Wednesday, August 26, 2015

I Wanted to do it Myself

The other day I posted about my Dono and his new haircut he did all by himself. I  wrote about how proud I loved his need for independence.  While  that same need for independence does indeed make me proud, it also scares me at times.  Especially when my autistic kid wants to cross the street "All by Himself"! 

My mom is generally who minds Donovan after school and during breaks from school.  But she recently fell ill and isn't a 100% as of yet.  So we have our sitter who steps in at other times when I have a meeting and the husband is working, or when the Hubby and I want a date night minding him and my oldest child Devynn while we work.  He is pretty good with minding the kids and they actually get excited when he comes over to stay with them.  

Yesterday he took them to get some pizza for lunch and Dono let go of his grip and tried to go off on his own.  The sitter is really good at telling about the happenings of the day.  Good or bad, and I truly appreciate that about him.  So he let me know that he took Donovan's iPad privilege away for a while.  I was okay with that.  It wasn't the first time he had tried this with him.  

Later that evening when I asked Donovan if he had run away from Ruben, he quickly answered "yeah". When I asked asked why, he answered with "I wanted to do it myself!" 

As a mom, you want to protect your children.  My oldest is 10 and she finally got the hubby and me to break down and allow her to cross the street alone.  I forget sometimes that Donovan is just one year younger than her.  Together with his Comm Hab worker we have been teaching and supervising him while he crosses the street.  Not sure if I will ever really feel okay with him going off alone, but my hope is that one day he will be travel trained in order to travel on his own.  

Again here he is telling me in his own way.  "I Can Do It"   


Monday, August 24, 2015

I Did it all by Myself!!!!!


Sooooo..... Donovan usually has a pretty good sleep pattern.  He didn't always.  With a little help of melatonin and a steady routine he sleeps most of the night. We don't give him melatonin daily.  We give it to him when his pattern is disrupted and we need him to get back on track. This usually happens when school is out. he .... Whew it varies.  Mostly he is up all night and crashes around 6 am.  

Recently we've  had some stuff happen that has thrown off our schedules, routines and environment.  So it doesn't surprise me that he has been an owl!  

When he is up, I'm able to take some naps throughout the night.  He usually raids the kitchen cabinets and the fridge.  He will surf YouTube, Netflix or play with other apps on his iPad. But most of all he is up drawing.  He really can draw, but he is a perfectionist and if it isn't to his standards of perfection, he will crumple it up and toss it.  

We went to bed very late, after 12 am.  I thought the kids were asleep, but I heard Donovan shortly after, turning on lights and running back and forth.  Heard the TV go on and I tried my best to rest as much as possible.  Around 5:30 am I thought I heard the bathtub faucet turn on, but I figured it was the fan, and turned over.  But, couldn't fall back to sleep.  I tossed and turned for a bit.  I finally got up and noticed the bathroom light Was on.  I ran into the bathroom and found hair all over the floor and inside the tub. The tub was full with water.  I was half asleep and I thought to myself, did my husband shave and not clean up? Then I got nervous and thought did Dustin shave the cat?! I started going through the rooms.  And there he was scissors in hand snipping away!  I asked him what he was doing?  And very proudly he answered." I gave myself a haircut.  I did it all by myself!" 

After the initial shock, I began to laugh, and then I was so proud of him.  I love how independent he wants to be.  He is constantly reminding me of how capable he is.  Ladies and gentlemen here is my Donomite's hair cut!!!!!