Autism Therapy: laptop

            The evenings have been running so late for us recently that I just haven’t had a chance to write.  We’ve been busy, too.  I have this dry-erase calendar on the wall in my kitchen to help us stay organized.  After my husband missed a doctor’s appointment a few months ago, I decided to put this calendar on the wall in a high-profile location so that we would miss nothing.  At the beginning of every month, I wipe the old month away and fill in the three or four things I have planned for the new month.  I breathe a sigh of relief and look at my mostly blank calendar.  “We couldn’t be busier than we were last month!”  I think.  Little by little however, the new month fills up and before I know it, things are just as hectic as they’ve always been.

            That’s a long way of saying that we’ve been alternately lazy and busy lately, so the family dinner that used to be at 6:00 p.m. gets pushed back to 6:30 or 7:00.  Baths are late and there’s a mad rush to get the kids in bed by 9:00, by which time Jonathan and I are beat.  Also, there have been a lot of can’t-miss season finales on television lately.

            Anyway, Thomas is still on his “good” day streak that started two Fridays ago.  Of course!  Tomorrow’s the last day of school and he’s finally stopped shouting so much, learned how to behave in the classroom and resigned himself to the rules.  We had Thomas’ IEP meeting yesterday at school.  Jonathan took the day off work to come with and I was really glad he was with me because yesterday had to be on my top ten list of Weirdest Days Ever.

            Everything started fine.  Thomas got on the bus and Jonathan and I took Hayley to her last class at the park district.  We were talking with the other class moms when I got a voicemail on my phone.  I looked at the phone and saw that it was Thomas’ school.  I thought, “Oh, great.  They want to change the conference after Jonathan took the day off!”  I listened to the message and it was the school nurse saying that Thomas wasn’t feeling well and could we come pick him up?  I called back and said that we were coming in anyway and he’d just have to stay with us for the meeting.  We went and got Hayley out of her class early.  When we got to school, Thomas had fallen asleep on one of the teacher’s aides and he seemed just fine when he woke up.  Thinking all was well, we sat down for the meeting and all of a sudden, Hayley spiked a raging fever.  I was almost certain she was going to barf all over me and the school’s laptop and I’d have to discuss Thomas’ progress while wearing half-digested Cocoa Puffs.

            Luckily, Hayley fell asleep.  However, I was so preoccupied with her that I was not able to mentally digest very much.  The upshot of the meeting was that Thomas made a lot of progress in speech this year; he can answer “wh” questions consistently most of the time.  The speech therapist asked Thomas questions to test him, such as, “What do you wear on your head?” and, “Where do you sit?”  He answered almost all of the questions she asked correctly but the funny one was, “What swims?”  Thomas answered, “Me.”  She placed him at two years, eight months for expressive speech and two years, ten months for receptive speech (understanding what is said to him).  So he’s pretty much on-par with Hayley.

            Thomas’ teacher gave him a good report, saying that he came a long way since the beginning of the year and she really enjoyed having him in class because of all the funny things he says!  The speech and occupational therapists said that as well.  Thinking about it, he does say an awful lot of comical things.  It’s hard to see past the day-to-day struggles with Thomas to appreciate his inner personality, but speaking with his teachers reminded us that we need to stop and smell the flowers with Thomas, because he really is an intelligent and fun kid.  When he’s not slamming doors or stuffing his sister into the empty cabinet in his room, that is.

            The wacko day doesn’t stop there!  After lunch, our neighbor called and asked me to pick his son up from day-care for him.  The boy (who is Thomas’ age) had spiked a fever and Dad couldn’t get there right away.  I went and got him, gave him some Tylenol and after a bit he was just fine and enjoying our toys.  Hayley’s fever came down some so we served dinner, which she didn’t eat.  She only drank some chocolate milk which was regurgitated moments later.  I made three spectacular barf-saves with a dinner plate, though!  Not a drop was spilt, and there was no scrubbing involved.  (I know that if we still had carpet, it would have hit the floor and never come out again.)  Hayley is so funny about vomiting.  It doesn’t seem to faze her.  She just does it and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and declares, “All done!”  Then she barfs a little more and says, “Okay.  NOW all done!”  The two kids who were pulled out of school for illness turned out to be just fine, and Hayley, who seemed to be fine all along ended up being the greatest cause for concern.

            So that was my goofy day.  Thank goodness Jonathan was here with me!  My mom called to ask how the conference went and she said so many wonderful things to me that I cried (thanks, Mom).  She told me how proud she is of me and that we’re doing a great job with Thomas…she said more nice things as well, but I’m not going to go into it or I’ll cry again.  Seriously, thanks, Mom.

            Today, Thomas did something that he hasn’t ever done before…he ate pudding!  He has been averse to all smooth-textured foods before now (except for when he was a baby) and wouldn’t eat yogurt, applesauce, pudding, mashed potatoes or anything mushy like that.  I decided to make myself some sugar-free pudding for lunch because I had a sore throat (which has turned into a cold…hooray!) and thought it would make me feel better.  Thomas saw the chocolate color of the pudding and asked if he could have some.  I said, “Really?  You want some pudding?”  He replied that he did so I gave him some.  He ate it all up and said that he really liked it!  I’m going on my last major shopping-trip of the school year tomorrow since I can’t do that with both kids over the summer, so I’ll get more pudding and maybe some yogurt.  Watch – he’ll never touch the stuff again.  I just thought it was really neat that he tried something new – something he didn’t like before – and enjoyed it!  Plus, it was a brave sensory experience for him since he’s never tolerated that texture.  I was very impressed and if it sticks, it opens up a whole new menu section for us:  The “mushy” food-group.