Not a plug

In case you didn't get to see these videos or slideshows:

Click on the picture to take you to the video of this. Background info here at this post.

The Need for Routine

This is what he was jamming to.... He has actually told me that he wants one! Hey, buddy...stand in line! I think he thinks it shakes and changes all of those colors by itself. I got a demo one from the company and he is totally enamored with it. Of course I won't let him have it. Can't have my boy wearing blue eyeshadow!




Here they should have had a plug. Apparently there is a quarter of a bottle of bubble bath in there.


Tulipmom, if you look closely at the first few you can see the red walls in my Master Bathroom.

And, no, I wasn't present at the time these picture were taken. As a matter of fact, the first knowledge I had of it was when I got home after work that night and check my Reader and saw it online! I holler over to The Hub, "When did this happen?"

"Oh, about an hour ago..."

To his merit, he cleaned it up really well before I got home.

Now for that list...

I thought I would go ahead and knock out the quotables I need to journal about...

"We are going to Lolo and Lola's house this weekend."
"You mean the big house that is far far away?"
(My parents live in SC which is an 8 hour drive. This was the 3rd time we have driven there since Christmas, including Christmas. Last time he said, "I fink Lola's house is a very long time." So his syntax has improved in just one month!)

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Valentine's Day and the case of the crabby patty
Picture speak louder than words so check out the web album. I did finally find the missing crabby patty...it was in my PJ's pocket! Hahahahaha...
BTW, just in case Kara reads this, since it takes FOREVER for us to get together, there is a Valentine here waiting for Joshua and Mrs. Lovett. His choice when I asked, "Who else would you like to send a Valentine to?" Isn't that sweet. The other sweet thing is when he was picking out Joshua's Valentine, he choose the one that said "Best Friends." Double sweet!!

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While I'm on the same subject...
The Kiddos have rekindled my love for Veggie Tales. I really thought that The Elder would enjoy the music (silly songs) but I never really could get the regular episodes to hold his attention. Well, The Younger fell in LOVE with a Veggie Tales CD-Rom that The 6yo With No Tooth The Cousin formerly known as The 6yo With No Tooth, so when I went to Sam's Club I saw a double feature Silly Songs Set. They both have worn them out. The Elder has his favorite which "I can be your friend." He literally played it over and over again....practically the entire 8 hour drive home, and then again once we were home. He sang it for everyone. Then he looks at me and says,

"Gotta go to Joshua's house and sing this song?"

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We celebrated the birthday of The Cousin formerly known as The 8yo with The Bendy Glasses The 9yo with The Bendy Glasses last weekend while we were in SC and truly had a good time. The SIL was very respectful of our gfcf diet and made sure we all had something we could eat. See The Brother's nerdy recap of the event. However, birthday cake is birthday cake and it is really hard to make a tasty gfcf birthday cake so we were building up the stamina for the approaching time that we would have to tell The Elder that he couldn't have cake.

When the announcement was made that the cake was ready, The Elder came up to me very calmly and said, "Do I get cake?"

I was so proud of him for, first, being aware that he does have dietary restrictions, and second, getting permission first before having to go through the ordeal of taking it away from him. I was so happy that I kept trying to think of a way that he could indulge...finally I look at The SIL and say, no cake, just icing.... Now what parent would ever say something like that?? But you know what...he was satisfied and probably had the least amount of calories in his little icing "volcano" than those who ate their whole piece of cake.

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"On Valentine's Day I can wear my Thomas shoes....after President's Day I can wear my School shoes."
"What about on President's Day?"
"I saaaaiiiiiidddd AAAAFTER President's Day."
"What shoes will you wear on President's Day?"
"But there's just no school on President's Day."

Hahahahha

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"Is that your dog?" said the man who helped us move furniture this weekend to The Elder.
"Yes, it's just Skip."
"Can I take him home with me?"
"Um...you can just go to the pet store."

In other words, get your own dog! Hardy har har.

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"I think I want to move your computer to that corner of the room. Do you think you would like that?" (Always have to research if we will have a meltdown or not)
"Sure!"
"Well I have to wait for your daddy to come home because I can't do it by myself."
"You can keep trying!"

I'm so proud of him!!!

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Food...it's all in the presentation...

"I want Peanut Butter Bread."

We use natural peanut butter and tapioca bread, but The Hub and I have a passion for this, and we found it while we were in SC and bought 2 jars of it. Unfortunately The Elder saw it. Not knowing there was a difference in the PBs we use, The AP had accidentally been making their PB bread with the fattening, not-so-good for you PB. And being the Aspergian he is, The Elder REMEMBERED every detail of the label that at a simple glimpse he knew he wanted it.

So The Hub goes to make his snack and pulls out the Natural Peanut Butter that we usually use. The Elder would have been totally fine with it if he hadn't first spied the yummy one.

"I want the peanut butter with the BLUUUUUEEEE lid, not the peanut butter with the Lellow lid."

So being the smarty pants Hub he is, The Hub switched the lids on the peanut butter behind his back and we got NO complaints! Ha!

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Be sure to check out The Hub's post today for a good laugh. Sure would make a good wordless wednesday. I also put the web album in the sidebar...


Whew! I think I only have 2 things left from my list!!!
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Random pix

Coupled with their love for their L-Maxes, I love that they are sharing their space now. Yes that is one chair!

No words were exchanged between these boys. The Boy with the GameBoy continued to play while The Elder casually looked over his shoulder...for 15 minutes! However, it didn't hold The Younger's attention for much longer past this snapshot.

The McDonald's that we always stop at on the way home from SC. I like to let them run around to break up the 8 hours drive. Plus you can purchase just the grilled chicken patty and get as GFCF as possible for only $2!!
Last trip I had to climb up into this contraption to rescue The Younger. It doesn't matter that I'm only 5 feet, my back was hurting from having to crawl through that. Next time I'll take a picture of the whole thing. Anyhoo, this trip The Younger is a big boy now because he was able to get thru the maze with some encouragement from his brother...I heard them talking at the top of the slide so I grabbed my camera real quick at the bottom of the slide and to my delight this is what I got a picure of!! Brotherly Love and Support. I love it! And who says he can't empathize???

For the Visual

I'm including some visuals and commentary for The Hub's post today.

"The Elder begins to meltdown. He doesn’t want to eat his Oatmeal. He tosses his milk cup, gets naked, threatens to pee on the floor, runs to his room, screams, and when he is set into a “wait area” he is crying."

This is when the Younger announces to me that "Brother take off train jammy-jams."

"He’s in a state of not using his words to tell us what is bothering him, even though we know that he can. Everything is familiar… bowl, spoon, milk, even the presentation of oatmeal is the same. Telling him that he has to eat his breakfast is making him meltdown even further. My Lovely and Talented Wife put the timer on the stove and tells him that he has 5 minutes to eat his oatmeal and then finally we get some indication on why he has been acting like a maniac."

He kept saying over and over again that he needed help. In other words he wanted me to feed him. "I need help, see?" as he begins to scoop of some oatmeal and casually dump it on the table. "You know how to feed yourself. What else do you need?" "My L-Max" "I hear that, and I said you can have it after you eat." He throws the milk cup and the spoon across the table and starts to throw the oatmeal bowl. I stop him. So now he is scooping the oatmeal out of the bowl like it is play dough. But here is the thing...he started eating it off his fingers so I knew that he was hungry. Well, he has a fixation with numbers, especially a digital countdown. My exact words were that he had "until the clock says zero or he loses L-Max time." That gets him going just about as fast as reminding him that black things grow on our teeth if we don't brush them.

"But I need a different spoon"
"Would you like a smaller spoon?"
"Yes."
I look at The Hub, happy that we found the lightswitch, to let him know that THAT is what this was all about, since I'm not sure he would have picked up on that otherwise.

"It turns out that he didn’t want the spoon that I gave him. The same spoon that I’ve served him the last 3 times, instead he wanted the smallest (infant sized) version of our silverware. Once he got this spoon he ate his food without a problem and without fuss."

He even took a HUGE bite of oatmeal that barely would fit the large spoon, much less the infant spoon. That's when I said, let me get the camera and take a picture of that big boy bite. So literally less than 30 seconds after receiving the spoon of choice, this is what he looks like:

He even came to church with me this morning and we got no reports. No news is good right?

So even among the great things that are happening with his intervention, we still have moments like these throughout the day, which probably doesn't come to much of a surprise to those of you who live with ASD everyday huh?

I'm so glad that The Hub blogged about this scenario. His perspective is quite interesting, especially when you take in account the recovery period (even for an adult on the spectrum it takes time - thank you for being brave enough to bare your true self- the good, the bad, and the not so pretty). For me, these are mole hills, speed bumps, that just put a blip in your day until you can find a solution, or redirect. Barely different from that of a typical tantrum from a typical 4 year old. It doesn't affect the overall time management of my day more than a typical tantrum would. The difference is the source of the frustration and the fact there is almost always a solution (the lightswitch) that literally can take them from dark to light (one extreme to another). (For The Younger sometimes we have to just let him "cry it out" and he still holds a grudge against us! Ha!) The most frustrating part is when you can't find the solution because it is so way out there random. Today The Elder was ranting on and on and on about his L-Max. An outsider would think, "what a spoiled brat, there is a time to play and there is a time to eat. you've been told before that you can't play at table, and yesterday you complied without a word." When the truth is that his behavior had NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS DESIRE TO PLAY WITH THE L-MAX AT THE TABLE, OR BREAKING THE RULES, OR DISRESPECTING HIS PARENTS. It had to do with the fact that TODAY he had no confidence in using a regular size spoon. Maybe he is afraid that he will spill it on his lap (common reason in the past). That would make him less than perfect, and he can't let us think that, right? Maybe he remembered that ONCE UPON A TIME that one time someone fed him at the table while he played with his L-Max and that might be the solution to the fear he woke up to this morning, so he thought he would aggressively request for his L-Max in hopes that he wouldn't have to use the spoon himself and risk spilling the oatmeal. Does this sound familiar????

What's interesting is I wrote the last post last night, slept on it, had this experience this morning, read The Hub's post, and then went ahead and published and then followed up with this one.

Wordless

Tag...You're It!

Little Me is going out of business. (They might already be out of business by now.) We stocked up on the cutest little argyle socks of a variety of colors for the boys and little striped fleece coats. They had racks and racks and racks of footies pajamas that were so cute that I just wanted to buy them all. We are in this trend where we are dressing the boys alike. (Hey it's cute and as long as they let me, I'm going to have fun playing dress up with them since I don't get to have a girl.) And it isn't a total waste of money because The Younger will eventually wear 4T and by that time, The Elder probably won't allow me to dress them alike. On the other hand, a lot of the twinning has been at The Elder's request. Mmmm So much fun!! Too bad I can't put them in pink. Anyhoo....

We didn't buy any because it isn't as fun to get cute PJs for The Younger if you can't get it for The Elder too. I think The Elder gets a little claustrophobic in body suits, especially ones with the enclosed footies. He has refused to wear them since he was 18 months. The Younger will wear them in 80 degree weather. We actually had to hide them last summer because he would pitch a fit to wear them.

On Christmas Eve, The AP was so thoughtful to purchase nice matching Timberland Footies PJs for the boys. The Hub and I looked at each other with this "Thanks, I really really really hope he wears it" kinda look. Since The Elder is the one who has been requesting dressing the same, we took that angle. We put them on The Younger first. He of course loved them. Then I showed them to The Elder...

"Look! Just like brother's!!"
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" (screaming and running away.)
"Don't you want to dress like brother?"
"I can't like that! It's too scary to me!"
"What is?"
"The Tag"
"Well put them on and I'll tear the tags off."
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Not that."
"Which one then?"
"That one." (with no pointing to give me a hint)
"This one?" (pulling at the inside label)
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! That one! That one right dere!"
"The tag on the zipper?" (the zipper pull)
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Not that one."

He's totally lost his patience with me at this point. Likewise, I'm running out of tags to point to. I'm beginning to believe that it is an imaginary tag...

"Show me. Point to it. With your finger."
"Dere." (quick flick of the hand - still not helpful)
"Lay your finger on it."
"That one. Dere."

It was the embroidered Timberland Emblem on the left breastside...
Well, there's no cutting that out, so I left the tags on and handed them to The AP apologizing that he wouldn't wear them. She was planning to return them when she got back from New York (she didn't get to see the ball drop - sad).

So while she was gone, The Hub and I tag teamed on Tub Time duty. He had to shower anyway after his run so The Elder showered with him and The Younger got the tub all to himself. When we got to my bathroom to use the hair dryer, The Younger had already picked out his PJs - The Timberland ones! The Elder asked,

"Where's mines?"
"Your PJs?" He nods. "You didn't like them so she's taking them back to the store."
"But I want the same as brother."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"These? With the Tree?"
"Yes."

So I sneaked into The AP's room to look for them. I brought The Younger with me so I didn't feel so guilty snooping around. I had a witness. Ha! Luckily they were in plain site. I brought them to The Elder and ask the same questions.

"Yes, I want to wear dose."
"Ooookayyyy." I say tentatively.
"Um, you need to take dese off." (the tags)
"Put them on first and then I'll take them off."

He complied. I even left the tags on for a while in fear that he would change his mind. Finally I gave in to his request, letting him know how permanent a decision this was. Evidently when I ran to get the PJs, The Hub ran to grab the camera. We both knew this was picture worthy, even if for a few seconds. But he wore them all through the night and even requested to wear them again on New Year's Eve. "Where's my NEW PJs? The ones with the socks?"

I would say, "My baby's growing up," but they are footies pajamas. Nothin' says "baby" like onsies! Look at my babies!


By the way, they carry footies at Target that 5-foot (and shorter) humans can wear. I got a pink one with princess frogs on them! Too cute! And sooooo warm! =o)

Researching on Memory Lane

Well, The AP said that ever since she has been here (last April) The Younger's thumb didn't extend all the way. She said that once she tried to "fix" it and it clicked and straightened but then went back to crooked and she never tried again. So after this comment, I thought I would go back and look at our photos to see just when this little booger snuck up on us.

On the Fourth of July in 2006, The Younger just turned 1 and The Elder was getting ready to turn 3. No Trigger Thumb.

September 17, 2006. Possible triggering in his right thumb while in a relaxed state (understatement on the relaxed, huh?)

October 17, 2006. Awake and active here, the right thumb is not triggering.

January 5, 2007 - Awake and somewhat relaxed and somewhat active. No signs of major triggering.

January 26, 2007 - It's almost as if he posed for this one..."Hey, look at my trigger thumb!" You can see other evidence of triggering in other shots from this album.

February 25, 2007 - This is the same day as the tree picture in my banner above where I couldn't tell if it was triggering or not. Here however, it clearly is.

April 19, 2007 - At the airport, the day we picked up The AP. Very trigger happy here. (Wasn't that sweet and thoughtful of him to bring her flowers?)

May 1, 2007 - Sleepy head with a quick draw.

Conclusion - The AP was right. It seemed to be a more permanent thing about the time she arrived which makes me feel a whole lot less guilty for not noticing it sooner. She thought that I already knew about it so she never pointed it out. I guess that is the politically correct thing to do. But it doesn't appear to be a big deal to him. It doesn't hurt him and when the doc said "Man, that thumb does NOT want to budge," one would assume that he was using force to test that and The Younger never flinched. Our appointment is next Thursday with the Orthopedic Doc and will probably schedule the surgery from there. Thanks for all the comments for him. He would appreciate all the love!

"Are you kidding me?"

This was the response from my brother after I asked, "Is there a Starbucks in town?"

I wasn't sure if it was "duh, there are Starbucks everywhere" answer, or if it was "we don't have anything in our dinky town" answer. It was the latter. We didn't plan our consumption very well on this trip. We assumed way too much, so our food routine has been off the last 24 hours. Actually our whole routine is but I figured, better to do this on a trip AWAY from home than in our own home. No blender for The Hub's daily smoothies. Because tax is cheaper in SC (like by 5%!) we decided to wait until we got here to purchase groceries since we get the organic-gluten-free-casein-free-costs-an-arm-and-a-leg brands and every little bit helps. So we had very little food to choose from. We found a KFC during the trip and peeled off the breading to get it as gluten-reduced as possible. (Here's a picture of The Younger discovering he like corn-on-the-cob. Was NOT a fun diaper to change later especially since I didn't think about bringing a sprayer.) We made a box of hash browns for breakfast and noticed in the ingredients that there is wheat flour in it (I guess to keep the potatoes from sticking together). The kids have been super hyper today and I looked at The Hub saying "no more gluten for them." He laments, "why does gluten turn us into zombies and they go freakin' crazy?" Well, The Lola (my mom) only knew of one place to go (because we scoped 2 grocery stores in town that had nothing organic, much less gluten-free) and we stocked up on some goods for the kids that they (and we) can handle.

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So we come in yesterday and The Elder goes crazy running around the house. He goes up to The Lola and says in shock and awe, "You got TWO uv em???? One over there and one over there?" I realized he was speaking of TVs. We only have one TV upstairs in our house and we have taken the the cable out of the wall. So they had 2 channels going simultaneously on ABC family watching The Incredibles and USA watching Christmas Vacation so that those in the kitchen were bombarded by clashing noises. This morning, we were serenaded by Spongebob at breakfast. I looked at The Hub and said, we have got to buy some toys to lure these kids away from the tube. So we went out today and got these.



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The Kiddos immediately took ALL (all 832 of them) the throw pillows off the couches and onto the floors. This is acceptable in our house because we have crappy furniture. My parents however have really nice furniture, the kind I'd like to have one day when I grow up. The Lola was hilarious when she decided, "Maybe tomorrow I'll have to establish some house rules." I interjected, "Maybe now?"

"Rule #1: Pillows are not toys."

So The Hub made a sign and taped it onto the oven and printed that for The Elder to read.

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Today was the first time The Younger met his cousins and the first time The Elder noticed them. Collectively, they are ages 2, 4, 6, and 8. Isn't that cute? (Since there are more of them, I couldn't called them The Cousin.) Well, The 8yo announces "I have glasses now....Are yours as bendy as mine?" and then later over dinner he looks at me and proclaims, "did you know that animals are connected to sound waves?" So the smarty pants are obviously hand-me-downs, except each kid keeps the smarts before passing it on. The Elder isn't that great with names yet until after the 2nd or 3rd meeting so as he was calling after them "Hey, 2 guys...." and then later trying to get The 6yo's attention, he calls after him, "Hey....the one with the no tooth." I thought I would die laughing.

The 6yo With No Tooth shares The Younger's love for bananas. We don't understand why he put it on his head. I think The Younger has a classic sensory look on his face as that peel gets a little too close to his face. Here you can see The Elder indulging his most recent compulsion, flipping the light switches on and off.

"Rule #2: Light switches are not toys."

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"We need a napkin." (uh-oh)
"What happened?"
"He has tomato on his shirt."

My immediate thought was bloody nose, then worse I thought about the bottle of ketchup on the table. But then I see The 8yo With The Bendy Glasses with a whole Cosco-sized container of cherry tomatoes, feeding them to The Elder.

"Don't be eating those on the couch!!" (remember, it's nice furniture.) At least he got the Elder eating tomatoes, um, unless he spit them out and that is why it was on his shirt. The Hub thought ahead while he was in there, and removed the squeeze bottle of potentially projectile ketchup from the table while reciting, the next rule...

"Rule #3: Tomatoes are not toys."

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Off to deal with totally overstimulated kids...

Special Interest

Ten Points to every geek person who can help me resolve this problem that Marla comments on here.

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Yesterday, I pulled this drawing out of The Elder's folder in his backpack and just totally cracked up about it. He has been getting Good marks lately at school which might be why he's been overly hyperactive at home and not wanting to answer too many questions. When he doesn't want to think about how to respond to a question, his answer is "trains."

"What day is today?"
"trains."
"Where are your glasses?"
"trains."

So this was just a funny.

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Yesterday we also went through a toy magazine and I had him point out his favorite toys.

"Well, first it's trains." (to the tune of "duh")
"What's your second favorite?"
"This one." (it was like a hot wheels track)
"What is your favorite toy that doesn't have wheels?"
"Let's go to Arts & Crafts."
(He sounded like The Teacher here)
"This one." (it was a build and paint a train craft!)
"That has wheels. Which is your favorite without wheels?"
"Just the paint."

To paint the train, no doubt.

Tis the season for "making" "cookies"

Ok, so I don't get the Martha Stewart award when it comes to baking, or cooking, or much in the kitchen for that matter unless there are directions on the box for how long I need to microwave it. Well, I can do magic in the crockpot. Of course the only thing I need to do it put the stuff in there and then turn it on. It's not that I CAN'T cook (with guidelines), I just don't enjoy it as much as The Hub, therefore, he and the microwave takes turns providing nutritional means for us. Well, I have 2 cookie stories for you. I've posted all of the pictures in the slideshow on the sidebar.

Sugar Cookies...

Good ole fashion gfcf sugar cookies. One of The Elder's classmate's mom send us some gfcf flours and the recipe to try. First, I never make cookies from scratch and if I do, The Hub is there to supervise and then eventually take over. The Gma was coming over so I thought I was safe. Nope. That made it worse because now I'm feeling the pressure (where do you think The Hub got his baking talent?), but kindly enough I was not chastised for pitching the rolling pin and flattening out the dough with my hands. The Gma brought us a large assortment of cookie cutters to use. I let them pick out which ones they wanted to use, so among the Christmas Trees and ornament, we also had a Christmas Question Mark, a Christmas Hand and Foot, a Christmas "L," and a Christmas "Z." Oh, and the Christmas "X" which was accidentally stretched out to look like a Cross.Ten points to the first person who correctly identifies the mass to the left of the foot.

These were ALL the sugar cookies we made. All Ten of them. The Elder did well with the sensory portion. He hated touching the butter, but once we started cutting the shapes he had a lot of fun squishing and flattening the dough. Maybe a little too much...I bit into a cookie that had dog hairs in it. ho hum. We now only have enough batter left to make about 3 cookies. It was some yummy cookie dough - and a LOT easier to do it that way.

Gingerbread Cookfins...

In this post, we were preparing for upcoming food art projects. Fast forward 2 weeks later and we still haven't done the banana pops and we finally got around to the Gingerbread Train. Well, attempting to make it. In the interim we lost the box to the cookie mix. This is disastrous to me (see first paragraph). We looked through the recycle box but we cannot find that one. I went online to this particular company's website and lo and behold they can a recipe link on their site! Woo hoo! With much confidence, I start rattling off the instructions from the computer to The Hub. Still being drugged from his procedure (at least that is the excuse I'm using), he questions the instructions but listens to me anyway.

"Really? Two eggs?"
"That's what it says."
"Are you sure we use that much oil?"
I point to the computer screen.
"Ok."

Well, it was not quite the consistency we were hoping for.Yes, that would be the kids spooning the dough into the cookie mold. The Elder was not too excited about the drippiness of the cookie dough. It was not what he expected (or any of us for that matter). We had to get him to pose for this picture. I think I got 2-3 shots of that ONE scoop he participated in before hanging out on the yoga mat.

Needless to say, the trains didn't turn out. We couldn't even get the cooked matter out of the mold in one piece. They tasted pretty darn good though. Since we were in charge of refreshments at Sunday School this morning, we used the rest of the dough/batter for mini-muffins. They got hard pretty fast, so they were firm like a cookie, but airy like a muffin. We got lots of compliments on them, despite my lame attempt to explain to them exactly what they were. One of my friends said,

"They're Cookfins!"

So there, a new tradition? Try it! All the cool kids are doing it.

Me Me Too

Elissa from Managing Autism tagged me for Christmas. I shall tag some of my newer blogger friends that I've yet to read a meme on their blog.

Mandolin Mom
Gwendolyn's Gifts
Allie
Kara

(I'll get all the links once I get permission to)

I'm going to make up my own rules. Copy and paste the questions below and substitute your own answers (unless we think alike, you have permission to use my answers). Click on the picture and do your own Elf Yourself (just kidding, that's optional, but check out The AP, The Elder, and The Younger doing the jig by clicking on the picture or here - PREPARE TO ROFLMAO). Then tag 4 of your friends and let them know they've been tagged.

“When people say ‘Christmas’ you immediately think…”

Decorations. I don't particularly care to DO them, but I LOVE to look at them and drive around or go to open houses to see other families' talents. Particularly, we have a house in our neighborhood that displays a Christmas dolphin, sun, and flamingo. That one is just tradition to go see.

“Favourite Christmas memory…”

As a child, I remember getting up the next morning to see what was in my stocking. The specific memory that comes to mind was when we got a trampoline and they had it set up in the back yard already and I started jumping around the house. I remember my sister and brother being just as excited about seeing my reaction to the surprise.

As an adult, my favorite memory was having my whole family spending Christmas here in TN. Not only did we not have to travel, but the whole family was together (something that hasn't happened in 3 years) and I remember it being very relaxing in the middle of a stressful time in my life.

“Favourite Christmas song/carol…”

When we are together, my sister and brother and I sing together. We are a SAT trio who each had the same high school chorus teacher, therefore know many of the same arrangements. Our favorites are Carol of the Bells, O Holy Night, and Joy in the Morning.

“Favourite Christmas movie…”

I'm not sure I have a favorite. I did mention Elf the other day. But I do love the classics - Miracle of 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life.

“Favourite Christmas character…”

Probably the reindeer. They are so cute - especially the Rodney Reindeer stuffed animals. I used to call him Dopey Deer.

“Favourite Christmas ornament/object…”

A Star or the nativity. I think it is really important to remember why we even have the season.

“Plans for this Christmas…”

To travel to see my family and be together again for the first Christmas in a long time.

“Is Christmas your favourite holiday?”

I'm not sure I have ever had a favorite holiday, but I suppose I would say that Christmas season is my favorite time of the year for so many reasons. It is a time when you have many opportunities to reflect, give, appreciate, keep in touch, set new goals, and be others-focused.

BTW, The Hub is doing well. Here's his post-procedure post. All I can say is TGIF. I still have to work but I don't have to GO anywhere! Woo hoo! Well, I do have a Mom's Group party to go to tonight.

Success Sunday

"This is Hard Work"
--The Elder

OK, so he's only famous in my eyes, but he gave a profound statement today. (The Hub opted to stay home with the kiddos this morning because of viral symptoms, and (get this) offered to clean the house to help look for our executive functioning. And I think he found a portion of it because when I came home to a neat kitchen, I was immediately motivated to rake the leaves. Wassupwiddat?) So, today I asked the Elder, "Do you want to watch daddy race or help me rake the leaves." "I want to watch you rake the leaves." Ha! But he did help, and about 10 minutes into it he proclaims the above. After 3 1/2 hours of hard work we were successful and he was very proud of himself for being a part of it. Good Luck might come Easy, but Success is Hard Work!
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Riding the Tarp (This really was hard work! They are heavy!)

Such good helpers! I really didn't have to tell them what to do either. They only watched me 2-3 times before they decided that they wanted to pull instead of ride!

Happy Birthday

One of the things we were suppose to do yesterday that didn't get done was our Advent.ures Calendar. It is a daily devotional that I got from church for the Advent season and I have to say that before we didn't really have any Advent traditions (other than stressing out over the usual holiday things like shopping and cooking and then later on, traveling). Well they were selling these for a buck as a fundraiser AND it had stickers so I thought let's try to do something as a family. There is a cardstock wreath and candles and on the wreath there are holly berries (I assume) with numbers for which there is a sticker for each day to add to the wreath. So when I got home today after church I broke out the scissors and sat down with the kids and read today's (and yesterday's) devotion and then we cut out the wreath. As I was cutting, The Elder looks at the diagram and announces,

"It says we have to make a birthday cake."

So true...candles and all, it looks like a birthday cake (and a crown too - they each tried it on). But we tied it all in as the Royal Cake for His Birthday.

"See, we got to make holes in it."

As he opens the junk drawer and finds a hole puncher. But I pointed out that even though they look like holes in the diagram they are actually the places where we put the stickers, therefore you can't put holes in it or there wouldn't be anywhere to put the stickers. Good enough logic. (Hmmm I don't recall putting the hole puncher away. Great. Hope we don't have holes in random things...and the confetti from them either.)

We each (The Hub, The Elder, The Younger, and myself) pulled a candle through the wreath so we could say we did it together. Then we moved it to the dinner table where it got passed around on their heads and they took turns "blowing out the candles" (woo-hoo. The Great Pretenders). It's made of paper so I hope it lasts for another 23 days.

100 - a "Nice" Round Post

I had been having a ho hum kind of day. I wanted to be productive but just couldn't manage (still looking for that executive functioning somewhere...it's bound to turn up!). We made a list of everything we were suppose to do and everywhere we were suppose to go and somehow only did about 10% of it. The Younger didn't even get a nap today. We did get some things bought and prepared for upcoming food art projects. We are planning to make some GFCF Blue's Clues Banana Pops and a GFCF Gingerbread Train. Other than that, I won some Freecell games and watched UT lose the SEC championship game (they do get an A for effort, but an F for losing).

The Hub made a comment that I was almost to my 100th post and frankly I had no clue, other than I can be rather verbose, that I was that far along in my blog. Nor have I a clue how HE could tell what number I was on because I had a time trying to verify that this was indeed my 100th post. Once it was confirmed, I really wanted to make it special (how weird is that?) and I guess had some sort of block, because even though I have tons of hilarious topics and conversations that have been tossed around between the adults and children in the household today, nothing really stood out as "100th post" worthy. I asked The Hub, "What do you do for a 100th post?" His Aspergian reply was "You say 'hey, this is my 100th post' and then people will comment saying 'congrats on your 100th post.'"

So I must send a huge THANK YOU to Elissa from Managing Autism for not only giving me the content for my 100th post, but for awarding me with the Nice Matters Award. It made my day in more ways than one! You deserve this one yourself! (Would that count as one of the 7? I say YES! You're #1!)

Here is what the Nice Matters Award is all about: “This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass on to seven others whom you feel are deserving of this award.”

So here's the hard part, not because I don't know nice people, but because I don't know how to pick just 7 because you are all nice and inspire good feelings and inspiration. Here goes...

I know, Maddy at Whitterer on Autism, you've been awarded over and over again and but I must must must send it back. You were the very very first non-family member or current family friend to stumble upon my cyber-doorstep and comment on my blog and it was at a time in my journey that I really needed to hear from someone who could give me perspective like you only can!!

Bonnie at Coffee Autism Faith Explored - you have been a faithful reader and commenter from the beginning and have helped me more than you might think. I can relate to you a lot, so I truly love reading your blog.

Gwen at Gwendolyn's Gifts - Success Sunday Diva...I think God put us together in such a timely manner. (I'm sorry that my executive dysfunction prevented me from coming over today, I'd like to come one morning this week if you still have your items up.) You inspire good feelings, not just in your attitude, but also through your art.

Tulip Mom - Your baby girl is beautiful and hopefully she will let you eat poultry soon! Not only do I love reading your blog, I love seeing how many supporters you have by the sheer number of comments you receive...that says a lot about you.

Karen at Beyond Understanding - I love the topics of your posts and the cause behind your blog. You amaze me, especially when you do more than one post in a day, thanks for all of your sharing. An all around neat person to associate with. I've learned and will learn a lot from you!

Susan at I Run for My Life - Susan is actually one of The Hub's readers but I wanted to include her as the 7th because today she ran a marathon for Elijah on his 7th birthday. Here is The Hub's commercial to support her. Susan, Chasen's signs are hilarious. Congrats on finishing (was there really chocolate there?).

So, congratulations to all of you and thank you for a very special 100th post!

Say Cheese

The Elder got his school pictures back yesterday and I must say they are absolutely adorable. It was worth the extra $6 we paid for the touch-up on his forehead. He has a slight scar there (not seen in the picture) and The Hub calls it his "Harry Potter" scar. Now we are working a scar on The Younger's nose. The Fantasy of Trees photographers didn't offer a touch up option.

I also got a picture of him on the bus. I had been meaning to do that for sometime for the scrapbook but kept forgetting but yesterday I grabbed my camera when I saw the bus pull up and was able to get these cutie shots. He was in a quasi-awake state when I boarded the bus. And though it doesn't look like it, he was still quasi-asleep in the close-up picture by his bus number (he's infatuated with his bus number).

My motivation to work is still low but I have been managing to get things accomplished that "absolutely have to be done." The "have to be done" tasks have been postponed to the very last minute (or delegated) and the "nice to do" tasks don't have a chance in hades of getting done anytime soon. The Executive Function is lacking severely these days. I've decided to take The Big Bro's advice and going to cut to half a pill a day to see how that works. I've been taking one whole one every other day and that seems to have helped in the sleepy/snacky department. Of course time for all the fun stuff, like online Christmas Shopping, Pictures for the scrapbook and eating cookies and brownies with The Kiddos, have taken high priority. The Super Doc would be proud. The bank account not so much....

Tomorrow is another trip from The Elder's teacher. I think I should prepare for her visit but really don't know what to expect. Even though this is her second in-home visitation. I didn't know what to expect then either. Has anyone had in-home visitations and might have some advice for me? I'd really like to get the most out of all of our services. Don't assume I know anything. =o) She does strike me as the kind of teacher that truly understands him and wants the best for him. I'm eating that up now, as I know I'm not guaranteed that in the future just based on everyone's experiences I've read about AND local stories too. But I don't want to be naive and not ask for something that I should (and deserve to) ask for.

I feel like he has made a lot of progress. His speaking skills have greatly increased and he plays quite a bit with his brother. Just about a half hour ago we were pretending to go through a typical day...."Time for bed (pretended to sleep); morning time; time to eat breakfast (pretended to eat); time to get ready for school...etc" and even though it was a very Aspergian topic to be pretending, it was pretending. But I thought it was impressive when The Younger went to get "ice cream" from the "refrigerator" and came back to give it to The Elder who "spit" it out and said, "That's Yucky! I want white-flavored ice cream." That's some pretty good pretending right there, though I can't personally pretend that white-flavored ice cream could be all that great.

Yesterday morning he actually went to go brush his teeth by himself *shock* - He went running down the hall after we put his socks on and I thought that he went to find his shoes, but I went to chase after him to redirect him to the bathroom and he was already in there with (God knows how much) toothpaste and toothbrush in hand and scrubbing away. This morning it wasn't as easy of a task, but once I got him in there he was fine. I wonder if my new "mellow" attitude has anything to do with this? I certainly have been able to muster up a lot more patience in the past week. Ho Hum. I'm wavering on whether or not this is a good thing....

On a different note, I was actually admiring The Younger as he was taking care of a baby doll (he waved to the UPS man with it in hand and you could see the guy snickering) and truly relaxing in the fact that he has natural empathy (he was shushing me because she was sleeping). You can tell it is his own intuition and probably has been a Great Teacher to the Elder for lessons in neurotypicalism.

Postscript

The Picasa Album for the Fantasy of Trees is up and I've linked it to the sidebar too. I also had to laugh when I saw this picture. I call it "The Prelude" and I guess I was too busy getting The Elder's legs unwrapped around me to notice that The Younger also had a puddle meltdown. Check out Santa looking at him on the ground, having no idea what to do. I'm sure he has seen his share of probably much worse scenes! Funny that The Hub was able to capture this.





Here is also a video of the ride that the kids both just absolutely loved (for obvious reasons). It went pretty fast. The Younger kept saying he wanted to ride on the School Bus over and over and over again but when it was time, he hopped aboard the Fire Engine. I thought I had been recording from the beginning and was thrilled because The Elder gave the cutest little wave and was excited to get that on film, until I realized that I didn't. However, the Hub and his super camera captured it and it is in the slideshow.

Oh...Fanks...

It has felt like Saturday the last 2 days.....and it isn't even Saturday yet.

When you don't have company for the holidays, sometimes you forget that it is the holidays. Even the AP went to Washington DC for vacation, so it was just the 4 of us. So sorry that I didn't get to show my thanks and gratitude to everyone that is important in my life, The Sister on the West Coast, The Brother on the East Coast, The Dad in the Far East, and The Mom on her way to the Far East for their annual Medical Mission Trip. This also includes all my readers and especially those who comment. You truly mean more to me than you may ever know. Thanks for the support, advice, and fellowship. I look forward to your thoughts on a daily basis. As The Younger would say (when we fulfill a request), "Oh....Fanks!"

Wednesday evening we went to the Fantasy of Trees. I'll have a slideshow of that on our Picasa site and on the sidebar once I have them all downloaded from the 3 cameras we had there. We did wait in line to see Santa...we hadn't done that since The Elder was 2 himself and he did NOT like it. As a matter of fact we keep that picture of him in distress on the man's lap on the oven with a magnetic frame. I don't know why really, I guess we just never took it down. Now the kids don't really get the whole Santa bit. We have been kind of indifferent about the concept. We don't keep Santa from them, we just don't make a great big deal about it. So when I asked if they wanted to get their picture taken with Santa, I knew The Younger was completely clueless to what he was actually agreeing to do. We stood in line anyway, juuuuust in case we could pull it off. They did pretty good standing in line considering they are 2 and 4 and the line was slow. The Hub was standing by with his camera to snap their picture so we didn't have to buy one. (That was legitimate, they were actually allowing personal photographers, but had their own photographer in case we wanted to buy.) Well, as we were waiting in line as the next one up, one's of Santa's "elves" (bless her heart) in an attempt to get the kids excited, may have just triggered the meltdown. It was 20 questions in 20 seconds, "What's your name? how old are you? what do you want for Christmas? are you ready to get your picture? are you excited about Santa?......" The Elder just looked away and collapsed into a little puddle on the floor right then and there. It was a quiet meltdown thank the Lord. But then there was The Younger, very vocal and very loud. He took one look at Santa and the whole convention center knew that he was NOT happy and there was NO way he was going to get even CLOSE to that skeerwy red man. But I really wanted to get their picture taken since we had 1) waited in line that long with success (up to that point) 2) dressed them so adorably in the same "Mister Roger's" sweaters and 3) we didn't have an appointment to get official Christmas pictures taken in time for Christmas.

The Solution? Me and The Hub had to get in the picture and hold them in our laps. You can tell we were not expecting to be a part of a portrait that night --- we usually like to coordinate a little better (and use a hairbrush). But hey, we got it and it has a great story behind it. The Younger is exhibiting his nervous tic of picking at his fingertips (or someone's fingertips). The Elder was actually OK, and gave Santa a high five before we left, I think he was just overwhelmed with the elf. The Younger....just not happy all around.


Thanksgiving Day, The Hub and I left the house at 6:30am for the annual Autumnfest 8K. I haven't run it since 2003 when The Elder was born, but have volunteered every year since then in honor of my "Papa" who passed away in 2000. The Hub was assigned registration so we were there early. I was assigned the finishline, so I was recruited to play chef for some food prepping for post race munching and then ended up having to take over with Registration too because there were sooo many day-of-race registrants that The Hub might have actually missed the race had he not left! I was glad that I got to do more than the finishline, but I really like working the finish and being a "pusher" because it is pretty fast paced and also fun to boss people around who don't know who you are but they listen to you anyway, and I also like being their cheerleader and telling them how great they did. We didn't have any pukers, so it was a good race, however it did rain the entire time so I was wet and hoarse and came home probably just as tired as the Hub who actually ran the race.

The rest of Thanksgiving was a little blurry. I think I fell asleep on the couch reading Look Me in the Eye. And I know I got up to help cook dinner (The Hub is the official Chef in the House. I'm just the assistant). It was interesting this year to keep it GFCF. The kids didn't like the turkey, but The Elder didn't mind the "chicken." (Cue: Evil Laugh) I think the tryptophan hit us all early...the kids were asleep by 7:15 and I think I started to fall asleep on the couch again while The Hub and I were trying to decide if we wanted to brave Black Friday or not.

We didn't. The Hub slept in and for the first time in a LOOOOONG time I had both kids to myself all morning. It was actually nice. We made Oatmeal, and ate Breakfast together, then started playing together. Then they were watching a DVD and I found myself waking up on the couch. Boy that tryptophan is merciless. Once The Hub was up we started decorating the Kids' tree. I think we decided since we weren't going to be here for the holidays that we would just do their tree and not put up the big one. This was the first year that we got to do some really fun decorating and we painted macaroni (some gluten pasta that we saved for projects) and strung it on fishing line. It was a great sensory and fine motor skills activity for them. The Younger was disinterested in stringing but enjoyed the macaroni maraca we made for him (until he dumped all th pasta in the floor). After that, another blur. I woke up to The Elder screaming and I came running into the kitchen. Short-lived food-related meltdown that ended up in nakedness but thank goodness no urine. Once the kids were asleep, it was The Hubs turn to nap, and I finished the book, which didn't seem like "work" at all. It was very entertaining, yet informative and pertinent to our circumstances. Here's a comment I left on BEYOND Understanding about the book...

"I loved the book too. It is the first book I have read every single word from cover to cover in less than a week in my entire life! It truly brought a lot of insight to what goes on in The Hub and the Elder's brain. It also gives me tremendous hope."

We sound soooooo lazy. But I think the Super Doc would be happy that we had a stress free Thanksgiving. So my apologies for letting the occasion pass without proper acknowledgments, and I hope that everyone had a wonderful day!

I'm so excited about this

Thanks Kristina for this post. I'm am soooo downloading the freeware for the Elder. I can't wait to see how the inside of his mind will look in 3D!



Found the picture of the glutenous products in the house and posted on the previous post... keep in mind that that was only ONE kitchen counter!

What were we putting in our mouths?

This is a timeline journal post.

We first learned about gluten back in June 2007 after his evaluation, but before we got the results and diagnosis. A friend of mine was telling me how her friend has a son with ADHD and had been on meds since he was 5. He told his mom "those pills make me sad." (This is heartbreaking because think of the nonverbal kids who are on these meds, or even my verbal son who can't describe his feelings and emotions.) He currently is 13 and takes no medication because his mom changed his diet.

So we thought, it wouldn't hurt to try it. If I can find the picture the Hub took of everything we had to pull out of our pantry I will post it. Our counters looked like a grocery store aisle. Our whole family went on the diet. For me, it really was to support the Hub since he would benefit from this diet as well. If we could get it out of the house, we can't cheat! Besides, if it would bring focus like it claims to, then I was all for trying it.

In September 2007, during our evaluation with the School System, the psychologist asked if we were seeing a difference in the Elder since the diet. And I really couldn't say yes or no, because I did a poor job documenting it, so I said no. Then the Jenny McCarthy era came. And she raved about the gfcf diet. We had considered taking casein out of the diet but really dragged on that because we all looooooooooooooooooooooooooove cheese and those substitutes just aren't the same. When Jenny said that her son's vocabulary doubled and he become more affectionate, I started realizing that I had noticed the same thing in the Elder. So we went ahead and took the plunge and took the casein out. Macaroni and Cheese just isn't the same, but we have finally found a great cheese.

About 6 weeks later to now, I'm seeing what I believe are the effects of removing the casein (if anyone can back me up on this based on your experience I'd be grateful) in his digestive system which seems to be getting closer to regular. He also doesn't whine or groan as much (which might have been from tummy aches from not eliminating). He also is eating. Today I didn't have to tell him twice to eat, nor did I have to tell him to finish. Maybe he doesn't have the full feeling? He has been playing with his brother a lot lately, as in he would start it. His pretending has increased tenfold. His conversations are conversations and not 21 questions.

He had a little allergy episode with the classic runny nose and watery eyes. The next day I ask him, "How's your nose?"
He checks to see if it is running and then says, "It's better."

To a typical family that might sound mundane, but I was mouth hanging open shocked at his response. About a week ago, this is how that conversations would have gone:
"How's your nose?" (no answer) "Look at me because I'm asking you a question." (darting eyes) "Is your nose better?"
Finally an answer, "Yes."

He has learned the phrase, "Want to join us?" (and says it ALL the time. cute) And the other day he accidentally knocked the Younger down (usually it in intentional - sensory-related someone said to me) and he stopped and went back and asked him if he was OK. I feel closer to him than I ever have.

I can't believe the progress he had made speech-wise since he's been at the new school. He also seems calmer. He's still having some self-control problems at school, but come-on, that is like Stimulation-Mart.

So now, on a slightly different perspective. What has this diet done to the rest of us?
For the Younger, I haven't really seen a difference. He's always been regular, he's always been affectionate, so I couldn't use those as litmus tests. He is talking more and in sentences, but then again he is 2 and that is what 2 year olds do!

For the Hub, he got a PR for his marathon time. Here is the excerpt on his diet...

What I Learned

So even though I didn’t eat enough on race day, I think the oveall change in my diet this year made up some of the difference on Saturday. One key thing to my diet has been drinking a vitamin enriched smoothie every morning consisting of Flax Oil (Omega 3,6&9), Frozen Blueberries, Soy Milk, and the Vitamin Smoothie Powder. Since I have been on the Gluten Free diet, my snacking has dropped some. Where I might have 2 donuts in the morning 2-3 times a week, I don’t do that anymore and some of the gluten food that is here at work are left untouched by me. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat my fair share of candy bars and other taste-good-bad-for-you stuff, it’s just now, I am more conscious about it.

For me, I personally look at a piece of cake or a biscuit or a pizza or any indulgent food that contains gluten, and almost immediately turned off (unless it has chocolate, then I waiver back and forth). When I eat gluten now, I literally become a zombie. One day I slept for 16 hours. Luckily it was a Saturday and the Hub was on kid duty. So now I think twice before I consider putting something in my mouth.

But I do have more energy, I lost about 5 pounds (finally got rid of my pregnancy neck without the exercise!), I drink my coffee black now which makes me feel very "grown up" hahaha, I eat much healthier, we save money by not eating out as much (and calories),

However, our grocery bill has not been pretty...

It's not too late!

Well October ran away from us before we realized that we never carved the pumpkins.

Eric was feeling bad on Wednesday - he got off the bus a little cranky and talking but not making too much sense. While we were out running errands and when we got home, he just wasn't himself. I told him that he didn't have to go trick or treating (When Ryan says it it sounds like Chucke Cheesing) but he wanted to go and frankly I wanted him to go too. Last year was the first year we went door to door (just me and Eric) and it was rainy so we didn't get far in teh neighborhood. So I was really looking forward to having both of them this year and the weather was perfect! I'm pretty cold natured so I brought a nice warm ski coat to stay toasty. Eric started to perk up when he started receiving candy. He would rush to ring the door bell. (Ryan was pretty darn demanding..."I want snack" was his "trick or treat") We started to go down the hill in our neighborhood which meant we had to climb a few driveways to get to the goods, but half way down the hill Eric started feeling bad again. His legs hurt, his back hurt, his head hurt, so I picked him up and carried him home - with multiple stops because 1) he's heavy 2) it was uphill all the way home 2) I had on a toasty ski coat. Cris and Ryan went to some other houses on the way. Luckily Eric had on his Thomas Light-up shoes that went off everytime his foot hit my leg (knee - sniff - he's getting so big) so we didn't need a flashlight or glow stick to be seen in the dark. We got back and he fell asleep on the couch in the playroom watching Cars. Of course Terry and I stayed up late to finish watching the movie even though we've seen it a thousand times. I digress.

I took Eric's temperature the next morning and it was low grade at 100.4 so we kept him home from school. Again he wasn't himself all day and his temp stayed pretty consistent even with the Tylenol. I asked him if he wanted to carve the pumpkin and he did. We had watched a Max and Ruby episode where Max got to design the jack-o-lantern (Ryan calls it a "jackson" - a "skeerwy jackson" with his "scary face") so I let Eric do that. He wanted 4, no 5 eyes that were triangles, a square nose (how many? "um, just one") and a scary mouth and drew zig zags on his paper (how many mouth? "just still one.") But he did not participate once he saw the stringy guts and seeds.

This morning I took his temp and it was down to 99.3 and we was acting himself. Terry left for work late because I asked him to make muffins for our mom's group bible study and he got to hear funny Eric conversations that just aren't the same retold.

When I got back around noon, his temp had gone back up to 100.5 under the arm and his face was red and he was refusing food. He left the table and I assumed that he had gone to the playroom to watch Spongebob or something. But when I came into the living room he was lying on the couch. I asked him if he wanted to lay down on my bed and he did so I tucked him in and he asked for more blankets. He slept for about 3 and a half hours (he never naps). But now he's in my lap as I type this and he feels cooler and he's bugging me about wanting to see Thomas Toys on the computer! So Perhaps we've gotten over the hump!