We're sort of still here

Baby steps, baby steps.
A few minor, teeny-tiny blow ups quickly soothed and sorted.
Simple com-mun-i-cation.
Talk, talk, talk.
Taking everything back to basics, stripping all routines right back and scrapping daily habits.
In amongst it all cute, fluffy Silkie chickens caught his eye.
Sweet, docile and doting, they have Aspie teen up and out of bed early.
Yes, up and out of bed EARLY.
We've gone, not backwards but sideways, with tasks and goals; we get his brekkie instead of him but he's up and about early.
Now, touch wood, he's up and about between 7-7.30am.
And feeding his 'babies' himself.
And cleaning up after them, sometimes without needing to be told.
Shhh, don't you dare tell him these are 'independent'-type tasks.
Been holding myself together as Dad is still in hospital and failing both physically and mentally every day.
Yes, I get that he's elderly but to suddenly 'hit the wall' like he has while doctors are left scratching their heads looking for explanations is a bit tough.
Holding my shyte together so as Aspie teen doesn't lose his.
Cos he is close to it some days; an hour is all he can cope with watching his beloved Pa staring mindlessly at the TV or simply unable to keep his eyes open long enough to put his cup of sustegan back on the table. Sometimes he forgets he has a mouthful of food/drink and he just forgets to swallow then it seeps out of his mouth or he chokes on it, aspirating some into his lungs and brewing another possible chest infection.
But the speech pathologist says there's nothing wrong with his swallow reflex so...!
Aspie teen has been marvellous, sleeping a lot after visits that are stressful which I think is his downtime way of coping.
His sense of smell went off the scale yesterday; Spring and the doors were open airing the house out but every.little.scent had him screwing his nose up.
The lavender gives him a headache as does the daphne, jasmine and lilac, while he can tolerate the freesias and gardenias in small doses.
Just as well his mother isn't big on cut flowers in the house!

Ssssssenses plus or minus the commonsense one!

As I peck this out on the keyboard the Aspie teen is off in the city to a lecture with his Dad.
I won some tickets to a talk, part of the Melbourne Writer's Festival, on White Noise in a Networked World.
Science + history + lecture + digital + networking = right up Aspie teen's alley of interests!
Of course, when I complained about the 'inland moisture event'(you and I know it better as a big bloody storm) hubby leapt to the rescue of taking him in to the lecture.
Now, Aspie teen has had increased sensory sensitivity in the past 18 months, increasing to the point that he throws his arms out wide declaring
"I'm a tree! Hug me!"
To which we are expected to give him really tight squishy hugs.
Which he returns.
And almost busts our ribs.
Anywho, he'd been banging on about getting a Snuggie for almost a year when hubby snaffled him one at a local cheapie shop (plain blue, no faux leopard print in this house!) and Aspie teen has been in 7th Heaven.
Cos he can wrap it around himself tightly.
His sense of smell is so sensitive to the point he was refusing to have showers cos he was overwhelmed by the perfume of soaps/shampoo, toothpaste, etc.
We became somewhat sensitive to his particular smell but that's another tale *snort*
Same with his hearing - he's able to partially block out everything around him while out by playing his DS Nintendo (it's saved our sanity a bajillion times) but he can hear us speaking softly from several rooms away and he's become increasingly light sensitive to the point you'd describe him as photo-phobic.
Side-tracking here... he used to be on medication that made his eyes more sensitive to UV light leading to a higher chance of developing cataracts if he didn't wear sunnies while outdoors yet the school fought us on every attempt to allow him to wear them at recess, interesting to see SunSmart Victoria is now including it as part of the sun-smart clothing!
Aspie teen has often complained about white noise distracting and irritating him to the point he has a meltdown.
Not that he can pin-point that white noise is the cause, we have to work our way back through Every.Tiny.Little.Itty.Bitty detail and it's not something that used to automatically spring to my mind.
I'm so glad I live in this techno-savvy world where we can use hand-held computer games to block out irritants, use iPhones and iPads to help kids to communicate and where we're able to identify and recognise irritants like white noise whereas 50 years ago people would have been labelled insane.

He's now home describing the lecture, talking about a room in Cambridge University where it's minus 13 decibels and so noise dampened that you can hear your blood running through your veins, hear the electrical signals of the nervous system and your digestion!
Some people become so overwhelmed they can become nauseous, pass out or have audio hallucinations.
Yeah, how abouts we don't build one at home here?!@

Olfactory survey inside my four walls

Last year I was given a giftbox of a skin cream and a bottle of perfume that carries the name of a well-known supermodel.
I've been using the skin cream and thought it was pretty good, so this morning I tried out the perfume.
Well.
The canine fur-baby thought I was the bees knees, Au de Butcher's Toilette Spray couldn't have attracted her more!
She climbed all over me, sniff-sniff-sniffing loudly, tail going like the clappers, you'd have thought I'd been dragged through a patch of roadkill or had been swimming through the offal at the abattoirs.
I managed to separate her from myself and, later, trotted off to wake Aspie teen where I was told,
"Give me a hug,"
sniff-sniff-SNIFF
Then...
"You smell funny. A nice funny smell"
Yup, dogs and Aspies are in full agreement and can recommend the perfume!

Counting blessings

I am so thankful for Aspie teen's paediatrician.
He not only knows the Spectrum inside out, is well-versed and knowledgeable but he treats his child patients as equals, talking to them instead of down to them or dismissing them altogether.
He has reassured my boy that he has nothing to be ashamed of, that what he's experiencing is not his fault and that he is a perfectly normal kid who's having a few ups and downs.
My son's Russian teacher has been marvellous, too, setting homework for him, openly acknowledging his quirks and working to his strengths to circumvent his weaknesses.
She even stated he is seen as an inspiration, a bench mark, for the other kids which she shamelessly uses lol.
He's gone back to using heavy blankets and asking for tight squishy hugs throughout the day.
He's also borrowed hubby's DJ headphones to block out sounds while listening to music or playing games.
He can hear what we're whispering 25 feet away.
Maybe I should enroll him in ASIO and he can get stuck in a squishy drain pipe ear-wigging to sensitive info?

Tactile tactics

Is it wrong that most parents of kids on the Spectrum get more fun out of the tactile goodies that the kids do?
Sure, the kids get tactile therapy from them but, mostly, all the while screaming their lungs out in protest at 'this revolting thing invading my personal space'.
Or that's what I reckon they'd say if they could use their words.