* First of all: all of you fuckers and the “Wear Blue for World Autism Awareness Day” shit:
…we’ve been WELL AWARE of autism EVERY DAY since February 25, 2010. But thanks for suggesting I think about autism today! I was hoping I could forget about it for just a little bit, because I’ve got a long time to be aware of autism..
Sigh. 🙂
* Tristan is beginning to be interested in the pushing and pulling of the popcorn popper toy. Actually, he’d prefer we do it for him – he straight out requests help by bringing the item and putting one of our hands onto it. For some reason, he has trouble keeping the thing level enough on the ground to roll it back and forth, but he recognizes how it should go. This reminds me how he also doesn’t roll cars and carlike toys around, also kind of odd for his age. And he has plenty of opportunity and carlike toys.
* He walked up next to Daddy last night while he was washing dishes and very clearly said “up.” It’s no secret that Tristan loves the water and wanted his paws in there. I was so pleased to hear a verbal request in perfect context that I jumped up and lifted him so he could put those paws into the water, even though it’s technically a bad idea to get him used to interrupting dishes. 🙂
* We got him a shitload (figuratively; have to touch it to eat it) of Play-Doh. He loves to put the lid onto the canisters and have me help remove it.. but he doesn’t want to touch the clay. By “doesn’t want to touch,” I mean that I put it into his hands many times and he dropped it like a hot potato. We shall see, though. I figured it would be a nice tactile experience for him but it might just weird him out for now. Just remember – this kid used to not particularly notice bubbles, and now he babbles about bubbles in the bath.
* James has been working with Tristan on teaching him new stuff, specifically communication skills and items on the autism questionnaires. We’ve had some success teaching him (or letting him figure out) general problem solving skills.
* Not long ago, I wrote about how Tristan had two modes of diaper change: “cooperative” and “fuck that, you ain’t getting near me with a 10 foot pole.” He has decided to split the middle and start each one by screaming and protesting with the thrashing wet noodle body. However, he tends to calm down and be somewhat playful by the end. I’ve stopped mostly protesting his protests and have just started putting him on the table despite them.
* Tristan has been mostly sleeping well but he’s been going down to sleep poorly. To work with that, I decided to stop entertaining him while he is in his crib. I think what happens is that I tend to put him down, tickle and bounce him for 10 minutes, and then he’s pissed about me deciding to leave. It’s hard to reinforce behavior behind a closed door, especially when the end goal is sleep – can’t go in there and praise him for not screaming. We shall see how this turns out!
* Since two of my closer mommy friends went back to work this past month or so (and one of them is now across the COUNTRY as well), I’ve been feeling out of odds socially. Well, moreso than usual. I’ve been among my usual group of casual mommy acquaintances but I sort of feel “extra” around them now. And irrelevant. I suspect that they have just gotten to know each other better since I don’t communicate well enough to keep on par, so it stings just a little to hear them all making plans where I know we’re not invited. So I will have to decide whether I want to just suck it up and deal with it or find new casual mommy acquaintances. If it were All About Tristan here, well.. it doesn’t matter! Tristan doesn’t seem to even care whether familiar (or any) kids are around as long as we do fun things with him. I don’t especially want to teach that people are expendable but it seems to be the case! Wait.. why fight the notion that if your friends don’t work out, you move on? Sigh. Still looking to get to know geeky parents better, still terribly sucking at dashing out emails or phone calls about small talk and plans.