Taking the Scenic Route

#151 Zach’s shoes.  no reason, just a familiar sight.

#150 Snuggles with Oma

Mom and Dad came up to loan us the money for Zane’s Nintendo DS.  While the guys were out at the local Gamestop, Zora got some Oma snuggles.

While they were here, anybody who knows my dad will get a kick out of the fact that he couldn’t help but try and fix the backhoe toy (one of the hydraulic lifts isn’t working right).  He runs the real thing for the township.

#149  Where they get the t-shirt slogan “I void warranties” from.

Zane’s Nintendo DS (which, actually, is not under warranty any more) pooped out.  It is his most prized possession.  Unless you understand the obsessions of many Autistic kids, I don’t think you can understand the level of importance this is to him.  Zach worked on it most of the afternoon and evening, cannibalizing another DS that died a while ago, but to no avail.  We are calling my parents tomorrow to see if they can loan us the money to replace it because this is a true emergency in our house.

#148 Grandma & Zach conspire.  Without telling me, Zach and my Mom conspired to give us a date night to go see the new Star Trek movie.  The kids had fun, and we LOVED the movie.

#147 Rocketship Repairs.  Zora brought her tools upstairs (in the little basket) and proceeded to repair her “rocketship”.   She was quite thorough.

and another one…

Is your wife making you wait to clean it off so she can take a picture.

#146 Never give a 3yo unlimited access to “sprinkles” for 2 minutes.  Zora and the neighbor boy were making some cookies and I turned around for a minute.  They did 3 cookies, and I took away the sprinkles and spread them over all of the cookies instead of the inch they had on theirs.

Well, we found something that seems to be working well for Zane, so we thought we would share it with other parents with Autistic kiddos.

After noticing that he seemed to respond really well to flow chart type rules/consequences (we later learned it is a form of Social Behavior Mapping), we got an old notebook and turned it into a “Rule Book”.  We put all of his little flowcharts in it, short social stories, and other “rules” for him.  It seems to really help him.

An example:  One of the behaviors that was really becoming an issue is his obsession on whether or not Zora was wearing a diaper.  It was getting problematic because he was starting to peek under her dresses and such just to make sure it was there.  It got really worrisome when he started checking to see if Zach and I were wearing underwear.  We made an “underwear rule” that said he had to either ignore it when people weren’t wearing underwear/diapers, to look someplace else, and if it is bothering him, to go to his room or away from the person.    He still gets a little anxious, but after a few reminders, the behavior has stopped.  Because he is controlling his behavior, Zora isn’t purposly goading him any more either.  She will find another button, but this one isn’t as fun any more.

#145 Cleaning the Carpets.  We discovered that the dollar store “Awesome” brand works just as well as the $20 Bissell stuff.  I wanted to use a vinegar solution, but Zach hates the “everything smells like salad” effect even though I don’t think it leaves a smell.