Evasion of Sleep

I believe K has this master plan .... she plots this out before bed every night. It is her plan to evade sleep!

K for whatever reason thinks that "go use potty please" is the magical phrase that will be her saving grace from the dreaded bedtime monster. (K does not think there is bedtime monster. She just HATES going to bed and sleeping!).

Sometimes it is funny, other times it is sort of annoying. K will go to the potty and sit on the potty with her pants and panties still on. If she thinks she can get a way with it she will play in the bathtub and drop cloths, toys, papers, coins, etc into the tub. (Right now there is a collection of pants and paper and various coins in my tub.) Other times K will try to climb onto the sink to look into the mirror or try to climb on to the bathroom door so that her feet are on either door knob so she can use the door as a swing of sorts.
 
When she is bed, K may try to slide down of the bed in a sneaky way and try to escape the bedroom. Or she will try to go into the walk-in closet or spin in the desk chair.

Somehow she thinks I won't notice this, but I do!

Some nights K just won't sleep at all. Last night was one of those nights .... hopefully we will have a better night tonight.

No milk ... No Juice ... Water Only

For the past few weeks I have had to hide and lock up all liquid based bottles - from soap (bath, dish, laundry detergent) to bottled water and other drinks. The problem with hiding the drinks like milk, juice, tea is that they require to be refrigerated. The baby locks for the refrigerated or cabinets do not work because K has figured out how to open them. Our next step is to put a garden gate style door on the two door ways in the kitchen.

K has been pouring out all liquids. Milk, juice, laundry detergent, soap, anything and EVERY thing she can get her hands on. I will be in the bathroom or in the other room cleaning and she will be pouring stuff into the sink.

Today she is asking for milk, well we have no milk since she poured out a 1/2 gallon of milk last night. K wants me to make juice, but I will not since she poured out the milk. Today she will only have water ... since she has poured out all the other drink options.

K did have a melt down and decided to throw some random items in my bedroom. But that will not help her get milk. K did her "gila monster" scream ... still no milk or juice. Water only. I am holding out. K is not happy, but I will deal with it. I have explained to her when she pours the milk down the drain it "goes bye bye" and we cannot get it back.

So the drink of choice today .... Water only.

IEP TIME ON 5/17/11

Tuesday the 17th of May, I had her IEP with Mrs.Y (her teacher), Mrs. SC (the Autism Coordinator), and a mainstream teacher. Everything went great! I LOVE her school and her teachers - especially since she started this new school for Kindergarten.

At first the Mainstream Teacher talked to me about what K would be doing if she were in her classroom. (Now at this point K is not ready to mainstreamed) But I guess they do that so the parents know what going on in both types of classrooms. After that she left. Mrs. Y and Mrs. SC told first told me they thought K should go to summer school to work on certain skills. (This was on the top of my concerns for her and I did not have to bring it up -this was a total plus for me! Last year at her old school, I had to fight for her to go to summer school!) They also told me they want to work on basic math skills like adding once she can write all her numbers. Also they have been working on reading skills with her. Mrs. Y says they K reads basic sentences for them, but she will not do it at home for us. (I will have to work on her with this a lot more). They also want her to be independent, like running errands while being watched and with other kids. (This made me a little nervous.) The one thing they did not touch on was getting K to answer personal questions like "What is your name/age/etc?". So I brought that up, and they added it. They also are going to work on communication skills, social skills, etc.

Overall, it was a good IEP meeting and I am happy with the outcome!

The Zoo & Autism is in not racist, it is not judgmental, but sexist (from 5/16/11)

Yesterday K had her last school field trip for the year. Her school went to the local zoo. I went as a chaperone and took 1/2 day off from work.

At the school, I pull in and was told by the Autism Guidance Counselor that do to the number of students going that all parents who were attending the trip had to drive their own kids. Okay no problem in driving my daughter to the zoo. I then go into her classroom and all the kids were watching the spaceship launch. K say me and got all excited, starting jumping around and said "Mommy" and gave me a hug! Then one of her classmates came over and gave me a hug. I told K to go sit back down with the other students and she sat back down, but not without crying. I filled out the student release form and her teacher Ms.Y told K that she could come back over to me, that K did not understand why I told her to go sit back down. So K back up and came over to me. That was the first of the melt downs (minor - but the first).

K and I leave her classroom and go the car. K sees the bus and wants to get on it - K LOVES riding the bus to school. She understood that she was riding with me, but she wanted to be on the bus. That started the next melt down. K started to whine and cry. I tried to tell her that the bus does not have her toys nor music. She came to car and I got her in. At that point, she decided she did not want to wear the "field day shirt" and proceed to take it off. K had a dress on, so taking off the shirt was no big deal. Then we had to wait for the students to load the bus. This took awhile and K hates waiting in the car with the car at a standstill. K could have gone into further melt down mood, but I saved the day by putting on David Bowie's "Golden Years". K calmed down and soon we got moving.

We got to the zoo after taking some weird longish way rather then going straight on the interstate, but that is what I get for following the bus driver. We get out of the car and the bus unloads. We all walk up to the zoo entrance, and I am surrounded by a sea of purple shirts - the color of the special "field day shirts". 60 or so students, teachers and paraprofessionals all in purple. I look around and there are mostly boys from Pre-K to 5th grade with only a few girls in the mix. I counted 5 girls (including K) there could have been as many as 10 girls. I found that in this crowd, that Autism is in not racist, it is not judgmental - it affects all families in all races in all income brackets. Autism may be slightly sexist by impacting more boys then girls, but it could also be that girls are harder to diagnosis then boys if the girls have HFA (High Functioning Autism).  (This a post for another day to go into.)

K got in for free, I had to pay. After paying, we followed the mass amount of purple shirts into the zoo. I followed Ms. Y and her class to the train. This zoo has a train that circles the back with 2 stops - one stop near the main exit and the other stop at the back off the zoo. Come to find out there would not be another train for about 20 minutes. Then the conductor decided to get another train rather then making all the kids wait. I had asked K is she wanted to wait for the train or go see the animals. K choose waiting for the train. So we waited. While waiting, there was one child who I do not know if he was verbal or not, but he was sitting. He started fussing and making noise, I believe he did not like waiting. The train came and we boarded. Once we were sitting on the train and the train took off, there was a girl behind who was rocking back and forth during the whole ride. Her father kept telling her to "stop rocking". The boy next to us was rocking as well, but his father did not tell him to stop. Now does telling your child who is stimming to stop help? I really don't know. (K does not rock - she gets all bouncy, jumpy and hand flapping when she is happy or excited ... but I do not tell her to stop. She does when she is upset hit her head and I will tell her stop then. Or with loud noises until she gets use to the sound she will stick her fingers near her ears - this happens a lot since DH works with power tools.)

At the second stop, K was given the option to keep riding or go see the animals. K again chose to ride on the train. She said "I want train please". After that was over, K looked at me and said "Go see animals". So off we went to see the various animals. The animals that attracted the most attention from K was the giraffes, the red viper, the fish, and the dinosaur attraction.

At this zoo, there are giraffes that you pay $2 and you can feed them. K at first tried tearing off the little leaves from the 2 twigs she was given to feed the giraffe. Then she tried to give the giraffe the whole twig. Finally, she got the hang of breaking off the little twigs from the main twig and feeding it to the giraffe. K did a good job feeding the giraffe. Previously, when trying to feed animals, K would flip out and not want to do it.

Next the red viper snake held her attention. In the snake house there were all these snakes, lazing about as snakes do. Nothing really held her attention until we came across the red viper. This snake was moving all about and up the window. K was just amazed at this animal. We stood there for several mintues watching this snake. When it was time to move on K, did not want to go so we watched the snake some more.

We then went to the "Dino Alive" exhibit. I personally would not have gone to it myself, but K loved it. At first she was not sure how to make out the dinosaurs.  They were not caged in like the other animals. It was set up on a path, almost like a safari excursion, expect there were no jeeps. The dinosaurs were "kept back" by these wood fences. Obviously the dinosaurs were mechanical.  K was interested in all of it. There was this one dinosaur that we walked past, as we walked past it, it spit water at us. K got all wet. I moved her back into the path of the spitting dinosaur so she would get wet again. K said "Stop dinosaur stop!". Then there was this fort built with sticks that the kids could climb on. Since K is a master climber - she had a ball on this. Then once we left, there was the gift shop with the mechanical dinosaurs that the kid could control. K had fun with that.

Overall we had a good time! K came home with me for the day rather then going back to school and to extended day care.

Horses and Therapeutic Horseback Riding

K LOVES horses. She loves riding horses. She went threw a horse phase about a year ago and a 1/2 ago. So I arranged for her to go on a pony ride. K loved it - biggest smile did I ever see. She rode on the pony about 5 times. When it was time to go she was so upset and was crying. Her "Uncle Jon" (a friend of the family) wanted to pay for her to ride ago several more time, but I had to tell him that K has to learn that when it is time to go and can not be rewarded for crying and screaming.

Then this school year, her school took a trip to a local farm and horse ranch. There K got to ride on another horse. Again the same light in her eyes and smile on her face when she was on top of the horse. So knowing how K loves horses, I started to look into the hippotherapy for her.

I found a place that is local and it is volunteer occupational therapists and physical therapists.  There is the option of group riding for 1/2 hour or one on one for 1/2 hour.  The cost is $25 for 1/2 hour. I took K there last Tuesday to meet with the instructor and the horses. When we got there, K saw all the people on the horses and she was saying "Ride" "Ride please" "Ride horse please". When the lesson for that group was done the instructor came out. She introduced K to Pandora (one of the horses). K petted Pandora's nose and chest area. Then the instructor brought out a pony named Flash since K acted ok around the other horse. The instructor wanted to see how K would react around the horses first. When Flash came out K petted Flash. Then the instructor placed K onto the Flash's back. K lifted her leg to straddle the horse. The instructor was surprised to see K do this. But it was a pleasant surprise!!!!

Now the instructor told me K would be ready to ride with a doctor's note and that they would be closing for the summer, but she wanted K to come on Tuesday (this coming one) to start riding. I told her I did not think that would be a good idea because should would not be able to do it during the summer. Come to find out they do the one on one as well and some of the instructors do that during the week. So I got K signed up and ready to go!

I cannot wait to see how it will help her!

Hippotherapy is useful for:

• relaxing tight muscles
• increasing balance
• building muscle strength
• sharpening hand/eye coordination
• gaining a sense of body-awareness
• gaining a sense of self-control
• gaining a sense of self-confidence
• improving communication
• improving concentration
• improving socialization
• improving patience
• improving fine motor coordination
• improving sensory integration

(Taken from Aspen Education Group)

Links to look at for more information:

• Therapeutic horseback riding
• Equine Therapy for Autistic and Asperger's Syndrome Kids
• Hippotherapy
• Hippotherapy works for autism
• Kids make strides through therapeutic horseback riding in Bridgewater

Mother's Day w/ K & DH & Snoopy

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

What did everyone do for Mother's Day?

I had a relaxing Mother's Day. K ran around the house grazing on grapes, pretzels (which sounds like "puzzle" when she says it), and cheese nips in the morning - what a breakfast! I spent the morning reading a book and DH brought me coffee.

K sang her "Happy Mommy's Day" song (to the tune of "Happy Birthday"). She sang "Happy Mommy Circle Octopus Day To You". I got a good laugh out of that. Then K and I played "Rock a bye" baby with her doll. We sing the song and then at the end drop the baby on the bed. K kept asking for "I want you to sing rock a bye baby". Then I did it with her and at the end I would drop her on the bed. She got a huge laugh out of that. But I could only do it 3 times - K is getting too heavy!!!

DH, K and I went to get Snoopy a new chain leash and we went out to eat at Appleby's. K was very good in the restaurant even though she did not eat much. The sever forgot our silverware two times. When the food was brought out he asked how everything was, we said good .... but we need our silverware. After that we walked through Lowe's to get idea's for redoing our apartment ... an on going project. We a doing K's room first since that will be the easiest.

We came home. K and I walked Snoopy. Then I played my xbox game. K decided to feed Snoopy a whole bag of "Snoopy Snacks" (there was not that may left). K kept sniffing the snacks and I had to make sure she did not eat them herself. Snoopy was in the crate when K feed him the snacks. K still gets a little scared around Snoopy because he jumps. So when he gets too wild for K at times, I have been trying to teach her to tell us "Snoopy in cage". So we can put Snoopy in the crate when he gets to be to much for her. We have also been holding Snoopy's collar and having K pet him and then give her juice or a snack of sorts.

K likes Snoopy and going outside with either me or DH to walk him. She likes feeding him snacks and likes when he chases her in the hallway. But Snoopy can overwhelm K with all his jumping. I am looking into training classes for him. That will come in do time ....

ABC's, Tickles

K loves her ABC's - looking at letters and books and singing. K also loves to be tickled. So I have combined her two loves into one. I sing the "ABC's" but I do it this way and K's sing with me:

A b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s ... T is for tickle (and I tickle her) ... u v w x y z ... now I know my abc's next time won't you tickle me (and I tickle her).

And the Winner is ...

Now Saturday when we were looking at dogs the choice was at first narrowed down to Merry (a lab/retriever mix), Shiva (a retriever/dachshund mix) and that was it. On Saturday, I was told that Shiva had heartworms and needed to be kept calm - not a good fit with K. So I was thinking Merry would be a great fit for our family. But the Humane Society was closing and there was no one there that really knew what dogs would be good with kids.

Monday rolled around and I went back to the Humane Society. I looked at the dogs again and in the running was Merry, Scrappy (another lab/retriever mix), Oliver (a beagle mix). These dogs were all under a year old. I spoke with a very helpful woman named Berta. She interviewed me and said that she would prefer to see Merry in a setting with a yard rather then an apartment. This was because Merry would be a big dog and needs lots of room to run and play. I told her whatever dog we choose would be walked several times a day and taken to a local dog park. Berta frowned on that - only because of the apartment living. She brought Merry out to meet me anyway. Merry was a sweet and loving dog, but she had a lot of energy and loves to jump. She loved to jump a little too much, and I know with K that would freak her out. So I had to be fair to Merry and leave her. She is a dog that deserves a big yard to run and play in. It is not fair to any dog not to have a yard to play in.

The next choice was Scrappy. He was vetoed down by Berta even before we got to meet him. This was because he was apart of a pair. The Human Society would not split the pair up ... and I am not ready to own 2 dogs.

The third choice was Oliver. Now I did not see Oliver on Saturday or on Monday when I looked at the dogs. He was not in his cage. I took a chance because I had a beagle mix dog before and she was great! Oliver came out and he was calm. He loved to play and was friendly. He jumped a bit, but he is a puppy. Like the saying goes, three times is a charm and knew that this was the dog for our family.

After work and school, DH and I took K to meet Oliver. K was more interested in the toys then the actual dog at first. DH was happy with Oliver and the deal was sealed. We brought Oliver home Monday night. Oliver was renamed by DH as Snoopy.

Now Monday night, K was excited by Snoopy, but still much more interested in his toys. Before she went to bed, she sat by Snoopy's cage and said "Snoopy goes night-night".

Tuesday night, K sat by Snoopy's cage and was singing to him.

Wednesday morning, she was taking Snoopy's toys and he would chase her in the apartment. He would like her or try to get the toy. K would scream then laugh and then say "K okay" with a big old grin on her face.

Wednesday night, she climbed into the kennel cage and tried to close the door. Also on the way home from school, K was asking for Snoopy.

K is real curious about Snoopy. She will sit by his cage and watch him and talk or sing to him. She is learning to say "Down Snoopy" "No Snoopy". She likes him a lot and she has been calmer in the 3 1/2 days that we have had him. K is still a little nervous around him, but I think that will soon pass.

So the obvious winner was Snoopy - he is overall a loving, friendly, happy, quiet dog.

Future Pup To BE

This was from Saturday/Monday (will post the update later today or tomorrow):

DH and I are looking to get a dog for K. Not a service dog, but a dog that will fit in with our family. A dog that is less then a year old. A puppy that we can take for walks and is friendly. An animal that will curl up with you at the end of the day. A happy dog that is energetic but calm. I went to the SPCA with K on Saturday to look. We found a 7 1/2 month old Lab mix - but have not come to any conclusions. I would rather this decision to take a while so we can find a dog that will fit in our life. The woman who knows more about the dogs was not there on Saturday. I took the time to fill out the paper work and speak with a counselor. So tomorrow the woman who knows more about the dogs should call me - but I am stopping in tomorrow (Monday) to check it out.

My husband is in and out of the house through out the day. I work a part time split shift job. So this will allow us the time to spend with the future pup during the work day. Also K loves to be outside and there are several dog parks in our town. The dog would share K's room. We are going to put selves up on the walls for her toys and a latch of sorts on her toy box. (Her room is bare except for her bed and toy box.) We are going to put up a wall length chalk board for her. Her floor is tile. There will be a create for the future pup.

Now based on the research that I have done ... the best breed of dog is Lab, Retriever, or a Poodle. Now, I am kind a partial to a beagle, but we will see. 

As far as the benefits:

As Temple Grandin has proven, individuals with autism are often able to connect with animals in very deep and meaningful ways. In particular, dogs can teach a child unconditional love, responsibility, compassion and provide unparalleled companionship that can potentially change the course of their lives. From "Dogs Proven Therapeutic for Children with Autism" AutismKey

• teaching responsibility, unconditional love, compassion and respect
• creating a relaxing atmosphere that can reduce anxiety
• providing companionship that can alter social behavior

Below are the websites that I have checked out:

• Best Pet Dog for a Child with Autism - What's Your Advice?
• Best friend, indeed, for children with autism
• The Best Dog Breeds for Autistic Children
• Choosing a Pet for Your Autistic Child
• A Dog May Be a Child-With-Autism's Best Friend

• Autism Service Dogs (Service that provides service dogs - I do not promote this site - it does offer a page with detailed information to explain how it helps kids with autism and certain behaviors.)
• Autism Service Dog - Wikipedia 
• If My Dog Could Talk - Written by Alison Ainsworth  (Book information about one family's life with their child and service dog)

At the "Yuck Yuck Fair"

K has been asking for the Fair since we went on Friday.  First we went to McDonald's for dinner were she chose a cheeseburger happy meal. Once she ate that K asked for yogurt. K LOVES the fruit parfaits. We used the ladies room. In the ladies room, K was saying "Yuck Yuck Fair" and "Fair nasty". Now she has never been to a fair and the only rides she has been on are Merry-Go-Rounds or Bounce Houses. When she said that I gave K the choice of the fair or going home and going to bed. K looked at me and said in her little high pitch voice "No bed. Fair, ok.". Once done at McDonald's, we went over to the Fair.

I bought 40 tickets for us. The first ride she went on was this mini train ride. I was not sure if she was going to undo the buckle. So the ride operator let me ride with her - that was quite a sight! It was a tight squeeze getting in then I had to ride hunched over. K did great on that ride. Next I took her to the balloon dart game to win her a prize. 5 darts for $5 - I asked K what prize she wanted. Barely able to hear her over the blaring music, K said "I want monkey, please." So, $10 dollars later, K got her beloved monkey.

We rode on the Scrambler and the Flying Bobs together. Then K rode on all of the kiddie rides - the Frog Leap, the Airplanes, Motorcycles, and Cars. I went to take her on the Fun House with slide. I asked the ride operator if I could shadow her and I explained she has Autism and I am not sure how she would be on this ride. (It was a walk through fun house that went high up with 2 slides, 2 wooden bridges and some other obstacles.) The operator said no that we could not go on since this ride was only for kids. I was a little peeved, but took K to ride on some spinning ride. While in line for the spinning ride, I saw another adult in the fun house with his child. Once they came off the final slide, I went up to this guy and asked if he just came off the ride and if the operator allowed him on. This guy said yes. I went back to the operator and told him that it was unfair of him to allow this child on with his father and not allow me to take my daughter on. Finally, he allowed K on with the condition that if she scared or confused and did not come down I could go after her. He allowed her to go on several times after that without having to pay extra tickets. He then told me he has a daughter with Downs Syndrome.

After that, we went on the spinning ride. I let K play a game where she picks up a duck out of a pool of water and wins a prize. She picked out this green blow up alien (or as she says it "Al-we-win-win"). Then we shared a pretzel and a soda. She wanted to go back onto the Flying Bobs again because of the music. She LOVED that ride! During the whole night she kept asking "ride, please", "more ride", "music car ride, please" (for the Flying Bobs). K had one last ride on the train by herself. I told K that we were leaving and she got a bit fussy. She stared to cry and said "rides". But I told her there were no more tickets and we had to go home to see Daddy. K said "No Daddy." But she calmed down.

DH did not go with us to the fair because he was on call. But K and I had a good time. K yesterday kept asking about the fair. I told her the fair went bye-bye. So I think we are Disney ready. There were no lines at the fair for the most part. K did get semi fussy about waiting for the short time she have to wait, but she  soon got over it. I know that Disney has the Fast Track passes - I will have to research that a bit more. I think that we will do Disney for her 7th birthday.