Then, as I went o bed last night, I had a fantasy. The new set up would help him sleep longer! That's been the problem the whole time! Unfortunately, as I found out at 4am and several times before that when Sam got up to pee, hope springs eternal even when faced with constant evidence to the contrary.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Denial is a river in Egypt
I ordered Sam a comforter cover for two reasons. One, I thought it would brighten his room and add a little fun. Two, he has been sleeping on top of the current quilt with a chenille throw blanket instead of on the sheets. The duvet is cute and has trains on it which match the sheets and pillowcases. I put it on over the down comforter in hopes that it would he him to sleep UNDER the covers. After some initial confusion from Sam last night (he tried to sleep on top of the down comforter with new duvet, using the aforementioned quilt as a cover), that misson was accomplished.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
If You Call My House, You Should Know This
Sam has been answering our home phone. At first, he was just picking it up when it rang, and putting it to his ear without pressing talk. Now he picks it up (often after the first ring), and being non-verbal, holds it to his ear and says nothing. If you know this is happening and you talk to him, you may get a "hi," or some chatter, rather than heavy breathing. It took us a while to figure out he was doing this. The phone would ring once, and then stop, kind of like a wrong number. Then the other day, M heard the phone ring and stop and realized Sam had picked it up. M got on and said hello and it was Grandma. She confessed she'd been "talking" to Sam for several minutes. Now, one of generally realizes eventually, so if the caller is someone we know (or one of us), they just hang out, or chat with Sam until a grown-up realizes and picks up the phone.
Another thing Sam has been doing is covering his ears. Sort of like when the noise in a room or on TV is too loud for someone. Not uncommon for "artistics," but not something Sam has ever done. He has never seemed to be bothered by loud noise. Even now, when he puts his hands over his ears it is either not particularly loud, or he giggles when he does it, indicating that maybe he is doing it for some other reason. The only thing we can think of is that he has seen kids at school do it, and he is imitating them.
Another thing Sam has been doing is covering his ears. Sort of like when the noise in a room or on TV is too loud for someone. Not uncommon for "artistics," but not something Sam has ever done. He has never seemed to be bothered by loud noise. Even now, when he puts his hands over his ears it is either not particularly loud, or he giggles when he does it, indicating that maybe he is doing it for some other reason. The only thing we can think of is that he has seen kids at school do it, and he is imitating them.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Genius?
So I was up early with Sam and he came up from the basement with a piece of paper which had a picture of spaghetti on it (clearly asking me to make some. I was impressed and thought GENIUS, right? Even wrote about it in his home/school log.
Turns out M printed it for hm the other day as a restaurant menu option when L was doing respite the other day. Well burst my bubble!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Monday, February 8, 2010
Bad Parents
So we are bad parents who leave our child with a babysitter when he is sick. Even worse, throwing up! Actually, she told us to go, and we waited until he seemed unlikely to continue hurling, and we were just going over to my parents to go in their hot tub while they were at a Super Bowl party (after going to a local Indian restaurant because we figured it was faster/easier than getting take-out and having to clean it up at my parents house). This is actually the second time this has happened in recent weeks. Babysitter Extraordinaire was unfortunately here the last time too. It was weird.
We were all three adults sitting in the living room when M said noticed Sam acting weird in the bathroom at the end of the hall. Not having a view of the bathroom from my seat, and not grasping the nastiness about to unfold, I instead focused on my husbands unclear comment. Weird how? What EXACTLY is he doing? Apparently hurling on the bathroom floor. For no reason that we could determine. It was over almost as fast as it happened, and then we focused on clean-up and comforting the child. Who was, understandably, upset. Whiney, crying and laying on his bed. Clammy, but not warm really. Then he was laying with me on the chair-and-a-half int he living room for a while and then while we debated what to do (Babysitter Extraordinaire was already here, playing in the basement with The Little Person to get him out of our hair after THE INCIDENT. She had offered to help M with clean-up because she knows I do throw-up, and was already pouring water for him when I went to grab a cup. She told us it was okay to leave her even if the kid had thrown up. And he looked fine really. Still, I was ready to bag it all and get take-out here when M made the executive decision that it was fine, we were going and we would only be at my parents' house (who live a few blocks away). So we did. I did. And it was fine.
The only blip was that my stomach seems to be angry at me and while I wasn't kissing the porcelain god, I wasn't one hundred percent. But I rallied anyway, choosing a mild dish instead of my old standby, and even tried a glass of wine which I couldn't finish (slightly unusual). The hot tub was great, even if I only lasted a few minutes. With the fans on high. Then we went to our separate corners, me to the leather couch with the reclining seats to sift through my mom's pile of magazines, newspapers and books, and M to check the score on the game. Which I don't think he cared a ton about overall, but once he was watching (just like me with the reading), he got into it. Then I noticed it was almost 9PM, so we went home to relieve B.E. (Babysitter Extraordinaire) and watch Big Love! Edited to add, no additional puking. Just to let you know.
We were all three adults sitting in the living room when M said noticed Sam acting weird in the bathroom at the end of the hall. Not having a view of the bathroom from my seat, and not grasping the nastiness about to unfold, I instead focused on my husbands unclear comment. Weird how? What EXACTLY is he doing? Apparently hurling on the bathroom floor. For no reason that we could determine. It was over almost as fast as it happened, and then we focused on clean-up and comforting the child. Who was, understandably, upset. Whiney, crying and laying on his bed. Clammy, but not warm really. Then he was laying with me on the chair-and-a-half int he living room for a while and then while we debated what to do (Babysitter Extraordinaire was already here, playing in the basement with The Little Person to get him out of our hair after THE INCIDENT. She had offered to help M with clean-up because she knows I do throw-up, and was already pouring water for him when I went to grab a cup. She told us it was okay to leave her even if the kid had thrown up. And he looked fine really. Still, I was ready to bag it all and get take-out here when M made the executive decision that it was fine, we were going and we would only be at my parents' house (who live a few blocks away). So we did. I did. And it was fine.
The only blip was that my stomach seems to be angry at me and while I wasn't kissing the porcelain god, I wasn't one hundred percent. But I rallied anyway, choosing a mild dish instead of my old standby, and even tried a glass of wine which I couldn't finish (slightly unusual). The hot tub was great, even if I only lasted a few minutes. With the fans on high. Then we went to our separate corners, me to the leather couch with the reclining seats to sift through my mom's pile of magazines, newspapers and books, and M to check the score on the game. Which I don't think he cared a ton about overall, but once he was watching (just like me with the reading), he got into it. Then I noticed it was almost 9PM, so we went home to relieve B.E. (Babysitter Extraordinaire) and watch Big Love! Edited to add, no additional puking. Just to let you know.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Mommy and Sam Sitting in A Tree
I'm in that place where I haven't posted in a few days and the longer I wait, the more things come up that seem more important than blogging. M being sick, me being sick, snuggling and playing with the kids, and watching the Temple Grandin movie on HBO last night. So I am forcing myself to share, instead of focusing on HGTV and cuddling with Sam, who's the only other person home. He has moved from a blanket on the couch with Puppy and iCarly to trains to HGTV with Mommy.
The sickness...M started out with a head cold, which I woke up with yesterday. Not too bad. But then, while he was food shopping in the afternoon, I started to feel ill. In my stomach. After I started cooking dinner (chicken, black bean and sweet potato enchiladas), the ill feeling increased and M suggested (strongly) that I go lie down (in the bedroom rather than laying across the ottoman moaning). So I did, uncomfortable in any position, trying to avoid the hurling feeling, unable to read (the worst kind of sickness), listening to music to pass the time. Eventually, I fell asleep, until about 10:30, when M came in and told me how great the Temple Grandin movies was. Then I couldn't sleep, between the congested person in my bed's snoring and moving around, so I went back to the couch and found that the movie was on again at 11:45! Followed by Without a Trace and CSI (on different channels). Then went back to bed at 3AM, to be awakened by Sam at 5. However, I am such a trooper that I still managed to go to breakfast with Poppa and The Little Person. And I'm so glad that I did. We went to a new place that was close by and totally worth it. Fresh, seasonal ingredients and from-scratch pastries. GOOD coffee (and espresso), nice atmosphere, and a cushioned seat for The Little Person. Our waitress was...well cute and in high school and clearly preoccupied by her cuteness. Fortunately, the other waitstaff was great at picking up cues, and the owner was very attentive. I had crepes with seasonal berries that was fantastic. And an Americano. It was like being back on the West Coast.
Still feeling kind of blah, but stable. The Little Person spend some time at Grandma's while Sam 's had respite with L, so M and I went for a walk at The Sheep Pasture and then came home for lunch. L said it wasn't one of Sam's better days, but that she'd seen worse. Now the gangs all here, and Babysitter Extraordinaire is coming in three hours. I think we may just go over to Mom and Dad's and go in the hot tub/order Indian food/watch TV. We aren't really motivated to do anything, but don't want to miss an opportunity to get away from the kids.
On Friday, I picked up Sam for his home visit with Mrs. H. He actually did great work, so much that I think it may be time to make the home visits longer. It was the first time I saw him trace letters without someone physically guiding his hand. We have a clinic meeting with his teachers on Monday, and should get to see the new Dynavox (voice output device in action ). Exciting! Also, I got some feedback on what I need to put together so that Sam can do work for us at home. Extra time at future visits will give us more time to discuss work Sam can do independently after school. Hopefully, software will arrive this week, and I got the bulletin board, so I need to work on printing out First/Then and Activity Schedule materials. Along with that is laminating and snacks/edibles for rewards.
I have to mention the Temple Grandin movie. Even at 11:45PM-1:40AM, it was fantastic. Claire Danes (who you almost wouldn't recognize if you didn't know it was her), plays Temple in during the 60's and 70's. Temple Grandin is a woman who specializes in engineering cattle chutes and humane design of slaughter houses. She has a masters and PhD, and teaches at Colorado State, as well as travelling all over the world to consult and do presentations. She is also autistic (or artistic as our friend Karen says. I love the artistics, she says!) and didn't speak till she was 4. Doctors told her parents to institutionalize her. One of her books (yes, she's also authored at least three books, in addition to numerous articles on animal husbandry) is called Thinking in Pictures, and the movie (produced by HBO) does a great job explaining what this means. She's brilliant, and socially inept, bluntly straightforward and extremely literal. And she knows what it feels like to be different. Less, not different, is how her mother puts it. I love that. She designed a contraption she called The Squeeze Machine, as a therapeutic tool in her college dorm room. It is a mechanical "hug," and emulates the feeling a cow gets when it's in the thing where it's head hangs out and the sides come up. She noticed how it calmed the cattle down and thought (rightfully so) that it might calm her down as well. Her roommate flipped out, so she designed a psych experiment recording how different people felt inside The Squeeze Machine. Genius. I can't wait to ask her if she still has it when we hear her speak in person at a conference next month. Anyway, if you can, definitely see it. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it's better than Cats.
.
The sickness...M started out with a head cold, which I woke up with yesterday. Not too bad. But then, while he was food shopping in the afternoon, I started to feel ill. In my stomach. After I started cooking dinner (chicken, black bean and sweet potato enchiladas), the ill feeling increased and M suggested (strongly) that I go lie down (in the bedroom rather than laying across the ottoman moaning). So I did, uncomfortable in any position, trying to avoid the hurling feeling, unable to read (the worst kind of sickness), listening to music to pass the time. Eventually, I fell asleep, until about 10:30, when M came in and told me how great the Temple Grandin movies was. Then I couldn't sleep, between the congested person in my bed's snoring and moving around, so I went back to the couch and found that the movie was on again at 11:45! Followed by Without a Trace and CSI (on different channels). Then went back to bed at 3AM, to be awakened by Sam at 5. However, I am such a trooper that I still managed to go to breakfast with Poppa and The Little Person. And I'm so glad that I did. We went to a new place that was close by and totally worth it. Fresh, seasonal ingredients and from-scratch pastries. GOOD coffee (and espresso), nice atmosphere, and a cushioned seat for The Little Person. Our waitress was...well cute and in high school and clearly preoccupied by her cuteness. Fortunately, the other waitstaff was great at picking up cues, and the owner was very attentive. I had crepes with seasonal berries that was fantastic. And an Americano. It was like being back on the West Coast.
Still feeling kind of blah, but stable. The Little Person spend some time at Grandma's while Sam 's had respite with L, so M and I went for a walk at The Sheep Pasture and then came home for lunch. L said it wasn't one of Sam's better days, but that she'd seen worse. Now the gangs all here, and Babysitter Extraordinaire is coming in three hours. I think we may just go over to Mom and Dad's and go in the hot tub/order Indian food/watch TV. We aren't really motivated to do anything, but don't want to miss an opportunity to get away from the kids.
On Friday, I picked up Sam for his home visit with Mrs. H. He actually did great work, so much that I think it may be time to make the home visits longer. It was the first time I saw him trace letters without someone physically guiding his hand. We have a clinic meeting with his teachers on Monday, and should get to see the new Dynavox (voice output device in action ). Exciting! Also, I got some feedback on what I need to put together so that Sam can do work for us at home. Extra time at future visits will give us more time to discuss work Sam can do independently after school. Hopefully, software will arrive this week, and I got the bulletin board, so I need to work on printing out First/Then and Activity Schedule materials. Along with that is laminating and snacks/edibles for rewards.
I have to mention the Temple Grandin movie. Even at 11:45PM-1:40AM, it was fantastic. Claire Danes (who you almost wouldn't recognize if you didn't know it was her), plays Temple in during the 60's and 70's. Temple Grandin is a woman who specializes in engineering cattle chutes and humane design of slaughter houses. She has a masters and PhD, and teaches at Colorado State, as well as travelling all over the world to consult and do presentations. She is also autistic (or artistic as our friend Karen says. I love the artistics, she says!) and didn't speak till she was 4. Doctors told her parents to institutionalize her. One of her books (yes, she's also authored at least three books, in addition to numerous articles on animal husbandry) is called Thinking in Pictures, and the movie (produced by HBO) does a great job explaining what this means. She's brilliant, and socially inept, bluntly straightforward and extremely literal. And she knows what it feels like to be different. Less, not different, is how her mother puts it. I love that. She designed a contraption she called The Squeeze Machine, as a therapeutic tool in her college dorm room. It is a mechanical "hug," and emulates the feeling a cow gets when it's in the thing where it's head hangs out and the sides come up. She noticed how it calmed the cattle down and thought (rightfully so) that it might calm her down as well. Her roommate flipped out, so she designed a psych experiment recording how different people felt inside The Squeeze Machine. Genius. I can't wait to ask her if she still has it when we hear her speak in person at a conference next month. Anyway, if you can, definitely see it. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it's better than Cats.
.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
New Computer New Post
Welcome to the new laptop. We got her last night and she's very pretty. All kinds of shiny buttons that do things I don't mean to when I touch them. So I attached a mouse, which has helped. That is how Sam will be using it anyway. Bad tummy this morning, so working out is well, out. I am still in the process of acquiring software for Sam for the new laptop. I have ordered a typing program that when you type the word (cat, for example) and press ENTER, a picture of a cat appears. And the laptop has a camera, so we could take a picture of Sam so his picture would pop up when he types his name. I also ordered a special timer to give him a visual and audible representation of time. I got the software so he can have a timer on the laptop when he is doing work. I have a call in to Children's Hospital, to purchase two types of software that they produce. I'll do a more detailed explanation of them when we get them. I am really excited to get everything set up for Sam. His teacher is coming for a home visit tomorrow, and I'm hoping she can help me with some of the If/Then boards and activity schedules. I still need to get a bulletin board, edibles for rewards and a clear box with sections to keep them in. And a good hiding spot!
The meeting for Sam went well. It was difficult for me and took some negotiating, but in the end things worked out the way we want them in a way that is best for Sam. M did a great job backing me up and explaining our position at the meeting. It helped a lot to have a fantastic partner.
Sam continues to get up early, which is killing us. I can only home that working on other ways to help him do work, be organized and communicate will have a trickle down effect on the rest of his behavior. As always, I am dying to know what's going on in there!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Getting Ready
It has been a busy few days here. Tomorrow is our big meeting regarding Sam's Individual Educational Plan (IEP). I am anxious about the meeting, but I feel confident about our position and my ability to explain it. Hopefully it will go smoothly. We decided to get Sam a Mac Book (laptop), and we'll probably go get it tomorrow night. The new laptop will be for work only. Not sure yet whether he will take it to school or not, but at home he will work and communicate with a combination of the iPod and laptop. We already scoped it out at the Apple store, so it should be pretty easy. I have already purchased software for it. One out of the three that I want. The last two will require a phone call and receipt of the discount voucher from the Dr./SLP (speech and language pathologist) we took Sam to last week. I also ordered Sam a new hammock swing that fits in the doorway with a pull-up/support bar. That we can put it in his room, but we can also take it with us. Lastly, I got a timer clock to help Sam keep track of time and activities when he is doing work at home. I haven't figured out how I am going to get/make a Velcro board for First/Then cards to help him know the order of what we are going to do. I want to figure out an activity schedule for the afternoon , a group of short activities that he can accomplish by himself, as well as some work that will be rewarded by edibles and free computer/TV time. So that's my plan for my role as Sam's newest therapist. I really want him to work on typing to help facilitate communication.
The other big project is reorganizing the toys in the playroom and redoing the shelves. So Mom and I went to the Container Store today and I got a whole bunch of mesh wire baskets in various sizes and we filled every one of them. Of course, the basement is now a disaster, as we can't put the baskets back on the shelves until everything is done. And house projects tend to go slow here due to the small people who run our household. But, we have begun. And we got rid of several boxes of old toys that nobody plays with anymore. Now we just have to actually get rid of them...
The other big project is reorganizing the toys in the playroom and redoing the shelves. So Mom and I went to the Container Store today and I got a whole bunch of mesh wire baskets in various sizes and we filled every one of them. Of course, the basement is now a disaster, as we can't put the baskets back on the shelves until everything is done. And house projects tend to go slow here due to the small people who run our household. But, we have begun. And we got rid of several boxes of old toys that nobody plays with anymore. Now we just have to actually get rid of them...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
