Red Brownie Box, Begone
At the risk of sounding really really boring…… Too many days off from school increases anxiety in Charlie (and his parents), due to his sense of order being rendered very disordered. An increase in anxiety in Charlie leads to an increase in his OCD behaviors, as these derive from his own attempts to maintain some … Read more
Sensitive Snow Day Boy
I dictated "s-n-o-w d-a-y" to Charlie and the result is above, with the B-ish squiggle Charlie's rendition of "S"; "w" a bit smooshed; "y" minus its tail. Hey, the Romans used "v" for "u" (and pronounced "v" as "w" when it was at the start of a word—got that?) and they didn't have a letter … Read more
The Snow Just Keeps Falling
Charlie's, and my and (I think) Jim's, schools had a snow day yesterday. I know, big surprise, it's not like there haven't been any snow, or snow days, around here recently. (I'm looking at this post from the 9th of February in a bit of awe at being able to see the pavement of a … Read more
A Lot of Wet, Some Little Wins
Wednesday. 3 walks, which I for one enjoyed a lot more as, while the ground was plenty soggy, it wasn't raining as it was on Tuesday. Another item to cross off the list of "he'll never do that": Charlie does a fine job using the crosswalk (as insisted upon by the crossing guard who he, … Read more
Brownies Aren’t For Everyday
Charlie likes his routines. Or rather, Charlie needs his order, to the point of demanding that things always be the same way. In the past several months, we've noted that when we adhere to those "orders" (playing certain CDs over and over in the car, driving down a specific road)—because Charlie keeps asking that we … Read more
Goings On: New DSQ on neurodiversity and a few more words from Charlie
Variations of the above scene—Charlie in fine run/walk form round our neighborhood—occurred morning (6am), afternoon (3.30pm), and night (8pm) on Monday, with Jim bringing up the rear. 6am walk following a 5am wake-up (an early, but manageable, start, relatively speaking). 3.30pm after a good day at school. 8pm as a little night sortie seems much to … Read more
Echt Charlie
I suppose it’s no surprise that we went to the beach on Sunday, as we’ve been going down there most weekends this winter. Perhaps in anticipation, Charlie woke up around 7.30am and was raring to go at 8am. We weren’t and Charlie—swimsuit clad and boogie board loaded into the trunk of the white car—managed the … Read more
Just What We Want
Write about vaccines, get lotsa comments; a few accusations that I'm somehow, albeit secretly (so secretly that I don't even know about it myself) employed by Merck or "Big Pharma Inc."; statements that we and other families with children with disabilities "just want to know the cause" and are daily overwhelmed by the mystery … Read more
Echoes and Soundings
In the car going home from school Friday afternoon, Charlie was talking about the subjects he regularly returns to (as in, when he talks, these are words he's most likely to use, regardless of what he and we are doing): "Gong Gong," "I want to eat," "Portia" (my sister-in-law's dog, whom Charlie hasn't seen in … Read more
In 3 months I’m going to be the mother of a teenager
Year of birth: 1990. I was checking the passports of the students who are going to Greece with me yesterday and did a little double take on reading the above. 1990. 1997 was the year Charlie was born, meaning he's now less than a decade younger than many of my college students. I know that's … Read more
