Whitterer on Autism

When faced with fresh, lightly chilled, extremely juicy and sweet, seedless watermelon:- one of my sons, the “former neophobic,” has very low facial muscle tone which makes eating a strenuous business, my other son, who eats more or less anything [except bananas] displays a remarkable dislike for this most innocent of fruits.

“I am called it an ‘aqua jaw breaker’ coz of dah watery and hard to biting.”

Or……..how to eat watermelon without using your hands.

On the other hand……his brother:-

“IZ DISGUSTIN LIKE EATIN A SPONGE!”

For yet another alternative view of watermelons, zip over to my pal “Melody” for a quick “slurp” and spit out the pips.

In a last note, it may be that you too are enjoying a thoroughly delightful life, but others, sadly, are not so blessed.

Maybe you could help out a smidge, or visit to see the devastation for yourself so that we can all thank our lucky stars.

Best wishes

But it only lasted a nano second!

From stuttered speech delay to fluidity:-

“Mom!”
“Yes dear?”
“I……..…am……..”
“Yes dear?”
“Er…………hun……gry.”
“Here, have a banana, you want to be healthy don’t you?”

Silence.

“After healthy…….what am I being?”
“Would you like some Goldfish crackers for a treat?”
“Now you’re…… my kinda woman.”
“!”

I swear I don’t know where he got that one from although the “Boris Karloff” intonation was a little disconcerting.

One of the many advantages of having an excessively large family is that it provides ample opportunity for me to exercise my powers of delegation.

I leave my daughter and her partner to mind Nonna and the three siblings, a two to one ratio, whilst I rush off to the supermarket to feed the hungry hoards. Within 30 minutes I’m back, fully and efficiently re-stocked for possibly another 24 hour period. Predictably enough, the house is in chaos but that does not deflect me from my mission.
“Right! I want every one of you out on the drive way to carry in a bag into the kitchen…..except you Nonna, you’re excused.” Three small people blink in disbelief, “you want to eat, right?” I add encouragingly.
“I am not liking yur disgustin foods.”
“Never mind that, it’s your new job.”
“Jobs is for adults.”
“Nope, not around here. This is how it works. I shop for the food. Daddy pays for the food, you do your work by carrying the food inside the house.”
“I cannot be doing dah working chores today.”
“Really. And why would that be then?”
“Because I am dah weakest one.”
“Rubbish! You’re as strong as a cat.”
“But my cat body is being too empty of the good foods for the giving of the energy.”
“Fair enough. I’ll just have to eat the three catering cartons of Goldfish crackers on my own then.”

My son snuggles up close to purr with contentment as our holiday draws to a close. He is still at the ‘part cat’ stage of development but there is no harm in checking whether England has grown in attractiveness after an additional annual exposure.
“So………is there anything else you like about England now?”
“Else?”
“Um……additional…….extra. You like afternoon tea time but is there a number two, a second thing that you like?”
“Well……..”
“Yes?”
“I think maybe I am liking all dah alley’s.”
“Alley’s?”
“Yes…….alley’s is being dah little wiggly roads dat are being too small for proper cars.”
“Ah! Yes indeedy. All those little cobbled streets are rather quaint.”
“Dey are perfect.”
“Really! You surprise me. I thought you liked large, straight and neat.”
“Yes but my cat part like’s alley’s betterer.”

Our daily route in our huge hire car on the tiny little roads in England on holiday. At least the new mantra has faded now we’re returned to the States.

Ooo the excitement!

If you enjoy caption competitions and photographs, you may wish to nip along to“DJ Kirkby” over at “Chez Aspie” and test your brain power.

Yes, this is not so much a ‘get organized’ post as a ‘have a daily do-able activity for the children’ post.
You will need:-
A jam jar
A tea light
An old wire hanger
Narrow gauge [easy to bend] wire
Wire cutters
Beads or chopped up drinking straws as a substitute and even more ‘green’ beads.

Thread the beads onto wire and secure each end so they don’t fall off.

Cut a length of wire long enough to go all the way around the rim of the jar and make a handle.

Thread the beads onto the long wire first and then secure around the rim and fashion a handle.

Pop the tealight inside and voila. Make sure you hang it in a safe place as is does get very hot which is why a longer handle is better. Hang far away from anything flammable.

Children need a lot of help with this one but motivation is pivotal. The motivation here has nothing to do with making a craft or creating something pretty and function. It’s all about the motive, namely, although you may not immediately recognize it, you have just made a ‘moth attractor.’ Now you may experience the true joy of sitting in the garden in the semi darkness with your moth attractor and children and a great many flying insects, some of which might be moths but I’m sure the majority of them are mosquitoes.

Parents are advised to sit on their hands as swatting “nature’s friends” is likely to prove counter productive. The lawyer in me would describe this activity as an “attractive nuisance.”

Hosted by “Tracy” at “Mother May I,” but the photo-picture below will whizz you right there with one click.

This is the first thing we saw when be tried to blunder in the garage door after a 12 hour flight:-

A big improvement on the tatty old aid memoires, check lists and prompts that are usually on that door.

[or why a significant speech delay is such a nebulous thing]

“I am love.”
“Indeed you are dear! Anything in particular that you find favour with today?”
“Yes,” comes the enthusiastic breathy sharer, “I am love the natures.”
“Which particular part of nature?”
“The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter “pictures.”