Category Archives: Holiday

November 30, 2010

Gingerbread House

By Bobbie

We are still waiting for the contract for the service dog to come, we are trying to brainstorm some fundraising ideas we can use once we are able to start that leg of this little journey.  If you have any great ideas, pass them our way.

Sunday night we made our annual Gingerbread House.  Every year my family makes them, and we have quite a few rules.  The icing can only be white, it must all be edible, etc.  This year I tried all night to get Deeds to help me decorate the house.  I thought he would get a big kick out of the candy.  Instead the conversation went like this:

Mommy: “JD want to help mommy decorate the gingerbread house?”

JD: “No.”

10 minutes later

Mommy: “Deeds, what should we do next?”

JD: “Play iPod!”

Needless to say he wasn’t much help.  At the end of the night he did help add a few last-minute touches, and so now he is convinced it is all his and no one else should get near it.  I’ve had to put it up pretty high so he can’t get to it and so it’s not really being enjoyed at our house since the only one tall enough to see it is Daddy.  We should find a neighbor to give it too so someone can enjoy it.  :-)

2 comments | posted in Autism, Fund Raising, Holiday

November 24, 2010

Our Thanksgiving Feast

By Bobbie

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  It’s been a rough one for us but blessings still seem to find us around each corner.  We have really learned not to take anything for granted.

Playing the iPod with his cousin watching the fun.

We had our family dinner a day early so that we could all be together.  While trying to give everyone an update on JD’s new diagnosis and the Service Dog info Deeds decided he wanted me to stop talking.  He came over to me and told me just that “Stop talking, mom stop talking.”

JD got a bit overstimulated around dinner time so we popped out the iPod and he was an angel from there on out.  Gwen, his little sister, turns one tomorrow so we had ice cream cake (ended up just being ice cream) and opened presents for her.  She was pretty stoic about the whole ordeal.  I think I’ll get her a cupcake or something tomorrow so she can actually dig in and we can get some messy photo’s.

Gwen's Birthday Cake

We learned tonight that JD loves Jell-o, that he is becoming even more concerned about having his food touching other food on the plate and he will not touch turkey with a 10 foot pole.  :-)   He is also developing an issue with what directions we turn when we are driving.  It started on a particular street and now he is doing it at a few others.  If you pass somewhere he thinks you should have turned, or turn the opposite direction that where he wants you to he will melt down in the back of the car.  Screaming until you either make it to your destination or flip around and do what he wants.  It’s not my favorite quirk since we usually have to just hear him scream until we reach wherever it is that we were headed.

Checking out a cousin's Nintendo DS

Leave a comment | posted in Autism, Food, Holiday, Quirks

November 2, 2010

Ya Yights!

By Bobbie

Last year around the holidays JD had a very limited vocabulary.  It was pretty basic but when the Christmas lights started to show up around the neighborhood he got so excited.  He has always adored and been fixated with lights.  It doesn’t matter if they are big or small, close enough to touch or far away, he loves them.  I started to say to him “Deeds, see the lights?  They are pretty pretty.”  Soon JD was uttering his first phrase.

“Ya yights, ya yights!  ohhhh priddy priddy!”

Granted now I realize that the Echolalia played a big part in him repeating the phrase (over and over) but it was still a breakthrough for us.  I am reminded of this because Christmas lights are starting to pop up already and he still says “Ohhhh pretty pretty.”  While putting away our Halloween decorations last night we decided to hang up the two strands of lights we own.  We aren’t going to bust out the tree yet but we decided a couple of lights wouldn’t hurt.

It’s thrown JD into a frenzy.  He woke up this morning and the first thing he did is go plug the lights in.  All day I’ve been unplugging them and when I turn around they are magically back on again.  I finally caught him red handed!!

 

JD plugging in “ya yights”

 

This afternoon we also went and voted.  It was quite the experience.  I had to get out of line twice because he kept bolting out the door.  I decided to just let him scream and had a death grip on him while clutching his sister in my other arm.  This posed a problem, how would I vote with both arms full.  EASY, I trapped JD between my knees and viola!  Sure he hated it, yes he screamed and wow did we get some bad looks from other voters, but WE DID IT!  ;-)   Every little task we get done when I’m alone with the kids is a mountain, but I’m so happy when we get to the other side.

1 comment | posted in Holiday, In Public

November 1, 2010

And Now We Wait

By Bobbie

Last Wednesday we sent in the application for Deeds to get an Autism Service Dog.  I know even if he is approved we have a long road ahead of us with the fund-raising and training, but the waiting to find out if he will be approved for a dog is what is the killer for me.  We talked about it for so long and so the fact that we made the decision doesn’t matter until we hear back about the dog is agonizing.

JD loved Halloween.  We practiced trick-or-treating for about a week before the big night.  It took Daddy 45 minutes to coax Deeds into the costume for the first time.  It was a comedy of errors but he finally tried it on and then for the next 4 days we had struggles getting him to take it off.  When it came time to go door to door it was raining.  We tried to tell him that we were just going to stay home but that WAS NOT an option for him.  He was determined so I grabbed two umbrella’s and JD and I went out while Dad stayed home with little sister.  2 hours later JD was still going strong and quite upset when I made him go home.  His favorite parts of the evening were seeing two kids dressed as Brobee and Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba, and ringing people’s door bells.  It didn’t matter if the door was already open he rang every single door bell at least once.  Don’t be under the delusion that we covered a lot of ground during that 2 hours.

4 comments | posted in Application, Holiday

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