aspergers: what does it mean to me?

I cannot even begin to blog about the last two days of my life. Basically, we had another milk infestation during vacation and I can't believe I didn't learn from my mistake the last time we had the milk infestation. All I can say is...we were on vacation and I felt badly that he couldn't have icecream so I thought...oh, it's just a little icecream...it can't hurt TOO bad.

I was wrong. Very very very wrong. It is really quite difficult to track down the ingredients of all foods that he eats. It seems much easier to say "hey is this peanut free?" (and have the waiter know what the heck I am talking about) than to say "Hey is this milk free? No, I don't mean lactose free, I mean completely milk free? Well, it matters because milk is evil in our family!" -- That conversation didn't happen quite like that, but based on the looks I received it could have gone exactly like that.

So anyway, we are day two with strict no milk again and I think the crack, I mean milk, is almost out of his system. If things are not turned around by tomorrow, I think I will check him into a detox clinic...I wonder what kind of crazy look they'll give me.

On a much more exciting note! I finally FINALLY made it to the book store to get "Aspergers: What does it mean to me?" by Catherine Faherty. It was recommended to me by our therapist as a great book to use with boy to help explain to him what is going on and why he feels the way he does. My initial feeling on the book is really good. I'm super excited about it.

The book is in a workbook format that he and I will go through together (once he has the milk crack out of his system of course). The first section explains autism and the spectrum -- questions like "Was I born with autism?", "Why do I have autism?". It also stresses that there is nothing wrong with having autism, it does not mean that you are sick, it does not mean that you are bad, it does not mean something is wrong with you...all it means is that you have a different way of thinking. Immediately after that it goes into strengths, such as being very detailed and able to easily memorize various things and asks them to list their strengths in these areas.

Next, it goes into routines, changes, schedules and how to be more flexible. For example (and this one holds true for us) the book goes through why it is important to allow others to be first at somethings even if you always like to be first no matter what. Then there are a few lines that they can write on to mark when they allowed someone else to go first instead of themself.

There is also a sensory section that lists the various sensory issues that they can circle if they are bothered by them with fill in spots where they can provide more info...this will be super helpful for us because I'm still not 100% on what areas we are sensitive to and non-sensitive to.

Overall this book looks amazing and I cannot wait to dig further into it! I will blog what I find is good, bad, and boring! Please let me know if there is anyone out there who has also used this book.