Joy's Autism Blog

Like most people I know, we’ve been sick around here for about 2 weeks. When you have four children it takes a while to cycle through the whole house. The people who were originally sick, Glen, Sanura, and Nevaeh are finally feeling better although now Glen is struggling with fall time allergies. Lincoln was just not getting better. I thought he was but then the night before last he was up coughing a lot so today I took him in to the doctor to have him looked at. His lungs and ears were good but his sinuses were clogged up and his throat was red, the diagnosis, a sinus infection. So not so bad, 10 days of the pink stuff and he should be better I hope! Adrian started coughing today so we’ll see what we end up with as time goes on for him.

I despise taking my kids to the doctor. Here is why (uh oh it’s a list )

1. It seems as though any time I take one of the kids to the doctor they pick up some virus from the waiting room.
2. It takes up much of the day. By the time you get them all ready to go, packed up in the car, get there and check in, wait for the insurance lady to check us in and pay our co-pay, go up to the doctor waiting room and wait for who knows how long(while trying to entertain kids), get called back (hallelujah!), wait in the exam room for who knows how long (while trying to entertain kids), talk to the doctor, and possibly go get a prescription if needed…don’t even get me started with the hullabaloo that causes! LOL Anyway, point is, it takes a lot of the day up!
3. I never know when to take them! Are they sick enough to go? You don’t want to wait too long because you don’t want them to feel icky but also knowing many illnesses just need to “run their course” I don’t want to run to the doctor for every little illness! So usually I end up feeling silly for either not taking them soon enough, or for bringing them in at all!
4. It’s expensive, even after our outrageous insurance payments, it’s still expensive.

So yeah, much of our day was spent running about doing doctor related things. Nevaeh forgot her princess figures in the doctor exam room. I was not about to go back to the clinic for them (shame on me!) so while we were waiting for Lincoln’s prescription we picked out a new little princess figure and got a few other things that we always seem to be running out of-bananas and milk. And a few things we didn’t need-fruit snacks and animal crackers. And then I blew my diet with lunch at McDonalds because I didn’t feel like making something after running around all morning. I probably could have ordered more calorie smart at McDonalds but I didn’t. Oh well…sigh!

So that was my day with the little ones. Time goes too fast after the kids finally get home from school. I hadn’t even realized that it was past their bedtime tonight because I was loving hanging out with them so much. We finally got them in bed and they had a story and now I’m sitting in the quiet. It’s pretty nice to do that too though.

Glen and I try to watch different TV show series together on amazon or netflix instant view during some of his nights off. Yes, we lead an exciting life…like two dates a year if we’re lucky…sigh…Anyway! Right now we are watching “Lost” and we are on season 4. That would be sweet to just live on an island where food is dropped out of the sky and lo and behold there are houses packed with furniture and other essentials. Ok…minus the smoke monster and the “others” but other then that, that would be sweet. I would live there! I would miss my computer and chasing the kids back from the ocean would be quite the job but all in all I think it would be pretty cool.

I got a new shoe rack that hangs over the door. When you have a family of six you seem to collect a lot of shoes. And it’s not me who is the shoe hoarder around here. I literally have a pair of sneakers for working out, sandles, and a pair of flip-flops. Sanura on the other hand has too many shoes. Every time I see shoes on clearance in the girls’ sizes I can’t seem to resist. Sanura is wearing a size 6 1/2 in women’s! Are you kidding me? She’s going to have lovely giant monkey feet like her mother… Oh back to the shoe rack, I lost my train of thought. I just bought it the other day and Adrian somehow ripped it off the door tonight. My guess is he was trying to climb it like spiderman but I wasn’t out there at the moment so I’m not sure what happened. We think it can be fixed but right now the rack is leaned against the wall and there are shoes strewn all over the kitchen. Wonderful.

And in other spiderman news:Adrian was pretending to shoot spiderwebs today because he thinks he’s spiderman and every time he shot a web he would say “WEBSITE! WEBSITE!” Couldn’t get any cuter than that. He’s done that before but I never get over the cuteness of that one.

It seemed so quiet in the house today with the older kids at school all day. I was so ready for them to get home by the time their bus rolled around. What a relief that everything went smoothly with the bus today. We also get to check up on if the teachers are getting him off the bus because we get to ask Sanura! It’s definitely not my 8 year old daughter’s responsibility to make sure he gets to the classroom safely so I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen and today indicates that the teachers are going to be getting him off the bus and taking him to the classroom safely.

I had to take Sanura to the doctor the other day for a rash on her arm. It was an easy fix but we ended up waiting for at least an hour and a half for the doctor to come in. This is not the first time Sanura and I have been stuck in waiting rooms at the doctor office, like everyone else. Half the time I think we leave with a new illness that we didn’t have before waiting in that room with all the sick people. We usually read a book or two, play I Spy, and talk about randomness like her asking me my favorite color, my second favorite color, and so on (her favorite is yellow, then pink, then orange, then green etc)…asking me what she should be for Halloween (she wants to be a spider but I’m guessing she’ll change her mind) . When we were playing I Spy she totally cheated though. She said “I see something green”…I begin naming green things from around the room. It’s a small almost stark white exam room and I had seriously named every green thing in the darn room. I am competitive, I don’t like to give up but eventually I relented and said “ok I give up” and what was the green thing??? Her imaginary friend Cheater…We had a fun time chatting though!

I don’t like beer. I don’t like to drink in general. It really doesn’t do anything for me that I actually enjoy. One day though Glen convinced me to take a sip of his Corona. So I did what any normal person would do…I sniffed it a couple times (it smells a bit like skunk) and then I took a tiny sip. Hey it’s not too bad. I grabbed the bottle and a volleyball (cause what goes better with Corona then playing some volleyball?) and went outside with Sanura and Adrian to hit it around. They loved it, not the corona…the volleyball playing…every now and then I would take a tiny sip of the Corona. I wasn’t particularly enjoying it but I though Glen might be a bit irritated if I wasted one of his beers so I was doing my best to grin and bear it. And then thankfully I hit the volleyball and knocked the beer over and it spilled all over. I was happy. Hey I told you this was going to be random….

Yeah I’m in a writing mood so I’m going to do an episode of “My View” from our local news.

First thing is really kind of funny. A local business had to post a sign on their front door that said “Please excuse our mess. A car drove through our building.” because a lady drove her car right through a Kentucky Fried Chicken. So this says what kind of person I am first, I laughed about the sign because…well…it’s just funny. Next I thought “hmm chicken sounds good” then immediately after I thought “no you pig! You’re trying to lose weight!” Now the third thing I thought just really shows how I can turn every imaginable subject back into autism because I though of our house as the KFC and autism was the car that drove a big hole in it and caused chaos and confusion. Lastly I thought how scary that would be! Can you imagine sittin’ there eatin your finger lickin chickin goodness and a car slams through the building, I think if I didn’t have a heart attack from eating the greasy chicken that car would have done the job.

The next story was about a rabid squirrel. I hate squirrels, I’m scared of squirrels and now I feel more justified. He was acting lethargic and then attacking people and he bit an animal control officer. Darn squirrels better stay away from me!

Now they’re testing the H1N1 vaccines here in Iowa. I think we’re one of eight states that are doing the testing. The things that come to mind about this for me is that I’m nervous that they’re rushing a vaccine through. I understand it could become an extra urgent situation come fall when everyone is in school and such but it just makes me nervous. I will be doing a lot of research and reading before one of those needles would pierce my child.

Lastly, we’re excited about this meteor shower stuff. I’m always fascinated with astronomy. Matter of fact I just enjoy learning in general and what a great opportunity God put up in the sky for us. Glen is going to take Sanura tomorrow night out in an open field and they’re going to check it out. It should be a fun night for them. The meteor showers go on until August 22nd but optimal viewing is like…tonight and tomorrow after midnight.

And now on to things not related to our local news

I got an award today from Lea over at The Whites in New Zealand so check out their blog over there when you get a chance! I’m supposed to pass this on to 15 blogs but I don’t really read a lot of other blogs just the ones there to the right on my sidebar so please check them out, they are all wonderful.

The early morning sun was annoying me out of my restful slumber and there were children below begining to stir. I sighed and rolled over on my back and checked the clock, to see if it was just early or un-godly early. I sat up collected my cell phone from the side table and a warm, snugly, sweet-smelling baby boy from next to me and headed down the stairs.

I plopped down on the couch and checked my email and facebook and decided since I was hungry I better get the kids something to eat and then myself. I got down cereal and bananas for the kids and yougurt and granola for myself.

I sat down for breakfast and read a little bit of “To Kill a Mockingbird” which I started earlier this week when I was inspired by a facebook survey about how many classic books I’ve read and discovered that I was severely lacking.

I reluctantly put down my book and began straightening up the house, changed Lincoln’s diaper, doing dishes, and starting laundry. Just as I was about to finish the dishes I hear a loud siren. Tornado sirens. Crap, I’m terrified of tornadoes. I’ve never seen one, don’t ever want to see one, and if you want to see one then you’re nuts.

So I told Glen “Hey Glen! Sirens are going off…tornado warning” as if he can’t here them…and he says “ok” but that is all. I have the kids get their shoes on because our basement has started to collect a little well of water at the bottom of the stairs from the rain we’ve gotten recently. I debate and wait if I should haul all the children down the steep, rickety stairs that lead to the basement. I decided, as I usually do, better safe then sorry and I help everyone down. I have a tarp laid out on the dirty basment floor that is desperately in need of a good scrubbing and bug killing but I just have not had the time, energy, or desire to get to it so on a tarp we sit playing with toys for about 10 minutes or so. Then as usual, nothing happened and I probably put them in more danger putting them up and down those old steps then the storm outside did but well…better safe then sorry I suppose.

Once we’re back upstairs Glen and I continue on with watching season 2 of Lost, we’re behind. It’s a good show though and we’ve spent too much time watching it the last few days. I cleaned some more and made lunch for the kids. Sanura really wanted to try different kinds of jelly since she’s only tried strawberry and grape so I obliged and bought her some blueberry spread for her sandwich today. All of the kids liked it, it’s always iffy with Adrian but he didn’t seem to notice the difference.

I watched the kids run around and play together, read stories, watched the cartoon Arthur and made tacos for dinner. Nevaeh loves to empty a toy bin that has wheels on it and stick Lincoln in there and pull him around the house. He doesn’t seem to mind.

I kiss four sweet cheeks and pull the blankets up around their little bodies and I am just, thankful. And it will start just like this tomorrow, just the way I like it.

Judging the heck out of each other.

I think half the reason the reality shows are so popular is because people love to pick apart someone else’s life and judge them. Look at The Duggars, oh wahhh, they’re too Christian, they have too many kids, I don’t like Michelle’s hair, the kids dress funny, Michelle submits to her husband, they make the older ones *shudder* work with the younger kids. And just the opposite with Jon and Kate, Kate’s too bossy, Kate’s not patient enough with the kids, Jon’s a dog, Jon doesn’t help enough with the kids. Blah, blah, blah, judge, judge, judge. And what is the excuse? Well they let us see into their lives so we can bad mouth them all we want. I don’t get it, people are so full of hate and so quick to pick out on other’s flaws when it would be more beneficial to everyone if we all just focused on our own flaws and tried to fix those, focus that energy on something that we can control…ourselves!

Nastiness happens on the internet more then any other place. People will nit-pick anything over the internet. I’ve thought about it and I think there are a few reasons for that. Firstly, you can’t hear someone’s tone over typing so sometimes thing may seem offensive when it’s not meant to be. Secondly, people are way more likely to speak their mind on a computer then they are “in real life” because they are hiding behind that computer screen. Thirdly, no body language. People who have popular blogs get slammed by their readers eventually, I’ve seen it time and time again. Interesting how these key elements of communication, tone and body language are something many people with autism have trouble with so i can’t imagine how hard it must be for them to learn these keys to communication that I think almost everyone struggles with at some point.

People outside of the autism community, I think, don’t realize how huge the divide in the community is. The autism community is chock full of judging and hate. I seriously cannot even participate in forums about autism because it’s just plain out too stressful. I don’t want to fight! People want to fight about vaccines, whether autism is a blessing or a curse, whether we should be “curing” or embracing, over the puzzle piece autism symbol, whether autism is an epidemic or just diagnosed more nowadays, and I could go on and on. I don’t see what good this does people. I’ve said it time and time again, in the autism forums I’ve given up on and even with Mothers of “normal” (snicker) kids…obviously all parents love their children down to the core of their very soul and they are going to do whatever they think is best for their children. Why does every darn ol’ thing have to become an all out war? I don’t get it. It makes me sad.

People love to pretend and preach that they except other people and that they don’t judge and the truth is we all do it I’m quite conservative and I’m well aware that my views are not shared by the majority of people but I still feel like I can be friends with the most liberal of people and I feel we can agree to disagree without getting nasty. Sadly, especially on the internet, disagreements rarely squeak by without getting nasty.

A lot of the blogs I read involve either sick children, children with autism, or tragically, people who’ve lost children. I don’t know why I’m attracted to the blogs that I am, well I guess I do know why I read the autism ones but the others….I don’t know I just am drawn to the other blogs. I’ve heard it said in a lot of these blogs or caring bridge pages that people are trying to “find their new normal” and things like that. I don’t know where the saying came from, my guess is a book that someone wrote or something.

What is this normal stuff? Does anyone have a normal life? Seriously, I don’t think anyone I know has a normal life.

A normal personality? What is that? We’re all unique. We all have quirks. None of us fit in the same box, no matter how hard some of “us” try to. I always feel out of place and awkward. Sometimes I wonder if everyone feels that except perhaps the most confident and outgoing people. I was telling Glen the other day the perfect name for me is a “big, clumsy. oaf” I stub my toes all the time, I’m not at all graceful. I’m taller then average and overweight, yep….big….clumsy….oaf. LOL This is more of a joke but you get the point, just awkward. I don’t feel normal.

I think we can all get into our routines and our routines are going to get broken constantly and we’ll try to normalize by sinking back into our routines. Life is strange, it’s most definitely not normal.

I don’t even know the point of this post, see it’s awkward. Sorry ’bout that….

I love the library. I really do.

It smells good, books feel good to hold in your hands and thumb through the pages. Yeah they have all these cool gadgets instead of an old fashionedbooks, made from good ol’ paper. I would much rather hold a book in my hands, just thinking about reading a whole book on a screen gives me a massive migraine.

I took the girls to the library this morning. I debated taking everyone but I hadn’t been in a while and I wasn’t feeling energetic or brave enough to bring everyone today so it was a girls morning out. Nevaeh was scared of this over-sized raccoon stuffed animal that they had in the kid’s area but not so scared of three giant bug stuffed animals go figure…

Sanura got two Junie B Jones books which she will probably have read by Monday. I got three picture books, one of them is way cute it’s called Baby Business and it’s a seriously adorable book. The kids had me read that a couple of times and I’m sure we’ll read it again before it goes back to the library. I don’t know if all kids are this way but my kids love babies!

And we got a classic Eric Carle book, who doesn’t love him? He’s great.

And we got a non-fiction book about bananas, ironically called Bananas. I know it’s weird the things I think about but on the way to the library I was wondering what a real banana tree looks like. I’d only seen them on cartoons I guess LOL so when I saw the Banana book I was all over it. I read that one to the kids too and learned some cool stuff, I know you are all dying to know about bananas so here is a little taste of the Banana book. Did you know that bananas do not grow on trees? It’s actually an herb and the large leaves wrap around themselves and grow upward to form a stem but it’s not really a tree. There are red, green, blue, and yellow bananas…among other kinds but I had never heard of red or blue bananas. In fact the red and blue varieties were around before the yellow varieties. That’s all I’ll share since I know you want to research about banana facts on your own

So probably back to the library on Monday for some more library fun. I wonder if the librarians would go bananas if Adrian stimmed in the library. Bwahaha…

1. What time did you get up this morning?
6:20 am

2. How do you like your steak?
medium-well

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
I don’t remember it’s been a while…maybe 30 Days of Night?

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Biggest Loser

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
Maybe somewhere warmer…I’m happy where I am though

6. What did you have for breakfast?
nothing yet, I just made a cup of cappuccino

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
mexican food

8. What foods do you dislike?
hot dogs

9. Favorite Place to Eat?
Carlos O’ Kellys

10. Favorite dressing?
ranch

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
POC…piece of crap. We are very close to getting something different though

12. What are your favorite clothes?
jeans and comfortable shirts

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
Anywhere…I haven’t seen a lot

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
full

15. Where would you want to retire?
no idea

16. Favorite time of day?
evening

17. Where were you born?
Iowa

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
volleyball

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?
well since I’m not tagging anyone, nobody

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?
see above

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
see above

22. Bird watcher?
no

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
night

24. Do you have any pets?
no

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?
no

26. What did you want to be when you were little?
doctor

27. What is your best childhood memory?
pass

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
I’m a cat person but I like dogs

29. Are you married?
yes

30. Always wear your seat belt?
yes

31. Been in a car accident?
yes

32. Any pet peeves?
of course, several

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings?
sausage

34. Favorite Flower?
orange and yellow roses

35. Favorite ice cream?
mint chip

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Arbys

37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?
I never failed the test with the DMV but I did crash the drivers ed car

38. From whom did you get your last email?
I get facebook notifications all the time.

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
I would never max out a credit card at a store but if I could choose anywhere to have a shopping spree…I love Target

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?
nope

41. Like your job?
Yes, being a stay at home mom is the best thing I’ve ever done.

42. Favorite veggie?
broccoli

43. What was your favorite vacation?
going to Texas to meet my husband’s family

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?
Probably Glen…I don’t know it’s been a while, aka we need a date night

45. What are you listening to right now?
Sid the Science Kid theme song

46. What is your favorite color?
purple

47. How many tattoos do you have?
none

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz?
none

49. What time did you finish this quiz?
7:32am

50. Coffee Drinker?
no

Sanura:

As she was dragging Nevaeh by one arm I said, “Don’t drag your sister by one arm, you’re going to hurt her” and she said, ” Can I drag her by two arms?”

We were driving down the road and I saw a guy in a cowboy hat riding a horse. To excite the kids I exclaimed, “Look you guys! A cowboy!” and Sanura said, “I wish my Dad was with us. He would be so excited to see a cowboy!”

Nevaeh:

Standing on the end table, waving her arms around saying, “This is my kingdom! This is my kingdom!”

Nevaeh was walking around with her behind sticking out of her pants and Glen told her something along the lines of covering up her butt and she said “We all gots butts!” and then she started telling Glen she was “going to smash him”

Adrian:

Getting off the bus, looks at me and says “Hi Buddy!”

I asked Adrian if he wanted to sit in the stroller and he wasn’t answering me…which is not uncommon for him and I said “Adrian do you want to sit in the stroller? Yes or no?” and he said “Yes or no!”

And since Lincoln doesn’t talk yet I’ll just share about his hair cut. Lincoln just turned one year old and he’s already had three haircuts. I gave him his first one, a trim around the ears. His second hair cut I took him to the salon for. He was an angel. Sat perfectly still and stared at himself in the mirror. This time he was quite wild. The cutest part was when an upbeat song came on over the speakers and he stood up on my lap and started dancing. Poor stylist was really trying to cut a moving target.

And can you believe Nevaeh got stung by a bee today? Two kids getting stung by bees in the last two weeks. I had the kids at the park this time and Nevaeh came up to me saying ow! and I saw a sting in between her pointer and middle finger. I decided to head home and put some baking soda on it. By the time we got home (only about 1 mile away) she was absolutely hysterical. She was screaming and her face was bright red. I took her straight over to the urgent care clinic. The whole way there she was freaking out. She was flailing all around in her car seat and kicking the back of my seat. She kept screaming “Help me! I need a doctor!” and I was really scared for her. When we got to the clinic she was still crying really hard (and loud!) and they got us right back. They gave her some Benedryl and watched her for about a half hour. Her finger was very swollen and red. After she calmed down she’s been fine the rest of the night.

I’m hoping we don’t have any more run-ins with bees this summer!

A new fascination for the kids. It was all started by Sanura who decided it would be a good idea to take 3 containers (why 3? I have no idea) and put water in them and put some Cherrios in them and freeze them and then look at them the next day.

Ok, I thought this shouldn’t get too messy and they’re having fun and it’s kind of “sciencey” so I’ll just let them be.

Now the first mess caused by a child who spilled a container in the freezer before it froze. So now I have frozen cherrios stuck in the freezer.

The next day when they were taking the containers out and looking at the ice I thought, “Yes! It’s over, no more messes” (well no more messes from “this” project anway) Until later that day I realize the mega block that I had just picked up and turned over was one of the containers that used to have ice in it but now had water  in it water spilling all over out of it, behind the microwave, a second mess.

After that I told Sanura, no more, that was enough. I had cleaned up enough messes with this freezing fascination. But now I catch Adrian freezing his cups of juice and sneaking in the bathroom to fill cups with water and freeze them. Sometimes he’ll stick a toy dinosaur in or a little action figure and sometimes he’ll just leave them as plain water or juice.

Oh boy, this could get interesting.