The Only Book That Survived…

Nugget and Fang by Tammi Sauer

This book that Tristan is holding is the only book guaranteed to survive his destruction.

Alone! Not As I Planned

I had an activity all planned for Tristan. The nighttime Easter egg hunt. It is a neat activity to do. I loaded the 20 easter eggs with mini LED lights and placed them in the FRONT yard. Ooohhh it looked so pretty too!

Who You Gonna Call?

When Tristan was about 6 years old he would NEVER sit.  He was always on the move.  I had to chase my ever growing non-verbal “toddler” every waking moment.  Most of the time I felt more like a security guard instead of a mom. Or maybe a life guard on land(not that one really exists).  If something looked dangerous he would gravitate towards it.  This went on for years…

Counting the Days…

Quarantine.  Pandemic.  Shelter in place.  These words mean a lot to many of us.  In Tristan’s world not so much.  His routine has changed but many aspects of his life remain the same.   He is not worried about much.  His main concern is food.  Overall he is content.  But when he is bored…watch out!  He will create his own entertainment.  Here is one example.

This was one of the latest updates I received from his group home.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Living In The Moment –No Expectations

We had a great family day with Tristan at Santa’s Village! What I love about raising Tristan is how he lives in the moment. I wish I had this gift naturally.

Part 2- The Most Embarrassing School Note

This is Part 2…

Last week I shared when my son, Tristan, pulled the fire alarm at school.

I was so embarrassed!  Let me continue the rest of the story…

After I crawled out from under the rock and got my thoughts together I desperately wanted to know if this was going to happen again.  I knew I had to know more about Tristan’s reaction.  I waited to hear from the school.  A few weeks went by… and I heard NOTHING regarding Tristan pulling the fire alarm.

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!

I Have A Phobia…

Friday night at 6:45 PM, I left home for a few minutes to pick up our teenager at the YMCA.

As soon as I walked in the door Brian gave me a look and told me this story.

Mountain Fresh Scent!

Brian and I had decided to head out to the movies.  This was a last minute decision because our schedule suddenly had some free time!  We left and all seemed well.  Upon returning, while Brian was searching for his front door key I could see our friend through the window.  I said, “Oh no she looks stressed.  I wonder what has happened.”  We walked in and she announced, “All was well until about 10 minutes ago.”  I immediately noticed how Mountain Fresh the house smelled.  Which was okay by me!  I looked around as she was talking.  Trying to process the smell and what could have happened.  Come to find out, Tristan decided to start dumping everything liquid into his night time diaper.  (He does this for the sensory input.)  This included a whole bottle of laundry detergent.  The laundry soap leaked out of his diaper on the way to the bathroom to take a bath.  A giant pool of laundry soap was in the laundry room and a trail of soap led all the way to the bathroom.  At one point our teenage son came out of his room and noticed our friends stress level.  He asked if she was okay.  It must have been bad if he noticed!  LOL  Thus the Mountain Fresh Smell in my home!   Another healthy dose of laughter from our home!

Another Haircut!

I can not believe this!  If I didn’t see this with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it.  If I didn’t take a picture I really do not think anyone else would believe me.  I quickly ran to get the camera.  CLICK! I caught Tristan in the bathroom cutting his own hair  with Brian’s electric hair clippers!!!  For months, this is the same child who would resist us simply brushing his hair.  I began using sensory brushes to try and help.  I hate to say this, but we didn’t really have a good plan.  Brian and I were well aware of the fact that Tristan’s hair would continue to grow.  Therefore, this was one problem I could not just ignore!  I must have been stressing over this because I had a dream that I cut his hair.  Thankfully I had some real life angels descend upon him at school to complete this task.   When I picked him up from school he was NOT happy about this activity.    So why he would repeat this one on his own is mind boggling and of course funny. If you look closely there is a little bit of hair gone.  I am not worried… it will grow back.  Another healthy dose of laughter from our home!