Full Moon & Storms

The full moon isn't just for werewolves anymore. Like most kids with Autism, Mitchell has heightened sensory awareness. He can feel energies in his body the rest of us don't pay attention to. The full moon and storms can send Mitchell's body into chaos. We started noticing about a year ago that after the moon reached the end of it's cycle Mitchell became a little sillier, distracted and his sleep patterns changed. Then I read a study about Astrological signs and Autism and started to make sense. It might sound like quackery to most but when I mentioned it to our therapist she agreed she has definitely seen changes in the kids she treats over the years. All with the same reactions as Mitchell. Google fuul moon and Autism and you'll see I am not alone. So now I have an App in the my phone tracking the moon's schedule and sending me alerts. The same situation occurs when a storm system heads into to town. When the air pressure changes it causes a disturbance in the force and Mitchell can sense it. It is so hard for him to process daily activities and sort them out, imagine with having to place the weather and moon cycles in there somewhere too. The full moon was the 7th but combined with the weather changes and snow, here I am this morning awoken at 4:30 but sounds of laughter and a wide awake 5 yr old who didn't want to go to bed even at 10:00pm. Doesn't he know the rest of us need sleep? We are hoping he can work thus out before our trip. We need to start planning better I guess.

Time for Chillaxin

I made a list this weekend, at Steve's urging of course, of things to get done each day before our trip. The Lord works in mysterious ways. For today I only had phone calls to make. Steven chose today to develop an ear infection so Dr for him and no school. Mitchell's Monday therapy was cancelled so I don't need to leave the house at 3:30 and return at 5:30. It's so nice to not have such a structured schedule today. I could have taken something from tomorrow and added it to today's list but I figure that will just throw off my chain of thought. So I was able to hang with the kids, have grandma & grandpa over for Sonic chili dogs and surf the web for airport security measures. Mitchell is home now but Caroline has Art Class which Grandma picks her up from. After dinner I am taking Mitchell to our 2nd support group at Easter Seals in Joliet. This day turned out to be sorta all about me and I like it. Tomorrow's list isn't so bad either with more phone calls added onto dance class for Grace, pick up Mitchell at 1:00 for therapy, back home to get kids off bus at 3:30 then back to pick up Mitchell by 4:30. I'm not complaining at all but when it slows down here for a day, I can really feel myself relax a bit.

Clean Bathroom

I've managed to get through 13 yrs of marriage & 4 kids without the messy toilets I hear about from people who struggle daily to keep them clean. Steve is a clean person, a little OCD, Steven sat to pee until 1 st grade and Mitchell chose to sit when we potty trained 6 months ago. I always loved that my bathroom didn't require as much maintenance as others. Out of the blue, last night, my dad went to check on Mitchell in the bathroom and found him spraying it with his pee. Why wouldn't he it looks like so much fun? So everytime he went to bathroom today I had to follow with paper towels & clorox wipes. I was amazed at how far that spray goes. Wow! And now it seems like he's going less often so he can get a longer/higher stream. Maybe yhat's just in my head. Is this what I have missed all these years. Our bathroom is getting much dirtier but ends up even cleaner because it's bring disinfected every couple hours. I am curious though what caused this chane in his behavior. He doesn't watch anyone else go potty so is it just an instinct that kicked in? The way he does it, like not pulling his pants all the way down, isn't something we taught him, he just does it. So messy, gross bathroom and all this is a HUGE step for Mitchell. Might be considered a minor milestone for other people but a relatively large one for us in that it makes him more typical. Wish I could get into that brilliant mind of his and see how he figures it all out.