Washingtonians

[Ogress]

Since the kids are coming back from camp tomorrow, I decided to tackle their rooms last night and throw out a bunch of crud they'd never agree to get rid of. I just started DS's room when I found a giant spider, and it is REALLLL!!!! It is not a wolf spider; shaped more like a black widow without the red. I told DH HE needs to tackle Alex's room!

I also got a call from the camp. They told me that Alex is very polite and sweet, having a great time, and he seems to be very happy, but they are concerned that Alex doesn't hang out with the other kids, and won't take part in group activities. They wanted to know if there are issues going on at home. I guess they did not read the medical form they had us fill out that says he's autistic! After riding lessons, he hangs out in the barns and helps the staff take care of the horses, and they say he has really bonded with his horse. When it is time to do other activities with his cabin mates, he follows them out to where they are going, but does not join in. Instead, he'll find a mound of dirt or a log and he'll run and jump over it a bunch of times, and it looks like he really enjoys doing this.

Alex does have a few friends that he interacts well with. All 3 are also high functioning autistic boys with the same interests. I think I will talk to their moms and see if they can go to camp. I'd asked in the past, and the moms are all afraid to have their boys spend the night somewhere that they are not at. I think, maybe, I need to get several moms together and rent a cabin nearby so they will feel more comfortable. I was nervous the first time I sent Alex to an overnight camp last year too. I picked a soccer camp because it is 2 miles from my house. Alex had a fantastci time there. Because he loves soccer, he did join in all the activities, and no one picked up on the fact that he was autistic! Because he was the tallest kid in the camp, they moved him onto the teen team and he scored the winning goal of the last game. When I went to pick him up, his team mates were carrying him around like a hero and the girls were stuffing post-it notes with their phone numbers into his pockets and his luggage! I've never seen him so happy or exhausted. That camp had them doing warm-ups, playing soccer, swimming or hiking for 10.5 hours a day! There was no time to get teased or get in trouble.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Seriously not into talking to myself but not interested in communicating on Facebook. *sigh*

Cat still missing, we'll wait a week before acquiring one or more cats from my sister. Meanwhile I need to order a couple of those rodent zappers stat, as we'll be overrun before we can be recatted: the last time we were catless we had mice eat all the insulation out of the stove (post Elvyra, Zathras' predecessor, a cat we did not entirely miss as she was a holy terror, a catnipaholic and a mean drunk).

It's absolutely apparent to me that my biggest problem is that the house is surrounded by a plum and blackberry thicket reminiscent of Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" that gives the coyotes too much cover. I've been fighting it for a decade but every time I make a little headway either the weather or my health goes in the tank, and where I'm at now I need a guy with a chainsaw and a brush hog for about three days and then a major regrade, rubber membrane and about eight inches of packed gravel between the barn and the driveway, so, you know: when I hit the lotto, I guess. The sheep should be ble to keep the stuff down once the stuff is knocked back to ground level.

Better start buying tickets.

 

[hallerlake]

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Sorry Zathras isn't back yet. You sound discouraged and tired. Try to take a nap.

 

[hallerlake]

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I'm glad he's enjoying himself. It's good that he's getting out without you, too. You can't keep him home forever. He might as well be prepared to go out in the big world.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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My kids went to an Episcopalian church camp also very near home- it was probably good for them, although my daughter got her first taste of mean girls there the year before she started to public middle school. I started going to 4H camp when I was nine and Girl Scout Primitive Camp (which has been replaced in the modern era with backpacking camp instead of "lash your own latrine") when I was twelve. It's my favorite childhood memory and made stuff like living in a squad tent on archaeological field schools a piece of cake.

I think camp is easier than school for nonneurotypical kids because it's usually easier to put some physical distance between us and our peers when we get overstimulated, and because stuff like strict no-talking rules after lights out give us the structure we need (I'm not Autistic, but ADHD with panic disorder has a lot of the same issues). And there's a LOT to be said for getting away from the same issues every day, day after day.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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Sorry Zathras isn't back yet. You sound discouraged and tired. Try to take a nap.

Oh, very discouraged and tired; the sleep deprivation associated with the 4th, plus two family reunions in six days plus the weather going bad plus getting pretty much zero done on any of the chicken structures this week plus the cat disappearing and finding out about the meds thing pretty much has left me unable to scrape together any optimism at the moment. I do have a grab bar at the tub now, thanks to the hired hand, so I do believe that a long soaky bath with roses and epsom salts will be the solution to my ennui.

And then I need to make a phone call and set up the chicken-assessment-visit which may lead to Bjorn to go live with my friend the radiologist who was my assistant camp counselor the year I got strep throat at Panhandle Lake and abandoned the campers to her supervision. Which goes in the camping thread above: there's always something to talk about when old camp friends meet (that was the year we had a baby loon wander into camp one evening and had to canoe out to reunite it with its family).

 

[KMHunter]

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I love to hear stories like this. Where kids who are a little different....I mean that in a good way....get to be treated just like everyone else and enjoy life like everyone else with out having to deal with teasing or being ostricized(sp?). We have quite a few patients at my office(orthodontics) who have different "levels" of autism and I find that as long as you know what their limits are, they are bright and fun kids to work with. Yes, there might be a few hurdles, but they are great kids. And should be treated with the respect they deserve and to do what they enjoy. And I love the fact that he bonded with the horses! I feel that the large four legged type friends are the best. I am looking to go volunteer at Little Bit Riders. Hores are great therapy and even better friends! I even consider it four legged therapy when I ride because for that time nothing else matters. I am so glad your son had a great time at camp. I hope you can convince the other moms to let their sons go to camp. I think it is good for their sense of self, self esteem, and self confidence to do something without parents right there if possible. Sounds like you have a really great boy.
And I would have definitely had DH clean out the bedroom with the spider! I am so phobic of spiders!!!!

 

[Ogress]

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I'm sorry about your cat. My rat zappers seemed to have done their job. I have not caught one in 2 weeks now, and no sign of rats either; in fact, little weeds are now growing over the trail from the woods where the rats were coming from. I loaned one of the zappers to a friend in town who found lots of evidence of rats in his garden and garden shed.

I have the blackberry problem too. I knock them down with a brush ctter several times a year. One area I have a super-steep hill side just a few feet next to my house. It is so steep, I can't stand on it, and it was very hard to keep cut. I hired someone to cut that every year, and no one ever did a good job of it. I broke down and bought some super-strength round-up (Quick-Pro) from that most hated of companies, Monsanto, and sprayed just that area twice after the last cut in the fall. It completely killed the alder, scotchbroom and butterfly bushes and did a very good job killing most of the blackberries; only a few have come back. The ferns appeared to have died as well, but this spring, all the bracken fern returned as well as a bunch of sword fern, and the rhodies and other plants I stuck in the soil after the kill are all growing well.

 

[Ogress]

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Alex loves going to camp. Some of his friends go to the camps put on by Special Olympics and other groups, but he has no interest in these because he sees kids that are having a much more difficult time than he is and it makes him sad. He loves going to camp, and he does distance himself when he feels over-stimulated or annoyed. He gets very upset when the adults and counselors force him to join in group activities weather they are teachers at school or camp counselors. Y-camps the kids usually get to choose which activities they wish to participate in. Soccer camp it is soccer, but since he loves soccer it is fine. Alex's school IEP states that they are not to force him to participate in group assignments. They are to give him a choice of the group assignment or an equal assignement he can do on his own. When he knows the participants well, he will choose the group assignment, and he will take Concerta the days he has to work in a group. (His Dr. has allowed Alex to self-medicate because he only seems to need medication the first week of school, whenever they have mandated testing or assignments that require them to sit still and quiet for long periods of time and the tri-mester that they don't have PE - I seriously think if they just had a couple long, unstructured recesses with many activities for the kids to participate in, there would be a lot less need for ritalin and such! ).

I think if I had taken Alex anywhere but where I did, he would have been diagnosed with Aspergers, not Autism. I took him to the UW autism center. They were very careful with the diagnosis because they want to soo where differences lie within the 2 groups. They say most places will diagnose someone with mild Autism with Aspergers because it does not sound as bad and is easier for the parents to handle. They have a scale of 10 things they look at, and each of those 10 behaviors are ranked 1-10 with 1 being completely normal and 5 as borderline autistic. Alex scored below 3's and 4's on five of the behaviors and 5 or 6 and maybe even a 7 on the rest. If a child scores above 5 on three of the scales, so long as one of them is not language related, they re Aspies not Autism, but those kids may score 8 or 9 or even 10 in some areas which would make their "handicap" much more noticeable than with Alex. I actually don't see why it is a handicap. Many of these kids are very, very bright, but have trouble adapting socially. People don't consider someone with great social skills and no ability to do math handicapped. Just reverse the situation! Unfortunately, you need social skills to get a job!

I had a wonderful book that was written by someone with the UW Autism center, unfortunately, I can't remember who I loaned it to. It did a wonderful job explaining the differences and the behaviours. I'm pretty sure I'm borderline and Don I would suspect is an Aspie ... Alex had to get it from somewhere! Both have a much higher prevalence in the children of scientists and computer geeks, so poor Alex was doomed before conception!

 

[Ogress]

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I used to live right near "Little Bit" - at least I think I did. Is that in Woodinville by the Tolt Pipeline Trail? From when Alex was born until he was 2 and a half, I used to walk that trail 4X a week at 6 or 7 am with him usually in a jog stroller. We'd walk from where I lived (the Crossings) up Bear Creek to the Tolt and then up to the top out past Lake of the Woods where I could see the Snoqualmie Valley. I never lost a bit of weight doing that, but I did have a lot more energy than I do now!

Alex is having more difficulties now than he did when he was younger. When he was little, he did not notice that he was different, and he was blind to the teasing. Now he notices both, and it is painful for him and for me. What is really sad is with his soccer team. He loves playing and he is good at it, so during games and practice the kids treat him just fine. But at the team party, most of the boys were trying to ditch him and they excluded him from activities. A few of the dads noticed, and they pulled their kids aside and scolded them, but this bothers Alex as well. He wants the boys to include him because they like him, not because they are told to do so. A few of the boys do make an honest effort to include him, and I was surprised by the very nice gifts some brought to him for his birthday party. He rarely is invited to parties that are not for other kids on the spectrum.