Mikey / Socialization

It varies with Mikey. But Saturday, he came in, walked out to the kitchen where Grandpa and I were, and said, "Hello, Grandmother. Hello, Grandfather" before he started wandering off.

And he was responsive to questions - once we got his attention :-). 

"Mikey. MIKEY." (Eyes finally on me.) "We are having chicken for dinner. We are baking potatoes. Do you want a sweet potato, or a regular potato?"

"Sweet potato!"

"OK."

Hey, it's a step forward!!

He also was cooperative when he came back from doing chores with Grandpa and David and I were still using the computer to complete math. He asked for the computer and I said, "10 minutes."

(David protested, "10 MORE minutes??" I said, "Probably not but I want to set expectations for Mikey.")

So he went away and came back when we told him it was OK, without any protest. I love the good days.

Aunt Lori

Aunt Lori was here on a short visit (my slightly younger sister) - and David was apparently quite taken with her. She lives near Ft. Lauderdale, and sent a shirt for him for Christmas one year that he's almost worn out. He was with some friends the other day and started talking about her. His mom reminded him, "You know, she's really your GREAT aunt."
"Really?" David responded, "But she's so YOUNG!!"

Some updates ...

Mikey

I completed a contract late in June and have nothing lined up for a while! Just as well; Mikey was on summer break. Various services for the boys have been cut back, and I was able to provide a little extra help.

During the first week, Mom had some "banked" hours she was able to use on Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday, I took Mikey to Disneyland, all by myself. This is something I've attempted only a couple of times, and only for a short amount of time. It seems to get better, especially since we establish the "rules" up front. And Mikey knows the routines better.

What's really funny with Mikey is that he has exact notions of what he wants to do on any given trip. One time, he wanted the Haunted House, which we did maybe five times. And on other trips, we have gone back-and-forth between California Adventure and Disneyland.

This trip, he did not want California Adventure at all. When I asked him what he wanted, he said (authoritatively), "Splash Mountain. Pirates. Tarzan's Treehouse. Jungle Cruise." So we went back to Splash Mountain first - and it was closed. There were attendants who told us they were still "testing" the ride and it should be open by Noon. I was very apprehensive - thought Mikey might have a melt down - but he took it rather well.

Since we were in the vicinity, I convinced him to ride the Haunted Mansion. Then we did Pirates, the Treehouse, and the Jungle Cruise. It was about 10:30 a.m.

And Mikey said, "I want home, please." !!!!
"Do you want Grandma's house?"
"No; Mama's house."

Now, this was a twist ... usually, it's hard to get him to go home. And Mom had other plans, so it wasn't really a good idea to take him home quite yet. We went on Pirates again, then walked around a bit and I finally talked him into going back to Splash Mountain, and it had reopened. He loved it. (He had not been on it before.) I then asked him if he wanted to ride Winnie the Pooh - he said, "Winnie the Pooh. Then Splash Mountain." So we did.

BTW, using the Guest Assistance pass usually means going in via the Fast Pass line. There is no Fast Pass for Pirates. Mikey said he wanted to go on Pirates again, so we went back towards the Exit, which is where you go for wheelchair access. The line was all the way out to the street! which means there were probably 80 people in the special access line - I told Mikey that Pirates was "closed" for the day - that's how he understands something is not available to him.

He then wanted to go home again; I asked him if he wanted lunch; he said, "no." I then asked if he wanted lunch in the Rainforest Cafe and he said, "YES!" I am here to report that, after a brief (< 5 minutes) period of "running around," he sat at the table with me the whole time, waited for his food, ate, etc. All in all, a terrific day!

The following day, David had a karate advancement ceremony and I took Mikey to the Santa Ana Zoo, and then he asked for Aquarium of the Pacific. We did both!!

David

We have not slowed down math. In fact, if anything, it's accelerated. He completed Algebra I and is now on to Geometry. He has completed 54 pie pieces (lessons) in 3 weeks, and aced an assessment! Now, part of this is that there is a lot of "review" presented as new material, such as finding the perimeter and area of a circle. But still, that is a lot of work to do.

David is growing UP. Literally. He is as tall as my husband and outweighs him by 25 lbs. at least. He is doing very well with his home schooling. His issues are primarily social, and he's always had an unusually broad set of fears, many of which he's learned/been taught to deal with.

And he's a teen. So, between the Teen-ness and the Austism, he doesn't really think a lot about Other People. I tasked him, last weekend, with finding one thing nice to say to someone (giving examples like, "See what Nana's wearing and compliment her if it looks nice." (Nana is his other grandma.) We'll see how he did with this assignment ...

THAT word

About the time that we're ready to "retire" a toy or book, one of the boys starts playing with it. They are 12-1/2 now, and they haven't played with the letters/numbers on the fridge for a long time. I was about to retire the letters when ... Mikey started playing with them, again. He played for a while on the fridge, then went outside. A short while later, he took me by the hand to join him outside.

It had rained recently, and the ground was still damp. There, in the grass - in the mud, if you will, Mikey had spelled, "stuck." "Stuck in the mud" - that's pretty good (and pretty funny).

Then, he picked up the letters, took them to the patio table, and started an Electric Company-type word transformation set. Stuck --> Suck --> Fuck.

"Mikey," I said, calmly, "We do not use that work."

Obviously agitated, he picked up the "F." "No F!" he shouted, "F is bad!" As he removed and ran back to the fridge with the offending letter, he kept repeating the "no F" comment.

Now, I had not made a fuss about it, honestly. When we took the boys home that night, I told Mom the story. She said that Mikey's school - which is a small, private school for autistic kids - divided the kids into two groups: 1-6 and 7-12 graders. Mikey just moved to the latter group. She thinks he probably heard "that word" at school.

I suspect that, not only has he heard the word there - he has used it and been corrected.