Does Bobby Have A Crush???

There are two things that I need to tell you before I go on...

First-Bobby doesn't really interact with kids his own age.  He interacts with adults much better than with kids his own age.  He also doesn't care for kids touching him.  I have seem him many times swat their attempts away.  He usually just keeps his distance from them. 

Second-I don't like to write about things that are second hand.  I have not witnessed any of the events that I am going to discuss.  They are second hand from Bobby's aide who takes him to lunch at school.  

Here goes...

A couple of weeks ago Bobby's aide emailed me a picture of Bobby sitting by a little girl in the cafeteria at lunchtime.  According to the aide, Bobby likes to sit by this little girl.  To me, he looks annoyed that the girl is around.

I just blew off her account that Bobby likes her due to the look on his face.  However, when I picked him up from school yesterday the aide showed me some more pictures that she took of the two of them at lunchtime.  In one picture the girl is holding Bobby's hand.  In one picture she is touching his face.  According to his aide, one day another student, Sonny, went in first and sat down beside her and Bobby went over and squeezed in between the two of them.  She also reports that Bobby sits there extremely well while this girl is sitting down.  They don't have any issues of him getting up and running off.

I am not off planning their wedding or anything like that.  But I guess in my own head, Bobby was going to be like Sheldon on Big Bang Theory and Bobby would not be interested in a romantic relationship.  This whole topic has started me thinking about Bobby's teenage and adult years, something I try very hard not to do.

Since he is functionally non-verbal, how will we know how he feels about a girl?  Oh, I really can't even think deep enough about this to really write about it!! 

So, I don't really have the answer to my own question, "Does Bobby have a crush?"   I can honestly say that I am nowhere ready to tackle this question.  But like it or not, one day I will have to deal.  Just not today Bobby, just not today.  You are still Mommy's little boy!!!! 

Colorful day

We didn't do much today but we did work on colors with play-doh.  There is not much to say about this, the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

Oooohhhh, it spins!!!

Mommy made yellow and blue snakes.  The last time that the colors were separate!!

It still spins!!!!

If I just mix all of these colors together, Mommy will just give up on making me learn all of their names!!

Making funny faces!!

Figuring out what the "spinny" thing does.

Cool, this thing makes spagetti!!

It's beginning to look like the earth!!

It's a happy earth!!

Winter Hiatus

What a beautiful winter day!!  The temperature was 60 degrees (with no rain in sight) when I brought Bobby home from school today.  I brought him inside, dropped off his backpack, changed his shoes and coat and we were outside to get some much needed sunshine and vitamin D.   He ran around the yard once...

He finally ran to his favorite spot, sat down and stayed for about an hour...

He has a loose dirt patch in this spot that he has made for himself.  He gets two handfuls of dirt and packs it together...

He then takes one hand and wiggles his fingers up against the dirt until all of the dirt has fallen out to the ground...

For some unknown reason, this activity calms him tremendously.  This was the first time in a couple of weeks that he was totally relaxed and happy.  It gives him the same feeling that I would have if I went on a shopping spree with unlimited money or if Daddy went on a weekend golf trip with the fellas with unlimited beer and hot wings. 

There are two schools of thought on letting kids with autism "stim" (self-stimulating behavior, which can be flapping hands, spinning, or in this case shuffling dirt in his hands).  One school says not to let the kids retreat into their own world, but to keep them doing activities that are typical to all children (extreme overgeneralization of the concept!!), while the other school says that they need to be themselves too.   After seeing Bobby this happy, I am pretty sure that I could not banish him from this activity.

When got up and found a new spot and them immediately laid down for a while.  An hour of watching Bobby play in dirt was long enough for me, so I promised him some "bubbles".  Back to the house we went for one of his favorite activities...

Thanks to an extremely windy day, we went through three containers of bubbles.  I just had to hold the wand out and the wind did the rest.

When I took a break Bobby picked up the bubble wand and brought it to me.  MORE BUBBLES!!!

It is extremely hard to blow bubbles and take pictures at the same time, so I didn't get any really good ones of bubbles.  I did, however, get some of Bobby being happy. 

On a side note, I got all of the outdoor Christmas decorations down today since it was so nice!!!  Yeah me.

Here's a picture of Bobby before school yesterday.  He is dressed to celebrate the Orange Bowl win.  Way to go cousin Geno!!  We are all Smiths after all!!

#youmightbeanautismparentif

There is a new hashtag on twitter, #youmightbeanautismparentif, that has been making the rounds of the autism circle.  Not that I really know what a hashtag is or how to really use twitter.  I have, however, searched what other parents are tweeting.  Some made me laugh, some made me cry, some did not apply to my life at all.  Overall, they hit the nail right on the head about what it is like to be an autism parent. 

Today Bobby and I had an experience that you have made a perfect tweet under this hashtag, but since I have a blog, it makes more sense to put it here. 

Last night Bobby was playing in his room and when I went to check on him his new container of Tinker Toys was sitting in the middle of the room.  He tried to open it himself but had no luck.  I opened it for him and he seemed to have some interest in the toys.  There are pictures of ideas on the container so I tried to make one for him.  He wanted to line them up instead of build so I stopped building.  While he was in school today I got the Tinker Toys out and put together a ferris wheel.  I was pretty proud of my results.  It took over an hour, because I am not good at this type of activity, and the ferris wheel actually spun.  I sat the ferris wheel on the kitchen table so that Bobby would see it as soon as he came in from school.

When Bobby walked in the house from school, he immediately noticed something.  However, that something was not the structure that I had built for him.  He instead noticed something else that I had bought him today...

Target had some Advil 2 packs on clearance (they clearance the oddest things) and Bobby was excited to have 4 boxes that were the same to line up!  He chose to line up the boxes over looking at a 3 foot tall ferris wheel.  I don't know that I am creative enough to put this little story into a small sentence to tweet it, but lets try...

#youmightbeanautismparentifYour child prefers to line up Advil boxes to playing with a 3 ft ferris wheel.

I have since disassembled the base of the ferris wheel because it was upsetting him, he wanted the orange sticks to line up.  The wheel part is still together and he was been playing with the rest of the sticks. 

For some reason, these setbacks don't seem to stop us from trying to find the things that will make our children happy.  It feels like we are searching for the preverbial needle in the haystack.  Some days are great and I feel like someone has given me a magnifying glass to help me search.  Other days are killer, it feels like someone has blindfolded me and tied my hands behind my back while I am searching.  But the searching goes on!!!

 Random picture:  Winter sunrise this morning.  Bbrrrrrr!!!!

Winter Fun

Christmas break is finally over, so back to school Bobby goes!!  Since it started snowing yesterday, I didn't mention school to him since there was a good chance that there would be a delay or cancellation.  When I woke up, I looked outside and saw a school bus driving down Rt. 19, which meant SCHOOL TODAY!!  It also meant that I had to venture down our big old hill.  No worries, I was getting Bobby to school today one way or another.  We didn't have any trouble.  The 4 Runner went down the hill perfectly.  Thanks Bob for getting the killer snow tires for me!!! 

Bobby didn't have any issues going to school.  He got out of the car without objections and walked into the school with ease.  I happily met Shelly this morning for our school day tradition of walking laps around the Morgantown Mall.  We walked for about an hour, basically because we had a lot to talk about to catch up on our kids winter break.  Afterwards, I stopped at Walmart and did some grocery shopping and browsing since I hadn't been out of the house alone in two weeks.  When I got back into my car it was almost 11:00am.  I couldn't wait to get home and eat lunch, especially since I forgot to eat breakfast.

I turned at the Star City Sheetz intersection onto Rt. 19 with clear roads.  By the time I made it to the Pursglove Post Office it was snowing like crazy and the roads were covered.  I pulled into a parking lot and called the school to say that I was coming to get Bobby.  There was no way that I was driving back up my hill and then doing it all again.  I turned around, slid out of the parking lot and drove back through the snow.  By the time I got back to the Sheetz intersection, nothing but wet roads.  There was no snow in Westover, where Bobby's school is located, so I felt silly for picking him up early. 

Bobby's teacher said that he had a good morning.  Did well with his morning work, went to speech with no issues, but did want to go outside to play.  He wasn't in any hurry to leave with me, which made me feel even more silly.  But I took him with me anyway.  As soon as we got into the car he said "french fries" (which means "I want McDonalds") because they kept him in the classroom instead of taking him to lunch due to the fact that I was picking him up.  We went through the drive thru because I was starving too.  After all, no need to hurry since it wasn't snowing.

When I turned onto Rt. 19 from the Star City Sheetz intersection the roads were still clear.  About 1/2 mile down the road it was snowing so hard that the roads were covering before my eyes.  By the time I passed the Pursglove Post Office, which apparently is the end of the world, it was snowing so incredibly hard that I had to use the guard rail to direct me down the road.  There were no other cars in sight and visiblility was the end of my hood.  I had a death grip on my steering wheel and kept thinking to myself, "let go and put it into 4 wheel drive!!!!!"  I finally put it into 4 wheel and didn't have any problems other than I couldn't see where I was going.  Again, thanks Bob for the awesome winter tires that are on my vehicle!!!  I turned onto our hill and the 4 Runner climbed it like a champ.  I did slide around the curve at the beginning of our driveway but kept my foot on the gas and kept on going.  When I was finally parked in my garage, I think that I finally breathed.  I was visibly shaking.

So amazingly happy that I don't have to go back out there today!!  But you know me, I had to go out and take some pictures of the snow after I calmed down and the snow stopped.

Slidding through the curve!!

My teenaged neighbor trying his hardest to make it up our hill in his Mustang.  He didn't even make it half way up the small hill before the larger hill.  Next time, buy a truck!!!

Poor Santa was blinded by the snow.  I may actually get to take down the outdoor decorations by the end of the week.  The forecast is in the 50s.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

The snowmen look so very happy!!!

The sun was out again!!  However, in the past 10 minutes, the sky turned dark and it is snowing hard again.  So glad that we are home!!!  Drive carefully friends!!

Let the New Year Begin

Grandma Carolyn, Ashley and River spent the night after a long, long night of partying.  It was a long, long night for me because I am usually asleep by 10 at the latest, but I actually made it past midnight.  The partying?  One glass of sangria.  Whoop whoop.  Such partiers were are!!  Bobby fell asleep around 11:30 (really, really late for him.  Thankfully he did sleep until 8:30 am).  Bob, however, didn't make it to midnight.  Party pooper. 

Quite frankly, I am exhausted from the holidays.  I spent New Years Day in my pajamas.  We watched tv, movies of the big screen, and of course, ate the mandatory pork and sauerkraut.  If Bobby said "go outside" one time, he said it a million.  Daddy took him outside to play, but it is just so incredibly muddy from all of the rain, that they didn't stay out too long.  Bobby did however build all day with his magna tiles.

I know that I have posted way too many pictures of Bobby playing with the magna tiles, but I am so very happy that he is playing with a toy appropriately.  This toy was made for Bobby.  A toy that requires that you line them up-horizontally or vertically!!  He really understands this toy. 

While Ashley was still sleeping, I had a photo session with River.  His white fur against the dark brown couch just screamed, "take pictures of me!!!" 

Zoi:  "Why is that little dog allowed to lay on the couch??  You won't let me on the furniture!!"  Me:  "River is 1/4 of your size, with no long hair that sheds all over the couch.  Plus, he is only here for a couple of days and his Mommy lets him on the furniture." 

Zoi and River went outside and ran around the fenced area together...

All things were great with the dogs playing outside until River figured out the he could fit between the fence and the pool and he ran up the back hill.  I had to run through the house and out the back door in my slippers to go onto the hill to catch Ashley's dog while she was still in bed sleeping.  I sure would have hated to start her year off by saying, "your dog is gone!"  My slippers were covered in mud, but River was safely brought back into the house.

Time for dinner.  When I got out of bed, I browned the pork roast and put it into the crock pot with sauerkraut and kielbasa.  Fours hours later out came a pork roast that melted in your mouth.  Doesn't look pretty, but tasted awesome!! 

We did eat our required pork and sauerkraut so that our new year would be AWESOME.  Not sure if that is really the superstition, but I like my version better.

What does the future hold?  One thing that I know for sure, I will have to go back down to the storage room, get the storage containers out, bring them upstairs, fill them with the Christmas decorations that are spread out all over my house, take them back downstairs, and put them away.  Fun times. 

Only a couple more days to look at the beautiful Christmas card display. 

Grandma, Ashley and River left and went back to Grandma's house yesterday evening to get home before the temps dropped and the snow came.  (Thankfully, we only woke up with a dusting this morning).  Bob, Bobby, Zoi and I all laid around for the rest of the evening.  One more day before work and school starts again and our normal life returns!! 

Zoi, I feel the same way.

Happy 2012

My niece Ashley and her new puppy River came to visit from North Carolina for the New Year holiday.  First thing that we had to do, introduce River and Zoi.  After they sniffed and got their introductions over, Zoi went outside to take a little break.  River, who never chews raw hide chewies, immediately went to town...

Zoi came back in and chilled out beside Daddy for a little while...

It wasn't long before they were rolling around and playing with each other...

Grandma Carolyn was trying to take a nap, but her Granddogs had another idea...

More playing...

Then poor Zoi needed a rest.  Keeping up with a puppy is hard work...

Bobby was completely uninterested in the adventures of the dogs.  He kept working, building masterpieces with his new building toys...

Finally, it was time for dinner.  Crab legs, shrimp, cheddar bay biscuits, corn on the cob....

Looks like Daddy enjoyed his dinner....

To help Bobby understand that we were having a celebration, I baked a New Year cake.  Bobby loves to blow out the candles...

"HOT, DON'T TOUCH!!!"

Happy 2012!!!