A day in the life

Here's another post for those of you who have expressed curiosity about what it's like to live with a child with autism. We went grocery shopping at 7:30 this morning for a few reasons-1)we were totally out of real food 2)Wal-Mart is a horrible place, but is at least somewhat bearable at this early hour and 3)the girl's are somewhat bearable at this hour, having been awake since 5:30 am. I'll spare some of the boring details of the worst big box store in the world, but here's some highlights: Each girls has her own cart. I pull one (Leah's)and push the other (Hannah's). This is so Leah doesn't attack me or Hannah and so she doesn't run away, run into cars, pull stuff of shelves, and so I can control what she is holding. Anything she holds can be turned into a football with zero notice. We've had many, many rounds of thrown merchandise and food. I do a fast walk/jog, because either girl will start screaming if I stop too long. I have a specific list and I know where everything is. I make sure there is something in the cart that Leah loves (chocolate milk) so she has an incentive to behave in the store. I get a bag of pretzels and let the girls snack on them until we've finished paying. Today my shopping mistake was letting them hold a big boincy ball-it was huge and, of course, thrown immediately. The dairy guy chased after it for a while and I ditched the ball idea. I got out of the store with only one bag of yogurt missing, which someone ran out to me. Halleluia.
Leah is really struggling with trying to pedal her trike. She doesn't understand the concept of a ride on toy being made to move around. It doesn't seem to make sense that she needs to be the one to make it go, and that it's supposed to be enjoyable. I'm not sure how to teach her about this-it falls under the category of 'comes naturally to most people'. Hannah seems to get what the toys are all about, so we don't know how to connect the missing information for Leah. It's hard to teach someone something that you never learned.
Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. :)

To ruin the week, I sprouted a cold sore on my nose. It's hideous and I should be in seclusion until this horror is over. It reminds of my friend Mindy (who's awesome). One time she had a cold sore and Val Felsted thought it was food and tried to wipe it off. Apparently, cold sores were going around my work so that's probably where I got it from. My job is great, but I could do without the illnesses. Speaking of work, one of the little girls I translate for bit me really hard today.

I'm so exhausted that I just watched an hour of Jon and Kate Plus 8. It's comforting watching someone who has it harder than I do :)

This comment is for Brian-who thinks I'm a huge music nerd. The title of this post is a Beatles song, and contains the longest sounding C Major chord known in recorded music. NOw I know it's time to go to bed because I'm rambling, but I don't want to because there's a huge pile of clothes on the bed that I don't want to deal with.

Comments

Brian said…
I'll probably never completely understand why this is, but it still is the case that for some reason reading your thoughts and feelings somehow penetrates me and makes it so I just get you so much better than if I was only listening to you talk about it. (how you like my run-on now??!!!)

Again, the cold sore isn't NEARLY as bad as you're making it out to be.

Yes, you are a music nerd, but in a good way. I like it.
June 17, 2008 at 11:15 PM
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