Mar 28

Spring Break is over for Avion. My Spring Break Home School didn’t go so well. But we did go to OMSI on Monday and the Zoo on Wednesday. So we did have fun and Avion didn’t act up to bad. Sunday was the worst of his days. He didn’t want to listen or obey. So Avion got an early bedtime. Also with his bedtime, he got a talk on how to behave at school. So I hope he will be ok.
Zidan has one more week of Spring Break. The reason why is that Zidan goes to school year round so he get more breaks then the other two who have school from September to June. He also has not had any Co-Op preschool since the end of February. The Co-Op Preschool will be starting back up the first week of April.
Also Zidan out of the blue pooped in the toilet. He was so proud of himself. I hope he keeps it up. If he finally decides that he can, it will mean only one pull-up a night instead of two.

Mar 24

David and I went on a date last night. We took the kids to Teacher M’s house. Teacher M is a friend of mine that I have know for 7+ years. We call her Teacher M because she has a degree in Autism and teaches special needs kids. She has never been my kids’ teacher though. The kids got to her house around 4:40pm and got picked up at 10:30pm. The kids were great and they love Teacher M. But as soon as we get there to pick them up, Avion starts to cry about missing bedtime and that he can’t sleep without brushing his teeth and a story. Plus he was worried that he would have to stay up all night. David calmed Avion down and assured him that we were taking him home and he would get to brush his teeth and get a story before bed. Normally we aren’t out that late when the kids go to Teacher M’s house. But we had to go to three different movie rental places to find one that was still open for business and then we rented a two and half hour movie without realizing it.

Mar 17

First day of Spring Break Home School is done. Only 7 more days left. Avion gets to work on spelling, writing, math, and reading. Zidan will work on tracing, coloring, numbers and letters. And poor little Sassi gets to do this too because it wouldn’t be fair to her brothers if she got to play during home school time. So Sassi gets to work on writing, cutting, coloring, and reading. And I get all the fun of putting this all together. The reason I do this is because Avion can’t handle public school breaks.

Mar 14

After I put the kids to bed, Sassi started to cry. As I was walking up stairs to see why she was crying, I heard a loud screech. Before I reach the door I hear the loud screech again. I can’t remember why Sassi was crying but I calmed her down. Then I asked who was screeching. Sassi told me that Avion was screeching. When I asked Avion why he was screeching, he told me that he was doing to so that Sassi would stop crying. Avion is sure one crazy kid. I’m not sure why he thought that if he screeched that would make Sassi stop crying.

Mar 13

Sassi had her 6 year old birthday party today. Zidan melted down in the begining because he didn’t want anyone to have a balloon. But he got over that after I told him that if he didn’t share he wouldn’t get any cake. Avion didn’t have a single melt down at the party. He greeted all of Sassi’s friends with a smile and he even shared his chair at the table when we had cake. What he has never done before. I didn’t plan ahead and so two of the chair had two kids on them. But none of the kids complained. I guess kids don’t mind sharing chairs when cake is involved. We started having problems once all of Sassi’s friends went home. First I was not taking the gifts out of their boxes fast enough for the boys or doing it in the order they thought I should do. Then once all the gifts were out of the boxes, all three kids tried to play with Sassi’s petshops/ponie figures. That was a disaster. Sassi got mad at her brothers for not following the story line she had going and the boys got mad at her because she was not leaving them alone. I threatened to take the toys away if they couldn’t play together and that got them to stop for the most apart.

Mar 4

While helping Zidan get dressed for school, he tells me that he wants me to throw out his underwear and to buy more pull-ups. Reason being is underwear is too hard. This kid has been using the toilet to pee since August of 2009. Why oh why do he have to fight me on this. He is going to wear underwear and as soon as he stops peeing at night he will wear underwear to bed too.

Mar 1

Avion is having issue at school. He is telling Mrs. F no and not listening plus just being awful. Even to his classmates. Well I have been in touch with Mrs. F and we are trying to think of things to help Avion. While in the shower (the shower is where I do my best thinking), I remember that during the car ride to Avion’s swimming lesson I had to go over appropriate behavior for him. And that seemed to help. So before bed on Sunday night I told Avion what type of behaviors is ok and that he needs to say “yes Mrs. F” every time she said. So after school on Monday I talk with Mrs. F and she told me that while Avion had other things come up that day he didn’t tell her “no” and he did his best to follow directions from her even if he didn’t like it. Both Mrs. F and I are happy and hope that this continues.

Feb 27

David played Hide and Go Seek with the kids. When it was Zidan’s turn to count, he counted to ten super fast that David told him to count to twenty. Zidan told David that he can’t count to twenty. So David say count to ten twice but go slow. Zidan starts to count and he went all the way to a one hundred before stopping. And he didn’t mess up. The crazy boy can’t count to twenty but he sure can count to one hundred.

Feb 20

I hate Flush Troops and I wish they would go away! I know you are probably wondering what are Flush Troops. Well let me tell you. Flush Troops are the little guys that come out of your toilet every time the toilet is flushed. Avion is scared to death of Flush Troops and they always attack him and no one else in this family. So whenever a toilet is flushed in this house and we have two, Avion jumps on a bed or the couch and buries his head in his arms with his butt in the air and stays that way until the toilet stops making noises. It is really annoying because if you are playing a game with him or trying to teach him something and the toilet gets flush he stops and has to hide. If you trying to stop him he goes hysterical. So please if you know how to get rid of Flush Troops please let me know.

Feb 18

Avion came home from school with muddy pants. Avion hates having dirty clothes, so I asked him what happened. His response was “got into a fight.” I’m of course like what???? He replied again “got into a fight.” I asked him if he got hurt or if he hurt the other kid. No, he said. I asked who the other kid was. Avion told me that the boy is not in his class. He seemed fine and not at all upset over it, I stopped trying to get info out of him and told him that fighting at school is not good. I email his teacher asking if she knew of this fight. She said that there was so rough housing at recess and that was all she could understand out of him.

Victoria “Vickie” Schulmerich

Vickie is Zidan's teacher. And in the past she was Avion's and Sassi's teacher. Vickie is Zidan's favorite teacher at school and sometimes the only way to get him ready for school without him fighting was to tell him that Teacher Vickie would be at school. I have yet to tell Zidan about Vickie and I'm not really sure on how to.

Here is a link to the news article.

Feb 10

I walked in on Zidan today doing addition and subtracting. I didn’t even know the kid knew how to subtract. At first he was saying 10 plus 8 equals 2. 6 plus 3 equals 3. I corrected him and told Zidan that he should say 10 minus 2 equals 8 and from then he had it down. For the next half hour all I heard out of him was 10-2=8. 6-3=3. 3+3+3+1=10. 3+3=6. 1-1=0. 1+1=2. Oh Zidan is only 4 1/2 years old and won't start school until Sept of 2011.

Feb 6

The whole family went to the bank today. We had to sit around and wait for a bit to get the service we wanted. I was sharing a chair with Zidan and we were playing a quiet game. Then all of a sudden I hear Avion whimpering. I looked at him and he has his hands covering his ears and his eyes are shut and he is shaking. Oh he had also curled himself into a ball. I ask David what happened. He points be hide me. I look over my shoulder and see that one of the bank workers had brought out a camera and had taken a picture of some other customer. We calmed Avion down and reassured him that he wouldn’t have to get his picture taken. Avion hates flashes on cameras. The bright light hurts his eyes. So most of the pictures I take of him these days, all have Avion with his eyes closed.

Feb 1

Avion had a dentist appointment today. It went really great. I had to pull Avion out of school for the appointment. But that went smooth too, because I picked him up right after lunch. Avion got his teeth x-rayed and he didn’t cry. They cleaned his teeth and that went ok. The Dentist came in and was telling the Hygienist what teeth were missing and after he was finished. Avion looked at him and said, “I’m not missing ABC’s. I’m missing teeth.” It was very funny. Then came time for the fluoride paste and Avion didn’t want that. He shut his mouth and wouldn’t open. I got Avion to open his mouth and the Hygienist put the paste on. Avion cried his eyes out and then started to spit. He was given paper towel to spit in and then he left. Over all this is the best appointment we have had and he has no cavities. YEA!!!

Jan 26

Zidan has been sick for a couple of day now and we also found a canker sore in his mouth. Well the first night David had Zidan rinse his mouth was salt water. Zidan cried a bit but he did it. Tonight we did the same thing. David asked me to help because we both knew that Zidan would fight to the death, because that has been Zidan’s way since he was a baby. When we told Zidan what was going to happen Zidan said, “ok.” He did cry but he did go through with the treatment. Afterwards David and I looked at each other and said, “Where did our Zidan go, because that kid couldn’t be him.” Now the big question is: is this a new phase or once Zidan is better, he will go back to the fight to the death? Only time will tell.

Jan 20

I volunteered in Avion’s class today and I got to talk to Mr. V. He told me that Avion has met his reading and math goals for this school year. I’m so proud of him. Avion has other goals that he is working on but he is one smart boy.

Jan 15

Avion is sick. This is his second day of being sick and not being able to go to school. Plus with this upcoming weekend being a three day weekend, he will be out of school for 5 days. So when he goes back to school on Tuesday he will be a bit more of a handful because he will be out of the school routing. When Avion is sick I make him do school work especially since his school has a 24 hour no fever policy. So yesterday I had Avion practice his spelling works and watch learning movies and today I will just do the same. Saturday and Sunday, I will not make him doing any school work and on Monday I will have him do spelling and some math.

Jan 9

David and I took the kids to OMSI today. It was a lot of fun. OMSI was doing a two day Lego fair. Where you could build a boat and see how many marbles it would hold. Avion and I made a small boat that held 29 marbles. He was very excited. The little boy who was in front of us in line had built a big boat that was about a foot and half long and 6 inches wide. Avion started talking to the kid. The boy looked to be about Avion’s age and they hit it off really well. Their conversation started off with Avion saying “Wow your boat is big!” Then they talked about legos and Avion showed the boy his boat. After the legos, we went and saw other things and had lunch. After lunch we headed to the 5 and under room for Sassi and Zidan. Avion normally doesn’t like that room but he got interested in the water play area. He was the only child playing at the water table. It was great. But as always good things don’t last and some boys went to the water area and decided to play at the table where Avion was at. Well Avion did not handling the other boys being there and you could hear his voice raising. I sent David to help him since I was with one of the younger kids. When David went to intervene, one of the boys was teasing Avion. David got Avion away for the table where he burst into tears. David got Avion to calm down and then after that we went home. We didn’t go home because of Avion’s behavior; we went home because we had been at OMSI for over 4 hours.

Jan 4

I am late on making the calendars for the kids this month. I need to get them done before dinner or I might have a meltdown on my hands. I know you are probable wondering what a calendar has to do with Autism. After Avion started preschool through Early Intervention and he got put into the pm class, I started to struggling with Avion to get him to school. In the morning he would be all excited about school but when it came time to get ready for school he would just fight me to no ends. When I told his preschool teacher this, she said that Avion really works well with pictures and I should try a picture calendar with him. So that evening I went home and drew a square box with double doors on my calendar on all the days that Avion went to school for that month. Then I showed Avion this and told him that every day that has the school picture on it was a day that he has to go to school. So the next day when he had school, I told he that is was time get ready for school. He started his fighting like normal but instead of me battling him like normal I said lets go look at the calendar and see what the calendar says. As soon as he saw my hand drawn picture of the school, he say school and happily got dressed, ate lunch, and got his shoes, coat and backpack on with no fighting. From that point on I was a firm picture person. I drew pictures for everything Avion was going to be doing. When Avion started Kindergarten, Zidan was also starting Early Intervention Preschool. I couldn’t have two different schedules on one calendar, so I made a blank template and at the end of every month I make a new one for the upcoming month. But the reason it was so important to have the calendar done before dinner was over is because it is his night to put away the clean dishes. Since he turned 7 that is one of his house jobs he gets to do twice a week. And every time it is his night to do dishes he has to look at his calendar to make sure I’m not trying to get him to do dishes on the wrong night. Well I got his calendar done before dinner and up on the wall to and so the meltdown was eliminated.

At dinner, I served chocolate pudding. All my kids were very happy. I’m not sure if I have said this before. But Zidan doesn’t like to feed himself. He would rather go hunger then to feed himself. And chocolate pudding is one of those food items he still won’t feed himself without a battle. So once he got his chocolate pudding, he grabs his spoon and the bowl and pushes it toward me. I say oh thank you and take a small spoonful of the pudding. I try to give him the spoon so he can have a bite. Zidan refused to take the spoon, so I ate some more pudding. I try to give him the spoon again. And he refused again. This time I take even a smaller amount of pudding and feed it to him. Then I get a bigger size of pudding and I show him it and then I eat it. At this point Zidan is not happy with me because I’m getting all the pudding. I try to give Zidan the spoon and he takes the spoon and grabs the bowl of pudding and puts it next to David. David takes the spoon and the pudding and tries to give it back to Zidan. Zidan refused so David says to Zidan thanks for the pudding and takes a bite. Zidan grabs the spoon and pudding from David and sets it in front of him and takes a shaky spoonful of pudding and puts it in his mouth. He did finish all the pudding and only spilled once. I’m so proud of him.

Jan 3

School starts tomorrow and the kids are not going to bed. Sassi is not being too bad. You can at least talk to her on why she needs her sleep. But the boys are a different story. First off both of them have a hard to getting the brains to turn off. Second thing is that Zidan always poops at night so he has to do that in his pull up even before he will lie down on his bed. Well earlier in the day Avion had made some sort of Lego thing and he wanted it on the floor next to the bunk bed he shares with Zidan. The first thing that happened tonight was that Zidan was making too much noise and was not going to bed. So up stairs I go to ask Zidan if he is poopy and then I tell him to be quite your brother is trying to sleep. About five minutes later, Avion comes running down the stairs crying his eyes out because Zidan broke his Lego thing he had built. And Avion is telling us to put Zidan in time out because he was bad. David goes and comforts Avion while I go up stairs to Zidan. I first ask Zidan if he is poopy. He tells me nope. Then I tell him I’m taking away all the Legos because you are playing with them and you broke Avion’s creation. Now Zidan starts crying and he throws himself on his bed. I tell him to be quite and go to sleep. I go back down stairs and David has Avion and got Avion to stop crying. We tell Avion to go back to bed and to go to sleep. About two minutes later Zidan comes down stairs and yells in a loud voice that he is poopy. I tell Zidan to lie down so I can change him. The whole time while changing him, I’m telling him how much better it would be to just poop in the toilet. During this time Avion who is in his bed starts crying again. David goes up stairs to see why, because I’m busy with Zidan. Once Zidan has a new pull up on, we go up stairs together. I tuck Zidan in his bed again. David is still talking with Avion and it is not going well. So I step in and tell Avion that if he gets out of his bed again he will not be playing Boom Blox tomorrow. And there are only three reasons to be out of bed, one is for the bathroom, two is for water, and three is if someone throws up. Zidan is starting to fall asleep so I know he won’t be getting out of bed anymore. David and I are back down stairs and in about five minutes we both hear Avion crying again. David goes up stairs to see why Avion is crying. After a minute or two of being up there, he yells down the stair for me to bring a bowl. I go into the kitchen and get Avions favorite puking bowl. As I’m walking up the stairs I ask if the bowl is for Avion or Hopkins. Hopkins is Avion’s stuffed frog. Once I give the bowl to David, I go back down stairs. David comes down stairs a few minutes later. I asked him what the crying was about and he told me that Avion thought that his nose was bleeding and that he was going to have to go to the doctor. David had to take Avion in to the bathroom to show him that his nose was not bleeding and that all he had to do was to blow it on some tissue. Then Avion told him that he needed a silver bowl. As soon as he got it, he stuck the bowl on top of Hopkins head and went right to sleep.

Jan 2

The kids got to fold their clothes today. Avion decided that he was going to sing a song while folding. I’m completely fine with that. Also we have a rule in our house that says you can’t critic anyone’s singing. Well the song Avion choose to sing was Zidan’s favorite song. Zidan got upset and wanted Avion to stop. I told Zidan that Avion doesn’t have to stop but if you like you may join him in singing. Zidan tried to join in but unless there is an adult singing with them, those two can’t match tempo. So after three failed attempts to sing the song with Avion, Zidan lost it. He ran to a chair and screamed in it until Avion was done singing. And as soon as Avion finished, Zidan stopped screaming and started sing a song by himself.

Dec 31

I’m still fighting with Zidan to poop in the toilet. I know he can do it. He has done it before. But he just refuses to use the toilet to poop. He will hold it until he gets his night time undies (pull up) on and then go. It is so frustrating. Zidan has been using the toilet to pee since August of this year. But he still has his time when he tells me that undies are too hard and he needs a diaper. Zidan wouldn’t be daytime potty trained at all if I didn’t convince him I threw out all the diapers. This kid is a child that would let you baby him until he is 20. He never wants to do anything himself. I have had to fight him on getting him to feed himself and dress himself. Have I ever told you that this kid loves to fight. It doesn’t matter what the fight is over, just as long as he gets to argue and win.

Not even two days after Christmas, Avion asked me to put away all the extra stuff. And the way he said it made it sound like I had Christmas decorations all over the place in the most inconvenient places, like I put the Christmas tree in the middle of a hall way instead of in the corner. It was kind of funny and sad all at the same time.