Gloria: 8
Trixie: 12
Gil: 13
Bede: 2
Abby: 7
Faith: 8
Month: September 2009
worn out
Bede, in Scrat acorn hat and enormous brown trousers, curled up with his remote to the DVD player.
We came, we saw, we left without incident
What’s the Latin for that one?
Bede was pumped about the movie. Before we left, I wrote our telephone number on his back in Sharpie, just in case we got separated. You never know, and he can’t communicate well enough to convey that sort of information.
We pulled into the mall lot and he was vibrating with excitement. He saw the poster as we approached the theater and I let him break loose and go jump up and down in front of it and hum as he chanted the character names and peered through his fingers.
We were getting some looks by this point but so what. He was so happy. Most of the looks were for his unusual, ah, behaviour, but some of them were no doubt due to his clothes: a big red tee shirt, men’s trousers cinched in at the waist and rolled up, blue Crocs, all topped off with an enormous brown hat with a tan brim – his “Scrat acorn hat” he requested I knit for him.
An older woman approached us and said “Is he autistic?”
I resisted my momentary contrarian impulse to say “No” (hee hee) and smiled instead. “Yes, he’s autistic. He loves the Ice Age movies, and this is the first time he’s ever been to a theater, too.”
She said “Oh! I thought he was. I’m a substitute teacher and I just love working with autistic children.”
I smiled and started to guide Bede toward the ticket booth. She said, to Bede, “You are the most beautiful boy I’ve ever seen!” and we parted ways. When we got to the line, a nice man offered to let us cut, and we bought our tickets and headed back to the theater.
The auditorium was dark and the previews were playing VERY LOUDLY when we came in. Bede was a bit taken aback by the darkness and the noise, but came in and we sat fairly close to the front. “You want some turn it down?” he asked me. I said it was loud, but it might get quieter (it did.)
He was rapt throughout, humming and bouncing a few times, but mostly quiet and still. He hid behind the seat in front of us when it was scary, or peeked through his hat. As the movie was wrapping up he said “Ice Age is The End” and smiled.
Then, we left.
Whew! Yay Bede!
ICE AGE 3 ASDFJKL!!
Scene: Gleeson home, dining room.
Me: Hey Bede!
Bede: (skipping by) Hmmhnnnhmm!
Me: Tomorrow, you wanna see Ice Age 3?
(Bede stops short)
Me: In the movie theater?
(Bede smiles widely)
Me: With Manny?
Bede: And Ellie?
Me: Uh-huh.
Bede: And Crashandeddie?
Me: Yep.
Bede: And (hops in place) SCRAT!!
Me: Yeah!
Bede: OKAYSURE! I GETCHOO ICE AGE 3 DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS IN YOUR MOVIE THEATER!! HMMMHNNHMM!! (squeal!)
Soooo tomorrow Bede and I are going to see…
Which is finally at the dollar cinema. It will be his first time ever in a theater. Wish us well!
Sky Walker competency trial
On January 29th, Sky Walker was arrested for assaulting his mother. She died about a week later, and he was charged with her murder. Sky is 18 years old and profoundly autistic. His competency trial was this week.
The whole thing is heartbreaking.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/09/kent_state_university_professo_1.html
Where is Sky’s dad?
The Other Blog
I keep a homeschool blog over at gleeschool.wordpress.com. It’s just notes for recordkeeping, but I thought someone might like it, so, there you are.
Bede’s speech
Aside from occasional appropriate use of I and my, Bede’s pronouns are always reversed, and his language is pretty weird. He’s internally consistent though, and he tries so very hard to communicate with us – as we try to communicate with him. Here are some recent dispatches.
Requesting grape jam on his toast:
Grape jelly your jam?
Can’t find his DVD remote:
You want find it your remote?
How I’m awakened each morning:
Wake up Mama! Open my eyes!
Dismay at Trixie’s refusal to wear a certain sweater:
Trixie wear it ON the yarn shirt!
Plaintive request:
You want it pbskids dot org on your Mama’s Dell?
Seeking kitchen entry:
You want go kitchen? Okaysure, I get you go kitchen!
Asking for ten small pieces of yarn:
You want cut with your ten yarn?
He usually gets his point across, and he’s pretty patient for a complicated Gallifreyan boy. Love him so!
Glenn Reynolds, autism expert
I was reading the October issue of Popular Mechanics (theme: disaster preparedness! survival! which really turns my geek crank!) and I ran across this, by Glenn Reynolds – page 48.
Here’s a simple truth: It’s better to bend than to break, and it’s best to be prepared for the worst. This age-old wisdom is going by a new name in slide-rule circles: “Resilience engineering” starts with the insight that it’s smart to design and maintain systems so that they have some give. That means building technologies that offer extra capacity to handle sudden loads, plenty of warning when normal operations are beginning to break down, backup systems in case things do go wrong, diverse digital architectures so that a single bug doesn’t produce widespread failure, and decentralization so that when (not “if”) communication breaks down things don’t grind to a halt.
And that seems to me to be a perfect, perfect description of parenting an autistic child.
Sharing is Caring day 4
Sharing is Caring:
for one week, recommend / share
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy
Today is a Site. I’m going to send you all to The Baldwin Project. It’s a fantastic collection of public domain children’s literature, all formatted nicely and so forth. It’s an invaluable resource. We use it for read-alouds all the time.
Sharing is Caring day 3
Sharing is Caring:
for one week, recommend / share
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy
Today I’m doing all three, lucky reader!
Book: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. I sat back just now and tried to think of the one book I’ve read in the last few years that really surprised me, really stayed with me, and that was it. Heinleinesque first person military mindbender.
eBook: Little Brother (available as a free download at that link, courtesy of the author, Cory Doctorow.) This one’s near-future dystopia.
Fanfic: The Chaosverse, by earlgreytea68. Of course it’s Doctor Who, what else would it be? “And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby.”
PBS shirts
Bede draws the PBS logo a lot. He changes it around and makes a whole family of P-heads. He gives the P-head a different look, like a PIXAR lamp P-head, or a Scrat P-head.
I think he would really, really like this shirt. They don’t come in kid sizes, but he’s a pretty big kid, and he likes his clothes loose. An adult small will be too big but not unwearably so. And all he’s doing is growing… This is going on his Christmas list for sure.
Sharing is Caring Meme: Day 2
My contribution to health care reform
I wish that the primary caregiver of children who qualify for Medicaid could get Medicaid too. Maybe you could opt for either subsidized daycare or subsidized health insurance. I could get free daycare for all my kids, but I don’t, because I’m not employed outside the home. Since I’m not employed outside the home I have no way to get health insurance. See?
Even my conservative husband agrees with me, and yall, that is huge.
Sure would be nice!
Sharing is Caring Meme Day 1
via earlgreytea68
Sharing is Caring:
for one week, recommend / share
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy
The Decemberists: The Engine Driver has been haunting me lately. It’s such an autumnal song.
I hope you enjoy it. Here are the lyrics:
I’m an engine driver
on a long run,
on a long run.
Would I were beside her:
she’s a long one,
such a long one.And if you don’t love me, let me go.
And if you don’t love me, let me go.I’m a county lineman
on the high line,
on the high line.
So will be my grandson:
there are powerlines
in our bloodlines.And if you don’t love me, let me go.
And if you don’t love me, let me go.And I am a writer,
writer of fictions,
I am the heart that you call home.
And I’ve written pages upon pages
trying to rid you from my bones,
my bones, my bones.I’m a money-lender:
I have fortunes
upon fortunes.
Take my hand for tender.
I am tortured,
ever tortured.And if you don’t love me, let me go.
And if you don’t love me, let me go.And I am a writer,
writer of fictions,
I am the heart that you call home.
And I’ve written pages upon pages
trying to rid you from my bones.
I am writer,
I am all that you have hoped of.
And I’ve written pages upon pages
trying to rid you from my bones,
my bones, my bones.And if you don’t love me, let me go.
And if you don’t love me, let me go.