Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Get Behind Chad!

I'm reading this book called, "The Reason I Jump", written by a 13 year old with autism. Last night I read the part where she expresses her thoughts on being "normal". She conveyed clearly that she would not want to be anything other than autistic at this point. That's a hard one to wrap your mind around. She's only 13 - doesn't she want to do all of the stupid teenage things with all of the obnoxious teenage friends & have the teenage crush on boy bands & that guy in school that EVERYONE likes?? Actually, now that I think about it, she's a pretty smart kid. That teenage crap was not helpful at all. She explained her reasoning in the book. She writes a lot about hating herself too. Reading those parts makes me want to slam the book shut. As I read I ask myself if Judah does these things too, if Judah thinks these things too.. those parts are very, very hard to get through.

Angie sent over the video from Judah's session on Saturday. I'm excited to see it. I will post the link in here!

Judah was amazing today. The minute he awoke I saw progress. He was communicating better & fighting harder to do so. He was communicating things that he'd never communicated before. We got a package in the mail and I had him carry it in, which he did (usually he won't carry things in when I ask). He began to believe that the box was the race track we had talked about the night before Valentine's day. He kept saying "Ka chow!!", with big eyes, while holding the box up to me to open. He was sad when it turned out to be a gigantic pair of work shoes for Daddy. He looked over every inch of the box, then finally picked up the invoice, as if he were reading it, and said "Ka chow.." very sadly. That broke my heart into pieces. We've got to buy him a racetrack. I tried to get him to show me the racetrack he wanted. I gave him my phone & put it on youtube.com, hoping he would show me. He knows how to get to the videos he likes. He either didn't understand or was showing me other things that he wanted. Every time I asked him if he wanted an item we were looking at, he would not respond. He was also trying to poop at the time, so that likely interfered a lot.

Scott and I watched a video on autism last night. We picked up a few ideas & some knowledge. It's frustrating when you hear other people talking about things they have done for their kid that everyone seemed to know was a necessary step.. and we had never even heard about it! It kills me. Our research has got to get better, hell it's got to get STARTED!

Sebastian had lunch with Papa at Dairy Queen today. He reported that he had 2 hot dogs with no bun and a Blizzard with whipped cream on top. Here's what Papa reported (hope it's okay that I post this Dave, I loved it!!)
Hi,
Sebastain and I had a very nice extended lunch. He wanted to go to Dairy Queen (we hadn't been there in a long time). He had two hot dogs w/o buns, of course, milk, and mini-blizzard.That venue,close to school and home, was nice too, so we could have more face time outside the car.

He and I have not had much one on one time, so it was fun listening to him, interacting with him. He is, as we all know, amazingly analytical, cerebral and yet so ingenuously boyish all at the same time.

He entertianed me, in his own inimitable dramatic fashion for a long while (told me how he made his brain work so he became an accurate meterologist); through his repertoire of musical instruments that he can--with amazing accuracy--replicate vocally.
Dave


At dinner tonight Sebastian told Daddy that he had diary today. (diarrhea) haha. He feels fine.

I FINALLY got the video monitors hooked up in the van. The kids enjoyed watching an Elmo video today. Judah was so happy, imitating most of the words (he did this a lot today), singing the songs (he did this at other times today), smiling, pointing his finger on each hand and bouncing them on his thighs while the music played (Willow copied this). I turned around at one point & made eye contact with him & he laughed like I had never heard him laugh before. I'm sure it was about the movie. It was beautiful though, I'm so lucky I caught that.

Chilly day - couldn't play outside much. I wanted to take the kids to the Discovery Center today, but it never worked out. Crap kept happening! I spent nearly 2 hours dealing with the ant situation. I put down 6 ant traps (they are working). Last night I scrubbed the hallway bathroom. After seeing ants in there that day, I became bound & determined that these disgusting things were NOT going to take over our home!! I've still seen them throughout the day, but nowhere near as many & nowhere near as often.

Chad (Tim's best friend in Topeka) is a City Councilman in Topeka. I just noticed his post on FB: Just announced my plans to run a package of LGBT supportive ordinances for the City of Topeka Government. I’ll propose a domestic partnership registry, partner benefits for our employees and adding gender identity to our hiring policy. I look forward to full equality for all Topekans.

Now THAT takes balls. Topeka is home to Fred Phelps, we all know who that monster is. I lived in Topeka for a year. Children on the street carrying hateful, hugely offensive (to EVERYONE), graphic signs was sadly not uncommon. Children should not be LOOKING at those signs, let alone parading them around on a busy street corner, surrounded by adults who are brainwashing them. We all need to get behind Chad. Equal rights for all should have always been a reality. Having to fight for this in 2014 is about as insane as Fred Phelps.

Willow likes to dance on her chair at dinner time (she could be doing much worse, trust me). Tonight she said, "Look!!", then she stuck her butt out & moved it side to side with a huge smile on her face, oh boy.

First thing this morning I called to get Scott & I on the list for a Swindells parent training that is going to be happening in Salem next month. They are always in Portland. It's so nice that they are doing one here. It's an ASD training.

Judah pooped today & yesterday (not sure if I mentioned that one). This is awesome! Today was painful, fairly often throughout the day. And of course, nearing the end it always gets much worse. Add to that having to get ear drops twice today - he HATES that, and Mommy & Daddy draining his toe & treating it (obviously he hates that one even more). I wish we didn't have to put him through all of that. It seems as if he never gets a break.

Judah had one probiotic, vitamin d 2000, 7.5 mL L-carnatine, 1 dose of Miralax & ear drops twice today. We forgot the fish oil & are out of the folinic acid (I'm ordering that now, $50 a bottle!!!).

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