Moments

Walking along the sidewalk, the sounds of the kids in the schoolyard faded into the background and all of a sudden my sole focus was on the warm little hands that were gripping mine. I'm a mom whose sentimentality is often saved for when I have a minute to myself, alone, and usually when I write. But today I was struck by how lucky I was to have these two little boys who wanted to hold my hand.

In that moment, I flashed to the future and had a vision of walking down a similar pathway, with the same two hands now much bigger, holding mine. Would we still share little inside jokes that would make them giggle? 0r will they be telling me jokes that will make me double over in laughter? Will they tower over me and grab a hand in protection of their mum or will they push it away in embarrassment so that their friends don't see them?

Do parents of typical kids realize what a gift they have? Do they understand that the parents of children with autism often have to deal with the heartbreak of having children who don't want to be touched, or cuddled? While they may have the gift of having affectionate children, I have the gift of having learned a valuable lesson. To appreciate these little moments because they can never be taken for granted.

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We have been a Wiggles family for the past 6 years. Will lives in a bedroom with each wall a different Wiggly colour (red, blue, yellow and purple) and Anthony, Greg, Jeff and Murray dolls go wherever he goes. But his world wasn't complete. He had Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog and Henry the 0ctopus, but no Captain Feathersword (the horror!). Yesterday, guess who showed up at our door in a bubble envelope? All the way from the UK, Daddy made Will's day, when the Cap'n joined our crew.

How's that for a moment?

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Passed on from 0wen's teachers today after school:
At circle time. "Today is Tues..", with 0wen piping in unexpectedly "DAY"!!
Mom's reaction: "YAY!"

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Our Week in Pictures

It's been a busy week.
Who am I kidding? It's always a busy week.
I'm just making excuses for not having the energy to write. Pictures will have to replace my words today.


Last weekend we had a visit from an old friend. Mel was one of Will's therapists for a long time and it is always nice to reconnect.

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This is an outtake from our attempt at taking a photo for our Christmas cards. Unfortunately, they are either fuzzy, or at least two people have their eyes closed in each photo. I love this photo of Jake and Owen, however. Wanted to share.

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Thanksgiving dinner was 'delish'. Jake started us off with a beautiful grace. Uncle Greg and Grandma joined us and we even managed to snag Will and Owen to the table for a few minutes before taking off again.

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And then there was snow. I may have already mentioned that once or twice. Can you say overkill?

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The Wiggles concert was probably one of the highlights of the year, particularly for Will. The cost of these concerts hurt our pocketbooks so bad, but Jonathan surprised me with his comments, saying "this is like Christmas for the twins. It's worth every penny." By the smile on Will's face in the top picture, I have to agree.

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This afternoon we went to the Corn Maze, just outside of the city. (What do you think of their sign? Cracked me up). I think we were all feeling a little homesick for our Pumpkin Farm back in Ontario and we hoped that this would give us an alternative for a new fall tradition. It was no Knox Farm, but the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. It just felt so normal. We've gone through years of dealing with Will's disruptive behaviour, but since the summer he continues to amaze us with his calm. He doesn't bolt, he listens to instructions and he enjoys the moment. Jake shows us over and over again that he is an awesome big brother. And Owen even interacted with some kids at the playground (and ate some dirt). It truly was a great afternoon.

It's Wiggle Time!

We are- and always have been-- a Wiggles family. Like it or not, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Captain FeatherSword, Wags the Dog, Anthony, Greg (now Sam), Jeff and Murray are all members of our clan. Many a therapist has come to work in this house and upon leaving, you can guarantee that they have a Wiggles tune or two, playing in their heads. Lucky for Jon and I, they've grown on us but I know for some, the sound of a Wiggles song is like nails on a chalkboard.

Back in Ontario, I think we counted that Jake has seen them in concert three times and the twins, once. In fact, when we took Owen and Will to the concert, it was there that I really noticed that some of Owen's 'quirks' weren't normal. He flapped so hard (in excitement) that I thought he was going to fly to the stage. It wasn't long after that we received their diagnosis. I digress.. So Jonathan saw that the Wiggles were coming to Alberta and he was on a mission to get tickets. We knew that if the seats were far away, the boys probably wouldn't sit through the whole show because they wouldn't be as involved. Jon lucked out and found a family through the classifieds, who was selling 10th row floor seats. We bought 4, then later tacked on 3 more in a not-so-great section for Jake and Erin and Courtney. Jake understood that this day was for his brothers, since he had not only seen them 3 times previously, but he had also been to many other concerts and plays that his brothers had not. Erin and Courtney's reason for joining us... they begged to come. Can you blame them?

the New Wiggles (Erin and Courtney)

Jonathan and I were so nervous, probably because we were SO excited for the boys and wanted them to enjoy themselves. Did I mention that they are Wiggles-obsessed? The biggest disappointment for us would be if they couldn't care less that they were there. Well.. they more than impressed us. When the dancers came out on to the stage, Owen started flapping and Will just looked shocked.

checking out the Wiggles

Now just for some background, we don't really go anywhere with all of the boys. Like.. nowhere. Not because we don't want to, but the behaviours are so bad that it's not worth it. I shouldn't say that. The boys need to experience everything they can, from popping in to pick up milk at the variety story, to eating in a restaurant. We have learned to tolerate the looks that people give us when there is a tantrum and I can assure you that more than once we have left our shopping cart in the middle of the store and high-tailed it outta there with a wailing kid under each arm. The problem now is that Will is just too quick and too strong for one adult to handle both of the twins at once. When things are going great, they're great. But in the middle of a grocery store, if one decides to run away, while the other is kicking and thrashing on the floor, which one do you abandon to help/find the other? So I opt to not put ourselves in that position so that I don't have to make that decision. Admittedly, it's a bandaid solution that is not fair to the boys. Hence, taking the risk and going to the Wiggles.

So when we managed to sit through an entire concert without a single meltdown, or runaway attempt (besides the minor detail of Will trying to steal another concert-goers Wiggles dolls), we were thrilled. About halfway through, Owen started to get a bit restless and seemed to prefer watching the dancing kids over the crazy guys on stage, but Will was absolutely awe-struck. I haven't seen him that calm and compliant in AGES! He just kept staring at them as if to say "how did they get from my tv to right in front of me?". He really seemed to make the connection, whereas Owen was entertained because it was something fun, but I'm not sure he really got it.

So Kudos to Jonathan for making a memory for our boys. We really did have fun. I must admit that I can't wait for the day when we can graduate the concert-going to something a little more mature. Someday.

Jake had fun.. but I'm sure he would have rather seen Taylor Swift again instead

Entertaining the Boys & Reinforcers

One of Owen's biggest reinforcers is to watch video clips on the computer. A reinforcer is a 'reward' that the boys choose when they have successfully accomplished a task. The computer is also one of the boys' options to choose as an activity from their selection of pictures in their PECS books. Quite often, it's Owen's choice 100% of the time. He prefers for us to go to the blog so that he can look at the pictures of his friends and family. Because blogger allows labels to be added to each individual post, it is very convenient for us to simply select 'video' on the left hand side of the blog, so that all of the individual posts which contain a video will be listed on one page.

So I figured that I'm going to start adding a lot more video clips that will appeal to the boys as well. Sorry for all of you who can't handle any more Sesame St. or The Wiggles. But in the words of one Brian Fuller... "how do you think I feel?"





This is the original closing credits to Sharon, Lois & Bram's "The Elephant Show" (1986):








A scene from our (Auntie Boom & my) favourite movie, Follow That Bird: