Where's Tv Mum?

Yet another TV Episode, it's part of the furniture, it's 'meant' to be on the cabinet, when you get home form school, you turn it on... then go outside and play... but it's still meant to be there, and if anyone tries to turn it off... well.. then you complain, loudly!

Actually, there's two recent TV tales to tell.

Firstly, with the recent renovations, we have had quite a few power tools and such around the house. We've been laying pavers with much much help from some friends, and one particular weekend was at the stage of cutting the pavers to fit in the little odd sections. The tool we were using was a wet-saw, which had a hose attached at one side and then power one the other side. We had attached a plastic bag over the power cable to protect it form water getting in, but... it wasn't completely water-tight.

After around an hour or so, the power to the entire living area of the house failed.

Jono knew what needed doing, so he grabbed my hand, lead me out to the power box outside and told me to fix the switch (yes, he has seen this before... but only the once or twice) I flicked the switch, and the TV started back up... he was fairly distressed at this stage, but once the power kicked back in he started to settle. Unfortunately... the TV didn't stay on (neither did anything else).

More tears, and grabbing my hand telling me to fix it... I went back to the swicth, tried again... and the same problem. Ok... so I start pulling devices out of the power to try and stabilise the circuit, unplugged the microwave, the kettle, the computer, the amplifier... none of which was helping at all. Then we realized.. the wet-saw! We went out and unplugged that, and a whole heap of water came out of the cable - luckily we had the safety switch built in.

So we turned it all back on and plugged it all back in, and showed Jono that it was now working, in response to which he held on to the top of the TV, gave it a hug and collapsed in a pile of tears - oh the drama and terror was over!

The second tale... again a problem with the TV. Daddy had taken the TV for a work conference, to use for displaying computer software on a large screen. He left the house before Jono was awake, so Jono didn't see it leave, however, when he got up he noticed. After he woke he came downstairs to get ready for school and saw it was missing. He said 'where's TV mum?' and I couldn't explain that it was gone for one day and coming back.. so I said it was missing. His solution? 'RT Edwards Mum!'... Yes honey, we can go get a new TV from RT Edwards.. but we have to wait until Daddy gets home tonight. This was acceptable and we got ready for school.

When we got home in the afternoon, he went to turn the TV on before he headed outside to play, forgetting what we sorted out in the morning, and no matter what I said, he just got upset, more and more upset. So we rang Daddy, we told Daddy 'TV Gone, RT Edwards', and Daddy talked with Jono until he calmed down. After that he was all happy, and when Daddy got home that night with the TV, life was all good again.

Habits, Routine, things have a place to be, and when they aren't there it just doesn't always make sense.

Simpsons... on... Mummy?

I haven't been aware just how much Jono really is aware of routine, if we go for a drive he's pretty relaxed, doesn't need to know where we are going. We don't have a regular day for shopping, we don't have regular after school activities, we mostly let things flow on the weekends and he's ok with it.
This week, not so.
Generally we have channel 10 on in the evenings, and he has recently let us know that simpsons is on at 6:00pm, he points to the clock and says the time, and settles in to watch out of one eye while playing on the computer.
This week Sarah has had an ear infection and wasn't allowed to swim, so she's been watching some other shows in the afternoon while the boys have been in the pool.

One afternoon she watched her show right past simpsons time and Jono wasn't watching the time. At 6:30, when Sarahs show finished, he came to me with the tv controller and asked 'Simpsons... On... Mummy?'

I looked him in the eyes and said ' no honey, it's too late, simpsons is finished'
At first he didn't seem to understand what I was saying... Then it started to dawn on him. I could see his face as recognition happened, his eyes went downcast, his mouth fell open and his face fell through the floor.

We spent the next 30 minutes to an hour in tears of dissapointment and frustration. I asked him if he wanted me to get simpsons from the video store (as if we need any more in our lives) but that didn't make sense.
He paced the back yard, yelled at the dogs, cried and eventually settled. Then he spent the rest of the night saying 'Simpsons on tomorrow'

Poor boy, routine... In tv at least, obviously matters to him. The next night there was a double simpsons episode, and life was good again.

When I grow up....

Jono has been doing a great amount of drawing at night-time again. We leave him in his room at bed time, but are ok for him to wander around a bit and 'do' stuff, he often doesn't settle down for sleep until around 10:00pm or so, but he generally stays happy in his room, prancing, drawing building blocks and the occasional 'yelp' of joy.

So, lately he's been drawing a range of things that 'could' be what he wants to do with his life. over a few nights in succession.

He Loooooves cooking, and cooking shows, and the recent Masterchef series has been on a bit at home and he's seen a few shows. around 2-3 nights after the show finished he drew a picture from it... it took a few days to realise what he had drawn, but I asked him a lot of thinhs, finally coming to 'is it clothes?' and got an ecsatic yes. He drew the masterchef apron, with the symbol, and with someone's name on it.


The next night, he drew this...
His fascination with space continues, will he perhaps help building a new colony on another planet? Or maybe this is evidence of aliens building pyramids?

then the next night, he drew this... perhaps he simply wants to be a weatherman.
It's not raining at the top, but yes it's sunny in the middle, and it will be raining down south.


It's interesting to see all this coming out of his head in a way that makes sense to us as well as to him.

Clothes Optional

We've been getting on with the pool and it's really looking great, so pleased we are making it happen, and the kids are completely loving it... especially water / tactile boy who is constantly 'going swimming'.

So far, the concrete shell got made, and then we had a week of rain, so we've had a decent 'puddle' in the bottom of the pool for the kids to splash around in. As it's school holidays I bought a remote controlled tank that transformed into a boat of sorts, and can also spurt water at people (I pity the dogs).

I thought the boat thing would help the kids to play 'with' the water without getting 'in' the water... I was wrong.

Jono would go outside each morning, undo the temporary pool fencing, clamber on down into the pool and sit on the bottom dangling his legs in the puddle. Then he would through rocks and dirt and leaves and sticks in... then he started to take his clothes off.

One afternoon, we'd had workmen during the day fixing the pump and the pipes, they'd packed up and left for the day, or so I thought. I was in the kitchen fixing some food and from the corner of my eye I saw what looked like paper being thrown out of the pool, as I watched another piece got thrown. Being fairly sure the workmen had left I went out to check. The items I thought were paper were actually Jono's shirt and shorts, and he was knee deep in the pool. In the middle of Winter!

5 minutes later, his little sister throws abandon, caution and warmth to the wind and is in the water with him. I gave them both a few minutes, then dragged them into a warm shower to add some colour back into their cheeks.

Since then, he's been doing the same thing most days. I get the feeling he'll be the same when we actually fill the pool. Water babies!

Mum, Look et dis!

We,ve been doing some rather major renovations of our house lately.. specifically building a pool in the backyard. I honestly didn't realize just how much mess and dirt and mud there was going to be. We've asked them to do some extra landscaping work while the excavator has been on site so I feel that every single part of the house has been trashed. *hums to self.. it's only temporary*

Co-incidentally Jono has been getting us a lot more involved in his world lately, he will call out for someone to look 'et dis' (at this) and point, sometimes we have no clue what he is looking at sometimes we can guess it, occasionally he will give a description, which often goes along the lines of 'mumble, jumble, gargle, wargle, TRUCK'. ahh... he saw a truck. Then we can ask questions like: What colour was it Jono? and he will answer, it's a white one.

We are up to 4-5 word sentences that are impromptu, structured by him and make sense. It's wonderful! So... back to the pool. This next part I'll be doing in pictures, as I simply cannot describe this.

Firstly, our yard kinda 'before' we started all this.















Next, our yard part way through the leveling of the land.















And... here's a mud puddle that grew in the corner.... Yes, that 'is' Jono walking near it to go to the swingset on the top terrace... no he didn't fall in it, on this day. However...
















One of the morning we were madly running to get out the door to school, all the kids were dressed, and I was getting the last things into their school bags so we could get out the door. Jono was in the backyard on the swing (which he loves) and I thought he would have no problems staying clean.

I told the kids, 2 minutes and we are leaving.. and the next thing I hear is a little voice at the back door "Mum, Look et dis" I can hear a grin in the voice so I go to check it out. I wasn't prepared. He had slipped and fallen in to the mud puddle, and was thrilled!! At first I raced him to the shower, then I stopped grabbed the camera and took photos with him laughing the whole time.


















I marched him back outside quickly for a few more photos. So I didn't have even more mud through the house. Daniel grabbed my phone and took some photos on there as well.
















Amazingly, we still made it to school on time!

Dance like you are 'unaware'

Many of us have heard the adage: "Work like you don't need the money, Love like you've never been hurt and dance like no-one is watching."

There are many forms of the quote these days, and it's hard to find the 'true' source, some attributing it to Irish Proverbs and Mark Twain. Regardless, the heart of the message is one I find inspirational... live for the now and don't allow yourself to be held back by others.

Recently I've been having a few discussions with people along these lines. We've talked about how people feel a 'pressure' to fit in, which can cause some of them to behave differently. The outcome of this is that many adults wonder who they are, and what happened on their life journey to become someone they are not.

For people with Autism the pressure to fit in may be a heavier weight than the rest of us. The humming, pacing and flapping that many Autistic children do is often frowned upon by society. I'm fairly certain that Jono is completely unaware of the looks we sometimes get from people when out at the park or at the shops... I notice it though.

He usually hums when moving, walking should somehow be accompanied by noise... wether it just 'feels' good, or it's now an ingrained habit I am unsure, but one thing I am sure of I is that as he goes on in life people will ask him what he is doing, make fun of him for doing it and at times demand him to stop. People will be people.

Currently his brother and sister will mimic him at times, and he gets annoyed with them. Which again I am unsure, it may be that he realises they are 'making fun' of him... or that he doesn't want someone else doing it becuase it is 'his'... or perhaps he doesn't like it being brought to his notice. Until they bring it up though, he is largely 'unaware' that he is doing it.

So where does the dancing come into this? My daughter will dance along to a song, and suddenly notice people are watching and get embarrased and stop. She tells me she is worried what other people will think of her. I tell her don't worry, because they are all worrying what other people will think of them.

It's a big lesson to learn, especially for one who is only 6 years old.. but I hope she gets it, I want all my kids to get it. This is one lesson Jonathan can teach all of us.


He doesn't hold back. He doesn't feel judged. He isn't aware of others looks, and he is just comfortable being himself.

This week in your life,
Dance... like you are 'unaware'.

Update: The day after I wrote this, I had a 'sleepover' at my Mum's place, helping her with something. I left my place around 7pm, wearing a trackpants, long shirt and a fluffy polar fleece dressing gown, as I knew we wouldn't go out anywhere. On the way home the next morning, I stopped at a petrol station... and 'almost' took off the dressing gown so I could appear more normal. Then I remembered this, and left it on because it was warmer, who cares what people think!! It was a good feeling :)

Gluten Free doesn't have to be boring!

Even though at the moment we are very 'relaxed' about being GF and CF in our foods, we find that overall they increase the health of every member of the family when we do have them. Some foods I simply haven't changed, we still drink soy milk, we have rice biscuits and so on.

Recently I explored into different ways of making fun foods that suited the gfcf diet and found a few. One which we particularly love from www.rainbowfrenzy.com - the Rainbow Cake.

For this one I simply use a gf buttercake recipe mix and colour each portion with vegetable colours. We've also made them as cupcakes, it's a lot of fun to make and makes the fairly plain but tasty recipe just that little more interesting.

It's also great to get Jono into the kitchen and creating, he enjoyed making these cakes as it was just so different to what we have done before, and he enjoys playing with the colours as we go.

Another great place for GF recipes is omnomicon, the recipe she's got here for the pancakes simply looks amazing, and can be adapted for gfcf very easily. (of course, don't make cheddar ones, but just plain ones if cheese is not on the diet... or change to a soy cheese).

Another great recipe place is Gluten-Free Mommy, this site is a wonderful range of recipes, from breakfasts through to dinners, even multi course meals! In planning dinners week by week this is a great resource for trying a few new recipes to introduce to the family a few new flavours and interests while finding favourites, or new twists on favourites.

If I try something and it doesn't quite work for some reason... well, I have 2 dogs ;)