A Blow Up

I'm feeling kind of sad right now, because I just had a major blow up at Ben and I definitely got angrier than I should have. It's one of those bad autism days, not for him but for me. I thought writing about it would make me feel better. He chewed up my third dish drain stopper and now I have to go buy another one and I just bought one yesterday!! He pulls them out of the sink and chews the rubber part on the bottom until it won't hold the water anymore. Everytime I see him try to do it I stop him and tell him no, but he did it without me looking and I was so mad. And then I put him in the playroom and he tore one of his board books into a hundred tiny little pieces all over the playroom floor. He didn't do it to spite me, he just likes to destroy books. Its as if he looks for ways to be as destructive as possible. I spent the other afternoon mounting all of his pictures on mat board and wrapping them in packing tape in an effort to make them safe from Ben so can use picture exchange again, but it didn't really matter. He's still finding ways to destroy them. I don't know if he'll grow out of this, but I sure hope so. I know it's not his fault.

Ploodles, Fire dogs, Hamsterds, and the Crickets

Hello, it's been a while since my last post and Rob is leaving for SD tomorrow. The kids are okay, and looking forward to school starting but not nearly as much as I am. As for the funny title of my post today, these words all come from Katherine. A Ploodle is a curly dog that Katherine says won't make her and Daddy sneeze and maybe we can get one on our very last assignment before Daddy retires. A Fire dog is a Dalmation, from 102 Dalmations (the sequel) which we watched on movie night last Friday. The little Dalmations are fire puppies. A Hamsterd is what kind of pet Katherine has, two of them to be exact. And the Crickets are Mommy's favorite band, formerly known as the Beatles. Their pictures are all over our favorite booth at Fuddruckers and the girls like to ask me questions about them. Ah, children.
Ben is doing a little better, and seems to be coming out of some of his fears. Rob was able to cut his hair last weekend with the clippers, which is especially good since he'll be gone for five weeks and Ben really needed one. He didn't fuss like he did last time we tried. He's also over his fear of the bathtub, running water and kiddie pools. We haven't tried a big pool in a while. He was not happy about going on an elevator at the dentist's office the other day, but only whined and didn't have an all out tantrum. Yesterday at school they took him on a bus trip around the parking lot to prepare him for a field trip they're taking to the mall later this week, and his teacher said he only whined a little going up the bus stairs, and then was fine. So, maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Ben's a Small Angel

Ben has adjusted to his Summer School classroom and seems to like it very much. Except for the whole bus fiasco, which he absolutely refuses to ride. His teacher told me that there is a teacher's aide in his classroom whom Ben likes tremendously. She is also a bus driver and comes to help out in the classroom after she finishes her morning driving. Anyway, this lady had an autistic son so she understands autism first hand. She lost her husband and autistic son in an house fire and was severely burned herself. Ben's teacher told me that Ben loves to sit on her lap and snuggle against her while they read stories, and it occured to me that God is using Ben! He's using my little boy to give someone else comfort and I think that's a great thing. I like to hold positive things like that in my heart because in some ways, Ben has again grown increasingly challenging. Since Busch Gardens, Ben has developed a fear of a whole heck of a lot of things. Elevators, escalators, haircuts, baths, running water, vacuums, pools, buses, wagons, tricycles, rides of any kind. Casey says we have to tackle one fear at a time, desensitizing him by exposing and rewarding him often. It's challanging because avoiding these things would be the easiet, but not the most prudent course of action. He must learn to function as these things are part of our society. It's a trying time, and we're going to the beach for the next week. I can only hope he hasn't developed a fear of the ocean, but time will tell.