to write down the cute things you say from time to time as I sometimes don't always get back here in time to post them before I forget!
Monday we went on a field trip to Wright Patterson Air Force Base museum. We had a great time..but your feet started to hurt before we got done...your orthotics need replaced...and then your legs started to hurt a bit. We did make it through the entire museum though....and it was great to incorporate this trip into our week as we have studied some of these things in history lately such as Orville and Wilbur Wright.....and Henry Ford......Alexander Graham Bell, etc.
When we got to some of the bomber planes with the nose art....you were a bit disturbed when you saw the Strawberry Bitch plane and turned to me and said "MOM! Couldn't they have done a plane without using a cuss word?" I explained to you that "bitch" used in his situation was not really meaning anything negative.....but was more of a good usage of the word, that it was not being used as a cuss word.
I found the First Flight tile mural amazing. Over 162,000 tiles were used to make the final piece of art. Each tiny tile...about the size of a scrabble tile.....had special designs on them....which all represented something pertaining to the first flight of the Wright brothers.
We have had a busy week....school is going pretty well......and oh.....I love you!
That is what you said to me when stepping out of the bathtub to dry off with the towel. You leaned way over and showed me your face and more specifically, your "eyebrows." You then took your finger and starting from the outside of your right eyebrow traced a line all the way across from that eyebrow to the left eyebrow...with NO interruption across the top of the bridge of your nose. You said you had noticed "hairs" there that you thought might "connect" your two eyebrows into one! JUST LIKE SONIC' the Hedgehog's eyebrows! I personally did not see that....not to the point where they would connect your eyebrows together.
I then explained to you all about UNIbrow and why you probably would not really want a UNIbrow. You just laughed and went on to explain further that your eyes were starting to look more like Sonic's eyes too. MORE rounded or something.
Later on we had a more serious discussion before bedtime. We were talking about relationships....and you told me you hoped I would get a boyfriend who could actually be around us soon as you would really like to have a man in your life right now....have another man in the house. I thought that was sweet, but it also tore my heart up. I sometimes feel totally inadequate in providing you many of the things I know you need.
You just helped me make a homemade pizza. Today we want to finish things up here at home and head over to see Grandma C. for a bit as we have not seen her for like 10 days!
The weather has been gorgeous.....hard to believe October is right around the corner. Your aunt Melissa and cousin Audrey are to come over on Saturday afternoon and you are super excited about that.
Oh....here you are sitting at your school computer....notice where you are holding your pencil??
Well...we need to finish school so we can go see grandma in a bit.
You are awesome! You really like history in school right now and sometimes I wonder if you are really getting any of the stuff we go over or are really learning let alone retaining some of the information.
Well...I had to give you a unit assessment test and then a semester test and at first thought maybe I should review it all again with you. You know, take the test questions and use as a study guide...go over answers.....prep you for the test...and then next week have you take the test.
BUT I decided to just see what you really knew or had learned. I gave you both tests and you got ALL of the answers correct on both tests...including the semester test which went back to before summer as you are just finishing up your year now. I was totally amazed you not only KNEW all that stuff, but had learned it AND RETAINED IT!
Today at occupational therapy she worked a lot on strengthening your eye muscles. You have huge problems with focusing...following things with your eyes...and they feel a need to try to strengthen your eye muscles which will help you in this area. Problem is.....shortly after therapy you had a horrible headache and said your eyes really hurt too. I felt bad...we came home and I gave you Motrin and had you lay down with your eyes shut while I read to you and I went over Science stuff with you for school. In about 2 hours you started to feel better.
This year in school you will have to do a lot more writing...but I am going to have you TYPE things out as you do much better at typing things than if you have to concentrate on trying to hand write them. I am going to have you also do the typing course I wanted you to do this past summer.
Anyway......we have been busy......struggling at times and you flying at others. That's all part of life!
this past week schooling went pretty well. I am excited because this year you will also have an opportunity to meet virtually with other teachers and kids in classes online! You are going to do a writing class and math class and digital storytelling class all online with other teachers and kids. While you don't seem as excited as I am...once online and in the classroom you do become more receptive and open up more. You have a hard time sitting through some of it...seeming to become bored pretty quickly.
Otherwise we have incorporated a couple of mandatory weekly family nights into our routine. We have a MOVIE night and a GAME night....and those have been going really well. You chose Monopoly for our last game night and you unfortunately lost. That was the first time we have ever finished a game! It went quick....once I got Boardwalk and you landed on it after I had 3 houses on it and did not have money to pay up. I think it lasted about an hour which is usually our cut off point anyway.
You are still hoping your dad will pop in for a visit soon. I keep telling you there has been no indication to me he is planning on this. But you hold out hope constantly.
I cannot believe we are into September already and you already have over 85 hours of school clocked in for the year!
Otherwise we will work on some art this weekend. We head to grandma and grandpa L's house this Sunday for a birthday/Labor day bash for your cousin.
Emanuel bluntly admits that the cuts will not be pain-free. "Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change," he wrote last year (Health Affairs Feb. 27, 2008).
Savings, he writes, will require changing how doctors think about their patients: Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others" (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008).
Yes, that's what patients want their doctors to do. But Emanuel wants doctors to look beyond the needs of their patients and consider social justice, such as whether the money could be better spent on somebody else.
Many doctors are horrified by this notion; they'll tell you that a doctor's job is to achieve social justice one patient at a time.
Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia" (JAMA, Feb. 27, 2008).
Translation: Don't give much care to a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy.
He explicitly defends discrimination against older patients: "Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years" (Lancet, Jan. 31).
Betsy McCaughey brings to our attention the Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's views regarding universal health care. Dr. Emanuel is a health policy advisor to President Obama and brother of Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, so what he thinks may impact all of us. As Betsy points out, Dr. Emanuel has some very radical views regarding the rationing of health care. Take for example Emanuel's comments in a 2008 article in which he says cutting costs won't be easy:
Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change.
In other words, these procedural changes aren't really change at all. Instead, he thinks we need change in how we apply health care coverage. As Betsy notes, Dr. Emanuel believes doctors try too hard to apply the Hippocratic Oath to everyone as equally as possible, which is what drives up costs. Instead Emanuel thinks we need to ration basic, guaranteed care to only those who can fully participate in society. Betsy points out a 1996 Hastings Center article in which Emanuel wrote this:
This civic republican or deliberative democratic conception of the good provides both procedural and substantive insights for developing a just allocation of health care resources. Procedurally, it suggests the need for public forums to deliberate about which health services should be considered basic and should be socially guaranteed. Substantively, it suggests services that promote the continuation of the polity-those that ensure healthy future generations, ensure development of practical reasoning skills, and ensure full and active participation by citizens in public deliberations-are to be socially guaranteed as basic. Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia. A less obvious example is guaranteeing neuropsychological services to ensure children with learning disabilities can read and learn to reason.
So, according to Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health care advisor to President Obama, the elderly with dementia and the young who have neurological disorders should be sacrificed for the common good.I can tell you that as a mom to a four year old girl with severe speech apraxia that prevents her from being able to speak intelligibly, this scares the living hell out of me. If you have a child with autism, cerebral palsy, Downs syndrome, or any other neurological disorder or chromosomal defect that prevents him or her from participating in society in the manner Dr. Emanuel or the government thinks they should, that neurological care would not be guaranteed as basic and would, therefore, not be covered in a government takeover of health care.
Making things even worse, private health care companies will be driven out of business, so that won't be an option for parents with disabled children, either, leaving them with no coverage whatsoever.This kind of policy would drive up the abortion rate, which Obama and other liberals want covered as a basic care, as doctors urge parents go out of their way to screen their unborn babies for any and all disorders and defects that would not be covered under basic care. If a child's disorder is undetected by prenatal testing, what happens when the disorder becomes obvious after birth? I shudder to think what the government would come up with then.
Emanuel's policies would lead to a further deterioration of our nation's culture as people begin to look at those with disabilities as objects that drive up collective health care costs instead of as individual human beings who have intrinsic value and rights endowed to them by God.
More below on next article and video ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (September 3, 6:46 AMBirmingham Autism & Parenting ExaminerJennifer Terry)
People with Autism and other disabilities will not receive adequate care under the new health care reform proposals. This is due to the formula which will be used to determine who gets treatment and who does not and which treatments will be provided.
When Health care is paid for by the general public it will be rationed. Resources will not be available to keep up with the demand. There will be waiting lists. Who decides which patient goes to the front of the line? Who decides if your child will receive the care, service or equipment you feel he needs? A simple formula created by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the "health-policy adviser" to President Obama.
Dr. Emanuel also serves as a member of the Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. These two key positions puts his ethical, professional and moral values directly in the spotlight. Dr. Emanuel has a career long history of his stance on comparative effectiveness and related issues. His vision for American's is clear. In order to use his system decisions are created to determine what it means to "participate fully" in society. Those who are not deemed as full participants will not receive as much investment of resources. In other words, people with Autism, dementia, developmental disabilities and other people not valued as highly by mainstream America will not receive the support worked for throughout the middle 20th century.
Dr. Emanuel said, "Substantively, it suggests services that promote the continuation of the polity—those that ensure healthy future generations, ensure development of practical reasoning skills, and ensure full and active participation by citizens in public deliberations—are to be socially guaranteed as basic. Covering services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic, and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia. A less obvious example Is is guaranteeing neuropsychological services to ensure children with learning disabilities can read and learn to reason." (Hastings Center Report, November-December, 1996)
Dr. Emanuel is confronted on this matter in this June 10th video of a public hearing of the Federal Coordinating Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. ---He leaves without denying the allegations.
AND to anonymous readers again who cannot even bother to provide legitimate information in order for me to post your comment if I would choose to do so.....it makes NO real difference now what Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has or has not done in the past as far as supporting or not supporting assisted suicide - in the end ....the facts still remain ....with a government health care plan.....THEY will be the ones who decide everything for you......and who does and does not receive treatment, what is and is not covered and why. The highlighted facts directly from the proposal remain facts of the proposal. That is the disturbing part. If you remove the video here.....the statements of controversy from Betsy McCaughey...the facts of the proposal...what is written within the document itself...is what remains extremely dangerous. If you choose to not believe it.....don't. Some will stick their heads in the sand forever rather than see what is right before their eyes. This is posted here to try to get you all to think for yourself for once and not be apathetic and trust or believe all the big government tries to get you to fall for or believe. Don't think for a minute that they are on YOUR side or want only the best for you at all times. There are many dark things our own government does you may never know about or read about that would sound horrific if you did. They do not tell you everything. Only what they want you to hear...to believe what they want you to believe. I am hopeful our own country will remember our government was supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people and big gov was to back out.
We went at least 4 times I think. We had fun each time we went. You have made some pretty profound statements to me lately about different things. You are growing up and changing....and I realize too how smart you really are. You sit and do research on all sorts of things and learn so much. You amaze me.
Here you are playing Skeeball at the fair. You did not do so well this particular night.
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:
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.
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!
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 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.
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.
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!
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.
you have room for improvement in some areas but considering you have not yet finished 4th grade (not till the end of November first week in December) and are actually doing 5th grade Language Arts...you did pretty well scoring at least at the state level on all except writing. Which I know you need help there. That will be a long time coming probably for you and in fact...I am going to work on that the rest of the summer with you and also get you started on officially learning how to type so you can type your thoughts out. You already can type and when you DO type the things you write are much more detailed and better....because you are not so focused on the actual act of writing itself.
Today I still was not feeling well but we did a few things. However, you were so whiny today and cried at the drop of a hat over the silliest things. EVERYTHING......and I mean cry. You teared up and started losing it because you thought we ran out of bathroom cups.
I tried explaining to you today that while I understand that is part of your autism AND generalized anxiety disorder....you MUST LEARN to get a grip and determine which things are really worth your time and effort and emotions to cry about. That will likely take some time. You said you were trying and I know you are doing better.....sometimes now just tearing up, but holding back the tears, swallowing hard, and not letting loose with the dam.
Today however was another story altogether. With me feeling like I did.....it was not a great combination.
So anyway....when you saw this certificate award that came in the mail you were so happy and proud of yourself!
She was my aunt...your great aunt. She died from cancer. She was the only one who you ever allowed to cut your hair besides me. She was the one who first professionally cut your hair. We will miss her. You said you were thankful we got a few pictures and video of her long before she even got sick. I am too. This is how we will try to always remember her.
I love you Noah. Thursday will be the second funeral you will have ever gone to.
Well we have been busy as usual. Sunday we picked up cousin Audrey as we were going to the Drive-In to see the new Harry Potter movie. You both ran around so much before the movie your little armpits were really stinking so I told you to take off your shirt in the car and I would wipe you down with some antibacterial hand sanitizer stuff....that waterless soap. You said you were afraid to take off your shirt as people would think you were a "sex offender!" NOT sure why you thought that but after explaining things to you..you removed your shirt and I scrubbed you AND the shirt down! MUCH better smell after that!
I must say we were all disappointed in that...especially me. Noah you were too busy playing games with Audrey in the back seat and not really paying attention to the movie so much. Every few minutes you would yell out "is that the half blood prince?" To which Audrey would say, "NO!" as she had seen the movie once already but had never been to a drive-in before. We were going to see the second show Ice Age 3 but you both wanted to go home. Audrey was going to spend the night with you and we were going to blow up the big queen sized mattress and you and Audrey were going to sleep on that while I slept on the sofa. We all stayed up until 4:30 a.m.!!!!!!
You both slept in only for 7 hours so were up and ready to go again on Monday! You had breakfast at lunch and lunch at supper and supper at snacktime before bed. We went to Shawnee Prairie preserve and the park and Burger King and made cookies and played games...supper to go in the car with the windows rolled down enjoying the summer breeze (until we all smelled manure!) The windows went up fast after that!
We had a very nice visit....and you are already planning your next sleepover with your cousin Audrey! You told her you wished she could live with us forever!
Today you crashed. You slept in until almost 2:00 PM!!
You had a couple of spells the last 2 times you have gone to the park where you say your chest inside feels "cold" and you get sick to your stomach and you look really pale and you then get super tired. I called the cardiologist about this, but she thinks you should be having ZERO symptoms with your mild aortic insufficiency. SO...she thinks it might be something else....or vasovagal type symptoms. OF course with most docs it can be a crap shoot and they guess just as much as you or I do. I KNOW these are not normal symptoms for you and they were very strange. You were so tired after the episodes you could not really do much. I will watch you and if they continue or happen again I will take you to the doctor or ER.
This blog is a diary to my son Noah who has autism, sensory integration disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. I originally started it as a way to vent my feelings but also wanted to have a record of our journey together through the good times as well as the bad. It is my ultimate hope this blog will be a source of hope and inspiration to others facing similar situations.
This website is part of the autism-assembly, this is a coalition of
members of the autistic community who share the common goal of seeking
acceptance for those on the autistic spectrum, who aim to educate about
autism, and who are not seeking a cure for autism. This is part of the
global autism rights movement.
