Another CRH chapter is wrapped up

Camp is done and it was an amazing experience this year. Other than an issue getting off the bus in the morning, he had a fabulous day and wrapped it up so well. He met all his goals this week and got his reward (new video game). He was incredibly proud of myself and of course I was ready to throw a frickin party I was so happy!

Last night he was weepy. He got frustrated by something and it was like the floodgates opened. He was sobbing for about 20 mins. We had a chat about how something can make you frustrated but your reaction to it is much bigger than the actual thing you're frustrated with. I think since he spent 2 weeks holding it all together that last night was his release. He was sad that camp was done, he was missing J (his one to one) and when kids like this hold everything in when they're in overstimulating situations, it usually just bubbles over at some point. After the cry he had a great night and he slept great. Although he did get up with the sun so we had an early day today!

Ladybug is REALLY upset that camp is done. I think the favourite part of her day was grabbing her sunglasses and purse and heading out to pick him up. She's quite the diva.

So now we're on to phase 2 of summer. Heading to the cottage and visiting family. I'm looking forward to it. We'll be spending a lot of time at my Aunt's house to help take care of my Gram. Plus, my Mum and sister are in town and don't head back to Georgia until Thursday so we'll have some good times.

Camp Days 8 & 9

Camp Day #8 ~

~ Both swims went really well. He's trying so hard!
~ Went to arts and crafts and cooperated and listened extremely well.
~ At Hobby Hubs J (his 1:1) taught him some boondoogle which he really liked.
~ He also did gymnastics and karate.

Camp Day #9 ~

~ Another really great day!
~ Went to canoe for two periods and he was catching frogs in the paddleboats
~ Two great swims
~ Watched the senior play
~ Did archery and Superman came *this* close to hitting the bullseye!!! He scored 11 points in total which helped the Interboys beat the Intergirls with a score of 126 to 125!! He's quite proud that they beat the girls. ;)

Had a great chat with Sari (she runs the camp...she's also an OT) today about how awesome Superman has been. She said that you can tell what a difference the medication has made for him. She has stuck by us for the last three years and has seen the worst of the worst and has always been compassionate and supportive. To see the huge change between last year and this year has been amazing for both of us. She said that she always knew that the behaviours he expressed were not "choice" behaviours and that's why they've always loved him. The medicine takes the anxiety down so that he can be his true self and everyone there can see the boy they always knew he was. That meant a lot to me. Oh, and I promised her I would enroll early this year since Mr. S had to pull strings to get us in there since we registered late. LOL Plus, I committed to doing camper in training with ladybug since now I know I don't have to be on call with Superman.

In other domestic news ~ Ladybug and I spent the first half hour of our day curled up in her bed reading books. After breakfast we baked muffins and then got dressed up to pick up Daddy at work and take him out for lunch.

Here's wishing a Happy Anniversary to my sweetie today.

Camp Day #7

Another bang on awesome day!

~ Both swims and changes went great.
~ He's getting much better at his floats during swim lessons.
~ He went to the park and he played really well with the other kids.
~ During camp craft he waited his turns, shared supplies and worked well with the other kids.
~ Climbed to the top of the rock wall again and to the top of the swinging ladder. He tried to do a second climb but they ran out of time. No meltdowns. (woohoo!)
~ Awesome day over all and no problems to report!

It's like he's had this explosion of positivity. Everything seems to be falling in place for him internally. What a wonderful thing to witness.

Ladybug and I spent the day at home. Cleaning, reading books, cooking, doing laundry. She loves to be involved in all of that. We had a blast. It's so great to spend an entire day together. After her nap it's time to go get Superman from camp and she lights up. When we walk up to the office, the moment she sees him she calls out his name and they go running to each other with big hugs. Man, that is hands down my favourite part of the day. They're so used to spending just about their entire day together so it's very different for them to be apart for most of the day.

Six more sleeps until I see my Mum and sister! I can't frickin wait! Miss them like crazy. I wish my Dad was able to get time off work to come up. That's the only thing missing.

Camp Day #6

I told Superman's counsellor that he might be pretty tired today since he was up with the sun at 5:30am. But today was absolutely fabulous! I have to say I was pretty surprised. When he went to bed last night I asked him if he could work on a goal this week. The goal was that at every swim, he needs to get out of the pool when it's time without a pitch a fit, or an attempt to get back in. He told me he would try as hard as he could but sometimes his body doesn't like it because he loves swimming so much. We talked about how hard it is to have to stop doing something you love to go and do something that isn't as fun.

When he came home I checked out his communication book and here is the quick version of what his counsellor had to say:

~ Both swim transistions and changes we really well.
~ He had some great social interaction at the park.
~ There was a lot of great cooperation and understanding.
~ He didn't want to go to flagpole but they made a compromise that if he went and he was good, they would go to mini-golf when it was done. He went to flagpole and was great so they played mini golf afterwards.
~ He played one inning of cabin baseball and tried really hard.
~ Last activity of the day was land sports and he participated really well and even caught a few balls!

Talk about an amazing day! I know I keep saying this, but it's a huge change from last year. I love comparing year to year. The sports in particular surprised me because that's a whole new level of social interaction, concentration, sensory overload and it so wonderful that he did so well.

To celebrate Superman got to choose what meal I would cook tonight (he chose tacos) and before bed we shared a homemade ice-cream sundae with strawberries on top.

Yay Superman!

Camp Day #5

Superman missed day 4 because when we woke up the weather was awful. It was a complete downpour with a ton of thunder and lightening. They were supposed to have colour wars which meant a complete change from his regular schedule plus he only had one swim instead of his usual two. So I cancelled his bus pick up and we hung out at home.

Friday he headed back and they had colour wars. Surpisingly, he did awesome! That was a huge change from last year where that sort of activity wouldn't have even been an option. They gave him a second swim since that's what he was expecting.

They've been running into some problems transistioning out of swim. It's his favourite activity so there's nothing else exciting to follow it up with which means getting him out is a struggle. I think most times they just end up hauling him out and tries to get back in. But, no kicking, hitting, biting which is a step up. Still a struggle though.

He was doing really well until Friday. That's when he got his noseplugs and now that he can really do everything he's asked to do in the water (since he has goggles to keep the water out of his eyes and noseplugs to keep the water out of his nose) he's developing a whole new love of water. Again, huge improvement from last year when he was terrified to be on his own in the water and wouldn't even entertain the thought of going under.

But because he loves it, he doesn't want to leave it.

He participated in colour wars though and did very well considering what was asked of him. And I was told that he played with another camper in his cabin and was "100% awesome!" according to his counsellor.

He's looking forward to another week.

This weekend we decided to play tourists. We took my mother in law and her mother to Casa Loma which the kids loved. Plus, it holds some special memories because my mother in law and father in law were the first couple to ever get married there.

The kids and I just came in from the backyard. HB is off golfing. We're going to have a quiet night in and gear up for a busy week. Just one more week until the kids and I leave for a month at the cottage. I feel like I"m packing for a small nation.

Camp Day #3

We're still flying high at camp! We've hit a few bumps in the road but nothing major. Everything seems to be handled by a compromise and his one to one counsellor rocks. She's so great. Every day she send me a note with an update and I can respond so we're working really well together.

Tomorrow will be a test because Superman's favourite activity is swim and he usually goes twice a day. But since it's a special acitvity day, he only gets one swim. Soooo....we've got some plans to help smooth that over which we've talked to him about so we'll see how it goes.

As for Ladybug...we love having an entire day together. That hasn't happened dependably since she's been born so we're making the most of it and loving every moment of it. Although she can't wait to go to camp herself, we're having a blast spending the day together.

Camp Day #2

Another great day at camp! First swim was great. Second swim was a little tougher but he still got out when it was time. That's his favourite activity so that's a huge step for him. His 1:1 counsellor said that he seems anxious at the end of the day when camp is ending so she's going to work on a way to make the transistion easier.

He has canoe tomorrow which he's very excited about! Today he did Music, Dance (he said they videotaped him doing his "cool moves" and then he threw in a bit of the camp dance at the end) I will die laughing if that happens to make it on the end of year video montage. And he also did arts and crafts.

Tonight is family night so we'll be heading back to camp for 6:30pm. He really wants to do canoe today. He said they promised that he could go there today (and they didn't get a chance) but I found out they said "maybe later" which Superman took to mean "it's not going to happen now but it will definitely happen before you go home today." ;) So we had a little talk about what "maybe later" means. So he was upset about it but didn't have a huge meltdown. He's hoping to go on the Canoe with Daddy tonight. I have yet to run that by HB. ;)

I'm hoping to make it to Family Night. Not sure though. Since the buses were leaving camp an hour early, I had to pick him up at 2:30pm instead of 3:30pm which means Ladybug's usual 90 mins nap ended up being 30 mins and she's a grump. If we go, we won't be leaving camp until 8:30pm and I'll be lucky if she stays awake until 7pm. So we'll have to play that one by ear.

She really wants to go to camp too. Every morning the bus picks up Superman, she asks me "Our car camp!" She's the poster child for Summer 2009.

Supermanism ~ Fetch!

I left the kids in the family room so I could go to the bathroomand I heard...

S: Ladybug! FETCH!

*pitter patter of little toddler feet and lots of giggles*

S: Good Ladybug! Ladybug! FETCH!*pitter patter, giggles etc*

(Keep in mind I'm yelling all of this from the hallway while I'm on the john)

Me: Uhm...Superman...what is the word fetch used for?

S: Dogs.

Me: Right. And what is your sister?

S: A kid.

Me: Right. So do you think you should use the word fetch? And what the heck are you doing anyway??

S: I'm throwing pretzels across the room and getting her to fetch them.

Me: You're WHAT?!?! Superman! She's your sister. Not a dog!

S: I know. But Mom...seriously...do you know how hard it is to get a Ladybug to go to where you want it to?

Me: Superman, she's not an "it"....she's a little girl...you say "her"

S: Fine. Do you know hard it is to get HER *insert eye roll here* to go to where you want her to?

Me: I get that Superman, but throwing pretzels around the room and getting her to go get them isn't such a great idea. She's not a trained monkey.

Ladybug: *starts making monkey noises*

S: Are you sure about that?

School Wraps and Daycamp Day #1

School - We wrapped up the year on a very high note! I had to take a break from blogging because sometimes I go through a period where I just don't want to talk about Autism anymore. But it's been a fabulous couple of months. Superman is growing in leaps and bounds. He's doing better socially, personally and academically.

On a sad note we had to say goodbye to his teacher, Mr. S. Bittersweet goodbye. We'll keep in touch but Spencer was so sad. He still asks when Mr. S will be back but he likes Mr. MG who will be filling in next year. I've met him and I have good feelings about it.

Superman and I went away this past weekend just the two of us. I had grand plans to hang out and do our favourite things together. What I didn't expect was to have such mixed feelings about having Superman me with me and leaving Ladybug at home with Daddy. If I go away I either have both of them with me or I go on my own. This is the first time that they've been separated and Superman and I both felt it pretty much sucked. ;) We had a good time but we were so happy to come home!

Camp Day #1 - We're off to a fabulous start!! Superman got on the bus at 8am and held it together until 3:30pm when he started to unravel. He climbed to the top of the rock wall, made it across the entire trapeze wire on his own and even went all the way underwater without plugging his nose during swim lessons!!! I was so excited!

At 3:30pm all the kids were getting ready to head towards the buses to go home but I pick him up (bus rides at the end of the day have been tough in the past) so I think it was him soaking up the energy from the other kids and having 30 mins of idle time to himself that provoked it. I was told to pick him up at 4pm and when I gor there, it was Superman and three counsellors. He was climbing and if they brought him down he'd flop on the floor. They haven't figured out yet that if his energy is high, idle time is the last thing he needs. So I said I would pick him up at 3:30pm instead. That way I'm hoping a quick pass off from his counsellor to me should help.

His counsellor said there were no issues today. They didn't do much socializing because it was a special day for his age group (they were playing a spy game) but Superman played the game and did well on his team which is huge. He couldn't do that last year at all.

Here's hoping for good things tomorrow!