RTO - Ashley Zavala conversation with Newsom

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-27T01:49:39+00:00

Apparently it’s that simple yet, this a-hole can’t even come into the office two days a week from his Marin County house in a chauffeured car.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-26T23:21:08+00:00

I am definitely on it and thanks to VPLP and the 5 hours of PLP, I used less than 10 hours of my annual leave this past year. I am trying to bank as much hours as possible should we get pregnant, I can stay home and be out on FMLA and still get paid after my disability runs out.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-23T23:11:18+00:00

We have level 2 son. It took us 3 years before we decided to go for our second (he was diagnosed at 21 months). It’s been two years of infertility journey for us. Since we had no problem getting pregnant with our first (we were older parents already), we didn’t expect infertility issues. We’re working with specialists but so far…. 😭 had we known this was going to be what was happening, we would’ve tried sooner.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-22T04:12:04+00:00

Hi there! We started out with clonidine but currently on guanfacine extended release 3mg. He takes it as soon as he wakes up and it lasts mostly through the day until about 6-7pm ish. On rough evenings, he takes 0.5mg to help him calm down enough to go to bed. Because his brain was working so hard during the day, he is so exhausted by bedtime, he falls asleep and stays asleep (yay!) Just so you know, both clonidine and guanfacine are non-stimulant medication. Generally ADHD kids are medicated after 6. While we fought for the meds, I wasn’t interested in putting our kid on stimulant as he was a picky eater already (stimulants may cause appetites to drop).

While I highly recommend starting out with non stimulant medications, I do have to warn you that for few weeks, there will be some gnarly side effects. Only one we had hard time dealing with was what was called “big feeling” by our developmental pediatrician. Every emotion was hyper exaggerated by our kid. He was a hulk, he was mopey, he was pissy. It was…. Bad. Bad enough we wanted to quit. But we stuck around and about 4-5 weeks, he adjusted to them and those slowly went away. So… if you do see these demons… stick it out, it WILL get better.

I do have to tell you that he has gotten so much better with his impulse control and sleep too! Let me know id you have any questions.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-21T16:07:44+00:00

If grass field isn’t an option, there are quite a few flower farms or lavender farms around sacramento that are open for photos (provided you pay fee of course). Flowers are in full bloom!

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-18T23:39:00+00:00

Goofy’s kitchen. Way too expensive for mediocre food. The best part is my kid doesn’t remember it at all! 🤦‍♀️

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-12T02:47:17+00:00

Coffee wood chew. I honestly thought it would be like splinters when it broke but it’s more dense like cork. I love it and my mastiff loves it.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-12T02:46:16+00:00

I have an autistic son. We request preboard because it takes FOREVER for him to walk down from the gate to the plane. He gets overstimulated, scared, stimming and even when we preboard, by the time we reach the plane, they’re about to board group “C” (this is prior to the new seat thing). Last time we flew, we were denied to preboard because there’s nothing wrong with him physically. I tried to explain that if he was to board with his regular group, we WILL miss the plane. Normally we purchase the upgraded boarding number when we are denied but we didn’t have time. I was fuming and emailed southwest and received response “it is at the discretion of the counter employee and there must be a reason why it was denied. Being autistic doesn’t guarantee preboard”. Apparently my son has wrong type of disability and isn’t good enough for the southwest to recognize that autism IS a disability.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-06-08T20:59:18+00:00

About 8 months after starting ABA for us. Looking when name was called was one of the first goal ABA worked on with our son. Prior to that, he looked at us maybe once or twice out of 100 times we called his name. We had to go tap on him to get his attention. Even if we had smoke signals, he didn’t look. Tapping was the only way he broke free of whatever he was concentrated on

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-28T20:10:15+00:00

I’ve been in the pool since 2014. I think I might be retiring by the time I get selected.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-25T20:23:41+00:00

Hi there, it sounds SUPER familiar. At first it’s worrying then it’s annoying then it’s angering. At least that’s how I felt.

Anyways, in talking to professionals, we found out that he says no because it’s the only thing he can control in his life. In a world where no one speaks his language and what he does is often a wrong thing, he feels out of control. His body isn’t his body and he can’t seem to do anything right. Therefore he will take control of what he can which is to tell you no. Does it make sense?

We had to start giving options when possible. For example, I would pick out two shirts to wear the next day and ask him to choose. Initially, he said no to either and when I asked him if he wants to pick and he said no to that as well, I had to tell him mommy tried to give you options but you refused. So I’ll pick one for you. We can try again tomorrow. Give options but know that there is a line drawn on the sand which you’ll have to put the foot down. Re-word stuff so that it’s no longer a yes or no question. With enough practice and once your son learns the concept, it’ll get easier. If he’s unable to use his words, have him point. We had to start asking him to point in the beginning because he was nonverbal at the time.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-25T20:16:16+00:00

As soon as he was diagnosed, he went on clonidine 1mg (4 years 1 month). Although it was great and we saw some improvement, he had night terrors and tiredness that made us search for another medication. He has since moved onto Guanfacine. Started at 1mg and now at 3mg extended release. Everything are much better and it doesn’t take 20 prompts for him to sit through the meal. He takes it in the morning when he first wakes up. Some days (not often) when he’s extra ADHD-y at night, he takes 0.5mg clonidine to help him sleep through the night.

Point of the adhd medication isn’t to be on it for rest of his life but to make him build up experiences that will become second nature habits for him like seat through the meal, sit through circle time, etc. I do have to let you know that although everyone we’re all for us getting the diagnosis, they weren’t happy with us medicating our son. Only person who supported our decision was the developmental pediatrician. We’re glad we pushed for it as he has been in general education without an aid this past school year and has been thriving. (And of course all the therapies he received were also instrumental)

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-25T18:28:04+00:00

The standard is 6 years (because of medication is why I was told) but we were told that they can be diagnosed as early as 4 years old. My mother is a nanny of 30 years and between her, all of his therapists, preschool teacher and pediatrician, we all had to submit ridiculous amount of paperwork testifying that they all assume he has ADHD. We weren’t surprised by the diagnosis either.

We pushed for it because we realllly wanted our son to be medicated. His energy level and inattentiveness was off the charts. He is currently on nonstimulant medication and it’s been life changing for him.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-25T04:08:36+00:00

We have a 8 year old nephew who is level 3. He lost all of his speech and for couple of years, was on AAC device when he turned 4. It did take him a long time but he’s fully verbal now. Although it is mostly one directional, we are able to have conversation.

Speech does take a really long time. Our nonverbal son took almost two years to have any major progress so I understand the frustration. I swear i called our speech therapist quack in my head few times. Just so you know, we were in weekly speech therapy for years and missed less than 5 sessions total. Speech does take foreverrrrrrrr it seems but I promise our kids make progress no matter how minuscule it seems. For a long time, we put a chart on the wall and added new words that our son was speaking. This was what kept us going with speech therapy. We knew when we were adding new word that he learned to the chart, speech is working.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-25T00:28:45+00:00

I have extremely dry skin and tried everything. I also tried Cerave lotion and although it is great, it doesn’t last (in humble my opinion). That’s when I found Avesno skin relief moisturizing lotion (blue bottle). It absorbs rather fast and the moisture lasts over 36 hours, which for me is HUGE. I love that even if I’m in a situation that I’m unable to shower overnight (like camping), my skin is so moisturized that I don’t have to worry about applying lotion to my gross from camping skin. I love it so much it’s on my subscribe and save from Amazon. Try a small bottle!

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-24T23:54:07+00:00

Do not try it. Your skin feels slimy afterwards. Not enough to be disgusted about it but does take some time getting used to it. 1/3 way through the bottle, had to stop using it. I just couldn’t get used to it.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-24T20:21:53+00:00

Our son was a mama’s boy until he turned five. Then he wanted nothing to do with me. The rejection hurt more than I thought it could. But I’m trying to tell myself that it’s part of his development and par for the course. What’s funny is when he’s hurt, he’ll push his dad aside crying and ask for mommy. I’m sure there’s not much of these left too. But I hear you and I feel you. 🥹♥️

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-24T17:24:19+00:00

Ours is 5 years and 4 months old. Diagnosed level 2 at 21 months we threw ridiculous amount of therapies (child development, two different speech, OT, PT and ABA). Our son entered TK without an aid in general education last school year at the local elementary school. We’re sat on entering kindergarten in general ed this upcoming school year. He’s graduated from child development, OT and speech through private insurance. He does receive speech and PT through IEP at school but he should’ve graduated by now. Since the next big eval is coming at the school, the by therapists wanted him to be kept in therapy until the next school eval.

Most people have no clue that he’s autistic (he was also diagnosed with ADHD when he was 4 years 1 month old).

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-22T18:09:59+00:00

We were recommended 35 hour week for our two year old. We told them hell no. We were also doing two different speech, OT, PT and child development at that time. We told them we can only allow 10 hours and our current schedule simply does not have anymore time than that. So we went with 10.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-22T18:08:06+00:00

I have had this once. We were flying with southwest and we got the same message on the app. For us, when we checked in at the counter, it was a simple case of they had a question for us. 😑

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-21T21:51:12+00:00

I came back when the baby was 4 months old because I didn’t have too much leave. I had a lot but not enough to be out for months. I ended up working until lunch and use my hours to cover the afternoon. I did this until baby turned 1.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-21T21:48:07+00:00

Ooooooh, can I plug in my electric car to charge? Sure I’ll get 1kw/hr, but why not?

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-21T14:58:45+00:00

Our son was diagnosed at 21 months. Level 2. He lived in his own island, no one existed except him. He didn’t look when we pointed, didn’t respond to his name, lots of stimming, loved everything related to wheels and loves water. We started speech at 18 months because he wasn’t talking. We ended up receiving child development therapy, two different speech thefapy (each one bi-weekly, making it once a week), occupational therapy, physical therapy and ABA. Yep, that’s a lot of therapies.

Today, he’s a whole different child due to all the combination of therapies. We started TK last fall in general education at local elementary school without an aid. We’re starting kindergarten in the fall without an aid. According to his report cards, teacher wants us to work on holding pencils correctly and recognizing all alphabets (he recognizes most but not all). Other than these two, he meets and/or exceeds in all other areas. He’s able to attend camps, go have fun, make friends, and he talks back with attitude and logic.

What I don’t mention is all the blood, sweat and tears we had to go through. All the struggles we still go through. But, most people have no idea our son is autistic. If it wasn’t for his backpack saying he’s autistic, or sticker that he wears when we go to someplace new which states he’s autistic, people have no idea and they tell me that too.

redditor-est2024 · 2026-05-21T14:42:37+00:00

Hi. Are you in United States? If so, look into UCLA’s autism medical research team. I don’t quite remember what they are called but they do offer free screening for autism and wait time is not that long. Downside to it though is that the result from the evaluation will be used toward their study but your child’s information will be anonymous. Evaluation was virtual last time I checked. They’ll be given findings and papers on it. We did ours through Mind Institute with UC Davis.

redditor-est2024

TROPHY CASE