Backwards Day

I’d like to that we’re continuing the fabulous skill development that we saw over the summer with Thane, but while we’ve seen some progress in areas, we’re also seeing some steps back. The most noticeable is how stressed he has been getting about things. I am seeing him stim (self-stimulating behaviors) a bit more – like rocking his head back and forth against the headrest in his car seat, some more obsessive behaviors (“I know I am not supposed to peel the labels of crayons, but I have to, really I do. In fact, I will sit here for hours and peel crayons. And since I know I am not supposed to, I will either apologize with puppy-dog eyes or sit in a corner doing it and try to hide. If there is a crayon anywhere, it needs to be peeled!”), and he is definitely being defiant and a bit more backward than usual.

I’ve been trying for awhile to get Thane to say what he means. Often he will say “I don’t want to play [insert game name here]” but what he really means is that he does. Or he says he can’t when he means he wants to. I noticed my pushing was stressing him a bit, but he does need some shoves in this manner because otherwise he won’t be understood by the vast majority of people he encounters.

Today he has been a bit more backward about other things – not just negatives. For example, he told someone to stop leaning on him when he was the one leaning.

As usual, I find myself grabbing the humor where I can . . . I hope that doesn’t make me a bad person! He was offered candy corn at school. Luckily he didn’t take it because it was a cross contamination risk with wheat, gluten, and eggs. The humor part is that his reason for refusing it was “I don’t like triangles.” That’s right, no triangle food for Thane.

Braeden got the mail out of the mailbox and came back and told Thane he had two letters. Thane said he didn’t want a letter. Actually, he told us three or four times that he didn’t want a letter while I was backing up the driveway. I told him it was okay, he didn’t need to have a letter, but he still repeated he didn’t want one. Then as we’re getting out of the car, he looks at Braeden and says “I want a you.” Huh? This is where repeating comes in handy as he added something: “I want a letter u.” Brae is much quicker than I am and replied, “That’s good, because you got a U – I just unbuckled you and unbuckled starts with U!” And yes, that worked and Thane was perfectly content.

A Day in Life

It isn’t so much that he was lining up his supplements and chocolate treats before eating them . . . it’s more the look of concentration mixed with disgust at one of the vitamins being out of order. That one was eaten first to rectify the problem. To me it shows a little bit of the obsessive behavior that we deal with constantly. It doesn’t get to me all the time, but sometimes it can drive a mom a bit nuts. And I am not sure I needed any help at all with that!

Today has been one of sort of odd conversations. It made me wonder a bit about receptive language, but more likely we have entered a realm of outer space for the day and will return to Earth tomorrow.

Thane: “There’s Mist! There he is!”

Braeden:”She. Mist is a she. She’s a girl!”

Thane: “No girl. Mist is black and white.”

Next . . .

Braeden was shaking and kicking in his chair. Thane looks at him and says “Stop kicking!”

Braeden: “Thane just turned into Daddy!”

Thane: “No, Thane’s not Daddy. Braeden is Braeden.”

I was popping some popcorn and Braeden got the brilliant big brother idea to pretend to take a bear from the line. Thane started screaming “Give it back! Give back Thane’s Bear. It’s Mine. Give it Back.”

Braeden tried to explain that he never actually took it, to no avail. I kind of wanted to tell him he got himself into it if he thought Thane would possibly understand the humor of both taking his most treasured food (the one thing I haven’t had to fight about lately) and ruining a line at the same time. I mean, c’mon boy, where do you live? But, he’s nine. What do I really expect? Too much I guess.