Adorable ending to an interesting day...

April 5, 2009

Today, as we were discussing going for a drive, and where we’d

go, my youngest decided to go over and get in his brothers space. He was

grabbing my eldest DS’ arm, and “acting” like he was going to

bite him. As you can imagine, this bothered my eldest… and during THIS

split moment, he just couldn’t handle it and ended up hitting his brother

across the face. So my husband took the job of dealing with talking to our

youngest about “personal space” and make sure he was ok, and I took

eldest DS upstairs to problem solve. He’s gotten MUCH better over the

last year or so about taking a deep breath, or even saying “stop”,

despite the fact that it’s horribly forced and scripted, at least he’s

doing the right things. This time, he just couldn’t. It happens. We

resolved the situation and moved on.

So, we went for our drive. The boys had asked if we could go for

a walk by the ocean and throw some rocks. We ended up hitting a rather large rock

with our SUV, which proceeded to SCRAPE the underside of our car doing some

damage. We were fine, the car will be fine, too, but wow did that scare my poor

Aspie boy lol. He cried and cried. My husband isn’t always the best at

dealing with his seemingly “over the top” reactions to things, so I

ended up having to calm him down. Honestly, talking quietly to him, reminding

him he’s ok, and using all the “anxiety” tactics I know for

calming him is the ONLY way to get a handle on this. Within a minute, he had

calmed down and was ready for our walk

We had a lot of fun on our walk, and when we returned to the car

and informed the boys that we couldn’t drive it home (as it was making

some AWFUL noises) and would need to call someone to come and get us, and

arrange for my husband’s cousin to go pick up our car later with a tow

truck, my sweet AS boy did really well. He asked a few questions, and was

obviously a little worried, but we had a solution and he was ok with that.

After supper, it was bath time for both the boys. Youngest went

first, and then come time for eldest to get in, we went through the usual

routine of him asking me to help him get the water going (despite the fact that

his younger 5yr old brother can do this himself). He’s been shown how

to test for the water temperature, how to plug the tub, how to turn the taps

off, and at what level the water should be when he does so… but he just

doesn’t seem to have it quite yet. He’s also gotten very good at

washing his hair, after we spent a considerable amount of time showing him how,

but in the bathtub (vs. the shower), he has no idea how to wet his hair, rinse

the shampoo, etc… without getting water in his eyes, which he HATES. So I

helped here, too. About 5 minutes later, we hear a shrill scream so loud from

the bathroom, we were sure something was horribly wrong. Ha! I should know

better… there was a small bug on the towel on the floor of our bathroom

and eldest is PETRIFIED of all things insect. I truly have no idea how to help

him with this fear, and trust me, it’s totally irrational… but my

husband went in, killed the bug, got him a fresh towel, showed him there was no

bug, and I managed to talk him through his anxiety which allowed him to finish

his bath.

And despite all of that… the end of our day made it all

worth it. The cutest thing… Dora the Explorer was on the TV. Youngest had

been taken upstairs to read a story because he was WAY overtired, and starting

to misbehave. Now to remind you, eldest is 8.5yrs old. He was watching Dora

intently, and part way through looked at me and said “Mom, can I tell you

something? But this has to be OUR secret. You really can’t tell anyone

else.” I of course said “Sure sweetie, what is it?” … His

answer?

“I really like Dora, Mom. She’s so brave and adventurous

and I love that. This show is just so cool.”

LOL !! He’s so beautiful, my sweet boy.

=)

April 5, 2009

What a sweetie J I know exactly how you must have felt xxx hugs.

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of O'Brien

Sent: Monday, 6 April 2009 6:34 AM

To:

Subject: ( )

Adorable ending to an interesting day...

Today, as we were discussing going for a drive, and where

we’d go, my youngest decided to go over and get in his brothers space. He

was grabbing my eldest DS’ arm, and “acting” like he was

going to bite him. As you can imagine, this bothered my eldest… and

during THIS split moment, he just couldn’t handle it and ended up hitting

his brother across the face. So my husband took the job of dealing with talking

to our youngest about “personal space” and make sure he was ok, and

I took eldest DS upstairs to problem solve. He’s gotten MUCH better over

the last year or so about taking a deep breath, or even saying

“stop”, despite the fact that it’s horribly forced and

scripted, at least he’s doing the right things. This time, he just

couldn’t. It happens. We resolved the situation and moved on.

So, we went for our drive. The boys had asked if we could go for

a walk by the ocean and throw some rocks. We ended up hitting a rather large

rock with our SUV, which proceeded to SCRAPE the underside of our car doing

some damage. We were fine, the car will be fine, too, but wow did that scare my

poor Aspie boy lol. He cried and cried. My husband isn’t always the best

at dealing with his seemingly “over the top” reactions to things,

so I ended up having to calm him down. Honestly, talking quietly to him,

reminding him he’s ok, and using all the “anxiety” tactics I

know for calming him is the ONLY way to get a handle on this. Within a minute,

he had calmed down and was ready for our walk