I am finally getting a start to our day. Not so good considering it is 11:30. But it is Spring Break, Right???
YESTERDAY
It was a pretty good day and I completed only 2 loads of laundry done. Oh Well…I will work on some more today. Tommy had 4 neighbor boys over to play with him. I headed off to work at about 4:30, when hubby got home from work and made it to my 5:30 homevisit on time! It is the last home visit I needed to complete for my CSG plans!! Yeah…now to just write all 24 plans. I made it home last night around midnight.
I did make a little mistake in haste as I was leaving for work. Erik came back with staff from the YMCA and I was in a hurry to get out the door and on the road. Erik asked me if he could go to buy the movie, “I am Legend”. I asked what it was rated and he said PG-13. I told him he couldn’t get it right now since he was still grounded, but if he was good the rest of the week I would take him to get it on Friday. ARGH….mistake made. I tend to forget once in a while that Erik isn’t a typical teenager. Just because the movie is rated PG-13, it doesn’t mean it would be something that his therapist would like that I let him buy. The problem when Erik buys a movie is that he will watch is over and over. It is not rare for him to watch it at least twice a day. So if it is violent, then he will be exposed to that numerous times. He actually gets so overly involved in the movie that it will be in this thoughts every moment.
So this morning I did a little backtracking with Erik and it seemed to go over ok with Erik. I told him that if he is good, he can rent the movie “I Am Legend” and watch it with Dad when I go to work on Saturday as Tommy will be with me. If Dad decides it would be an appropriate movie for him to own, he can go and purchase it with his gift card. Sometimes you just forget and want for him to be like every other teen. But luckily we have many professionals that keep us on track and we continue to make progress so that someday, he can do those things successfully. Some things just because of his PDD-NOS diagnosis, I am not sure he will ever really understand. Understanding emotions and caring about others feelings is very hard for him. At times it is hard for everyone to remember that he isn’t hurting your feelings on purpose, he just doesn’t have very good social skills.
It seems that I am always blogging about what is new with Erik. This is why I never work on the weekends that he goes to his mom’s house. That is my time to spend with our other two children. They never get as much attention as Erik.
TODAY
I am so very tired today. My hubby was snoring a lot and I could not fall asleep. So the baby puppy and I went to sleep on the couch. It really wasn’t until about 3:00am that i feel asleep and I woke at 7:00 when hubby got up. I went back to sleep in our room until about 9:00 or so when Tommy woke up.
I am afraid that I will be too tired to work enough hours tonight. I really need to be able to work at least 5 hours this evening. I am going to try to get the new VPN client set up at home here so I can use remote access to check my email at work and things. I hope to maybe do a bit of work this afternoon as well.
The boys and I don’t have much planned today. I started Erik’s money budgeting goal today. We will be going to the bank to turn in his change and then he will fill in his worksheet. We are working on planning our week and he is going to make Friday his outing/shopping day. I am trying to get him to learn to think ahead and plan and not be so impulsive. This is a big feat!!! It is actually a good start that he asked to go buy the movie yesterday and he agreed to wait until Friday which is his shopping day.
We also planned our budget for vacation. We are going on a three day weekend to Duluth and he wanted $60.00 of spending money. So when our neighbors come home from Florida and pay him for shoveling this winter, he will put $60 in the savings for our vacation. I asked him if he planned on going on vacation with his mom and stepdad, but he said he didn’t want to.
We might plan to go to my sisters trailer at the lake for a weekend as well. We will see. We are just going to try and do some smaller outings this summer.
TOMORROW
I have to have both boys up and out the door by 9:45 or so. Erik is hopefully getting his braces off tomorrow. He has not done very well in putting the rubber bands on so his correction isn’t perfect, but it is the best it will be. He has an appointment at 10:00 and another appointment at 2:00 to have his temp retained put in or something.
Well the boys lunch is almost done, so we are going to eat and head to the bank. Hope you are all having a great day!!
I like reading about how you are working with Erik’s issues. I have a brother who should have had such good care. My parents were so unprepared and I think the adoption caseworkers should have given them a lot more information on what his needs would be. Today he is in his twenties and being in prison is the safest place for him. So cheers on all your loving care for Erik! He is very blessed.
OMGoodness- that is the dx my 15 y.o. has PDD-NOS he “looks” normal and people expect normal behavior but that doesn’t happen. This weekend we had my fiances girls and their friend along with TJ-special needs child- and his brother. After the boys left I asked the girls if TJ behaved with them. They hesitated. I asked if thought he was different/weird they replied,” yes”. None of them had heard of Autism. So, my question…………..is Erk your step son? Is he in Special Ed. TJ is in an Emotional Disturbed class which I think is so innapproriate. He needs to be in an Aspergers class. so frustrating. his dad has always been in denial of his disabilites which makes it hard to get him the services he needs and the emotional support I need from my ex. That was another issue in our maggiage. Ever heard of the parenting class,”Growing Kids God’s Way”? Well, i hated it as every child is different. My ex took from it that you can beat the disobedience out of a child. Argh!! I hate him. You could spank TJ to no end as a child and it made no differnce he would do the same thing 2 minutes later. He has special needs. Hello!???? so frustrating. Thanks for your comments on my testimony. 🙂 Thanks for hanging in there with me. i appreciate your friendship.
I canot tell you how excited I am to know another mo of af PDD-NOS kid! TJ is almost 15 he has sensory issues andis bipolar as well. 🙁 He needs to get out of the class he is in. My mom mentioned yesterday a charter school. The only thing is public school has many sevices to offer including the bus. TJ wants to spend 1/2 the time with me and 1/3 the time with his dad. I am being on in I am not sure that i am in a place in my recovery where i could handle him that often. I have much guilt about that and pray about it. He hovers over me- doesn’t understand personal pace. He recently told me he thought he was gay. ugh! I think he is gravitating towards whatever people will accept him. if that is his life choice i reassured him I would be by his side but my heart would ache for the rejection in society he would face. 🙁 I love him so much and he is so like me that we butt heads. LOL! anyway, i do believe tj too will be with us for a long time. 🙂