The Computer

Andrew's a computer nut. He has pretty much mastered the trackball (not that I'm entirely thrilled about that, but he has a good time :)). He is also fascinated by computer games. This picture is Andrew at the computer and mom scrambling for the camera. :) I found it and had to convince him that he really DID want to continue to sit there and put his hand back on the mouse so I could take this picture. One of the things he loves more than the computer would be my digital camera. :)

The perfect bunny

Well it's Easter. And Easter is great, but when you have a child who isn't into sweets Easter isn't quite as much fun as it could be. He does like M&M's, so we filled Easter eggs with those, goldfish, and pretzels. That was fun enough, and he found and has since emptied and eaten all dozen eggs.

Then I got a call from my grandmother, telling me she had an Easter Bunny for Andrew. Now I shouldn't have doubted, but I did. I thought surely she must realize that he won't eat an Easter Bunny, that's just not something he's into. I doubt he would even be happy to see one.

So we went over to pick it up, and to see my grandma, her husband, and his sister (who were playing cards). We got there, and grandma brougth out the PERFECT Easter Bunny (as I said, I shoudln't have doubted). He's not chocolate at all, but fuzzy, furry, soft and white. Oh yeah, he's also almost 3 feet tall!

He loves it, it was a hit. :) Grandma's really are wonderful. :)

OK Two

I've already mentioned that Andrew is essentially nonverbal. But I heard an adorable two words the other night that I just had to share. :)

We were coming home from the store, and Kasey was reaching back and tickling Andrew as we pulled up to the house. I laughed and said "OK you two" and heard a tiny little voice mimic back at me "OK Two". I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't get out of the car. He hasn't repeated it, but I still get a great laugh out of it. You probably had to be there, but since I was, I wanted to share. :)

Bathtime

Andrew doesn't like being naked (which is a blessing, as many Autistic children have issues with wearing clothing). The only time he likes to take his clothes off other than to change them is bathtime!

However, getting Andrew to understand it's bathtime can be challenging. I can tell him it's bathtime, tell him it's time to get in the water, all sorts of things. In the end, I just ask him to come with me, and take his hand and lead him to the bathroom door. But the moment he realizes that the towels are on the floor (easier than policing every splash) his eyes light up and he proceeds to strip.

Andrew will stay in the bathtup until I make him get out, he just absolutely loves it! It's one of his very favorite activities. Not sure yet whether it winds him up or calms him down. :)

The most hilarious part though is after a bath. Andrew wants a towel wrapped tightly around him (he's not cold, he just likes to have that pressure) so getting him dressed is an amusement. :) And he hates to have his head touched, so we've made a game out of it. I attack his head with the towel and he giggles like mad!!

It's great fun, and it gets his hair dry. :)

This is Andrew

Well it's been requested, and since I haven't mastered editing the template yet (ok, so being lazy) I'll just post the picture in a blog entry. :)

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FBI Warning!

Warning is Andrew's favorite word. I mean that in all seriousness. His favorite part of every movie is when the FBI Warning screen comes up, and he spells, without problem and before it can disappear, W A R N I N G. He just loves it. I think that's why he likes DVD's so much, it's easy to get back to that warning screen.

However, with a VCR tape, it's a bit harder. So we invested in one of those VHS rewinder thingies (yeah, that's the technical term, I'm certain). Invest is a bit much, it cost 11.95. Anyway, he LOVES it! When his movie won't start at the beginning, we just put it in the rewinder, he gets to listen to it make noise, and then it pops up! It's like those jack in the boxes that I had when I was his age, but it actually serves another purpose! Not to mention, he giggles madly and runs to find another movie to put in the rewinder. We've got the most rewound tapes in town, I'm certain.

Lets go to the movies!

People always ask about Andrew's fine motor skills. I guess some autistic children have motor skill problems. Andrew is not one of them. Andrew is sooooo technically minded, it's scary.

First off, Andrew can run a VCR, without any problem. He runs it entirely without a remote control, from putting in movies to rewinding them to changing channels. But then, VCR's are, pardon the pun, child's play. Andrew has mastered the DVD player.

He knows which button turns it on, how to eject the disc holder, how to close it (indicentally he's also figured out that if he turns the power off and back on, the disc holder will close itself when it's turned back on. I didn't know that!). He can also play the DVD, and knows when each DVD gets to the menu screen that he needs to push the play button again to get it to continue on. Remember now, this is all without benefit of the remote control.

Clue!!

First off, I should tell you that Andrew doesn't talk . . . I may have already mentioned that. He has a vocabulary of less than a dozen words, and many of them exist but not in the proper context. He's getting better, but we're talking tremendously limited here. Most of his words are repetition words. An example is "Andrew, get your shoes" and he says "shoes", but if you point to his shoes and ask him what those are, he just looks confused and walks away.

Now to the fun part! At daycare apparently they watch "Blues Clues". I had no idea about this until the day after Andrew's first meeting with the Special Ed Department at the school. Andrew found a Blues Clues book, and pointed at the little blue "clue" up in the corner and announced (to no one in particular) "Clue!". And on he went with what he was doing. This in and of itself surprised me.

But the school here in town has for its mascot a Tiger. And because of that, all over town you can find evidence of this in the orange and black paw prints that are scattered throughout, especially at the school. So we were leaving the school that afternoon and my son was gleefully walking down the sidewalk toward the car, going from paw print to paw print. The paw prints were facing into the school, so he would reach each pawprint and run to the far side of it, look at it with a huge smile on his face and announce in a bright, happy voice "CLUE!". Then he was off to find the next one. Needless to say, getting to the car was not only easy, it was sheer enjoyment for Andrew.

I think he's going to like the school!

You'll be in my Heart

Do you know this song? It's from the Disney movie Tarzan, the one that the "mom" gorilla sings to Tarzan shortly after she finds him and while all the other gorillas are giving "mom" dirty looks for bringing a human into their midst. (yes, I watch and love disney movies :))

Well this is Andrew's song. It's his song in the traditional way that I've sang it to him since he was days old, and he loves to hear it. It's also his song in that it's the ONLY song he will let me sing to him. :) Anything else I try to sing gets really nasty noises from my little man. hehe

This song has a tremendous calming effect on Andrew. It can stop a tantrum, calm a squirmy child in bed, and in general settles him down immensely. He stops what he's doing to look at me, to watch me (sometimes) and to just relax into the song. So I suppose this isn't just Andrew's song, this is Andrew and I's song. That is as comforting to me as the song is to Andrew.

Dollhouses

Andrew is completely fascinated with doll houses. It's ironic, since he doesn't really like "dolls" that much, at least not the ones that fit into the doll houses he loves.

He has army forts, and fortresses, and all sorts of dark imposing towers that small action figures can fit into. But that's not where Andrew likes to play. Andrew loves to play with the pretty, intricate, pink and purple doll houses and castles. That's not the funny part though. The funny part is that he uses them to house his army men, and to drive his matchbox cars through the doors and windows. :)

Nothing like seeing an army man in green camo peaking out from behind the stenciled lace curtains of the purple and pink castle. :)

"OK"

Of course you can't discuss bye without discussing ok, because that's his newest thing. It's no wonder really. Whenever he's upset, all he hears is "it's ok" or "ok, time to go" or when putting on his coat "ok, next arm" or "ok, all done". This word has to be totally ingrained in his head. :)

So now he uses it in two ways. He uses it when he's upset, in an interesting attempt to calm himself. His little voice with lots of breaths saying "ok, ok" like he wants to tell himself he's ok.

But he also uses it when everything really IS "ok" for him. You tuck in his blanket when he's laying on the couch, "ok". Or give him what he wants and get "ok". And lately he has been using that at bedtime rather than "bye". But mom's persistant, so I always follow his "ok" with "bye" on my part. We go back and forth three or four times and then he finally says "bye" to me, I smile, tell him thank you, and head out to let him sleep.

And go figure if the sweetheart didn't tell me the other night "ank you" as I'm closing the door. :)

"Bye"

OK, I remembered another one. It's kind of ironic, I know there are tons of these but when I sit to write them down they just are gone. :)

Andrew has pretty much mastered the word bye. But in Andrew's world it means something like (paraphrasing of course because he doesn't have enough words to explain this) "I'm done with you, so go away". He says it to people when he wants them to leave, and most amusingly, to us when we put him to bed.

He gets tucked in, with all the things he needs for bed, and then a kiss on the cheek and a hug. He looks up with those bright blue eyes, and says clear as day "Bye." At that point, anything said following that gets "Bye." repeated very firmly and distinctly. :) Now it should be noted that he doesn't generally intend to go to sleep, he just wants everyone out of his room so he can get down and play before he gets put back to bed. :)

Tickling Enjoyment

Andrew loves to be tickled. Now he likes the kind where I climb my fingers up his back and would give most people goosebumps, but that's not the kind of tickling I'm talking about.

Andrew loves to be tickled hard on his tummy and laugh so hard he can hardly breathe. He laughs and giggles and squirms and completely enjoys himself. How do I know Andrew loves this? That's the part of this that it funny!

When you (you being the people he lets touch him :)) stop tickling Andrew, he lifts up his shirt, takes your hand and puts it back on his stomach, and then starts to giggle. He anticipates you starting to tickle him again, and he will do that over and over again until you explain to him that you're done (at which time he's very very ticked!).

His face when you tickle him is the most completely joyful face that you will ever see.

The Beginning

Well this is the first entry in my blog about the things Andrew does that make everyone (well at least me) smile. I guess I'll use this blog to give you all (whoever reads this) some history about Andrew.

Andrew turned 3 in November of 2004. He's essentially nonverbal. That doesn't mean he can't communicate what he wants, just that he doesn't do it with words. But because he was nonverbal at 3, we were referred to a speech and hearing clinic. They ended up being the second place in a week to use the word Autism in association with my little angel. The first was at a visit to the doctor because he had a cold.

So anyway, it's March and we're now well on the road to a diagnosis (did you know that there's at least a 3 month waiting list for diagnostics relating to Autism?). A good friend (hi Heather) suggested that I needed a place to keep the things Andrew does that make me smile. There are a lot of reasons for stress right now, a lot of reasons to feel sad, sorry for myself and Andrew. But there are also MANY reasons to smile, and that's what this is all about.

From here on out, this will be the place for the things Andrew does that make us happy, that make us laugh, that make him so easy for everyone he meets to fall in love with him. I'll have a lot of posts to begin with as I rack my brain for all the things I've shared with people, and then it will probably taper off to just new stuff. It won't interest the world, but that's not the goal. Some people will be interested, and they are more than welcome to read, and comment.

We all need to remember our reasons to smile. Now you all get to meet mine. :)