Updates from the Bad Blogger

Wow, you'd think I could find five minutes to write something once and awhile... Actually, if I could just take five minutes, it wouldn't be an issue, but you know how I like to talk...

Chase
Chase started preschool. He goes to daycare in the morning, and then the bus picks him up and drives him across the street (seriously) to his school. He's at school from 12:30 to 3:00 and then the 1 1/2 hour bus ride home. Funny how we live about 10 miles from school and it takes THAT long.
He LOVES school. He's in a class with six other autistic spectrum kids of varying abilities. I don't know all of the kids, but I do think that Chase is one of, if not the most verbal kids. It's vary structured and they do all kinds of things: speech therapy, occupational therapy, gym class, music therapy, and swimming.
He also loves the bus. To put it mildly, I freaked out when they said he'd have such a long bus ride. More like I was a weeping annoying parent. But, he has really surprised me and LOVES his bus ride. His bus driver, Sandy, is great, and since he's in a booster seat and buckled in, he's not wandering around on the bus. Whew!
He's also using the potty almost all the time, except he'll only stand. So that means only #1, no #2 or "poot" as he calls it.

Corinne
Or as we call her "Jaws".
She started biting two days ago. Because my major coping mechanism is to laugh, I'm not helping much. I'm hoping we work through it quickly. She's also throwing HUGE fits and hitting me, Chase, anybody who doesn't let her do exactly what she wants. Well, at home at least. She doesn't do this stuff at daycare, so I guess that's good. She just tells them "NO!" It's amazing the difference having a child that won't watch movies and talks so much. She's as much of a handful as Chase ever was, but in a totally different way. But she's so darn cute.

Lessons
This whole "autism adventure" with Chase has taught me more life lessons and compassion than I had learned in the first 26 years of my life. I can't believe the wonderful "differently-abled" kids, loving families, and caring teachers I have met. I feel ashamed that I ever made a shortbus joke, or complained that I couldn't find a close parking spot because there are too many "handicrapped" spots. Chase is doing really, really good and is really breaking out of most, if not all, of his autistic behaviors. But, I can tell you that if it turned out he was 100% "normal", I'm glad that we have been through what we have because it's taught me a valuable lesson and opened Chase up to people he might never have interacted with.

I hope that you will all encourage your children to get to know some differently-abled kids. Although it might be hard for your children to understand why someone is different, I promise you that you, your child, the disabled child, and that child's family will forever be changed for the better, and the world will be just a little better place because of it. :o)