Go Blue

I read a tweet today that said something to the effect of, "my child doesn't need blue lights, he needs help!" Mine too, two actually, but going blue is a beginning. Going blue isn't about our everyday woes, the tantrums, the meltdowns, the frustration, or any other specific piece of the puzzle.  Going blue is about the whole picture, its about looking at these individuals as people just like you and me.  Its about branding the image of autism as people, children, who have ideas and intelligence that they cannot express to the world. It is about the things that people don't see in our autistic children because no one is looking when their smile is lighting up the room, or this giggle is so contagious that everyone is giggling... the world sees only the meltdowns, tantrums, ticks, bruises... the bad.

There is so much more.

On Monday we drove 4 hours round trip for Wes to see his developmental physician, during the long ride home, Wes turned on his playlist on his iPad.  Until that morning, the playlist had only four songs: What the Fox Say, Roar, Wrecking Ball, and Another One Bites the Dust...  That morning I added a few more, I guess I thought we might be forced to listen to this list for a long time, and we were.  For more than an hour, Wes played these songs. What I didn't anticipate, however, was that he would skip the tracks when it played songs he didn't really want to hear.  The consequence was more than an hour of "I'm Sexy and I Know It" by LMAFO blaring in poor Jon's ear from Madison to Fond du Lac!

This afternoon his therapist told me that while he was on the potty, she observed him singing "I'm sexy and I noticed!" over and over. I am sure I blushed, but we all had a giggle as we pictured it!

Wes has been working on a target at school where they are teaching him the appropriate responses to everyday situations.  So the therapist is supposed to compliment him, and he is supposed to say "thank you" then the therapist says "your welcome". So Wes walks up to me (every day) and says "I like your shirt Mom!" and I say, "thank you" and he says "your welcome". Then he turns to the next closest person and tells them, "I like your shirt!" and waits for the response expectantly.  On Saturday we had our insurance agent at the house, so Wes walks up to him and says, you guessed it, "I like your shirt!" The agent looks at me like "um what am I supposed to do?" Maybe we all need some autism therapy?

Last night Ava and Alivya got to spend an evening with my Mom. I knew Taylor would be jealous, but for a lot of reasons including the fact that sometimes they each need a little special time, he could not go.  So this morning as we are getting ready to head to Connections I can tell that Taylor is Blue, as in depressed or down. So I asked him what was wrong. It took more than twenty minutes, at least three "neverminds", twenty "ums", lots of lip smacking and averting eye contact before he finally spit out "I miss Alivya!"

The therapist that worked with Taylor on Friday told me that Taylor made the best "alarm" clock during craft time.  She said everyone was there trying to make alarm clocks like Tay's. I have seen his imaginative creations, I believe it!

A few reminders: