Baby Brianna........disturbing video....but one I think all should see

BABY BRIANNA

Dear Noah.....spending lots of time at the Darke County Fair.....

You looked forward to this all summer. You were hoping your dad was going to make it in for a visit during fair week, but he was not able to. I bought myself a pass though so we could go as many times as we wanted...you are free. We prayed for nice weather and it has been beyond nice....so cool and low humidity! PERFECT fair weather! Sunday when we went back it was almost like a FALL Festival ...so cool we had to wear jackets and long sleeves and jeans! PERFECT to spend an entire afternoon and evening at the fair!







I bought you a wrist band ride pass and you chose to ride the GIANT SLIDE over and over again......for about 3 HOURS! I told you the next day you would probably be sore....meaning your legs. BUT the next day you came up to me and said instead, "Mom, my armpits are really sore!" You could not raise your arms up over your head! THAT was because you had gone up and down that giant slide ride about 100 times...and you hoisted your body OFF the slide at the top on the hand rails to place yourself on the burlap sack to ride down. That used a lot of muscles you normally don't use in your underarm area and stomach! You said today your stomach and lower abs were sore......all from that repetitive movement I am sure!





You did well standing in line and was very helpful at times to the other kids or ticket attendant.

You also rode the Merry-Go-Round 5 times...played Skeeball...and putt putt golf. We saw all the animals and exhibits of pies, cakes, vegetables, and art in the coliseum and fine arts buildings. We walked around and saw the horses race and people playing games. We saw helicopter rides....etc. We have really enjoyed the fair. I have taken over 1 GB of photos and video clips of the fair so far. We want to go back again Wednesday night to see the fireworks!









On another note.......you have finally learned how to tie off your own disposable bags that hold your wipes you use after a bowel movement. It has only taken you THREE years to get you ready enough to even want to be near the bag let alone touch it...and learn to tie it off. YOU now CAN TIE it off and in a KNOT!!!!!! I am so proud of you and feel very weird now as you can now do all your toileting by yourself here at home finally at 10-1/2 years of age! This has been a long time coming! Learning to tie shoe laces will be a breeze I bet for you now!

Today you had your first occupational therapy visit for the new year. They are working on strengthening your eye muscles to focus on things left and right....up close and far away.....as you have definite weaknesses there....afterwards you ended up with a really bad headache.







You then had speech therapy. You look washed out tonight.

I tried to get you to TASTE a black seedless grape last night....I cut one in half and told you to place it on your tongue to just taste its sweetness and juice. You said it tasted good but it had a "very strong stench for me" and I got to laughing hearing you say "stench!" I said , "stench?" and you said, " yeah you know, really strong bad smell!" haha. I asked where you had heard that word and you said probably on a Thomas The Tank Engine movie and I think you are right. Anyway.... you could not get past the strong GRAPE SMELL to eat the grape piece. You said it was too much for you!

You are expressing yourself to me and others more and more all the time which is huge progress for you too. School is going along okay too.....it is always tough to start out with all the changes in routine for you at the start of a new year.

Well....we will hit the fair again tomorrow after school and work...and a few other things. We made a run to Walgreens last night when you found out that they had Candy Corn out for sale already! YOU LOVE candy corn..so does Opie!

I love you Noah and am very proud of you!

Mommy
XOXOX

Here is a snippet of you coming down the slide ONE of the many times you did...and of you on the Merry-Go-Round:

Dear Anonymous........

Just for your FYI Noah DOES sleep in his own room and in his own bed and has since he was very young. Not sure where you get the idea he continues to sleep with me in my room...because he does not.

I do let him occasionally have sleepovers in my room....as he has no one else to currently have a sleepover with and this pacifies him. It is a simple sleepover. Don't try to Michael Jacksonalize it into something more than it is.

While Noah is "physically" able to do a lot of things such as staying up late....his "emotional" maturity level is much younger than his 10 years of age. He has historically been about 3-4 years or more behind his peers emotionally...though I believe he is slowly catching up.

Not sure why I feel it is necessary to actually waste my time EXPLAINING this to someone who continually wants to post comments here only as ANONYMOUS........but there you go. That is the story.

I have no apron strings with Noah. I am more protective of him in many areas because Noah is still too oblivious to know sometimes when he needs to be wary.

Otherwise...Noah cut any apron strings a long time ago and could care less if he were with me or probably most anyone else as long as he was having fun. ALL part of his autism....and HENCE MY being more protective and concerned about him than other kids perhaps his age....not taking into account his emotional status.

From all your prior postings Anonymous.....you sound like one unhappy person and I am sorry you are so miserable that you find it necessary to try to drag everyone else you see around you...online or elsewhere...down into the pits alongside you.

If I choose to allow Noah to have an occasional sleepover for now......as long as he is not like 16 years old or so....so what. It is my business and his and not yours. Sure go ahead and form your sick twisted opinions. There are so many like you filling up our world today...trying to drive out the last bit of innocence remaining and fill it with perversion.

Dear Noah...school is plugging along.......

Today was a bit of a hiccup day due to my weird work schedule..but we still squeezed in some science and music. Hopefully tomorrow will go better.

We stopped at our local Goodwill the other night and were in the book section. You saw a bunch of romance novels and came up to me and pulled my head down close and whispered in my ear "they have a bunch of those romance novels mom....one day I want to get the entire series!" I asked you if you had ever read any or were interested in reading them. You said no.....you apparently are really only interested now in the covers...as they always show a man and a woman in a semi-racy scene. haha...you are all boy!

Otherwise.....you are doing pretty well.

I love you!

Mommy
XOXOX

Dear Noah........there are over 10,000 minor planets in the solar system......

and I want to study them all!

THAT is what you told me last night before you went to bed. You have been spending HOURS online ...studying planets and asteroids..stars......but are very intrigued now with planets and their moons. You have discovered there are over 216,000 (YES THOUSANDS) of MINOR planets in the solar system and you have decided you are going to go through each one online. I have NO doubt you will do this. You are already into the 100s and just began the BIG list last night. We have decided to incorporate this in school and have you do projects connected with this. Astronomy.....yes..I have 2 big telescopes we can look at planets with......you can do book reports and we can take field trips.

Right now though you have blocked off Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays as days you will do this STUDYING of the minor planets online with ME. I have told you I cannot just sit in your room for hours day after day all the time to review these planets with you...but I CAN devote some hours each of those days...or some of my time yes.

I am thrilled to see you adding in something new to your list of things you love to study over and over for hours on end.

I saw a trailer for a new movie coming out called "Adam" and it reminded me of you now....since you are also so much into planets and the solar system......etc. You still bring with you all the other things you have always been interested in forever....your love of trains....roads and maps.....traffic signs..elevators.....escalators.....your plans to build a TIME MACHINE.....etc. REAL estate and house plans. Let's not forget those....BUT..right now you are very much into doing research online about all sorts of subjects. I AM SO happy about this. I am an information junkie myself and also love to research things. This will be good for you with school and in your life.

Anyway.....here is a preview of the new movie coming out about a young man with Asperger's syndrome...living in an apartment complex...and his relationship that develops when a young woman moves into the building.



Meanwhile Noah you are awaiting my return to your room to move to planet number 100 something......so I better get in there.

I love you Noah!

Mommy
XOXOX

something all of us should remember...not just dads

So Mr. Noah.........

I have been really tired a lot lately at night. You have caught on to that....and if I fall asleep on the sofa you let me sleep......why? Because if you let me sleep...you stay up late playing on your computer!

You took things a step further last night. I came through the hallway last night about 10:50 and said it was time for bed. I went on to bed.....thinking you would come into my room and either get in my bed for a sleepover or at least tell me you were ready for me to tuck you in.

BUT NO.........

You DID come in....saw I was asleep...you said you DID think about getting in my bed but I was taking up my entire bed and there was no room for you and you did not want to wake me to make me move over.....so you quietly went right back into your room...where you proceeded to stay up until 1:30 a.m.!!! (the other night you LEFT my room from another sleepover to move to the loveseat to finish sleeping...saying I was snoring too loud for you to stay in my room!)

This morning I suddenly woke up around 3:00 a.m........or sometime before that.....and realized I should check on you......not believing I had fallen asleep and you were not in my bed......and I had somehow slept through all this. I found you not on the sofa or loveseat....but IN YOUR OWN bed in YOUR room. You had crawled into bed all by yourself.......cleaning the bed off first......covered yourself up and even plugged in your fan all by yourself. AND you were sound asleep! Sleeping really good.

I was a mixed bag of emotions. I was suddenly taken aback with the fact that you are growing up and all these little things I do for you (tucking you in....plugging in your fan.....turning out the light....saying your prayers with you..etc)....well...you will one day be able to do them all by yourself and you will no longer need me to do them for you or even with you. You may not even want me to share those things with you one day. All these things I might even sometimes wish you could do on your own now..but I still do them for you because you can't or just because I am your mom and love you. You still prefer me to cover you up and do most of these things for you....but I encourage you to do them....so you know you can. AND see.....you can!....you DID! You went to bed on your own. Well after I said it was time for bed but still.....

I realized standing there in your doorway looking at you sound asleep.....that you can do it ....you will be able to do it.....and all entirely on your own one day.

I may end up with more free time than I ever realized one day...and that day might be a lot closer than I ever thought possible.

My job as a mom is to raise you to become independent one day. I guess we are headed down the right track.

Today you told me what you learned online about Mars and the moons around it and the other planets. You get online a lot to just do research and learn so many things that way.

Now if we can get you to STOP whatever you are doing long enough to go the bathroom when you need to have a bowel movement so you can actually HAVE one instead of trying to hold it and having to only wipe your butt instead about 40 times per day with maybe 1 or 2 real bowel movements in the middle.....if that. No kidding ...yesterday I think you brought out at least 25 bags of dirty wipes you had used (we no longer flush them down the toilet but instead put them in disposable diaper bags and toss them). You still cannot tie the bags shut so you bring these presents to me so I can do that final step.

We are going to work on you learning to tie off these bags so you can do this entire process all by yourself! AND I am prompting you to go when you have to go and not wait!!!!

Meanwhile we will keep moving along.......and I know you are growing up. It is bittersweet....I hope and pray I am doing a decent job as your mom because I think I could be doing so much more for you than I am.

I do love you Noah. To the Mars Moons and back again.....forever and ever I will.

Mommy
XOXOX

Dear Noah..........not too much new news to report.....

and for once maybe that is good!

You will have the same special intervention teacher this year via Ohio Virtual Academy so I was happy about that. You will get a new general education teacher. I am still trying to get all the stuff ready for you here at home....hoping to finish this weekend as school officially begins on MONDAY!

Your therapies all begin next week....seems like we barely had a break.

I am tired tonight. Had a million things to write about but this week I have been tired and not kept up with the thoughts of the days as they passed. AND then unless you write them down somewhere else....at least with my brain these days.....I forget them!

You did finally want me to get the last roll of Pillsbury Gingerbread cookies out of the freezer to make for you. Needless to say today has basically been a COOKIE day for you as you have only wanted that for most of your meals.

You are out of tater tots again.....you go through at least 2 bags per week now....sometimes more. ONLY ORE IDA brand will do. AND when you eat them....you will have them sometimes for EVERY MEAL.

Your getting sores in your mouth again which makes teeth brushing harder....as your mouth is sore. AND tater tots don't seem to bother it so much. You still have loose teeth in your mouth that will have to come out soon. OR else the dentist will pull them next time you go which is in September I believe.

Well I need to lie down.

I love you Noah!

Mommy
XOXOX

Dear Noah......school will be starting again soon..where did the summer go????

WOW...so much for my plans of making a schedule to continue working on some school stuff this summer and doing some field trips..etc. I still don't even have the office/school room area complete. It is probably 98% but I need to finish it before school starts. THAT means using the rest of my days off and free time wisely and getting a lot done! BUT sometimes when it comes time to doing all these things I just apparently don't get in the mood. No matter now..mood or not....I have to do it!

I want to start refreshing school stuff with you next week. You officially start again on August 17th! I want to have some things finished ahead of time as you will probably want to miss some school the week of the fair. AND you are still hoping your dad comes in for a trip to visit you about that same time.

You have been doing well. Our summer has been very nice weather-wise....and I have really enjoyed it! You have gone swimming and played with your cousin Audrey and spent time at grandma's house. We have done things here at home...and have taken a few mini trips. I cannot say however we worked on any school stuff or occupational therapy or speech therapy during the summer like we should have. SO next week before the schedule begins all over again...I want to do that.

This means sitting down and making time to make schedules and lists and plan...making goals....etc.

Otherwise you have been doing pretty well. You have stayed up way too late the last couple of nights and if we go to the drive in tonight you will be staying up late again!

You are all boy and really becoming more "aware" of girls and their bodies......I seem to be a pain in your butt more than not. I was hoping that would never become the case, but I think it is also sort of normal.

I had a dream about you last night...becoming very successful doing something like being an architect or engineer....I cannot remember all the details now. It was interesting though.

I need to get off here and get some things done. I love you Noah! Here is a picture of you and your cousin Audrey together on our trip last week to Indiana. She had come to spend the day with us and we took a trip to Indiana...then back home to play for a few hours before taking her back home. I thought it was especially cute as you called your first pose "ROMANCE" ...you kept saying you wanted to show a little ROMANCE.......so you were wanting to sit close to Audrey and hug her....you are so cute. You and Audrey often play like you are husband and wife....yes you will play house with her and you both use her baby dolls as your kids. One time you were both VAMPIRE parents and you had vampire babies!




well...I need to start working on those schedules! I love you Noah!

Mommy
XOXOX

After a couple of days of no access to my blogs.....I AM BACK!

There must have been some glitch with Google/Blogger as I and MANY others lost access to our blogs for a couple of days. I am thankful they fixed it and I am thankful I also found out I HAD backed up all my posts here elsewhere.....I happened to find the years I thought I had missed backing up. SO tonight I am thankful for a lot of things.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!