Out of the Mouth of Babes

Andrew has come out with some doozeys tonight. I just had to get them down on paper.




Playing Apples to Apples he came out with some real winners:

• Wild: "My mom" because sometimes she is just really wild and crazy!
• Stinky: "Getting Mail" because there can be all those bills and stuff.
• Skinny: "Girls" when they have those abs muscles things. You know, those things that go pop pop pop. (As he demonstrates a 6 pack.)
• Loud: "Taking a bath" from the swooshing sound of the water. (Um..he's hearing impaired so he does not hear in the bath although he has heard me draw water. I guess he thinks like a hearing kid.)

Andrew was also insisting tonight that I am not a REAL teacher! This was while I was printing out coupons for reduced teacher membership at Henry Ford. His detail while playing Apples to Apples was very cool though. He could think up reasons for just about any card to fit. Of course we just 'played for fun.' I am happy that he is just now enjoying some of these games- if not for competition- at least it is a good relationship building time now.

Happy Birthday Andrew

Eight years ago today I was lying in intensive care...so was Andrew even though he was a perfect 9 on the apgar. Just precautionary and I'm sure the decision was also made because there was no place for him to go!! So my dear husband toggled between two hospital rooms and going a bit nutty I am sure. Since then so much has happened....he had a newborn hearing screen and failed. But "it was probably just water in the ears." So since then, we've had a cochlear implant, realized there was 'other stuff,' done hours of hearing rehab, physical rehab, occupational rehab and each year has been a bit of a drain. But.... i feel this is the first year I have really enjoyed my little buddy. And this is all because I have worked where he is at versus where I want him to be. I've worked in God's timing...not mine. Read below for some accomplishments in language, development and relationships!

Just today, we walked down to the gas station to get a paper. We do that often as I have mentioned and I told Andrew he could get a Wonka candy. He can't eat them mind you....he just loves the wrappers. And since we frequent this place the attendant gave him an additional free candy when we said it was Andrew's birthday. Andrew says.."Thanks! That's Out of Control!!!!!" You would have thought he'd won the lottery. I also taught him 'off the hook' on the way home;) Gotta keep a homeschool kid up on the lingo!

My last post was on our trip to a local park. The pictures show Andrew with another little boy Josh. We do not know this boy....Andrew and him just 'hooked up' amongst a hundred kids at the playground. Andrew would run off and Josh would follow him....Josh would run off and Andrew would chase him down. We took a brief 5 minute bathroom break because I felt Andrew needed a mini-chill.... but Josh was actually following us on the way back LOL. They played for an hour! The sad part, in this day and age, is that I felt uncomfortable asking mom for a phone number exchange because it was clear that she was not interested. Andrew was very very broken hearted yelling...get her phone number mom!!!!!!!!! We soothed the open wounds by stopping at MDs for a Star Wars happy meal toy on the way home. Shopping and eating...it solves everything;) Well- it doesn't HURT as long as you don't count on it. But he did handle it well. I think we all use distractions when we feel hurt. Andrew was very hurt about a potential lost relationship. That's wonderful.

And since I've taken a bit more relaxed homeschooling approach...meaning shorter focused lesson times aka Charlotte Mason, Andrew has really taken off. Here is a picture an artistic work he did just this morning...100% his work: the cutting, the writing the folding. When he was two years old in early intervention they were trying to get him to cut with scissors. He wasn't ready and he rebelled...so did his mommy. Given time, patience and working in the 'zone' he makes tremendous progress because it is not disheartening! He can actually DO new things!!!



And yesterday we went to The Henry Ford Museum. It is a favorite place even though the open expanse can make it difficult for Andrew to hear. What a great time. The best part was the language exchange between us and between Andrew and a 'guide' in the museum. There was a very specific place Andrew wanted to see in the museum; the mock up of the inside of a plane. He didn't know how to communicate it and I had no idea what he wanted. I told him he could describe it to a guide and she understood Andrew's words but not what he was describing but she suggested we go to the upper level to see all of the exhibits. While walking around upstairs I finally realized what it was he wanted to see! So his language and speech were great and he did not melt down! We just kept figuring out new solutions! It was great. Here is a picture of the cockpit.





Our big party is tomorrow but today the teenage cousins are coming for a sleepover!!! I made cupcakes this morning...with the wrong flour....still gluten free but I used tapioca flour instead of my blend...oops. Tastes great but the texture of a tire. Andrew didn't seem to mind. Will buy King Dons for the cousins this evening. The cake however, made with the correct flour is lovely. Thanks Tammy and Penny. I took a combo of all the recipes LOL! I'll post it later.

I thought I'd include a few other pictures from our visit to The Henry Ford Museum. It is a fun place to visit. If you come, I'll be sure to take you there. We saw all the usual stuff and also he sat and listened to a brief presentation by a live person while sitting on Rosa Park's bus. I don't know how much of it he actually understood but he sat and listened. (mostly.) I'm including a picture Andrew took of me. I think he was telling me to 'be a gorilla...." and he was doing the same in some of the other pictures. Fun times!!!

LEMONADE FOR SALE

WELCOME TO MY SALE. DO YOU WANT SOME LEMONADE?

WHERE ARE THE CUSTOMERS?

OH HAPPY DAY!!

HMMM...WHICH ONE?





This one!!! For Babo's description see below it contains idioms!

I am planning a future blog where Andrew and I put together our lemonade stand. It was an excellent guided participation venture and I did catch it all on video. But for now I will upload a few pictures. There were quite a few customers at Grandpa's garage sale. And we learned a few lessons to boot- not to mention the language opportunities!!


Favorite quote: "This isn't fun, but it's exciting." When I pressed him he said, "It's hhhaaarrrddd work but I'm earning money." With his profits, he bought a new ugly doll- Babo. Mom and dad had to a chip in a bit extra.

I put Andrew in charge of the money and I poured the lemonade. This worked out very well. He was able to figure out how much for two people, how to make change and he learned about tips. Just yesterday we were at the mall and went for french fries at the food court. (a small feat and blogworthy event as well.) He wondered what a tip jar was and today he received a 95 cent tip!

He learned to be nice to all garage sale customers- even the crotchety old ones that wouldn't look us in the eye. After being a tad of a 'hard sell' he yelled at the second one, "HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!!"

Another 'tip' a friend gave me to make it even simpler for those that don't understand the value of money- just charge 'a coin' and then the customer can decide what they will give.


Babo Description:
Babo is best friends with Wage...and the cookie jar. But once he gets to know you and the kinds of snacks you keep around the house...he will focus mostly on the snacks! We all know Babo's got your back, and he will stick up for you when the chips are down...unless it's potato chips. If those are down, it's time to get over to the store and pick some up. Why does Babo seem smaller? He's just too far away from you! When you guys hug, he'll seem to be a lot bigger.

Thrilling Thursday

The Oakland County Fair has an incredible service that it does- for two hours they open up the carnival rides to JUST special needs folks AND it's free. The workers are just wonderful and kind and I do believe that they are the same ones on each ride every year- give or take. I do remember the worker on the Dumbo ride from last year. You just know he knows someone with some special need. And the roller coaster operators were asking about Andrew's implant and wondering if it would work for Grandma who always says..."HUH??!!" LOL.

I created two montages. The first one is just an overview of our staycation. The second is the bumper cars. The emotion sharing and referencing is pretty cool, don't you think?! There is little in the way of spoken language at an event like this. At one point I said to DH, "we must get Andrew's map checked." He reminded me (gently) that we were at that point walking past a giant compressor.

I think everyone with special needs kids has 'markers' of how a child was "the last time they did that." This is one of those for me. This year we stayed longer, shared more things (including animals), had more fun, better waiting (although there was a 'this is long and boring comment') and no meltdowns when there were two rides we would not let him do! A funny language thing for the day; somehow we were talking about kids and Andrew says, "Speaking of kids, I want to see the goats."


PS...DH was playing around with a cool feature I didn't know our camera had until a friend showed me some pictures taken from her camera...so maybe yours can do it too. We could focus on one color and the rest are of the picture is black and white. Very cool.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hovering.....and social graces.

I am so thankful that we were invited to a birthday party today. To my friend whose kids' party it was...you know who you are and it touched my heart.

As a bit of background, I was just with a few moms having dinner- all have autistic kids. We were saying how we have to hover around our children. One mom commented that another mom walked into a haircut place with many kids. She (the mom w/ the AI kid) thought- gee I am sure they will have to hover and keep an eye on them. But no..there was no need to hover even with many kids. And this isn't a behavioral thing that the child gets into "trouble." They just don't 'get' the social graces or safety issues. Rather, it comes slowly. We "reaffirmed" the hovering thing at a graduation party last weekend as we were always on top of Andrew. It is what it is...as they say...I want to scaffold things for Andrew so that he doesn't miss out but at the same time I need to make sure he isn't in "over his head." (just as a bit of an aside, I've been reading about all the similarities of Alzheimer and autism...both in the origin and in the way it plays itself out with it's caretakers. I'm going to blog on that some day- but wondered if anyone else had thoughts about this.)

I mostly write about all the rip roaring positive stuff but thought I'd interject a bit of 'humor' as to how a party goes with a kid like Andrew....

Chapter one...Andrew can read.

There were two kids with T-shirts with words there. The first one said, "I see your lips move but all I hear is blah blah blah." Well, Andrew spent quite a bit of time trying to befriend her because there was a monkey on the shirt. He loves monkeys. He also went around saying to people..."I see your lips move but all I hear is blah blah blah." And if they hadn't seen the shirt then..well..Andrew looked kind of rude. (The shirt WAS very funny!)

Another's shirt said "Princess." Andrew kept trying to kiss her....many times. I thought the shirt said something along the lines of "if you kiss me I will turn into a princess" but he had gotten the idea from a TV show. On the way home he questioned me and he truly did NOT know that trying to kiss someone was rude. I guess he is mostly around close friends and family so this does make sense. I still haven't gotten it out of him if he thinks she will really turn into a princess.

On the subject of 'rude" we have recently read Captain Underpants. Bad idea....Andrew pulled down his pants at the party LAST weekend. He thought it was funny. I told everyone, "don't laugh." Of course Captain Underpants is twaddle; The Emperor's New Clothes however is not. We read that today and it reinforced that being naked in public is OK. um...I was hoping for a different connection.

Chapter 2....Science experiments....and Juice Bags

Juice bags are very inviting. Andrew is adamant to NOT eat or drink anything that may effect his behavior. Taking the used packages out of the garbage and trying to blow them up like balloons is another matter.

Chapter 3....Tracking

Andrew loves to 'keep track' of things. One way we have scaffolded this is to take pictures. He was most interested in taking pictures of ALL the presents. Try as I might to keep him out of the way it was most difficult. He may never look at the pictures...but they must all be accounted for in his mind. My choice was to stay and take the pictures or leave in a fit of screaming. This time I chose to stay.

Andrew had a rip roaring time. I was exhausted to be sure! (ps: I was going to post a picture but I don't like to post other people's kids without permission so you will just have to use your imagination for now.)