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Phoebe Gleeson blogs about life, mothering, knitting, and stuff.
I figured out where I can hide the laptop and blog in passing. I’m in the linen closet. Yes I am that pathetic!
So I’ve been reading lots and lots of autism stuff. Well, more autism stuff, because I’ve been reading autism stuff for the last year and a half. Here are some really good essays and blog posts I have found recently:
If There’s No Autism Epidemic, Where Are All the Adults With Autism?
Getting Started with RDI
Defining Autism for a Friend and An Open Letter to Autistics and their Parents
Bede and I have had some really good moments with Floortime and RDI lately. When you have neurotypical children, you expect them to just sort of ‘get it’ when it comes to learning new things. It’s hard to rethink that when you have an autistic child. Bede doing something once means exactly that: he did it once. He may or may not do it again. So, as our moments accrue and collect in his mind they are much more likely to be refered to again and built on. It’s like the whole world, the whole universe has to be thought out for Bede. He doesn’t have any of the social constructs to hang things on because his frameworks are all intellectual structures. They are full of emotion as well, of course and are rich with passion and humor, but they are HIS frameworks and they aren’t necessarily like mine at all. So, I build like him and he’s trying to build like me. It’s great stuff.
I probably didn’t make much sense there.
The trouble with closetblogging is you have to cut your thoughts short. So, that’s that. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
(PS Cass I see you tagging me! I promise I’ll get to it when I get a sec! Thanks 
OK, I think it’s round the bend. It has been shockingly hot to the touch and it’s almost normal now, temperature-wise. The entire area is deep reddish purple and the swelling is almost gone, leaving a hard lump that I think will gradually get smaller and smaller. The white blister areas are a little bigger today but the pain is almost gone.
Yesterday she was very sweaty and really, really crabby all day, which is another indication that her little body was finally purging the toxins. So, no chance of kidney trouble, whew (a rare but very bad side effect of brown recluse venom.)
I think I’ll stop updating unless it gets worse. Assume no news is good news.
Argh, sorry to not update on this.
It’s now dark reddish purple and formed a small white blister where the actual bite occurred. It’s getting a little smaller and the swelling is going down very slowly. It doesn’t seem to hurt as much as it did, either, but she’s still favoring it very much.
Faith and Bede are playing together. Bede is telling Faith what words to write on the Magnadoodle and she’s doing it. They are both so engaged with each other, and happy, and it just makes my heart swell.
Bede, looking intently at Faith: Want see ‘cat’?
Faith: ‘Cat’?
Bede: O-KAY!
Faith writes CAT, Bede chuckles appreciatively, repeats it and erases.
Bede: Want see ‘horse’?
(scene repeats)
But yer not gettin’ video because Bede’s nakey. Trust me, it’s darling.
I’m setting all comments to moderation, even for previous posters. So don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up, I’ll see it!
Gilbert has had me watching this version of Clocks as synched to the Muppets for about an hour now.
Sing with me… You are…
On a related note, am I the only one who thinks of her beautiful children when she hears Yellow? Makes me cry, I swear…
I never quite know where to answer comments. I should be consistent and either answer them like this in their own entry or in the actual comments field of the post. I like this better.
Margo: I had no idea. I’m glad that’s working well for him/them!
Megan: answered you in the comments over there. From now on I’ll be more consistent!
Sophia/Abigail/Lydia/Emily: I can feel your loving for That Boy. It means more than you think. Thanks. (Em: be nosy as you want, no problem)
Deanne: Thanks! I’ll try to post somethng thoughtful soon. More thoughtful, less scattered.
Jennifer Z: Regarding the hairwashing/light touch tolerance - that’s not Bede, it’s Abby! I’ll try those ideas. Her main source of stress is having to keep her eyes closed as she’s pretty claustrophobic, but helping her relax can’t hurt.
You know, when you first started seeking answers for Zane’s behavior and then got an autism spectrum diagnosis, my thoughts went along these lines “What? Autism? That’s crazy! Why, he’s a lot like Bede! And Bede’s… not… autis… tic. Right? Right? Huh. Um, let me get back to you on that.” (Well that’s a year’s worth of thoughts on it distilled into a sentence.)
I’m not sad really, just sort of out of breath, emotionally speaking. Rough week. I think it is pretty rollercoastery. One of the things that helps is seeing that Bede’s autistic traits are very focused versions of personality traits that Sean and I have. In my case, not even that much more focused! It’s all going to be all right.
After all, if you rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.