poo

all over my sister's basement....

circles

Tristan likes to put something on the floor and dance around it. One
of the bus drivers thought it might be duck duck goose he's imitating.

Well, I was sitting on the floor, so he started dancing round and
round me. and ended it by climbing in my lap and saying what sounds
like "hug you".

haircut

I think he's digging his haircut. He keeps putting his face or the
side of his head or the back of his head on my face, or my shoulder or
my lap...

course, last night, neal lightly scratched his head like he
occasionally does and tristan cried. I guess he wasn't ready for it w/
his haircut. just mommy can mess with the new do, I guess.

smiles

asked if I could take more pictures. He looked at me sideways.

asked for a hug, including clap clap and motion by holding my arms
out, palms and two fingers up and motioned to 'come here' with the two
fingers on each hand.

he looked straight at me grinned, and came over and hugged me

sooooo cute!

spinning cheese

spinning cheese
Originally uploaded by navidoll.

he's spinning a parmesan cheese shaker

mmmmm Cotton Candy

Cotton Candy
Originally uploaded by navidoll.

he just grabbed a chunk and shoved it in his mouth. He really liked the texture of it. we figured he would he has a bad habit of eating tissue.

I had a picture of him with a bigger chunk but the batteries died and didn't save it :(

I took the big chunk away from him and gave him a small piece after taking the shot. figured this was a little too much at once.

Standing on a table

HPIM0936
Originally uploaded by navidoll.

squeeee

ran towards the little guy squealing...

and then hugged him

he looked startled like he didn't know what was going on, and then
smiled. he loves hugs.

Godmom and I took all three to the aquatic center (a big outdoor pool
with 0" depth that slowly goes up to about 3 or 4 feet plus a couple
sectioned off deeper areas).

While he'll float in the bathtub if there's enough water, he's too
cautious to completely try there.

but he absolutely loved it

an he was jumping up and down and dunking himself
and he liked it when godmom tossed him in the water and caught him
just as he hit the water
and he also would walk on his hands and kick with his feet (he could
go pretty fast doing that)
and at one point he tried to copy my doggy paddle with one toe on the
bottom of the pool.

also in dunking himself cause he completely lets his arms and legs go
wild he scared both godmom at one point when he first got in an
another woman (I was making my way toward him) cause it looked like he
was falling under.

and he was smiling and happy and he loved the little falls and the
area where the water spurts up

an he was cautious on the toddler water slide.

It was so amazing watching him.

His smile lights up the room

Lily is in daycare today. so trister and Lola can have more of my
attention today. and well tristan, he's so... I don't know how to
describe it. He just, is happy and well I don't know, when I've been
just focusing on him, I feel so un-stressed. (which is a feeling I
don't feel to often lately)

Tristan and Lily

Tristan and Lily
Originally uploaded by navidoll.

Celebrate Neurodiversity

Austistic Pride Day is on Father's day.

Interesting. For us it's the first father's day after Tristan was
labeled autistic.

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.org/wiki/index.php?title=Autistic_Pride_Day

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.org/autisticprideday/

the first link explains why the date was chosen.

siblings

Tristan keeps going up to Lily and cuddling her, they'll hold hands,
or just now, he put his face gently next to hers and she reached out
and touched his face.

easy chair

tristan used to always sit in my lap and lean back on me like I was an
easy chair.

he especially liked it when I was pregnant, cause Lily would kick him.

well, he noticed lily was next to me, an not in my lap.

He then waited until Lily lifted her feet up (her feet were closest to
me an stepped between us an climbed into my lap an sat on me like I
was an easy chair.

he's since been climbing in and out of my lap and making me hug him an
tickle him.

:)

Autism ADHD, etc

Best part of the trip
Originally uploaded by Mauvis.

I've got a pic of tristan with these things and posted it. and it reminded this mom of this pic so much that she had to post it herself

This post involves comments made on the above picture and is a response to the comment above the one in which I reference this blog:

I've heard of the multi-diagnoses and misdiagnoses between the two.

So far the school system has done the primary evaluation of tristan. I need to get both of my kids evaluated further. had a bit of a bad experience with a therapist recommended by a dr we have a lot of faith in, so I'm a bit wary, I don't want to drag my kids through the number of bad therapists my husband says he went through as a child - I don't know for sure if they were bad or he just didn't like them, he has a lot of issues - My daughter's therapist treated her as a classic adhd/explosive child case and was convinced the child ruled our household when neither is true (though we are a household that negotiates and some more traditional paradigms might view that as letting the child rule) and recommended treatment that garnered a violent response from a nonviolent child - that meeting made me decide this wasn't the therapist for my daughter.

My son seems to be severely understimulated, to tell you the truth, unless it involves his head, which is primarily his ears (touch, not so much sound), and before he got the autism diagnosis, I was wondering if he didn't have an early case of adhd, that may have somehow affected him developmentally due to the early onset (complete speculation - I've never read anything of the sort). Having dealt with an adhd husband, I had noticed many similarities.

His father has been diagnosed both ADHD and bipolar disorder (another two I've heard are frequently confused with eachother, esp in children). I've been told by professionals that his older sister shows signs of both (she has a wonderful school system that has provided special ed services despite her academic excellence, that works on the areas she needs help with and she sees a social worker weekly).

He does have tantrums for no apparent reason. though we've learned it's usu related to tiredness, an inability to communicate and not getting enough attention - which are fairly normal reasons for a neurotypical 3 yr old to melt down, let alone one that's not talking yet - I started giving him something to drink or eat or putting him on my bed - a large place to lay down and family members don't go in there generally until bedtime - or laying him down near a fan or making sure I periodically look in his direction - whatever I guess appears to be the cause - and the tantrums aren't nearly as severe. there was one day I noticed him periodically watching me to see if I was paying attention and he'd start grumbling if I wasn't looking at him. He has two sisters that garner a lot of attention (esp one being an infant, and the other having her own issues) and extended family doesn't tend to interact with him a great deal (not that he sees them regularly). I've learned both my children seem to be far more intuitive than they let on and I'm sure he feels ignored.

He actually seems to like both light and heavy touch. he'll gently caress my hand against his cheek and almost never complains if I do so and he absolutely loves hugs. it's primarily the slowly developed communication, lack of social interaction with peers (he interacts up the wazoo with adults, if they pay attention, and he decides he likes them) repetative motion and severe developmental delay that seems to have given him the diagnosis. They also used an occupational therapist to evaluate him, in addition to a nurse, nutritionist, special ed teacher, social worker, and psychologist. We also noticed he ignored just about everyone who evaluated him except for the psychologist. so they didn't give him credit for eye contact (which has been discussed as overrated in this group) when he makes a ton of it, at least not really any less than the average person. The psychologist figured it may have been due to her dark hair (that happened to be a similar style to his godmother) - all of the women in his life at that time had brown hair, and the other people evaluating him had light hair. it also may have had something to do with her far more casual demeanor, and she seemed to know how to get him to interact. honestly now that I think about it, I should have found out if she takes patients or if she just works with the early on program...

coincidence?

I dropped by some stuff I forgot to send off with him to school this morning.

he was near me so I crouched on the floor held my arms out and said
"can Mommy have a hug?" His teacher said "bye Mommy" so he knew I
wasn't picking him up.

He hugged me, played with my hands for a bit, and I said "you can go
play now." and then he took off.

I've no idea if he was responding to my words, or if it was a
coincidence. but it'd be nice to think he'd been responding to my
words. I think he may have been, as he usually doesn't take off from
me like that. but he was in a large open area with plenty of room to
run around.

morning boy

Definitely think he's naturally a morning person, even though he tends
to stay up late.

day before yesterday he fell asleep in the car at 5pm. didn't wake up
till 530 am (yay for me having to get up that early :s )

yesterday, he fell asleep 730-8ish and stayed asleep till 730-745 AM

He's in the absolute best mood. and was in a pretty good mood
yesterday too. no crying fits like he occasionally has. except for at
grandma teresa's when they tried giving him orange juice or water
after drinking sunny d (read: he wanted more sugar!). a cup of milk
calmed him down though.

When he was an infant, he'd get cranky if he wasn't in bed by 8pm.
he'd wake up just enough to eat overnight, and completely wake up at
6am for a feeding and change and then let me relax until 8 or 10am (ie
he either went back to sleep or laid quietly next to me - the eldest
was never up before 10am at that time unless she had to be). a couple
nights of being out late at the inlaws, so he couldn't go to sleep at
8pm completely ruined it. but occasionally he gets back on that
schedule.

Basketball

just posting up a storm, aren't I?

forgot. the other day.

He got home from school. had fallen asleep in the car. woke up. is
extremely grumpy and cries alot when he wakes up from a nap. -- oh, he
was just checking to see if I was watching and I wasn't :( ... -- anyway.
he was crying so I took him outside, cause he likes to be outside he
ran around sometimes wanted me to pick him up, still upset. so I
finally took him out to the basketball court and sat cross legged on
the ground. he curled up in my lap and tried to get comfortable and
complained off and on... then some boys came to play basketball. He
quieted at the sound of the ball hitting the asphalt. Apparently the
sound was soothing.

contemplation

all are asleep except me and him. he's dancing around the room
(currently has an empty pop can on the floor and is dancing around
it), testing textures, talking occasionally looking at me, it's like
we're speding time but not.

My house is a mess. I want to set it up so the whole living room is a
play place for him. but I need to clean and keep clean first. I'm just
wondering what this time would be like in a more preferable
environment. right now it is awful calming. he is magical.

he never ceases to amaze

he just approached me, took my hand, placed it on his cheek and put
his nose up to mine...

a priceless moment.