Wednesday, September 19, 2007

HI! WANNA CHAT???!!

HI!!
I MADE A HUGE CUP OF REGULAR PEET'S COFFEE AT 8:30 PM. I LOVE COFFEE. FOR SOME REASON I AM WIDE AWAKE WITH TONS OF LITTLE THOUGHTS DOING THE TANGO IN MY HEAD AT THIE LOVELY HOUR OF 11:52 PM. WANNA CHAT WITH ME???OH-NO ONE ELSE IS UP AND CHATTY RIGHT NOW.
SOOO.....
I JUST WENT TO THE DISNEY SITE AND ORDERED MY HALLOWEEN COSTUME. I AM GOING TO BE WINNIE THE POOH. SEEMED LIKE A GOOD COSTUME FOR ME IN THAT HE AND I SHARE THE SAME FIGURE. AND IT WAS ON SALE. SALES LOOK SO COOL WHEN ONE IS RIPED ON CAFFIENE. HALLOWEEN IS ON A WORK DAY FOR ME (I.E., LOTS OF VISITS WITH 2 TO 4 YEAR OLDS). CAN YOU WRITE OFf A POOH COSTUME???

Tri-enima

Oh-typo there. It is actually the tri-ANNUAL. As in tri-annual IEP. The joyful annual experience further magnified by LOTs of testing. No big deal for AJ, he likes the tests I think. Or he doesn't mind them.
For parents it is the opportunity to be further reminded, in hard-core, black & white, hold-no-bars data of their childs significant disability.

In all honesty, the data/reports I have from 6 different professionals (yes six-one of them was private) is not as depressing as I thought it would be. But it is for Pops. He is in the above arena. I feel like this has been an opportunity to really get clarity on the peaks and valleys of AJ's skill set. Not that we peak at "typical" too often. Specifically, more of a chance to look at issues of attention and anxiety and how to move forward with that.
I don't forsee a lot of confrontation about services except for in the area of social skills and that I hate groups for speech. Therefore-I have asked assist director of dist to attend IEP.

Maybe I won't feel quite Zen about it tomorrow.

Oh yeah and what the f*#% was I thinking when I took on to doing 2 big presentations in the same week????? That would be next week.

Yeah well

More later on the vacation story alluded to below. It is a good one-need time to record.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

We've never had guests like you!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Language Stimulation- The with-holding method

I offered to stay with my girlfriends son while she attended back to school night. My intention was not to provide this beautiful autistic boy with a speech therapy/torture session. I have previously heard him talk but it has been somewhat infrequent and usually in a soft voice.
We arrived and Mom put on a video about trains to both entertain and distract him while she left. She snuck out the door and all was well, until the train video ended.
Well they have a nice new flat screen tv and a satellite dish and...this techno dork couldn't figure out how to re-start the DVD. I tried offering others. That's when all the talking started, "No, I love trains". "No, Thomas". None of my other train offerings would suffice. The tension increased as I wildly pushed buttons.
"No,no,no. PUSH THE BUTTON!" It was so loud and clear, I thought it was my kid. I've never heard him so loud.
I asked, "You want this train movie?"
"This train movie!"
"movie on"
It was then that I realized the DVD I was trying to restart was actually a VHS.
"Oh no, I am sorry!!" I yelped.
"AHH" he cried.
"Go Mommy room," he told me.
So in we went. I knew he had watched movies in there previously.
He showed me the tv and continued to direct me, "Movie on."
So I rewound the movie. Or I thought I was. Turns out I wasn't and the credits ran.
"AHHH, Movie!"
Finally I figured it out and so he watched the movie again. All was well.
Until, again, it ended after its 22 minute run.
Sweet boy came out of the bedroom and ate some water melon. Then he looked up at me with his moon-sized brown eyes and said, "Where's Mama?"
"Well, she is running an errand and she'll be back."
"MAMA NO COME BACK!!??"
"Oh, she's coming back soon! It's okay,Buddy!"
"No okay Buddy!"
"Mama!"
I rubbed his back a bit and let him be.
Tears, sadness, recovery.

After a few minutes he walked up to me, gazed right at me and leaned toward me. I kissed his face.
"Buddy, Mama will be back soon."

Later we played on the bed and he told me, "Tickle me please." We tickled and played and after a bit I left to go check on my kids in the family room.
I felt a tap on my shoulder, "Come tickle" and he pulled me back to the room.
"More tickle, please."
"down please!"
We laughed and tickled and had such a sweet time. It was so lovely. I really connected with him. How nice it was to truly experience and enjoy his sweet being. My only hope is that he recalls the last half of our visit more then the first half.

"Breathe Deep"

I named my blog "Breathe Deep". You know a way of calming oneself. It is just that is hard to "breathe deep" when one's teeth are clenched

Today's email I didn't want from AJ's teacher

Hi,

Could you drop by for a chat in the next few days?

Thanks.

"TEAHCER"

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Testing...1,2,3 testing

AJ's triannaual IEP is next week. Or at at least the 1st meeting. As I mentioned previously, I said I wouldn't consent to testing until all providers emailed myself, and each other, with what tests they were going to give. Then I found the fabulous neuropsych. I met with her Friday 1 1/2 weeks ago. She is a hip, yet earthy, gal who does come across as quite intelligent and experienced. The best part of the interaction was my leaving feeling/knowing that she gets all the pieces. She gets sensory issues, stimming, processing, attention, language deficits, anxiety. She knows all those pieces and I believe will be able to really sort out AJ's picture. Hopefully things can get easier because his rages are wearing me down. Ki is also more effected by AJ and his wacky behavior lately. He yells and hits and plays too rough. Kind of typical brother stuff-but a couple notches higher. She is beginning to hit him first and say things like, "I wish AJ lived somewhere else." It can't help that the phrase that he is currently stuck stimming on and saying multiple times a day is, "Kiki is a poopoo head." He wanders around saying it all through out the day. Almost like the "It's a Small World" song being lodged in your head. I can only complain so much because this phrase replaces the prior perseverative favorite, "mama toot". In which "toot" means "fart" in our house. "Mama toot" could be shouted, whispered, hummed, and produced with a variety tunes. Often in succession, too. Like this, "mama toot. MAMA TOOT. MAAMAA TOOOOT!!!"
So, I do feel her pain.
Be careful about spending too much time at our house. The next phrase could include YOUR name and a body function.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Why country song writers are not known for their lyrics

On a country music radio station you can find the song with these words:

I'd like to see you out in the moonlight

I'd like to kiss you way back in the sticks

I'd like to walk you through a field of flowers

And I'd like to check you for tics

Friday, September 07, 2007

Random thoughts

Seems I am not alone in being techno challanged, as Double Trouble is also requesting assist in how to modify her blog. Those fancy friends of mine with links and photos n their texts are much more exciting. I have the goal of learning how to put pics in. I love taking pics. Today I volunteered to take pics of each of the kids in AJ's class, and a class photo. It was fun meeting each child briefly. I hate introducing myslef as "Mrs K.". It kills me, but I know that is what they do at school, so I vascillated between "Mrs K.", "AJ's Mom" and just "J.". The girls are really into Hannah Montana, which both cracks me up and terrifies me at the same time
Hey, I tried a link there for Hannah Montana! Thanks jennyalice for the advice!!!!
Now I am really a Hot Mama.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

kids

I just hate it when I loose a friend's kid and I'm not sure where to look first-the bottom of the lake or the traffic filled street.
Turns out he thought hiding in the life gaurd station was a cool spot.

Cooking Corn

I feel the need to pass on my favorite way to cook corn

Put 1 ear in the microwave, husks, silk and all
Cook 2 1/2 min
Let cool slightly and remove husks
eat