Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday's Autism

As many of you know sometimes it's so very hard to buy for a child on the spectrum. There have been several years now where I thought I got the perfect gift for Doodle only to find out that was a big fat nope.

This year it's a bit small for her for Christmas. I didn't buy any art supplies which is new for me. Normally, I get her tons of art supplies and they normally last for the entire year until next Christmas. But the problem I've been having for the past couple of months is she using drawing and painting as a way to fight sleep. And what would normally take about 10 - 20 minutes for her to fall asleep takes about 2-3 hours. Well, I'm not into that.

Doodle loves animals so this year I got what I know she loves and that would be toy animals. No cages for them though, cause of the snake incident. And if she has any art supplies they would have come from the school. I requested no paints because I'm tired of multicolored bedding. I bought her a new bedding set cause she ripped up her other one in a meltdown. I also got her a few sensory toys. I got her a sound machine and I'm hoping she might enjoy that. If not that's okay, it can be used at a later time, I guess.

Most of what Doodle is getting for Christmas has all been purchased throughout the year. Little by little. And yes, I cheated at it. If it went on sale at 60-70% off at work that's when I bought it. Mainly the high dollar items we had last year for the Christmas season. Toys and clays, things I know she loves playing with. At Toy's R Us I went and got the Chipmunk plastic toys. I used to get Doodle the plushes but she just started cutting them open. So, no not gonna waste money on things that will end up in my bed. Those pellets for their butts hurt! Did you know that if you find the toys you are trying to purchase cheaper on Amazon, you pay the Amazon price at Toys R US? You can and I have been making out like a bandit! For the whole collection of the Chipmunks and the Chipette's I paid $10.00 instead of $20.00

For her Christmas stocking Santa is bringing Care Bears and cousins blind bags. Doodle absolutely loves opening those so she's getting that too. And she's getting a lot of movies that were released throughout the year. Boss Baby, Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3. I would have gotten Dory but she just wasn't interested in this movie like she was with Finding Nemo. I was hoping she would want that one but she wasn't. During the summer at Michaels we did a lot of crafts for Dory. I liked Hank the octopus. I was looking forward to seeing the adventure with him.

From her God father Doodle is getting a STEM activity where she makes a video game. She loves art and might just be interested in programming so this is something that she and I will do together. There is a Mc2 bag that's programmable she was playing with in Walmart so if she is interested in that she should be interested in this. She's smart enough for it. I will keep her thinking during winter break.

And Doodle really enjoys the 24th tradition. Opening a gift before Christmas day. She's got a new set of jammies, The Labyrinth the movie, cause Doodle loves anything Jim Henson. She's got an eight pack of gourmet cocoa's that I picked up at work for $5.99. I'm making a sleep mask for her and slippers to go with it and she's got a bag of popcorn to pop for the night of Christmas Eve to go with the movie.

I'm actually writing this blog the day the last blog went up because Christmas Day for us is spending it together as a family. And if you guys happen to read this, cool. If you spend the day with your family and miss it but catch it Tuesday that's fine too.

As for the Christmas shopping. Doodle didn't do any. She just didn't want to shop. But I did manage to get everything that I needed we had run out of. Instead of shopping at the health food store I decided that I needed to trying something different. I didn't want to spend $80.00 this time around. I found way better deals at Big Lots. The soap we use that has no sls in it they have it as a 4 pack for $3.50. I found sls free shampoo for $2.00. At Publix I found that the Jason company makes tooth paste now and they have a berry mint flavor. Doodle hasn't had a berry flavored tooth paste in a long time.

I got the last of the Christmas shopping done. Purchased Ice wine for my best friend. Found a few odds and ends that I needed. So my Monday has been pretty good so far. And I did get a new battery for my vehicle. That was almost a fight. My current battery which is still basically brand new has gone bad. Walmart wouldn't take responsibility for it. They held on to the belief that it was still good because it was brand new. I had it tested by Walmart and they said it was good, went to Pep Boys and they said they couldn't figure out what it was but to come back if I had anymore issues. This was last week this happened because it refused to crank and I had to get it jump started. Today I went to auto zone and had them run a diagnostic on it. Guess what, it came back as a bad battery. Went back to Walmart and told them the battery was bad. Dude said nope it's new. But they put it on the big machine to prove to me it was a good battery. After being there for over an hour waiting, it came back the battery was bad. If only the guy has listened to me to begin with. I was not a happy camper. Doodle kept saying she wanted the minivan. Which meant she was tired of being in Walmart. And I don't blame her. I really don't care to shop there.

I still have to go back to Auto Zone tomorrow and make sure that this new battery is good cause Walmart has made me very paranoid about my car. It's the only vehicle I have. I want it to work. Heck I need it to work so that I can work and be able to get to Doodle's school. Before winter break I was at the school every single day the last week. Well, everyday but Friday.

And on that note it's time for me to get other things done. Doodle and I hope that you and your family are having a stress free Holiday and a very Merry Christmas.

See you guys on the flip side.

Since the intruder incident Autism

I'm sure a lot of people are wondering what has happened since Doodle had let an intruder into the house. How could this have happened? Children are suppose to know better then to allow this to happen.

Since Doodle's last regression which put her back mentally to a 2 year old, things like this could happen not only to a special needs child but to regular functioning little's as well. This could happen to anyone at anytime.

So what has happened since? Well, our county school system held an autism training for parents, which I had signed up for the month before the incident in question happened. One thing that you have got to remember is that children on the spectrum have no fear and that was one thing that was not in the seminar. How do we deal with that one? Know your fears, know what you need to teach at home.

Doodle's school is out this week. That means that it's officially winter break and with winter break you are either going to have tons of t.v. time or you will have iPad time. Those things aren't so appealing to me for my child. I'm not raising a screen zombie. I'm raising a child that has to be taught something over a thousand times before she gets it. This is why picture schedules and social stories work so well. As I have mentioned on the last blog I have been following @theautismhelper on Instagram. There you can find lots of sheets that you can use to help your child to continue to learn while they are out on break.

So again, what has changed? I've become a bit more strict in my parenting. I'm also reinforcing good behavior, because her behavior has been a bit bad since her last regression and I have been just picking my battles. Sometimes when we are dealing with issues of autism we often forget to reinforce good behavior because we have some many other things going on.

I don't have a social story but I do have a picture with a snake crossed out on it and a cartoon picture of a house under that. Will it last long? No because now we are on break and I need to make sure that what the school was doing to teach her that we don't do snakes needs to be continued right now. I can contact Doodle's teacher and see if she can email me something. Or I can research it.

Before I went to the last even before our classroom closed down for the holiday's on Sunday Doodle yelled out that she wanted a corn snake. I yelled right back, NO! She did say she was sorry. So during the break I have to have things to keep her busy. Like severely busy. I guess it's time to take her Christmas shopping and let her buy something for me for Christmas. I mean I have hers all taken care of. There is not a single thing left to get for her. And they are all wrapped. So we can do that. And I can have her place it in Christmas bags. I don't have time this week to teach her how to wrap. I still have a computer to get online and to get my publishing program on it.

I still have a magazine to get out. So here we are. Two weeks after the incident and my friends still think it's freaking hilarious. Me on the other hand not so much. Doodle, she's dealing with a very strict mother and I've been reinforcing good behavior. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to create a social story but that's copyrighted. So that's no help for me. Time for me to come up with my own way of doing things. Things that will help other parents in the same boat I find myself in.

On that note I've got lots of things to do. It's a busy week and my autism Facebook group, the admins and I are about to redo it so that parents will have better access to things that they want or need and have faster access to help when the admins and I are not available.

See you guys on the flip side.

School obligations Autism

It's the holiday season here and this week is the last week of school before Winter Break. I've got to get everything ready for when Doodle is home and not doing much during the season. I have been following theautismhelper on instagram and there are tons of work sheets that I plan on downloading so Doodle can continue keeping her brain sharp during the break. I don't want her to just watch the ipad all day. I do want her to work on thinking skills while she is home. This weekend is the last weekend that I will be working before the classroom closes for the Holiday season. I will be returning after the new year. Which it will be nice to have a two week break. They won't see me much at work during that time. Which I'm sure everyone will be thankful for.

The last week of school is the Holiday parties and Holiday school programs. About 2 years ago I was a classroom mom and it was my job to get everything for the kids party. Let me make this as clear as I possibly can. Do not forget to pay when they ask you for money for the party. All the money comes out of someones pocket and it needs to be recouped. If that makes sense. I spent over $150.00 on my childs party and only 2 parents paid the $5.00 for the party. There were about 12 kids in the class and I knew everything I was getting I would not get the full amount back. But that's okay. It didn't bother me, but what did bother me is the fact that parents didn't want to pay. Heck parents came to the party and gripped because I didn't have a rotisserie chicken spread.

Yeah I'm going to buy that for a kids party where everyone is a picky eater and no one brings anything else. Just the kids and their parents and people wanting to stuff their faces. At a school party it's not about the parents it's about the kids.

Also if you can make sure that you can get the kids little gifts before they leave for the holidays. Some kids won't get presents during the holiday break. And you don't have to spend an arm and a leg on gifts. This year I hit up dirt cheap and found some bling bags that were of doggies and kitties. I went to Dollar General and found a large package of cars, where the kids got 3 vehicles each in their bags, some Shopkins activity bags and of course you can't forget the candy canes. I got holiday bags 6 to a pack for $1.00. And that's all it takes. Doodle really likes cars still and blind bags are her favorite thing to open. I don't think it really matters what the blind bags are just a surprise to open.

And of course the teacher and some of staff will be receiving presents as well. The teachers work really hard ever year with our kids. For the past two weeks I've been working on DIY holiday gifts. When the magazine is finally uploaded you will see all those gifts. I had a lot of fun making them and they were very easy and simple to make. A lot of what I made I already had in the house and some of the left overs went to other projects. So it made it very affordable to make gifts that are from the heart and able to be used.

See you guys on the flip side.

Why did you let an intruder into the house Autism

I guess this one is another day in the life of an autism mom. And I have never hated my child's autism a day in her life until Saturday when I came home from work. And yes, I've dealt with the poop smear years. Lived those bad boys for 6 long years. I hated those years and don't ever want to go back to them but I would have gladly handled a poop smear versus what I walked into on Saturday.

I mean this was so bad I had to contact Doodle's teacher. And she called back immediately cause it severely upset her. So what could be so bad that it made me hate living the life of an autism parent? Well, let me just tell you.

Saturday I worked kids club at Michaels craft store and the Gingerbread event. Doodle was with my parents at home. The day was pretty normal. Kids begging for the rest of my slime and not caring about any other customers that wanted to participate in the event. They were 11 years old. Where were the parents? Off shopping through the store, though they didn't really buy anything.

At the Gingerbread event a parent brought in a gingerbread house that had to be put together. Not to be decorated only. But put together piece by piece. And the icing was not doing it's job by acting as a glue. This was not a Wilton product. Took me just a moment to come up with a solution and the customer went from angry to happy and her product came out far better then other customers who were in the event. We were all very proud of the end product. For the first time of this customer and her daughter creating a gingerbread house she was happy and became a firm believer of Wilton icing. Once she learned all the tips and tricks there were to using the icing.

After I got home from work, tired and ready to finish all my work for my other weekend job I walked into my room. And there was Doodle playing on the bed holding out something that was long and different looking. I asked her what it was and she threw it in a turtle container for a toy turtle I bought last Christmas for her. I asked her again what she had and she responded with, "Nuffin'". I asked for what she had and she finally handed me the turtle container. And that's when I saw what I knew was not a toy and was as real as I was standing in the room.

I screamed. Screamed like I was being murdered. Because well, my safe haven of peacefulness was stripped from me. There was a live snake in the bedroom and I had no clue if she had brought in some of his friends and was just playing with the one or oh God I can't. I can't think about that.

I ran from the room. Panic mode as if this thing could fly and was chasing me with a knife. I was no longer safe in my own home. Look I can deal with toads, frogs, lizards and spiders. Snakes, that's a big ole NOPE!!! I couldn't go back into the room. It took me a bit to even get back to being close enough to get to the bedroom door.  I tried calling my male best friend and he didn't answer. So I called my female best friend. She lives on a farm. She has to deal with these things every single day. I called her and panic stricken screamed into the phone, "Get to my house right now!" She asked if I was okay. I replied, "Get here as fast as you can! It's not good. I'm about to have a stroke!" She said she was in the long line at work but as soon as she checked out with her stuff she would head to my house.

At this point Doodle was in sheer panic. She was upset and crying. She came out of the room upset and crying. I asked where is the snake??? She pointed to my bed. Oh sweet Jesus in Heaven rapture me now!!! Praying she hadn't put the snake in my bed I screamed and ran from the room again. I some how found the courage to make it back to the bedroom to ask where the snake was. By this time my dad was by the bedrooms waiting for the snake to be found so he could find out what it was and get it out of the house. I asked Doodle several times where the snake was. She kept telling me she didn't know. Oh this was so not helping. My mother was chiming that she wanted Doodle to get the snake right now. All this frustration poor Doodle was starting to meltdown. I took a deep breath and told Doodle it would be okay, show momma where the snake was. Doodle led me back to the bedroom and pointed to the bedroom window.

The courage I had to muster just to try to get the blinds up. Normally, this is super easy for me. Saturday it was not. I couldn't touch the bottom of the blinds or even open the slates of the blinds to find out where it was. After what felt like years and my muscles not wanting to work properly I finally got the blinds up enough to see if there was a snake in the windowsill. Nope, no snake.

At this point Doodle kept saying snake outside. Snake outside. Considering that it would be easier on my anxiety to be outside verses inside this tiny box where a snake could find me so much faster. Not really but this is how I was feeling at the time. I walked out the back door and headed to the bedroom window. And before I even got close enough I could see it. My heart dropped to my feet. There I stood frozen unable to move. My mother came up behind me and said, "Well, is it out here?" I said, "Yes, there it is. Can you see it?" She couldn't and walked closer to the window. I said it's on the bricks on the ground, look down. And that's when she spotted it and ran inside to get my dad.

Thankfully it was a corn snake. Doodle had poked a hole in the window screen and slide the snake outside that way. I'm not a happy camper and I'm not happy at all with the situation that I found myself in. After the snake was moved to the back part of the yard, mainly in someone else's yard.

I had to go sit on the front porch and I waited on my friend to come to the house. I live 8 minutes from work and she took over 20 minutes to get to my home. We sat on the front porch and she tried her hardest to get me calm again after I told her what happened.

That night it took me until well after 3am to get to sleep and that's with the help of 10 mg of melatonin. And 3 hours of Alvin and the chipmunk episodes on the nick app. I'm still not fully over the incident and am practically bathing in frankincense oil which helps with my anxiety. And I was begging for rapture after I figured I couldn't sleep in my office chair and had to check my bed for snakes. And yes, I did debate on just sleeping in my car that night. I found a feather that was brown and beige and curled on my bed under my covers. I wasn't wearing my glasses and everything was a little blurry. But it was something curled up under my covers. "Jesus, take me now. JESUS!!!" I'm sure Jesus heard me but wasn't willing to help me out. Still love him though.

I feel like there is something that is slithering over my feet and touching my ankles. I can't handle this. I told Doodle the next day there might be a possibility she would lose Christmas cause she knows mommy hates snakes. Yes, I will be one of those parents. I have everything already purchased but she can get her Christmas on her birthday in January. That's the way I'm pretty much feeling right now. Thankfully, Christmas is a good ways off and I know I will calm down by then. God, I feel like this experience was just 20 minutes ago.

Currently the house smells like moth balls. Cause I need security in my life. I no longer feel as if I'm smelling a snake cause the smell of moth balls is overwhelming. And there's a bit of peacefulness but not much. My eyes are burning from the smell. But I'm reminded of my grandmother and her wardrobe from years ago, so there's that.

Monday morning I will be taking Doodle to school myself to get a social story about not going after snakes. I refuse to leave the school until I have that in my hands for the house. If she's brave enough to go after a snake the next one might be dangerous. She has no clue cause she has no fear. And it's that no fear that most children on the spectrum have. And that's the part of autism I hate right now. Doodle's teacher was concerned that Doodle might have brought said thing to school. Doodle's obsession has gone from looking at pictures of snakes and drawing pictures of them to now bringing a snake in the house. Nope, nope, NOPE! Yes, her teacher asked me if I checked her book bag to make sure there was no snake in there. I told her no I haven't, you're on your own for that check! I told her I'm trying to convince my friend to come over and check over the room with me cause I need someone to throw on the snake so I can get to safety. She laughed. I'm not joking.

So that's where we stand and right now I'm still popping melatonin cause I can't get to sleep because of the fear.

If I come home from working another event at Michaels and find my kid playing with another snake I will be quitting my job. I just can't handle that. Everyone at work has been well informed. They think it's funny and don't take me seriously. But I'm not kidding. Told Doodle's father that he needed to make sure there is life insurance on me cause I will be 6 feet under if there is another incident.

See you guys on the flip side.

New round of IEP's Autism

Yeah, I know it's been awhile. I think the last time you heard from me was November the 7th. Right after I posted the blog it's one of those things where everything crashed down all at once.

I have another round of IEP's. In the state where I live we have to do an evaluation every three years to make sure that a child on the spectrum is allowed Autism Services. No matter how much Doodle will progress in life, she will always have autism. Just like she will always have a birth mark. Most parents don't want their child to have autism and it's something they think of as a stigma. To me I don't feel that way. Maybe in the future I can say she made it to where she is because of her autism. She sees the world differently. She feels the world differently. She is in this world and experiences it far differently then I do.

Last month 4 days before the Thanksgiving holiday I was in an IEP meeting to assess if Doodle would be eligible for Autism Services. Reviewing all the paperwork, she was no longer eligible do to the testing scores that were submitted from the school that I bent over backwards to get Doodle out of. It was a horrible school. I'll just admit it here, cluesslessness all the way around! From the principal to the teacher and para's. There are people out there that have a heart for it but aren't doing it for the right reason's. If that makes sense. Doodle's true miracle worker of a teacher changed her view not for just trying to teach children with disabilities but to actually help children with disabilities. She wanted her children to be able to help themselves in the event that they found themselves in an emergency situation.

Doodle used to know her telephone number and tell you the names of her parents. She was also able to tell you her name and where she lived. Yeah, it took a bit for the info to come out and you had to be patient. But it's something that every child should be able to do if they can. Doodle used to be one of those children that couldn't speak. She had to be pushed even on days that she didn't want to be pushed, she was still pushed to learn, to speak to write to think. And for that I am eternally grateful. I still insist on that to this day. I don't care if she wants to draw all day and screech, it's not something I want her to do. Disruptions like that in a regular ed classroom is not tolerated. And it shouldn't be tolerated in a special ed classroom.

Back to the task at hand. The previous school submitted testing scores from regular ed tests. Doodle is suppose to be tested on special ed test. They are geared towards the child's disability. If the child has no speech and can't use their hands but can look at specific things with their eyes, that's how they are to be tested. If a child on the spectrum can't read but can relate through pictures, that's how they are to be tested. If they don't test well and need to have the questions read to them, that's how they are to be tested. And so on and so on. It's testing but geared to the disability. And with the testing that was submitted it meant that I would have to start the process all over again every 3 years, instead of just reviewing it and saying yes or no.

Paperwork, seriously all the paperwork. And that's what I had to do. Redo all the paperwork that was related all the way back to when Doodle was first diagnosed. Doodle was diagnosed at age 3 and next month she will be turning 12. That's a long time to remember back and the way my memory seems to be going now it's not so cool since my accident last year around this time or just a little after this time. I've lost a lot of memory at the time of the accident. There is no way I can keep doing that every three years. So yeah the old school screwed me over. They screwed Doodle over by not teaching her but taught her aggression and violence that wasn't cool.

And now you see why parents have to fight so much. Hey I did get the paperwork in before Thanksgiving, though I will admit it like to have killed me. (Not really, but I hate doing paperwork that has been done before). So the paperwork was turned in and Doodle was retested correctly. All info will stay on file and it will be used to review as in, we have progressed from here let's try another level or she didn't do to hot on this level let's make sure she stays at the level that she does well at. Cause the testing for special ed is done at levels. And if I remember correctly I have gone over all this before.

Yesterday when Doodle came home from school I received that IEP request that the testing had been completed and it was time to come in and say yes or no on if Doodle is still eligible for Autism Services. I can't complain about this process, as I have a friend who's children are being tested just to see if they are eligible for Doodle's school. And that's why there is a 2 year waiting list. Again, I didn't have to wait on a two year waiting list. I pushed and I pushed hard to get Doodle out of that school. I didn't have to wait on the list for two years. And yeah, I have friends who are waiting to get into Doodle's school because it's the best in the county for special needs children.

Anyways, the testing is done and next week I will be having my actual IEP to see if she still qualifies. I know that she will because she's still riding on a bad regression. She's not fully out of it and I'm not happy. Well, now you are all caught up and I need to get back to making products for the magazine.

See you guys on the flip side.