One of the great things about our team of VB people is that 

they all truly seem to beleive that R is very smart 

they genuinely care about him

they all beleive that we should not get more hours of ABA for him - they all say an hour a day is more than enough  

Sleep

Just continues to be a PITA
WHen DS seelps at a decent hour like 9 - he is up at 5 - which would be fine - except he is groggy in his VB session in the evening
( of course I dont like getting up at 5 am either becasue its rare when I can get to sleep before 12 )
And then I am groggy all day
Yes I know I should go to bed earlier
But there is always so much to do !
Play with Rohan all evening and then do other work things in the house
For instance yesterday

1. When he was in VB - I cleaned the car
2. Then after he went to bed at 9.30 - I tossed 27 things away ( fly lady )
3. Shined the kitchen sink
4. Emtied dishwasher and cleared up kitchen
5. Cleared one cupboard and sorted out a few drawers of clothes
   

Why is the house so dirty these days ?
Why do I spend all my evenings in housework ?

Letting Baby Grow up

Lately I have been wondering
Are we holding DS back - Our BCBA was doing the ABLL's with us last Tuesday and we realised how woefully inadequate WE have been in teaching DS life skills- Potty training , feeding skills , dressing skills - you name it - we fail it
In front o f the BCBA we excused this with our cultural difference ( we grew up in India and in India kids are babies into adulthood )
But lately I have been wondering if I actually baby DS in my mind so I can think of him as a baby and then he does not seem so behind in his social stuff
I decided to start with the words and no longer use the term "Baby" with him ( like in the way of cooing nonsense to him - who is Mumma's baby love)
I am struck by how hard it is
First I used to use it a lot - I mean a LOT. And then on top of that I feel disconnected to him - as though I have severed something precious in our relationship
He is still the child that wails outside the bathroom when I am inside
Who pulls me to the sofa for nursies as soon as he sees me
But he is no longer my baby
Which is as it should be
It makes me very sad

The past 3 weeks

Have not been very good - I have been sick with an allergic reaction to Poison Ivy and DH has had minor surgery - My sister and niece have left and DS is on a definite plateau
Its a plateau and I know plateaus will eventually lead to a step forward but Platues are definitely discouraging
Also he has been stimming quite a lot and quite noisily
On the plus side with family gone - I can agian focus fully and completely on DS - which I had missed doing
I am reading Sink Reflections - the house is full of Clutter and I am really getting quite sick of it - I need to take a few bags to Goodwill and clear out some stuff BEFORE Ma gets here in September as she( like DH ) hates to give away stuff- in case we need it some day

DAN doctor send an email to say that we should discontinue for a while and then start bit by bit at a time
Can you beleive an MD that actually responds to your email directly !
And in a few hours !!!

I cannot help but think that the stimminess and badtemperedness this last week is related to starting the ENzymes and probiotics - In fact even his therapist commented on it in yesterday's session
I googled it and turns out that enzynes etc CAN cause problems due to positive reasons
but also the ENZYMES AND PROBIOITCS SHOULD NEVER BE GIVEN TOGETHER BECASUE THE ENZYMES DIGEST THE PROBIOTICS
I wish our DAN doctor had told us about this

Sometimes I hide

Today I actually went home for lunch early so as to avoid R
He has been such a ROYAL pain all the weekend - cling cling cling and constant demand for nursing insterspersed with whining.
And the not letting me cut his nails - what a pain that was - I finally was so happy when he was asleep and I could finally cut his nails
He is allergic to something as well - what I do not know but his eyes swell up and he itches them a lot and the itching goes down wtiuth Benadryl

Hyperlexia game in the bathtub yesterday night
at bathtime with foam letters - I was trying to do this just to do some
tuen taking but it can also be used as a communication game I found


R - TAPE, MUD, SKY

Me - Lets play game - B-O-Y

R- B-Y-E

Me - A-M-A-ZE

R A-S-K

Me - N-O-S-E

R- P-O-S-E

Me - B-O-Y

R - B-E-D( he has been making signs to show that he wants to go to
bed - not so sleep unfortunately but because he wants to lie down with
me and nurse and snuggle)
Me - N-O ( he still had to get lotion and PJ's on )

R - N-O-T-E

Game R I think !



It really impressed me that he could figure out the pattern - use some letters of the word made earlier to make a new word - and respond accordingl

So sensitive

Something bad happened yesterday – a small accident really but my poor baby is so traumatized – gosh how I wish he was not so sensitive !

He has been carrying around his anxiety and embarrassment all evening and all morning – I wonder what to do – how to distract him -

It always makes me laugh when they try to say that auties have no feelings- if anything they are more sensitive

No- actually it makes me angry - sometimes the parents of auties will talk about their kids in front of them- sometimes on national TV -the way they would never talk about an NT kid

Should he be on the bus or not ?

Well the little Special Ed bus can come to our house now and will be picking up R about 8.30 everyday . Today DH dropped him – and of course today was the day that R decided that he would get up extra early – like at 6 am – Uggg – he wlill be sleepy and tired for his VB session in the evening and then through the swimming as well

Why does he not sleep like clockwork from 9 in the night to 7.30 in the morning – that would be just perfect – he would get enough sleep and I would not be stressed out either

Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!