The Worlds of Miss Chattyshoes, Elmo, and Me
Yesterday was a good day with the kids. I had to get Mr. Busypants up. I found him with his entire body buried inside his fish duvet. All 24? (I'm losing count) of his books--the ones he wrote, illustrated and bound--were inside. As part of our routine, we had to gather them all, put them in the order in which they were written (yes, he knows even if I lost track around book 11), and stack them safely in his Book-Truck, a little truck made of construction paper that resembled the Mail-Truck he made for his valentines the week before. He carries his Book-Truck around so much that it's practically laminated with packing tape used to mend and reinforce areas of wear.
Books 2 and 3 were missing, so I found myself crawling inside the duvet in search of those books--there would be no getting ready for school until every book was retrieved. I found them pretty quickly and we resumed our ordering. Unfortunately, Small Group book and Marco Island book were missing. After a thorough search of his room, Mr. Busypants found them under the bed. Whew! Then it was off to our morning routines until the bus showed up. Today was Hat and Sunglasses day at school for Spirit Week, so Alex wore a gigantic Mexican sombrero. He fought it a little, but when he came home later that day, well, I think we're going to have words this morning about not wearing it today (it's Crazy Hair Day today).
By mid-morning, Miss Chattyshoes was getting a little stalky. Just as I was about to call my neighbor J, she called me. MisS CS was so excited to see her best little bud M. At first, the two of them stalked us (we had food and coffee). This is still new to me. Alex never stalked. He was a pretty content-to-hang-with-himself kind of baby. You put him by the TV and he'd watch Baby Einstein. You put him by his megablocks and he'd move them from one end of the room to the other. And forget about baby proofing. He just wasn't interested. But with Miss CS, everything is fair game.
The girls did disappear after a while (the food was gone). They ended up upstairs. We heard the occasional noises and chit-chat from upstairs. The girls were clearly occupied, which can be scary. But hey, we were alone to talk, uninterrupted, and get a refill on the coffee, uninterrupted, so we took our chances.
We got the girls through lunch and right to naptime before J and M left. It was perfect timing; the Elmo DVD was in the last scene, so Miss CS and I could sit down and watch, giving her the illusion that she watched Elmo before naptime. This girl loves her Elmo. Earlier that morning when I was on the phone with Scott, I got a double dose: Miss CS was watching both her Elmo DVD and her Elmo Live doll/robot thingy. Crazy/annoying. These days it's important that Miss CS goes to bed happy because I fear with enough anger and distress, she could figure out that she can hike her chunky little foot up and climb out.
Naptime, of course, is sacred. I get caught up on all my school work, which is absolutely vital to a working SAHM. Today naptime was bookended with dates with M. J called me just as Miss CS was beginning her post-nap chatter in her crib. M was still sleeping, so we came over while J picked up her six-year-old R.
On the way over, J gave me the "never mind, she's up." We came anyway. The first thing Miss CC said to me when I got her from her crib was and emphatic "Mommmmmyyyyyyy!" The second thing she said was her version of M. And now that she knew she was going to see her little buddy again, well, I wasn't getting in the way of that.
The girls were delighted to see each other again. They spent quite a bit of time on the stairs, giggling and meowing at the family cat. Soon they made it upstairs and the first room they explored was big sis's. We made our way back downstairs just as Mr. Busypant's bus arrived, so I went and got him; he was excited to be visiting the neighbors as well. He was even more excited to hear that we were going to the athletic center for Splash and Play.
Splash and Play is a program sponsored by the Special Rec. It allows kids with special needs to partner with a volunteer, who takes them swimming for an hour. It's $30 for like 10 weeks--a total steal. I almost feel guilty because Mr. Busypants' needs aren't THAT special, but hey, it's one of the few perks that comes with having a kid with autism, so I might as well enjoy.
The week before I had promised Mr. BP that we'd go early so he could play in the playcare center. For $2 an hour and some me-time, it's well worth it. So both kids played while I worked on my book proposal, then I transferred Mr. BP to the pool and then finished my Bible study.
At the end of swimming and playing, the kids were starving and tired--just the way you like them at 6:15 at night. I sang the Miss Chattyshoes has Chubby Cheeks song most of the way home to keep her happy, then it was dinner and bed for her and dinner and play for Mr. BP.
Overall it was a great day with the kids. Got lots done and had lots of fun. What more could a working SAHM ask for?
2 comments:
Hi there, its nice meet you. We are having serious problems with our 7 year old autistic son. In preschool he went to an autism school and they were amazing. They brought him out of his shell and he started talking. So when he went to kindergarten we mainstreamed him in a normal classroom. He did ok. He was quite far behind other kids and he freaked out when the fire alarm went off or it got to noisy in the class. But now he won't go to school, he cant get along at all with other kids that come over to the house. Its driving me crazy.
Wow! You have your hands full. I'm so blessed that my son is doing well mainstreamed. He's thriving so far. But first grade will take it to a whole new level.
I'm sorry you're having such a tough time. I have no advice for you (mostly because advice from people who don't really know your situation is really annoying :), but I'd be happy to brainstorm with you to see if there's something that's worked for me that you haven't tried.
Have you ever tried brush therapy? That was really calming for Mr. Busypants. We also did theraputic listening for a while, which he did well with too and a friend of mine swears by it for her daughter.
Gotta run! Hang in there :)
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