Popcorn!

So popcorn is the favorite of all snacks for Andrew. He loves to ask for it,and more than that, he loves to help make it. We buy the mini bags, and pop them in the microwave. Andrew has entirely mastered this concept. It goes something like this:

Andrew asks for popcorn
I tell him to open the microwave (and get down the bag from a high shelf)
Andrew opens the microwave while I open the bag
Andrew puts it in, the proper side up as long as I don't flatten it too much.
Andrew closes the mirowave and says "0" "1" "2" "0" "Start" which translates to the cook button, the 1, the 2, the 0 and the start button. My how we love that the mini bags cook up in less than a minute and a half.
Andrew then stands there and counts down from 20 to 0, then from 59 to 0 and squeels when the microwave goes off.
I open the microwave and pour the popcorn into a large bowl and give Andrew a small bowl of it
Andrew says "Thank you" and off he goes.

This is a very set process at our house, and one of Andrew's favorites. No one's allowed to babysit Andrew until they understand this process . . . . hehe

What is Today?

Andrew, in case it isn't obvious, is fascinated with letters and numbers. Well the other night Andrew started playing with his dry erase board (which he loves) and as I watched he was spelling out something pretty familiar. Andrew doesn't write in a line yet, but he can write all of his letters, and what he wrote was MONDAY. Well I thought that was pretty impressive, so we cheered and talked about it. He also wrote a 4, which I didn't initially connect to the Monday.

However, a few minutes later, here he goes writing MAY and 2006(?). Unfortuantely for Andrew, the 6 turned out to be a bit hard for him (we're still working on numbers) and while he said "2" "0" "0" "6", what he actually wrote was 2009. Then he looked at it, and said 2009 and seemed happy with that.

So I looked, and May 4 of this year is not a Monday, but I was ok with that. He has the concept of days of the week tying to months and days of the year, even if he doesn't have a good memory for what day of the month Monday was.

However, I just had to know (because I'm obsessive this way) so I checked and sure enough, May 4 of 2009 is a Monday! Is that bizarre and ironic, or what? :)

It should be noted that the following night Andrew wrote May 5 2006 and got the 6 right. :) Guess his internal clock is a week or two behind. :)

He's also been attempting to write Wednesday, and he currently spells it "WESDAY". Gotta admit, for 4 that's pretty good!!

No thanks

So one of the fascinating things about children with autism is that they don't always pick things up from their environment well. That is a portion of the reason why they don't often speak, because they don't pick up the words from just listening to them. Therapies can help with this, but it's not always a bad thing. Case in point.

Andrew didn't really have a word for no, because he never picked one up or understood it. So the school spent time teaching Andrew how to say "yes" and "no thanks" depending on if he wanted an item or not. But imagine if every time you meant to say no, what you said was "no thanks". This is what Andrew does. :)

"Andrew, it's time to go to bed"
"No thanks"

"Andrew, let's be all done at the park"
"No thanks"

"Andrew, don't you think it's time to put your toys away?"
"No thanks"

Even when he is upset and trying to say an emphatic NO, what comes out is "NO THANKS". It's so entirely sweet. And imagine how upset he gets after giving us a very polite "no thanks" when he has to do said activity anyway. :)