Hey everyone!
Before I get this blog started, I almost said “hey all you cool cats and kittens!” Can you tell I fell for the Tiger King hype? lol Anyway, we are on week 3 of self isolation! I can’t believe it’s been that long.
The good thing is that time is flying. The bad thing is there are days during the week that seem to never end. I guess we can’t have it all. I know it’s been a while since my last blog so I will make this one a recap with some current things going on.
Week 2
Week two of self-isolation and distant learning was actually pretty good to us. AJ adjusted to his new schedule that I talked about in the last blog and just blew through his schoolwork. We were doing about six sheets a day.
If you are on our Facebook and Instagram pages (I’ll link below) then you saw the video I made of him just going beast on his counting activities. He was successfully counting items and then circling the correct answer on a multiple choice sheet. When he would slip up by counting too fast, I would have him touch each item and then use his communication tablet to tell me how many he counted.
He doesn’t need the tablet per say, but it just helps him express his knowledge and slow down. If it were up to him, he would just skim the sheets. AJ tends to focus the first three or so problems then daze off. His knowledge is there but his attention span isn’t the best right now. We give him a lot of wiggle breaks for that reason.
The rest of week two was about the same. We stuck to our schedule and played outside when we could. Towards the end of the week we all started to lose our fuel. AJ needed more help to push through. I helped him finish a task hand over hand, which I am now paying for (I’ll talk about it in week 3). After having a great day working, the next day AJ was not about any schoolwork. We ended up taking that day off. It’s all about picking and choosing battles over here.
If you are wondering what Lucina was up to, she was getting into just about everything and found every marker in the house. The girl did a makeup tutorial on her face while I was cooking some lunch. It was so funny I couldn’t be mad at her. Heck, she did some amazing green eyeliner lol.
When the weekend rolled along, the kids got to spend a day with Joe. He’s been working a lot, so they haven’t had a chance to enjoy the nice weather together. We ended up spending our Saturday outside with water play, swinging and cooked some burgers. Turns out our pool was missing a part, so we need a new one. The kids weren’t fond of the slip-n-slide. Honestly, that thing was a little dangerous. One misstep and the kids would hit the floor a little hard. We don’t need any emergency room trips.
While the family was enjoying the outdoors, I went to Walmart. That was a disaster. I don’t go to the store unless I really need to. Never again will I go on a Saturday. It was so packed and not many people were “social distancing” even though there were markings on the floor that said where to stand.
I was talking to my friend and we came up with a hilarious shirt to make. I just need to make it when I get some time. It is inspired by Ludacris haha.
Week 3
Fast forward through the weekend and we are in week three. This week is the hardest. We aren’t dealing with any behaviors (meltdowns/self-harm) but everyone is just tired. I am mentally spent, and AJ just doesn’t have it in him to do schooling. I ended up taking Monday off to give everyone a break. We all probably had too much screen time too. When Tuesday rolled along, AJ had the hardest time completing tasks.
I still made him do at least two worksheets. They are sheets that he otherwise would finish pretty fast with no complaints. That wasn’t the case this week. My hand over hand assistance became a crutch. Now there is some protesting each sheet. The protesting is AJ wanting me to hold his hand and guide it, basically taking control and doing the work 90% of the way for him.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to see how far they can get someone else to do their work? AJ can be manipulative like that lol. I am just worried I back tracked him and he will have a hard time when he goes back to occupational therapy. Mom is currently in fix it mode. I am making him work through it and not providing hand over hand to get him back to where he was before I messed it up.
To work around the frustration, I have been working with Lucina in the mornings and AJ after lunch. This gives Lucina the 1-1 attention she loves and gives AJ time to process that his work time is coming up. Lucina is just a crafter and school lover at heart so luckily no push back from her.
Shifting back to occupational therapy, we are going to try teletherapy on Friday. I have no clue if AJ will take to it, sit down long enough or surprise us and do his work with no help. His therapist is going to be online via webcam and will instruct him what to do for his task. He usually works on food tolerance, pen to paper work, and fine motor skills.
Typically, AJ will perform and do things for his therapist (like put new food in his mouth) but won’t carry that over at home. He associates skills and expectations to people and buildings, so right now it is hard for him to carry over skill sets to different environments . It will be interesting to see if he will complete the same tasks with her on the screen but in the home environment. His OT is usually one hour long in the clinic; I have doubts that he will sit that long at home by a computer. I will keep y’all updated on how that plays out.
As for other therapies, he still gets 1-1 speech at home but is out of all clinic based therapies (aba, pt, ot) by my request. AJ’s immune system is not the best and I am not taking any chances. School is supposed to open back up April 24th but that was announced before the President extended the social distancing to April 30th. We shall see what happens with that.
Today is April first which is the start of Autism Awareness Month. I already share bits and pieces of our life on social media, but my posts this month will have more detailed captions to highlighting any autism tendencies AJ has. This is not to single AJ out. The goal is to show what autism looks likes for him/us day to day. I will be working on a diagnosis blog and probably a video sometime this month, so keep an eye out for that.
In the meantime, I have to go to both kids’ schools to pick up more work packets and I am trying my best to keep a healthy mentality.
The past weekend and start of week 3 were draining for me. I felt irritated, alone and just tired. With a start of a new month, I will be working hard to stay positive and not sit in negative feelings. It can be hard for me sometimes since Joe works a lot, but it’s nothing new. I just have to push through and keep things going. I won’t be fronting for anyone; my face and personality is incapable of that. I will be doing it for my kids and for my mental well-being.
We have two more “school” days and then it’s the weekend. We can’t go anywhere but maybe I’ll try and have the kids do chalk art like everyone else is doing. Lucina will be down, but AJ might need some convincing. He is like me and loathes coloring lol.
Let me know how y’all are hanging in there with all this madness. Stay happy and healthy friends!
Until next blog ❤
RAISING OPPOSITES 