Autism Therapy: keyboard

            What an eventful weekend!  It started Friday morning when Hayley and I went to Thomas’ school for the Art Show.  The whole way there, Hayley sat in the back seat saying, “Going to an art show!  Going to an art show!”  She was excited.  I was wary.  Last year, whenever I showed up at school, Thomas would flip out a little bit.  I understood why; I wasn’t supposed to be there.  I was not part of his school schedule.  Friday, I told him that Hayley and I would be at school today to see the art show, and he seemed excited.  When we walked into his classroom, he smiled kind of shyly.  Hayley went over to him right away and said, “Oh, hi Thomas!  What a good boy!” and she gave him a hug.  Thomas’ teachers thought that was really cute.  So did I.  Unfortunately, Thomas thought that we were going to go home right away; that I was just picking him up.  I did get him to stay for about forty-five minutes, however.

            I loved the art show.  It was really cool; they had the kids “copy” masterpieces like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and Piet Mondrian’s color-block pieces.  The teachers took pictures of the kids and then turned some of them to negative to look like Andy Warhol’s works and arranged them in groups of four.  There was a section for each artist that showed the original painting or composition and then the kids’ pictures were displayed around it.  They had snack stations (Thomas and Hayley’s favorites) and art stations with ink stampers, paint brushes and crayons.  We had a lot of fun.  Thomas and Hayley were really well-behaved – so good, in fact, that a photographer from the local paper took our picture while we were observing some of Thomas’ artwork.  The photographer was watching us, waiting for a good photo opportunity, but both Thomas and Hayley stared at her and plastered goofy smiles on their faces.  They definitely know the camera-drill.  She asked them to pretend she wasn’t there, so I engaged Thomas and asked him to find his name.  (All of the kids’ names were on their particular pieces of art.)  He said, “It’s right there,” and nodded to his picture.  The photographer stood and waited so I asked Thomas to point to his name, which he did.  Click, click, click – she got what she needed.  I don’t know if our picture made it in, but I’m sure someone will let me know if my children, at their very young ages, have already gotten their fifteen minutes of fame.

            Yesterday, we had to take Thomas and Hayley to the doctor with us.  Both Jonathan and I had check-ups, and since our internist doesn’t handle pediatrics, his receptionist really enjoyed our visit.  So did the doctor, until Thomas and Hayley dismantled the protective paper roll that was hung on the back of the exam table.  He said he didn’t mind, but I was surprised he saw us both together with the kids in the room.  Next time, he might ask that we come in one at a time so that the kids won’t have to come in.  Actually, we did schedule separate appointments, but SOMEONE (not me) forgot his appointment on Friday night so we both squeezed in together Saturday morning.  Other than the paper thing, the kids were really, really good.  Actually, lately it’s been Hayley that we have a problem with.  She’s not loud or destructive, she just doesn’t listen to us.

            We went out to dinner last night with my side of the family because my sister’s company is moving her to California and we’re probably not going to be seeing her very often.  A whole slew of us were there, and my sister decided that she wanted one last real Chicago meal, so we went out for deep-dish pizza.  The meal was a little later than Thomas and Hayley are used to eating, and the pizza took FOR-EVER to be served, but despite all that, they were very good.  It got a little hairy at the end, but it was already way past their bedtime and everyone was, as always, very understanding.

            We stopped at my sister’s place before going home and the kids had fun on the stairs.  She gave them a stuffed shark named Bruce from “Finding Nemo” and a little toy car one of her roommates got in a Happy Meal not long ago.  Thomas didn’t want to leave, but Jonathan and I were getting tired.

            Today, we decided we had to replace the kid’s beds.  Thomas has been sleeping on a toddler bed for the last two years, and it has seen better days, to say the least.  Prolonged jumping and general wear and tear has lately rendered it broken-down and possibly unsafe.  We also decided it was time to move Hayley to a toddler bed.  By the time Thomas was her age, he had been in a toddler bed for over a year.  So I first let my fingers do the walking.  We had kicked around the idea of buying him a car bed, but once I found out the price (not including the mattress) we decided to get him just a regular twin-size bed and put Cars sheets on it.  We presented the idea to Thomas this morning again, as we have been talking to him about it for a few weeks now.  His response was, “I don’t want a new bed.  Just a new car.”  We took the kids to Toys ‘R’ Us (my keyboard won’t do a backwards “r”) first to get Hayley’s bed and bedding, and that was a bit short-sighted.  We had discussed a plan of attack prior to setting out.  We thought that maybe I could just run in for the bed and sheets but then we decided that we wanted to see what else they had, possibly for Thomas.  Well, Thomas can smell a toy-car section like a bloodhound and it wasn’t long before we were wandering through the aisles of cars while Thomas hollered about which way he wanted the cart to go.  He had his heart set on a large, orange and radio-controlled Range Rover that cost far more than we were willing to pay for a “just-stop-screaming-and-let’s-get-out-of-here” toy.

            We bought it.  What suckers we are!  Jonathan rationalized it by saying that he would play with it, too.  It was amazing how Thomas’ mood immediately improved by a hundred percent as soon as we left the thing in the cart and it appeared that we intended to purchase it.  Thomas chattered happily to the cashier who asked rather skeptically if we wanted her to put the car in a bag.

            Then, it was our intention to go out to lunch.  We found a Chili’s, which the kids are used to, and pulled in the parking lot and parked.  Next began the daunting task of convincing Thomas that he could not bring the car into the restaurant.  My excuse was that they didn’t allow toy cars that big in Chili’s.  To my amazement, Thomas actually accepted that and willingly left his new toy in the car while we went in and had a very pleasant lunch.

            Also to my amazement, Jonathan and I don’t dread taking the kids to restaurants anymore!  It’s finally happened!  They can sit down, amuse themselves with crayons and kid’s menus, and not scream or cry or otherwise be obnoxious until the food comes!  That is a big relief.  We’ll just have to see if we can conquer Hooters again.  It’s one of my and Jonathan’s favorite restaurants and the last time we were there, Thomas was atrocious.  We had to leave before we finished eating.  It was about one year ago, actually, before Thomas was diagnosed.  We’ll see.  We have to take baby steps right now.

            After lunch, we convinced Thomas to just go and look at the beds to see what he thought.  He seemed agreeable, so we went to our nearest bedding emporium and chose a mattress for him.  The salesman was a little confused since Jonathan and I kept explaining to Thomas over and over again that this would be his new bed.  We would take the little-boy bed out of his room and replace it with this big-boy bed.  We would buy new Lightning McQueen sheets and this would be his new bed and he would sleep in it from now on.  I finally told the salesman that Thomas is autistic and we have to be very sure that he understands what’s going to happen and agrees to it before we purchase a new bed, take it home, dismantle the old one and set up the new one only to find out that he will not, under any circumstances, sleep in it.  In another complete turn-around, Thomas was surprisingly on-board with the whole thing, answering “yeah” to all of our questions.  He was excited!  We were cautiously optimistic.

            We came home, spent a couple hours dismantling and assembling, and Thomas is now in his room, but not yet asleep.  We’ll see what happens.  I think the time change has something to do with this late night, but he is being quiet and hasn’t complained.  I was actually more concerned about Hayley, since she has never had the power to get out of her crib by herself before.  I thought for sure that she would make one or two surprise appearances this evening before getting the picture that even though she is able to get out of bed doesn’t mean that she is allowed to when it’s bedtime.  Happily, she went right to sleep and hasn’t made a sound.

            We have reasonably well-behaved children.  I am very pleased and content this evening, save for the fact that Thomas is inexplicably requesting water.  Of course!  He has a new mattress that isn’t covered in vinyl, so this is the perfect time to wet the bed.  I did purchase a waterproof mattress pad, but still!  We’ve also just started putting Thomas in underpants overnight instead of a pull-up, so we’re doubly-concerned.  I’ll just be happy if he goes to sleep eventually. 

            (Update:  I just checked on Thomas and he is asleep in his new bed, with the sheet and comforter all crumpled up around his upper body.  It’s amazing how angelic children look when they’re sleeping…but they did have a pretty angelic weekend.)