The Return of Thursday Thankfulness

I've been quite remiss lately with posting, but now that school is back in session, I can hear myself think again. It seems rather appropriate that Gus started school on a Thursday. Today I am thankful:

1. That Gus not only started school again, but that he was eager to start school again. Yesterday he said that he had "art-room-sickness," similar to homesickness but for the art room at school. He was a little nervous about starting 3rd grade, but that's normal. He'll have the same teacher and several friends in his class. He seems more concerned about the level of expectation and about getting his work done. This tells me that he values good grades, he wants to do well, and just maybe, he'll be a more motivated than ever to work on his focus and concentration. My fingers are crossed.

2. I am thankful that Gus go his bus monitor from last year! This is a big win, because she is just amazing and adores him. I couldn't have bought a better start to his day.

3. I am thankful that MM enjoyed her first day of school yesterday as well, despite the new bus driver whom has made her his sworn enemy already. We've got full day school now, which means that I have time to myself! I've got some projects that have been on hold all summer that I plan to move on, so extra thankful for that.

If your child has started school, did the year start off well? Please share your gratitude in a comment and have an awesome day!

Burt's Bees for Eczema?

I may have mentioned in the past that Gus suffers from terrible eczema all summer long. Our recent brief heat wave caused a lovely, bumpy red flareup and he has been itchy ever since. I think I have tried about everything possible over the years: steroid creams and ointments, petroleum jelly, pure aloe vera gel, sesame oil, diet, oatmeal baths... You name it; we've tried it. We've typically had the best results with a combination of Aveeno lotion and petroleum jelly over it, but for a number of reasons I've kept searching for something to relieve the eczema that isn't petroleum based. I believe I may have found just the thing.

At one of the natural markets in our area, I had a conversation with a couple of the clerks about the situation. Initially I went in looking for Vitamin E oil. The problem we usually have with oil formulations is that many of them contain some sort of almond or other nut oils, which Gus's skin reacts to (he can eat nuts, just can't wear them). So I was leery about the Vitamin E (with almond oil). The clerk suggested Burt's Bees Apricot Oil and said that it worked wonders for her grandchild's eczema. It was pricey, but I thought it worth a shot.

I've used it only a couple of times on Gus - right after his bath at night and I've been amazed. Both times his skin was almost completely clear by the next morning. But since the weather also cooled off, I didn't want to get too excited. Then I tried it on MM last night. Because it cooled down, her rashes suddenly flared to the point that she had broken the skin on her wrist from scratching at school yesterday (yeah - the flareups come that fast). I rubbed her down with the apricot oil last night and the spot she'd scratched raw was not completely healed, but it was much, much better. The rash on the backs of her hands - almost completely gone. I'm convinced!

The only minor downside, and this is only for Gus, is that the oil is quite sweet smelling. Pretty is an appropriate description. The smell isn't bothering him; he just smells...pretty. But I'm confident that my 8 year old is secure enough in his boyhood to handle it, especially if it stops that darned itching without the greasy feeling of the other stuff!

Have you tried this oil for eczema? How has it worked for you?



Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link.

This Is Not a Prank Post!

Free Original Clipart at Designed to a T

I was really tempted to do an April Fool's prank post, but considering my topic, pretty much anything could have been seen as mean instead of funny, so I scrapped the idea. But my kids have given me more than enough laughter today, so I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Here are some of the highlights:

I hear Gus in the bathroom and then MM's door opens. "Gus. The house is going to explode!" A perfect mix of panic and disbelief infuses her voice through early morning coughs.

"What?" He's caught off guard.

"April Fool's!" They both laugh. I send DH to go check on the kids because I have a feeling someone forgot to put their shorts back on.

"Mommy wants to know what you want for breakfast: ketchup or syrup. She's making sauerkraut." Gus doesn't take the bait.

"Ketchup." He sounds serious and a little distracted, but I can hear the lopsided grin. DH is the one caught off guard this time, and then he gets it.

"Aah! You knew I was joking! Good one!" He goes to shower and I drag myself from the warm sheets. It's chilly. Gus has disappeared into his sister's room – possibly in search of those underpants that he's missing.

"Morning, MM," I say.

"Good morning, Mommy." She smiles.

"Ok, that's enough. I don't want to talk to you for the rest of the day." I turn to leave.

"What?" she cries.

I know she's very sensitive, so timing is everything. Too soon and the joke is diminished, but if I wait too long, she'll get upset. "April Fool's!" I spin around with a big grin. He mouth forms an 'O' and she cracks up.

Is anyone going to bother getting ready for school today, or will we just sit around playing lame pranks on each other all day? At this point it could go either way!

Gus comes back to his room and I remind him that he needs to put something on.

"Why are your pants green?" he asks. I could go easy on him, but he can take it if I'm not, unlike his sister. He loves a good joke. Whoever said Aspies have no sense of humor was clearly kidding and just forgot their punch line.

Gus finally finds his underpants. "Put your pants on now." He starts to put one leg in, and I get an idea. "Unless you don't want to. You can wear shorts today if you want." He looks at me, half skeptical, half wanting to believe, totally unsure.

"Why?" Good boy, don't get suckered that easily! This is a day to be on your guard, even with Mom!

"Because it's summer." I make it sound so obvious, and he goes for it. Gus rifles through his drawer looking for some shorts, which of course he will not find. "If you don't have any, though, you'll have to go to school in your underwear." He smirks.

"What happened to your shirt? It's gray…April Fool's! You thought your pants were green!" It is a good try.

"What do you mean? My pants are green. My shirt is black and my pants are green. You can't fool me." We both know my pants are blue plaid, but who's going to crack the smile first? We call that one a draw. There will be plenty more jokes this afternoon and Gus will be tickled by every one.

I've been listening to an audio version of Look Me In the Eye by John Elder Robison (check the sidebar). Robison wrote an amazing memoir of his life as a person with Asperger's Syndrome. One thing that strikes me is that he became quite the prankster at a pretty young age. Some of the jokes he played on people – even the authorities in his town according to one story – got quite elaborate.

Gus has a pretty wicked sense of humor most of the time. He's funnier when he's not trying. I think in a couple of years I'm going to have to start watching out for him on a day like today. He might just get me one of these days.

On a more serious note, today is World Autism Day – what are you doing to promote autism awareness? Have a great day and watch out for those pranksters!

Something He Might be Good At

image by Peter de Wit - some rights reserved

The kids were invited to a birthday party today - a bowling party. We figured they'd have fun, but they truly exceeded all expectations.

Gus and MM ended up on a lane with 4 other kids. One little boy is a natural athlete: he plays baseball and almost has his black belt in karate - the kid is not even 8 yet. He doesn't typically play with Gus, and often makes derisive faces at him. Even when they first started playing, Gus was hopping up and down, so excited every time he knocked down some pins. HE was equally excited and cheering for anyone else who knocked down some pins. That earned him a couple of "weird" looks from the other boys playing.

That was until he pulled into the lead.

Yes, you read that right. Gus, the boy with poor coordination and low muscle tone, especially in his arms and hands, was beating Super Athlete for a frame or two! Go Gus! After that, Super Athlete wasn't exactly nice to him, but I could see a little glimmer of respect replace the condescension.

Gus came in 2nd place with a score of 78 - not bad for a kid who has only bowled one other time. And MM, bless her heart, came in a close third. She has patented a move she calls the "run slide." Picture bowling meets Flashdance. A couple more games, and my kids will be able to take on the president.

It was a fun party and an exhausting afternoon. Catch ya tomorrow!

Battle of the Bedroom (or When Sensory Issues Keep You Awake)

Welcome, sports fans, to the 395,687,630 face-off between Gus and Andrea in a battle royale for the coveted Good Night's Sleep trophy!

In the red corner, Gus weighs in with several weeks of good sleep and a four day weekend, giving him the advantage over his mom. His weaknesses will be a sudden recurrence of his fear of the dark and his sensory issues, like supersonic hearing. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will have a very hard time getting back to sleep, especially if he can't control his leg-shaking Whispering Scritch power, which has special effectiveness against Andrea's hypersensitive ears. Will he be able to hold it together? Also on the red team is MM, who has the power to talk anyone into complete madness. A dangerous opponent, especially in the pre-dawn hours.

In the blue corner we have Andrea, chronically sleep deprived, running out of patience and still recovering from yesterday's crushing defeat by MM who woke Andrea at 4:30 a.m. But don't count Andrea out yet, folks! She still has the ability to transform into Crazy Cranky Mom when awoken, with her Whispering Menace ability that can instill pure terror in any school aged child unfortunate enough to be the one to wake her. She may be able to use Gus's Whispering Scritch against him, and if he's not careful she will further transform into Psycho Mom. The only one who can prevent Psycho Mom from raining Armageddon down on the planet is her blue partner, DH. While he is perfectly capable of sleeping through the Armageddon, he is susceptible to her kicking him out of bed. Who will triumph between these two fearsome foes? Stay tuned!

Round 1
Gus convinces Andrea to let him sleep in the extra bed in the blue room for the night because he's afraid of monsters. Pulling out his Pitiful Look ability, he quickly subdues Andrea, and she gives in. Gus gets to bed with no problems and sleeps through the blue team going to bed a few hours later. Although Gus was ahead in points at the beginning of the round, Andrea's Stealth Mode balances the score.

Round 2
Gus suddenly wakes up screaming and flies into the bathroom, shocking Andrea out of a peaceful snooze at 1 o'clock. She controls her transformation and kicks DH awake to get Gus back in bed. Point to Andrea. But when Gus gets back in bed, the leg-shaking kicks in. Whispering Scritch hits Andrea hard and fast! She transforms - Crazy Cranky Mom is on the loose, and she let's go with Whispering Menace - the mom ability to scream and whisper at the same time.

"Be still and go to sleep or you are going back to your own room."

And Gus is silenced! The round goes to the blue team!

Round 3
"What was that? I heard the door!" Gus is still awake at 2 a.m. and Crazy Cranky Mom is done in; the prior night's defeat takes its toll. She grows into a 20 foot, green hulking beast (at least in her own mind - in reality , she's still under 5 1/2 feet tall and brown-skinned) - Psycho Mom has entered the building! But she's still hanging onto her self-control.

"That wasn't the door. Go back to sleep."

Gus is persistent - he knows he's got her on the ropes now. "What was it?" And just for a little added zing, he throws in a Whiny Voice.

But wait! Psycho Mom digs deep and finds some inner reserve of strength! "It's the roof settling. Go. Back. To. Sleep."

In a last desperate attempt, Gus reverts to Whispering Scritch and the leg starts shaking again. Psycho Mom is undone.

"You either be still and go to sleep or go back to your own bed!" Of course her shriek never raises above the level of intimate conversation. But the menace in her voice is so terrible, Gus throws the cover over his head and lies frozen, or at least quiets down enough for Psycho Mom to go back to sleep. Round to the blue team.

Round 3
The red team is in bad shape, so they pull out their secret weapon: the alarm clock. It goes off at 5:30; DH doesn't move. There is no world destruction requiring his immediate attention. MM strikes. She very noisily goes to the bathroom and then comes into the blue team's corner, where Gus is still KO'd. With her most powerful, pitiful whine, she moans, "Mooommmm-meeeeee! I'm lonely over there! Everyone's over heeeeeere and I'm the only one over there all by myselllllllf!" Psycho Mom has lost all her fight and shrinks back (not literally, since she never really grew in size) into her weaker Andrea form. With a whimper she gives in, kicks DH out of the bed and let's MM climb in. MM, pressing the advantage, accepting nothing less than a complete victory, starts talking loudly. And the red team takes it - Knock Out!

Andrea grumbles about running away to Chile.



P.S. I can either make myself laugh or lay down and cry. Choosing to laugh it off today. :-) Have you ever had a really bad night that you were able to laugh about the next day? Share your story!!

Guest Post at General Hysteria

As promised, I wrote a guest post for General Hysteria and it is now up. Please stop by there and share your thoughts with us!

When One is an Aspie and the Other is Not

Thursday Thankfulness Remixed

This is my first Thursday Thankfulness in my new digs!

1. I am thankful for the support of certain friends and family that gave me the confidence to recreate my blog as an independent venture. I may fall flat on my face, but nothing tried, nothing gained, so here we are. In some ways (content, amount of posting) things are still the same, but the sense of freedom I'm feeling is kind of a rush right now.
   
2. I am thankful that Gus has improved a little in being able to tolerate a crowded environment slightly better than in the past. We went to a friend's 5-Year-Cancer-Survivor celebration last night. Gus managed to escape the house before we even got through the door, and he was all over the house like a caged cheetah. But he didn't end up lost or in their lake, and while he teetered on the edge of a meltdown, it never really manifested. We were able to be there for about an hour until we had to call it quits. It's still hard to take him to that type of gathering, but he's gotten better. Good enough for me.
   
3. I am thankful for the opportunity to guest post for my pal Mia of General Hysteria later this week (hopefully tomorrow or Saturday)! I've written about some of the pros and cons for siblings when one is on the spectrum and the other isn't. I hope you'll check it out and share your thoughts with us!
   

Please comment with your thankfulness today! Comments are moderated, so don't panic if you don't see yours right away. And if you subscribe to the comments, you can follow the discussion!