Yesterday while riding in the car Cooper says to me, “Guess what Mom? 2 + 2 equals 4.”
I say, “Great! What is 2 + 1?”
He says, “No more math Mom.”
That’s about the attention span I have for math too. Ha ha ha. Although a few minutes later he said, “Mom, 7 + 4 equals 11″ I was quite impressed cause I didn’t know we’ve gone past 10 in our addition abilities. Woo hoo. He went on to tell me 7 + 5 and also 7 + 6. If he learns much more I’ll need to pull out my calculator. 
)
Well, another Saturday rolled around, and with it, another birthday party. Today’s party was at a place called Safety Village. Kids get to ride around in little pedal cars and practice real rules of the road in a little mini-course that is set up. It was a GREAT day. Such a difference from last Saturday’s party. I wonder if it was the outdoor setting or the fact that he’d been there before or what he ate for breakfast… but Cooper was a champ and had a blast. Hooray.
Even though he had such a hard time at last week’s party, he keeps asking to go back to the lazer tag place. The darkness of it and the busy-busy activity was overwhelming for him, but I think it is cool that he wants to go back. He has always been that way though. When he falls down, he gets up and tries again til he succeeds. So maybe wanting to go back to Lazer Tag is to prove that he can “do it” without becoming overwhelmed. We’ll see…
Peace.
Some days are autism days, some not so much. Today was. Cooper was invited to a birthday party at one of those indoor laser tag places. He didn’t understand where we were going but was super excited about heading to a party. When we walked in, I felt his tension begin. It was a busy place. Kids running around with loud voices, arcade games happening everywhere, general busy-ness. I even felt a bit anxious.
So he did what he does when there is confusion around… he fixated on something he knew and understood. A baseball cap with the word POLICE on it. (He really likes words with the letters “P” and “I” in them) This cap was the perfect “comfort item. Problem is, it was in one of those machines with the giant claw – the kind that for $1 you get a chance to try and make the claw grab a toy. He ran to it and wanted a dollar. I had about $5 in my purse and figured “what the heck” and gave it a try. On my first try I won a panda bear. Woo-hoo! But that’s not what he wanted. He wanted… no wait… I think I can say, he needed the cap. I won’t go into details – but let’s just say I couldn’t get the hat. I emptied the pockets of my “school parent” friends and even a few strangers. No one in the place had a loonie left by the time we gave up. Cooper had fixated on the hat and was not going to let it go. I even begged the kid behind the counter to open the machine and give me the hat – but he didn’t have the key. He tried calling the guy that owns the machine to see if he could come open it – but no luck.
It was just sucky. He cried and cried and cried. Eventually, when the party turned to normal party stuff – pizza, cake and presents he decided he could join in. It turned into a situation he could understand. And things got kind of normal towards the end of the party. (Except for this little part when he laid down on the floor of the party room. yes, that’s him in the corner.)
I just thank God for my pal Shawna. She left the party and went to toys r us and picked up a police helmet for my lil Coop-meister. After the party we gave it to him and he was so very excited. *sigh*
Peace out.
The power of the internet has so many good uses. In almost all cases it has become our first resource when needing to seek out information. I neglected to use this power last week and it resulted in us seeing one of the worst movies in the history of movies… Space Chimps. The thought crossed my mind to check out some on-line reviews of the movie – but I never followed through. Thus, we packed the kids in the car and headed off.
The kids actually laughed hysterically. My friend and I rolled our eyes at the lame plot and gasped in horror twice at the inappropriate lines. (Which I am sure went over the kids heads, but STILL!) I did laugh out loud at a comparison of the astronaut chimps to David Bowie and his shiny clothing…but that one laugh couldn’t carry the movie. We did however have one HUGE cool thing happen.
Here we are sitting in the theatre BEFORE the movie started. Yes, Cooper went into the theatre with everyone else and sat waiting for the show to start. No screaming out in the hallway, no rolling around the floor crying about the scary robot, no having to sit outside til the opening scene is over. (See the Wall-E post from June 29th for context) He hesitated, but we assured him that we were all there and would hold his hand. SO he trusted us and did it! THAT may be worth the price of admission, even if the movie stunk.
PS… Don’t tell the kids that it stunk. They actually really liked it.
Wow – we have had such a great week and there is lots to write about. My dearest pal Lisa has been here for the past week with her sweet girl Kenzie and we had a jam packed week o’ fun. Kenzie is 8 years old and wanted to do what practically every 8 year old girl would love to do – RIDE HORSES! She had never been, my kids had never been, so we decided to give it a try. Have a look…
We had such a great time. Cooper (and all of the kids) were brave and listened well. He was exhausted afterwards, but he enjoyed it. His words were “This is great Mom. Let’s do it again!” We did about 40 minutes riding and that was a good length of time. That is a long time for him to sit still and to use his muscles to sit upright. He gets so wiggly when he has to sit anywhere. I can’t wait to take them again. ) I have heard of “riding therapy” as part of an autism treatment plan – if anyone has any experience with what that is all about, I’d love to hear your experiences.
Peace.
I don’t know why I do it to myself. Desperation and temporary insanity I suppose. I took the children to the Superstore this afternoon. Perhaps my mistake was stopping at the drug store on the way there and allowing them to each eat a chocolate bar. Or maybe it was just that I went on a day where they were in one of those wildly playful, we-can’t-keep-our-hands-off-of-each-other kind of moods. But it was incredibly un-fun for me. Tons of fun for them. Ironically I wore my “Good Mom” t-shirt today so I actually had to laugh every time I screamed “Stop rolling on the floor!” or “Get out of the freezer!”
The highlight of the trip for me was in the produce area. While I grabbed my bananas, carrots, lettuce, etc. as fast as I could, the boys started fighting over a cucumber. Picture them pulling it back and forth between them and screaming “It’s a pickle!” “No, it’s a cucumber!” “No, it’s a pickle!” “No, it’s a cucumber!” Did I mention that they were SCREAMING? People all around were laughing hysterically. After several back and forths of this, Ben snatched it away and smacked Cooper over the head with it. Cooper then snatched it back and whacked Ben in the stomach. About that time I marched over, grabbed the cucumber, threw it in my buggy (because of course now I had to buy it) and walked away with the two of them chasing me yelling “Wait Mommie! Don’t leave us here!” OY!
Good times!
Many parents (rightfully so) mark the milestones of their children’s development. First steps, first words, first juice box, etc. I didn’t do such a great job tracking those things. I know “approximately” when they each learned to walk, I have no idea of anyone’s first words – except I think Kacey’s first word was “donut,” and after all of the learning about autism that we have done I have realized that the important thing (to me anyway) is that we are all moving in a forward direction developmentally without as much concern with how fast we get there.
That being said, I have reason to mark July 27th on the calendar. It is the day that our Cooper learned to… blow his nose! And I couldn’t be more thrilled! Not counting the first winter he was born, I have survived 5 winters of trying every trick I could think of to show him how to blow through his nose. No luck…until yesterday. It actually happened quite by accident; but once he got the feeling of it – he blew and blew and blew. He was thrilled with his new trick. Or maybe he just thought it was funny that every time he did it I screamed “Yay!” and jumped up and down clapping. Either way, “Thank you God!”
peace out.
Cooper told a joke yesterday. Background: We had to pick my husband up from work yesterday. A friend is currently letting us use office space in his offices, and the office that Colin is in has the name “Dale” etched in the glass on the office door. (All of the offices in the facility have the names etched in the doors. It is really cool.) Anyways, while Colin packed up his stuff Cooper wandered from door to door reading the names on them. Then he went back to Colin’s office and said, “Come on Dale, let’s go!”
We laughed like crazy. It was unexpected and perfectly in context. He put the two-and-two together that the names on the door stood for the person using that office. Clever boy! He looked at us and smirked. I’m pretty sure he was trying to be funny.
He wanted to do a photo shoot tonight. Isn’t he gorgeous? :o)
peace out.
We have had a fabulous family week. I am so proud of Cooper I actually had to just hug him tight before bed.
Saturday – He conquered the movie theatre with Wall-E
Sunday – A “carnival” at Sunday School
Monday – The beach
Tuesday – Water slide and pool with friends / family BBQ at friend’s house at night.
Wednesday – All day swimming with 8 other kids
Thursday – Swimming at friend’s house (5 other kids there)
Friday – Play date at friend’s (while I got my hair cut)
WOW! I’m tired just typing all of this. I can’t believe he has fared so well, with no meltdowns or other catastrophes. He has LOVED the swimming part of our week. Last year we had many failed trips to swimming pools and the beach. We’d get there and he’d refuse to get out of the car – or get out and then scream and run back once he saw the water/people. WELL…He actually did a CANNONBALL on Wednesday. Knees up, under the water cannonball. What was even cuter was his battle cry of “AMOBAAAA” (Cannonball!) as he jumped.
I realize that I very well might be pushing my luck but tomorrow we are going to try and see “Kung Fu Panda.” Pray for us!
Peace out.
Here is us this morning, donning our patriotic gear!
(“Here is us?” What kind of Grammar is that?)
Well we did something today that I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing last year. I took the three kids to the beach. All by myself. By 10 AM today it was smokin’ hot – Bennie went out for a bike ride and came back within minutes sweating like crazy.
I made a couple of phone calls, but my “beach going” friends that I beached with last year were busy so I decided to give it a go. It was a blast! No problems, no trauma, we all made it home in one piece. I am quite encouraged by this – maybe I won’t be cooped up in the house as much as I was last summer! Promising.
