Sooo ready to go back to school

Andrew loves school. Actually, I think that's an understatement. Summer has been very hard on him, because he doen't get the bus, his classroom, or the routine that happens in his classroom. He also asks for recess, and apparently playing in the yard just isn't the same (though swimming comes close).

Our district in Phoenix only actually gets about 8 weeks off from school, which works out marvelously for Andrew. He is so ready to go back. We bought his uniform a few weeks ago, which he also loves (great idea, uniforms for a child who would happily wear the same outfit for weeks at a time). This prompted in him a reminder that school is close, and he has been excited for it sense.

School starts on Monday, which would be the 4th of August. This week we've been talking about it, preparing Andrew for it. He doesn't have a great concept of time, so anything more than a week out for preparation is just too much. Apparently, as we learned yesterday, so is 5 days.

We told him that he had school in 5 more "pajama times". For Andrew, this is a clear concept, because pajama time happens once a day, and it works for us. So Wednesday night, Andrew tells us "pajama time, then school!". We remind him that it's 5 pajama times, and he repeats that back to us. (Aside: Andrew is a mimic, so repeating doesn't mean he heard what we said.) Thursday morning, he's up crazily early, and wants to put his "school shorts" on. We remind him that there are 4 more pajama times until school, but he still wants to put them on, so we go for it. (By we, I mean Kasey, because I'm at work here) On go the school shorts, the school shirt, and Andrew goes in search of his backpack. Now Kasey has to point out that there is no school today, and from what I'm told, Andrew had the saddest, most dejected look imaginable on his face. Kasey suggested Andrew change clothes, which he did, but he just moped around most of the morning, trying to find something to do now that he couldn't go to school.

Thank heavens there are only 3 pajama times left until school. :)

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. :)

"Go Andrew"

Our lives are all about praise. We praise just about everything Andrew does. Andrew asks for something with words, we cheer when we give it to him. Andrew finds a way to do something he wants, we praise him for it. We are always cheering at our house, it's really a lot of fun.

One of the things I do for Andrew when he is particularly verbal or patient is my "go Andrew" cheer. I pump my arms above my head, bounce on my heels and say "Go Andrew. Go Andrew, Go, go, go Andrew go". I'm sure it has to be hilarious to watch, and Andrew just eats it up. He grins and laughs, and likes to bend down and watch my toes go up and down while I do this cheer.

Well last night he earned a "go Andrew" cheer. So once I'm done, I hear his little voice mimicing mine, saying "go Andrew, go Andrew, go go go Andrew go". It was soooo adorable. :) This morning he did it a few more times. This is obviously going to become a frequent cheer at my house . . . . hehe. :)

Makeshift Slide

So Andrew loves to slide. We're not talking like here, or even enjoys tremendously. We're talking LOVES!! I have a chair, a media chair. It's one of those that is really low to the floor, looks slightly like a banana from the side, and has a place to plug things in so the sound is surrounding you. There's a speaker in the back of it, and one on each side near the top. This thing is made for movies and console games.

So anyway, one day I was cleaning out the living room closet, and as this sits in front of the closet I chose to just flip it over to give me more room to clean. Andrew noticed that when flipped over, it looks just precisely like a small children's slide (if you discount the big speaker in the "slide" portion of it). So he used it a few times as a slide, and I didn't mind really. I don't plug much into it, so I'm not so concerned about the speakers anyway.

Well now it's become Andrew's new "slide". Just this morning he informed me "I want slide" while pointing at it. Being the easygoing mom I am, I promptly turned it over and let Andrew slide. :) Probably the most expensive household slide in existance, but hey, he's a happy child. :)