Joy's Autism Blog

Happy Halloween everyone! Here are the pics of our family:

Ironman (Adrian)

Whoopie Cushion (Lincoln)

Super Girl (Sanura)

The Cat (Nevaeh)

All the kids together:

I can say autism makes it a little more difficult to trick or treat. Adrian does not understand when people just hold out the bowl of candy for him to take one. He tries to take a huge handful. He doesn’t say thank you or trick or treat even though we’ve worked on it so I try to say it for him.

The kids had a good time. We just went to a church down the road and did trunk or treat there. We usually go visit family so they can see the kids costumes but this year with the move we don’t know anyone so it made me a bit homesick.

I was browsing through old pictures and wishing Adrian was still a baby.

Wishing I was back there before I knew anything about autism or had any inkling that there was anything different about Adrian.

Ooooing and Awwwing over how absolutely adorable he was, and still is.

Amazed at how alike Lincoln and Adrian look and how different they look from the rest of us, them with their blue eyes and lighter and hair, and us with our brown eyes and darker hair.

Wondering, did he always have autism?

But mostly just lovin’ him and thinking about how glad I am he’s here

Adrian came home today with what looks like a wax museum spiderman picture. It looks strange. Adrian loved it! He carried that picture around and yelled at it all afternoon. When Nevaeh tried to take it from him today he said “gimmie the picture” Wow. Wow. Love that. I guess I haven’t mentioned all of Adrian’s awesomeness this week.The other day I was trying to take an afternoon nap while my hubby watched the kids. Adrian was humming non-stop and it was irritating me after a couple hours of it so best for me to go have a little nap. While I was up there I heard Adrian reciting Humpty Dumpty. It was pretty awesome. There are more instances but I just can’t think of them, I should make notes of them as they happen because it’s really amazing.

The reason I bring up the Spiderman picture though is because almost each day he’s coming home with little Spiderman trinkets almost each day so I got to thinking ” I wonder if the teacher wants me to send these back?” See, last year I would allow Adrian to bring his little action figure to school if he was having trouble parting with it and the teacher asked me not to let him bring these things because it was too distracting during school so I taught him to say “bye Spiderman!” and leave it behind. I’m starting to realize this teacher may want Adrian to bring something to distract him, especially at certain times of the day. Yet another thing I need to bring up with her.

It’s getting so chilly here in Iowa. I think our high was in the low 60′s today. I was freezing most the day, not complaining, I love fall! I shut all the windows today and put some fans away. I packed away shorts, dresses, and tank tops. I’ve been searching for new recipes, preferably ones that smell up the whole house with yummy smells and cook for long periods of time so they heat up the house a little touch. I love love fall. I love the change of the trees. I love the smell of fallen leaves. I love going for walks in the brisk fall air. My favorite!

Another great fun fall activity…Halloween! Sanura asked me what my favorite holiday was the other day and I had to say Halloween! I love helping the kids get all dressed up. I went down and searched through my bin of costumes and the only one I need to get a costume for is Sanura. I would prefer her to be a monarch butterly that I saw at the store but she’s leaning towards a spider. Oh well…mom’s can only choose the costume for so long I suppose. Anyway, more to come about Halloween later I am sure.

I’m feeling really good, my aprehension from back to school worries is finally begining to fade away. It was just a hard month or so but I am feeling great.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared any pictures on the blog so here are a few:

Here is one of all the kids together, a photographer I am NOT! :

Nevaeh being her usually cheesy self:

Lincoln eating a gogurt and looking cute:

Lincoln playing with a barn animal toy:

Lincoln in his cute flannel jammies. I love him in these he looks like such a little man:

Daddy takes Adrian for ice cream this afternoon. Daddy orders a banana split.

Adrian spits it out.

Translation: What??! I thought I was getting ice cream and you feed me banana? *spit*

Lincoln is eating some spaghetti for dinner tonight. I give him a fork and spaghetti on a plate.

Lincoln yells at spaghetti whilst trying to stab it with a fork.

Translation: Get in my belly spaghetti!

Nevaeh says “you are my best friend ______” (fill in the blank with any member of the household)

Translation: “I want _____” fill in the blank with anything Nevaeh wants.

Adrian screams and screams and screams.

Translation: “This is so awesome I just can’t hold it in” Usually in response to a toy, shoe, paper, tv show, etc, etc, etc.

Sanura says “Mom?!”

Translation: “I’m just about to ask you for something”

Me: “I need to run to the store for _______” (whatever)

Translation: ” I need to get out of here before I snap on someone”

And a couple of pictures just for fun:

Lincoln being naughty:

But look who taught him…

But they’re just too stinkin cute to get mad at:

And I got a hair cut. I took these pictures myself…in the evening…with not a stitch of make up but here we go! I thought the lady made my eyebrows kind of thin when she waxed them and I keep telling Glen that I look surprised!

Totally Serious…

And happy happy joy joy:

I took Lincoln for his first haircut this morning. He did so good! In fact the lady who cut it said he’s a role model for kids getting their haircut and that he’s best behaved child that she’s cut. He was so cute. He just sat on my lap and watched himself in the mirror.

So here he is before with his crazy long hair:

And here he is after his haircut:

And I have a couple of Nevaeh from Easter morning:

And Adrian from Easter morning, I couldn’t get him to look at me but you get the idea:

I had Sanura’s conference last Thursday. She did so good, we are very proud of her. This year has been amazing compared to her kindergarten and 1st grade school years. I wish we could ask her teacher this year to just teach her every year, wonder if he’d go for that? Ha! The best we can hope for is that she has matured and gained enough confidence that she won’t have any more issues at school from here forward. Her grades have always been awesome, it’s just the behaviour we’ve had trouble with but this time……..good behaviour and good grades. As a reward I took her out to pick out a new chapter book. She’s really into this series about fairies.

I got paperwork today for Adrian’s summer school. He’ll be attending a new school this summer so that always comes with some apprehension on my part. I can’t believe they expect parents to just load up their kids on the bus without seeing the classroom or meeting the teacher. I always take him the first day at least so I can make sure I’m comfortable with everything but they really should set up parent/teacher meetings before the summer school starts. He’ll go from July 6th to August 6th. At least the new school has air conditioning and hopefully he won’t be spending an hour on the bus each way this year.

Speaking of buses, Adrian was brought home by a different driver today and she was trying to unhook his harness and she kept saying “sit back or I can’t unhook the harness” she was getting increasingly agitated with Adrian and said something like “look at you! Sit back or I can’t unhook this!” I wanted to slap her quite honestly. I HATE bus transportation……I really do. They’re so clueless. Duh, he has autism, he’s not very good at following direction so just deal with it.

I took Nevaeh shoe shopping today. Oh my, does that girl love shoes! She wanted pretty much every pair of shoes she saw and she kept saying “I love shoes!” We ended up getting 3 pairs *sigh* at least they were on clearance!

Glen is planning a trip to Houston in the near future. He’ll be taking Nevaeh so she can see his parents. They’ve never met Nevaeh. I’m glad they get to meet her and spend some time with her but it sure is going to be difficult for me! I don’t want to part with my baby. Glen is going to set up video phone so I can see her.

It snowed yesterday! I want spring, it looks like it’s going to be getting a bit nicer now. Probably in the 50′s for Easter so that won’t be too bad.

And with that I have a few pictures to share:

Big boy Lincoln eating cereal at the table:

Adrian’s Drawings:

This is a ghost and he was running around yelling “Ahhh! Ghost….scary!”

I was gone for a bit and came home to find this:

And this is a new picture of me. It’s been a while since I updated my photo: