I like this layout. I promise I won’t change it for at least a year.
Happy Birthday To Us
My father, father of five, grandfather of eighteen, great-grandfather of two, is 83 years old today. Wow! Way to go Dad!
Beatrice Anna was two, on the 22nd of February.
And tomorrow I shall be 34.
We all got together yesterday, along with many other family members, and had a party! It was Leap Day and seemed like a good time to have one. In years past, we had three generation birthday parties on Leap Day as well, but with a different February representative: my father’s mother, ‘Babe’, was born on February 28th.
Anyway, continuing in the grand tradition, we went to Red Lobster last night. We don’t go out to eat, ever, so it was an even bigger deal. Bede and Trixie were each given a man-to-man defense and the other kids were dealt with on a zone basis. It went well! I can sort of even remember what my food tasted like. And Gilbert and Faith both wanted broccoli instead of french fries, which I found amusing. Maybe because they get more french fries than broccoli at home, and so it seemed a treat? WHo can say.
Bede did very well until the people behind us sang Happy Birthday (to one of their party) and ate cake. He wanted their cake. “Want see cake? Okay, I getchoo CAAAKE!!” After it became apparent to him that he wasn’t going to get their cake, he switched tack to tearfully pleading “Want see let’s-go? Want see backyard?”
We left then, wondering, backyard? Huh?
Turns out he meant the parking lot, which was enclosed by stockade fencing.
Because he’s autistic and you know, they don’t notice details in their surroundings because they’re in their own little world. Yeah. And they can’t communicate and they’re like “retards or something”.
Yeeeah. That’s it. Oh wait, that’s not it. At all.
baby surprise and other startlements
Gloria models her Baby Surprise Jacket, made by Trishy.
This photo is from last week, when I went to go get out of jury duty. In Oklahoma you can call in and get excused if you’re over 70. Everyone else, no dice.
So I schlepped myself and G-Lo to the courthouse. (Well, my mom schlepped us actually, so we wouldn’t have to walk from a far parking place. My mom rocks!) Oklahoma has a great law exempting breastfeeding mothers from jury duty at their request, so I wasn’t worried, but still, what a pain. I got out of it but I have to go back in June to tell them, guess what, I’m breastfeeding. Duh. I think next time I’m going with a doctor’s note and WHO guidelines saying breastfeeding should continue through the first two years at minimum. Oh and a copy of the actual LAW because the judge seemingly hadn’t ever heard of it.
Here’s where I won’t let this devolve into a rant about that. ARGH.
just can’t help myself
Hey Gloria, guess what?
Chicken butt!
Ha! I slay me.
autism and neurodiversity in WIRED mag
Excellent article in WIRED on autism, intelligence and neurodiversity. Much better than the Brain, Child essay that was so skewed to the cureseeker perspective. Highly recommend!
a summation
Boy it’s been busy here. Not in the accomplishing big things sort of way, but in the constantly putting out small fires way. Whew.
In the last few days, Trixie turned 2. What an amazing thing that is. She’s so cute. If you haven’t read the story of her very exciting entrance into the world two years ago, please go read it. It’s entirely un-squicky too, no blood, I promise. She’ll be fêted properly on Friday, when she, my father (March 1) and I (March 2) will have a big ol Leap Day Birthdays Party. Whee!
Bede has been Mr. Sensory Seeker for the last week or so, which usually indicates that he’ll be making a huge leap in language, and he did. He correctly filled out some of the ‘tests’ in this book (like this one, only more complex) totally on his own. I had given him the book and said “Here! Fun! Words!” but no directions. He read the directions and filled out the tests, which I only discovered when I looked at it later. Wow.
Faith has been keeping a journal, which she let me read yesterday. I don’t know what I was expecting but it says things like “Today I held Gloria and she smiled at me! With Joy! She is so soft and I love her so much!” I’m still cleaning the spot where I melted right into the floor. Sigh.
Gilbert is marginally less whine-prone, for which we all are grateful. He enjoins us throughout the day to play fairy-tale games with him, mostly Jack and the Beanstalk and The Tortoise and the Hare. Mostly that means running around and pretending to sleep, for either tale. I’m usually the Giant or the Tortoise.
Abby has been on a crafting binge and has been writing how-to books. When she finishes I’ll transcribe them so you can learn from her technique. Topics include making tissue paper flowers, various peanut butter based treats, and sock dolls.
Someone with improper security clearance is in the bathroom. I must fly!
a month of Gloria
Gloria is one month old today.
lost and found
OK, two Bede and language posts in a row, but this one’s priceless.
We were playing with the puzzle set Hala gave him for Christmas (his favorite toy) and we couldn’t find a “V”. We had looked pretty thoroughly and I said “Well buddy, it’s nowhere to be found.”
Bede responded with “404 Error File Not Found!”
Me myself and I
So Bede has the typical gestalt language acquisition traits of the autist. He asks for juice or cookies or DVDs by asking us if we’d like them. “Want see apple juice?” and when we say “Do you want some apple juice?” he says “OK! I get you some apple juice!” He says “Bye Bede!” when he says goodbye. Etc.
Today he used I to refer to himself, in a novel phrase: he said, to me as we cuddled, “I’m a cutie!”
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
Autism is my valentine
If you mosey over to DonorsChoose, you can search for “autism” and get an immediate good feeling by giving a very under-resourced teacher a little help with his or her autism classroom.
You’d drop $25 or so on a box of candy or a bouquet of flowers. Why not make a more lasting impression?
Faith and Bede
technicolor baby!
Of Adam, language and communication
Adam is a little boy who reminds me very much of Bede. He’s about a year older than Bede, and he’s a hyperlexic autist too.
Adam’s mother, Estee, founded the Autism Acceptance Project. Today, her blog, the Joy of Autism, has a video post entitled ‘Adam Speaks.’ Adam is minimally verbal in terms of his spoken language, but all the years of soaking in text have come to fruition quite spectacularly recently, as you can see from the video.
As always, not being able to speak is not the same as not having anything to say. Mazel tov, Adam and Estee.
I knew this would happen
I went to the new yarn store with my mom yesterday. It’s lovely, and right next door to The Red Cup.
(As an aside here, Sean and I always say “Darn Red Cup, anyway!” due to their very odd hours. They’re never open when we go there. Which is, admittedly, not often at all these days. But I digress.)
So anyway, the yarn store. I didn’t buy any yarn, but I did buy an Addi Natura. I have resisted these needles for years due to the price – if I liked them I’d be looking at considerable expense.
I love it.
Did I mention they cost twice as much as the Clover needles I’ve been using? Of course they do. Argh.
new look
Blog’ll be getting a new look. Don’t get attached, I might switch it on you again.
Sleep it is a gentle thing
A new study has confirmed what the Gleeson family already knows: melatonin helps autistic kids sleep.
The study is the largest of its kind, looking at the medical records of 107 children with autism, ages 2-18, who had tried varying dosages of melatonin for insomnia. Twenty-five percent of parents reported they no longer had sleep concerns after using melatonin, 60 percent of parents reported the sleep problems had improved, 13 percent still had major concerns and only 1 percent (one child) had worse symptoms. Only three of the 107 children studied reported mild side effects.
We’re in the 25% camp. Bede, who will be five next month, takes half of a 1mg tablet of melatonin every night and has since July of 2007 and I can say it has literally changed our lives. He used to be awake until 2AM or later four to five nights out of the week, still rising for the day around 8, with no nap. Now we give him his melatonin around 10:45PM and he is asleep by 11. Sean is the bedtime guy around here and it was like to killing him. No more!
finger-flick to Autism Vox
Dong ma?
So Sean and I are Browncoats. Sean would never say he was, he’d say “I enjoyed the canceled television series Firefly” or something like that. But me? I’m a Browncoat and proud.
I found this site tonight which has translations of all the Chinese phrases that are liberally sprinkled throughout the series. For a geek like me it’s pretty addictive!
I laughed til I cried
The Hawaii Chair on ‘Ellen’
Blurry, but oh so cute
A 2 week old Gloria.
‘Disorder, or Identity’ redux
There’s some pretty hefty critiques of that article I posted. I’d love to write my own but I can’t focus on it long enough to do so. So I’ll take advantage of the wonder of the hyperlink and just link to some (I’ll be editing this post as I get more):
Here’s a bit in the comments on the original post.
Here’s Amanda’s post on equality and extremes.
Disorder, or Identity?
An interesting article on finding a happy medium between neurodiversity and disorder in Brain, Child magazine. Really enjoyed it.
I scream, you scream…
We all scream for ice cream! Ice Cream for Breakfast Day was again a big hit.
It was a yummy morning for the Gleesons. Sadly I have no photographic record as both of my hands were in use holding Gloria (who prefers her ice cream un-iced and straight from the tap) and scarfing up my own eponymous meal.
In other news nothing much is happening beyond tending to the six. My friend Melissa came over on Thursday and swept my dining room and living room for me, which was WONDERFUL. I am able to keep up with the diapers and the other basic hygiene of the out-of-diapers crowd and well, that’s it. Housework is not even on the freaking stove, let alone the back burner. So it was so amazing to be able to walk around (for a few hours at least) on a crumb-free floor with all the laundry tamed too.
Gilbert is driving me up the wall with whiiiiiiiiiining. Everything he says is whined. Argh. Please pray for us. So far I have not said “Shut the f*** up do you hear me? You are melting my brain! STOOOOP IIIIIT!!!!” and I think I should get major points for that. Three year olds. I tell you. It will get better, it will get better, it will get better.
Oh, Faith and Abby want me to share their current favorite Internet activity: making Zimmer Twins movies.It’s pretty fun!
growth spurt!
Gloria has apparently been reading up on newborn development as she is right on track for the first 7-10 day old growth spurt. Her latch and my nipple sensitivity have improved markedly in the last 48 hours – she still clicks but about half as much. Last night I put a premium prefold on her because she flooded the infant size the night before. I think I can safely say she is getting plenty to eat!
Oh she’s rolled over twice from back to stomach. Crazy!
Reminder: Ice Cream For Breakfast Day is this Saturday!
So don’t forget! Sean laid in our supplies today.
The rules are simple:
1) Eat ice cream
2) for breakfast
3) on the first Saturday in February.
ICFBD 2008 is on February 2nd. Spread the word!
tongue tie update
So I kept notes on the clickity girl. She needed relatching less and less over the last few days for pain, but still had the same amount of clicking. The air swallowing is getting a little better, but not consistently.
At this time, I’m not going to consult a doctor. I found out without a referral we would pay out of pocket, and we have our first appointment with the family practice assigned to us by the state (we have state insurance) on Feb. 13th. Can’t get them to see us any sooner, but it’s okay. I’ll ask for a referral then, unless it gets awful between then and now.
My major concern is of course how much Gloria is eating. As long as she’s growing, sleeping well, and going through lots of wet and messy diapers (she is) my fears are assuaged. I also worry about her latch affecting my milk supply and/or damaging my nipples – if I can’t feed her because of this that’s obviously a big problem. So far we are only dealing with minor pain on my part, no actual injury. I’m used to pain.
So, as it stands we will continue to do what we’re doin’.
She sleeps well at night, which makes everything easier. Wakes up about 3-4 times, nurses for a bit, gets burped, and we go back to sleep. I have had much more trying newborns than her, sleep-wise.
All is going as well as it can, which is pretty good, you know?
“The Business of Being Born” in Oklahoma!
Ricki Lake’s documentary, “The Business of Being Born” will be shown at Circle Cinema in Tulsa, Oklahoma on February 17, 19, and 21.
I probably can’t make it – it would mean being gone from my home for far too many hours – but I know many locals who would love to go. If I hear of an OKC to Tulsa roadtrip I’ll edit this post and give details.
SleepyKitten
Many of you know that several years back, my mother made and sold cloth diapers called SleepyKats.
Here I present the SleepyKitten!
With gussets!
Diaper modeling is hard work.
update on the tongue tie
I spoke to a midwife-recommended lactation consultant this morning about Gloria’s tongue tie. She had a number of suggestions and they seem to be helping. She thinks that Gloria’s tie will resolve over time, and with careful management it doesn’t need clipping. So that was good to hear. I’ll talk to her again in the morning after a day of note-taking on the number of relatches neccessary per nursing session to avoid the click and airswallow.
I also have the number for a local doctor who knows how to clip the frenulum. I’m going to call him on Monday and schedule an exam. Thanks to CBE Hyphen for finding the info for me. edit: another doctor now, too! yay!
The pain isn’t horrible because I’m able to get her in different positions to avoid the gum rub on the same spot each time, and also because her tongue just reaches over her gum line, it just is uncomfy for her so she retracts as soon as she gets tired, or has to coordinate suck-swallow-breathe. It’s a significant discomfort but manageable at this point.
I’m not comfortable with the idea of clipping it myself. For instance, I only trim fingernails when the child in question is sound asleep because I nicked Faith once and, well, that was enough. So, yeah, no surgical procedures, no matter how minor, performed by me on squiggly little newborns and infants.
She’s waking! No time to proofread, off to lather-rinse-repeat.
the last link
Gloria’s bellybutton made its appearance this evening. I think this is the earliest we’ve ever had that happen, and it’s also the first time I did nothing more than keep the umbilical cord clean and dry, no alcohol or any other substances applied.
I had read that you don’t need to use alcohol, that the use of alcohol was not evidence based, and in fact had been shown in a reputable 1998 study to cause the cord stump to stay on on average two days longer than if nothing was applied.
But it gets all gloopy. And, honestly, stinky. So I always caved in, before, and used alcohol.
But this time, I held firm, weathered the smelly day (it’s only bad for a day, really, and not that horrible) and lo and behold – a perfect little belly button has emerged after only five days.
First bath tomorrow. I love newborn baths.
American Academy of Pediatrics section on breastfeeding and tongue tie
Great information here. Gloria is Type 3, I think. She’s sleeping right now. I’ll check later.