Many times my friends or my family members have said to me or to my husband "you know I just don't know what this is like". Oh how true that statement can be. There is no way for us to show them what Autism is like.... or when asked "well what is it like?" What do you mean? I don't know what to tell you. I can explain to you what a typical day here is like, but every single person is different and unique in their own way, especially when it comes to Autism.
A typical day in our home would start with Thomas getting up somewhere around 6-6:30 in the morning. He immediately needs a diaper change (yes 4 years old and still in a diaper at night) you wouldn't want to change the sheets either! : ) He then has to tell David about a million things followed by breakfast....which is usually the same thing, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a Yoohoo. YUCK! Now sometimes he differs, sometimes he just wants cinnamon toast, yes I see you laughing, I'm laughing too or I'd be crying. Every so often I bake a butterbraid and we eat that, although it takes him much longer to eat that. Morning routine is pretty much the same every day, watch some cartoons, get dressed and play. This also depends on what we have scheduled for the day. For instance, is there preschool? errands? appointments? etc...
Lunchtime, oh lunchtime... well they love chicken nuggets and fries. I mean what child doesn't, right? I just can't supply that every day. He will tolerate a PB and J, by tolerate I mean if I ask him first and he knows that is what he is getting then he will take a few bites and drink a Yoohoo and that's it. He'll ask for a snack later. He does like grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese. Wow, seems there is a theme here. If you haven't noticed, all he drinks is Yoohoo and occasionally water.
The afternoon, after their brother is home from school then they have "rest time" and I use the term loosely. The only one resting is me and sometimes their older brother. It usually results in a little play time in their own room with a movie! I'll take what I can get. I see you Mom's nodding your heads. Dinnertime I will cook something, whatever I can find or have taken out. I would say 50% of the time he will sit and eat it and the other 50% of the time we have to coax him in some way. He is very visual , so pictures work very well. We may draw it on the whiteboard in our kitchen and try to get him to just take a few bites. By the way, he is at a perfect height and weight, so he does eat during the day, just snacks that he picks and wants to eat.
During other times of the day he can have tantrums, sometimes they last a few minutes, sometimes hours. He does hit and throw. He is a screamer, he does stim (you can look that up), they change, he has done visual stimming, spinning, jumping, rocking, head banging, etc. Never once (praise God) has he hurt himself. I think he will always do the stimming, it will just change as he changes. He scripts (you can look that up too) which is basically where he repeats things, for instance a play our oldest son was in. Thomas knows the entire play verbatim. Sometimes he is content to just play by himself and he will say leave me alone, he will say don't look at me, go away. Other times he wants you right there in his room playing trains, reading books and doing whatever is on his mind right then.
He is incredibly smart and intelligent and looking back and a blog I wrote last year where I described my children I should have known then. I described him as a child who plays alone but knows things and speaks in long sentences. I talked about his fascination for cars, trucks and trains. I just wish I had known. He's fascinating, tiring, loving and just incredible!
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