So vacation got off on the wrong foot this morning, with both children waking up before 4 AM.
Now, this wasn’t entirely the Monster’s fault – the baby woke up around 3ish and was hollering in his room, which served to wake up his big brother. That’s not to say that the walls are quite thin… but probably that we were remiss in not making sure the monitor was on and that we got the baby soon enough to keep him from waking others. Continue reading
This week (the next seven school days, in fact) are spring break for our local school system.
This removes the biggest issue that we could have potentially had, under normal circumstances – it means that the Monster wouldn’t need to have a lunch packed for all of Passover. Given his dietary strictness, he’s not observing. It does, however, mean that there’s now a straight week where he’s going to be home and need to have his schedule managed. Continue reading
Last night was my latest trip to the dads’ support group – now that my curling is (largely) done for the season, I’ll be going regularly over the summer.
Something that was said last night, which I’ve probably commented on before, was very relavent to me. We had two new dads, and were talking about how our kids are getting along with their development, and comparing notes on whose child is walking, is talking, is doing X, Y or Z… Continue reading
This morning, I woke up to an update from the Monster’s teacher, regarding how he’s doing in school.
We don’t normally get out-of-band updates from her – she’s very good about using the communication log to let us know when there’s something unusual that we need to be aware of or to communicate when things are going on in the classroom – so I have to admit that I’d been somewhat nervous about what she might be reaching out for. (Especially when the email simply has the subject of ‘update’.) Continue reading
Some of my major trepidation about going on a trip with the kids is trying to figure out how things are going to work.
My parents seem to me, at least looking back now that I’m closing in on forty faster than I perhaps would like to admit, to have been extraordinarily brave – they had four kids that they were hauling around by any transportion method they needed to use. We have only two kids, yes, but one is barely over one and the other has Autism. Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how electronic devices are a motivation for the Monster. (See What’s My Motivation) And, indeed, they are – it’s something that we know he’ll happily play with and devote attention to, and that he’s at least picking up a few good things from.
On the other hand, the electronics are not a motivation when it comes to his homework. This still has been an ongoing struggle, and while I do sympathize… he has to get it done. Continue reading
All of us, I’m sure, have had the “how to boil a frog” experience at some point. Gradual changes are easily ignored until they’re past where we’d normally notice.
It’s hard to miss how the Monster’s verbal ability’s gotten better over the last year. He’s more often using longer constructions – admittedly, still canned sentences, but at least they’re longer and more “English-sounding” – but that’s also been dependent on his mood at a given moment. But that’s also just from what we can see when we’re around him – and that’s perhaps three to four hours a day. Continue reading
Earlier this week, given that toilet training seems to be going so well, we decided to transition the Monster into regular underwear for his trips to and from school.
Now, obviously, this wouldn’t normally be newsworthy at his age, but everyone who’s been following this blog knows how much we’ve been working to get the Monster to this point. Toileting is even one of his IEP goals. Continue reading
Most of the time, the Monster’s nicely compliant with what we want him to do. Lately, however, he’s started to be more defiant when it comes to doing what we ask, and that’s definitely a step backwards with regards to how his behavior’s going. Continue reading
Because the Monster is a child with Autism, we end up being in a number of research studies.
Some of these studies involve the Monster – they include new tests to see just how his Autism affects him, and tracking to see what he does and doesn’t pick up (and how) in an intellectual sense. Continue reading