My New Crush

I think I have a new crush.

My bank.

They charged us a monthly maintenance fee. That shouldn't have been charged.

I dreaded the phone call - being bounced back and forth from dept to dept, being told they were either not going to remove it or it taking 6-8 weeks to clear.

So imagine my surprise when the person said how can I help you, I replied I have a monthly maintenance fee that I think was a mistake and she answered with 'OK, let me take that off and then we'll look into why so it won't happen again.'

By the time I was done picking my jaw off the floor she had re-credited the account, found out why and fixed the mistake so it won't happen again.

It was that easy.

I think I have a new crush.

Read more!

Pssst

I'm pondering life over here today.....

Read more!

Another Childhood Milestone

Adam had his first sleep over this weekend. He's slept at friends houses a few times, but has never had a friend sleep over here. That would be inviting someone into his territory, his space, for an extended period of time. But last week he told me he wanted Sam to sleep over. He and Sam play almost every day. Sam lives behind us. Adam's listened to Sam and some of the other neighborhood kids talk about sleepovers for a year or two. This summer he decided he was ready. And Sam was more than willing.

So, after playing during the afternoon and taking a break for dinner Sam arrived. They played. And played. And giggled. And laughed. And then it was getting late. So, into the sleeping bags in front of the TV to wind down they went. Sam shortly fell asleep. And then Adam got upset. More like panic. He didn't think he could do it. Not the sleepover part, but the sleeping in the family room instead of his bed. Well, that was easy to fix. I carried Sam upstairs to Adam's room. And Adam went to sleep in his bed.

They woke up this morning quite happy and within 2 minutes of opening their eyes resumed playing.

Adam hasn't stopped smiling yet.

Read more!

Happy?

If your washer breaks, is it OK to be happy that you don't have to do laundry?
Even though it means you'll be having to pay to get it fixed so that you can do laundry again?

Read more!

Haiku Friday

Verbal Behavior

Skinners mands, tacts, echoics

and intraverbals

Oh and so much more

The class was incredible

Learned so much info

But now it's over

no more papers and quizzes

and chapters to read

2 classes finished

towards my BCBA

and 3 more to go.

Come see what others Haiku writers are writing!

Read more!

Life Moments With A Child On The Spectrum #5

Saturday morning Adam was running around the house. A.Lot. And making random and loud noises. A.Lot.

Me: Adam, you better calm down right now. We are NOT having one of those days so get that through your head right now. Understand?

Adam: Yes Mom

5 minutes later. Behavior is continuing.

Mom: Adam, I thought I had made this clear?

Adam: Mom - technically you said get it through your head. So that means IT went THROUGH my head and didn't stay, so I must have forgotten.

Mom: Well, then, you'd better go find it since it went through your head and put it back in your head and make it stay there.

Adam runs around house 'looking' for the phrase that is floating somewhere in our house.

Adam: Can't seem to find it Mom.

I play along some more and put out my hand and tell him here it is.

Adam: Wow Mom, how'd you find that?

Mom: Must be magic. Now put it IN your head.

Adam takes the phrase from my hand, puts it up to one ear and smushes it in and puts his hands over both ears. Shakes his head around a bit. Puts hands down.

Adam: OK Mom. We're all systems go for a great day now.

And a great day was had.

Read more!

Haiku Friday

McDonalds for lunch

DQ Blizzard for dinner

Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum

But in the morning

I'll be afraid to step on

the scale - so I won't!

Denial is great

But then there's reality

Time to eat better.

Head over here to see what other people are Haikuing about this week.

Read more!

Why Won't He Fall Asleep?

Some of you will probably hate me for saying this, but Son slept through the night at 5 days old. And by slept through the night I mean he slept 7 hours straight, woke up, fed, slept another hour or so and was then up for the day. We.lucked.out. And we knew it.

On the other hand, he really didn't nap much. It didn't worry me too much. He wasn't a fussy baby. He fussed when he was hungry and that was really about it. And he was alert. So we played and had fun.

I realized that infants usually slept about 20 hours at that age, and ours only slept about 12-15, but hey, the Ped wasn't worried, Son was happy and growing, so I didn't worry.

As he grew up, getting him to sleep become increasingly difficult. And the duration of sleep stayed proportionately lower than the typical child. But different in a way that I didn't expect. I remember growing up getting out of bed, stalling, looking for attention. I remember waking up a lot in the middle of the night, getting reassurance from my Mom and falling back to sleep. Son didn't really do this. Sure, he'd stall and ask for a cup of water, or forget a favorite stuffed animal, but for the most part he really did stay in his bed or the doorway to his room (a favorite place to sleep, don't ask why). It's not like he got out of bed looking for mischief. Yet, he would take 3 hours to fall asleep. He'd stay in his bed, wide awake, talking away and banging his head against the mattress. To the point where this past year we finally started melatonin. Boy do I wish we started that a long time back. Now he falls asleep within 30 minutes.

Once he was (finally) asleep he always stayed asleep. We never really had to deal with the middle of the night wake ups. Although I do remember that when he did wake up, he usually stayed awake. If he woke up at 4 or 5am, he was up for the day.

My siblings kids and my friends kids never seemed to follow this pattern. They all slept and slept and slept at infants like infants should. And they, for the most part, fall asleep when put to bed. However, all my friends and siblings have complained that their kids don't sleep through the night and are constantly waking up, but going right back to sleep.

Hubby and I always wondered which was worse - taking forever to fall asleep - but then falling asleep for the night, or going to bed with minimal issues, but having frequent wake ups in the night.

Earlier this week Autism Vox wrote a post about this study from Translating Autism.

And it got me thinking back on Son's sleep history, and the sleep history of his cousins and our friends kids. I do think that if we all had participated in the study, our participation wouldn't have changed the studies results significantly. And, based on this information, our Son was showing signs of being on the spectrum right from the start. Which, with more and more research coming out, I can now look back and say Wow, that describes Son perfectly - if only we knew that was a red flag back then.

Read more!

Twitter Dreaming

Friday I had the day off. I planned on studying, cleaning and getting bunches of stuff done so I could truly enjoy a 2 day weekend with none of the catch-up-stuff-cuz-I-was-too-busy-during --the-week-stuff. And instead I spent it surfing the net. And Twittering. By 5pm the cleaning was finally finished, but with LOTS of stalling at the laptop (and I wonder where my son gets his high level of distractibility from?).

Upon waking up Saturday I remembered a dream I had. In my dream, I kept stopping my dream to give Twitter updates of my dream. See how addicting this Twitter stuff can be? And did I learn my lesson? Nope. Took most the day to get errands done because once again they were interrupted by LOTS of stalling at the laptop with Twitter and MomsRoadTrip.

So, today I'm shutting down the computer and reading and reading and reading (like, 8 chapters in a Sandburg & Partington book, the entire ABLLS and VB MAPP) which is going to painful, but really, really, really needs to get done now. I am so behind in this class it's not even funny (and boy do I hope my prof hasn't found this blog now that I've alerted everyone how behind I am!). Don't worry Prof - it'll all be done by class this week!!

Read more!

Road Trip!!!

Now that I've made my new announcement, and after you're done checking out some of the sites of Autism.Alltop, you NEED to click on that badge over to the right. The pink and brown one that says SVMomsGroup Summer Road Trip 08. You see, my friends are taking a road trip to Blogger. And blogging and videoing it as they get ready to go and start their adventures. What do you get when you combine 5 fantastic writers, some great sponsers, technology and a bogging conference desitination? Come find out for yourself!

Read more!

Autism.Alltop

My friend recently wrote a post about the new site Alltop has - Autism.Alltop. Being the obsessed with autism person that I am I checked it out. Wow! What great sites! Some I was already familiar with, and bunches of new ones. Mommy bloggers blogging about day to day stuff and also news and research autism blogs.

So, let me think for a minute. I'm a parent of an Aspie, I'm an ABA therapist working on my BCBA, I'm a former Sped Teacher - this is my one stop for all autism related info, constantly getting updated for me!

And then it got better. They included ME!! Little ole me, who about a year ago had no idea what this mommy blogging thing was all about. Am I cool or what now?!

And I must say. The timing is perfect. I have finally joined the ranks of the highly technologically competent bloggers (well, at least highly technologically competent in my books as I still consider myself a newbie) and joined Twitter and Google Reader. Which, has definitely made catching up with friends and posts much more organized and faster. So, what to do with all my new free time? Clean. Um no. Study for my class. Should, but...... Oh, wait. I know. Head over to Autism.Alltop and find me some more blogs to read!!

Read more!

Life Moments With A Child On The Spectrum #4

The past week my folks, brother and his son came into town to visit. And stayed at our house. And my sister, brother-in-law and her daughter spent a lot of time visiting too (they live locally). Of course I love my family, and they love us, and each visit is a time to treasure since we live hours apart.

But, it wrecks havoc on my Son. Which in turn wrecks havoc on hubby and myself because he is stressed out.

So, today I bring you:

Top 5 Signs That You've Had Family Spending The Past Week With You

(when you're on the spectrum)

5. Having to sleep in your parents bedroom, because if things are going to be different in your house at night time, then one must sleep in a different room also

4. Significantly reducing food intake (and losing 3 pounds in a week, which is 5% of total body weight)

3. Banging your head on your mattress to go to sleep at night (a behavior that was pretty much extinguished after 7 years trying to extinguish)

2. Sorting your Lego's by color and type and then rebuilding the same thing over and over and over again.

And the top sign that you've had family spending the past week with you (when you are on the spectrum):

1. Crying for a good 30 minutes because your Nana took you home from Target a different way than your Mom does (not a wrong way, mind you, just a different way)

And a sign of huge progress:

Within 2 days all weight has been regained, head banging is pretty much extinguished again, Lego's are being played with, not stemmed with, sleeping in own bed, and being just fine with however we drive anywhere.

Read more!

Good Evening Mr. Deer

Pic of deer Son took on our evening walk through the neighborhood tonight. There is a family of 4 that I have seen 3 times in the past week. This time we had a camara with us.

Read more!

And justice for all

In kindergarten Son learned to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Sometime in that first month of school he came to me and asked me what 'one nation under God' meant. We talked about it. We don't believe in God. (Yea - we're atheists.) He asked what he was supposed to do - if he didn't believe in God, and it's a free country, why was this in the pledge and did he have to say it. After explaining to him that most people do he thought some more. He then asked if it was OK that he didn't say that line. It was never a problem. It took months before his teacher and some of other kids noticed enough to comment on it. And he was never told he had to say the entire pledge.

Then in 1st grade he came to me to talk about the Pledge again. Seemed he had another phrase to question - 'with liberty and justice for all'. He asked me why I feed some of his classmates cereal bars in the morning. Said it wasn't fair that for whatever reason their parents and the government couldn't provide a decent breakfast for them. Said it seemed like there were a lot of things that just didn't seem fair. And just. And he decided that until our country was truly a place of 'liberty and justice for all' he wasn't going to say that phrase either. And once again, his teacher and some classmates noticed there was another new phrase he stopped reciting. He explained his opinion on the matter. And he was never told he had to say that phrase also.

And he can do this, and continues to do this because, although our country is not perfect, it is the land of the free. And he has the freedom to say whatever parts of the Pledge he wants to.

Happy 4th of July everyone.

Read more!