Today was a bit of a slower day for us, thankfully. Unfortunately, my day still started at 8:30 in the morning.
I woke up to find out that while Ashley had gotten Tyler off to school on the bus, Sarah had woken up with a nasty cold, and had to stay home. Our kids are Autistic, and while it may not be true with all Autistic kids, ours tend to have immune systems that aren't the greatest. That means we have to be extra careful when they get even a hint of sickness, otherwise they could very easily end up in the hospital. Anywho, Sarah ended up staying home with us and the little boys today. Luckily for her, there's a long weekend due to MLK day, so hopefully she'll be able to go back to school on Tuesday.
While Tyler was at school I cleaned up a little and let Ashley rest some; she's been a bit under the weather the last day or two. Chris and Ryan are still young enough they nap a bit, so in between changing diapers and making bottles, I've been doing a few minor maintenance chores around the house lately. We recently moved from an apartment into a house, but the house is a little older and needs some basic TLC. Our landlord told us to basically treat the house like it's ours, and to do whatever we need to in order for our kids and ourselves to be comfortable. So as a start, I've been cleaning drains, tightening screws, lubricating hinges, etc.
Being Autistic, our kids are extra sensistive to sensory input; among other things. Basically what this means is that sights and sounds and smells that "typical" folks wouldn't think twice about, if they noticed them at all, can be physically and/or emotionally painful for our kids; and anyone else with Autism. Those aren't the only signs of Autism, but the sensory issues are one of the primary day to day struggles of living with Autism whether as a sufferer or a loved one. Autistic kids also tend to have a major lack of ability to understand safe versus unsafe, and this can even continue into adulthood. In the name of compensating for that problem, one thing we've had to do with our kids is to use baby/safety gates on their bedroom doorways so that if they wake up early or just want to play in their rooms or something, they can't get out and get themselves hurt (Tyler and Sarah can open doorknobs and locks).
It was an early out day for Tyler, and when he got home he wanted to get on the laptop; which we indulged. He's ridiculously smart when it comes to computers though, so we have to watch him like a hawk to make sure he isn't reprogramming the computer or getting on sites we haven't put on his favorites list. Anytime Tyler sees someone he knows with a cell phone, he asks to play games on it. We always have to remind them that it's not a good idea to even let him hold their phone, as he'll get into, and change, anything and everything. It doesn't matter how tough you think your password is, or if you have the keys locked, or anything like that; Tyler's practically a Savant when it comes to anything electronic. It drives me totally nuts when he gets into the settings on the Xbox 360 and changes the language. I guess in all fairness though, I learned a few words I didn't know before in French, Dutch, Spanish, and a couple other languages after having to undo Tyler's modifications.
Eventually it got around to being dinner time tonight, and Ashley put together dinner for everyone. Tyler's on a gluten-free casein-free diet since it helps cut down on some of his Autistic behaviors like flapping and spinning. Sarah has been on the diet and it wasn't particularly effective for her, but she's on a diet of her own as she basically refuses to eat almost everything, and what she will eat changes at random. Chris and Ryan end up with a combination of bottles and baby food, or "people food" as it's known at our house, and they usually have their "people food" around dinner time. When they're older we'll try them each on the diet to see if it helps at all. Ashley and I eat regular food, for which I'm eternally grateful, and she made us dinner tonight as well. She's a wonderful cook, and I always love it when she cooks for us. Sometimes I take a turn cooking since I'm also a pretty good cook; I base that opinion on statements Ashley and a number of others have made after eating meals I've made; though I enjoy my cooking too.
The kids have varying bedtimes, due to age differences and a few other factors. Chris has gotten so he'll usually sleep through the night, but Ryan's still young enough he wakes up several times most every night. Daddy's in charge of bedtime for the kids, but I finally got everyone to sleep for the time being, so I thought it'd be a good time to do my post for the day.
Hope you all had a good one. Catch ya on the flipside.
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