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.

Pillow Jousting

I hear the kids screaming and giggling and the scary pitter patter of feet across the hardwood...

I come out of my bedroom to the following. I didn't know whether to get upset or laugh. But since the housekeeper was in the house and hadn't gotten to the playroom yet, I figured I might as well fetch the camera and have fun with it. You can see them looking at me like, "Why isn't mommy yelling at us for doing this?"




Coming soon...either a post and/or a link to The Hub's post (whoever gets the post up first which I'm banking on The Hub doing that since I'm leaving for Houston at 4:30am in the morning) re: "A new perspective of the need for routine." All I can say is Jam On! You don't want to miss this one!

"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...

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.

Turn it back to 2

I'm sure this is a common trait among Aspergians who love music...Track Memorization. The following video of The Elder showcases his singing talent to Track #2 of the They Might Be Giants album Here Come the ABC's. The Hub is a huge TMBG fan and we even got to see them in concert, stageside, at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville. That was pretty awesome. The Hub got to see them again in Market Square. So when this album came out he was quick to purchase it. We have been subjecting The Elder to both the CD and the DVD ever since then. His favorite song at first was "The Alphabet Lost and Found." We had to replay that one over and over again. But now he pretty much has the entire soundtrack lyrics memorized. The difference now is he is singing it (not just letting the words come out of his mouth in some random tune or non-tune, whichever the case may be). I've been trying to capture this on video for weeks now but today The Elder finally got all the way through it (with visual aid for focus - he successfully did not sing my to-do list on the right half of the page), and The Younger wasn't louder than the music. Enjoy the Show! (You may need to turn your speakers up.)

The Alphabet of Nations

The Elder is modeling his paper crown that we made today for our Advent Devotional Activity.

What really happened on Sunday...

They really did help with the leaf raking, but I'm not a cruel child laborer (at least not until they asked to be paid). I really didn't expect to have been out there more than an hour (and that's with clean-up) much less actually get the yard raked! Great lil helpers they are! We still have the backyard though - the leaf pit - if that's any indication of how much I'm not looking forward to tackling it.



What's funny about it? The Elder is way too big for the Little Tykes car (he kept getting is feet caught on the pavement and yelling out "I'm OK!") and The Younger is way to small for the Big Wheel (as you can see, his feet don't even reach the pedals).

Since I didn't post last week, Here's a Success Sunday Video that Spotlights The Younger...

Traveling to see family

I thought I would link to this post on Elissa's site for reference and for those wanting to know the how, what, and why of aggression in an ASD child. Since we are traveling for the holidays to my parents' home this year and will be seeing lots of family who haven't seen the kids (at all or in a very long time and definitely not since The Elder's diagnosis), I have been a little nervous about the trip. Entitled "How To Cope With Aggressive And Violent Behavior In Your Child With Aspergers," it helped me categorize everything in order to explain it to someone else (and hopefully family will read this before we arrive!). Thanks, Elissa, for that post.

I think my biggest fear about the trip is the out of control feeling I get when he does something that we've worked on for months. We can make so much progress with him in a particular environment, but it only takes one unfamiliar trigger for it to come crashing back to square one. That's when I feel like people are burning holes into my skin staring at me and I feel like my every move is being watched and scrutinized. It doesn't matter how many times I'm told to let that roll off my back or that they aren't really thinking that, it still feels that way. Maybe with the new prescription I won't be too anxious about it all, but I don't want to be aloof about it either. Ho Hum.

On a different note, I also found this video on Elissa's site and fell in love with the excitement I felt watching it.

(I had to change the link because MySpaceTV changed the URL)
Jason McElwain autistic athlete

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.

I think this might count

I have fallen in love with an RSS Reader. I was getting a little frustrated with Google Reader because it had a delay time that varied from day to day. I would get blog notifications sometimes even a day later! Grrrr.

Anyhoo, after a quick Google Search for "rss reader" (after all, Google can't be everything to everybody) I happened to come across this.

I have spent the last hour or so designing my "Klipfolio" and I have to say it is pretty darn cool (a strange sort of nerdy Me Time, but I think the Super Doc would be proud!). The Hub was in the other room and heard my computer ding. I hollar back "You just posted." "How'd you get that that fast?" He is also not so happy with Google Reader. Klipfolio actually checks my Gmail faster than Gmail does.

So now I can keep up with all my cyber friends in a timely fashion. Ain't technology great?

But wait...there's more...

You can also download other klips like weather, news, world clock, bookmarks, stocks watcher, and other "gadget" types. No limit (other than screen space I suppose....and I guess there is a finite number of klips to download but you get the gist).

But wait...there's more...

It is completely customizable to your preference of a sidebar, toolbar at the top or bottom, a floating dashboard. Auto-hide, Always on Top. It is pretty darn cool. Check out this video tour. I think you'll be way impressed.

But wait...there's more...

It's FREE!

If you are new to the RSS technology, hop aboard, because it truly is a time saver! And a butt saver too when you haven't called your brother in forever, BUT you know all about his life because you can keep up with his blog the minute he posts something! =o)

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!

Forcing my chin up

I woke up a little stressed this morning. Like I was in a hurry and was forgetting something. Today was my open house and I felt very out of control because I hadn't been a part of the planning process this year. I knew I had plenty of time to be ready but I still was anxious. Perhaps because I had neglected some tasks the night before and I was trying to keep a bunch of little projects in check in my head. I also was overcome with grief for various reasons. Particularly the death of a 55 day old baby due to Strep infection and a college friend's child undergoing a major surgery scare. To top everything off, I'm extremely exhausted. You would think that getting an extra hour this weekend would make me less tired, but I'm finding myself unable to stay up later than 9pm. And I'm cold.

I think the gloomy attitude started on Sunday when Eric didn't have a good "report" in church. I hadn't had to defend him in a while and I guess I took for granted that "relax and enjoy" feeling was going to last. All of a sudden I couldn't get the scenario out of my head long enough to stop tensing up. Monday he came home with mostly "Hard" marks. I'm meeting with the teacher tomorrow and I had requested that she help us with church situations, both sunday school and cherub choir. But she wants to discuss strategies for home first and get that under control before we move onto the community. I'm thinking - We're good at home. it's the community that is stressing me out! (I wonder if she can help me strategize for Ryan's NT meltdowns - sometimes I think his are just as stressful or more because he is so sensitive (read: melts down often) and so strong (read: painful to others))

I took out some gloominess on my poor husband. I got a little frustrated that I had everything up in my head and if I stop thinking even for a moment to grab a pen and paper to jot it down, my mind literally goes blank in 2.5 seconds. I know he wanted to help, but he just stood there and I had to stop thinking about everything so that I could give him a detailed enough direction to jar him out of paralysis. And then I lost my train of thought (very easy to do, period, but add stress to the mix and it is just a given). Sometimes I wish I could think and allllll those thoughts somehow miraculously wrote themselves down on a piece of paper. These are the times when neither one of us can think straight and it gets chaotic in the household. And we as parents have to be responsible for 2 boys. These are the days that we call the "bad days." I feel unbalanced, out of control, overwhelmed, and just want to lock myself in my room.

I read an article that I linked off of Autism Vox that really got to me. This article really got to the core of my stress I think. How Autism is hidden, especially Asperger. Both Eric and Terry appear so typical, not just outside appearance but even in activities and roles that they have learned to do from watching a movie, or a similar social situation. But during "bad moments" it is so obvious that they are struggling with communications and social appropriateness that they may or may not even be aware of themselves, depending on how severe the meltdown. They are brilliant, yet can't answer simple questions or learn from their mistakes (unless of course it pertained to their special interest!).

I'm pretty confident that something amazing is going to come from this. Maybe not in my lifetime, but I believe that lives will be changed for the better because of our "hardship" right now. I wonder if Bill Gates or Einstein's parents knew what Billy and lil Al would do for mankind?

Steel Horse

Mavis is a train in the Thomas the Tank Engine series in case you don't get the reference.



Now watch it again and see Ryan exhibit his surprised shocked face. I think he wet himself.
Need the inside scoop on that? Click here.

2nd Day of School

OK it is the second day of school and this morning the Younger was just a pill. He was not happy with anything even if you guessed correctly what he was requesting. Well mainly he wanted Daddy which was fine by me. So I go to get Eric ready for school and I asked him what he wanted to wear to school today...

"The blue shirt and the blue pants."

OK that describes most things in his closet (and his dad's for that matter). So I start pulling things out of the closet...."this one? this one? this one?" Finally I got the right one.

This particular outfit was a STEAL at Wal-mart clearance. I was afraid at first that he wouldn't like the texture of the fabric but for $2 I thought it was worth trying out. It is kinda of a sporty jersey meshy fabric. We like to dress them alike in public so that we can easily spot them when they are in a crowd, or when one runs off (usually the Elder) we can hold up the other kid and ask "have you seen a kid that looks like this?" So we got a set of blue ones for each and a set of green ones too. (Which Cris pointed out is USA and Brazil colors). So long story short. They loved them.

So I take it off the hanger and hand it to him and said ok put them on. Usually it takes a couple of times saying that and me finally coming in to help him. But he got dressed all by himself. Now, he's into this "backwards day" so he wore both the top and the bottoms backwards. I said "Let's turn it around." "No, I want to wear it this way." So I let him. Pick my battles huh? Well....

I go to pick up Eric from school (Hub drops him off - oh, and Ryan fell asleep in the car...I think he might be getting sick). Here comes his teacher. The first thing I noticed was that his clothes were on correctly and I commented on that. I totally got reprimanded (not really she was very professional about it) about allowing him to come to school looking "different" than the other children. "If we want him to mainstream with typical kids, he cannot do anything that will make him stand out. So Think Typical." A paraphrase except for the last sentence. I understand where she is coming from, but something about not wanting him to stand out leaves me a little unsettled. Am I just imagining that? Anyone else have this same or similar experience?

The hilarious thing about the outfit was I thought I would go ahead and dress the Younger in his same outfit so that when I went to pick the Elder up they would match. I grab the top that was left in the closet (remember we consolidated their rooms/clothes/things) and thought, "That looks mighty big for Ry." I look at the tag and it says 4T...which means Eric went to school in Ryan's size 24 months outfit. How did I not notice that??? I guess I was distracted by the whole backwards thing.


On a totally different note, I wanted to post what the Hub did with Movie Maker with the Faces clip. Of course he had to start it when I was "coaching" Eric (See this for the background). But anyhoo, I haven't been able to get him to repeat this. I'm so glad I got it on video!

Stickies in lieu of Roads

"What happened?"

That was Eric's reaction yesterday when we went for Outside Play time (promptly at 14:00). We have been in drought in Knoxville (behind 12 inches) so the sidewalk chalk roads and pit stops and railroad tracks and parking spaces for the Little Tykes car and the Bicycle have pretty much been a permanent setup on our driveway. We even had a Chik fil A that served gluten-free chicken nuggets chalked in by the house! However, it poured on Thursday. (I could not find my umbrella because I hadn't used it in so long!! It's my favorite and it is still missing!) Our brown, crunchy grass was happy, but alas, the chalk masterpiece was gone. Back to Square One.

I cannot claim to be a master civil engineer to reconstruct the setup (that's Terry's job) so I gotta think fast.....I was walking back to the house from the mailbox going through it when...AHA! Easter Seals! (er, they were probably Christmas Seals considering the time of year.) So we did stickers.

RE: the reference to Eric's "Pattern" shoes was that he was wearing two different shoes. The Wednesday before when we went outside to play (probably at 2:07pm because we weren't on THE schedule yet), I told them to put on their shoes and he, jokingly, put on the two different shoes. Not fazed by it because at least his feet were covered, I looked at him and said "That makes a nice pattern" (because he's into patterns). So on Friday he said that he wanted to wear his Pattern Shoes which is what you see in the slideshow!

OK, stickers are running out - now what? Oh yeah! We got wooden instruments the other day from the Hot Spot in Target for a motor skill exercise. I forgot! Where did we put them? (Ring Terry) They were so excited about these instruments. Noise makers, clappers, and triangles, oh my! They played with them outside and then again inside the playroom (see clip). They even begged to play with them again this morning.



And yes, he did say "Thomas" when he was playing with the clapper. Uh......ok.

I also updated a past post that I had "Coming Soon" for a video that I was trying to figure out how to compress to be uploadable to blogger. Check out the video here.

First Day of School

Today was Eric's first day at his new school and the first day of our military schedule and frankly I think it went rather well. It was nice to know what I was going to do each hour. Terry took Eric to school (By design, he will be on time for work at least 4 days a week) and snapped this photo of the teacher and the aide walking him inside. I'm not sure how they got him to wear the backpack because I never can. I guess I'm a sucker, because he was wearing it when I picked him up too. The aide said that he did very well for the first day. Eric's first response (well, his FIRST response was that he wanted to get on the bus) was "I like my 2 little friends." So on Thursdays it appears there are only 3 kids in the class. I know that there are a total of 7 children in the classroom but everyone is not full time like Eric is. How did I get so lucky?? I am so happy with his IEP that I almost feel guilty - like we don't deserve all these services, but by golly we do and Eric definitely does! It was just very different to not have to take a defensive stand with these people like I feel like I have done for 16 months now, with teachers and directors and other parents and family and even doctors, feeling completely out of control, and pretty much like I was going crazy and everything was a figment of my imagination. I mean they were going out of their way (really, one lady was at home pregnant 2 days before her due date on the phone with them) to grant Eric services that I didn't even know existed (like the in home consultations and the school bus) and setting goals in the IEP that I couldn't even forsee as being a disability. They were so formal in the beginning saying "if he is accepted into the program...." over and over again. Then after the SLS and Psychologist went through their reports (there 6 people there - talk about overwhelming), they announce "we have met as a team and have decided that Eric is eligible for Special Education services" Whew. Then they pull out the IEP report and it was already typed out and printed! All I had to do was agree and initial. It was weird to not feel uncomfortable and in disagreement with inner rage. I feel like I've had a perfect day with the schedule and the peace of mind and I haven't felt this "normal" in a long time.

Well I was going to take Ryan somewhere fun just the two of us this morning before we had to get Eric from school, but Terry and I did something rather spontaneous last night (hey, let's do this before the military schedule won't allow spontaneity).

See 2 nights ago Eric was saying that he wanted to sleep on top of Ryan. Huh?

"I sleep at the top and Ryan sleep at the bottom."
"Oh you mean bunk beds?"
[blank stare]
"Is there a ladder?"
"YES, two beds and a ladder."

Terry and I actually thought about getting the boys bunk beds a while back and just not bunking them since they had separate rooms and then later when I wasn't afraid someone would fall, we could let them share a room and then turn Ryan's room (the smaller one) into a play room so that I didn't have to pick up all day - just close the door. Plus the only TV we have upstairs is in our bedroom and they are constantly destroying my room. I stopped making the bed because it never stayed made. But I digress...

We decided against getting beds because they always slept on the floor, beside the bed, but rarely on the bed, unless it was after they had already fallen asleep. It just didn't make sense to spend the money. Eric currently sleeps on the trundle part of my daybed that I slept on since the 1st grade (maybe earlier - perhaps one of my siblings can confirm just how ancient that trundle is) and Ryan's bed was a hand-me-down, so I decided to be humble and pass on the bunks.

So then last night, Eric repeated that he wanted 2 beds and a ladder so I asked,

"Would you like for Ryan to move his bed into your room and sleep in here?"
"Yeah, that's a good ideeeee. No I said i-dee-uh."

So on a whim, Terry and I brought Ryan's bed into Eric's room and moved the couch out of Eric's room into Ryan's room and moved the shelves so that Ryan's bed would be past the front door (some fung shui thing someone told me about). Once the kids were "down" Terry and I rearranged Ryan's room into a play room and moved the TV into there.

OK, so we forget that Ryan has SPD/SID issues and he starts to freak out by all of the change, bless his heart. I eventually had to lay down with him on his little toddler bed and sing him the song that I used to sing to Eric when I was pregnant with Ryan (that really works. it's cool).

By 10am this morning Ryan was successfully moved into "Eric and Ryan's NEW room" and the "Play room" was successfully stocked with multimedia. I let Ryan help me move his clothes into Eric's room so he could be a part of the move and perhaps not freak out again tonight, which according to Cris worked. They fell asleep within 30 minutes of the "no more talking" starting point. When I checked on them when I got home, it was just hilarious.

It's a good thing it wasn't a nose-bleed night for either of them, or this might have been a frightening scene.

Below is one of several videos I took of them in the NEW Play Room. (It was the last one of several clips so my fuse was a little short with Eric putting his hand on the camera lens - so just ignore the little "coaching" I have with him. tee hee) I wish I could have gotten video of them watching the playback of the recording. It was just as funny. Eric was doing great with faces in this one! His "scary" face is actually what he did when I asked him what he did in school today. When he did it the first time, I thought to myself, great. But he kept doing it, and I started to notice he was using the same "slide whistle" noise each time and then I realized that he was turning a frown upside down! So they must have worked on facial expressions today. I have a feeling that he put his own monster face flare into it though. Again, he did remarkably well at responding to my requests. Terry and I crack up laughing everytime. Check it out.

Afterthought: the curious george that Ryan has was his consolation prize after he realized that Eric was going to school and he wasn't. He didn't part with it all day and even this morning (friday) he came into the room asking me "where's george?"

Can't Undo Delete, but...

Well, I cleared everything off my camera's SD card (after uploading it all to the computer - whew!) but I loved having these videos handy on my camera to watch whenever I wanted to. So I'm hoping that if I blogged on them I would be able to get them on my phone via mobile Picasa, so let's see if that works....

This video was taken in the car on the way to Iowa (see post for cute story on that trip). If you can't hear what he is singing along to, it is Schoolhouse Rock's "Interjections"



This one just makes me laugh.



This one just makes Ryan laugh. (and Eric though he didn't want to admit it)

(Coming Soon - looking for a way to get it under 100MB. Any ideas?)

10-6-07: was able to compress it using none other than Windows Movie Maker which comes free with XP and Vista! Oh, and you can't see the videos on Mobile Picasa. bummer. =o(

"Tee Hee"
"I can't like it! Go back to Thomas videos!"

By the way, you can't upload these directly from Picasa to Blogger, I had to do it straight from Blogger. Would be nice to have that feature in Picasa, huh?

Eric Almighty

What a day. Yes it has been a WEEK since I have posted. Yes it has been a crazy week this week. I'm in a bit of a reflective spiritual mood as I feel like today, in the desperate hope to hear God loud and clear, I couldn't hear Him over my whining and spinning today.

Let's review the week.

Monday was Labor Day and we went to the book store and purchased the new OASIS guide. Later we went to ChikfilA which is crazy because we haven't gone there since we started the Gluten Free diet and we did not go to the one closest to the house. But there we were. I started reading the book and learning yet more and more about my son as he and the Younger are eating carrot raisin salad and french fries and the chicken meat from Dad's wrap. The Elder with his fingers, the Younger with everyone's forks as he kept accidentally dropping each one. In between nibbles, they are terrorizing our neighboring booth housing a 3 year old and his parents. As I'm constantly apologizing to them for the disruption and Eric's throwing his feet in the air to show the boy (or maybe the dad) his Thomas shoes-except failing to let them know that was why his feet were in their ears. Finally in a sweet gesture to help us get them to finish eating, the mom sent the dad and boy to the playground. Soon enough, the boys finished eating, earned their trip to the playground and played beautifully with the 3 yo boy. We befriended the parents and I was sooooo excited that the boys were playing so well together (they were pretending to be in a forest - I think because the stairs were green), that I knew I had to get her name and number to get them a play date. However she works during the day (just not on Labor Day). "Oh really, what do you do?" "I'm a teacher." "What grade?" "Special Ed." Wow, God puts these little angels in my path to comfort me as you know I'm still stressed about the whole school situation. She gave me some encouraging words and strategies that have worked really well in her classroom. Nice....

Tuesday - we had overnight company who were passing through TN Monday night and I spent breakfast, more like brunch-time, visiting and catching up with them. I got a little distracted that day, perhaps because my assistant stayed home sick that day and I didn't have a human reminder of work, and I missed a luncheon and I kind of dilly-dallyed in books and research. I spoke with my in law over the phone about why special education is a good thing, and got more information about Hub as a child and that side of the family. Got more and more overwhelmed by the additional information, cried, napped a little, googled for Asperger Adult Support (as I was culminating in NT meltdown) and found some amazing help. Someone to help us get Terry an official diagnosis AND who has a special interest in families of Aspergers. I felt such relief to find this psychologist! Nice... Got a horrible allergic reaction to something. Not so Nice...

Wednesday - Continue allergic reaction. Drug regimen not helping - not even knock-you-out benadryl (generic). Whipped out the Vicks Vapo. Helped a little. We discovered that reflexology really works with sinus pressure, but it also releases the flood gates. My nose and my eyes were raw from the drippiness. I hadn't had a reaction that big in years and even with cats it wouldn't last a whole day and typically ceased with one dose of drugs (and removal of cat). Eric showed empathy when I sneezed and groaned in misery as I was pretending to have fun helping him build a track for thomas. He said, "I'll be right back." and he came back with the largest wad of toilet paper for me to blow my nose!!! I was so impressed. Nice...
So the significance of this day in the week of crazy is that I didn't pick up the kids from school. I normally do, but there was a miscommunication and Cris adjusted her schedule and rushed home because she thought she was supposed to get the kids. Well I felt bad about the communication breakdown, plus I was still weepy from the allergies, plus I was in the middle of conversation with grandma, that I told her to just go ahead and get them. When she walks in, the first thing I asked was - how did Eric do? Especially after a long weekend AND the honeymoon week I wanted to make sure that everything was still fine. She said that no one said anything to her. Nice?

Thursday - I spent this day writing up a summary of an almost 14 year relationship I have with Terry for the psychologist who will diagnose him. It took all day. My assistant was there but I never saw her. Part of the write up included Eric and the year-long journey we had leading up to his diagnosis. Many of which was bad experiences with preschools and mothers of preschoolers. Put me in a great mood for Friday for our first chapter at Bible study. Nice...

Friday (today) - I take Eric to School, drop Ryan off at the church nursery and head to the Mom's Group bible study. (Last Friday I officially announced to the Group about Eric's diagnosis because I really needed some people praying for us.) So the study was really thought provoking-we are doing the Mary & Martha book (I can't remember the official title right now). Since I didn't get my book until this morning I hadn't prepared anything and just listened. I started to get overwhelmed again being reminded about my responsibility and feeling like I'm at a crossroads with so many things in my life - preschool, marriage, career, church, therapy, etc. I was getting dizzy trying to imagine the road map and making u-turns and 3 point turns and reverse, but never feeling like I was going forward. Then I spoke up. I don't know what exactly I said or if it made sense as I might have been more focused on not blubbering than making sense. I got lots of advice of stop trying to be in control (funny I don't feel in control at all!) and to not worry about my plans but pray that you are following God's plan. Yeah yeah yada yada (no I really did appreciate the reminder) but i'm thinking at that moment, I KNOW ALL THAT ALREADY. I'm praying for faith and patience and trust that it will all work out but I don't know which way to go at theses crossroads. I just need a little hint. Why can't I hear Him telling me which direction to go in?? Can You speak up a little??? Ok...breathe...we have prayer requests and I realize that my problems are my problems and everyone has their own problems and I just need to stop whining, accept it, it's just a molehill, an inconvenience - not a crisis, move on. I go to pick up Ryan from the nursery as we had about 20 minutes to kill before Eric was dismissed from school.

As I descend the stairs, the preschool director approaches me with the "we need to talk" look. My heart sank. Then my jaw fell open when they told me that on Wednesday (2 days ago) that Eric kicked a girl and left a mark on her chest and did something to a boy to make his head bleed. I'm like, um, why didn't anyone tell me on WEDNESDAY??? Then they proceeded to tell me that today there was a biting incident, a hair pulling incident, plus issues from last week (I'm thinking, it was just snack envy, right?), bottom line, they have had 5 ticked off parents call and complain to them about Eric and I found out today (long story short) that Eric is on "preschool probation" where he gets to come half a day and if anything happens he gets booted. Do people think it is not OK to tell me when my child hurts another child????

I was mad, hurt, and disappointed. I spoke to the teachers individually and none had read or listened to a single resource I had given them about the syndrome. They took advice from other people on how to handle Eric in the classroom, but never asked me, even when I specifically stayed after school everyday (except last wed when Cris got them) to ask how it was going. But if they don't call me when he bangs up other kids, why would they call me for advice. I'm embarrassed that I let Eric go there. I had been uncomfortable with it and I should have gone with my gut. I feared that with their ignorance of AS that they would look at him to be a trouble maker and then in turn manifest it. I can't explain why he is acting this way with them when he did great at VBS other than his VBS teachers never knew about the AS because we hadn't heard the final diagnosis yet. I guess I can explain it....Aspergers. I was on the phone literally from the time I got home a little after noon until after Terry got home from work with a teacher or director or Terry or the pediatrician or to a friend venting my brains out. We are going to an ASA meeting tomorrow, so I'm going to just look at what rights he has at this preschool, if any, and we have his evaluation in the County School system on Tuesday (finally!) so that he can resume his therapy. Now that we have documented problems at school, Eric might even be eligible for the county preschool. Hmmmm....teachers with experience with AS - now that excites me!

But tis my friend, Sheila, that got the ball rolling on my spiritual reflection of the crazy week. She quoted the movie "Evan Almighty" (see clip below) and since it was date night and the cynical dad had me craving wings, we went to dinner and movie, well, appetizers at the bar and the dollar theatre, to satisfy both cravings of hunger and entertainment. I walked away with a satisfied craving for peace and sanity in a crazy world that doesn't make sense right now, but in God's time it will. I just have to keep building my A.R.K.

Calling all Thomas Fans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DWC_AD2gEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGMdnvSJ0ug

This is Eric's new favorite site. The above links are pretty impressive.

Eric is so obsessed with Thomas and Friends (trains in general, um anything with wheels but trains would be #1) that EVERYTHING gets reference back to some episode stored in his memory or a train book. For example, today when we were reading books, I would read a line and he would say "Just like Bertie said" and then in another book the little boy's name was Edward and Eric says, "Edward is an engine." It totally fascinates me. (He is sitting in my lap watching me type and he said - "Hey there's Edward, and there's Edward word again."

OK now I have him occupied counting the water bottles under the desk so I can quickly wrap this up. (They are so neatly lined up along my desk's edge...)

Eric has recently had an aversion to playing with Playdoh. He hated it when we first introduced it to him at 2. Well he loved watching ME play with playdoh but wouldn't touch it (btw - we have 12 water bottles). Then we got him to play with it and enjoy it with cookie cutters and now all of a sudden he doesn't want to play with anymore. So I got creative and found a set of letter and number "playdoh stamps" and now he has a rekindled love affair with the squishy stuff.

Tomorrow we are going to try floam for the first time.