How Long Does It Take to Eat a Waffle? ....The World May Never Know!

It's Saturday morning, the day I always make pancakes and bacon for the family.  Sometimes I make my home-made waffles, but that always takes some extra steps.  Chris wanted waffles this morning, so I was happy to do so.  My home-made waffles are really the best, they are such a treat.  The first waffles come out and Chris and Mikayla nab the first block of 4.  Michael comes running to the table eager to get his waffles, but that batch isn't ready yet.  The next batch of waffles come out, UH OH!  Two of the four waffle have the edges not fully formed.  The batter did not spread all the way to the edge.  I can't serve these two defected waffles to Michael, but luckily the other two will pass muster.

This is definitely NOT Michael's waffle, it only has 2 squares left!

I put the waffles on the plate in front of Michael with his favorite Log Cabin syrup without high fructose corn syrup.  (High Fructose Corn Syrup totally puts Michael into major autism-land).  I go back to fixing more waffles and turning over the bacon.  I get another batch of waffles and bacon ready to bring to the dining room table and as I come in, here is Michael with the syrup. He is putting exactly ONE drop of syrup in each of the little square holes.  He is meticulously dropping one little golden drop of sweetness into each tiny square.  He is completely focused and I just smile and think to myself, "There he goes, my sweet autistic boy!"

I go back to the kitchen to get yet another batch of waffles and come back to find he has finished putting the droplets of syrup into each individual hole.  Did you know that there are 36 squares in a typical home-made waffle?  Did you know that it is a square number?  How perfect is that right?  Now did you know that my son started doing some division here??!!  Yes a waffle during breakfast is a total MATH lesson.  Now Michael is slowly and carefully cutting up his waffles.  He is taking so long that Mikayla and Chris have long left the table while he is cutting the waffle into a perfect 4 square section block in order to eat his waffles.  I said, "Michael, let me help you cut this buddy!"  He almost panicked as I pulled over the knife.  "MOMMY!  You must cut them into fours!"

I had to slow down and think, "Huh?  What are you saying buddy?"  He then pointed to all of the other pieces that he had cut.  Sure enough he was cutting the 36 little squares into sections that had 4 perfect squares inside of them.

"Mommy!  I need them in fours and I will have 9 pieces to eat."  Michael exclaims. Yes, 36 divided by 4 equals 9.   So I oblige and start cutting up his waffles to his specifications.  He looks up and me and says, "Isn't that cool mommy?"

I agree that is is "cool" and then I also say.  "Yes Michael that is cool, and that is very autistic of you!"  When he does something that is more spectrummy than the norm, we have started to point this out to him.  We don't admonish him in any way, we just point it out so he can realize that he is doing something that a "norm" might not do.  I do think it is cool, his math mind is working all of the time.  He has an amazing mind and is super smart.  I think it is good to make him aware of the times he is being more autistic.  I think this will help when others might get frustrated with him, I am hoping that he will say to himself, "Oh, I'm doing this, this is an autistic thing....people that do not have autism wouldn't do it this way.  Maybe that is why they are frustrated with me."  I am hoping that he can get to this self-actualization.

In the meantime, "How Long Does It Take to Eat a Waffle?"  Perhaps it takes twice as long when you live Somewhere Over the Spectrum!

Code Spectrum: Not Responding

During the last two months I have seen a huge decline in Michael's ability to respond to people. His communication has gone down dramatically, so much so that I am extremely concerned.  Other people have pointed this out to me as well.  A few weeks ago we went with our neighbor (the twins affectionately call her "Miss Lori") to the movies.  Before the previews even turned on, Lori started talking to Michael, granted Michael was sitting directly in front of her, I was sitting on Michael's left side, but he did not respond to her.  She tried again, got his attention, tapped him on the shoulder and he finally turned around but stared right through her.  After she asked him a question he still didn't really respond and I had to prompt him again.  After the movie was over Lori stated that she was really worried about him, and now I am seeing more of this deterioration of communication.

Two months ago he had an ear infection.  He got on an antibiotic and I figured the problem was solved.  A few weeks after that he complained about wax in his ear.  I do not use Q-tips generally because he had a blockage of ear wax when he was three, and the pediatrician said, "DO NOT USE Q-TIPS!"  So I have avoided them for years, but this time I gently used one and out came a huge strand of wax.  Ok, I thought, maybe he is having hearing problems.  Maybe he has major wax build up again.

One morning Michael came into the bedroom and cuddled with Chris and I.  Michael's head was on the pillow and I was talking to him.  My mouth was not more than 15 inches from his face.  He could see me talking and asking him questions.  He did not respond.  Since my background and undergrad. degree is in Deaf and hard of hearing, I immediately did the Ling Sound Check with him.  He seemed to not respond to high frequencies (th, sh) sounds.  I definitely think we need to get him in for a hearing check, but on top of that he just seems to be in his own world in general.  Usually Michael requires wait time when we talk to him.  He has to think and does not respond as quickly as a normal kid would respond.  Yet this wait time" seems to have been tripled during the last few weeks.

Michael building earthquake proof buildings at the Space Center 

His teacher has even noticed that Michael doesn't seem to be "hearing" right.  I guess the other day she gave directions and he went back to his seat and put a big question mark on his paper.  I'm glad she brought it up to me because now I KNOW I am not imaging this.  Is there a hearing issue?  Is he just becoming more "autistic"?  I remember when I did my student teaching for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, I was working in a preschool and they had brought in this child who wasn't communicating.  It turns out he did not have a hearing loss in any way shape or form, he was autistic.  We started teaching him sign language anyway, but he was soon moved to a different school ....to a different program.  When I first met my husband twelve years ago, they had diagnosed Dale as autistic, but the  question of "Does he have a hearing loss?"   constantly surfaced.  Dale never seemed to "hear" what we were saying, sometimes he didn't respond.   I know from past experience that sometimes an autistic kid does NOT want to answer you.  Sometimes they are totally entrenched in their own thoughts it doesn't occur to them that someone else is even in the room.  Michael is so high functioning that this hasn't been a problem before, it has been barely noticeable.  Is he taking a turn for the worse? 

We tried for the last 4 weeks to get an appointment up at CHAD Dartmouth Hitchcock in Lebanon.  This is where he was first diagnosed by Dr. Mott and Ellen Cavanaugh.  Dr. Cavanaugh moved away and Dr. Mott is left up there.  The CHAD center never called us back.  Ally left 4 messages, I left 2.  Finally I told Ally the other day, to just hit "I am a Doctor" button.  She finally got through, and they claimed that we had never called there and that there was no one who called from our household.  :(
Then they tell my husband who called later that day that Michael was NOT A PATIENT there and we would have to go get another referral!  WHAT??  So we missed last year's yearly check up for his autism, so now we are totally erased from the books??  So now he has an appointment somewhere else and hopefully we can find out what is going on with this little guy.  We need to find if he is getting lost, Somewhere Over the Spectrum.

Michael and Mikayla at the Space Center