Today’s Score: Tristan-2 Mom-0

In this game of life I sometimes keep score Today I am not winning.

Duped!

Two days in a row I had to clean the back seat in the car. Two days in a row Tristan had an accident in the car after swimming at the lake.  The first day I changed him out of his clothes and he would not use the restroom.  Let me just say, you can NOT make a child go to the bathroom.  You can encourage and prompt, but that is it. This was one of those times.  On the second day, I changed Tristan and forgot to take him to the restroom.  By the third day I announced to my friend, “I am ready for today.  I am going to put him in a diaper after we swim, because I don’t want to clean the car AGAIN!”  On the third day, I changed him out of his swimming trunks and into a diaper.

Now before I go further into this story, let me give some information on autism and sensory issues.  Children/adults with autism have sensory issues.  They process sights, sounds, touch, taste, and smells differently than other people.  Children/adults fall into two categories,  They either avoid sensory or seek sensory.  Tristan seeks out sensory input.  He will rip a book to hear the sound.  He will play with confetti tissue paper to feel the texture.  He will dump soap to watch it drip or spill.  I know this sounds strange, but Tristan likes the feel of a wet diaper.  I don’t know why.  Therefore he is often dumping soap into his diaper or dumping a cup of water in it.  I hope I have given you a quick understanding of sensory issues.

Now I will continue this story

After swimming, Tristan was fine with the plan of wearing a diaper.  On our way home, I stopped at the gas station.  Getting into the hot car suddenly made me thirsty,  So I bought a soda.   I shared a soda with Tristan by pouring some into an empty water bottle.  I finished pumping gas and then drove away.  A few minutes later my friend said, “I should have known this was going to happen.  Tristan poured the pop down his diaper!”  All I can say is I really felt duped!  I thought I had this day all figured out.

Someday when I to get to heaven, I have many questions to ask Tristan!

Enjoy another healthy dose of laughter from our home!

The Final Chapter

Every day brings new surprises.

My friend, Tash, and I took Tristan out for a few hours.  We left Jacob and his friend, Trevor, at home to hang out.  Upon returning the boys had quite an encounter to share.  This is how the conversation unfolded:

Way To Go, Tristan!

It has been Vacation Bible School week at church.

The Ultimate Strategy

I have never thought of this subject in great detail. 

Say What?

When Tristan attended Kindergarten and First grade, we took him to school. The nice part was we got to interact with the teachers and assistants on a daily basis.  One day, there was an interesting greeting.  Mrs. S said, “Good Morning Mr. Fontaine how are you?”  Brian replied.  Although what he said and what Mrs. S heard were two different words.  So, Mrs. S paused and said, “Wow that is pretty good. I don’t know what to say.”  Brian replied he was “terrific”, but Mrs. S thought he said “perfect”.  Another healthy dose of laughter from our home!

The Rest of the Story

No we did not find the eye,  The next step was to call the ocularist to have a new eye made.  So the next morning I called Mr. J.   I explained our problem that Tristan’s eye had been flushed down the toilet.  Mr. J listened and then responded that a few times a year he gets similar phone calls,  In fact, he just spoke to a lady whose eye was on the counter and bounced off into the toilet as it was being flushed.   He said this is just one of those freak accidents.   I could not believe it!  We got the eye replaced rather quickly.  Another healthy dose of laughter from our home!

The Rules

        Over the years we have had quite of few different respite care workers in our home.  Some people we would find in the community on our own,  While others would come from an agency that provided respite caregivers.  It is always an interesting process of explaining our son, Tristan, to each of his caregivers.  We try to remember every detail.  At one point I had a script written out to refer to.  The rules go something like this:  1) keep all doors locked—He is risk of elopement.  Do not lose him! 2) If you need it cooler in our home, turn up the A/C.  Do not open the windows, he will crawl out.  3) Food is an emotional issue.  Please feed him upon request.  Reassure we have food.  4)  He has an artificial eye.  Not to scare you but it can come out.  Let me show you what the old one looks like to familiarize you 5) Tristan is like a two year old who is curious.  Please keep that in mind.  He will test you to see if you can handle him.  6)  Call us if you need ANYTHING.  7) Have Fun!

That pretty much sums it up.  I often leave the house hoping the time goes smoothe. The next post will continue with some of the workers and their experiences.  You won’t want to miss out!