Obsessive Compulsive

Brian lives here and he has OCD (on top of many other things).

Here are a few tell-tale signs that he rules this home. 

DVDs can not stay in the player when the TV is turned off.
However, they also can't go back into their cases.

Open doors?  Not around here. Ever.

If one switch is on, the other must be too.  They have to be in the same direction.
This one drives me nuts.  I have auditory defensiveness issues and hate having the bathroom
fan on.  Yet, he'll barge in whenever I'm using the bathroom to make sure the switches are lined up.

For some reason he doesn't like any of his bureau drawers to have knobs on them.

Just a taste of Brian's quirks.  

That's What I Needed

I had a chance to stay for an extra twenty minutes or so after dropping the boys off to school this morning.

I watched Brian on the playground for a little bit.  He likes to sequester himself to the corner of the playground where he leans against the fence and glues his eyes to a distant street across from the road.  Why?  Because there are train tracks on that road and there's always a very slim possibility he might get to see a train.

What caught my eye was two little girls in pink came over and stood next to him and were trying to converse with him.  He wasn't answering but they didn't give up and they ended up staying there next to him until the bell rang.

I sneaked inside and took the time to track down his special education teacher to see how the last two days have gone.  She's still getting to know Brian but she's definitely on top of things.  I like that she seems to be getting a good handle on his skills and is already thinking of ways to push him.

After I let her go so she could see to the rest of her students I decided to go see if I could peek into his regular ed room where he starts his mornings off at.  I wanted to be conspicuous but I really wanted to see how he was adjusting to first grade after two years of kindergarten.  

There was my little boy sitting at his table with five peers.  They each had their book boxes in front of them and they were all reading.  All of the other tables were doing the same thing.  There was barely any noise.  Brian wasn't looking around or flapping- he was sitting there reading his book to his one-on-one.  If she wasn't sitting next to him, there is no way you would've picked him out of the crowd.  

Wow, I'm so glad I got to witness those five minutes.  I just feel like it released so much of my tension and anxiety.  That's my boy.  My brilliant, sweet, full-of-potential little boy.

Not a picture from today.  But cute nonetheless. 

I Wish I Didn't Care.

Last night I was exhausted.

Yet, I was sitting on my bed with both of my boys' binders open in front of me.  You know those binders?  The ones that you keep all of the IEPs, evaluations, medical records, etc. in?  The boys actually have several binders each.  

I wanted to sleep more than anything but instead I was pouring myself into their IEPs....because yesterday was their first day of school.  And everything didn't go as planned.  And I'm tired of being so unsure and apprehensive about their school placement every single year.

I sat there and the thought crossed my mind..."I wish I didn't care".  Sometimes, I really wish I didn't.  Do you know how much easier life would be?  Yet, do you know how much crappier my kids' lives would be?

Well besides some problems with Brian's placement (it seemed as if they wanted to exclude him a bit more than I had planned, but it's fixed) and Corbin's utter dislike for his new classroom.....I guess it was a good day.  Well at least they looked good doing it, right?

Hurricane Irene Meets Brian

Hurricane Irene knocked out our power for about three hours yesterday.  Really the only damage done.

Not that big of a deal....unless you have autism.

Brian was running all around the house, trying every switch, every electronic.  Each try met with a bellowing "OH NO!!!! BROKE!!!!"  This went on for about the first hour until he finally gave up.

And try explaining to him not to flush the toilet after using it.  Yeah, that goes over REAL well with the OCD tendencies he has in the bathroom.

Thank you Central Maine Power for getting our power on before it got too dark.  Not sure what he would've done if he couldn't do the mandatory light flicking of the hallway before bedtime.

Secret Super Powers

I realized something the other day.

I make professionals working with Brian like me.  I don't know if they realize I'm doing it, but I seriously force them to become my best friend.

I'm not sure how I do it, maybe it's my secret super-power.  I always wished I could fly or be invisible, but I could settle for this.

I did it to my boys' SLP and OT.  Hence, why I had a job secured before I even graduated.  Hence, why I got our SLP to collaborate with the school SLP.

I did it to Corbin's first teacher.  Which is why when she knew Brian and I were coming to a classroom event she always made sure to provide allergen-free snacks.

I did it to Brian's first teacher.  It helped that her and her husband had been friends of my father's for a while too.  That was why she met with him several times during the summer prior to his second year.  It's why she came on her own time to his horse show.  It's why she had tears in her eyes when we finished up the year with her last year.

I did it to our special education teacher last year.  We are now seriously best friends.  We hang out all the time, call each other to complain about everything from men to NCLB, and I love her to pieces.

People like me and then Brian gets the services he needs.

Okay, now that I'm done trying to pretend it's me...

It's really this boy I have.  You can't help but love him, squeeze him, kiss those cheeks.  He is so unbelievably charming for a child that doesn't speak.  I have not met a professional that has not fallen in love with him.  Our new special education teacher has already been warned that she won't be able to help but fall in love with him.

He is so lovable.  And it's such a gift for him.

Well maybe he did get it from me (insert winky face).

Wasn't All Bad.

So on top of our trip to Funtown Splashtown, we also went camping.  I know.  I shouldn't even complain about any tantrums, right?  I just threw every single routine we had out of the window for three days....it was like I was asking for him to have a meltdown.  And then of course add in that the kid refuses to have a bowel movement away from home.  No wonder by the time we were in Funtown he was miserable.

However, now that I've had a few days to think it over.  I think it was a somewhat successful family weekend.

Low Points:

FOUR AM. NO JOKE.

• Thought we lost Brian a couple times.  Mix him having an excellent sense of direction and a distaste for communicating and we found him just going to the restrooms by himself without telling anyone on several occasions.
• The first night we camped out, he woke up at 4 am.  Him and I actually climbed into the minivan and watched movies on the iPad as to not wake up the entire campground.
• I finally released him from said minivan at 6:20 am....only about five minutes later we had one of our "neighbors" screaming "STOP!!!" from her camper.  He's loud in the morning.
• We're pretty sure he peed sometime during the night.  Sleeping bag was dry, pajamas were dry, but there was a definite scent of urine.  Still trying to figure that one out.
• The campground deciding that the outside family-movie was going to be "The Little Fockers."  We thought it was going to be The Last Airbender.  When the movie started Corbin looked at me and said, "Am I suppose to be watching this?"

High Points:

• The neighbor that we pissed off?  Well her and her boyfriend and friends were up drinking and being loud until midnight or so the night before.  So really that above bullet up there...not even a low point.  I find it HILARIOUS that we woke her up the next morning.
• Building a fire.  He really got into helping out and he was able to behave really safely around the campfire.
• Hanging out at the beach on Saturday.  Brian LOVED the waves.  It was a great morning.
• Sumo-wrestling with Corbin.
• Sneaking away with my sisters to celebrate my little sister turning 21.  Having such a great Mom that she stayed at the campground with all three of her grandchildren so we could go act as if we didn't have any responsibilities.
• Smores!!

Bwahahahaha.

Does it make me an evil mother that I can not stop laughing at my kids' expression on these rides?

I seriously didn't force them to go on them.  

Brian even asked to go on the log flume again and again.

My stomach is seriously hurting from laughing so hard.