Ross - An Introduction

This is my son, Ross, and his favorite sidekick, Buddy.  No, there is nothing dripping off his chin, it's a pixel or something stupid.  This is a blog about our life.  It's kinda crazy and kooky and sometimes it's out of control but we're working on that.  I will be posting his progress with his new behaviorist (she's mine, too, lol) and I will also be posting his "ROSSISMS" here as often as possible.  

Rossisms are funny quotes from my son that make perfect sense to him but not to the average perrson. They are sometimes extremely inappropriate but funny and sometimes they are just really sweet and real.  His reality is sometimes mixed with cartoons and he has a hard time figuring out what cartoons are real and which ones aren't.  :-)

Ross is 13 years old, but insists he's a grown man, and he is on Ritalin for ADHD.  I am not a fan of the stimulant meds anymore as they seem to be backfiring more than helping lately.  I am going to try a new, holistic approach with him and try to get him to re-learn some of the behaviors he's gotten used to in the wonderful public school system here in Fort Worth - yes, there will be a heavy use of sarcasm in this blog.  He's 5'8" tall, he wears a freakin' size 11 shoe for his meatloaf feet and wears a 32 length pant.  He's growing like a weed!  Speaking of weed, if I find a doc in town to prescribe him some medical marijuana, we WILL be testing it.  So here we go - off to the world of Autism and Ross Lynn.

 

Our adventure begins with last night's meeting with Lauren, our new behaviorist.  He knew she was coming so he was ready for her.  He's been asking me to take him to the doctor to cure his autism.  I have to tell him there is  no cure and it really ticks him off sometimes.  He knows he's different and he knows he can't control some of his behaviors but he wants to learn.  This is where Fran Templeton, the woman who runs Spectrum Autism in Fort Worth, Texas, comes in.  She's going to be teaching us new ways to interact with each other.  My daughter, Hannah, is also going to be a part of this.  Ross is kind of a jerk lately (a-hole, really) but tonight he was right on target with wonderful behavior and using very good table manners.  Of course he was!  <eyeroll>

One of the things we made was a star chart so he can earn all of his stars and watch a movie he likes - Frankenweenie!  This is all very typical ABA stuff and things I already know from working with him in his younger years.  I told Hannah how gay I felt for doing such simple-pimple routines but hey, they were working and there wasn't any yelling or challenging me and we had perfect harmony all night.  I can be gay for that.  

***disclaimer***

For all the wussies out there that just choked on their chips for my use of the word "gay", please note I did not use this word in a derogatory fashion against gay people.  I am a child of the 80's - EVERYTHING was "so gay" and I have many gay friends I love that also use this same expression.  So before you go accusing me of hatin' on gays or being a gay basher, shut up.  I have free speech and if you know me, you know I absolutely mean no harm.  Back to the blog:

So we had a really good morning this morning, too.  He woke up a little iffy but the moment I said "Hey, sweetie, let's get up and earn some more stars", he changed his attitude and got up nicely.  He also cleaned up after himself after breakfast <thud> and rinsed his bowl in the sink.  I asked Lauren if she would come and live with his last night, LOL.  But this morning was good and he was quite the chatter box.  I did not give him his ritalin this morning, either.  Crap, I forgot to tell his teacher!  Anyway, he did well this morning.  I will update later with tonight's experience.  I am sure I will feel much better after he begins his social thinking classes and I have my parent training classes.  It's not when he was little, people, we're dealing with adolescence here and that and autism are two very volatile issues.  Back soon with more details......

OK - I'm back!  Ross had an itchy day at school and has also come up with a new name for one of his friends who apparently does NOT like it.  Ross thinks because HE thinks it's funny, so should his friend.  He nicknamed him "squiddly" or something stupid.  It balanced out because the boy in the wheelchair that Ross takes to the lunch room likes to punch Ross in the stomach.  He calls it the "Mexican Punch".  I guess that means that mexicans like to punch people in the gut without warning, according to *****.  I just realized I probably shouldn't use real names just in case someone gets angry.  We will rename the kid WCK for wheelchair kid - and shut up, I'm not trying to be ugly.  Ok, screw it, we'll call him Jose.  Jose works better.  Jose thinks it's funny to punch Ross in the stomach and Ross thinks it's funny to call his teacher Mr. Big Nose and his other classmate, Squiddly.  I have a hard time keeping these characters together.

Ross did really well last night because he only had 2 more stars to earn before he got his movie reward.  I went to the gym and prayed he would not have another meltdown while I was gone.  I got home and Hannah said he did really well and had a snack and watched a cartoon.  Ross earned his next star.  Then I asked Ross to clean up his mess and he did,  with no objections, and earned his 14th and final star.  He got his movie.  LOL.  He also said "Mom - mom - mom - mom....I have to call Lauren now and tell her I got all of them".  (she made a note on his board to call her when he completed his goal)   He actually called her on my phone and when she answered he goes "HULLO"  and then gave me this look like he was all embarrassed and then told her all about his final star.  He was really proud of himself.  :-)

We watched Frakenweenie ( I cried twice) and then went to bed, happy and quietly.

Kudos to Ross on a job well done.