Red Lights: A Record of Life's Defining Moments

Silly Saturday: Holding His Own

The other evening Mikey noticed a neighborhood friend out in the park in front of our house.  He promptly informed that he was going outside and away he went.  Over he ran to this little boy and started pushing him in the swing.  This little boy then ran to his house and came back with a stuffed animal.  They placed the stuff animal in the baby swing and one stood in front and one stood behind and they pushed the teddy bear back and forth.

And although I do let Mikey go outside to play with kids on his own, I must admit that I still stand at the window and watch his every move... ready at any second to run out the door if assistance is needed.  I figure he might be about 50 before I stop doing this (and that will only be because I will no longer be able to run out at that age).

They quickly tired of this game and moved on to a good old game of "you chase me".  The little boy ran around the playground equipment with the bear while Mikey ran after him trying to get the bear.  Mikey is pretty good on his feet but he did have difficulty keeping up with this game.  You could see he was getting tired of being the chaser and he wanted to be chased.  But try as he might he could not get the bear.

Mikey continued to smile and giggle and participate in the game.  Then suddenly he stopped and I could literally see a light going on for him.  He went up to the other little boy, grabbed his hat off his head and then ran the other way.

Mission accomplished... now he was being the chased instead of the chaser.

Moral of the story: sometimes our kids don't need other people to make modifications for them as they are completely capable of doing it themselves.

Have I mentioned how much I love this boy lately?

Silly Saturday: What Crazy Things Has Mikey Done This Week?

Mikey needs to have a sequence of events that are going to happen at all times.  We used to do this with pictures but as time as gone on, a verbal list is enough.  I find myself constantly giving him the next 3 or 4 things we are going to do and as a result, he handles the transitions throughout his day quite well.

On Thursday after school, I had told him that we would be going home, playing for a while, having supper at home and then going to grandma and grandpa's because he was going to have a sleepover.  Yesterday was a PD day so I had to work but Mikey didn't have school so my parents were doing childcare duty.  Mikey was very excited about this.

My parents phoned me just as I was walking in the house and let me know that they were thinking to come in to town and wanted to know if we wanted to go out for supper and then they would just take Mikey back and save me the trip.  Great for me as it saved me the trip... not so great for Mikey as we had already outlined what the evening would look like.

This is a time where I kick myself for eliminating the pictures as I think it would be easier with them but this is just so much more transportable and its one step closer to eliminating the need for prompting which is ulitmately a goal of ours.

Anyway, I explained the new sequence to Mikey which was to play for a while, then go out for supper with grandma and grandpa and then come back home for a bit as grandma and mommy needed to do about an hours worth of work on the computer (my mom coordinates the golf league and I'm her secretary - lol) and then he would be going home with grandma and grandpa.

Of course, he clung to the going home with grandma and grandpa as he loves sleeping over there.  He then proceeded to get his coat and shoes on and wait around until we were to leave - all the time saying "grandma and grandpa".  He was probalby thinking at this point if I would change the plan once I might change it again and then he wouldn't get to go for his sleepover.

So.. he sat at home with coat and shoes on (and bag packed) for an hour, sat through supper the same way, insisted on going in grandma and grandpa's car after supper and then when we came back home, he sat by the door with coat and shoes on the whole time just waiting to go to grandma and grandpa's.

Funny thing... when my parents went to bring him back here last night, he refused to put his shoes on.  Apparently he wasn't done his visit.  LOL

Silly Saturday: What Crazy Things Has Mikey Done Now?

Mikey has an extreme need to follow routines in his day-to-day life.  When something changes without warning, it can result in a "melt-down" situation.  This need is one of the reasons that we originally started looking in to weather Mikey falls on the autism spectrum or not.  We never really got anywhere with that.  Either way, Mikey continues to need things to happen in a very consistent manner.

He loves his teddy bears and he has one in particular that he tends to favor.  This one has seen better days yet I dare not throw it out because I find him going to get him a couple of times a day.  About a year ago, he started teaching/assisting this teddy bear quite a bit.  He also took to yelling at him on a regular basis.  I will often hear a loud stream of "NOs" coming from where Mikey and his bear are playing.  I have also found him placing his bear in time out... sitting him on a stool and telling to "tay thar" (stay there) and then going up to him afterwards and ensuring they have eye contact while Mikey blabbers away in no language that is known to me (but I'm sure this might be how we sound to him when we try to explain what he has done to land himself in time out).  The bear always says I'm sorry (hand over hand) and they go back to their thing.

The bear has done such things that land him in real trouble though.  One time the bear ended up sitting in the dark bathroom on a stool for upwards of an hour with Mikey going in to talk to him and then leaving every 10 minutes or so.  One day I was going through the basement and I moved the bear to the side as he was in my way.  Mikey came down a while later and looked at the spot where the bear was left and then proceeded to pick up the bear, ensure that he had eye contact (and told the bear to have listening ears to boot) and then proceeded to give him what for for upwards of 10 minutes!

I really don't know where he gets the extremity of his reactions as I know for a fact that everyone in his life reacts in a pretty calm and non-confrontational way.  Yet he proceeds.

This was really not what I set out to write.  I started by saying he has a need for things to be the way he wants them to be and that is what this week's story is about.  Early this week I went down to the playroom and wanted to clean it up a bit.  I give Mikey pretty much free reign in the room and his toys often stayed scattered throughout the area.  So I put everything away to one side of the room.  I went back down after about an hour of Mikey playing down there to find that he was putting every single toy back where it was.  You have to understand that when you factor in all the little stuff he has, there were probably thousands of toys and to me they just looked like they were in a big disorganized mess.  To Mikey there must have been some reason for why things where they were as he was picking up each small toy, looking around and then placing it where it belonged.  After about 2 hours of working on it, Mikey has his play room back to the way it was supposed to be.  I still just saw a big mess. 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this kid?