Big post coming as soon as I catch up on some sleep. Autism Symposium, speech generating devices, swimming and homework on the computer. Stay tuned!

Waiting for Grandma

I don't have much to say except that we are waiting for Grandma to come visit with the kids so we can go play for a while...preferably something outside since it is GORGEOUS outside.

Sometimes I Like The Kid Who Doesn't Talk More...

There are some benefits to a kid that doesn't talk. Peace and quiet being two. The Little Person, who may be renamed The One Who Never Shuts Up is literally driving us crazy. As in batshit, I think I might do something bad if you don't go to your grandparents house right now. Thankfully, The Rents are still in town. And when I called my mom to ask her to take The Little Person (I won't rename him just yet), my dad answered. I went through the niceties, how are you, how was your trip (he just came back from seeing my 93 year old grandmother), and then laid it out.

Me

"I just wanted to see how you were doing and whether you could take The Little Person for a while, because he's driving us crazy."

Dad

"What's he doing?"

Me

"Talking non-stop and asking tons of questions (among other more vexing things).

Dad

"Oh, so the normal."

Me

"Yup."

Dad said that he had some work to do, and I thought this, along with my mother not being home (she is the official arranger of plans) was going to be an excuse or delay tactic (as in, why don't you give your mom a call?) But to my surprise, he said he had some work to do, and why didn't I drop The Little Person off at 2:15, 2:30, which was in about a half an hour. Great!

After M was done letting him watch him sand and stain the new wood shelves for the basement I let The Little Person watch an episode of I Spy on the condition that he not talk or I would turn the television off (I figured it was the only way I could cope with the time left until I dropped him off with Pop. He agreed, and to his credit, lasted almost 10 minutes, at which part I reminded him of our deal.

As I was walking out the door to drop him off at The Rents, Lovely neighbor called for a coffee break. She was working from home and needed a bit of a chin wag. So I zoomed over to The rents, disposed of the child and kept her from doing anything productive for a good hour. That, along with the coffee (and said ditching of the child) has restored me to my normal cheery self! Did I mention I've been up since three?

The cool thing is, Lovely Neighbor helped me come up with an idea. We were talking about books, and with my Kindle Ahem problem. I download books constantly, whenever I hear about them, whether it be on NPR, or in O Magazine. I downloaded the Kindle app on my Blackberry and on one of the laptops (we now have three, but that's a whole nother post), so I can read on multiple devices (including my Kindle). Partly this was because my Kindle is Ahem compromised. It works well, but there is a crack or a glitch in the part of the screen where the cursor slides up and down, so I have to guess where the curser is. Usually, I am pretty good at guessing, but it takes some of the fun and convenience out of it (especially downloading items), and today it took me a good fifteen minutes to download The New Yorker. So, not only can I read on multiple devices anywhere and everywhere, but the downloading itself is a lot easier on the BB and laptops.

Anywho, all that is to say that I Like To Read. A Lot. Actually, I'd pretty much rather be by myself reading, or lost in a book, than anything else. Might be something to do with the only child thing, but it's what makes me happy and what calms me down. So we were talking (that is, Lovely Neighbor and I), about how this interest/obsession had never really translated into a career for me. Editors, copy or otherwise don't pick what comes across their desk, and end up reading a lot of crap. She suggested I could write reviews for the local paper, but I don't know if anyone else would care what books I like. But then i thought, what medium allows me to share my thoughts and opinions no matter whether anyone else is interested in them? And it hit me. The internet! I could blog about the books I read (on a separate blog from Sammy Noodles, of course), the books I want to read, the magazines I like and everything that obsesses me about books and reading! So, I may do it. First I have to think of a name. Book Whore?

Tired when I sleep

Today was my day to sleep and I almost feel more tired. Go figure. Pretty good weekend, though I'm not sure exactly what we did. I do remember fries and shakes (shamrock for me) at McDonald's and then not being able to eat dinner. It was so worth it. Today Sam had swimming. The problem with swimming is mostly the time. It is at 3:15PM, and he gets home at 3PM. It takes a good 20 minutes to get to the YMCA, so we are always late. But, if I pick him up at school, which is out near the Y, we will be too early, which is also a problem. The lesson is a private lesson, so it is more expensive, and it is only a half hour, so being late cuts into an already short lesson. So today it was beautiful out, and I though, maybe I can pick him up early (I think school technically ends at 2:50PM), and let him play on the playground for 10 minutes and then go to the lesson and be on time. I called his teacher and arranged to meet them at the back door by the playground at 2:45PM, to avoid some of the end of school chaos. It seemed like a great plan and I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of something that made it easier for both of us.

This is where the plan fell apart. Murphy's Law. I arranged to meet a friend (massage therapist extraordinaire) at the farm-stand less then 2 minutes from Sam's elementary school. They have great sandwiches and a great outdoor space, so we could sit outside. Plus it was near Sam's school and the highway, so said friend could hop on and get to work in Boston. Alas, the place was closed on Mondays this time of year. So we had to regroup from my original perfect plan. We decided to head to a coffee shop in the center of town with outdoor seating as well. It cut into our time slightly, but not too badly. So we get there, and decide to have dessert for lunch with our coffee. We get a selection of sweets and find a sunny table outside. Life is good. Then I get a text from Sam's swimming instructor. I have been waiting to hear from her since last Monday. She is sick, and needs to reschedule. Great. I have already arranged to pick Sam up, so I still will, but hopefully he is not too excited about swimming. I will let him play at the school playground for a bit if he wants, but otherwise will go home. This all takes place an hour before the lesson. I can see how if you are sweet and nice and nineteen (?), it seems reasonable to cancel within a few hours of an appointment. But kids get used to routines, especially kids with autism, and change is difficult. Fortunately, Sam was fine with going home, and lovely lunch continued without (another) hitch. Such is life.

Nu? (And you?)

So, what's new? Same old same old here. My thoughts are more tangential than whole, more suitable for Facebook than a blog post. Things on my mind:

1. Called in a prescription refill, which my insurance wouldn't cover because they only cover one pill per day, and my doctor had increased it to one and a half pills per day. I know, the nerve of doctors, increasing prescriptions! So I called my insurance, and they said I needed prior authorization from my doctor. So I called my doctor and a snippy nurse took a message, but wouldn't take the number of the prior authorization phone line that the insurance company had given me. So I emailed my doctor the additional information. Then I went to pick up my prescription, intending to pay for it out of pocket for this month until things got worked out with my doctor and my insurance, minus a AAA discount the pharmacy told me about when I returned their call initially. So last night I go work out at the gym (by myself with no trainer, no class, nothing) and then stop by the pharmacy's drive-thru. After the tech finds my medication, I hand him my AAA card and my debit card. He asks me if I want to run an errand, because it is going to take some time JUST TO RUN THE AAA CARD. Since my experience at this pharmacy is less than optimal (they regularly lose or my prescriptions), and there is some potentially interesting television on, I decide to screw it and pay for it without the AAA card.
2. Sam has been using a voice output device by a company called Dynavox at school. It's a older version, but he's picked it up pretty quickly, and it has been great for helping him to interact with the kids in his typical first grade classroom. Unfortunately, it is a loaner (we are "renting" it to try it out prior to purchasing) and the lease is up in less than a week. The school has told me that the plan is to "try out" a couple more devices to see which one works best, and then make a recommendation to purchase something. The delay means he will be transitioning a few times, each time after he gets comfortable with a device and then has to get used to a new one. Plus, the first type has been working well, and I heard through the grapevine that device number two is crap. So it sounds like several months of wasted time just to figure out that we liked the first one and then have to jump through all the hoops required to try to purchase one (they are several thousand dollars). Financially and administratively, I see the benefit of trying different rental devices and then making an educated decision, but as the parent of a child who doesn't tolerate change well, and is already having success with the first device which will soon be returned/exchanged, I am torn. I want it all for him, and I want it now!
3. Plus, we had a series of six appointments set up with a speech therapist in Children's Hospital's Augmented Communication program. The appointments were supposed to start today, and Sam's one-on-one teacher, Mrs. H, was going to come, so we could all get help on how to best support him in using technology. I was particularly excited to show the speech therapist the work Sam and I have been doing at home on the computer. In addition, there is some software we bought through the program at Children's that we need help in setting up, and i had intended to bring it with us today. Yesterday we got a call that they FORGOT to get the prior authorization required by insurance and so we would need to cancel our appointment and reschedule. Mrs. H told me she even wore non-jeans! The worst part is that M and I have plans to attend an autism symposium next week where Temple Grandin is one of the keynotes, and won't be able to do the speech appointment then either.
4. So, in conclusion, Sam and I have been doing a bunch of work, but I need help in expanding on what we are doing, and the delay is frustrating. I had a conference today with Sam's (typical) first grade teacher, and she said how well Sam is doing, thanks in part to the device, which she calls The Box.
   

Well, I guess I had more to say than I thought. The Little Person has been, as one of his teacher describes it "ornery" this week, not to mention tired. Welcome to my world. The good news is that Pop will be out of town and so The Little Person is having a sleepover this weekend at Gram's! In spite of it all, I have actually gotten a few things done this week, so I'm feeling okay. Looking forward to a date night with M and The Lovely Neighbors...go Bruins!

Um, I am very tired

But you will not have very much sympathy for me, as part of the reason is that we got home late from taking The Little Person to see The Lion King. Sam spent the night with my parents, and enjoyed his night as an only child, complete with dinner out at a restaurant. We took The Little Person to dinner in Boston's Chinatown before the show. We were all dressed in our fancy duds and on our best behavior. He LOVED the show, was totally mesmerized with eyes like big saucers as the animals came down the aisles. Oh, and we had fourth row seats thanks to Gram, so we had a great view. Plus, they gave him a booster seat, which helped a lot. Who knew, a booster seat at the theater! I could have used one of those on more than one occasion. But, I'm guessing they don't give them out for the vertically challenged. Anyways, The Little Person was awesome. Which was good, because he was beyond a pain in the ass all day leading up to our departure. At the show, he was his best self, happy and engaged and super cute. Even when he fell asleep at the end, across the chair and on M, we smiled across at each other over the little person we created, having a perfect night at his first show.

So, we got home at about eleven, dumped The Little Person in bed, said good-bye to Gram, and passed out. Until Sam got up at....actually, you don't want to know. Trust me. I helped him get leftover pizza out for breakfast, started a video, and periodically told him to be quiet. The next thing I know, M had let The Little Person out of his room because he was yelling, and I didn't hear it (gotta love those earplugs). I parented and got Sam ready for school (The Little Person doesn't have school today), and now we are chillaxing before a playdate with a friend of mine from high school and her son. Fortunately, that is the only thing on the agenda today as far as scheduled events.

Parenting in IKEA

Yesterday we took The Little Person to IKEA for lack of any other ideas while Sam had respite with L. The first forty-five minutes were great. The Little Person went happily to the play area while we toodled around.

We got to the end of the upper floor and were by the food. M went to use the restroom and I looked for this mini tent with stuffed animals in it that I had seen on display. While I was wandering back through the maze I atpped to ask an employee for help, and the woman was calling security for help with a nine or ten year old boy laying on a bed in the kids area who did not respond when she spoke to him. I followed her back to the child because I was concerned he was autistic. He was indeed lying on a child's bed with eyes open and unable or unwilling to speak. I walked back and got M and by the time we got to the child his parent/guardian was there WITH HIS WALKER. Yes folks, his caregivers left him there while they explored IKEA. He was significantly disabled both physically and cognitively. I can only imagine that's how desperate they were for a break from their life. We sat near them at lunch, and they appeared happy and loving. I was angry and felt sick when I first heard the IKEA employee tell the caregiver that he could not just leave him there. It hit a little too close to home. It was awful, but I don't know their life and I can't even imagine how they handle situations and make decisions affecting that young boy.
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