Who wants whine with dinner?

Ahhh. A lovely, lazy spring break week.

My parents kept the kids for me for a couple of nights so I could get some of the deep spring cleaning done AND have a bit of relaxation time for me. I got alot accomplished-mostly the cleaning, organizing and chunking out of toys that seem to multiply like rabbits in my boy's bedroom. I didn't mess much with L's bedroom, because she gets so upset by change. I did switch out her toybox for a new one that was bigger, but that was it.

Then today my parents came to my house and brought the kids back. And we all hopped in their car to go for a nature hike and see some wildlife at a local refuge. It was really fun; we fed prarie dogs, ducks, fish and watched buffalo and longhorn cattle. And enjoyed the beautiful sunny spring day.
I was so happy to get the kids back-I've missed them so over the past two days. And the boy was glad to be home; his Wii and dog were missing him pretty badly also. And I thought L was happy to see me, but she started crying in the car that she wanted to go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and told me several times, "I don't want to stay here with you anymore." "I don't like you much." Granted I know it's just that she has a problem with changes.... but still. Part of you takes that kind of personally; like the rejection it sounds like. And another part of you worries that the "mother bonds" are not as strong as you thought-maybe she really doesn't care at all who takes care of her as long as she is getting what she wants from her caregiver. And that kind of is the case, to a point.
But I had an ace up my sleeve. I reminded L I had put out new soap in the bathroom (purple this time) and offered to let her play with it after Grandma and Grandpa left (what's a little bribery now and then, I ask you?) Then all she could say was, "Mommy, you put new soap out just for me? Thank you Mommy, my little buddy!" So while still grumpy and whiny, I have momentarily reclaimed most favored status. I'll quit whining eventually.

Wow, that's good news!

We had some really good news this past week at our daughter's school. When L's OT showed up there to do her therapy, massages and joint compressions, a substitute teacher (who has been there about 2 weeks) remarked to the OT, "Well, what exactly is the reason you see L?" To which the OT replied, "She has an autism spectrum disorder, PDD-NOS." The sub was really surprised and said, "But she's the smartest and best behaved kiddo here!"

Those kind of moments help balance out the not-so-great times pretty nicely. I had a warm fuzzy feeling for the rest of the day. I am absolutely amazed at how much it has helped just working around her sensory issues and doing some things to help keep her calm. The joint compressions, deep pressure massage, weighted blankets, heavy work and even epsom salt baths (they actually do work, I was surprised). Above all, keep that schedule.

She has her moments though. Like when she chunked the tester's toy at her head because she didn't want to participate. Or kicked her friend in the shin as way of a greeting (hello-WHACK!!) And I won't even discuss the indignities our poor cat, Luna-Tuna, suffers on a daily basis.

She's made enough progress lately that we are debating letting her play little league tee-ball this summer on the young team. Still not for sure on that one though. It's a little scary, just in case she gets mad and decides to bean someone unexpectedly. Which is definitely a possibility...

Yeah, maybe give her one more year before tee ball. Little League's overrated anyways.....