Obstacle Chronicles 7/12

It was a fairly easy day. We had no tantrums.

The usual issues with forcing him to go potty. He's been peeing standing up and I taught him how to lift the lid, which makes it easier for him to pee height wise, but also keeps me from sitting on a wet seat.

A few repetitive demands for food.

We went on a trip to deliver a bed to someone. There was a major accident on I40 and we got stuck in it for 3 1/2 hours. We made it a whopping 2 miles in that time.

Jamie fussed a little that he was hungry and he wanted to go home. I was amazed at his patience. He also let me know when he needed to pee and I was able to take him off to the side of the road to pee. I just pulled the front of his pants down far enough to let his penis out and turned him so the onlookers couldn't see his private parts. He had to pee twice. I think he did amazing. Why is he so good at this trapped in the car like that, but we battle at home?

Kidisms 7/11

Jamie was sort of galloping down the hallway saying, "Poop, poop, poop." I guess he was trying to hurry to the bathroom and hold in his poop. As soon as he sat down on the toilet he yelled, "I'm done!" We thought it was a bit fast, but since Jamie has loose stools frequently, Matt went in to wipe him. Jamie said, "Don't need wipe. Poop's all gone." He ran to the bedroom and Matt went after him. He said, "Jamie, I need to wipe your bottom." In a sing song voice, Jamie said, "Lost the poops."

Apparently the little guy only passed gas. It was just cute the way he said he lost the poops.

Obstacle Chronicles 7/11

It was a perfectly easy day. Brianna & Dynisha were here most of the day. M's parents were off work so she wasn't here. There was very little fighting at all.

We had a few episodes of inappropriate hitting, where Jamie was trying to play.

Several times Jamie repetitively demanded food when I told him to wait while I got it.

Many times I had to force him to go to the bathroom. He peed his pants once.

Once the girls went home he spent most of the evening watching TV in my bed. I know a lot of TV isn't good for him, but sometimes it's just hard not to.

He went to bed pretty easily when we let him take his shapes to bed.

Favoritism

Ahhh, peace and quiet. It's just Jamie and I. Matt will be thrilled when he gets home. Brianna & Dysnisha spent the night last night. We've been over run with kids all week. I don't generally mind, but it really is chaotic.

There is a dark cloud over this peace and quiet, though. Dynisha didn't want to go home. He mother forced her to go home. Brianna called her mother wanting her father to come pick her up and wanted her parents to make Dynisha go home. To keep Brianna happy they forced Dynisha to go home.

Dynisha cried. She said she didn't want to go home because she couldn't play in her room. She couldn't make noise. She had to sleep on the couch. She can't watch anything she wants on TV. I don't blame her.

I'm so sick of my mother-in-law favoring Brianna in every situation. Dynisha has reverted to baby talk and has become extremely whiny. She's having sleep difficulties. It's very frustrating. I hate even more how smug Brianna was about it. She's so proud that she has control over Dynisha and her mother. It makes me feel ill.

I would totally understand if they wanted her to come home for just about any other reason, they missed her, she had work to do, they had plans, etc. My mother-in-law admits she gives into Brianna just to "shut her up." She's doing a major disservice to both girls. How can you favor one child over the other so blatantly?

Obstacle Chronicles 7/10

Today was a very easy day.

We had very few minor skirmishes between the kids. I had Brianna, Dynisha, and M. He always seems to do better when Brianna is around. He's always been very attached to her.

At the grocery store I had a little bit of trouble with him kicking the other kids. He was strapped in the double cart with M. He kicked her some and whoever was pushing the cart.

He had a few episodes of hitting and locking the girls in the back section of the house. He was trying to play. Sometimes they all play that way and he doesn't seem to catch on when they really don't want him to. I've told them not to play with him like that because he can't tell the difference.

There were several times today, as every day, that I had to force him to go to the bathroom. At his grandmother's house he stood up to pee and didn't have to remove all his clothes like he usually does. I think he really wants to stand up but our toilets are too high and he feels uncomfortable on the stool. I think that may be why he says, "It's not working."

Other than that he was good as gold. We didn't even have our normal food time struggle with the repeated demand for whatever it is he wants.

Obstacle Chronicles 7/9

Dynisha spent the night with us last night. He woke up in the early morning hours calling for her, but then went back to sleep on his own.

The first part of the day went smooth as silk. The Dynisha and Jamie played with minimal arguing. M arrived a little before noon.

The first real meltdown happened after 1pm. M was playing with Jamie's shape sorter box and Jamie tried to take it away from her. Dynisha intervened and made him give it back. He cried, "It's my shapes! It's MY shapes." He stomped his feet. He put his hands on his face. He went for the sorter again and M smacked his hand. He ran down the hallway crying, "Kalah hurt me!" He didn't want comfort. A few minutes late he calmed down and the shape sorter was forgotten by all.



A few minutes later M got the board to a game that has numbers on it. Jamie again tried to take it from her, "It's my numbers!!" This skirmish was very short lived because M wasn't really interested in the board. Moments later a new skirmish... This time Jamie got M's doll stroller and she tried to take it from him.



Everything was dumped out in the playroom. The disaster was unbelievable. I told the kids they better get the room cleaned up. When M put a pony into the changing table she and Jamie argued because they both wanted to shut the door. Nobody wanted to pick up. Jamie kept running and getting into my bed. I made him go back and help. Every few minutes there was some arguing. Usually because Jamie was trying to take toys away from M or Dynisha because he wanted to put them away himself. Despite this he kept yelling at M to "pick up". He pitched a fit when Dynisha put his yellow car in the car basket. He had a mini meltdown and kicked the floor a minute. He yelled at her a few times, "That's my yellow car!" Several times he told the girls, "Don't touch me!" When I investigated, they had touched his hand or something.

Jamie got irritated at M for making clicking noises with her tongue. He kept telling her, "Don't say that." I had to ask him what he was talking about because I didn't hear anything but silence. Of course, since he told her not to she had to double her efforts to make the noise, which aggravated him a lot. I told her to stop to restore peace.

Hours later the room is a worse mess than what it started. Dynisha says there's too many toys and we should just throw them away. I say, fine and get her a garbage bag. She starts filling the bag quickly. I tell her, "Throw Mr. Bear in there, too. He's laying in the floor." Mr. Bear is her lovey. She begins to cry. I said, "See, it was really easy to throw their toys away, but when you have to throw away just one of yours it's not so easy." I told her that cleaning up the room is just as fast as throwing toys away. You pick it up and put in in the bin or on the dresser instead of in the bag. There's no difficulty difference.

I might have gotten through to her, but Jamie was another story. My little lesson backfired and had an unexpected result. I went outside for a minute and came back in to M screaming. Jamie was throwing everything in the trash. I told him to stop and he just kept on doing it. I told him, "No" and it wasn't sinking in. I walked out to think for a minute and decided to best plan of action was to make them take a break and come talk to me. I tried to explain to Jamie about cleaning up. Then I went into the room and began directing them what to do. If I left for even a second things melted down again. With three very agitated kids, it was not going smoothly at all.

At the end of the day, the room is not clean. I gave up.

Other than that we just had our normal bathroom arguments. I don't know why he doesn't want to go. He has very good control. He'll hold it forever and a day.

Who Was Messing With Mommy's Camera?

I wonder who it could have been?

The Asperger Syndrome Checklist

Here's the other part of my homework. It's the Asperger Checklist. I thought I would fill it out on here. I've decided that my husband and I should each fill ours out separately. The pink answers are mine. The blue answer's are my husbands.

1. Does the individual present with social difficulties? Yes / Sometimes
2. Does the individual have issues with nonverbal behavior? Sometimes / Sometimes
3. Does the individual have eye-to-eye gaze difficulties? Sometimes / False
4. Does the individual have difficulty recognizing or using facial expression? I don't know / I don't know
5. Does the individual have difficulty with body posture? I don't know / Yes
6. Does the individual seem awkward when using (or never uses) gestures? Yes / Yes
7. Does the individual have difficulty "reading" social cues (the non-spoken hints)? Yes / Yes
8. Does the individual have difficulty developing appropriate peer relationships? No / Yes
9. Does the individual tend to interact primarily with adults or younger children? No / Yes
10. Does the individual have a difficult time interacting with similarly aged peers? Sometimes / I don't know
11. Does the individual have difficulty with mutual interests? Sometimes / Yes
12. Does the individual appear to be excessively self-centered? Sometimes / Yes
13. Does the individual appear to be relatively unconcerned about another person's interests? Sometimes /Yes
14. Does the individual have difficulty in reciprocal socialization? Sometimes / Yes
15. Does the individual have difficulty modulating his behavior to fit the social situation? Yes / Yes
16. Does the individual have difficulty reacting to other people's social issues? Yes /Yes
17. Does the individual have a restricted and narrow range of interests? Sometimes / Yes
18. Does the individual have interests that appear to be all-consuming? Sometimes / Yes
19. Does the individual have interests that appear to be more intense than that of his peers? Yes / Yes
20. Does the individual have difficulty in developing interests outside his preferred interest area? Sometimes / Yes
21. Does the individual tend to impose routines on himself and/or others? Sometimes / Yes
22. Does the individual appear to be more interested in parts of objects than the object itself? Sometimes / Yes
23. Does the individual have motor mannerisms not typically seen in age appropriate peers? Yes / Yes
24. Does the individual use his body or hands in such a way that he receives undue attention? Sometimes / Yes
25. Does the individual appear to be somewhat clumsy? Yes / Yes
26. Does the individual use oral language with the same proficiency as age-appropriate peers? False / False
27. Does the individual have relatively good command of grammar? I do not know / False
28. Does the individual have relatively good vocabulary skills? Yes / False
29. Does the individual have a communication style that is perceived as odd or out of place? Sometimes / Yes
30. Does the individual have superficial speech that lacks complexity (esp. outside interest area)? Yes / Yes
31. Does the individual appear to have normal or gifted intelligence? Yes / Yes

Obstacle Chronicles 7/8

At breakfast time he cried repeatedly that he wanted waffles and didn't stop until they were handed to him. This happened at every snack and meal.

We had the same battles forcing him to go to the potty when we saw him holding himself. At one point during the day I threatened to take his Eeyore if he didn't go potty and he quickly followed my instruction.

We had to put his clothes back on for him every time.

He didn't want to put his clothes on to go outside and play and I kept having to make him come back in and put clothes on.

There were several minor skirmishes where I had to stop physical fighting. The reasons for the fights and who started them are unknown to me.

Several times I had to stop him from jumping on my bed. I had to grab him to stop him and put him in the floor.

Today was just an average day with the repetitive issues we face on a daily basis.

Obstacle Chronicles 7/7

When I got back from the appointment with the developmental psychologist Jamie had just come back from using the bathroom. He completely removes all garments from the waist down. The friend who was watching him told him to put his pants and underwear back on and he refused. I told him and he refused. He said, "I can't do it." He can do it. After repeated telling him to put them on himself we gave up and my friend put them on for him. This issue repeated itself later and I was able to get him to put his underwear on himself, but not his shorts.

While outside playing with his friends, he got on the glider with his friend L. When her brother, J, decided to get on, Jamie pushed him off with his feet and yelled at him, "Push me, J." I was on the deck with my friend watching the kids play. I yelled down to Jamie. "No kicking." J did not push Jamie on the swing. Jamie yelled his request again and then went on with what he was doing.

He tried to take a shovel away from M. A struggle ensued. I had to sternly tell him 3 or 4 times to let it go before he did. He cried, "It's my blue!" I told him he had to share and he could not take things away from other people.

Inside he tried to take a bag of chips away from L. I made him let go and he cried a little. I told him to ask her for them and not take them away from her. He asked her and she gave him one and he was happy.

On the way home M was talking incessantly. Jamie began to kick the seat in front of him, then he started saying, "Hush, Kalah. Be quiet Kalah", when she didn't he began yelling her. I told them both to be quiet and watch TV (I had Max & Ruby on in the van). They both fell asleep on the way home.

Once at the house I woke them and herded them into the house. Immediately Jamie began fussing that he was hungry. I told him I would make him some supper. He wouldn't stop. "I want ice cream." I told him, "You can't have ice cream, I'm going to make dinner." he kept repeating it over and over. I told him firmly, "No" I told him to go play so I could start supper but he kept on. I walked him to the play room and told him to play with M and I'd come get him when it was done. He got in front of me and tried to stop me from leaving and repeated, "I want ice cream. I want ice cream, Mommy." I told him, "No, now go in there or I'll put you in time out." He followed me to the kitchen gate, which I locked, and stayed there watching me while I fixed supper, which ended up being sandwiches since it was so late and he was apparently so hungry.

I saw him holding himself and told him to go to the bathroom. He said, "I don't need to go potty. Pees all gone." I told him he did need to go potty. He said, "No". I told him, "Right now." He said, "It's not working." I said, "It is working. Go right now." I went to the bathroom crying all the way that "It's not working." He went pee and brought his pants back to me. I told him to put them on and he refused. I got them started and made him pull them up himself.

As soon as he and M were done eating they began fighting. I don't know what all they were fighting over. I usually only intervene if physical fighting occurs.