Days of my life , the last week of April

One more ordinary week of my life ( a little bit long - but guess what this is what I know I will really enjoy reading in April 2014 )

Wednesday

Today I told myself that I will not be lazy - I will do floortime .

But of course I forgot the first rule of floortime

Which is to observe

At first he was on the swing in the playground and I was trying to get him to think of substituting words in the "Farmer in the Dell " to "Papa in the house "..

OMG so much resistance

 I found myself  thinking in a victim-like way - how hard it is to get him to participate

But as I watched him - my mood shifted

I thought of all the things that were wrong with my approach

How I had forgotten that the first rule of playing with the child is to observe ?

I watched him sitting beneath the tree shredding a leaf

And I st next to him and shredded the leves with him

Soon we were making a pile of leave together

Then he wanted to play ringa ringa roses

Now HE WAS changing the words of the sonds and were doing ringa ringa roses dance to new songs

Such a silly thing to do with an 8 year old child but I felt that magic moment of connectedness

I have kept myself from a connection with all my assumptions of how things should be

Yes its very difficult to get R to play

But its not so difficult to connect

Later 2 little girls came and jeered at R wanting to swing in the little swing - and he just did not bother

And I though that this is the quintessestial moment that mothers blog about when you get the stab in the heart

But I did not feel anything

Except for the fact that those two little girls  were maybe mean kids , or they were maybe not meaning anything

But who cares -we  swung in the baby swing cheerfully and it was a lovely sunny evening in the park



Friday

Today at work I struggled with computers

After work - I went to Zumba.

 One of my friends from saved a spot - right in the front for me.

This was super prestigious but the flip side was that I could not shuffle at all .

I had to be super energetic and heave my bulk around - So exhausting

But it was all worth it when Derek ( guy who teaches the class - came down among us in the middle of the song ) - all of us huffed and puffed our portly selves .

DH and R also came to the club and DH took Rohan swimming

We went to the planetarium - AMAZING show - (for kids but I learned a a lot

I had forgotten all about light years and stars being born and dying and black holes )

R was a moaner  and complainer

DH yelled at him in the car for never wanting to try anything new

He weeped piteously and borrowed my Phone to play Nursery rhymes

1. Twinkle twinkle ( to show in fact that he WAS Interested in stars )

1. Ding dong bell .. to play the line "what a naughty boy was that " ( to show his contrition )

I intervened diplomatically y and a crisis was averted and we ended the night with Applebees -

where R stunned us by eating hot buffalo wings ( which are really chicken nuggets now that I think about it )

The weekend

Woke up late with DH and R  wrapped around me. This is my favorite way to wake up.


DH and I went for a walk when the therapist was doing ABA with Rohan but it started raining heavily so we only walked a mile ( so old people like )

Still pretty good as far as weekends go

I also was super organised for the week

(Though sometimes I wonder why am I always getting ready for something .
Then I do that thing ....Then its time to get ready for the next thing


We went to the Pro club that R loves- he did the usual ( jump etc ) get stuck on the slide then the walk of shame as all the kids wait impatiently as the instructor climbed to get him down

There is a large play area and R played with the blocks and made a giraffe and a camel ( the two things miss Gypis taught him )

This below is a giraffe

Here is a camel ( Alice ) with 5 humps

Oh Gypsi - I miss her so much

Sadie, Kristen, Tori - my Knoxville family !!!

I send her a FB message and we  have a love fest

I am so glad I always err on the side of being a sentimental person

R insists we buy him a cookie and eats it just like that - see that large butterfly cookie next to him )

Monday

(One of my friends told me that he hates the word "plump" .He also later told me the word "moist" gives him heebie jeebies

A few months later he confessed his phobia of raisins -

So of course now I sign every email with "Plump moist raisins")

I digress....

Guess why plumpness is on my mind

its cause I am not losing any weight

I finally broke down and bought a pair of Levis that are made for people who have large behinds

They are called "demi curve id ( translate junk in the trunk )

So I am eating SUPER healthy but not losing any weight

Why is it so hard to lose weight ?

I don't want to go hard core 17 day diet as its super hard to do and it requires the level of planning that I am just not prepared to do- DH and I did this once and it really worked

But I may have to do it anyways as this way (sort of )  is depressing

I watched a documentary on Netflix on why we are so fat ( answer Sedentary lifestyle and food industry, lack of sleep  and diet soda)


It was a rainy cold day ( cannot believe its almost may - so cold here still )

However there was a silver lining in this as well

Since it was so cold and miserable R ad I played and swung all by our selves s

We jump on the benches

Make up songs

( though in retrospect I hope that he will not sing the song of "this is the way mama dances round the pole " to  here we go round the mulberry bush )

The cold was totally worh it

We even manage our picnic

R has been mistreating his Wii Discs - so I have put them away so he will have to ask for them in a 1 by 1 basis

I have left a note for him ( later next week I find that he has colored on the note and also hunted his discs)

Tuesday - Thursday

Followed the same pattern

Sunny days - that I spend busy at work

Sunny evenings that we made good use of by going daily to the park

Thursday I prevent a girl from being bullied in the park and I feel so happy about it

Friday

I get to work from home in the afternoon  which I am super happy about

R has the day off ( admin day at school ) and is super happy to have me home

We  meet our neighbor

All I know about her before this is that she homeschools 3 kids and is from Kansas.

Based on this , I had instantly stereotyped her in my mind as a perfect and superior  person  like Gwenyth Paltrow. ( my reader friends you know me well and know that this is not a compliment )

In meeting her, she is really sweet and instantly won my affection by saying that she had bought some chocolate to welcome us but then had eaten it herself

R scratches his butt and since he has been weeping a little while ago he looks like an urchin  ( as his father had threatened him with not getting to sleep on the couch that night . This is his weekend treat and means a lot to him. Weekdays he must sleep in his bedroom . Weekends he sleeps on the couch watching us as we watch TV after dinner and drifting off to sleep on a couch with a blanket  ) -

Still she says how high functioning he seems ( I know this is a very bad word in the autism community - but I still like this term when its used for R )

We go to the park and R tried to engage me once again in his scripts

"Leo says " he prompts ( waiting for me to say "we got a mission")
I oblige

And then I floortime him " And mama says ....."

I look expectantly

And he replies " Mama says .. I love you "

And I am floored