I was looking out the window this morning and was struck by the starkness of the trees against the washed-out blue sky. They reminded me of a line from a song Z and I have written: "Winter's barren trees, silent sculptures tall, remind me that the year's gone."
I know it's not the New Year and the normal time for reflection, but I realize that March starts tomorrow and spring is coming soon. We've had a lot happen in the last year! We've moved, had a baby, been in a car accident (and subsequent therapies, which, alas, may be continuing...I see an orthopedic surgeon this week to discuss some possible complications), A was diagnosed, and then all the paperwork and starting school... That's a lot in addition to "normal" life stuff like the microwave dying or the brakes on the Jeep calling it quits.
A is doing extremely well with his occupational therapy, Brigid said he did "excellent" last week. School is also doing wonders for his vocabulary and attention span. He does tend to verbalize more when he's upset at the teachers (like when they won't let him wander around the classroom) but it's progress nonetheless.
Good news! An opening has appeared with a local ABA certified therapist, here in our hometown. A starts with her on Friday. Because he is already receiving outside occupational therapy, she will focus more on the speech therapy aspects. Bad news is, it's $100 per hour which we have to front, and then be reimbursed by our insurance company. We're going for it, of course!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Adventures
We've had quite a week in the H household! We had a nasty storm system move in Monday evening (12th) and stick around until Wednesday afternoon. Points north of us got a lot of snow. We got about 6 or 7 inches of snow on Tuesday....then it changed into freezing rain due to a warmer air mass high in the atmosphere. Yum. There's nothing quite like being roused out of a sound sleep at 2:30 in the morning to a thundering downpour ~ and it was actual rain, not sleet. Since it was also only 12 deg (Fahrenheit) on the ground at the time, it instantly froze to everything. It filtered down through the snow and solidified it. Normally if snow has a crust on top, you can step for a second and then break through a little bit. We have almost a foot of solid ice outside that my nearly 200-lb husband can jump up and down on and it doesn't move. I've never seen anything like it, and I lived in Alaska for several years so I know snow! Our street still isn't completely plowed, and four lane roads are down to two lanes in some places. Our Siberian Husky loves it; the rest of us aren't quite as enthused as he is.
As a result of this lovely weather, A has been out of school for a week. He begged me yesterday (Sunday) three different times to get on the school bus and tried to put on his backpack (which he usually can't stand). He is supposed to start back on Tuesday. A has a mild dose of cabin fever, I think.
And to add to the chaos, my darling 10-month old daughter has started walking by herself. She just let go of her stand-up toy on Saturday and toddled 5 or 6 steps over to me, where I was sitting on the couch. I stared at her for a minute, thinking surely this was a fluke. Then the little booger took off for her toy, and has since been making longer forays on her own. And of course these are accompanied by the usual tumbles and spills associated with learning to walk. The egg on her forehead should be fine by tomorrow. She will be 11 months at the end of the week. As exciting as this is, I would have been just fine if she'd waited until after she turned one, too. Amazing how one's perspective changes: with the first baby, it's soooo exciting when they learn how to walk; with the second one, you kind of dread the new mobility because life gets a lot more complicated.
Incidentally, does anyone know how to prevent an almost-11-month-old from stripping when she takes a nap? She's darned good at removing shirts, pants, socks, and sleepers that snap up. No comments about duct tape, please (I've already considered that thought and discarded it).
As a result of this lovely weather, A has been out of school for a week. He begged me yesterday (Sunday) three different times to get on the school bus and tried to put on his backpack (which he usually can't stand). He is supposed to start back on Tuesday. A has a mild dose of cabin fever, I think.
And to add to the chaos, my darling 10-month old daughter has started walking by herself. She just let go of her stand-up toy on Saturday and toddled 5 or 6 steps over to me, where I was sitting on the couch. I stared at her for a minute, thinking surely this was a fluke. Then the little booger took off for her toy, and has since been making longer forays on her own. And of course these are accompanied by the usual tumbles and spills associated with learning to walk. The egg on her forehead should be fine by tomorrow. She will be 11 months at the end of the week. As exciting as this is, I would have been just fine if she'd waited until after she turned one, too. Amazing how one's perspective changes: with the first baby, it's soooo exciting when they learn how to walk; with the second one, you kind of dread the new mobility because life gets a lot more complicated.
Incidentally, does anyone know how to prevent an almost-11-month-old from stripping when she takes a nap? She's darned good at removing shirts, pants, socks, and sleepers that snap up. No comments about duct tape, please (I've already considered that thought and discarded it).
Friday, February 16, 2007
Please Consider
This is from another blog, her son also has autism. She has created a badge for the Kevin Bacon's sixdegrees.com matching funds grant contest. The badge with the most people who donate (not the total amount) wins, and so far she's in first place. He will match funds up to $10,000 to the winning badges' charity.
http://www.networkforgood.org/pca/PersonalCharityBadge.aspx?pcaid=102379
I think you'll have to copy and paste into your address bar, I can't get it to link you directly, sorry.
http://www.networkforgood.org/pca/PersonalCharityBadge.aspx?pcaid=102379
I think you'll have to copy and paste into your address bar, I can't get it to link you directly, sorry.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Wheels On The Bus
A loves school. Now that he's getting used to it, he gets excited when it's time to ride the school bus. We are lucky enough to live in a place where my son not only can ride the bus (a great benefit since we have one car, and my husband takes that to work), but it comes to our front door so he doesn't have to hike to the bus stop and stand there in the cold (or rain, or heat, etc) ~ and neither does Mommy or baby sister. He breaks into a huge grin when he sees his bus round our corner.
Getting used to school is a process. He really enjoys it! He loves all the activities they do so much, he pitches a fit when it's time to change to something new. Last week was a bad week, multiple tantrums every day but Friday. So far so good this week; A had a great day today! He is also picking up sign language extremely quickly and comes home asking for "more", "please", and other things Z and I aren't entirely sure what they are, but he's at least trying. We are supposed to be getting a list of the signs they are teaching at school, we're still waiting on that though.
A has also started making up his own signs for things, which is progress! He used to just stand there and stare at you until you figured out whatever he needed. His most recent sign is for the movie "Cars". He takes his right hand and whips it across to the left, and goes "wrooooom", like the cars do on the racetrack when the movie starts. This took us a while to figure out, but we finally deciphered it when he brought us the movie case and looked at us like "Duh, mom! Duh, dad!"
He has also become much more verbal. He identified K as his "siswer" and "[his name] siswer" on Sunday morning, and then asked Z to "take it please" when he grew tired of holding his paper from Sunday School. He is also becoming incredibly fond of the word "no", like most other children his age. Z and I could probably do without that last one (and A will get into trouble sometimes, depending on the situation) but we are still ecstatic that he is talking.
School is also good for his social skills. He has 9 other kids in his pre-K class, and they have to do projects together every week. A actually voluntarily colored with some of the other kids yesterday at church ~ his teacher was surprised! He used to hide under the desks and grunt or stim along the edge of the classroom, and now he's actually joining in. We're excited to see what the future holds for our little guy. He's getting a good start.
Getting used to school is a process. He really enjoys it! He loves all the activities they do so much, he pitches a fit when it's time to change to something new. Last week was a bad week, multiple tantrums every day but Friday. So far so good this week; A had a great day today! He is also picking up sign language extremely quickly and comes home asking for "more", "please", and other things Z and I aren't entirely sure what they are, but he's at least trying. We are supposed to be getting a list of the signs they are teaching at school, we're still waiting on that though.
A has also started making up his own signs for things, which is progress! He used to just stand there and stare at you until you figured out whatever he needed. His most recent sign is for the movie "Cars". He takes his right hand and whips it across to the left, and goes "wrooooom", like the cars do on the racetrack when the movie starts. This took us a while to figure out, but we finally deciphered it when he brought us the movie case and looked at us like "Duh, mom! Duh, dad!"
He has also become much more verbal. He identified K as his "siswer" and "[his name] siswer" on Sunday morning, and then asked Z to "take it please" when he grew tired of holding his paper from Sunday School. He is also becoming incredibly fond of the word "no", like most other children his age. Z and I could probably do without that last one (and A will get into trouble sometimes, depending on the situation) but we are still ecstatic that he is talking.
School is also good for his social skills. He has 9 other kids in his pre-K class, and they have to do projects together every week. A actually voluntarily colored with some of the other kids yesterday at church ~ his teacher was surprised! He used to hide under the desks and grunt or stim along the edge of the classroom, and now he's actually joining in. We're excited to see what the future holds for our little guy. He's getting a good start.
Monday, February 5, 2007
The One-Eyed Brain Sucker
Before I had children, I always swore that I wouldn't let my kids watch a lot of television ~ the possible exception being PBS. They do have some good educational kids programming. In due time, I have had two kids; and in delicious irony, they do actually watch TV for probably 3+ hours a day (spaced out throughout the day). It is mostly PBS in the mornings; Sesame Street and Between the Lions are big hits with my kiddos. But in the afternoons, Baby Einstein videos rule.
Once A started showing resistance to reading books with me, I needed to find something to pique his interest. Simply going for walks and pointing out various things, or sitting and trying to tell him a story or talk about ~ whatever ~ just didn't work with him. But the television....ah, the TV. With its music and colors and silly characters, the TV provided just the right combination of elements to interest A. He hardly does any self-stim while he's watching his videos. Instead, he's trying to repeat the words they use and figure out the sign language. And he shows signs of having a great sense of humor ~ he cracks up at silliness all the time.
The TV is also one of the only things that can ground him if he's having a particularly high intensity freak out. At my parents' house, we made sure we had "Finding Nemo" (he loves those "peesch") and his Baby Einstein videos readily available. It would only take a minute or two to calm him down; then we could go back to whatever we were doing before.
We do tell him "no" if he's had enough TV for that moment. He will request a "moobie" from time to time, but we can generally distract him by asking about the characters on the movie jacket/case or by getting him engaged in coloring at his easel. And he will throw mini-tantrums sometimes when he doesn't get his way, but having to sit in the corner until he calms down has been a most effective strategy to curb the fits. He's a smart kid. He's figured out that he gets to come back out and play once he's quiet, so it doesn't usually take very long. A long time ago, we stopped going by the "one minute for every year of age" guideline that was posited by some group of doctors/child behaviorists. Z and I discovered that if we put A in the corner for two minutes, but he was still howling when he came out, it didn't help the situation and actually made the tantrums even worse. Just to appease anyone who is aghast out there, the longest he has ever had to sit there was about 10 minutes, and that was right when we started enforcing the new "you don't come out until you're quiet" rule. As I mentioned before, it didn't take A long to figure out how everything worked.
Am I thrilled about the TV thing? Eh. It's an effective tool at this point, so I'm not too concerned about it. But my husband and I do monitor what the kids do and don't watch. Most things are educational, but we do allow "fun stuff" like Disney movies too. A also rarely just sits there if the TV is on. He jumps and dances to the music, or plays with toys while listening and repeating object names. We do periodic assessments of what does or does not work with A, so if the TV just doesn't cut it any more, it's not a big deal to stop. (I'm not advocating prolific use of the boob tube, nor am I adamantly against its use ~ this is just what works for us and where we're at right now).
Once A started showing resistance to reading books with me, I needed to find something to pique his interest. Simply going for walks and pointing out various things, or sitting and trying to tell him a story or talk about ~ whatever ~ just didn't work with him. But the television....ah, the TV. With its music and colors and silly characters, the TV provided just the right combination of elements to interest A. He hardly does any self-stim while he's watching his videos. Instead, he's trying to repeat the words they use and figure out the sign language. And he shows signs of having a great sense of humor ~ he cracks up at silliness all the time.
The TV is also one of the only things that can ground him if he's having a particularly high intensity freak out. At my parents' house, we made sure we had "Finding Nemo" (he loves those "peesch") and his Baby Einstein videos readily available. It would only take a minute or two to calm him down; then we could go back to whatever we were doing before.
We do tell him "no" if he's had enough TV for that moment. He will request a "moobie" from time to time, but we can generally distract him by asking about the characters on the movie jacket/case or by getting him engaged in coloring at his easel. And he will throw mini-tantrums sometimes when he doesn't get his way, but having to sit in the corner until he calms down has been a most effective strategy to curb the fits. He's a smart kid. He's figured out that he gets to come back out and play once he's quiet, so it doesn't usually take very long. A long time ago, we stopped going by the "one minute for every year of age" guideline that was posited by some group of doctors/child behaviorists. Z and I discovered that if we put A in the corner for two minutes, but he was still howling when he came out, it didn't help the situation and actually made the tantrums even worse. Just to appease anyone who is aghast out there, the longest he has ever had to sit there was about 10 minutes, and that was right when we started enforcing the new "you don't come out until you're quiet" rule. As I mentioned before, it didn't take A long to figure out how everything worked.
Am I thrilled about the TV thing? Eh. It's an effective tool at this point, so I'm not too concerned about it. But my husband and I do monitor what the kids do and don't watch. Most things are educational, but we do allow "fun stuff" like Disney movies too. A also rarely just sits there if the TV is on. He jumps and dances to the music, or plays with toys while listening and repeating object names. We do periodic assessments of what does or does not work with A, so if the TV just doesn't cut it any more, it's not a big deal to stop. (I'm not advocating prolific use of the boob tube, nor am I adamantly against its use ~ this is just what works for us and where we're at right now).
Friday, February 2, 2007
End of Round One: A --1, Occupation Therapist -- 0
Yesterday was A's first day of occupational therapy. He needs some work on basic skills, such as opening jars, holding eating utensils and pens/crayons. He will also be working on some gross motor skills work to improve his balance, which is grand at times and sketchy at others. Since this was our first session, his very nice occupational therapist (OT), Brigid, needed to assess what levels A is at in various skills.
A is a very smart child, despite his lack of communication at this point, and has pretty good spatial skills. He can match shapes easily, and figure out what fits where very quickly. One of the ways he has learned this is at home from discovering what fits into the VCR and what doesn't. (In case you ever wanted to know, you can fit up to 25 CDs in the slot opening of a VCR if they're stacked and shoved in there just right; also, waffles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches fit in there rather nicely. Shoes and cups don't fit.) So as the OT was putting our son "through his paces", he is bored with the whole process and starts shooting dark looks her way. That is, until the wooden mailbox comes out with the wooden envelopes of different sizes. He loved it. Trouble started when she put it away to move on to something else.
The good news is, Brigid got to see exactly how our son can get when upset. The bad news is, she got screamed at, hit, kicked, and spit on. I was a bit embarrassed, but at the same time was interested to see how she would handle it. She did just fine, took it in stride. After a couple of minutes, he was fine. But thereafter, every time she changed activities on him, he would have the same type of reaction as when the mailbox was put away.
After 45 minutes, we called it a day. We go back next week. I know A was just testing his limits with her; he does this with most new people and situations.
Something that I still struggle with occasionally is being a little embarrassed of my son's behavior in public. This is something that I'm working on, and I'm a lot better than I was initially (before I knew about the autism). I know in my brain that I shouldn't be ashamed of how my son acts if it's something he can't help (things he can help are another story entirely). But there are still occasions where I can feel my face flush as I'm trying to calm him down. For example, yesterday morning we had to go to the store to pick up some diapers. A only had one left, and weather had prevented us from going out earlier in the week. At the checkout register, as I'm putting A's coat back on him, he starts to scream and cry ~ and by cry, I mean howl loud enough to rival a storm siren. I realized that I was moving faster and faster the closer I got to the store entrance and had to force myself to slow down. Everyone, and I do mean everyone within visibility, was staring at us. Most of the time I'm OK with it now, but there are still moments where I'm caught off-guard.
None of this excuses me from being embarrassed, of course; I shouldn't be. I simply write this so people know what I struggle with. I'm a work in progress, too.
A is a very smart child, despite his lack of communication at this point, and has pretty good spatial skills. He can match shapes easily, and figure out what fits where very quickly. One of the ways he has learned this is at home from discovering what fits into the VCR and what doesn't. (In case you ever wanted to know, you can fit up to 25 CDs in the slot opening of a VCR if they're stacked and shoved in there just right; also, waffles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches fit in there rather nicely. Shoes and cups don't fit.) So as the OT was putting our son "through his paces", he is bored with the whole process and starts shooting dark looks her way. That is, until the wooden mailbox comes out with the wooden envelopes of different sizes. He loved it. Trouble started when she put it away to move on to something else.
The good news is, Brigid got to see exactly how our son can get when upset. The bad news is, she got screamed at, hit, kicked, and spit on. I was a bit embarrassed, but at the same time was interested to see how she would handle it. She did just fine, took it in stride. After a couple of minutes, he was fine. But thereafter, every time she changed activities on him, he would have the same type of reaction as when the mailbox was put away.
After 45 minutes, we called it a day. We go back next week. I know A was just testing his limits with her; he does this with most new people and situations.
Something that I still struggle with occasionally is being a little embarrassed of my son's behavior in public. This is something that I'm working on, and I'm a lot better than I was initially (before I knew about the autism). I know in my brain that I shouldn't be ashamed of how my son acts if it's something he can't help (things he can help are another story entirely). But there are still occasions where I can feel my face flush as I'm trying to calm him down. For example, yesterday morning we had to go to the store to pick up some diapers. A only had one left, and weather had prevented us from going out earlier in the week. At the checkout register, as I'm putting A's coat back on him, he starts to scream and cry ~ and by cry, I mean howl loud enough to rival a storm siren. I realized that I was moving faster and faster the closer I got to the store entrance and had to force myself to slow down. Everyone, and I do mean everyone within visibility, was staring at us. Most of the time I'm OK with it now, but there are still moments where I'm caught off-guard.
None of this excuses me from being embarrassed, of course; I shouldn't be. I simply write this so people know what I struggle with. I'm a work in progress, too.
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