It's all my mom's fault!

She put a curse on me when I was younger.  I know what you are thinking.  Being from New Orleans, it must be some strange voodoo curse.  Well, you are wrong.  Your mom probably put the same curse on you. The "I hope you have a child that is just like you someday."  Yeah, THANK YOU MOM!  Some days I'm not too sure I want a neurotypical child!  Spencer has been so sassy and he just loves to lock me out.  How can a child who doesn't talk be sassy?  When I fuss at him and he is not too happy with that, he will mumble under his breath.  I recognize that tone!  I'm pretty sure that when he does start talking, he will be spending a lot of time in time out for that mouth!!
Spencer's new thing is locking doors.  He locked me out on the balcony of the resort on vacation recently.  Really bad because A) Les & Pey were not there with us; B) Les & Pey did not have keys to get back in and C) He got way too much enjoyment looking at me through the sliding glass door.  When the boys arrived back, they started knocking on the door.  Spence finally opened the door and I had to admit that I had been outsmarted by a 6 year old. (A really smart 6 year old!)
Spence has taken a little time to get readjusted to our routine.  But, he is getting back into the swing of things.  Just in time for them to change.  We only have 4 more days of ESY (extended school year) and then about 2 weeks before school starts.  He got up at 5:30 this morning, which is the time he will probably have to get up for school, but today we have nowhere to be until noon. I was looking forward to sleeping until about 7.  I guess the joke's on me!
I finally put a passcode on my iPhone.  Finally, my battery life is back to where I don't need to recharge the phone in the middle of the day!
Hopefully, it won't rain terribly hard all day.  Maybe we'll even get to do something fun!!

What a week!

Well, I haven’t blogged in a while, but that usually happens on vacation. ;)   Tuesday, we went for a hike in the Smoky Mountains and a picnic. On the way back to the resort, traffic was at a stand still.  Being the city folk that we are, we immediately assumed that there was an accident up ahead.  Boy were we wrong.  Up on the side of the mountain was a black bear.  We stopped (just like everyone else) and Pey took a couple of pictures.  Very, very cool.

Wednesday, we should have all just stayed in bed.  Yes, it was that bad.  I needed to go to the grocery because we were running low on Spencer supplies.  I hadn’t been gone long when Spencer had a fit.  He decided to throw all of my toiletries over the 3rd floor balcony.  Poor Pey was sent downstairs to try to collect everything.  Needless to say, my husband was not happy with Mr. Spencer when I returned.  We decided to go to Splash Country water park.  We didn’t have a problem until the lifeguard told us that Spencer needed a life jacket to be in the wave pool.  He is not an adventurous child and was staying where the water barely came to his knees.  Well, you would have thought that we were beating the tar out of the child.  He did not want the life jacket, but he wanted in the wave pool.  Finally, we got him in the wave pool with the jacket.  But, he was not happy.  Which means we were not happy.  I decided to take him to the lazy river, since he could do that without any external apparatus.  We ran around several times (good leg workout for Mommy!) and then Daddy joined us while Pey did some slides.  We went around a couple of times with Daddy- on a tube and calm.  I thought the day had been salvaged.  I need to not make assumptions like that anymore.  We went to the kiddie area, so Spence could do some age-appropriate and ability-appropriate slides.  He had a blast.  He didn’t like waiting his turn, but he did it.  All was well until the lifeguard told us that everyone had to get out of the pool.  I had just promised Spence that he could do the slide again and then I was pulling him away.  He totally did not understand.  Then I realized they were vacating the pool due to inclement weather and nearby lightning strikes.  He kept trying to make mad dashes to the pool.  I had him by the hand and was leading him out of the kiddie area when he plopped.  I tripped and fell over him.  When I turned back, I grabbed him and told him in no uncertain terms that we needed to go NOW.  He was trying to plop again, so I grabbed him under his arms from behind and was kind of lifting him and walking with him.  That is when it happened.  This woman got in my face and told me that I needed to calm down for the sake of my child.  Yes, I was mad at Spence, but I was more in a panic of what could come.  I could not redirect him in that area- I had to remove him from the situation in order to control it.  I certainly did not want him to become self-injurious.  Now, I had this woman to deal with.  I asked her to get out of my way and she kept stepping in front of me.  Now I was furious.  At HER.  But, she didn’t get it.  I needed to get out of there NOW!  My husband was behind me stunned.  She proceeds to follow us to where we have our stuff.  My heart was racing, adrenaline pumping.  I could not believe her nerve.  I was able to get Spence interested in his food while we packed up our stuff to leave.  Hours later, I was still reeling.  I have never had such an encounter and hope to never repeat the experience again.

Thursday, my wonderful husband suggested that I visit the spa while he took the kids to the indoor water park located at our resort.  Don’t mind if I do!  It was a relatively peaceful day, but Spence was becoming restless.  Friday, we went to Dollywood and rode a ride I never would have thought that Spence would enjoy.  The whole family got on a raft and yes, we got wet!  I think Spence got a kick out of it.  I know Peyton did, because he wanted to keep riding that ride.  We could not get Spence to go to sleep that night.  One of his front teeth was loose and he was obsessed with playing with it.  He just kept getting more and more ‘out of control’.  I decided that we would leave Saturday and return to PTC.  Between construction and traffic, it seemed to take forever.  Whew!

Now it is time to clean the apartment, do laundry (yuck!) and get back to our routine.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to post some pics soon!

From the mountains

OMG the view from our resort is just incredibly breathtaking. We came up Friday and just hung out. The adults were tired, the kids were wired. Yikes! They were so happy to see each other.

My little man has turned into a people watcher. He loves to go out on the balcony and watch all the activity below. We went to the indoor waterpark yesterday. Spence LOVED it.


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Where does the time go?

Well, I couldn't locate a babysitter Tuesday, so Spence stayed with a friend and her sitter watched him.  It wasn't until later that I realized that I have NEVER done that.  He made himself at home and hung out with her children.  He didn't go to sleep; I'm wondering if he thought I was leaving him with them.   I can only guess.  We had a great time at dinner.  It was nice to be surrounded by people going through the same 'war'.  It's funny how people are quick to dismiss any ideas we have about what caused our child's autism.  It is human nature to speculate.  Not that it matters how.  All I know is that my child was not born with autism.  He had autism thrust upon him by whatever caused it.  So you look everywhere.  (and anywhere- including at yourself)  What should we have known?  And its funny.  Just today, I posted a seemingly innocent picture on Facebook.  All I said was that parents need to be informed.  BEFORE you get any immunizations, go to the CDC website and familiarize yourself with the ingredients and side effects.  Then decide for yourself whether you want your child vaccinated.  Knowledge is power and parents need to take back the power.  That's really all I'm saying on that topic.
On a lighter and much happier note, we are going to meet up with the other boys in Gatlinburg for a family vacation.  Hopefully, Mommy will get a chance to head to the spa (hint, hint, honey ;).
It is going to be very interesting to see the difference in Spencer's behavior on this trip.  I just love seeing the changes in him!
Still have a ton of laundry to do and a ton of cooking before heading out tomorrow.  Hope everyone has a safe and fun fourth of July!!

That's the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I like it (uh-huh, uh-huh)

For all of you young-uns, that was a song from the 70's.  One of my favorites, much to my mother's dismay.  Yesterday, I had Spencer's 20 week progress report.  The goal of Pre-Brain Balance (the program that he is in) is to get him to Brain Balance levels.  We are sooo close in some things.  His fine motor is already at Brain Balance level 2. (awesome!!) Brain Balance works!  I wish everyone would be a little more open minded when it comes to our kids.  The research  is out there to support what we are doing.  Funny that people are so quick to use therapies that are 50 years old when it comes to neurological disorders, but there is not a person in the world who would want a surgeon to use a 50 year old technique when operating on them.  Think about it.
Anyway, little man got ANOTHER star yesterday from the cognitive room for following directions.  I'm noticing it at home as well.  It was so cute that he will put things away when I ask him to, or bring me items he has pulled out.  He has been babbling A LOT.  This is fantastic.  I feel that he will be talking before we are done here.  It seems to be right around the corner.  Wow!  It is so amazing to see the changes in him and the other Brain Balance children.  I've seen so much progress in my little boy.  And the best thing is, this is lasting progress!
Here are some photos from Disney.  For some reason, I was not able to upload them when I last tried.

This is the toy Spence HAD to have; the one he signed "Mommy, please" for.  Just what we needed, a bunch of little green men!

Spence sitting on his brother's lap at the Disney Junior stage show.  He loved it.  He danced, laughed and clapped!!

Now I have to see about securing a babysitter for tonight.  A bunch of Brain Balance moms are getting together for dinner to say goodbye to one who is leaving us.  :(

The stars are shining

Not in the sky, silly, on the walls of Brain Balance.  When the children do something really good, they get a star with their name on it and a brief description of what they did to earn the star.  The child gets to stick it to the wall wherever they want.  Why am I telling you this?  Because of the tumultuous last few sessions, I was incredibly shocked when Spencer emerged Wednesday with not one, but TWO stars.  He got one from the Sensory Motor room and one from  the Cognitive room.  Both were for following directions, listening and doing all of his work without complaints.  So, he earned the chance to go swimming that afternoon.  Too bad Mother Nature was not as impressed as I was with the two stars, because it STORMED.
Unfortunately, we couldn't go swimming on Thursday either because we had to wait for the furniture rental company to come pick up the furniture.  Since I will be here until next May, I found it would be a lot cheaper to buy some inexpensive furniture than to rent monthly.  I only wish that they could have come while Spencer was at ESY.  He got extremely excited while they were here, and he was very confused.  I think he thought that we were moving.  He followed me around like a puppy, afraid to have me out of his sight for even a second.  Then, during the night, he crawled into bed with me,  He hasn't done that in a while, so I figured maybe he thought I would leave him in the middle of the night.  Of course, all I can do is guess, because he can't let me know what is going on in his head.  Very frustrating for us both.
Friday, I bought a golf cart.  Now, we are ready.  I picked up the cart while Spencer was in Brain Balance, taking him completely by surprise!  Before I get to that, I need to rehash Friday.  My parents came into town.  They chose to leave Thursday, so they would be here all day Friday and Saturday before departing on Sunday afternoon.  Spencer was confused by the fact that they were over in the morning (I suspect he thought it was Saturday). Then, his Brain Balance session was changed from 1:30 to 12:00 noon. He does not handle multiple changes well.  So, when he got to Brain Balance, he was fit to be tied.  He was behaving horribly.  He did mange to do all of his work, so that was an improvement over Monday.  I forgot to mention we went to Target Friday morning to purchase some inexpensive furniture for the apartment.  Spencer found the aisle with the Goldfish crackers.  Uh oh.  He brought me a box and I had to calmly explain that he couldn't have them.  He didn't understand and threw a fit, rolling all over the floor at Target and getting very upset.  When I left the area, he followed.  He was still upset and started throwing his "Cars" sheets on the floor over and over.  I let him because he needed to get it out.  There was a lady shooting me horrid looks when I told Spence he couldn't have the crackers.  I was tempted to tell her something, but her ignorance is not my problem.  My focus was on my child.  I've gotten better with ignoring people.  If I can, I do calmly explain the situation.  For some, that may be their first hands-on experience with an autistic child.  But, when I am in the middle of trying to diffuse a volatile situation, the educational needs of others come second.  I must say that even his tantrum wasn't as bad as I have seen.  There was no self-injurious behavior.  He did not try to attack me (or my parents).  He did find a sofa and threw himself on it a couple of times.  I think he was waiting for me to tell him to stop, but I was not going to give him attention.  Sure enough, it stopped.  Anyway, my poor dad spent the whole day putting together the two dressers (it would have gone a lot faster if I could have helped him), going to Home Depot, and picking up lunch (Chinese- yummy!!).
Spencer got two golf cart rides.  The first was when I picked him up from Brain Balance.  At first, I saw him looking for my car.  He grabbed my hand and looked at me with the most confused expression on his face.  When I got into the cart, he snagged his spot.  It took us a long time to get back to the apartment, I had to take the VERY LONG way.  There was a large dog chained outside of a house on our original route.  When it saw us, it started barking and running to the end of the chain.  Spencer didn't know or realize that the dog couldn't get us.  He was terrified.  He jumped in my lap screaming, "dawdie, dawdie, dawdie"  (I am trying to spell it phoenetically- but it is pronounced like doggie but with a d sound instead of a g.)  HE WAS COMMUNICATING!!  Awesome.  So, we turned around and took the longer route home.
We saw a baby deer and a bunny rabbit on this first trip, so cool!  Then, later, to get him out of my dad's hair, we took another trip.  We found a playground and he played for a little while.  It was getting to the time that the bugs were coming out, so we hopped back in the cart.  This time, I got a picture of a deer in someone's back yard.  Spence was quiet and was actually looking at it.  Good Stuff!

This is our golf cart.  You can't really tell, but it is purple.  I call it the "purple people eater" or "grape ape".  Yes, I know I am weird.

The deer we saw the second time we took the cart out.  You can see the hammock off to the left hand side.  I think this is neat.

We took the cart to Kroger this morning and got to park in the "golf cart only" parking.  That still cracks me up that they have special spots all over town for golf carts.  He was so good, I bought him a Cars activity book with stickers, etc.  He loves going riding in the cart and he is so well behaved.  Here is my little shopper:

Going to go enjoy more of my weekend!!

It's been a while

Yikes, I kept meaning to post, but I didn't realize that so much time had past.  Quick update: I decided to go blonde, Spencer decided to revisit his nude exhibitionist impulses and we haven't been swimming since the pool reopened due to SOMEONE'S noncompliance at Brain Balance and at home.  (Like you'll even need more than one guess for that one!)
Okay, so there you go.  The quick and dirty update.  Yeah, right.  Like I would just let you off with a couple of sentences.  HaHa!
I'm not sure if Spencer is oblivious or if he just doesn't care what color my hair is (seems to be a Martin man family trait!) but when he left for school I was a brunette, when he came home, I was a blonde.  The only thing he noticed were that my bangs kept getting in my face.  It was adorable the way he would brush them to the side so he could see Mommy's eyes.
Let's look at the behavior.  His brain is changing.  This is a good thing.  However, his stubborn streak just extended itself to be a mile wide.  He so politely told one of the therapists "no" when she asked him to sit down to do his work.  That is good and bad.  Bad, because he didn't concede to authority and do his work. Good, because he is showing a little personality and expressing his wishes (with words, no less!) However, his noncompliance has gotten so out of control, that he has been losing privileges when he doesn't do his work.  Since his favorite activity is swimming, that is what he has been working toward.  Monday, he almost made it. But, with 10 minutes left to the end of the session, he decided that he was done. No swimming, no fun.  Can't reward the bad behavior, so we both are punished.
I have been trying to load some photos and videos but for some I reason I can't get it to work.  Maybe user error?