Playin' Catch Up

I've been so bad at blogging lately. Here are a few things that made it to the "Blog Worthy" list.

JETT:
He's just cute...and always BlogWorthy:

*Jett's favorite word is still 'No!' 

*I love how Jett says 'car' because he sounds like he's from Boston.

*He's also been working on his two word sentences which usually are "More _____" or "No ______". 

*He loves to read more and more. In fact, when we go shopping, both the boys act like they're in a candy store when we come across the book isle. It's so hard for me to say 'no' when it's books they want; whereas toys it's the easiest thing. I mean really, "NO! No books! They might give you ideas and make you smart!" See what I'm saying? 

*Jett is so much fun to watch when he plays. He loves big trucks and just like Cruise, enjoys little character toys. However, unlike Cruise, he would be totally fine if I didn't play with him...just as long as I'm near him, paying attention to every little thing he does. He just likes our undivided attention.

*Jett lately has been letting us know when he needs to be changed. Totally awesome and something we've never experienced before. Maybe potty training is in the near future?

LOCKS NOT TO KEEP PEOPLE OUT, BUT TO KEEP CHILDREN IN
I think I've written about Cruise running off before. It is always a horrific and terrifying feeling when Cruise runs off because my first thought is that something terrible happened to him and second, even if someone were to find him, he can't tell anyone what his name is, where he lives, his parents' names, or his phone number. 


Unfortunately it is very common among children with autism to wander off, or "elope". A couple weeks ago, my alarm went off at 7:00am so I could get Cruise up and ready for school. I got out of bed and noticed Cruise wasn't in bed with me (he usually ends up in our bed at around 2 or 3am every morning). So I figured he probably went downstairs or in the living room to play. I walked through the house and was headed for the stairs when I saw that the back door was wide open. 


I ran outside and ran around the yard yelling, no, screaming his name. I know he doesn't respond to his name very often, but it was all I could do. I had no idea how long he had been gone, and I could only imagine where he had gone and what could've happened to him. When I couldn't find him in the yard, I opened the gate to go look for him. Seconds later I found him in his pajamas, wandering around in the neighbor's yard.

That afternoon, we installed these:

When Cruise is inside, we deadbolt and then padlock both the doors. When he wants to go outside, one of us is always out there with him. I know, it looks really ghetto, but at this point it is something that had to be done. I sleep much better these days. 

AUTISM CARNIVAL AT WHEELER FARM

I suppose every year Sahara Cares throws a big autism carnival for kids with autism and their families. I decided to take the kids this year. It was last Saturday, which means Dave had to work. I asked my dad to come with to help me with the boys, which was so nice of him.

The night before, neither of the boys slept much, which means I was already exhausted, but that never really stops them. So we went ahead and drove up to Salt Lake to Wheeler Farm. On one side of the farm, there was a...farm. On the other, they had the carnival all set up. Lots of games, food, music, characters to get pictures taken with, blow up bounce-ons (the one thing Cruise is TRULY afraid of), and a lot of fun activities and resource tables. We never made it to the carnival. It was too noisy and overly visually stimulating for the poor kiddo to handle. So we spent our time seeing all the animals and going on tractor rides. The boys had a blast though.

When we first got there, Cruise already had a list in his mind of all the animals he wanted to see: horse, cow, pig, sheep! So, we saw them all.

On the tractor ride. 

CRUISE:

Another Blog Worthy Favorite, Cruise has been making incredible amounts of progress. I know how it goes, though, and I am prepared. Usually when they start making a ton of progress, it gets really good, plateaus for awhile, most likely regresses, and then it comes back around to more progress. But right now, he's just doing so well and I am just so amazed and proud of him.

Every day he says a whole new phrase, makes a new joke, has something new to say with new vocabulary, and every day I am blown away. 

Here are a few phrases and words that have suddenly popped up in the past couple weeks:

*"Can I pway wit you?" He walked up to Jett one day and just randomly asked. I was in complete shock.

*Jett had gotten mad at me for taking my cell phone away from him. So he walked up to me and started hitting me with a play sword. I was making dinner and didn't have hands, so I said, "Jett, stop, that hurts." Cruise noticed and said, "Jett, stop! Somebody get hurt! Not nice!" Jett then stole my phone out of my back pocket and took off running. Cruise chased him down, and returned my phone to me: "Here you go, Mommy." 

*Cruise got off the bus and started to tell me about the Grandpa. I was a little confused and asked him, "Did you see Grandpa?" He responded, "Grandpa driver...what's his name?" (HE'S NEVER ASKED THAT...EVER!) And I said, "Bob. Bob is the bus driver." "Yeah! Bob!"

*Jett was crying in the kitchen one day and Cruise walked up and asked, "What's wrong Jett? You scared?" My heart melted. One thing that has been hard to teach Cruise is empathy. That was just so sweet to hear. 

I could probably go on and on because each day is something more miraculous. I just feel so blessed to witness miracles every day.

FAMILY BIKE RIDE:

This last Friday, which is always our family outing day, we decided to take the bikes and the boys up to Provo Canyon and enjoy the beautiful weather. Since Cruise has been getting better at riding his bike with training wheels, we decided to bring his bike too.

We didn't want it to be exhausting and frustrating, so we took two cars. We left one at the mouth of the canyon, and then drove the Jeep (carrying the bikes) to Canyon Glen where we began our bike ride. This way we could bike downhill the whole time and not have to go back. Once we got to the bottom, we locked up the bikes, got in the other car, drove up to the Jeep, drove back to the bikes and loaded them up. It was a bit of a process, but the boys had a lot of fun and we all enjoyed the ride.

Mom says, "Jett, smile!" So he closes his eyes.

My amazing boys.

the end.

Interview with Temple Grandin

I'm a HUGE fan of Temple Grandin. I just wanted to post this video because she really addresses some great and useful things. Check it out:

For Those Of You Who Still Haven't Read This...

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Preschool Update

I thought I'd do a little update about how Cruise's preschool is going thus far. Honestly, I can't believe how well things have been going and I feel so blessed to have Cruise in such a great public school, with a great teacher, and with an incredibly small class size where each kid gets an aide. It really is something remarkable and I just couldn't be more grateful for the school situation this year.

Even after the first week of public school, Cruise was obviously making amazing progress. Every day he'd come home having learned something new and shared it with us for the rest of the day. Last week he came home and while he was playing with his toys began to say, "Black bird, black bird, what do you see? I see a...(looks at his toy penguin) PENGUIN looking at me." My mouth dropped and I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed. He now will sit down with a picture book and do the same rhyme with the pictures that he sees. It's just incredible to me.

When the first day of his private school, Bridges, began, I went to pick Cruise up from public school after lunch to take him. Immediately I got this big knot in my stomach and it made me uncomfortable. I took him to Bridges where I said goodbye and left for home. When I got home, I talked to Dave about the whole situation and told him what my gut feeling was, which was to not do Bridges and just keep him at public school all day. It frustrated me a little because I absolutely LOVE Bridges. After all, Cruise has been going there for an entire year and I am such a fan of their program. But deep down I felt like it just wasn't right this year.

I assessed why I love Bridges so much and what I feel like it helps Cruise with. It came down to two very important things: learning to socialize and the sensory aspect. So we decided that instead, to have him start a Social Group program at Bridges which starts in October. This program is once a week in the evening and addresses those two components. He will bring a "neurotypical" friend and there they will help him socially interact appropriately and also throw in sensory activities.

After making and finalizing our decision, the knot came undone and I felt so much better. It's so funny how many times we end up having to make a decision between two very wonderful things. Things that are in no way bad. I think that's what makes the decision particularly hard. But the great thing is having a continual dialogue with Heavenly Father and being able to feel and respond to the promptings of the Spirit. My life may be one hectic crises after another, but I always feel like I can manage them because I have Heavenly Father on my team. He sees things from a whole different perspective and so what may seem like a crisis to me, probably looks like a regular growing experience to Him. I am so grateful for that.