hide-n-(sensory)-seeking

Here is a link to a wonderful post about sensory seeking written by an adult with Asperger's. I love how she talks about how the activities made her feel. I had so many seeking tendencies growing up, and so did Victor. Every day at recess in fifth and sixth grade, my best friend and I would swing as high as we could, then jump off. Then one of the boys showed us how to back-flip off the swings and we were hooked! The first couple times was terrifying, but after that it was pure exhilaration! Until my best friend broke her arm, not even from a high jump or a back-flip, just a little jump! And the only person who would ride the Zipper or Eggroll with me at the fair was my Uncle Joe (who was kind of like a big kid himself) because I couldn't get enough of the rolling and plummeting toward the ground upside-down! I did manage to talk my older brother into riding the ejector seat with me one year though. Oh the blissful ignorance of potential injury and steel stomachs of ...

Since Monday afternoon Kit has been up and down with a fever. Yesterday, we were hanging out on the bed together. She was playing on my phone, and without looking up, she said very matter-of-factly: "I'm sick again." "Where in your body are you sick again?" "My eyes." When I asked to see her eyes, sure enough they were teary, red-rimmed, glassy, feverish eyes. They were indeed sick again. Her fever and crept back up. "I'm so glad you told me where you were sick! I'll get you some medicine." While I'm never glad for my babies to be sick, this was a humongous breakthrough for Kit. To be able to tell me that she didn't feel well. While she's never been completely unresponsive to pain or discomfort, she has been seemingly under-responsive. Often even seeming to enjoy what many others would consider painful or unpleasant, such as having an ice cube put down her shirt, by laughing and shouting "again!" For a ...

When I wash the dishes, I have... ...help.

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen or heard! A little  ice  for some summer relief!

So, one of the hiccups in our laundry process is that when the kids try to wash a load, they become paralyzed when it comes to the settings and knobs. We have a stacking unit, so all the knobs are on one panel. Convenient for me. But baffling for my children. And each knob has no less than five settings to choose from. My kids go cross-eyed looking at them, and brains shut down. Me telling them which settings to put it on  does not help. And going in there to show them partly defeats the purpose of them doing it themselves. And even after they seem to have figured it out. A week or more goes by until they wash clothes again, and everyone knows, kids don't remember what settings turn on the washing machine. They can recite 112 different episodes of Sponge Bob word for word, in multiple character's voices,  with full descriptions of background and costumes, BUT , they will forget where to turn the knobs to turn on the washing machine every time. Priorities...

We had our transition evaluation with the school system today. Kit's occupational therapy right now is provided through Early Intervention. But the school system takes over when she turns three. So they must evaluate her to know what needs to be in place by then. Today was cognitive and speech evaluations. "She shows no educational signs of autism".  Despite her not speaking, just using signs, until well into the evaluation. She scored so high on the intellectual tests that they believe she is probably gifted. One test they just had to stop because she never hit the six wrong answer ceiling. The material she ended on was well beyond kindergarten level.  All of that makes me happy. Sort of. It  should make me happy. Except it also means that she is not going to qualify for any assistance, which I already knew. Intellect is her specialty. But she still can't make it through the day without major sensory adjustments, huge amounts of planning and redirection, and work...

So, I am going to assume that every family struggles with keeping their kids motivated and on top of chores, schoolwork/homework etc. Don't disagree with me, I need the comfort of the Sisterhood of Mothers Trying to Get Their Kids to do Anything Besides Stare at Us Like We are Speaking Klingon!  In another attempt to breakthrough the blasé, we have implemented another new system of organization!  And this one is definitely going to work! Forever!!  Bahahahahahaa! (Wiping away a laughing tear...) Ok, probably not forever. But for a long while let's hope. Here are the kiddo's Busy Boxes: Busy Boxes are the whole days scheduled activities in a box. It is divided into sections, Morning, Afternoon, and Night. Each section contains index cards with jobs written on them. When the jobs in a section have been completed, then a privilege is earned. This is primarily for the big kids, and sort of a training ground for Kit.  This big kids ...