It really is my own fault, on some level.
The Monster, like so many other kids and especially ones with Autism, is on something of a routine when it comes to many things. When it comes to bedtime, he hits the bathroom, gets changed, and goes straight to bed. It’s hard to get the routine to change, and he’s not… quite the most open to the nightly ritual of tooth brushing. To date, this hasn’t been a big problem, and he’s not had any tooth issues. Continue reading
Sorry for being quieter than usual – I’ve been a bit distracted with a couple of things in my offline life, and so I’ve not been feeling as urgently about getting blog posts up.
I’ve mentioned in other posts that we have two cats at home. The calico has the common sense God gave, well, a cat to clear out of Dodge when the Monster or R come running for her. Our tom, though, is getting older and just can’t get out of the way in time, so he’s learned to just suffer through it. Continue reading
After a lot of thought about the matter – ever since I heard about Jerry Seinfeld self-identifying as having Autism, I’ve been really avoiding saying anything about the matter. Even more so, really, after I watched folks get all up in arms about the whole thing.
So… after putting some more thought into it, I thought I’d actually say something vis-a-vis my thoughts on the matter. Just a few words on it, really.
And those words are: Continue reading
My wife’s been preparing for a few weeks to be in a production of Rapunzel in a local community theater, and this weekend, we took the kids to go see her performance. The biggest issue, of course, is preparing for the idea of the kids being out where the Monster’s behaviors can be a problem.
Now, we’ve tackled a movie on the sensory days, and we’ve been to a few things where his being quiet has not been an urgent matter. On this occasion, though, it was more important for him to be quiet, so he wouldn’t disturb the other patrons. Continue reading
The feeding therapy is a whole bunch of “two steps forward, one step back”.
To rehash why the Monster’s in feeding therapy – he’s very picky about what he’ll eat. Over time, we’ve been watching how his selectivity of what he eats has been increasing, removing old favorites from his repertoire and quickly making it quite impossible for us to have just one dinner for the entire family. Eating at the holidays turns into a bit of a guess as to what he’ll be willing to try, or requires us to have at least something on the menu that we know in advance is on the approved list. Continue reading
It’s been a few days since I wrote, mostly since I’ve been busy with a couple of things offline – between Halloween and schedule conflicts for the wife and me, it’s been a very full boat. Yesterday and today, I’ve been home rather than at work, since the Monster had the days off of school for an in-service day and then the election.
But one thing that’s been going on in the interim has been the issue of getting the Monster further toilet trained. Continue reading
My company does a lot for Halloween every year. It’s our eVP’s favorite holiday – back when we were more concentrated in one spot, there was massive decorating of our areas, trick-or-treating in the office, things like that. Since we got bigger, the celebration got moved out to a central location (though we’ll still have something in the office tomorrow – pizza and beer, though I’m missing the beer due to scheduling). This year, our party was at The Cloisters, which is really just around the corner from our house.
For Trunk or Treat on Saturday, the Monster was a pirate – today, he was a cowboy to go along with R. (Frankly, it’s an easier costume that has him fidgeting with it a heck of a lot less.) But the fact of the matter is, he still really doesn’t ‘get’ Halloween. Continue reading
Yet another IEP meeting today.
This was the circle-back after we’d requested the evaluation to see if the Monster was eligible for a one-on-one aide, what Baltimore City calls a TAS – temporary adult support (with emphasis on ‘temporary’). Basically, this meeting started off with a person-by-person recitation of how the Monster has to be constantly redirected in class, to the point that they’re not sure that he’s learning anything at the moment. Continue reading
My wife belongs to the Baltimore Mommies, a group for mothers here locally that’s associated with a national network. Somehow, she got roped into doing a Trunk or Treat thing, which I’m perfectly okay with… because it seems to me to be a good way to do trick-or-treat for a child with Autism.
But of course, it also highlights things to consider with the mixing of the two things. Continue reading
It’s been a while since I’ve had a post dedicated solely to toileting, I think, since the Monster’s made it to a plateau in his toilet training. He’s now, largely, going to the bathroom on his own when we’re home, but more often than not, he’s only doing so for having to pee. We’re not up – dependably – to him making it to the toilet for poop.
And therein lies the problem. Continue reading