Lasers, Fireworks, and Fish

Monday morning I packed the car to come to GA for the last time..Hallelujah!!  I can't tell you how excited I am to have our family together full time again!!  Drew got a star at his session for hanging independently from the monkey bars.  We went to the mall after Drew's BB session and did a little school shopping.  Drew got to build his first Build-A-Bear.  It was fairly late by the time we got home so we had some dinner and it is was off to bed!

Star for hanging on the monkey bars

Build-A-Bear

Build-A-Bear

Build-A-Bear

Train ride at the mall

The last post left off with one of my bestest friends from Knoxville coming down with her kids for a couple of days.  They got here just in time to go have dinner on Tuesday.  We went to Buffalo's Cafe where kids eat free!  Even though they live about 15 minutes away in the next town over we hardly see them anymore.  :-(  Drew acted like we see them all the time.  When they got here he said Hi to everyone of them by name.  He did call Aidan "Alien" a couple of times though.  Kari and I got to have some much needed "catch up" time on our little patio with a glass of wine.

Wednesday, I got up and made bacon, eggs and fruit for breakfast and we just hung out in the apartment until it was time to leave for Drew's BB session.  We all piled in Kari's car and headed to BB.  Kari and her kids got a quick tour of the center and then we went to Hobby Lobby to kill time.  After we picked Drew up we came back to the apartment and went for a quick swim.  Then it was time to come in, eat dinner and get ready to go to the Laser Show at Stone Mountain.  Drew got up at 4:00 am so I made him take a nap while everyone was showering and getting ready.  This is when you're going to want to put down anything you are drinking or it's going to come out your nose.  And I can only laugh at this story now because it certainly wasn't funny at the time!!  It rained for a little bit at the apartment and then stopped right before we left.  I debated on whether to bring an umbrella and decided against it because Weather Bug said it was only 20% chance of rain in Stone Mountain and I didn't feel like carrying around a huge umbrella if we didn't need it.  Turns out that was a REALLY bad decision.  As we got closer to Stone Mountain, the rain got harder.  Drew is scared to death of rain and it gives him horrible anxiety.  We pull into the park and the lady at the entrance tells us to go to the second four way stop and make a right.  Well, there were no four way stops!  We ended up at some covered bridge that went no where except to a parking lot!  And now it's starting to rain even harder and Drew's anxiety is growing.  We pull into the parking lot for the Sky Lift trying to figure out where the heck we need to go to get to the laser show.  There was a park police parked in the parking lot.  I told Kari to pull up beside him and I would ask him.  At this point, we are in the middle of a monsoon and Drew is freaking out.  Kari rolled down the window just enough for me to talk to him and I was getting soaked!  I asked him if they ever cancel the show and he said they will if there is lightning.  I asked him how we would know that and he said they make an announcement at the field where the laser show is.  Where it's POURING RAIN!!!   I explained to him that my son had autism and that the rain was freaking him out and asked if he thought they would cancel the show because weather bug said that there was lightning within 10 miles and he said it's kind of early to decide that.  I asked him if he could tell us how to get to where we needed to be.  He said follow me.  He drove us down some back roads and led us to a parking lot that was right beside the field where the laser show was.  We sat in the car and watched the radar and waited.  The rain finally passed so we got out of the car and walked to the field and as soon as we got there it started raining again!!  We took cover under one of those little mobile food carts and it had canvas flaps on the sides so we ducked under those.  Then Drew says "I gotta go potty!"  And Abby had already been saying she was about to pee her pants.  Keep in mind that it's still raining and we don't have an umbrella.  Some of the workers had just gotten back into the cart and they were taking off their rain coats.  I asked the guy where the nearest bathroom was and if I could borrow his rain coat.  I grab the rain coat and throw it over me and Drew and head up the hill to the bathroom while Abby's high tailing it in front of us.  Of course, the one he sends us to is LOCKED!!  So further up the hill we go!  We get to the bathroom and then head back down the hill back to the cart where we left Kari and her kids.  While we were in the bathroom I overheard a lady ask her friend if she thought they would cancel the fireworks because of the rain.  Ummm...fireworks??  I didn't read anything about fireworks.  Drew HATES fireworks!!  Luckily he didn't hear any of that conversation.  We bought tickets on-line for the terrace but we still had to go to guest services to convert them to tickets for the cart.  It finally stopped raining so we headed over to guest services trying to dodge ankle deep puddles.  Kari took her kids to the bathroom while me and my kids waited in line.  While we were waiting in line I noticed Drew getting antsy and then he sat in the floor.  I told Abby to take him to the bathroom and she said he doesn't have to go to bathroom and I said yes he does, look at his body language.  I waited in line for a while and had a feeling that we were too late getting Drew to the bathroom so I decided to get out of line and go check on Abby and Drew.  As I'm walking to the bathroom Abby calls me and said you need to get in here it's bad.  I told her I was on my way.  When I got to the bathroom Drew had a pretty good diarrhea accident.  Kari was headed to guest services to find us and we must have missed each other.  So Abby went to go find Kari and they were headed back to the bathroom looking for us.  Kari came in and told me she was going to go take the kids to Lee and see if Jennifer had any wipes.  When she told the kids the plan they started freaking out wondering how they were going to get their popcorn, etc so she sent Abby back into the bathroom to get the print out for the tickets.  To get the tickets you have to show the credit card you used online and a photo id.  So I gave all of that to Abby and told her it wasn't going to work but they could try it.  So Kari, who is blonde, takes my id, I have dark brown hair, to the counter and gives it to the guy with the print out.  He looks at my id and says cute picture, different hair.  Kari replies, "Well which one do you like better?" And he says "Oh, you ain't playing me like that, but if I'm being honest I like the dark hair better."  So he gives her all of our tickets and she takes the kids to Lee so they can get all of there goodies.  She has Abby call me to tell me that Jennifer did not have wipes what should Kari do?  I told her there's not much she can do except see if they sold wipes in the little store that was there.  By the grace of God, Drew's shorts stayed clean.  I had already made the decision that his underwear were an unfortunate casualty and were going in the trash.  Now I just had to figure out how to get him cleaned up because I had given up on finding wipes.  I will spare you the details of that and just say that I got him all cleaned up and he went commando the rest of the night.  We finally get through that ordeal and get to our seats.  We didn't have much time before the show started so me and Kari went to the cart and got all of our goodies.  The girls hit up the cart a couple of times.  We were getting our $15 worth!  Drew is still having major anxiety but is handling it pretty well.  At 9:30 the show starts...WITH FIREWORKS!!!  At this point, I just wanted to shoot myself!  The laser show lasted 45 minutes with fireworks interspersed throughout the show and ended with a grand finale of fireworks.  In the end, Drew handled it very well and I was very proud of him!  Earlier that day he was having a meltdown at BB and I watched Jessica rub his left hand and up his arm.  She had told me to do this before but I never really witnessed how it's done.  It's amazing how fast it calmed him down.  So I spent most of the 3 hours applying pressure to his left hand and up his arm.  We got back to the car and piled all of our loot in the back and counted 9 bags of popcorn!! We got back to the apartment around 11:30.  I liked the laser show but I thought it was kind of random.  When we got home and Abby came in to say to good night to Drew she was wearing a hoodie.  For some reason he wanted to wear one too.  I happened to have one of mine hanging in the closet so he put that one on.  He fell asleep wearing it. It was so cute!!  Our plan for Thursday was to go to the aquarium at 10am.  I told Kari after getting home that late and Drew getting up 4 am that morning I wasn't going to wake him up in the morning.  He was going to be the alarm clock.

Our sweet babies at the Stone Mountain Laser Show

Abby and Presley

The popcorn loot!

Twinsies!!

Now that's a whole lot of cuteness right there!!

Drew woke up around 8:30 Thursday morning and that's when we all started to get going.  Everyone had to get ready and we ended up not leaving the apartment until around 11 am.  We decided we would stop at Chick-fil-a on the way to the aquarium.  And thank goodness we did because 3 snacks and a drink was almost $20 at the aqaurium!  We made it to the aquarium without incident.  Of course, I didn't leave the house without a change of clothes and lots of wipes!  The Georgia Aquarium was awesome!!  If I lived in GA I would totally be a member and go all the time.  Drew and the other kids loved it.  Drew watches a show on Disney called the Octonauts.  He has learned a lot about under sea creatures from that show.  It was really neat for him to see them in real life.  His favorite is the Whale Shark.  The 4 at the aquarium are the only 4 in the US.  He gave his teacher a little lesson on the whale shark during the last school year.  They were learning about animals under the sea and their habitat.  She asked each of them what their favorite was and he answered the whale shark.  She told him there was no such thing as a whale shark.  It was either a whale or a shark.  Remember, they are not found in the US.  He kept insisting and when she went to write it on the board she said ok Drew pick one, the whale or the shark.  He said whale so she wrote whale on the board and when she was about done writing whale he yelled "And Shark".  One of the aides said we better look this up because you know how he is.  Sure enough they look it up and read all about the Whale Shark.  They got a good laugh out of that.  I just love his teacher and aides.  He also got to see a giant spider crab that he knew about from the show. Drew wasn't crazy about the dolphin show.  It was dark and kind of scary.  And really, a man singing about a treasure and sea monster isn't really that interesting.  But he did like the dolphins when they were performing.  In fact, when we were swimming in our "pool", Matt asked him what he saw and he didn't mention the dolphins.  So I asked him what about the dolphins?  And then he acted like a dolphin in the pool.  He was spinning around and trying to jump in the air.  It was really cute.  The aquarium closed at 5 which is when the dolphin show ended.  So we are now leaving downtown Atlanta at 5:00!  Probably not the best idea we had.  You're supposed to take your parking ticket with you and pay before you go back to your car.  Well, since the dolphin show ended at 5 and they basically shuttled you out the door when it was over, there were masses of people waiting by the elevator.  I had the brilliant idea to take the stairs and pay up on our level.  Well, I was wrong!  There was no pay machine on our level.  So we get in the car and hope that we can pay at the gate.  The girls spotted a machine on one of the levels on the way down, so Kari pulled aside, I jumped out of the car, paid for parking and away we went...to sit in traffic for an hour and a half.  Before we left for the aquarium Kari said she needed to get gas.  I told her we could get it on the way back at the station right outside the apartment and then she would be full for her drive home.  Well, I didn't know just how low her gas gauge was.  So then we start joking about running out of gas in the middle of rush hour in Atlanta!  Once we got to 575 we got off before our exit to get gas.  By the time we got home we were all so ready to be out of the car!  We had dinner and then Kari and the kids left to go back to K-town.  :-(  We had so much fun while they were here.  Kari and I laughed the whole time.  Drew and Aidan played so good together!  And the girls...well, they're pre-teen/teen girls! 

Whale Shark

Drew and Aidan

Abby and Madison

Giant Spider Crab

In the tunnel that went through the penguin exhibit

Tunnel in the penguin exhibit

Beluga Whale

Drew and Abby in front of the Great Barrier Reef replica

Beluga Whale

Of course we had to bring home our own Whale Shark!

Today we went to see Planes Fire & Rescue, had lunch, went to Monkey Joe's, went to BB, came home and went swimming. 

Bullets from the week

• He turned the flashlight on my phone and was playing shadow puppets on the wall
• He climbed into the window sill at the apartment
• After going to bathroom, he ran into the living room with no pants on and I called after him and told him to come back he can't just go running around naked.  He came running into the bedroom laughing and said "I'm so funny!"
• While I was giving him a bath one night he said "Mommy, I want to go in Kari's car and go to Target."
• This weekend while we were home and cuddling in the chair he said "I want to go to school." I asked him why and he said "To see Tony."
• Matt said over the weekend that he noticed Drew's speed while they are playing has gotten really fast.

We have BB tomorrow, BB assessments Thursday, Matt comes down Thursday to load up the apartment, Drew has his final in center BB session on Friday and then we drive home to TN for the last time this summer!!

Until next time,

Here, There, Everywhere

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I've posted.  We are down to our last 2 weeks in GA.  I guess I need to get you all caught up on the end of last week.  Wednesday we went swimming at Amanda and Adeline's cousins pool.  This pool has a 12 ft deep section.  That is where Drew and I spent most of our time.  He is fascinated by the deep end of pools.  Our apartments deep end is only 5 ft so he can push himself down to the bottom while holding the ladder.  In the really deep ones he just holds on to the side and puts his face in the water and looks down.  At one point, he pushed away from the wall.  I nearly had a heart attack.  I grabbed him by the belly while I was still holding on to the side and helped him swim back.  And of course, we went swimming again after dinner at the apartment.

Fun at the apartment

Thursday we went to the Imagine It Children's Museum in Atlanta.  On the way to the museum, he kept saying "Go to zoo" and then he switched to "Varsity, chicken and FF" which is weird because that's not even what he ate when we went.  And then he said "Hey Manda (Amanda), go to Giant Target".  Giant Target is what she told him the mall was when we were there a couple of weeks ago.  And it's really cute because he always tells her where he wants to go because she is the one driving.  The museum had lots of little interactive exhibits.  There were crafts for the kids to make.  That days craft was a rocket.  There was a Thomas the Train exhibit that Drew found!!  Which is then where we stayed.  It was a pretty big display that had all kinds of neat little things that when you pushed the button it moved.  For example, there was a carnival that when you pushed the button the rides would move. That was pretty neat.  There was one of kids playing tug-of-war and when you pushed the button the kids would move back and forth.  After he watched this a couple of times he says "kids pulling".  I was able to pull him away from Thomas to do the craft and a couple of other things.  One of the most impressive things to me was the tunnel he crawled through.  It was pitch black.  I couldn't believe he went through it.  There was a little dome where you could stick your head up the hole and look around.  He did that too.  Then it was time to leave and of course he did not want to.  We got out with not too much of a scene.  But he kept saying museum, Thomas.

Yee Haw

Driving a delivery truck

Thomas the Train display

Making the rocket

Drew's Rocket

Sticking his head up the hole

Thomas the Train display

We walked over to Centennial Olympic Park and watched the fountain of rings.  They had the water shooting out of the ground set to music.  He wasn't crazy about it but handled it very well.  Then we ate at Googie Burger.  We tried to play on one of the playgrounds in the park but there were masses of kids everywhere!!  We decided to head back to the car and try to find a different playground.  We had to walk past the museum to get to the parking garage...NO BUENO!!  Meltdown city!!  He didn't want to get in the car and wouldn't let me buckle him.  So it was jump time!  I got him out of the car and made him jump in place for 30 seconds.  It was just like the bowling alley parking lot all over again.  Only this time I knew what to do right away.  Thank you, Jesus!  This time we only had to go through that routine 2 or 3 times.  We've also started implementing good choice/bad choice cards.  He really doesn't like losing a smiley face (good choice).  After the meltdown I told Amanda just to take us to our car.  Unfortunately, we still had about 2 hours to kill before Drew had his session at BB.  So we decided to tag along and go to the pet store to pick up Arthur from his grooming.

Ferris Wheel near Olympic Park

Fountain of Rings

Fountain of Rings

Olympic Park

Killing time at the pet store.  He was  watching the cats in the adoption center.

We still had more than an hour after stalling at the pet store so we went to Monkey Joe's.  While we there I had to have the "his brain isn't like yours and mine" conversation with an eight year old boy.  He asked Drew if he wanted to play and I had to explain that Drew didn't really understand the question.  Then he asked why he was wearing the blue thing on his ankle.  And I had to explain that it is so the police can find him if he gets away from me because he likes to run and doesn't understand he can't just go off by himself.  This seemed to be good enough for him.  I was a little leary of letting Drew play with him because I watching him and another boy playing pretty rough earlier.  But they all 3 played for quite a long time.  It ended up that the 8 year old starting kind of protecting Drew from the 5 year old.  That little boy didn't understand that Drew couldn't really rough house so the older boy would get between them or hold the little boy's shirt and tell Drew to run to give him a head start.  I still stayed really close to supervise.  Drew would yell at the boys "Come rescue poor me."  I'm sure it was something he's seen on TV.  We went to his session and came home pooped.

Friday he got a star and got to get in the treasure box at BB.  Then we drove home 3 hours in the rain.  I'm not kidding you it has rained at least 90% of the Fridays we've driven home.  When we got home, my sweet husband had dinner ready and waiting for us.  Before he was left to fend for himself the last 10 weeks, I could count how many times he's cooked in the last 18 years on my fingers and toes.  He hasn't had to because I love to cook.  He made a gluten free pasta dish that was DE-LISH!!  Later that night I wasn't paying much attention to what Drew was doing and I realized he had dug Just Dance 4 for the Wii from the back of the TV stand and was playing.  I figured it was totally left brain since it was screen time but it was the cutest thing ever!  Turns out Jessica said it's really good for him because of the mirror imaging and coordination involved.  She said it would be even better if we could find a slow song (slow music is right brain).  I'm posting the video below.  And I would like to clarify the mess at his feet is from him pulling everything out of the TV stand to get to the game!

Got a star and a trip to the treasure box!

Getting his groove on to One Direction on Just Dance 4

We drove down this morning in the pouring rain...imagine my surprise.  Drew is terrified of the rain.  He's starting to do ok when it's a light rain but when it's pouring like it was this morning he does not do well.  He was crying and said "I want to go home to see my daddy."  I told him I know and asked him why he was crying.  He knows that when you cry when you are sad so that's usually his answer.  I asked him why he was crying and the first time he answered that he was sad.  I asked him again a little later and he said "I'm scared."  I nearly drove off the road.  This is a pretty big deal that 1. he was experiencing fear (not the I don't know what to expect anxious fear) and that 2. he could identify it!  We went to BB for his session and then we met our other friends from Knoxville at the park.  Then me, Abby and Drew went for frozen yogurt and headed back to the apartment.  We had dinner, did BB exercises and called it a day!

This was at the entrance to the park!  Seriously?!  It was all I had not to turn around and run the other direction screaming like a school girl.

Tomorrow, one of my bestest friends from Knoxville is coming to stay and play with us for a couple of days.  We are so excited!!

If you would like to receive e-mail notifications when there is a new post to the blog you can sign up at the top right of the page.  Enter your e-mail address in the box and then you will receive an e-mail asking you to confirm.

Until next time,

12 Week Parent Check-In

Even though it's only Tuesday, this has been a pretty rough week with Drew.  The past couple of days he's had more meltdowns than normal.  I had a parent check-in with Jessica today.  We have these every 12 sessions and they report on his progress.  He's gained some progress since the last check-in.  Jessica is aware of his meltdowns and she thinks that he's on the brink of another functional push. She changed a few of his exercises and added a few more.

Yesterday we drove down here, went to his session, went to the playground and came home.  Him and Abby were in the kitchen messing around and he bit her...hard!!  That was the start of the almost non-stop meltdowns.  Then he goes to BB and gets a star during his cognitive session.  The star was for his use of pragmatic language.  He was going through the cognitive room coming back from the bathroom and got side tracked.  Coach Kay asked him where he was supposed to be and he said "Coach Suzanne."  She told him to get back in with her and he said "Thank you Coach Kay."  She was so excited to give him his star.  I just love the staff at BB!!  Then he had another melt down while we were leaving BB.

Today we went to the $2 movies and saw Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2.  Then we went to a trampoline park called Sky Zone.  The kids had a blast.  We went back to the Ale House where kids eat free on Tuesdays for lunch.  Drew spent the first part of lunch hiding under the table because he wanted to play the video game they have in the far corner that no normal person would even notice especially when you don't sit anywhere near it.  After lunch Drew had a BB session where he had a hard time getting started.  Jessica said he seemed tired and said fatigue is another sign that a functional push is coming.  When we got home we went swimming.  Abby had all the little kids playing the color game in the pool.  Then some poor little kid made the mistake of asking Abby if she wanted to race.  What he didn't know is that Abby has been on a swim team since she was 7.  We did his exercises after dinner and then he fell asleep laying in the floor in the living room.  He was pooped.

That's all I have for now. 

Until next time,

Sky Zone

Sky Zone

Doing handstands in the pool