Yeah, so I darn near caught our house on fire this evening while attempting to start dinner. Yay, me! I get the award for Idiot of the Day.
I was heating a skillet on the stove to sear some chicken and got preoccupied (only a few feet away) with another task for a little longer than I should have. When I came back and drizzled olive oil into the pan, it instantly caught fire. Live and learn....first time for everything, so I will definitely be more diligent in the future regarding not getting sidetracked with other tasks.
After last week's incapacitating illness that kept Reiss down for four days straight, he is back to school this week. It has taken him all week up until today to get back on track with being able to stay on task and maintain himself without meltdowns or disruptive behaviors. Poor little dude. If there is one thing I hate about autism (Actually, I hate autism altogether - all parts of it, no ifs, ands, or buts), it is the fact that the smallest things can set Reiss off into a tailspin. Granted, being sick for days on end is nothing small but it has taken him just as long as he was sick to get back into the swing of things at school to a point where he is not causing a ruckus for his classmates.
Less than two weeks until this baby makes it arrival. At this point, I get very little sleep due in part to the simple fact that I am so large that some whales are even smaller than I am, but also because my children allow me approximately the same amount of sleep as newborns allow. I am thoroughly exhausted and find myself getting annoyed by trivial things. It is a challenge, to say the least, to remain calm while trying to care for two children whose needs quite often exceed the needs of say, ten children. Try as I might to channel Michelle Duggar, often times the calming effect only comes after I retreat to the laundry room and devour some of the candy that was meant to be for Halloween. Five bags. Two weeks of being in there. You do the math. I will be buying more candy before Halloween, for sure.
In other news....I hate when I say that because it lacks any sort of creativity. However, what I am about to say this time literally is in the news. If you are in the mood to get ticked off about the injustices of the legal system and how children with special needs get the short end of the stick almost every time, go HERE. And if you really have a desire to get worked up, read the comments following the article. This kind of thing happens every day in schools around our nation. Unfortunately, this particular incident was at a school approximately five miles from my house, which drives home the point that no school, no community, is immune to this kind of treatment of our children by educational "professionals."
I said it on Facebook when I linked the article to my Wall and I will say it on here: God help this woman if she ever crosses my path because she will need it. And to Ms. Littleton - If, for some odd reason you happened to have stumbled upon my blog and perceive that statement as a threat, go right ahead.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Kick Me While I'm Down
Thirty-eight weeks pregnant and a swift kick to the belly is how my day got started this morning. Not the best way to kick off a positive day. Get it? Kick. Off. Nevermind....
Actually, I was not down either. I was sitting on the side of the bed trying to wake Reiss by patting his bottom. As soon as he woke, he hauled off and kicked me and it just so happened to hit the big fat target called my baby bump, which is more like a baby whale. Typically, I am pretty quick to react and can fend off his occasional hits or kicks but they usually come at a time when he is being placed in timeout and I am more conscious to what may be coming. This kick was his first action of the morning and as soon as his eyes opened. He was not in trouble at the time or being hauled off to a timeout - just annoyed apparently, with his bottom being patted or by being woken up or annoyed that it was me waking him and not James or who knows what. You just never know. The kick caught me by surprise.
He has been a little "off" for the last two weeks anyway, so this was just icing on the cake. This, too, shall pass and hopefully, I will not have to endure any kicks to the belly once there is an agonizing c-section incision to contend with as well.
Kicking must have been his thing for the morning because he then proceeded to try to hit (and missed) the director of his school at drop-off as she tried to get him out of my SUV. He was preoccupied with the air vents in the back of the console and clearly did not want to exit the vehicle. Once out of the SUV, he then hauled off and kicked her too.
I do not tell people things like this to publicly criticize my own child but rather, to demonstrate how autism can facilitate inappropriate responses from the child involved. I do not condone him kicking and am certainly embarrassed by it, but I also do not use autism as an excuse. Yes, autism is what causes the inappropriate responses, including those physical ones, but it does not get him out of disciplinary consequences when he uses such a means to react. Does that make sense? Long story short, yes, he is being a brat and it is because of the autism but we do not let it slide when he does such things.
In other news, as if we did not already have enough reasons to believe our neighbor is an oddball, we got a knock on the door this evening by a local policeman with quite a story to tell. Without going into major details, we now have even more reason to consider our neighbor a nut job and it involves delusional behavior, a physical altercation, and our neighbor's beliefs that some local teenagers are selling secrets to radical Muslims. I knew he was weird.
The cop came knocking on our door because he could not get anyone next door to answer even though he saw someone walking around inside. Now, this neighbor has lived here for over five years and I can honestly say that I can probably count on one hand, with a finger or two leftover, how many times I have physically seen his son who lives there with him. Supposedly, the son has a disability from a work-related accident and cannot work. There must be something else going on as well though, and I mean something mental. The guy can walk so it seems odd that in that amount of time he has been outside or left the house so few times.
Whatever....I just hope to goodness that they keep their freaky-dink stuff to themselves. Coming near my kids with their weirdness would let loose a fury that I do not want to consider right now, considering my current physical condition. Or ever, for that matter.
Actually, I was not down either. I was sitting on the side of the bed trying to wake Reiss by patting his bottom. As soon as he woke, he hauled off and kicked me and it just so happened to hit the big fat target called my baby bump, which is more like a baby whale. Typically, I am pretty quick to react and can fend off his occasional hits or kicks but they usually come at a time when he is being placed in timeout and I am more conscious to what may be coming. This kick was his first action of the morning and as soon as his eyes opened. He was not in trouble at the time or being hauled off to a timeout - just annoyed apparently, with his bottom being patted or by being woken up or annoyed that it was me waking him and not James or who knows what. You just never know. The kick caught me by surprise.
He has been a little "off" for the last two weeks anyway, so this was just icing on the cake. This, too, shall pass and hopefully, I will not have to endure any kicks to the belly once there is an agonizing c-section incision to contend with as well.
Kicking must have been his thing for the morning because he then proceeded to try to hit (and missed) the director of his school at drop-off as she tried to get him out of my SUV. He was preoccupied with the air vents in the back of the console and clearly did not want to exit the vehicle. Once out of the SUV, he then hauled off and kicked her too.
I do not tell people things like this to publicly criticize my own child but rather, to demonstrate how autism can facilitate inappropriate responses from the child involved. I do not condone him kicking and am certainly embarrassed by it, but I also do not use autism as an excuse. Yes, autism is what causes the inappropriate responses, including those physical ones, but it does not get him out of disciplinary consequences when he uses such a means to react. Does that make sense? Long story short, yes, he is being a brat and it is because of the autism but we do not let it slide when he does such things.
In other news, as if we did not already have enough reasons to believe our neighbor is an oddball, we got a knock on the door this evening by a local policeman with quite a story to tell. Without going into major details, we now have even more reason to consider our neighbor a nut job and it involves delusional behavior, a physical altercation, and our neighbor's beliefs that some local teenagers are selling secrets to radical Muslims. I knew he was weird.
The cop came knocking on our door because he could not get anyone next door to answer even though he saw someone walking around inside. Now, this neighbor has lived here for over five years and I can honestly say that I can probably count on one hand, with a finger or two leftover, how many times I have physically seen his son who lives there with him. Supposedly, the son has a disability from a work-related accident and cannot work. There must be something else going on as well though, and I mean something mental. The guy can walk so it seems odd that in that amount of time he has been outside or left the house so few times.
Whatever....I just hope to goodness that they keep their freaky-dink stuff to themselves. Coming near my kids with their weirdness would let loose a fury that I do not want to consider right now, considering my current physical condition. Or ever, for that matter.
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