AN ASPERGER DILEMMA, AGAIN...

I went with my sister down to Layton, Utah where my baby sister just had her first baby. But, before I left, I wrote down everything that needed to be done for Bill to take care of the kids and get them to bed, fed, school, meds, lunches made, orthodontist, etc. I was only going to be gone for 24 hours. I hesitate to proceed in my blogging at this time because I am so flaberghasted I don't know if I have anything nice to say!

Well, I did have a good time. That is something. It was fun to hold a newborn babe with thick black hair and a bow on top. (Madalyn Mae, cute as can be) I was able to spend the night in a hotel with my sis and we had a good night's rest. That is something. We ate out, that is something. And we traveled home.

On the way, I decided to phone Bill and see how everything was going. He had gotten everything ready for school the night before, like picking out their uniforms and making sack lunches. Ok, I thought, that was something. Now, for the frustrating part: He didn't wake up until 8am, decided that it was too late to take the kids to school, so they should just stay home. According to Mercedes he slept until 11am, then ate breakfast, took a dump for 1 hour, then got on the computer! What?! So, by the time I got home, two kids were still in their pajamas (it was 3pm) and they were all playing video games. When they saw me they were all hungry, and hadn't eaten lunch yet. I'm not trying to get my husband in trouble here, and yes, he did hear from me, boy, howdy...but what I'm trying to get across is that the Asperger mind is very different...He didn't even THINK about calling the school or me, or take the kids to school a little late, even...he figured that they would have to miss the whole day of school since they were late. (???) I shudder to think what this teaches the kids. No wonder breaks are few and far between.

He's seen the error of his ways, I must admit. Now he is doing "double time" and cleaning, bathing the kids, etc. Well, that is something.

What annoys me to no end is when people think he is "normal" or "neurotypical", and expect alot out of him, like a regular guy, but then he doesn't live up to their expectations and he is then viewed as "lazy", "irresponsible", or just plain "doesn't care". Story of his life. And here I am doing the same thing. I need to remember that.

GFCF Gingersnap Recipe

This recipe is very yummy. I must have had a craving for cinnamon and ginger--autumn spices--because these hit the spot!

GFCF Gingersnap Cookie Recipe (You can't tell it's GFCF!)

¼ cup gfcf shortening

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup molasses

2 egg yolks

1 ¼ cups cornstarch

¾ cup potato starch

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup oil

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

For Topping:

1 Tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 350*. In large bowl, cream together shortening, sugar and molasses. Add remaining ingredients, mixing well to remove all lumps.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Sprinkle well with sugar. Bake 8-9 minutes. Dough will be just set, with no wet spot in the middle. Do not overbake.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

FAIRY TALES WORTH WATCHING

I have to give a plug for two movies that we saw recently. They are both modern day fairy tales and are great family movies. Sydney White with Amanda Bynes (Snow White and the Seven Dorks,) and Penelope with Christina Ricci. They both have a good moral and made us laugh. Even Bill got into it.

STARTING OVER

The older kids are in school now and I breathe a sigh of relief. Today, it's just me and Ryder at home and four wild tabby cats that we caught in the garage. I called animal control and they came over with a trap. Last summer we were infested with mice, now this summer it is cats. Something doesn't seem right here. Story of my life. :D

Tomorrow Ryder starts school. And once again I send my baby off into this crazed world we live in. The first day of school is always bittersweet when they are little.

Mason was baptized and confirmed last Saturday. Or should I say "bath-tized" as he calls it. It was really nice to have family and friends there. Afterwards we had a potluck picnic at the park.

Ryder pooped out a penny the other day. He still has three cents left in him. I guess if we shook him real hard, they may come out. :D

School has begun finally. The kids were all keyed up and wired the day before. We rearranged bedrooms; put Mercedes downstairs and brought the boys up. It was a long day. It's been funny to watch Ryder lately. He keeps going into the bedrooms and looking around...trying to figure things out.

We had a FHE lesson on baptism for Mason (he'll be baptized on Sept. 6th) and we had these cards that spelled out the word B.A.P.T.I.S.M. We got to the 'M' and the kids were supposed to come up with the answer--a word that starts with the letter 'm' that has to do with baptism. The answer was "member". Hunter was raising his hand excitedly with the answer. We called on him and he said triumphantly, "the Moronic priesthood!" We all laughed so hard. Hunter thought we were laughing at him, and stormed off. We re-grouped, and explained why we were laughing. Then he understood. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny.

A Tell-Tale Sign

As we were driving back from therapy today, Hunter saw a horse in a field and asked, "Why do horses swat flies away with their tails?" Then he added, "Why does a fly want to go in a horse's bum anyway? If they like poop so much why can't they just wait until the horse 'goes' on the ground?"

Hunter is a talker. His mind goes a hundred miles an hour--sometimes so fast his mouth can't keep up and he stammers alot.

I tune him out a lot, and well, maybe I shouldn't. He's just so dang exhausting when he gets going. I don't have a lot of answers to the questions he asks. I need to teach him how to use Google.

I'm a little worried about him this Fall with going back to school. There aren't supposed to be a lot of changes to his class (there are eleven 3rd graders and eleven 4th graders) --except the teacher's daughter was just diagnosed with cancer so she won't be teaching this semester. I haven't told Hunter that he has a substitute yet. His hair has just grown back in, and I'm afraid he'll start up with the trichotillomania again because of the stress of starting school.

Have you ever known someone that seems to have bad luck all of the time? They are always in the wrong place at the wrong time...

What is the opposite of the Midas Touch? Hunter has it. So does his dad. Life is never boring around them.

I remember one time when Bill and I were first dating, his car broke down, it began to thunderstorm, a cop pulled over to help, gave Bill a ticket for having an expired license plate, and Bill got his trenchcoat stuck in the hood of the car all in less than 10 minutes.

A sign of things to come??

I wonder.

ALWAYS ADJUSTING

It's been a crazy Summer. Just when you get used to having a break from the demands of the school system, Fall raises it's ugly head and it's time to register...register...register for school. Time to adjust again.

We've begun *officially* the gfcf diet. Mercedes is taking it the hardest. Every ten minutes she asks, "Why do we have to do this again? Can we have chocolate? Can we have pasta? No cheese?!"
She's been driving me nuts.

It's not too bad, yet. The boys had a hard time with the concept of wrapping a turkey burger with a lettuce leaf, but they'll live.

We have a huge chart with all of the prescribed meds and supplements from the DAN! doctor (& the shrink) attached to the fridge. We check mark each one as we give them. We are trying to clean the boys' tummies out before school. Their xrays showed that they were plum full of poop.

Here is a list of the current Rx's/biomedical interventions for the kids: (I could be forgetting some)

gfcf diet

Lamictal
Diflucan
Augmentin
DHA
EFA
Folate
Magnesium Citrate
Probiotics
Melatonin
Benefiber
CoQ10
Concerta
Zoloft
Vitamin B-12
Prozac
Aleve
Vitamin C
A Bunch of Minerals
Not to mention Bill's meds: Lexapro & Wellbutrin
Mine: Zoloft & Synthroid, B vitamins

We do pharmacies proud.

What Goes Up Must Come Down

McBride NewsFlash: Ryder puked all over last night and first thing this morning; followed by a wicked amount of diarrhea. He is resting comfortably now.

I'm getting good at cleaning up vomit. We have a Shark steam cleaner that I don't think I could live without. I don't know what I did before we got it.

Here is another handy tip: Instead of buying those expensive flushable wipes, buy a foam soap dispenser, empty the soap it came with, then fill it with a little baby wash and water. Now squirt some on toilet paper and do your business. Works great! So much cheaper, too! The boys were a little hesitant, but I put a label on the dispenser that says Fun Bum Foam. It helps. Anything to make life a little bit easier, I say.

A Little Dab Will Do Ya

Last week Ryder found a bottle of Elmer's glue and decided to partake. Bill and I were at the grocery store having our weekly "date" and when we came home we discovered the little dude had gotten glue all over him, happy as could be, until...fast forward 24 hours later...all heck broke loose. He was screaming, crying, angry,--you name it. He slept for only two hours that night; the rest of that time was spent on episodic bouts of moaning and crying. I hate feeling helpless as a parent. The culprit: Gluten. Elmer's glue has gluten in it.

That next morning at 4am we had to wake up Hunter and Ryder for their scheduled sleep-deprived EEG in Idaho Falls. Ryder, of course, didn't need waking up. What he did need was SLEEP and alot of it, but that was not going to happen. His EEG was cancelled but we were able to get Hunter's done.

After three days, Ryder is returning to "normal" and started having BM's again.

We are preparing for the inevitable gluten/casein free diet. I'm slowy taking away milk products and introducing Soymilk. It will be a big change for us. All of the boys need help with their tummies, so we will all participate. I sure hope it will be worth it.

HAVE A LAUGH

After a hardy rainstorm filled all the potholes in the streets and alleys, a young mother watched her two little boys playing in the puddle through her kitchen window.

The older of the two, a five year old lad, grabbed his sibling by the back of his head and shoved his face into the water hole. As the boy recovered and stood laughing and dripping, the mother runs to the yard in a panic. "Why on earth did you do that to your little brother?!" she asks as she shook the older boy in anger.

"We were just playing 'church' mommy," he said. "And I was just baptizing him.....in the name of the Father, the Son and in...the hole-he-goes."