I Love Me Some PECS!!!!

(OK, Just kidding...not that kind...but it lured you in  to read this right????)

For a few weeks now, Nicholas' teacher and I have been communicating and collaborating to get a pecs system fully implemented in my home. Backing up, and to protect the innocent, I should not mention her name, but will suffice to say that this amazing and lovely woman has made in astounding impact on my son at school, and she doesn't want to stop there.   She has spent her own precious time, both in and out of the classroom, to help pull together photos, laminate cards, and make visual schedules and a binder full of picture options for mom and dad for not only Nicholas, but for my other two kids as well.  She came to my home yesterday, and physically set up the entire system, and ran me through some drills on how to "train" the kids to respond to the schedules. (Not necessary for Nicholas since he already uses this system in the classroom...he just ran with it immediately.)  

This morning, I was feeling particularly empowered, after only 1 hour of use.  Some amazing things occurred far beyond my expectations, and I suddenly fell in love with this system.  And by the way, this is not just useful for Autism parents....frankly, it may be even MORE useful to me with my other kids, than with Nicholas. (or at LEAST equally useful.)  Anyway, here are a couple of nuggets that I took away from our first morning of using this system with all of my kiddos.

1) My youngest, who can be quite emotional and defiant when he wants to be, was not only cooperative, but was EXCITED to do the tasks on his schedule (go to the bathroom, get dressed, and eat breakfast) which typically each require 1000000% of my undivided attention in order to complete successfully and without tears.

2)  With each of the kids following their schedules, it allowed me time to prepare their breakfast and give Nicholas some extra help where needed which NORMALLY is a chaotic situation where two kids are yelling at me to produce Milk and Waffles at the speed of light while Nicholas bangs his head against the wall in the dining room while impatiently awaiting the oatmeal that I am very distractedly trying to prepare.

3)  This one is probably the BEST, and the most UNEXPECTED of them all:  They all cooperatively sat together at the small table I use for them in the dining room.  As a result, they even paid a little bit of attention to each other.  Avery told me that Nicholas smiled at her when she repeated something from a show she likes, and she was genuinely happy that this happened....and so was I.  Later, she told me he wanted more milk, and I wondered why she had said that, and discovered it was because she took it upon herself to use the "Yes/No" card to ask him if he wanted more.  WOW!  I didn't see THAT coming!  

So, for today, this is what I wanted to share.  And since it is almost Thanksgiving, this is also what I am extremely grateful for!

I plan to write a mini-series complete with videos and photos to document our PECS progress in our house.   Oh, and for those who don't know what the heck I'm talking about when I say PECS, it is definitely a far cry from the photo above....but I just couldn't help myself when I came across that photo when googling images for the PECS system. :)

 It stands for Picture Exchange Communication system, and looks something like this, but has many variations and function:s

At any rate, I'll save the details for another post, but was super excited about this being in our home now and just had to share!!  So simple, yet SO very effective!  

Hoping you all have a lovely holiday, and thanks, as always, for taking the time to read.  Until next time....

Tales from the Cser Crypt....A Night in the Life

Just had to share one of our, seemingly and unfortunately more typical, night/early mornings scenarios.  After all, I write this blog to give you a glimpse into our world, so here's a really awesome one....(dripping with sarcasm, but can you blame me? It's 4:35am!)

2:06am:  The night time dreaded "singing" from the boy's room begins. Nicholas has awoken....

2:15am: I nudge the husband to ask where the melatonin is in hopes of nipping this in bud before the wake up becomes permanent.

2:16am: Mutter several curse words in my attempts to find the melatonin in the pitch black of night.

2:17am: Locate melatonin in garden window of kitchen feeling hopeful that perhaps we will all have a fighting chance of getting back to sleep.

2:18am: Enter the boys' room to find Nicholas wide awake in bed with his feet banging against the top bunk, effectively bouncing his baby brother around in a pretty solid effort to wake him, but to no avail...whew!

2:19: Melatonin administered...and I make the mental decision to stay in the room until he falls asleep... just for good measure. 

2:27:  He's still awake, and louder now.....

2:40:  Yup, still awake...that's okay, this could take up to 45 minutes for melatonin to kick in, I reassure  myself...

2:55am:  Still going.....I decide to try his wrist weights which tend to calm him down.  Yeah right...good try mom, he sings. Instead of calming him, he begins smirking and while at least HE'S happy, I'm not!

3:00am:  I mutter a couple of exhausted and defeated expletives, and head back to my bed. At least Brody didn't wake, I think to myself.....an obvious mistake on my part.

3:15: The "singing" becomes louder and more aggravated. In a last ditch effort, I meander downstairs and search the living room for my headphones...not for me, but that might have been a good idea in retrospect....

3:16am:  I re-enter the boys room, start my white noise app on my phone, and clamp the headphones over Nicholas' head.  INSTANT CALM!!! YESSSS!!!!  I take a deep breath and see the silver lining of at least a few more hours of sleep before morning!

3:18am:  Nicholas begins kicking his feet against the top bunk again and taking swings at me....an awesome addition to sleep deprivation.  From above, I hear a tiny whisper "Mommy....I want to cuddle you....."  Sigh...here we go. It's all over now.  Brody has awoken.  I have a choice to make now....dash out of the room before he is awake enough to realize it, or acknowledge him risking an outburst when I try and go back to bed.   Decision made: I dash out, giving up on the entire situation and praying for a miracle.  

3:20: Brody exits his room, turns on the hall light which glares int our bedroom like  a flood light on a police car, and enters my bed, tossing and turning until he finds a spot that suits him just right...albeit with his skull pressed against my bruised nose from the headbutt I received yesterday. Perfect. But I'll take it, so long as it's quiet. I could sleep standing on my head at this point. 

3:25: I hear the pitter patter of Nicholas fleeing his room, heading down the stairs, and searching for his Ipad.  Oh well....no school today. He can nap later before we take him to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday later. Oh yeah!  Today is is birthday!  Maybe he just wanted to celebrate from beginning to end??? 

3:35am:Brody decides to ask me for Halloween candy, and upon my comatose response, takes it upon himself to head down the stairs, turn on all of the kitchen lights, and help himself to a piece to  bring back to my bed.  "Pick your battles," I think to myself. 

3:45am: Chris removes candy from Brody's hands, and himself from our bed.  Someones gotta work in the morning!!!

3:48am: Brody informs me that he's going to sleep with Daddy, which I know translates into going back to the kitchen to find more candy.  I silently debate how much I care if he ingests an entire pound of chocolate just so I can get an hour of sleep, and weigh the possible outcomes.

3:50am: I begrudgingly stumble out of bed again, head downstairs, discard candy wrappers from kitchen floor, respond to a request for a banana, and begin opening mail....why not? What else is there to do at this hour??

3:55am:  Make the final decision that my day has officially begun, and chuckle sarcastically to myself as I turn off the program button for the coffee pot (set for 6am) so that I can manually start it now. 

4:02am: Turn on Wonder Pets for Brody, and pour my first cup of coffee, decide to write this blog post, and then pay some of the bills that have been piling up.   Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em I suppose!  At this point, I'm just thankful that no one is screaming!

So there ya have it!  Up and at 'em people!!!!!  Sleep is for the weak!!!! Until next time...