Silly Farm
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on May 2, 2011
Clay had not been feeling well all week. Agitated and crabby. Lightning-quick mood swings. Typing on his keyboard “so sad so sick” whenever we asked what was wrong. (Allergy season takes a toll on the little guy.) But by Sunday afternoon, he seemed to be feeling a bit better—and we all needed to get out—so we decided to roll the dice.
This past winter we joined a local farming coop, and they were having an open house Sunday afternoon. I have visions of juicy strawberries and raspberries as big as your fist. I suspect Clay is imagining plump red tomatoes and peppers. Two of his favorite summer foods.
We asked the crabby one if he would like to go to the open house.
“Sure,” he typed.
Off we went, ready to turn around at the slightest sign of dark mood clouds on the horizon. Read the rest of this entry »
Man Eaters?
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on April 7, 2011
I was standing in the middle of our backyard a few weeks back, when I felt a shadow pass overhead and heard a noise like a hovering helicopter.
I looked up, fully expecting to see the National Guard landing on the patio. Instead, I caught sight of the largest bird I’ve ever seen sitting on our chimney. A moment later, I heard the noise again and watched a second one come out of our garage window to join its friend.
Gigantor and friend just sat there like they owned the place. This was news to share with the family. It was a Sunday afternoon, so I ran to get Clay and my wife to take a look. Of course, by the time we got back outside they were gone. But my wife did confirm an earlier sighting of these monsters, so I know I didn’t imagine the whole adventure. Read the rest of this entry »
Jumping Bean
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Silly Behaviors on March 21, 2011
With just a few minutes left in our recent visit to a nearby bounce emporium, Clay was showing no signs of slowing down and little interest in our warnings that we needed to leave soon.
A local group, the Autism Cares Foundation, has been funding a once-a-month session at a Bounce U, which is filled with huge sliding boards, mazes, moon walks, every kind of blow-up-bounce-on-me-type of equipment you can imagine. We joined them for the first time last week.
Clay was having the time of his life, jumping and flinging his body around on one piece after another. All 10 or 12 of the kids were doing the same. It’s amazing to watch kids with autism go at this sort of equipment. Clay is particularly insatiable, bouncing with abandon. Doesn’t matter whether you are supposed to be sliding or climbing, he finds a way to fit in some pinball action. A couple of times I had to shoo him out of the basketball area, where he was rolling around on the padded mats. Read the rest of this entry »
Warm Breezes
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Daily Life on March 6, 2011
We woke up Saturday morning to a badly needed pre-spring day. The newspaper boasted the temperature would hit 60.
Late morning found our basset Miles stretched out on the still-brown grass in our backyard, soaking in the sun, sniffing scents on the wind, looking as though nothing short of a dropped filet mignon would uproot him.
I cleared the monster pile of leaves that had accumulated on our patio, dragged a lounge chair from the garage and lay for as long as I could watching the swirling breeze toss the tops of the trees that border the yard. Read the rest of this entry »
Gaining Control
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on February 28, 2011
It started when someone (it truly doesn’t matter who, we’ve all done it) forgot to put the lock back on the bathroom closet. While my wife and I were eating dinner, Clay was upstairs quietly dumping witch hazel, mouthwash and shampoo on the bathroom floor, creating an inch-thick, three-foot-wide slippery soup. We cleaned it up as best we could (although two days later the bathroom still smelled minty fresh), and went back to eating.
It continued with Clay taking his pajamas off every 5-10 minutes for the next hour or so. (An odd compulsion we’ve been battling lately.)
And it culminated when I found him pajama-less, spinning on the floor in our bedroom. The little guy has been home too much with the cold and snowy weather. He’s bored. We understand. We all have cabin fever at this point. Fuses are short. Read the rest of this entry »
Tight Spaces
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life, Silly Behaviors on February 22, 2011
One night about a week ago, Clay disappeared on me.
With my wife at a meeting, it was just us guys for the evening. I was attempting to work in my office in the finished attic—while our basset hound, Miles, nudged against my leg demanding to be petted—when the silence below forced my nose out of my laptop.
No one would ever refer to Clay as a quiet little bunny. He maintains a steady stream of talking, mixed with squeaks and squawks, pretty much from dawn to midnight. When we go food shopping, I always know where Clay and my wife are, even from three aisles away. As I am typing this I can hear him downstairs watching Shrek in his room, screeching and clapping. A ghostly quiet grabs your attention.
Downstairs I went, checking the little guy’s usual haunts—his room, the upstairs bathroom, our bedroom, the room above the kitchen where we set up a computer so he can listen to his favorite music. (The last few weeks he’s played a steady stream of Andrea Bocelli’s Romanza, Willie Nelson’s 16 Biggest Hits and Johnny Cash’s The Man Comes Around.) No sign of Clay. I headed down to the living room, family room and kitchen. Still no sweet sound of babble. Read the rest of this entry »
The Royal ‘We’
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating on February 18, 2011
While I am off in San Antonio—visiting the basement of the Alamo, among other things—Clay’s number one fan and my wife, Roe DeLuca, has graced us with a guest blog post. Enjoy.
If you’ve been following this blog for some time, you may have noticed an interesting component of Clay’s writing: he refers to himself as “we.”
When he first started using it, I thought he was talking about the two of us, since he currently needs resistance on his wrist when typing to jump-start brain-body connections. However, it was soon clear I was off the mark. He was, in fact, talking about himself.
The clarity of Clay’s deepness and spiritual connection became apparent last summer, when his typing really took off. A few times he would eagerly lift his hand to signal he wanted to say something, and then type some surprising statements. Read the rest of this entry »
A Day Without …
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating on February 14, 2011
As usual, one of the first things my wife did when she got home from work the other day was ask Clay—on his keyboard—how his day went.
I thought I had a pretty good idea what he would type.
The afternoon sitter said he had been in a good mood since coming home from school.
The note from his teacher said he had “a good day.” She mentioned that he was “very chatty” and that he sat well while listening to stories in the library. He also worked on some Valentine’s Day cards for friends and family. Read the rest of this entry »
Sitter Search
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on February 11, 2011
The woman who has been sitting with Clay four afternoons a week gave her notice this week, sending us scrambling for a replacement.
Clay is in high school, so gets home by 2:30 most days, leaving a long afternoon ahead. The little guy needs some down time, a chance to “decompress” from school. But we also want his afternoons to be productive, filled with activities, typing, reading, homework and a minimum of “stimming” (rolling on the floor, jumping on the bed, etc.)
So, we have two weeks to find a new sitter with the right personality, experience with autism and, preferably, a background in special education. I had to double-check my math, but this will be our sixth sitter in a little more than a year and a half. That’s a lot of change. (I don’t think it’s me, but to be safe, I’m vowing to begin showering at least twice a week going forward.) Read the rest of this entry »
Super Sunday
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on February 7, 2011
The sun was shining Sunday afternoon and the thermometer read a balmy 40 degrees. A good day to stretch our legs at a nearby state park before the next storm hits in what feels like an endless winter. Clay, my wife, our basset hound Miles and I piled in the car with visions of clear trails running along the snow covered forest. Deer lapping quietly at the edge of the icy creek. Canada geese honking and splashing.
Turns out we weren’t the only ones with those visions. Read the rest of this entry »
Life With Clay 