....The grass is as high as an elephant's eye....how's the humidity....?

Well, we're alive, which can only be a positive, hey?

The feral Aspie teen has chosen to name his voices The Unholy Chorus (like a former patient of mine did) - he couldn't think of anything himself and I suggested it might help him learn to pick differences between his beloved parents nagging at talking to him and The Unholy Chorus calling him names (see? BIG difference to you and I, him not so much). NFI if it'll work but it's worth a try to at least get him knowing that they are from different sources.

The grass is growing like mad (hiding the dog's 'land mines', curses!) what with all the torrential downpours and Darwin humidity that's shifted south.
The same humidity 'they' can't seem to stop comparing with all places north of the Equator on a daily basis as well as claiming 'they' have proof these wild weather patterns are caused by climate change.
Thanks for that.
We'd have never noticed on our own.
*rolls eyes* 
Have been living on my Garden Salad Pizzas, which I'll blog the recipe for in another post; perfect for hot summer days, doesn't heat up the house, and super yum.
*drool*
We have a lone frog croaking in our backyard.
*Not so drool-worthy but cute*
South-east Melbourne suburb and we've got a mature tadpole that took a wrong turn somewhere.
This may or may not have been assisted by the inflatable wading pool that his been left out since last being graced by the flood-causing lardy butt.
And the squillion of mozzies.
And the humidity.
Along with the little drop tail lizards, ginormous caterpillers, a bajillion Rainbow Lorikeets, the odd Grass Parrot, swarms of Praying Mantis' (who seem to have an unhealthy fascination with Hubby *snort*), monstrously huge spiders who think they can scare us feeble humans with a glance (I, for one, won't disabuse them of this notion!) , squadrons of Dragon Flies zipping about madly at dusk as they gobble the damn mozzies, native bees who refuse to be herded into anything resembling a honey-producing box, humidity making everything including my delectable 12 seed bread go mouldy as fast as A Certain Spin Bowler can sms,  a mango seed that has roots/stems/leaves and looks set to take over the world while it's mates the avocado seeds are sending out scout parties to check for intelligent life forms.
They'll be gone a looooong time....
So, how's the humidity serenity...?

Calm sailing in aisle 4....Aisle 4, calm sailing...thank you

Well, having vomited my brain-fartage upon you in my previous post today I'll play it light and dreamy.
No, I'm not on drugs or drinking bucketloads of grog (at this present moment in time) but things are....calm.
The Tourette's vocal tics have kicked back in; they're always there it's just he's using them as more of an outlet to let loose some of his steam and to give us fair warning that he's anxious.
Not that he hasn't been told to verbalise these things but when he gets highly anxious commands, simple steps, rules of behaviour, etc, all fly out the window and he runs on gut instinct.
So, he's grunting a lot, his father has bought him a shedload of bubble wrap in rolls which he both sits and maniacally pops with glee and in turns uses it to belt us with.
It's true...bubblewrap really is (almost) as good as therapy with a shrink.
Think of those soft nerf balls and that's what it's like being hit with.
Sure beats having the crap belted out of you with a fist, foot or any piece of furniture lying close at hand.
Anyway!
He's off to his lapidary club, for his 3rd year, where he learns lapidary and all about geology and geography, minerals, gems and how to make an ice cream bucket of opal/garnet/greenstone/semi-precious gemstone bits into something close to any woman's heart.
Oh, and he's started on his Spanish.
He of the silver tongue will be able to woo any girl that crosses his path!
Things are in progress to get something done - don't want to say anything just yet in case I mozz it all, but we are being heard :)

We got AN ANSWER!!!!! No, it is not 42...although that is my age right now...Spooky, Mulder!

But seriously, WOOT!
Saw a fabulous neurologist for Aspie teen yesterday.
We have An Answer!
A label for these monstrous outbursts!
Episodic Dyscontrol Syndrome aka Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
Go on, go gurgle it.
*waits*

No, I did not do crack cocaine or drink alcohol or swing from chandeliers when pregnant; I had high blood pressure, worked full-time until the placenta previa was discovered (the placenta was covering my cervix, no emergency exit that way), enough fluid retention to call off the drought and was so bored on strict bedrest that I even read the fine print on those dinky Franklin Mint offers.

And at 16 weeks I lost Aspie teen's twin.
Didn't know there were twins until after the fact, lost him/her on THE weekend all freakin' radiologists were out on strike (cos a potential miscarriage is not considered an emergency. huh) so we had to wait til Monday to discover the Aspie fetus was waving his bungee cord about still, that there was an empty sac beside him and there was another egg propped at the end of my fallopian tube waiting to get rubbed up the right way by the Spouse's swimmers.
The GP was very insistent "Please, don't have sex for awhile!"
I've followed his instructions to the letter ever since....

Anywho, the kidlet was born via caesarian, was whipped off to the neo-natal unit, yada, yada, yada, the rest is history.
So, yesterday we were told that whenever a twin dies in utero there is always some form of brain damage to the surviving twin, even if it is unable to be detected by an MRI.
Which is the most likely cause of his frontal lobe not working properly (ADHD, behaviour control, Tourette's, Autism, etc).
And the push off the trampoline 2 years ago may be the straw that broke the camels back with yet another insult to his frontal lobe, triggering the Episodic Dyscontrol.
So, we wait for the appointment for the MRI and further genetic testing (as it's been almost 10 years since our last lot of genetic tests and massive progress has been made since then).
Not that there actually is anything we can do; we can't stop it or change Aspie teen or hang him upside down from the chandelier and whistle Dixie to see if he turns into a frog.
We basically stick to the medication he's on.
And ride out the malestrom whenever it hits.
But now we know!

The Black Balloon is my life...almost

Finally watched The Black Balloon last night.
Yeah, yeah, call me slow but the universe conspired against me seeing this movie until now.
Aspie teen insisted on watching it and had a few moments throughout, identifying with a number of behaviours and events.
The scene where Thomas goes nuts on his 16th birthday and things get broken?
A  mere blink of an eyelid in our house; that scene goes on and on and on and on here, sometimes everyday, in one form or another.
The human services at the front door due to sticky nose neighbours?
Yep, had 'em here due to a new neighbour (who didn't want to meet anyone in the street) claiming we were tormenting Aspie toddler when we were trying to toilet train him.

Toilet training was a nightmare and deserves a whole post on its own.
No, seriously, it does.
And you will thank me for it.
Maybe.

The scene where the mainstream school kids are picking on Charlie?
Eldest daughter's high school was near Aspie boy's autistic school and a number of her (male) classmates found it necessary to stand near the fence at recess and inform the younger children of their correct titles their parents had forgotten to tell them.
Titles like retard, dipshit, spastic, fucktard,  and others.
Eldest daughter tried defending the younger kids but was laughed at, which made her mad.
Teachers did nothing.
So she told her mummy.
Her mummy and Aspie boy met the ring leader on his way home from school one day and, seeing as he'd battled getting his message across large playing areas and a fence, he was politely offered the chance to inform Aspie boy to his face what his correct title was.
Sadly, the ring leader felt the need to start training for the 1 km dash and was last seen galloping down the street with a 4 year old in hot pursuit.
About a week later someone who looked like the former ring leader apologised to eldest daughter and Aspie boy.
I guess it took him a week to grow a pair of balls.

I digress.
The Black Balloon is my life...almost.
We will have Aspie teen living with us forever, we will have to troubleshoot a lot of life for him, we will have to continually explain things and correct his misconceptions.
But, unlike the movie ending,  we will not be sharing a bath tub with him.....
Cos the little bugger WILL pee on our leg!

Kyneton Museum, the regionals rock

Climbed aboard the country train with Aspie teen this morning and Kyneton (Central Victoria) was graced with our ever-so-slightly chilled presence on this brisk Winter's day.
Aspie teen loves the museums and galleries but I'm easing him into visiting regional ones ahead of the school hols so we don't have to miss out on his favourite obsessions that will otherwise, in Melbourne at least, be packed to the rafters with People!
And Kids!
Mostly Screaming Kids!
Which doesn't do wonders for his Aspergerian anxiety but school hols are only small interruptions and we're hitting the regionals, baby.
The Kyneton Museum is a gem, a loved-up local gem and one that you should seek out if you get the chance.

Situated in the former Bank of NSW (original 1860s building), they have exhibitions downstairs with the bank manager's residence upstairs fully furnished in the period of the day, with movement-activated recordings of what would have been usual conversations.
The stables, laundry, kitchen and 2-pot (a double bunger) outhouse are intact as is the original squatter's cottage, Theaden Homestead, again furnished in period style with recorded conversations of daily life.
Fabulous set up, run by friendly people and something I'd highly recommend to anyone.

We wandered up and down the streets and side-streets of Kyneton, admiring the Neo-Gothic churches, the beautiful architecture of many buildings inspired by the heady gold rush days right through to the Art Deco years and the many uses one can find for bluestone.
The town is a grand place to visit; we actually ran out of time (only 6 hours!) to complete our self-guided tour and so shall be returning at a later date to visit the cemetery, Botanic Gardens, the Farmer's Market (every 2nd Saturday in St Paul's Park) and the many little side streets that beckoned to our curiosity .
But for next week Aspie teen has chosen we shall visit Ballarat.

My boy had a wow of a day

The Aspie teen has had a couple of minor meltdowns - and I do mean minor - with the yelling, swearing and aggro lasting all of 10 mins.
Yes, we thought it was such a lovely change from the hours on end of mental breakdowns he had to endure, too!
There's a couple of things we may be pointing the finger at - the gluten finally leaving and/or the build up of the fish, flaxseed and Evening primrose oils he's been taking.
He's calmer, he's making sense, he's almost back to his old self.
*sigh*
Took him in to see the Rupert Bunny exhibition at Fed Square; found some excellent homeschooling resources for it as it's had some education kits developed for use within schools. The downloads were for both primary and secondary students, very appealing, simple and easy but challenging to the student to use their observational skills in each painting.
He zipped through them without a complaint; fully focused and loving every minute of it, this is how I know he's getting better.
Then he chose some postcards of Rupert Bunny's and McCubbin's paintings, and quickly mentally calculated the cost (correctly), again showing that he's getting back on track.
Then we continued the homeschooling lesson up at the Melbourne Town Hall where they held a free organ concert;  twas fantabulous, the organist David MacFarlane brilliantly and wittily introduced each piece, explaining the strengths, the arguments within the music, who was influenced by what when it was created, etc.
The kid loved it so it was a great success.
The choice to homeschool him 4 years ago has not only paid off for him being able to spread his wings and explore both secondary and uni learning ahead of his peers but it's allowed him to have these hiccups along the way without putting more pressure on him with having to cope with mainstream school, too.

Aspie teen and art

Well, we hit the Bendigo train before the sun was even up and the Aspie teen managed to sleep almost the whole way there, waking up in a great mood.
We tramped all over the town, exploring and visiting op shops, he had a ball.
The day was all about him and his love of art, history and architecture.
He snapped some green parrots in the trees and loved the water features around the town - water has always soothed him and has an almost hypnotic effect on him.
He's asked a few times when is he returning to his uni studies which I've fended off with a 'wait and see' reply but yesterday he really got into the art on display and began discussing the art studies he's completed and how he'd like to do some more.
We shall see.
He totally fell in love with McCubbin's impressionist style, he met his first (Brett) Whiteley paintings and found them to be potential friends, while the few (Arthur) Boyd works snagged his soul, too.
We're off to be entertained with a free organ concert at the Melbourne Town Hall next Wednesday and I think we shall be squeezing  in a visit to the National Gallery, too.
Still no word on assessments and another massive meltdown wrestled with this arvo but I'll just keep chugging along with the art to sooth the aggro and let the 'experts' catch me up when they can get organised.

Bill Shorten speaks commonsense

When you are bearing the burden of having a disability, or caring for a person with a disability, your ability to fight for anything beyond daily survival is lost.

That one sentence not only proves to me that Bill Shorten has been listening but that it also sums up exactly how I've felt in the past few months, more notably these past few weeks.
We have no idea if this is an emerging mental illness or a manifestation of Aspie teen's autism fuelled by raging testosterone with puberty.
Mental illness or disability - choose your poison cos either way you slice it the system as it stands is screwed.
The rest of the article by Bill Shorten is HERE.

Shhh...

We've taken things back to basics and are trialling Aspie teen on just very basic literature tasks, such as reading & comprehension, words & meanings with appropriate use in sentences, etc.
As he's homeschooled we're able to be flexible with his work to suit what the Spectrum is throwing at us, thank goodness, and we can chop and change subjects to snare his attention and focus as it suits.
He's deeply disappointed at possibly having to skip footy, if he does further damage to his tendon this Sunday, but I reminded him the alternative was to sport a RoboBoot like Kelley.
He immediately understood having read about RoboBoot and how serious Kelley's injury had become, thus coming around to my way of thinking and taking it easy this footy match and resting himself as much as possible.
Yeah, could see that further injury would go down really well with him surfing the Hormone Waves at the moment!
Have been spraying lavender all over the house -it's supposed to soothe tempers and bring about a sense of calmness - so if it doesn't work at least the house smells pretty.
Still sticking to the GFDF diet, was going to make pasta from scratch but trialled the Orgran Rice and Corn Mini Lasagna sheets the other day - Very yummy, works well and just like regular lasagna sheets.

Send in the clowns....oh, wait, I'm here

Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate them, it makes me feel less isolated.
Aspie teen has stretched his Achilles tendon - he actually did it over a week ago at footy but it's got worse to the point he complained of a sore foot Tuesday night; high pain threshold + hypermobility = unexpected injuries weeks later.
Told he may have to consider sitting out the footy season til his body matures a bit more and play next year, depending on how he pulls up after footy this Sunday.
Major meltdown this morning which resulted in a spontaneous nose bleed from high blood pressure.
Another just now - both meltdown and blood nose but in reverse order where the sight of the blood may have been the trigger.
Or it might have been Saturn in the 4th house of Jupiter was the cause.
Dear Holly Robinson Peet "Puberty plus Autism? Challenging!"
I'd say you're being rather understated there, poppet, but Hell, I could kiss you silly for your words.
And though I highly doubt mine is experiencing seizures this article made so much sense, too.
Finally, another mention of almost everything we're going through here makes me feel normal.
Were any of you told of the possibility of seizures at puberty?
There's a fairy godmother flitting about somewhere handing out the goodies for all the teens hitting their hormone bootstraps when the silly old biddy hands out seizures to the Auties/Aspies.
The silly cow flits in, drops a great lump of hormones, rage, hormones, seething emotions, hormones, possible seizures and hormones on the ASD teen in the middle of the night and the next thing you know is you're living Invasion of The Body Snatchers.
Or Shaun of The Dead.
Except I don't do the fence hurdling too well.
I have to laugh cos I'm all cried out from today.

I'm scared

Have been under a whole heap of hurting pressure recently.
My Dad's health is failing, I need new specs cos my eyesight has gone south even further but it's the Aspie teen that this post is about.
Only silver lining was tonight's successful GFDF conversion of this self-saucing chocolate pudding here - I substituted the milk for fruit juice, flour for Healtheries GF baking mix and the butter for oil.
Yeah, I got all a'quiver over chocolate *snort*.
Aspie teen has not been 'quite himself' since his major meltdown of several weeks ago; his mind is not engaged, his focus is off-kilter and it's like all the autistic traits have become magnified.
His impulse control is broken, his meds don't seem to be clicking in and conversations are running off into different tangents.
We've finally got in to see a medical professional to get an assessment started, thank the flipping Goddess on high, but it's like the kid's been holding onto the last shreds of control and now that he's started seeing someone he's relaxing the grip on those reins.
Which scares me beyond silly.
I'm sitting here putting on a 'normal' face for hubby and my Dad so they don't freak, to the teenager babbling nonsense (who was studying at uni only 2 weeks ago) I show the 'normal, calm mummy' face so he doesn't freak out, either.
Cos he's all on the defensive when I even casually ask him anything about his thoughts, his behaviours, his driving urges, etc.
What do you say to a teen who has forgotten they've literally-not-2-seconds-earlier just got off a bus at a bus stop only to turn around, look at the bus stop sign and complain that "We've walked past the bus stop how are we going to catch a bus, now?"
Then almost 2 mins later, after the explanation, again ask "But, where are we going to catch a bus from?"
This shit scares me.

ADHD wasn't discovered yesterday

During one of Aspie teen's university studies he came across some confronting claims from a lecturer who stated that ADHD was a 'created label' rather than a recognised condition.
This was apparently seen as permission to the other students to vent their spleen at all the kids with ADHD who'd had the gall to cross their path; some claimed ADHD stood for Apparent Death of Hard Discipline, spouting recommendations for a length of garden hose or bamboo to sort the kids out instead of medication and therapy, with almost all of them stating there had never, ever been a kid with ADHD in their class/school when they were kids.
Others claimed it was an alternative form of controlling students in the age of not using the cane, others still stated they believed it was lazy parents unwilling to teach children social boundaries while another claimed it was older parents lacking the energy to stick to routines and discipline. Still another suggested the label had been invented to absolve the teacher and education system of any responsibility when children didn't conform to the accepted rules of the classroom.
Who knew so many people could turn rabid at the mention of a medically diagnosed and recognised condition?!
These were people who were possibly going to become teachers.
Amazingly the lecturer stated ADHD hadn't existed 50 years ago which many tended to believe and agree with.
Yet the behaviour was noted as far back as 1848 (possibly even earlier in 1798) and given further medical details and diagnosis from 1902 onwards.
Yet some in the education system insist on treating those with ASD, ADHD and other medically diagnosed and recognised learning disorders as nothing more than a stubborn child who refuses to do as he/she is told.
And it's little wonder when that belief was encouraged by one lecturer, at least.
Ironically, they are very inattentive to a condition that commonly causes inattention.
Perhaps there's a few more adults who are undiagnosed....?

Further information on ADHD history HERE.
"Is it Severe ADHD or is it Asperger's" summary HERE.
Asperger Syndrome and ADHD HERE.
Language Disorders and ADHD HERE.
DSM-IV criteria for ADHD HERE.
DSM-IV criteria for Asperger's Disorder HERE.
Oldest known history of ADHD HERE.

Teeth & the teen

We got lucky when our son was little - when he needed to visit the school dental van for the first time he'd begun to allow people to get close to him so we weren't deafened by the top-pitch screams that had blessed his specialist visits in the past.
He also had no inkling about dentist phobias and coupled with his high pain threshold we certainly didn't enlighten him.
A quick check had found a cavity in a baby molar, so I was told in a whispered consult outside the dental van.
They had often found the anesthetic needle caused more anxiety and pain than the actual filling of the cavity itself with kids on the Spectrum.
So, with my permission he had a filling without any anesthetic.
His only complaint was the need to keep his mouth open for a long time.
About 12 months later, when several of his teeth refused to shift out to make room for his adult teeth, the dentist again went in without anesthetic.
Again no complaints.
After that, however, he began forcing his baby teeth out the moment he detected even the tiniest wobble; he'd smilingly trot out of the bathroom covered in enough blood to make the producer of Friday the 13th giddy with glee and present the tiny white item for our inspection (and reassurance that the Tooth Fairy would not forget to reimburse him for his efforts).
Things were going swimmingly with his teeth until a check up and the recommendation for braces; off we trotted to the orthodontist and heard the prognosis.
Surgery and/or braces.
We chose just the braces and again he sat back like Lord Muck, mouth wide open being pulled and prodded this way and that, the orthodontist continually asking if he was in any pain or discomfit.
"Nah" was the repeated reply.
The only complaint regarding the braces, to date, has been the need to avoid hard chocolate.

Aspergian sub-culture

Last night on the Alone in a Crowded Room doco there were comments and observations passed that I've noted myself but kept to myself as so many 'specialists' prattle the same mantra contrary to basic logic.
The fact that those on the Spectrum are forced into behaving like neurotypicals; we're torturing square pegs to fit into round holes that they will NEVER fit comfortably in.
Dr Wendy Lawson stated that it would be far easier and better for neurotypicals to make the effort to understand and accept the neuro-diversity offered by Auties/Aspies than it was for Auties/Aspies being made to conform to a false ideal of "normal".
And this other ideal, to separate those on the Spectrum from each other and to push them into socialising with neurotypicals to learn to mimic their 'socially acceptable' behaviour, is bizarre and cruel.
I was  listening to an interview on ABC radio recently where journo Paul Raffaele described how the African chimps and gorillas had different sub-cultures inside groups in the wild; how orphans were being saved from poachers but brought up in a vacuum without their family/tribe culture and knowing only the fear/terror and angry behaviour from witnessing their mothers being slaughtered in front of them.
Our Auties/Aspies aren't witnessing murders but they are growing up in a vacuum where they're frightened and scared, made to feel like the outsider, that they are the oddball in a group of neurotypicals when they are in fact part of one of the fastest growing groups in the Western world.
The odds have changed so quickly many media outlets aren't keeping up with the ratios anymore as Valerie pointed out in her post HERE; it's 1 in 90 in USA, here in Oz it's 1 in 100.
When Aspie teen was first diagnosed it was reported as being closer to 1 in 250+ only 11 years ago.
Either the kids are getting in on the fad early or it's no longer the last thing specialists consider.
So, if our ASD kids are in such numbers and they know the funding isn't there for early intervention/integration aide funding and they know the mainstream systems don't always work ...why isn't the whole thing turned on it's head and neurotypicals made to just accept someone as being different?
And embrace the neurodiversity on offer?
Cos without the Spectrum we'd all still be gnawing on a raw hunk of meat in a cave somewhere.

Aspergian Species

'Alone in a Crowded Room' autism documentary was an eye-opener for my son and hubby.
So often while watching the doco they were saying,
"That's just like me! I do that, too!"
Big smiles, slight shock that some quirks weren't just them and the adoption of the title "Aspergian Species".
Tis ok, the Aspergians have opposable thumbs, are a whiz with baked beans and can follow rules impeccably.
Sounds so much nicer than Dalekian of the species as my son had dubbed himself at times.
Made me jump everytime I heard "Exterminate!"
*Another post on ideas this doco has raised to follow soonish.

Madmother has been uber-generous and awarded me the Sunshine Award.
Thank you so much!
I'd like to pause on the red carpet here and address the phalanx of cameras, reporters and taxation accountants to say what a wonderful time I have reading Meaninless Meandering from a Mad Mother, that she deserves a Logie for being such a rock solid real mum and if the Henry Tax Review should bore you to tears then go over and audit a few of her blog posts to get your numerical groove happening again.
That plus she's a great gal to chat to on the phone even if I make her sleep LOL.

Now I must away to organise the homeschooling thing for the Aspie teen who is getting impatient with his mother who waffles.

Autism doco and blather

Reminder to those who requested it that tonight at 10.05pm on ABC1 is "Alone in a Crowded Room" a 1 hour doco on what happens to autistic children when they grow up.
Full synopsis available to read HERE.
Some people - and many govt depts - seem to think autistic kids outgrow their autism, although in my experience that misconception in govt depts does appear to have a direct correlation to budgets and funding.
Sorry, is my cynicism showing again?
Should be an interesting show! 
So, the Aspie teen is off at his first footy match this morning; both he and his dad were up before the crack of dawn, heating up soup for the thermos, buttering rolls and obsessively double, triple, quadruple checking backpacks were packed correctly.
A little song we nurses used to sing..."What's that refrain that goes through my brain? OCD ! OCD!"
Leaving moi to run amok about the house.
The possibilities of what I could get up to...while supervising Dad...are innumerable.. countless.. several.. a few I can count on 1 hand.
Oh, be still my beating heart!
It shall be crochet hooks at 30 paces with yarn flung about with wild abandon.

Autism Rainbow Day

Today is Autism Rainbow Day.

Toss out your staid workshirt and throw on a plain coloured t-shirt to help raise more awareness of Autism and the whole spectrum our kids are on.

Don't forget - Autism Awarness Month in Australia begins tomorrow for the whole month of May.

Flog Your Blog Friday again!
Rules from Da Boss Lady
1. Follow my blog (if you haven't already done so).
2. Grab my bubbly button and post it on your sidebar.
3. Link your URL below.
4. Follow at least 1 linkyer/blogger (Pay it forward is the name of the game).
5. The list will be open for linkyers on Fridays (I've extended the closing time by the way, to accommodate my non-aussie peeps).
6. A new and fresh link list will open every Friday. And you will have to link up AGAIN. The previous link list does not carry over to the following week.
7. And lastly, have lotsa fun!

Smiting the obvious and an Autism doco

I think I've survived the roller coaster ride we've been on these past few days.
All the body parts seem to be working although the brain has turned to slush and I cannot for the life of me summon up the name of a Goddess worthy of calling upon to smite the lazy mental health 'professionals' *ahem* .
But we'll leave that until Murphy's Law dictates that right in the middle of a formal dinner I'll remember and blurt it out as Someone Vaguely Important is sharing their lifelong secrets with me.
Over steamed asparagus.

Aspie social

So, Aspie teen waltzed off into the dark night with his dad.
Pouring rain did not dampen his enthusiasm to join the Aspie social support group.
Nor did it dampen his nerves.
At one stage during the day he began babbling 19 to the dozen, tripping over his own words and not waiting for answers.

Not funny

Goodness gracious me!
Well, with the power of Mummy bloggers we got our message across that jokes at the expense of those on the Autistic Spectrum are not ok.
Channel 10 issued an apology while trying to claim that the host of the show attempted to stop the jokes yet they seemed to have forgotten another regular also made a joke about autism.
Hmmm, short memories in television but not here.
Now, there are forums filled to bursting with people arguing back and forth about how they are on the Spectrum and they didn't find it offensive, others are calling us 'precious' and thin skinned, even more are agreeing that it wasn't funny, it was offensive, etc, etc, etc.
They'll go on and on, like a cat chasing its tail because each will refuse to see the other person's side of the argument.
Such is the power of anonymity on the net.
Here is my argument as to why those jokes were offensive -

Because dickheads see this as permission to bully, under the guise of 'humour', those on the Spectrum.

Pure and simple.
The social inhibitions, the moral compass most of us have inside us is willfully ignored by idiots who see these 'jokes' by media personalities as a free pass to perform their own brand of 'humour' on others who are unable to defend themselves.
How often have you yourself asked someone to stop doing something that was annoying/upsetting you only for them to play the "It was only a joke" get-out-of-gaol-free card?
Just as I found Eddie and Mick Malloy's comments about the male ice skaters at the Winter Olympics offensive - because they are media personalities and those comments are seen as a passport to vilifying members of the LGBT community.
Eddie has had the good grace to recognise the high incidence of bullying, mental illness and suicide in same-sex attracted youth but I think it's too much to hope for Paul McDermott and Mikey Robbins to acknowledge the high rate of  bullying, depression and risk of suicide associated with those on the Spectrum.
Cos it's just not funny.