I read the news today, oh boy, and are we in a pile of whoopsie!

The news has been astounding us of late.
First there was the news Spring had sprung - which accompanied the news Aspie teen is probably having complex partial seizures brought about by being pushed off a trampoline in January last year but ....
SPRING!!!!
Means.... never having to say you're sorry for blunting the hubby's razor having to shave your legs.
Heck, it's log the new growth forest or listen to the other half complain that the prickly spikes are giving him paper cuts in bed at night.
Boo
Hoo.
We could try for secondary year growth but then we'd probably find infestations of mountain climbers having their wicked way with the hairy spikes and goodness knows where we'd end up if word got out to the Spelunkers about uninhabited caves....
The other major news which has turned our world upside down is....The True Identity of The Stig was revealed!!!!!!
Oh Em Gee.
WTF were they thinking, letting the bloke have a life outside of the BBC tv series?!
For goodness sake, were they mad???
Have they never heard of cages and padlocks????
Any dominatrix could have given them the good oil on the various restraints that are perfectly legal!
Next they'll be telling us Mr Squiggle is a puppet!
Or that Fat Cat had to pay to have His Friends!
And bugger me behind the shelter sheds, Nigel-no-friends....
Now they're teaching the kids that native Aussie fauna can't be gay.
When will this madness end?!

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick...tick...tick

Aspie teen had no idea of time.
He can't 'sense' when time has passed while he's been reading or working on a project.
He can't look at the sky or the shadows and guess whether it's morning or afternoon, those little things around us that we pick up mostly without being told.
A friend of ours suggested an egg timer, a little $2 cheapie thing with one of those ear-piercing bell alarms that lets the whole world know you've over-boiled your eggs again.
So.
It worked for Aspie teen.
No longer did he park himself in the backyard for hours watching ants or prattle his "in a minute" when engrossed in a book/tv show/game.
We put the egg timer on his games when arguments ensued - 30 mins on the games and 1 minute less for each time he'd refuse to do something with the "In a minute" chant.
How often do we say that "In a minute" without any real intention of being literally just one minute?
To someone with no concept of what the value of a minute was this was just a throw-away comment.
Until those precious minutes started flying past on the egg timer - how often did we hear "That can't be right! I just started eating my dinner!" when we got tired of dinner being dragged out for 2 hours or "But that can't be 30 mins already!" when his gaming time was up.
Suddenly, he realised how quickly time was whooshing past without his noticing and when he's reminded of losing some of those precious minutes from his gaming time - whoosh!
It's amazing how quickly he gets a wriggle on these days!
Sure, it's not all sunshine and roses and we've had to incorporate a large-faced analogue watch for him to use (with much nagging reminding to wear it) as he's great with digital but analogue gives a more precise indication of time passing.
Look at a digital clock.
It's just numbers.
Look at an analogue clock face.
It's hands are a picture telling you how much time until the next hour.
You can count the 5 minute increments between the numbers, the value of a minute is right there staring you in the face and the movement of the hands gives you the underlying message that time does not stand still.
Aspie teen still isn't fantastic but he's better with time management, organisation and  study.

Book covers are more intricate than the dust jacket implies

People look at Aspie teen and judge him by
A) his age
and
B) his height.
Aspie teen is tall for age so he's immediately judged to be older than he actually is.
Strike one.
He can hold mature, serious conversations with others.
Strike two.
He's able to hold himself together, with manners, in formal situations (98% of the time).
Strike three.
It's difficult to explain to those who have no inkling of ASD how a child might superficially appear to be on par with his/her peers but when it comes to the long haul some can't keep up or cope, no matter how much encouragement they're given, no matter how many therapies they get, no matter how much early intervention they attend.
We have to wait for the child to mature on their own before they're able to take the next step, sometimes.
Which is why so many with ASD have an uneven ability.
Aspie teen was 12 when he began university yet he wasn't mature enough to cope with something more appropriate for his age like drama class until this year.
He started lapidary classes at age 12, learning from experienced geologists and science teachers yet he wasn't able to concentrate on swimming lessons until this year.
He started Russian language school at 12, galloping along and learning the language quickly yet he couldn't cope with dancing lessons until this year.
He'd reached a new level last year but it didn't automatically include the level he's now reached this year.
Next year he may reach another level but we'll leave that up to him to attain ;)