My Quirky Boy

I am liberated, or maybe a more accurate description is I have been liberated. I used to live is SoCal, SD to be exact. 7.2 miles from a beautiful beach that allowed dogs. I looked like a Cali girl, I wandered around on the weekends in bikini tops, and had Cali hair. Long blond, straight locks. I mean long, way past my bra strap. Then hubby came along and everyday would tell me, cut ‘em off.

I hate brushing them, I hate washing them, I hated blow drying them. So I did, cut them all off. In stages, shoulder, to jaw, then short, boy short. After a while I started to grow them again, cut them, grow them, and so on. When I got prego with Baby G I started to grow out the locks again. 2 years I have been at it. Let’s just say it does not have the same effect. The previous blond is now mousey, and I spent more time groaning about them, than doing anything with them. So, I chopped them off. I thought I would regret it, but I don’t. Suits me, I think, and is MUCH easier to deal with.

This is my second attempt at posting this, as our nature of sharing is penalizing us. We did not previously lock our wireless connection, and out neighbor’s kid was hopping on. Which is fine, except it would not allow US to be able to connect. Now they are locked out, and we once again are cruising the wireless waves.

Fin has been on a good roll until yesterday, and even that was a fleeting incident. He is not sleeping, which means we don’t either. It is 9:15PM and he is awake, and he will wake again in the night and slip in next to me. Silent as the darkness, willing himself into the smallest possible form, and barely taking up any room on the edge of my bed. I know though, I always know. He knows I know, sometimes he speaks to me, softly.

“Mama…….” whispering. Nothing more, just that. If hubby wakes, he will get up, no matter what time, and shuffle Fin back to bed. I know it is a terrible habit, but I know that too soon he will no longer do it, so I let him.

We bought a GREAT book full of social stories. If we can get everything done right, one of us takes Baby G in 1/2 hour before Fin at night, and the other parent does “Social Stories” with him.

We bought this on an impulsive Barnes and Noble visit on a rainy day. It is great for many reasons, it is good for Fin, and I have learned a lot bout Fin. We talk about school, who is in his class, what they did, what they do. But he is like recorder, replaying the facts, the details intertwined with quotes from the day. But the the other night there was a page about playing, how to talk to a peer you want to play with. He knows, he knows what he should say, but I found out what actually happens. We read it, rolled played it, and when I asked him how he plays with the other kids he told me:

“I go and stand next to Jacob”, kid in his class, “if I stand there long enough he will ask who he is playing with if I can play too.”

Fin would stand there all day if that is what it takes rather than ask. He is SO SMART, the things he does, says, remembers, he constantly amazes us. But the simple things in life seem insurmountable.

We bought another book, “What You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Child with Autism” by Jonathan Levy. I think he is kind of a quack, but some of the things he says make some sense and we are giving it a try. For instance crying is a problem with Fin, and the books thinks he is using it as a manipulation tool, we are working on that. Food is the other, he is limiting his variety down to nothing, and won’t eat a lunch food if no one else has the same thing that day. He won’t eat anything mixed together, he won’t try new foods, he won’t eat anything “adulterated”, no herbs, no spices. He knows, if hubby sprinkles anything on top it goes uneaten. Thank goodness for summer, I think if he keeps eating fruit the way he is, he might sprout leaves.