In Search of Myself

Yesterday's appointments

Yesterday morning we went to Vandy Children's Hospital at 8:30 a.m. to get Jake's cast fixed.  He plays hard and hasn't let this cast slow him down -- and at the point where it comes around his hand and between his thumb and fingers, it broke.  Just came apart.  LOL.  So we went in for repair.  The cast lady decided that since the saw to remove the cast would totally freak him out, it would be better to overwrap this cast so we only have to do the removal once.  So now Jake has a lime green cast over his blue one.

When I was asking him the night before which color he wanted, he said "Pink!"  I said "Jake, are you sure?  Boys don't usually have a pink cast."  And he said "But I like pink."  Even when he was two, he would say it's his favorite color.  Hey, he doesn't know it's supposed to be a girl color, it's just a color to him.  But he decided that he also liked green, so we went with green.

We got in and out of Vandy pretty quick (even found a parking spot on the 1st floor of the garage, thank GOODNESS.  The last time we were there it took forever to find a spot.)  We stopped at my work really quick (literally up the street from Vandy) to say hello and to pick up my left-over pizza.  (My friend Becky and I went to The Mellow Mushroom on Wednesday for lunch and it was SO good.  I had pizza with pineapple, broccoli, and chicken.  YUM!)  Jake was absurdly shy and wouldn't talk to anyone -- big surprise.  When my boss asked him how old he was, he said "I don't want to tell her, mama."  ha ha ha.

On our way home, we stopped by the train store and I bought Jake three trains and a John Deer tractor.  We got Old Slow Coach, Neville, and Molly (for those of you who know who those are.)  On the way home, Jake kept changing his mind about what he wanted to do.  He wanted to go to Nana's.  He didn't want to go to Nana's.  He wanted to play with Zoe.  He didn't want to play with Zoe.  When I called my mom for the third time, she said "You know what?  Who cares what he wants.  Bring me some lunch."  heh.  So we stopped by Wendy's and got mom a meal and the kids some chicken Kids Meals.  And I ate my leftover pizza.  Good times!

We hung out with mom for a few hours, then went to therapy.  Yesterday it was a social language group -- getting kids together and get them to try to talk to the therapist and each other.  It was Jake and 3 other little kids.  They were supposed to go on their own with the therapist, but since it was his first time, they let me sit in with him.  He kept trying to turn around and talk to me instead of participating in the group and kept reaching around and putting his hand on me, but he did do well for his first time, especially once they got going.  They sang songs, talked about the 4th of July and colored a picture, made a flag with a pipe cleaner and foam stars (which he and I REALLY decorated once we got home, LOL), and had snack time with blueberries, strawberries, and cool whip (which Jake wouldn't touch.)  But he did a good job and I think once he gets used to going, he'll do well.

So I was away from my computer all day yesterday -- after his appt we came home and I rested while he played, then I played with him all evening.  (And ok, I watched The Office and My Name is Earl reruns, too.)  Today is our private OT session, so I'll let you all know how that goes.

Ok, now I'm REALLY a writer

'cause dude, someone wrote about something I wrote!

Remember my latest article at ACOT?  "Sometimes it IS just about the pictures."

Well there's the awesome girl, Michelle, who lives in England and has a blog called "Scrapability."  She is always in the know about the scrapbooking world, especially digi, and she and I have conversed a little back and forth about various things.  I REALLY admire her writing and just everything about her.

Anyway.  SHE WROTE ABOUT MY ARTICLE!  And it's awesome.  She is SUCH a good writer.  I feel WAY special, yo.

Click here to read what she wrote.

Home "therapy"

Someone from the Autism yahoo group I'm a part of (reminder: Jake's not autistic but has some of the behavioral symptoms, and most autistic kids have sensory issues . . . so they let me stay in the group.  LOL) posted about her dollar store finds for some fun sensory toys.  So I thought I'd take a second and write about the things I bought at the Parent/Teacher Store and Target last week (two weeks ago now?) to do home activities with Jake.

(this post is continued by clicking below.)

I'm a writer. Again!

LOL.  I was in quite the writing mood last week, so I wrote another article for ACOT.  Go me go me!  This one is about my parents!  The first half talks about how my mom is way independent in her scrapbooking -- she totally thinks for herself.  The second half is about the gift album I made for my dad for Christmas.

Click here to read.

Talking Machines

Dude, what is it about little boys (ok, MY little boy) and talking machines?

First it was Thomas the Train.  Then Bob the Builder.  (And I am CONVINCED that Thomas is a gateway drug to Bob the Builder.  Think about it.  Talking machines.  Same company distributing the shows.  Cross marketing within the videos.  The toys at Target are right next to each other.  The toys are the same size.  It's a conspiracy.)

Anyway, then the obsession with the Cars movie.  Again, talking machines.  (Jake was playing with his Cars toys this weekend, along with some HotWheels cars that he thinks look like Sarge and the Sheriff, and he gathered them all up and had the Sheriff say "These cars are in a HEAP of TROUBLE.  They tore up the road!"  Bwah ha ha ha.  He's SO FUNNY.  Totally remembers details from movies SO WELL.)

Jake and I were at the video rental store on Friday (wait, should they be called DVD rental stores now?  'Cause techincally I didn't get a VIDEO.)  Anyway, I decided to let him look for a movie to rent -- and he came upon Jay Jay the Jet Plane.  I was really leaning more toward a movie with a dog.  (Although at first he tried to pick out "Beethoven's 3rd" and I was SO not watching that.)  But he was subborn about the Jay Jay the Jet Plane, so that's what we've been watching all weekend.  It's actually not as annoying as I thought it would be.  I might even let him get another video this coming Friday.  But still.  WHAT IS THE DEAL with the talking machines?

(I got "Rent."  I saw the musical in college at TPAC, but I didn't really remember the plot.  It was a really good movie, I thought.  If you're into musicals like that.  AWESOME music.)  I started watching it on Friday night before Jake was asleep, and he kept saying "This is stupid.  Your movie is stupid!"  And I told him he was supposed to be asleep anyway, and to just GO TO SLEEP.  And he did, about 10 minutes into it.  LOL.

My meeting with Jake's OTs

Ok, I finally have time to talk about my meeting on Friday with Jake's OTs. 

Stuff Jake says

Here's my latest edition of "Funny stuff Jake says."

The other day I told Jake he's getting big, and he told me he wanted to be tall like me.  "Oh really?" I asked.  Then he said, "I want to be tall like you and reach the toys on top of the TV!"  (We have a high TV armoire and keep Jake's puzzles on top of it -- I have a no mult-piece toys without supervision rule at home.  LOL.)

Since we can't go swimming until the cast is off (I know it's waterproof, but I'm not blow-drying an immersed cast until it's dry), Jake's content to SEE the YMCA every day when we drive by.  If he forgets to look for it or I forget to tell him to look, he gets totally sad and says "I didn't see the Y-Ms."  Poor kid.  Then we were doing flashcards one night and for Y I said "Yo-yo and yak and yellow start with Y" and he said "AND YMCA DOES!"  ha ha ha.  When we get to M, I say "what else starts with M?" and he points to me (Mama.)  Smart kid!

When I'm talking about what we'll be doing and when, and I say "tomorrow," Jake asks "Today-tomorrow?"  Every time.  And I say, "No, tomorrow.  After we go to sleep and wake up."  And his concept of past-tense consists of "last night" and "last week."  No matter how long ago something happened, it's one of those for him.  (But hey, he's trying.)

Now this is something I DON'T like him saying, but deep down I think it's funny.  When he's mad or we're talking about something he doesn't like (like doctors or whatever) he says "I'm gonna knock them down!"  Or he says he's going to push them into a ravine.  He never actually DOES anything to anyone (although he's been randomly smacking daddy lately, but just playfully), but he talks about it all the time.  It's his little way of controlling his world, I guess.

We've been watching Monsters Inc. a lot lately -- we used to watch it, then he got into Thomas.  So I guess it's been a year.  But then we watched it in the ER when Jake broke his arm, and he's interested in it again.  And now that he's watching it as an older child with a brain that goes a mile a minute, he's asking all these questions.  And I try to explain to him that it's just a story.  He asks why Mike only has one eye.  Because that's just how they drew him, I say.  Why is Randall mean?  Well, honey, some people are mean.  And the one part where he makes the same comment every time . . . toward the beginning, after the Scare Floor has been shut down because of the sock incident, Mr. Waternoose is filling his cup with coffee-sludge.  And EVERY TIME, Jake says "Why Monsters drink sludge?  I don't drink sludge."

We were talking about the Cars movie, and he was asking me all these random questions.  (He LOVES that movie.  He goes around sometimes just saying over and over, very enthusiastically: "Lightning McQueen! Lightning McQueen! Lightning McQueen!"  Just like a television announcer would.  Such a goof.)  Oh.  Ok, so he was asking me questions about the movie, and I didn't remember everything.  So I said "Honey, I don't know. I don't remember."  And little genius that he is, with a twinkle in his eye, said "I think we have to go see it again."  So depending on how the weekend goes, I might take him again.

Wait, one more cute Cars story.  One of the several books we have about Cars (hey, if your kid is interested in something and you know it will get him reading, BUY BOOKS ABOUT IT!) is just about the race at the beginning.  As it's introducing the characters, when talking about McQueen, it says "He was fast.  He was young.  He was . . . " and then you turn the page and it says "Lightening McQueen!"  Now a lot of times when we're reading, I pause at spots to let Jake tell me what he thinks the next words will be.  He memorizes stuff really well, so it's a fun way for him to be a part of it.  So the first probably 10 times we read it, I would pause there.  And each time, I'd say "He was fast.  He was young.  He was . . . " and Jake would say "RED!"  ha ha ha.  He stopped doing it after a while, and I'm a little sad about that now, because it made me laugh EVERY TIME.

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This afternoon I'm meeting with Jake's therapists to talk about which therapies we're going to pursue.  I'm a little nervous about it.  I talked with some people from the school system, and they won't be able to really talk to me about what they might possibly be able to do until mid-August.  'doh!  So wish me luck!!!!

Some awesome articles

I'm part of a Yahoo group for mothers whose children are autistic -- because a lot of the issues that Jake has are the same that autistic kids have.  He's not autistic, yet he has many behavioral symptoms.  I can't tell you how much I'm learning from these mothers!  And they are so sweet and have welcomed me to the group, even though Jake's diagnosis doesn't technically fit the group.

One of them sent out a link today to the website of an author, Susan Senator, whose book she has been enjoying.  The book is called "Making Peace with Autism."  Within the website are articles the author has written for various publications.  They're about her experiences as a parent of an autistic boy.  You can read them all in their entirety on the site.  They are well-written, funny, touching, and a few made me cry (but this is me we're talking about.)  Even if you don't have a child with "issues," I think that reading these articles will help you to understand children you might come into contact with that DO have issues.  It's really hard to understand just WHY some children act the way they do.  Reading these articles might give you some insight.  Autism Articles.

A BIG ball

When Sheri came up for Father's Day this past Sunday, she brought Jake a present: a HUGE ball.  It's like a beach ball, but with a cotton cover that looks like a baseball.  It's REALLY cool.  I blew that thing up by myself!  (Sheri has some hilarious pictures of that.)  I have a TON of pics of Jake playing in the back yard with this, but for now, I only have time for a short entry.

Sheri, you ROCK at picking presents!

The new, improved . . .

smaller, blue, waterproof cast.  Good stuff.

Last Monday (June 12th) we went to a doctor at Vandy to get the new cast.  It was hard for Jake to wait so long to be seen -- even once we were called back, they did an x-ray, then sent us back to the waiting room.  Then they had us wait in an exam room for a while, THEN brought us into the cast room and we STILL had to wait forever.  Toy Story 2 was playing on a TV in there.  He was not happy about the nurse touching him to fix the cast.  He cried the whole time.  I had to be persistent that we were getting a water-proof cast because the doctor said we could but then didn't give the nurse very clear directions and she was all ready to give us another plaster one.  No way, chick.  We even got to pick the color -- I was leaning toward red, but Jake was pretty insistent on blue.

After we were done at Vandy, we drove back to our town and then past it, to get to M'boro.  We went to ToysRUs and I got Jake several toys -- among them, a Fisher Price dump truck (because I'd promised him a new dump truck the day he broke his arm) and a tractor from the movie Cars.  It's SO FUNNY.  It actually tips over!  He's obsessed with it -- we have to bring it to my mom's every morning, he likes it so much.  The other day he said "what that tractor's name?"  I said "Honey, I don't think the tractors have names."  He said "I think it Tractor Tip."  bwah ha ha ha.  Smart kid.

Then we went to Panera and had lunch with Priscilla and the girls.  (Always a good time.)  It bothers me how selfish Jake is with cookies -- won't even share with his friends.  He just says "No!  I'm going to eat it ALL BY MYSELF!"  So I thought ahead and bought a cookie for Elauna and Aoywn to share.  (Really hoping he outgrows that!)  Then we went to Shoe Carnival, as I was DESPERATELY needing a new pair of shoes (I buy one pair of sandals a year, then wear them every day.  And I always have to buy them in the men's department, because all the shoes in the women's department are flimsy and high heeled.  WTH, people?!)  They were $20 off, which was nice -- only cost me $40.  So that was last Monday.  ;o)

(3 posts in one day . . . I'm on a roll!)