My Son Let Me Cut His Hair!! (#Autism)

Most kids with Autism HATE having their hair cut, and my son is no different. For the last few years, cutting my son’s hair would mean I would have to hold my son on my lap by wrapping him in a sheet so he couldn’t move (which is REALLY difficult…he’s 7.5 years old and more than 80lbs!), while my man uses the hair clippers set on buzz-mode, and trying to help me keep my son still. Not an easy thing…and usually myself or my son would end up bleeding because of how much he was moving, trying to escape.

 

When my kids was 5 years old, they both caught lice at daycare. My daughter’s thin and strawberry blond hair was easy to get the dark lice out. Plus, she would sit still. I almost cried at the thought of going through my son’s hair. There was no way he would sit still for me to meticulously go through his hair to get rid of the lice. He had longish gorgeous thick dirty-blond hair, and it had to go. My man didn’t understand why we had to wait for my neighbour to get home from work so we could cut his hair. Why wouldn’t a man who’s 6’2″ be able to manage this, with me clipping his hair? He didn’t understand…until he sat on the floor with my son on his lap, holding him and my little 5 year old spun the two of them in circles on the floor. My man couldn’t stop him. So we waited an hour or so for my neighbour to come home and help. Took two hours and three grown ups to buzz off my son’s hair. We were all exhausted, I was bleeding a bit, but we did it.

 

Fast forward about 2 years and about bunch of home-haircuts. We were able to get it down to just my man and I. We also had one great cut where I barely had to hold him on my lap, and he fussed but no one was bleeding or exhausted at the end. Then the next one happened and he was screaming, crying and back to what we believed as being his “normal” for a haircut. We went through it and did it. Then about a week later, my man asked me to “clean up” the bottom of his haircut so, out came the clippers. I was scared because my only experience with cutting hair was with my son. I barely touched him with the clippers, and he was flinching. I told him I had barely touched him, he looked at the clippers, and realized it was off-kilter. Ah-ha! THAT’s why my son had freaked out the week prior.

 

Fast forward another 6 months or so, and it’s time to cut his hair again. In fact, we had been putting off doing it for so long that his hair was getting some of the curl back! I told the therapists at IBI how scared I was, and they told me that they can create a desensitizing program for him. He responded really well to the program but I was still scared.

 

Today and yesterday, my son’s been home sick. This afternoon, he’s getting back to his normal, making all of his crazy noises,  moving around a bit, and has some colour again in his cheeks. He asked for his “footnails” (which is code for wanting me to cut his toe nails…how cute is that??). I went over to him, asked which one needed to be cut, and he pushed the nail clippers towards the back of his head. I laughed and pretended to cut his hair with the nail clippers. He didn’t move. He even took his hat off (which doesn’t happen for anything except for bathtime!). So, I grabbed the scissors from the kitchen and pretended to cut the back of his hair, being very careful in case he whipped his head around. He didn’t move. I asked if I could cut his hair near his ears (his sideburns) with the scissors and he said “Yes”. So I did. Then I pulled hair between my fingers the way I’ve seen hairdressers do, and started doing sections around his head. He let me do it! Every few minutes, he would put his hat back on, and I would ask him if I can cut more, he would take his hat off, and let me continue. I did his whole head!! Still some bits I can see to cut off now that he’s moved around this afternoon, but I now we can do it.

 

I’m sssoooooo proud of him (and it looks really good, if I may say so…my first time cutting hair)!!!!

Starting our #Garden / #VeggiePatch

This past weekend was a long weekend in Canada, celebrating Victoria Day. My man and I had an event to attend on Saturday so the kids were at their dad’s on a non-regular access weekend. On Sunday, I took advantage of the kids being gone and my man working a wedding, so I got down and dirty in the garden. This is the first full summer in our new home and the previous owner had done nothing in the garden for decades, literally. Last summer, a friend of a friend beat and sliced his way through the jungle, clearing out all the greenery and rose bushes that attacked him (ouch!). This summer, I’m starting a raised veggie patch.

Area before I started:

 

Insert wooden borders that were leftover from when an old fence was removed from the property…and 24 of these:

And, voila!

 

The only thing that was frustrating was that there wasn’t enough pressure in my rain barrel to get water from it, so I’ll have to figure that one out. Also went with the BFF yesterday to pick up some more plants that I haven’t started seedlings for already…and look what ended up sprouting amongst my plants: the rare Starbucks flower. This order was DEFINITELY mine!

Can’t wait to get out there to plant our seedlings with the kids this week!

New #PTPA Member

I’m so excited to be a new member of the Panel of Blogaholics with the PTPA (Parent Tested, Parent Approved). The PTPA is the largest parent-testing community and seal of approval recognized worldwide. Here is my introduction as a Blogaholic:

“I’m single mom of 7 year old boy/girl twins. My son has Autism. My daughter has Anxiety Disorder. I’m also very happy to still have a relationship with my 18 year old stepdaughter, despite being divorced from her father. She has Asperger’s and Mysophonia. BUT, my kids are so much more than their respective diagnoses.”

Read the rest of my intro here. I’ll admit that I’m so excited to be part of the Blogaholics, that I actually had butterflies in my tummy when I posted my introduction!

 

I encourage you to sign up to become a PTPA tester for products here.

 

If you have a product you would like tested by the panel of PTPA testers, check it out here. As always though, if you are hoping for just me to review your product, feel free to contact me directly.

 

My #MothersDay

I got to pick my kids up early from their dad’s because it’s Mother’s Day. I had already seen my son’s Mother’s Day card, which he made at IBI. His therapist had written the words, and he had placed the hearts. He also gave it to me that day by saying “Happy Mother’s Day”…my heart melted.

But my daughter had brought her card and present home in a plastic bag with very strict instructions for me NOT to open it until Mother’s Day. She was really excited to come home to finally open and show it to me. A tear may have happened when she read the poem to me.

      

I also bought myself something for Mother’s Day, not that it’s much of a surprise if you read my blog regularily:

An extra special part of my Mother’s Day weekend though was when my stepdaughter came with my man and I to an SCA event (medieval re-enacting). She asked if she could come a few months ago and this weekend was the first one that was relatively nearby and on a weekend when she could come. She’s a huge history buff, so I wasn’t surprised that she asked. Because all three of us competed in different tournaments throughout the day (she and I did archery), we each received a carnation representing that we were fighting for eachother.

Once I found the right medication combination to battle the massive migraine I got this afternoon because of the crazy weather we’re having, I have gone back to enjoying being a mom (instead of being passed out on the couch, waking only when they ask me for something), and loving how unique and wonderful each of my 3 kids are.

After School #MeTime, While The Kids Where Home?!!

My son’s new after school routine (within the last month and a half or so) is to get out of the car, run to the driveway of our neighbour 3 doors down, run back, play with his shadow, and then hang out on another neighbour’s porch for a while. Some days, he can be there for a good hour or so. If those neighbours are outside, and needing to go in and out of their front door, they just say hi, move around him and head inside.  They even asked after we moved in late last summer how to communicate with him!  How awesome are our neighbours?!

 

Until now, this after school routine has been a bit difficult for me, trying to keep an eye on him while my daughter is going in and out of our home, and honestly, trying to find somewhere comfortable for me to be for the hour or so he takes for this routine…especially when it’s raining (and the couple of days it snowed). A couple of days ago however, my man’s parents gave us some new-to-us lawn chairs and table (they’re even my favourite colour: green!).  While my son did his routine last night, I was able to bring backpacks and everything inside, get the kids an after school snack, and make myself a chai. I then sat down in our new chairs on the front porch with my feet up, reading my book (shocking that it’s about Autism!), drinking my chai and still being able to keep an eye on my son.

A bonus too, is the view of and lovely fragrance resulting from the bush in my front yard:

Not a bad routine to have to “endure” each and every day!

We Now Love The Rain

I now get excited when I see they are calling for rain in the forecast, because it fills my new rain barrel:

Last night’s rain filled the barrel about a quarter of the way.  Hard to see but I was so excited!

My daughter however, has a completely different reason why she loves the rain…it brings out tons of snails!

And as we were watching the snails do their snail-y things last night, we found out that they eat ummm, protein. Who knew? This is 3 snails fighting over their protein, aka a dead worm.

#WordlessWednesday – Flowers

From my daughter and my man while we were all walking to the park after school yesterday. I’ll let you decide which is from whom.

New Math? Confusing Math!

My neighbour’s son brought home this math homework, to prepare for an upcoming test. She showed it to me for another opinion and I was confused. She’s good at math; I’m not (so I’m expecting not to understand, tee hee!). This is Grade 2 math.

Here are the first set of questions. My daughter and my neighbour’s son can easily add the initial problems:

But not when they want the Grade 2ers to solve them like this example:

Then it gets even more complicated where they want them to “fill in the doubles”. Not sure what the point of adding three other calculations to figure out the initial math problem. Can’t they just rearrange the numbers on top of eachother and add them that way? Seems like a huge “make work” project.

                  

Math was NOT my strongest subject in school. In fact, I was a solid 64% or 68% in all math classes in highschool (compared to 90s for my other subjects). I’m sure if I had to learn it this way, it would have been even lower. This gives me a headache just trying to figure out what they are asking for, let along if I was a 7 or 8 year old in this Grade 2 class. I’m really hoping this homework doesn’t come home with my daughter, who is also in Grade 2 but in a different school this year.

Our First Attempt at #Gardening

Last week, the kids and I planted some seeds in peat pods to start germinating our garden in our new home. The peat pods before doing anything with them:

Then we added water, as per the directions.

      (22 degrees Celsius and my son still wants to wear his mittens!)

The pods would start to float so my daughter would carefully push them down so they wouldn’t float away:

 

Then we started planting the seeds.

           

Our final product…we did it! We planted a bunch of veggies in one greenhouse, flowers in another. We have more seeds coming soon too so there will be more greenhouses.

Then we planted lavendar and basil in a planter for our porch too. The lavendar is in the middle circle drawn in the dirt, surrounded by basil. We’ll see if it works that way:

So exciting that only a couple of days later, the seeds in the peat pods are already starting to sprout. If only my son would agree with me as to where to put the mini greenhouses…they seem to have a passport around our dining room and living room with him moving them where ever he wants to.

#Opti-mom Lead a Faery Walk

Last month, Opti-mom organized a Faery Walk for some moms and daughters over March Break. Some of the girls dressed up as faeries so we were quite the sight as we were walking around a local conservation area. Our “goal” was to find evidence of faeries and much to our delight, we found them!

Possible faery homes:

                             

Feeding the birds at the beginning of our walk:

                (apparently I was deep in thought, and for the record, that’s not my arm)

           

Opti-mom hugging a tree, so my daughter joined her:

Possible cape left behind by a faery:

Possible table used by faeries:

Near the end of our walk, one of the girls squealed with glee…this is obviously evidence of faeries:

Afterwards, my daughter asked me if “Auntie Laurel” (aka Opti-mom) could lead another Faery Walk…we’ve decided to do one in each season. So much fun!