Autism and Holidays

Are holidays stressful at your house?? Does your autistic/special needs child even understand about time frames of holidays??

TC thought as soon as Thanksgiving was over, it was time for Christmas. He immediately wanted to open presents. I have tried to show him on the calendar and I "think" he understands.

Next week is his last week at school until the new year. Once it is time to go back we will have to deal with the mother of all meltdowns...just like we did after Thanksgiving.

Lord help me.

On to Christmas

We all had a good Thanksgiving. How was yours?? We went out to eat with hubby's family. TC was happy there was pizza and a chocolate fountain...which he dipped his cookie in...lol.

Friday we had dinner at home. And yesterday (Saturday) I had to work.

Today we plan on putting up the tree and using our Wii Fit my Mom got us for Christmas. We got it a little early b/c my sister brought it with her since she visited Mom for Thanksgiving. Mom is going to have surgery in December so she probably won't be coming down for Christmas.

It is cold here, we are coughing...blah. Hopefully Christmas will get here soon (according to TC), he is ready!

TC turns 10

We took TC to a movie and to get a toy yesterday, and today we had cake with crazy candles!

IEP time

Yesterday was TC's IEP.
Let me first start out by saying, nobody should have to attend an IEP while "Aunt Flo" is in town. This IEP was to discuss changing TC's schedule....maybe getting him into more "specials classes" instead of life skills.

This year TC has been mainstreaming more with a 2nd grade class. This helps him with participation and group activities plus helps him work more independently at the same time. His new teacher, Ms. S (whom I had not met til' yesterday) seemed very hands-on and TC has nothing but nice things to say about her.

So the meeting started off with 4 of us and they brought in the specials teacher so that made 5 total. The teachers discussed his progress and what would be best for TC to help him continue to progress. I mentioned how TC has recently been coming up to us saying how he isn't smart.

And I started to cry.

I haven't cried in an IEP in atleast 2 years. WTH was wrong with me??? The crazy thing is, when I started to cry, so did Ms. S.....which I thought was sort of precious. This lady loves my son. That is so very important to me.

Great.
I am crying again.

Anyways, we have a plan in place. TC will only be in life skills 1 hour a day in order to do computer time and have a brief recess. He will go to mainstream 2nd grade for the morning and will go to lunch with this class as well, and in the afternoon he will go to specials for one on one. I think it is a good plan.

I am blessed to have teachers and a principal who want to see my baby continue to progress. I am blessed to have such a terrific son (and daughter) who make me want to be a better person every day of my life.

Now let me go find some kleenex!

IEP and other things

I have another IEP coming up. This is regarding new placement for TC. I am a little excited, he has been doing classes outside of life skills so far this year. He is doing good, making a lot of progress.

He will be 10 in a few short days. It is hard to believe!!
I also have a job interview after the IEP so Tuesday is going to be a full day, as I am going to work afterwards!

This weekend I am attempting a garage sale. Yesterday I made a little over $30, gonna try again today though.

Spiderman 2011

I took TC to trick or treat. He had a blast!

What ifs

Do you ever go there in your mind. Do you ever think "What if my child did not have a disability?" Do you ever wonder what caused the autism or special need?? I went there this week. I cried over an hour wondering if I had just let TC come when he was ready instead of having my dr. induce me.......would TC be a normal 4th grader who could read and who had friends? (Tc's friend Jamel did not move back after all.)

I love TC, I would not trade him for the world. But some days I get very sad and emotional. I wonder about what will happen when hubs and I are very old...most of the care of us (and TC) will fall onto Sara. Will she be there or will she be involved in her own life and just not want to deal with any of it??

I work with a lady who has a son and he is very low functioning. She has him in a school and he is soon to turn 18. She is talking about fostering him out. She is in her 50's, had him later in life. I am thankful.....that TC is very high functioning, and that I am young enough to keep up with him. I realize many kids have seizures (my coworkers son does) and many more health issues than TC. We do have problems with asthma, eczema and allergies; but we deal with them. So I am not ungrateful for my blessings, but some days I do go there.

Too blessed to be stressed

When I am feeling down and out, I will go here and remember how very blessed I am. This woman and her husband lost their son, her daughter lost a brother. No matter what my circumstances are, I am blessed beyond measure. I have two great kids, a loving husband and everything else is small potatoes!

TC sick, me sick

TC was very sick last week. I took him to the dr. He actually had a touch of pneumonia. He is feeling much better!!

I, however, have been sick all week long. I walked the other day and it was sprinkling. Not a good idea, I have been sickly all week long!!!

Is anybody watching Parenthood this season?? Poor Max, it just breaks my heart to see him struggle!

Have a great weekend everyone!

First six weeks of school

Things have been going well this school year. TC is mainstreaming more...he loves his teacher. He actually is enjoying school.

Sara is a sophomore this year, she is making more of an effort. Last year it was not good as far as grades went. She is actually passing and doing way better this year. She is in 2 clubs and recently tried out for a play. She didn't make it but I told her to keep trying!!!

I am waiting on respite care to be approved, that will give Sara some extra money. She will start her driving course soon.

Holiday

I have a love/hate relationship with weekends and holidays. TC really had a fit when he asked could he stay home Tuesday and I told him no! The long weekend was nice but those fits are not fun to deal with. Today he did much better.

I am going to a viewing for my dear friend who passed away over the weekend. She took her own life. I am really sad.

Trip pics and school update

Here are a couple of photos from our trip. We rented a pontoon boat that had a second deck and a slide attached. Tc loved it!

This school year is off to a good start! TC has really done well so far. His teacher made a comment about how he has matured. Even the bus driver said he is doing really great. I am very proud of him. I am heading to work today but will be off Monday, and I am only working 6 hours today.

School review

Both of the kids had a great day. Tc came home with an award for helping the other kids in his class. He happily got on the bus this morning.

We were excited to see his friend Jamel moved back and will be attending school next week. Tc and Jamel are besties!!

Mama is tired so I am off to take a bath.

First day of school 2011

Today was the first day of school! I am off to get TC from the bus in a few minutes. Hopefully he did good....he did not even cry this morning. I was so proud!

Almost time for school

This is my kids last week of summer. I know TC is not ready for school to start! Hubby bought him a Wii yesterday and he loves the Mario Kart game that came with it.

Things are still so hot here in Texas so we stay inside as much as possible.
Sara wants to have a sleepover with many girls this Friday. Pray for me!

We are heading out of state the first weekend after school starts. We planned a camping trip with my Mom. It is going to be fun, we rented a cabin!

Common things

Yesterday a customer called in talking about his kids. He was 71 and had a 6 and 9 year old...lol. He had one of those mail order brides! Anyways, he mentioned his girl had autism and we started talking about her and I mentioned TC has autism as well. His daughter is not very high functioning but he talked about what a joy she is. And I said TC is the same. I do count my blessings every day!

Asthma..blah

It is super hot here in Tx. Tc's asthma has been out of control! Poor guy. And his eczema too. I need to order him some more cream but have to wait til' payday. We are walking in the evenings when I am home. This week is more overtime but I won't complain, we need the money!

New photos

TC is a total ham! We have been enjoying the holiday weekend.

Summertime

I can hardly believe TC will be in 4th grade next year and Sara will be a sophomore. Wow, where does the time go? TC still asks all the time if he gets to "stay here" or go to school. I told him he is on summer break so of course he gets to stay here!

This week was nuts at work with lots of system issues and on Tuesday I decided I was calling in the next day. So I did! I took the kids to a movie, I even took a nap, and it was GLORIOUS. I went to work yesterday totally refreshed and the computers were back up and running. Hallelujah!

Today is payday and we are going to see Transformers 3D...........soooo excited! Tomorrow we have to mow and Sunday we will chill. Monday we are doing a bbq for my sister's birthday. Should be fun! That night we will go watch fireworks, we do this every year.

Really?

Last night I got home from work and it was late...of course. This working 9:30 am til 8:00 pm sucks. Bad.

Well, TC really doesn't even want to spend time with me. He always wants Sara. And Sara said, "He thinks I am his mom now." Seriously wtf? Sometimes it just is not fun being a responsible working adult.

Judgments

I work with a lady who has a son with autism. He is not as high functioning as TC. She and I talk a lot about our boys. It is nice to bond with someone who "gets it". One lady who sits beside me started talking about bad kids the other day and I mentioned my autistic son. I told her I am sure I was judged for TC's behavior and she said, "Well your son is sick, you can always tell." I told her, "No, you can't look at my son and tell he is autistic. It is not like being in a wheel chair, it is not that obvious." I could tell she was just clueless. The thing is, this woman had a stroke a couple of years ago, she is in her 40's and she is so judgmental, I cannot stand that.

But anyways, that is our society. I talk to people everyday, and some of them are mentally handicapped. I try to treat every person I talk to with kindness and especially those who are a little slower mentally. They are people too and deserve kindness. That could be you or me, one thing could happen: a car accident, a stroke, ANYTHING could change your mental capacity. We have no control over life.

Having a special needs child is very challenging. It is frustrating. It can be sad and you wish things could be easier. I think of where TC should be instead of in a special needs classroom....barely learning to read. He should be in a normal 4th grade classroom next year. But he won't be and some days it is a hard pill to swallow. I don't think about it much but I do think about it. I don't cry about it anymore, I accept it. It has made me stronger, better, more understanding and that is a blessing.

Autism and frustrations

School is officially out and well....things have been a little challenging. Maybe it is the hotter weather, maybe it is school being out and TC being more anxiety-ridden. I really don't know what it is.

TC has had his good and bad days. Yesterday I took the kids to a pool in the next town. So today of course, TC wanted to go back . We got sunburned and I told him we need to get better and we can go back to the big pool next week...but I went and got him a little pool. He was mad because it was not a big pool. He kept saying over and over, "Mom you lied to me. That pool is too small for me." And it is small, but it will be okay til' I can get him something bigger.

And Sara had a friend over last night so when we got home he was upset that the friend was gone. He went on and on about how he wants "A" (the girl) to come back and he almost cried over it. A lot of days he has a ton of anxiety and whines a LOT! I am working a lot of hours and when I get home, I simply cannot deal with his whiney-ness. It drives me nuts.

Also I am job hunting again because they changed my hours and I am working til' 8 p.m. every night. I have overtime all next week so I will be at work from 9:30 am til 8:00 pm every day.
Hopefully TC's anxiety will lessen. Actually right now he is being really calm.

Summer is here!

School is officially out! Woo hoo!!!!

But these last couple of days have been tough.
With any changes that come along TC has difficulties.
His anxiety is at an all time high. It seems it takes him hours and hours to
calm down and behave.

I know a lot of it is not his fault but it is sooooooooo frustrating!!
Yesterday we went to see X Men and his behavior was out of control.
We kept telling him to chill out and behave but it was not getting any better.

We did go see the movie, which was great...I was a little upset about
one part where the "f" word was used. That is a word TC uses and he gets in deep trouble
every time I hear it. (he has used it 2 or 3 times this past week)
TC knows saying bad words is wrong but I think he has such impulse control problems that he
cannot help it some days. STILL he gets in trouble for it.

We try to deal with TC's anxiety and we don't want to medicate him but I wonder if one day it will come to that. Right now, he is 9 years old, and I feel it is managable. It may not always be that way.

Sigh.

We are just taking it day to day!

Family visit

TC enjoyed spending time with my mom and stepdad this weekend. He even stayed the night with them at the hotel!!!! They came down for my niece's graduation. We had a really good time.

Park

These are photos taken at the park. A great friend came down and we had a picnic. I picked up the kids early and TC had fun! 2 more weeks are left of school. I cannot wait, and I know TC and Sara can't!

Weekend

Today is Sunday. Yesterday we went to the movies, I was actually off!! Sara and I saw "Water for Elephants" and TC and hubs saw "Thor". Afterwards TC said "Thor" was a little scary but he enjoyed it.

We got pizza after the movies. I wasn't feeling too good so I laid down. I ended up sleeping from 7 to 6 am this morning! I guess I was really tired. This week has been soooooooooo busy at work. The kids are both so ready for school to be over and I second that emotion.

Today hopefully it will warm up so we can mow, how is it 50 degrees outside in the middle of May??

Weather and health issues

TC had a nosebleed at school this morning, his teacher e mailed me. Mondays are never fun but he made it through the day. We all did!
The weather is rainly and blah. Hopefully tomorrow it will warm up.
TC's allergies and eczema are out of control.

Gotta love TX weather, we have our heat going right now. A few days ago, the a/c was on!

Friday update

We have had a pretty good week, other than crazy storms on Tuesday. TC is doing pretty well in school, both kids are ready for summer. Sara is failing algebra. She has a "15" to attend this weekend but after that she is soooooooo grounded. I try to be fair, but if she doesn't get it together she will be repeating 9th grade.

Work is crazy and a bit frustrating but I try to push ahead. I worked an hour over 3 days this week because gas is so expensive! And food is too!!!

Hope everybody has a great weekend. I am off today and just cleaned out TC's toy box...a lot of the toys he never played with or were just crap. They are going bye bye!

Another reward

TC had another special olympics meet yesterday. He did great, and brought home tons of medals. He also got to eat pizza which he loved.

Luckily today is my Friday, I have not felt well due to sinus issues. It has been a rough one.

A day off causes drama

TC and Sara were out of school yesterday. I went to work, hubs called in because we had major storms all night. So this morning I went outside to start hubby's truck, TC was in the kitchen when I came back and he was all excited thinking he was staying home again! NOT!! He said, "Mom, just leave and go to work!" I sure burst his bubble when I told him he IS going to school. He was very whiney when I put him on the bus. I hope he has a good day. I am off work today and I have to take my sister to get her car from the shop later so I need to get some housework done. It never ends!

Handsome boy

This is a photo of TC before his field trip. Isn't he handsome with his new hair cut?? I am off today so I am catching up on some blogs, laundry and already cooked dinner!!!

IEP............seriously?

Today was IEP day. OMG. Let me just say that TC's teacher really threw me for a loop today. First let me start at the beginning....the lady who did his evaluation went over all of the testing (speech, etc) and where he was for his age. Some parts he did really well on but many he was below average...which was to be expected. Anyways, I never really pay much attention to the numbers or rank, he is a 9 year old but his brain is not that of a typical 9 year old. And the occupational therapist said he is on task with his motor skills and does not qualify for o.t. anymore. So when it got to be his teacher's turn, she said he has been having some anger issues, getting mad and hiding under his desk and he is always corrected for this behavior. This is where I was thrown for a loop. She said, "And he is hearing those voices of Larry and Carl. He does the talking thing with Larry and he says Larry is his hand. He even drew Larry as his hand and sometimes TC throws things and he blames Larry for it. " I was like WTH? I asked her what was she talking about???? Voices???? I told her he does pretend and as far as Larry I don't know who or what Larry is!! So after the meeting I was beside myself, thinking what do I do now??? Is my kid now needing medication?? After I calmed down, I called my hubby and he told me "Kristi, Larry is a hand puppet that TC saw on You Tube. You know he pretends all the time!" (He has been banned from You tube.) Seriously? My kid was mimicking a puppet he saw on the computer and I was thinking he was schizophrenic. I am not saying TC does not have some issues, I realize he does, but I am pissed about the teacher diagnosing him or saying he was hearing voices. Below is a photo taken by another mom at Special Olympics yesterday.

Fun day

Yesterday I was off work and TC had a field trip that he and I went on together. We went to a gymnastics place where the kids did different areas of play, and it all involved math. They had worksheets to take to each different activity. TC did really well and participated fully in everything. He has been really suffering with his sinuses and has had many nosebleeds this week. Bless his heart!

The kids are both out of school on Monday which TC will be very happy about.
Tomorrow we are cooking out burgers, steaks, sausage and making a nice salad on the side!
The weather has been just gorgeous all week!

Almost over

Spring break is almost over.
Man.
Tomorrow is probably going to be DRAMA with TC.
Autistic kids don't like change.

But I took some time off and we have had fun.
We went out for pizza, went shopping, to the movies, and had lots of outdoor play.
We are planning on planting some flowers today.
TC is already up, outside and swinging.

Gotta love spring!

Spring has sprung

The kids are on Spring Break next week. Woo hoo!
This means no getting them up at 5:30 and I can get ready for work and not have to rush around. I swear, most days I am stressed before I even get to work!

And I have a 3 day work week. This crazy Tx weather had people's bills so high that every other call I answered in the last few weeks was someone fussing about their high bill. I swear I sounded like a record player saying the same thing over and over again. (You use more heat at night when you are asleep...what are you using to heat?.....what is your thermostat set on?)
I have become an electricity expert LOL!

Hope everybody has a fantastic week!

Cooking

TC helped me make homemade pizza today.

He really enjoyed it!!!

All I can say is wow!

TC read to me last night.

He has been learning sight words.

He had written a sentence and he actually read the sentence to me.

The sentence was "I see a boy with a horse."

I cried tears of joy after he read this to me.

I could not be more proud!

Sick

We have not been feeling too good lately. First it was TC, running a fever over the weekend, now Sara and I are feeling bad. I am at work but feeling light-headed and throat is hurting. I just ate an orange and may drink some Theraflu and hit the sack early tonight.

Crazy TX Weather is the culprit!

Big boy

I was so proud of TC Saturday, we took the kids to a place to use up our gift cards.And TC drove the go cart all by himself. But I forgot my darn camera! Dang it!

Anyways we had fun, played laser tag and games. And it cost us zero!
I am at work today but hubby and kids are home. Hope everybody has a great week.

Special Olympics

Thankfully the bad weather is over....hopefully!
TC has had a lot of health issues with asthma/eczema.

Hubs has decided to help TC with his letter recognition and reading. I want to jump in and help but it is okay to let him do it. I just need to back off.

Special Olympics are coming up. I am thinking of letting TC participate this year, hopefully he will be okay with his asthma.

I am exhausted today but wanted to post and say hi.

Weather, haircuts and no school

Tc has been home all week. Monday he wasn't feeling well so hubby kept him home. The weather was bad on Tuesday and Wednesday, school was closed, and all of us were home. Thursday there were rolling blackouts so I left the kids home while I went to work. I had no way to get them home if school released early. And today, we woke up to over 6 inches of snow so no school again!!

I cut TC's hair last night but he moved a lot, so it is not perfect and a little shorter on top than I normally cut it. It is not too bad, but not great either... I have definitely done better haircuts on him before. I hate it when he moves during a hair cut. No worries, it will grow out and is not bad unless you get right on top of his head and examine it. Sara went on and on about how messed up it is and made him self concious. Sometimes having a teen is very difficult. I want to pop her one about once or twice a week....I don't but I really want to!

I know one thing, I am sick of this crazy weather and ready for things to get back to normal. I know you all have way harsher winters but we Texans are not used to this!

Bad behavior and hurtful things said

This week has been sort of tough. TC's behavior has been very NOT GOOD! And stressful! He is very high strung and antsy and upsets easily.

He just got upset and told me "Go live in your other house with your real family."
WTH? I told him, "You are my family and so is Dad and Sara so I'm not going anywhere. And you need to be nicer to me, I am your Mom and I love you more than anybody in this world."

Of course after he said that to me, he said some other ugly things, and I told him he is NOT going to treat me like that. Afterwards, when he calmed down, he was remorseful and apologized. I think sometimes in the heat of the moment, he verbally attacks me. I am trying to teach him that it is NOT okay.

Sigh. I am ready for the weekend.

Thank you

Thanks for all the nice comments on my previous post. I really should have thought about TC having the pencil before I began cutting his toenails. I really can't get upset at him, I should have really considered his surroundings, the fact that he was having an asthma attack, was tired and my cutting his toenails was another stressful factor.

TC does so well most days. His aggression is rare. I mean, it hardly ever happens. There are still some behavioral issues, his language is a work in progress, he still curses but I do let him know it is not acceptable. But he surprises me everyday with his ability to overcome stressful situations. I know life is not easy for him and school is tough as well. I have to give him props for holding it together as well as he does. Given his health issues on a daily basis, he does wonderful.

Let me just say even when I forget about the autism, things like this happen and I remember. I will be more aware in the future!!

I cannot believe this happened

TC's behavior has NOT BEEN GOOD lately. He has been saying bad words, being mean and rude, and threatening to call the police on us when we get onto him. Thanks to the 9-1-1 talk they had at school!

I threatened him all day yesterday because of his bad behavior. I took Sara shopping she had some respite $ to spend and TC had already picked out an army guy at the grocery store yesterday morning, the army guy was around $2.50 so I agreed to purchase the toy. I told TC, "This is all you get today." And he agreed.

When I took Sara to the store to shop, TC was mad and wanted to get another toy and I told him no. And he wasn't happy but I told him he would live.

Fast forward to last night. After TC's shower I was in his room with him. He was ready to draw some pictures and I looked at his toes and his toenails were soooooooo long so I decided to trim them. I didn't think anything about it, he HATES to get them trimmed but I needed to get it done. He was also having an asthma attack so I was giving him a breathing treatment too while trimming his toes. And the next thing I know, I heard him say, "I am gonna stab you." And he took the pencil and stabbed me in the back. I screamed, it HURT! And I immediately grabbed the pencil and reprimanded him. I asked Hubs to look at my back to make sure I wasn't bleeding (I wasn't) but I was livid. And Hubs was too!! He popped TC's butt and told him that is NOT acceptable.

Let me just say we rarely spank TC. I think there are other methods of discipline that can be used other than Whooping butt...however in this case I feel it was appropriate.

But the whole incident scares me and I try not to go "to the future" in my mind. I just worry sometimes and don't want TC's anger to get the best of him and I don't want him to hurt anybody in anger or frustration. We do not medicate him but I realize we may have to look at that in the future if he cannot control his impulses.

Sigh.

I am feeling a little blue over the whole situation today.

It's Saturday!

I know I am terrible about posting on this blog lately. We made it through another work and school week. The kids are out Monday and hubby is off work but I have to work.Blah.

At least I don't have to get the kids up and off to school. I have to wake them up around 5:40 am to get TC on the bus by 6:30 and get Sara dropped off by 6:45 since I have over a 40 minute commute to work and my schedule is 7:30 to 4:15 daily. Hopefully my schedule stays good like this, I enjoy being home in the evenings with my babies and hubby.

TC and I are off to buy groceries once I get my makeup on and then I promised Sara to take her to the outlet mall, she has $30 that is burning a hole in her pocket!

Back to school

TC has done very well this week transitioning back to school after Christmas break. He even brought home 2 "happy grams" today. One was for learning to read and another for counting all by himself to 20 with no help. I am so proud of him!

He gets up and ready and is excited to catch the bus at 6:35 am. Wow. He is a trooper!