Day 4 #bath My boys ... just thinking about Autism differently

#bath My boys ... just thinking about Autism differently

Well I got them into the bath ... together !! but how in earth did I manage it, that is the question ?

I knew something was wrong from the way I carried my unborn child, knew I was having a boy, decided on his name from when I was about six weeks gone ... like I said I knew from the way he wasn't moving in my tummy. I talk to him now about the little slow worm slowly turning in my stomach and how I would tick it off the midwifes movement chart.   Knowing in my heart I was missing out on the experience of having that little shape of a foot or hand pushing out from the inside of my growing stomach telling me he was here and getting ready to say hello ...

The old saying is, "that a mum know's bests" .... "trust your mothering instincts" well that's until you get in front of a medical professional and they know best, they have all the textbooks you will ever need ... What has got me to this point in my life is my now strong mothering instinct which has grown from a unsure mother to a lioness with her cubs.

My first real memory that sticks out in my mind of how autism works ... I had told Liam to go, wash his hands in the toilet.  When I'm trying to explain my autistic family to people I find this is the best explanation I can give.   Not only was Liam washing his hands literally in the toilet and very sensibly using soap while managing to flush at the same time,  he had done exactly what I had asked him to do ... wash his hands in the toilet, the mental picture still makes me laugh now.

My first born ... brought me the understanding of the meaning of hitting the wall, with Liam you cannot go around, over, under or through .... so overtime I worked out how to take his walls down by picking and scratching at the mortar, taking each brick down one by one. Every day his walls go up,  over the slightest thing from being clean, to what he eats to how he touches food, clothes or his lack of caring about changing his clothes and that has nothing to do with being a teenager, I still have that to come. 

Then you have to experience 'the glaze' a look of complete and utter vacancy which over time I have learnt in Liam's case is his processing time ... figuring things out making sense and logic of what is being asked of him and as is shown with the #bath project taking the time to explain anything makes everything achievable. 

My son is such a bright kid, he just needs time to compute.

He says, "I speak autisticly friendly" and I say, "he taught me to speak autisticly friendly".

We hope you are enjoying the small window into our family.