Finally, it was time to meet Skippy and Sherlock!

And yes... he did try to ride Skippy.  But most importantly, his little heart has now found a love for yet another species.  We all fell in love with them!  None of us had ever discussed penguins at least not nearly as much as we discuss orca's and dolphins.  My entire family couldn't stop talking about them!  Andy and I even raced back to SeaWorld (thank you mom for watching Evan's monitor), one hour prior to park close, ran all the way from the entrance to the Antarctica ride and spent the last moment of our day watching the penguins!!

After the penguins we decided to walk over to see if we could see any orca's as we knew Evan's nap time clock was ticking!  As luck would have it, we stumbled across a technical rehearsal for One Ocean that quite literally started right at the moment we arrived!  Evan has been watching this on DVD for the past year.  He was THRILLED! He spent the entire time jumping up and down on Andy's lap!  He was over the moon with excitement and promptly crashed for his nap before we even left the gates!

Our last park was Aquatica.  I knew this would be a hit as Evan loves the water.  It was a great way to cap off our time at SeaWorld.  Evan played his heart away in the water while Andy and I randomly snuck away for some adult time.... WATER SLIDES!!!!  Evan even stalked out a mallard who quickly left the scene.

At the end of the day another little special thing happened!  Evan started trying to walk like a penguin.  I KNEW that this experience would stay with him just like the last one and he had expanded his love of animals to include penguins! 

The toddler penguin waddle:

SeaWorld has done such a tremendous amount for animals and conservation!  The employees take their job seriously, the animals seriously and most of all, SHARING these animals with all of us very seriously!  A few people who read my first blog The Real SeaWorld Experience  asked me if I'd seen Blackfish.  Yes, I did. If your child has an ear infection, who would you talk to?  A pediatrician of course.  If you need legal advice, who would you speak to?  A lawyer.  If you want to learn about orca's, dolphins, penguins, sea turtles, sharks and all other sea dwelling creatures, who would you ask? SeaWorld.  A $10 movie will not buy you a cheap education and you should question everything!  You should do your OWN research and not let someone else do it for you.  I guarantee anyone affiliated with SeaWorld parks will answer your questions.


Below is a photo montage of our trip.  It is viewable on mobile device via this blog or computer on my youtube station, just not via youtube from a mobile device. FYI :)

You may ask yourself, as I often do, how can I help the ocean when I don't live anywhere near it?  First off, visit your local zoo and ask!  Most zoo's are more then willing to tell you how you can help and many have volunteer opportunities: Association of Zoo's and Aquariums.

You can adopt an orca and contribute to the continuing education and research of orca's:
Whale Museum
World Wildlife Fund
Vancouver Aquarium

You can adopt dolphins here:
World Wildlife Fund
Pacific Whale Foundation
Oceanic Society
Ocean Conservation Society
Adopt a Wild Dolphin

You can adopt humpback whales from numerous recourses:
World Wildlife Fund
Pacific Whale Foundation
Whale and Dolphin Conservation 


All of these are ideas you can do as a family!  We have a zoo membership and visit all the time.  The more interactions children have with animals, the more they love them and want to care for the world we all live in.  Yes SeaWorld parks also has fun things like games and rides because kids need to expense energy.  But at the end of the day, it's all about fostering the relationships between animals and people to secure the future of our planet. Let me take you with us on our SeaWorld parks adventure and I hope you too will fall in love with the animals as we did!

By the way, Evan did not cry one single tear on the flight home.  We truly did leave our vacation on top of the world!

The Real SeaWorld Experience

In the wake of Blackfish and all the extremists (both for and against SeaWorld), I feel compelled to write about SeaWorld and how it affected me, a normal person.

In 1990, my parents brought me to San Diego and we went to SeaWorld.

For a 9 year old, I was BLOWN AWAY and immediately in love.  I fell in love with ANIMALS, almost all of them.  I didn't touch the dolphins at the touch pool because I was afraid that I'd scratch them.  I spent 10 years regretting it and wishing I would have touched one.  

I went home and my room was filled with animals (birds, hamsters, fish).  I adopted a humpback whale.  I spent hours researching and reading books to understand how to take care of my animals with the best food, living conditions and enrichment.  I was nine years old and learning how to research, getting excited about books and loving animals in the best way a 9 year old could.

The Bird Station:

 The Fish Station:

Fast forward a really long time (2011) and my husband and I take a trip to Alaska.  Obviously, the only thing on my mind was this:

SPEACHLESS!!!!!  DREAMS CAME TRUE!  9 Hours on the ocean watching birds (there was a bird watching group on the boat) and all other animals. I fell while running to the front of the boat in Seward to see them.  I wanted to shout I LOVE YOU and freak out because they just let us watch them.  

BEST. DAY. EVER….. Or so I thought.

Fast forward again (2013) and now I have a 7 month old human being that I am responsible for rearing to be an intelligent, respectful, kind person.  We find ourselves at Sea World Orlando. 

This activity is safe and he's loving it. Loving it as in, going to jump in with the rays if we let him.

We graduate to a bigger activity.  All is well.  We are following rules!

This activity is keeping me on my toes slightly….  I'm nervous.

I'm thinking "let's take a photo of him before he freaks out at the cetaceans flying through the air and such."  He's 7 months old, that's what I fully expected.

So far so good… Not flipping out.  Oh yea, there's a show going on.  Hopefully he hasn't pooped or isn't hungry but I'm ready for those things like a thoroughbred at the gate. 

The end of the show came and this happened:

HE'S WAVING TO THE ORCA'S!!!! He has never waved at anything in his life!  I cried.  I cried because it was touching and I realized that my role/job is to ensure that he respects animals and the environment.  He doesn't need to love them like I do, but he needs to respect them.

We came home and I thought he'd forget about the orca's but I was wrong.

At 20 months old, he walks over to the DVD player, picks out One Ocean and brings it back to me.  He jumps into my lap and we sit and watch the entire thing.

Evan is turning two in May and we are taking him back to Orlando in April and back to SeaWorld.  This is what SeaWorld does along with everything else that they do.  They promote the love and respect for animals in generations of human beings.  They remind us that we don't need to be orca trainers to make a difference.  Pick up that lost dog on the street and help find it's owner.  Plant a plant that's good for the environment and maybe even something that bares food for you (I tried it last year, it was actually fun said the plant killer).  Teach your kids how they can positively affect their environment and how to CARE for it.  That's what SeaWorld taught me and what I can pass on to my child.

Side Bar: If someone made a movie of my life and all the things I've done wrong, it would be absolutely horrifying.  It's so easy to point out what people, institutions and organizations have done wrong as opposed to celebrating what they do RIGHT and how far we've all come.

Second Side Bar:  I'm absolutely shocked staring at the stats at how many people are reading this.  I wanted to put my experience in one place for a few reasons.  1-To remind myself how I'm going to explain the importance of SeaWorld to my son when he gets older. 2- So that others can know that it's OK not to side with main stream media.  SeaWorld isn't paying me.  

The comments below are a safe place for people to share positive feelings for the parks and their conservation/education efforts free of criticism and negativity!