Rants of a Not-So-Awesome...

.....OR even cool and some days probably not even a really good Mommy of a child who is Autistic and one who is considered "neurotypical"....nothing about him is "typical" in my opinion.

People trying to tell me..."I don't think anything is wrong with her". [Sometimes, I kinda wanna kick 'em]
    Yes. She's a sweet girl who giggles, and runs around and enjoys life. She doesn't have self injurious behaviors either. She's a great critical thinker with the ability to "think outside the box" better than most anyone I've ever met.

     BUT those who say this have never had to stay up night after night because your child could NOT sleep (even if they wanted to), they haven't spent 20min. just trying to button one button on her dress 'cause it's just uncomfortable for you to touch her, or had her scream running away from you and throwing her head on the ground so you wouldn't touch it with a hair brush. They've never seen how much she screams at a bathroom light being on (to the point that it sometimes sounds like she's having some kinda anxiety attack with it). Tried to give her a bath in which she screams the whole time and you have to put her back into the tub at least 20x just to get her cleaned up (and that's if she's not too dirty). Then she screams and/or cries a good 30min. (occasionally longer), after the bath.

     They've never had to be the one to hold her down to get the food she pockets in her mouth out of it, then listen to her scream and cry that you took it out of her mouth (even though you KNOW you're doing what's best for her).  She's no where near potty training ready (over 4 she should be).

She didn't black their eye (to the point that a doctor thought their socket may have been broken), just because she was excited and couldn't sleep at 3:00a.m. one day. OR had the top 2 1/2 layers of half of their eye tore off because she started hand-flapping (but I had no idea anything was going on with her at this point).

I can literally tell you EVERY word I've ever heard her say (and even heard about her saying)....how many people can say that about their 4+ year old?
Don't believe me?

Here's ALL them I've ever heard her say:
1.) Mom
2.) Love you
3.) bye-bye (which soumds like di-di)
4.)uh-oh
5.)Leave me Alone (I heard this one time almost a year ago....never again).
6.)No
7.) Boadie
8.)triangle (she's said ONE time)
9.)square
10) circle
11.) Liar (which sounded a lot like lie...yur)
12.) How you doing (which sounds like 'ow you donin').
13.)Dad

...that is literally 18words I've heard her say...and probably 10 or less others have told me she's said that I haven't heard.

Use a Social Story....she hasn't grasped those concepts and wouldn't pay attention long enough to me for a "social story' to work.

So, please don't second guess my actions and please don't make me feel inferior. I am being the best parent I know how to be (and learning as I go).

Miss Wart & Fake

I went to get Faith from school today around 12:35 which is what we'd been doing for about a week. The principal said "I think Faith is ready, but I don't know if Mom is"....but here's the lady with the answers. Huh. I have the answers (and I did). Starting Thursday we're going to let Faith do full days at school (I'll probably not have any excuse now to not have all my laundry done, but it won't be...it never is).

Apparently her classmates call her and her aid miss Wart and Fake, which is hilarious. The aid is Mrs. Ward and Faith. I'd rather them call her "Fake" than "Faye", though. She told the special Education teacher to "hurry!" during lunch time today...apparently Faith wasn't getting her food quickly enough (I've never heard her say the word "hurry!"). AND they said when all the first graders came into the lunchroom she said "hi!" to the kids.

Hopefully today I'll get Angelus' scores for BOTH of his reading tests and can update on Mr. Angelus tomorrow. He and I had a great long weekend together. He didn't have to go to school Friday or Monday, but Faith did. So Angelus and I had some great Mommy and son time. I'm so glad we were able to.

Gifts.

Faith has now taken on two additional hours at school and even gets to do breakfast and lunch there.  It's been very good for her. More recess time, more time to ware herself out and Momma and Dad potentially getting more sleep in. She just seems to enjoy being around the other kids even if she isn't actually playing with them.  Just makes her smile, which makes us smile, when they're around for her to see. Today at school she climbed up the slide and slid down it all by herself.  Apparently her teacher took her and went down it with her last week (I can not for the life of me picture this lady doing that, I would've laughed watching it all play out).

Thursday we had parent/teacher conferences for Angelus. It went well...I know. I'm just as surprised as anyone else. He scored REALLY high yet again on his "BEAR" reading test. I think the teacher even commented that he scored higher than anyone else in the class. I haven't gotten to see the STAR reading scores yet, but probably will this week. Angelus' weakness, if he had an academic weakness, his teacher said was Math (we knew that), but he's carrying a 94% in that. [I want an academic weakness like that] He gets bored easily, and has to be redirected but can take the redirection.  Apparently his boredom will lead him to wandering when he shouldn't be, but for the most part she's came up with creative ways to work around that with him.

Tommy and I went out this past weekend to Norman to a Christian Kane concert....I know, everyone is wondering just "Who is THAT guy?" Well, he played 'Lindsey' in Angel and currently plays 'Elliot' in Leverage. Tommy and I had a great time, the guy was so much fun to watch and told great stories about how he came up with each song. He's also a native of Norman and this was the first time he'd been back in 13yrs to do a concert. He had great high school stories of the area too.
                                                    

Communication device "funness" we got everything resubmitted, including the new letter/recommendation from the Speech Therapist, and apparently while it was 'en route' this time the disc (DVD) broke and they needed a new one. This is the 3rd time we've had to send  the video in. I would just say "let's just call it a 'wash' at this point", but I've SEEN Faith with it so much that I know that's the worst possible idea so we keep on trying. It will come through for her eventually. Just hoping it's sooner than later.

They are growing up on me AND it's pretty exciting.

Starting Thursday Faith is gonna start having breakfast and lunch with her classmates. The principal had already asked her sister if she could borrow a high chair, and then today I asked about her having lunch there. How great it is when the staff and I are both on the same track (which happens to be pretty often). Heck, at this rate she may be ready for full days before Christmas comes.

We also have parent/teacher conference for Angelus this week. He's also gonna go have his first friend sleepover with his cousin this weekend. He's WAY excited about it. Last night he told me he needed to go to bed early before the sleepover happened so he wouldn't be cranky at his cousins house, of course around the time bed time rolled around he didn't want to go to bed early.

I'll try to update after parent/teacher conference and after Faith has lunch/breakfast with her classmates and let you know how it went.

We'll get there.....hopefully.

I didn't do an update last week (shame on me!).  We're getting into the swing of things with school and the extra things we do around here.  It's a new school year and new learning experiences....for everybody.

This is gonna sound silly...I'd love to take my kids to the park or outside even in our front yard and let them just play or have a picnic and just enjoy watching them play.  I can't do that even at home for fear of Faith bolting and going somewhere.  I know she loves being outside and loves parks. I also know she will just keep on going and going and I can't call her back. So, anytime we are outside playing at home or at a park I'm generally chasing her around. It'd be cool to sit down and have a picnic or watch her and Angelus playing on the playground together.  We'll get there....hopefully.



She's been acting like something's been bothering her the past couple of days. I'm not sure if she's cutting teeth, has a tooth ache, has some kind of allergies or hears something in the house we can't hear (the latter has happened at least twice). It'd be great if she could communicate it so we could fix it. We'll get there too....hopefully.


Faith got some cool communication stuff in to assist her with school and home life. She also got the frame to her swing in.  We're now waiting on her stuff for music therapy and the swing part to her swing...also a 'bean blanket' for her to use at school, it's supposed to help her sit longer periods of time. She loves her para, teachers and therapists....it's just seemed to be a great thing for her.
 

Angelus is still doing great on his reading (or at least it appears that way), I've discovered I really don't enjoy helping him at all on his Math homework.  I know that it's a little harder for him, but I also think he's not trying either.  I find that frustrating and it shows. :( He's made a 115% on ALL of his spelling tests so far this year.  {Mr. Smarty} ;)  He also sat by me during all of the church service, Sunday.  He did a great job! He sat still, paid attention, and even commented (to me)on a thing or two the pastor said....so I know he was paying attention. He has decided that he's not quite ready for the 'big church' though. Don't blame him at all. Sometimes it takes all I have not to look like I've got "ants in my pants" for that hour too.






                                               'til next week....or somewhere around there.