Guest guest Posted December 23, 2004 Report Share Posted December 23, 2004 Evan is doing his own version of water therapy. It is a good thing our water heater has a quick recovery! I keep the temperature at just barely hot, at its highest. used to get so upset when she needed a hot bath and it was not hot. He takes 30 minutes showers and then hop in the bath tub. I have caught it just inches from the top and then I take the plug away from him. He sits on the drain hole and lets the water hit his back. Then he will wallow around in the tub awhile. I usually put one scoop of homemade bath salts in the water when he first gets in so that he gets a dose of epsom salts and essential oils. It is not easy to take Evan any where and we have no place like the YMCA to take him. He has been spending time each day at his mom's and was suppose to spend the night there but while she was busy doing something else, he pulled her kitchen light out of the ceiling! She called me almost in tears because she was afraid that it would pull completely loose and break. Mark was not around so I got Bob to go with me to look at it. He is a bit shakey on chairs now but he was able to look and let her know that Evan had just twisted it off the plate that holds it and Mark would be able to fix it in minutes. But we brought Evan back home with us so that he did not escape back into the kitchen and pull it completely out. She is always scared that he will get up before her and get out of the apartment somehow. He does not mean to be destructive but his curiosity is intense and taking light bulbs out of the sockets is his new passion. We do not have covers over any of our lights anymore and now I just feel lucky to keep the bulbs in the sockets, lol. I have given up on two of them because he just will not leave them alone. I got tired of cleaning up broken light bulbs when he accidently lost hold of them. When his brothers are over here, they all three go out in the cold and jump on the trampoline. Of course, that is Central California cold and they are out there without coats. I shudder to think of my California boys in weather like their cousins are in now in New Hampshire. I suppose they would develop the sense to wear their coats and shoes in weather like that. Right now Evan is busy rearranging the furniture. He is lining up the chairs now that he has all 4 of the snack tables lined up. The little snot keeps pulling me off my computer chair so that he can have it for his train of chairs. Betty ----- Original Message ----- From: pkuenstler@... What is Evan doing during these holidays? I'm taking Karac for swimming lessons twice a week, but I would like some ideas for other things to do. Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 23, 2004 Report Share Posted December 23, 2004 has been lining up food on the kitchen floor for days now. The library videos are on the couch, the christmas presents are in the living room and he takes my blankets and pillows and lines them up. An improvement over last year when the bedroom would have videos around the whole room in an outline. Now I just have no place to sit and when I tried to do so in kitchen the one chair that has no folders or pecs books on it had many contents from my purse. He carried the tube of vaseline while at laundromat this morning until I swapped it with a bag of goldfish crackers. He spent the whole time skipping around that place. was playing the games spending quarters like crazy. I was so worried Matt would get wacked in the face with a dryer door, but luckily he did not, although many stared, some laughed. This is a Lucys laundromat that has a Subway, pay day advance, cellular store and a starbucks, so it was quite busy from 8:30 - 10:00 am. But I got to get a steak and cheese sandwich and a $100 in case my check is late. I would like to do swimming lessons, but I would have to get in the pool too and not sure about that until I work out some more at 24 hour fitness. I found three people at http://www.craigslist.org for Los Angeles area under services. One is for respite and two were therapy that each charge $50 per hour. But one also does communication and is certified in Dynavox and has the boardmaker! I need someone to help get the cheap talk organized and also observe the class for both kids for me and give feedback. Guess a consultant could do that. With our med student volunteer through http://www.family-friends.org we will go bowling to get ready for birthday time. I think we might also try ice skating, or maybe roller skating is better for them. Bonnie ================Betty <gk37@...> wrote: them. Right now Evan is busy rearranging the furniture. He is lining up the chairs now that he has all 4 of the snack tables lined up. The little snot keeps pulling me off my computer chair so that he can have it for his train of chairs. Betty ----- Original Message ----- From: pkuenstler@... What is Evan doing during these holidays? I'm taking Karac for swimming lessons twice a week, but I would like some ideas for other things to do. Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 24, 2004 Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 Bonnie, it would be so nice to be able to take Evan somewhere like the laundromat and not have to worry about him splitting out the door. We are so used to his brother being on a constant run anywhere we go that it would not be that much different if Evan just did that. But he would not be content with staying in one room. Of course, if the place had games both of Evan's brothers would be either playing them or complaining because they did not work. Right now Evan is screaming because he wants to go somewhere, like his school. How many more days until school starts? He was suppose to stay at his mom's for the night and he ripped the kitchen light out of the ceiling while she was in the other room. I had to go and get him before he ripped it completely out wires and all. As it was it was hanging by the wires waiting for 's dad to fix it. Before he got over there, tried to opened the lock on the door and put something in it and broke it off in the lock. It is a chain lock that uses a key. was in tears when she called. As it was she was locked in the house! I thought the apartments back yard had a gate but no. She finally found the right screw driver and took the lock off but until it is replaced she has no way to keep Evan and from running off. does not have autism but he certainly puts the H in ADHD. The only difference between him and Evan is that will come back after he checks and sees if any of the kids can play but Evan just keeps on going. Betty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2004 Report Share Posted December 25, 2004 It is a wonder that Evan wasn't electrocuted!! There must be angels watching over him. Hang in there; the holidays will end. Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2004 Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 Well, he did not pull the wires out. He just left it hanging by the wires. He has a new obession with unscrewing lightbulbs and that is what he was trying to do. The problem was that he unscrew the whole light fixture. was just afraid that he would ripped the whole thing completely down. That would have caused a whole lot of problems with the management. Yeah, 6 more days and he can go to school. Actually he is being a pretty good kid. He just wants to go places and I cannot take him without help because if he decides to take off he is too strong for me to stop easily. And we never know when he will decide that he is going to take off and then it is a wrestling match to get him into the car. Betty ----- Original Message ----- From: pkuenstler@... It is a wonder that Evan wasn't electrocuted!! There must be angels watching over him. Hang in there; the holidays will end. Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 I don't take Karac any where without someone going with me either. These kids are so strong. What did Evan get for Christmas that he enjoyed? Karac really liked the stilts that I got him. He wags them around with him all day and walks on them off and on. It was the best Christmas that he has had. It sounds like you are counting the days until school starts again. I imagine Karac's mother is too, but I'm sort of enjoying the rest of not having to pick him up every day after school. However, I'll be glad when the holidays are over because I am gaining a pound a day sitting around eating the chocolates I was given for Christmas! LOL, Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 It sounds like Evan had a good Christmas. Karac use to eat the play doh too; then I started rolling it into snakes and letting him cut them to strengthen his fine motor; now he has no interest in play doh. That giggeling orangotang sounds like something Karac would like; where did you get it? Yes, I wish my kids would stop giving me chocolate; not only does it put weight on me, but it gives me migrains!! Thank goodness I have eaten it all. LOL, Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 What is this with giving us chocolates for the holidays! Don't they stop to realize that it is hard for us to take off those pounds the older we get. That is all except that 50 year old grandma modeling for Boflex machine! gave Bob a large box of very tasty chocolates that I have not been able to leave alone. No will power at all. Evan got a Lion King Sing-a-long, a giggling orangatan, some twisty toys he likes and some play dough. I need to remember where I put that play dough so he can work with it under supervison. He loves to eat it so he cannot play with it unless someone is with him. Evan's favorite part of getting any presents is opening them. So none of the presents were left around him until it was time to open them. I was given one by a friend and made the mistake of putting it under the tree and as soon as Evan saw it, he opened it. Betty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 >Evan's favorite part of getting any presents is opening them. So none of the presents were left around him until it was time to open them. I was given one by a friend and made the mistake of putting it under the tree and as soon as Evan saw it, he opened it.< Evan sounds so much like Tristan. I gave him a Phonics Board toy for Christmas and all he will listen to is the music mode. When I try to get him to listen to the words and sounds he starts to melt down. He also got the new toys "chicken" Ernie, Cookie Monster and Elmo. They are musical and FAST! He got many other things of course that he has already tired of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 LOL...I hate that bowflex commercial too ! maybe that machine does "help " her keep fit, but her plastic surgeon should get most of the glory !. CB's Granny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 Betty, I could never throw chocolate in the garbage. I have eaten the three boxes of candy that I got for Christmas, and I just brought home a box of chocolate covered cherries from the New Year's Eve party at my daughters!! It's 2 a.m. and I am enjoying the peace and quiet so much that I don't want to go to bed, but I guess I better since Karac will be spending the night with me tonight, and he will probably wake up at 3:00 a.m. LOL, Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 Pat, I know that the right thing to do with that chocolate is to toss it in the garbage can but instead I help Bob eat it. Here I am trying (not too hard) to eat healthier and I am munching on Wheat Thins and thinking about those chocolates. I am trying to get used to the taste of cultured vegetables and Kefir and instead of leaving alone the junk I am eating it. You would have to ask where I got the orangutan. Now I have to admit to my miss placing things. I bought it from QVC but not this year. I bought it over a year ago and put it up for Christmas and forgot about it. found some of 's presents about 6 months after Christmas. That was not a problem this year because I waited until December to buy presents. Evan went to sleep before 6:30 tonight. He woke up at 4:30 a.m. and then he went to his mom's and played hard with his brothers. He will probably be up about midnight or 2:30 a.m. at the latest. I should go to bed now. Forget waiting for the New Year but I took a nap while had Evan so I am not sleepy now. Speaking of New Years, I am glad that we are having raining weather rather than foggy. We live in the San Joaquin Valley and it can be dangerously foggy in the winter. Not a good combination for drunk drivers on New Years. Betty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 > Evan's favorite part of getting any presents is opening them. So none of the presents were left around him until it was time to open them. I was given one by a friend and made the mistake of putting it under the tree and as soon as Evan saw it, he opened it. > My AS cousin snuck down at 4 am and unwrapped every present under the tree! Inculding all his 5 and 2 year old sister's. My aunt heard him first fortunately and was able to rewrap them before the girls woke up. (Not as pretty, but they don't care!) Amnesty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 >My AS cousin snuck down at 4 am and unwrapped every present under the tree! Inculding all his 5 and 2 year old sister's. My aunt heard him first fortunately and was able to rewrap them before the girls woke up. (Not as pretty, but they don't care!)< That is why we keep all presents under lock and key until Christmas Eve when we open them. There is no doubt Tristan would open them because he has done it in the past. Our tree was quite bare this year because we had to remove all glass balls. Tristan continued to remove or knock the rest off. He put his toys on the tree (stuffed, many) and once the tree was reeling and almost toppled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 Well, Pat, good to know that I am in excellent company. Since Evan went to bed last night at 6 pm, I decided about 10.30 pm that I should also go to bed. So who gets up? He had went to bed without his meds so I gave him those, fed him and sat down to wait the New Year in. I called and told her that she might be needed to take him for a few hours, which she does normally anyway. Then about 11:45 pm I turned around and he had crawled back into bed. So I got to see the New Year in anyway and was in bed by 12:05 am, lol, to the sound of fire crackers and horns going off around the neighborhood. let and have some caffeine so that they could stay up that late because they really wanted to. So they saw the New Year in watching a movie and munching on pizza. Betty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 Well, don't feel so bad (not that we do) about the kids with autism opening all the presents up ahead of time. had to keep the presents hiden from Evan's brothers also until Christmas Eve. Then with dire threats as to the consequences of opening before she got up, she told them that they had better not wake her up before 5:30 a.m., which they did! Evan, not understanding what it is all about, had all his presents to open later in the day when we all had dinner together. His brothers had a couple left to open then also. remember when she was a kid and snuck into the closet where her presents were hiden unwrapped and checked them out! Her two with bipolar have already let her know that they are more impulsive than she was. (oh, my! Flash backs! I just remembered how she was as a teenager! She was not diagnosed then but oh, the drama! She was the worst for drama of all his, mine and our 8 kids put together. I dread when her 9 yo hides puberty. His bipolar is much worst than hers or his older brothers) Raising children with bipolar is much like raising children with high functioning autism or Aspies. They look like the average kid so why don't they behave like the average kid. Ah, yes! Bad parenting! Evan left his mom's tree alone only after they had completely decorated it. Before that he tried to climb it and when he did not suceed there, he kept taking off the ornaments as fast they put them on. So they had to wait to decorate it until he was back home with me. Betty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 Betty, I'm glad you got to see the New Year come in. Just think, we have almost made it through the holidays!! Karac goes back to school on Jan. 4; when does Evan go back to school? I don't go back to teaching until the 7th; so I'll have a few extra days to get prepared for second semester. I better get to bed; Karac may wake up at 4:00 because he spit out half of his meds. LOL, Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 Yes, I will be glad when Monday gets here. As much for Evan as for myself. He misses his normal schedule and I believe, the other kids to be around. He gets this big grin when his brothers are here. I think he would rather be with them here than at their apartment since here there is the outside trampoline and the swing set with the fort. At the apartment, his brothers want to spend most of their time on the games and Evan has no interest in them. At least not yet. was always messing around with Evan's excercise ball so I bought one for Christmas. Now Evan gets even with by bouncing on his ball when he is there. Yeah, I had that in mind also when I bought it for . I bought a Dance Machine, hoping that would get him to doing some excercise that would be fun. He seemed thrilled with it and neither boy is good a pretending they like something if they do not so I am hoping he will use it to good advantage. Evan got up around 5:30 a.m. and luckily for me, grandpa was up and kept an eye on him so I was able to get some more sleep. Bob seldom sleeps through the whole night but I think that is because he spends so much time napping in the day time. Evan will be taking about 6 baths or showers today and has already has his first bath. He likes the water to keep running while he is in the tub and has just finally got to where he will let it run in slowly. I throw a couple of thick towels on the floor while he is in the tub and toss them over the towel racks over the tub when he gets done so they can drip the excess water off. A precaution I started when he flooded the bathroom several times. I hope that you got some sleep before Karac woke up. I sure wish that we could tap into their energy although I do believe chasing this kid gives me a lot of excercise. I know researching all the time for things that might help me keeps my mind in better working order than if I did not. I just wish that it did not keep me so broke trying so many of them, lol. Betty Re: during holidays?.. Betty, I'm glad you got to see the New Year come in. Just think, we have almost made it through the holidays!! Karac goes back to school on Jan. 4; when does Evan go back to school? I don't go back to teaching until the 7th; so I'll have a few extra days to get prepared for second semester. I better get to bed; Karac may wake up at 4:00 because he spit out half of his meds. LOL, Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 Oops, sorry about that! Betty, what is a dance machine? Karac likes to dance around. The other day he sat in my lap, smiled, and said, "dance with your honey." I'm wondering if they dance at school sometimes. Karac slept until 6:00; so that was good. Karac likes to take baths too. He also will stay on as long as the water is running; isn't that funny? I guess the sound of the running water is soothing. Did you see the program on Fox about autism? Looks like we are beginning to get a lot of attention. Hopefully it will result in some solutions. LOL, Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 I envy you guys LOL, CB back at school today with the Granny...functional analysis is complete but report slow in coming. Looking at the Soma Carousel school for CB, the teacher who uses the rapid responce teaching is there. CB's Shrink gave it a bad rap, said the teachers are poorly trained in ABA. But we decided to look for ourselves. Wish me luck today...I bet all the kids are going to have a rough one, due to the rain, leaving their new toys and yucky ol school work LOL. Happy New Year ! CB's Granny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 It is called Moose Mountain's Dance Maker and has a mat that electronically shows a pattern to the music for you to dance to. You have to put your feet on the stars as they light up. It has a couple of songs on it but you can turn that music off and play your own and the mat will react to your music. They have a professional one at the Arcade in our mall and wanted to get on it but there was so many wanting to use it he gave up and spent his money on something else. Evan's school has dances for the kids who want to dance. I am not sure if they have them once a week or once a month but they are during school. It is all a part of their socialization. Evan is taken to them and apparently enjoys the music even if he does not attempt dancing. He will dance with me at home if I grab his hands and rock him to the music. Evan and I went out last night to rescue his mom and brothers from a slight accident where Mark drove down an embankment and got the car stuck in the mud in someone's plowed field. They were coming back from a snow trip to Yosemite and Mark felt he could take a 'shortcut' and get back sooner. Men! If he had stayed on the highway and then to the freeway he would have made it, not only sooner but safer. Thank God, no one was hurt and the car only suffered a lot of mud stuck to it. Any how when I got them safe back at their apartment, Evan did not want to come home with me and he spent the night there. Two weeks of vacation and he has to decide to stay on a school night. usually takes him to school if he spends the night but the boys had appointments first thing in the morning so I drove back to Merced to pick him up and turned around and took him back to school. He did manage to sleep all night for his mom so we both got some sleep. She was concerned about him getting up early and all the things she had to do with homeschooling and doctor appointments. I did not see the program on Fox about autism. Was that the one that was posponed until Febuary or another one? Betty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Well, I would take poorly trained ABA for no training in ABA which Karac has had the entire 6 years of his public school education. Certainly this school will be better than where he has been. LOL, Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 4, 2005 Report Share Posted January 4, 2005 Betty, thanks for the info. The Moose Mountain's Dance Maker sounds like something that Karac would love! I'll see if I can find it somewhere. Mark's getting stuck in the mud was a bummer, but I think it is good that Evan wanted to stay with his Mom and that you could get a good night's sleep! Only someone with an autistic child can appreciate that. LOL, Pat K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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