It’s interesting the press that the iPad and autism has gotten recently. See the article. O loves it. E loves it. J loves it. Our exchange student, Hiroki, loves it. We went to the Hood Canal this past weekend. Car rides have not been our strong suit lately and quite honestly, have prevented us from really doing that much in the way of family outings or vacations. Peter stayed up late the night before heading out and updated our old iPhones with all of the kids apps and a few kids movies. Brilliant! I held out as long as possible, but soon enough the whining got ahold of me, I handed each of them an iPhone. Blissful quiet! Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Animals…they love some of these apps!

Wow. How times have changed. How being a parent of a 3rd child (11 1/2 years after the first) really freaks me out about how much I have lowered my standards, or rather, rearranged them. But, I wonder perhaps how unrealistic my initial expectations were. I was younger then. Just 26 years old. So entirely naive. Became a single mom at 28 years old. Life was so different then. My oldest son was so different. I could not have raised either of the little guys in the same situation. Their personalities would not have tolerated it. That was not their place in life. Goes to show how much we have to just trust and have faith that it will just all happen as it’s supposed to. Although I never thought that at the time, I now understand that completely and I love that. Never in a million years would I have allowed my oldest son to play with a video game, a handheld device, anything of that nature. Now my 5 year old and 2 year old play with iPads, iPods, iPhones, iEverything. They watch movies and shows of which I would never have let my oldest watch at their ages. Their world is different. Their places in the family are different. Their point of views and their perspectives will be different from each other. They will each bring something so entirely different to their futures because of their birth order, because of their place in our family, and because of their genuinely unique differences.

It’s fun being one of 3 siblings. All girls. We are all as different as night and day. We all 3 have different yet valued relationships with each other and with our parents. Neither any better than the other, just really different. I love how that we are now all 30-40ish and that we have grown more so into who we are, accepted it, and have embraced what we are, and recognized what we have to offer, our short comings, and mostly our own sense of self-awareness. With self-awareness comes great strength. I think that I walked around more than half of my life completely and totally unself-aware. Glad to meet myself. May have taken 40 years, but I’m catching up! Man, I sure do hope my kids become self-aware much earlier in their lives than I did.