Here it is! Abbey’s Year video!! I don’t think I got around to doing one last year, but we have several older ones on our YouTube channel. It’s amazing to see how far she has come! She’s happier than ever, communicating more than ever and is really getting the hang of going new places and trying new things!
Celebrate with us as we look back and see how we have helped Abbey learn and grow!
Click here to watch Abbey’s Year 2014!
It took her the entire week, but she finally seems to have adjusted to the time change!
Whew, what a week!
What a difference that one little hour makes! Usually Abbey adjusts so well to change, and it took me a couple of days to figure out what the actual problem was. Abbey doesn’t know how to tell time, but we’ve always known, for years, that she has some kind of internal clock. When there is something that always happens at the same time, she starts sensing when it’s supposed to happen. So, when the clocks rolled back an hour, she got up Monday morning and even though I tried to tell her that she had school, when the time came and went, she thought she was staying home. We had 4 grumpy, “I’m not going to school” days in a row because of this! She likes to stay home, but knows she needs to go to school, so if there’s a chance to stay home and then you take it away…watch out! She saw her chance and I kept taking it away!:(
So, solution for future dilemma’s like this?? My home team worked on a visual for Abbey to know whether it is school or not. I’ll share when it’s done, if it’s helping her.:) We’re hoping this will also give her a meaningful way to understand the days of the week and understand the calendar that she practices every day!
Click on the video below!
The Abster is a grumpster this morning, didn’t want to get ready for school! We distract and stay busy once we’re all ready and waiting for the bus!
She wasn’t very into doing her exercises with me this morning, but she did them. Then we smelled the roses and pulled the petals off to stay busy for the rest of the time. This is a favorite activity for Abbey, but I don’t let her do it very often, so she sure got into that!
Here she is with the roses:)
Click on the video below to see her doing her exercises, rather grumpily:
P.S. She’s carrying her iPad mini in a Chat Bag, found at http://www.chatbag.net
Here’s Abbey actually playing with some toys appropriately, which is hard to come by! Ok, well, kind of.:) It’s super neat to see her playing and not ‘stacking or piling!’
You’ll also notice the sensory component that is included in everything she does!!
Here’s Abbey asking for the same thing over and over….she’s got a one-track mind today!
It’s been a rough week of not enough sleep for either of us. We’re doing much better now so I’m counting my blessings as she repeats herself over and over, so thankful that it’s in such a nice sentence!:)
We all have days where we are tired and grumpy, right? I think parents with kids with autism can have plenty of them…with kiddos that don’t sleep well and so much to do! It’s too easy to fall into the grumpy trap when things are so overwhelming and then when sleep doesn’t happen..wham, it’s almost too hard to push it away! The worst is when our kiddos pick up on it, as they often do, and become grumpy too!
Well, yes, I’m having a tired and grumpy couple of days. I have to make myself do the things that make me feel better, like walking, not eating just chocolate all day, etc..
So, what do you do to feel better when you are tired and grumpy, autism moms and dads?
Click on the video below…
” title=”Mama Be Good, seven things to do together”>
Today was a patience testing kind of day. It takes an extraordinary amount of patience to raise a child with autism and I have a lot of it, most of the time…but sometimes, I wonder, do I have enough??
She’s starting to understand more and more what she’s supposed to do and what she’s not, but sometimes the temptations are too much for her and there she goes into everything again, or not stopping to play outside to come in and go potty. She’ll go months and months doing great and then once she does it, seems like she does it over and over and over! She listens well….trick is, as long as I’m patient and firm, together! She can totally tell now when I’m getting frustrated, oh dear!
Abbey has made so much progress communicating and with so many of her really hard behaviors, but why does it seem like when they make great progress in one area, another area gets harder?
It seems like Abbey’s sensory world just gets completely out of control, out of this world crazy sometimes, and we’re seeing it now more than ever! Is it just because she’s so much bigger and older now? She has broken a very long list of things in her house like her window, holes in walls, our couch, her bed, more chairs than I can remember, just to name a few…and none of them when she was mad! She broke all of these things just rocking, bouncing, jumping around in big, huge movements. We have swings inside and out, exercise balls, stuff to chew on, sensory stuff all over our house for her to play with…but it’s just not enough. Will we be able to find something that is enough? I don’t know, but we’re working on it! We’re working on another outside trampoline as her inside one just doesn’t seem to do much for her…but, problem is, she’s so heavy and so rough on things, we need a really good, safe one…yes, expensive, just like everything Abbey needs and breaks! Well, more praying! AND, as we work on these really hard things, we’re just gonna keep on focusing and celebrating the great things that are happening, ’cause that’s what it’s all about!
Yes, Abbey’s loud and does a lot of odd looking things. She’s nonverbal and highly affected by autism. I know the things she does can be really embarrassing for her siblings sometimes. As they get older, I think it gets a bit easier. I’d like to think and I’d hope that her siblings would agree, though, that the Abbey has a lot to teach people. I think she’s taught us all a lot of life lessons and brought a lot of sunshine to our lives!
abbeysvoice 