Productive Reading

The Horse Boy  by: Rupert Isaacson

I’ve been reading books, but haven’t spent the extra time to write about them here. I was in Half Price Books (they are only in 16 states) the other day, and was walking by a display, and saw this book. It must have been my intuition on seeing the picture, of a boy sitting on a horse, being held by dad, and it touched me. I picked it up, and couldn’t put it down, so The Horse Boy came home with me.

I enjoyed reading about a family’s struggle knowing that their son was not developing typically. It documents their journey to find help and relief for their son. It was very informative and interesting from a family’s perspective, and improves my ability to do my job.

The author had one of the best explanations of tantrums/meltdowns that I have read, on a basic level. Here is a quote from pg. 19 “Through our cyberspace trawling we did discover the likely cause of these strange, overwhelming tantrums – that they were probably neurological in origin; his nervous system was almost certainly overactive. Autistic brains, it turns out, have a much greater number of nerve cells than “neuro-typical” brains. The result can be extreme sensory overload. A breath of wind on Rowan’s cheek could feel like fire from a flame-thrower. The fluorescent lights of a supermarket or daycare facility could look like lights being strobed at one million times a second. His clothes or bedcovers could suddenly, if the wrong neurological switch was thrown, feel like lead weights or burning napalm. Not that this helped to console him when the firestorms went raging through his brain and body.”

I would definitely recommend this book!

Just FYI... there is a lot of time spent on the family's travel to Mongolia and meeting with shaman's... which isn't a type of therapy I would recommend for a child with Autism.

Laura's birthday present

I thoroughly enjoyed making Laura's birthday present. However, I didn't get it mailed until around 5 weeks after her birthday. And here it is another month after that, where I am finally showing you what I made for her. I made the same letter for my front door, except with an "R" of course. The "F" is her future last name. It's a cardboard letter wrapped in twine. I came across the idea of making your own pot-holders, and really liked the fabric. Hopefully Laura will use them.

Better late than never, I guess????

Stay tuned for blog catch-up!

I unexpectly took a break from writing on here. I couldn't believe that I was sick with strep throat and ear infections but I am finally recovering. So on this note, here I am.

Sophie fell asleep before Kelby the other night. He prefers for Sophie to cuddle rather than sleep in the cage. This night I didn't have the energy to persuay Kelby otherwise. Sophie picked the soft spot, and then Kelby lay down. I told him that Sophie is now dominate over him... what do you think?

My Good Deed

Day: thursday
Location: Frisco, TX
Time: morning
Details: I was driving in a neighborhood for work, and noticed two dogs running on the sidewalk. I pulled over and called them to me. Unexpectedly they both came! I found my waterbottle, and one of them started to drink. At this time, I noticed they were both panting and neither had a collar. After contemplating the situation for a minute, I decided on a plan of action. I opened the back door and the yellow lab jumped in. The chocolate spanial took a little coaxing, but made it. I blasted the air conditioning, and drove around the neighborhood. No one was out looking for a dog. I saw a mom playing outside, and asked her if she knew where the dogs belonged, but she did not know. I called Kelby, and he looked up shelter information or me. I realized Plano was closer, but on the phone they refused to take the dogs. At this point, I noticed the time and didn't have time to drive them to the shelter that would accept them. I called a few friends, but could not drop the dogs in their back yards. Finally, a friend said yes! I went to my next couple work appts, then drove back and picked up the dogs. It was sad leaving them at the shelter. But good news, the spanial had a microchip, so hopefully the shelter was able to contact their owners.

Having two large dogs in my car, reminded me how having little dogs can be easier. The  dog slobbered on the window, and my car now smells like hot dog. Ewwwwww.....