Talking about angry

I had a feeling yesterday afternoon would be a tough one.  Tony had a doctor's appointment after work, and so was going to be a few hours late coming home.  Janey doesn't care for that---not at all.  We've lately had some pretty good afternoons, but we do so by following a routine that is quite unchanging, right down to what I say when.  She gets off the bus, I tell her I missed her a million and was crying seven times for her.  I've said that every day for many years, and if I don't say it, she is not pleased.  Then she takes off her shoes and flings herself on her bed, and hugs Special Pillow for a bit, then asks for cheese.  I get it, cutting her slices.  She then asks for salami, and then does her own hunt to see what else there is.  I try to have a jar of salsa around, for a lower calorie treat.  She eats that, and then wants to snuggle again for a bit, then she asks for videos.  Sometimes she tells me which one she wants, something she wants me to browse.  Either way, we watch them until it's time for Daddy to get home, around 4:45.

A sign that would do no good

I told Janey early on that Daddy was going to be late.  She didn't react, but like clockwork, at 4:40 she started looking for him.  I reminded her he wasn't going to get home at his regular time.  Once it became apparent I was telling the truth, she started to scream.  And then screaming got loud, fast.  I ignored it as long as I could, but then, I asked her to stop.  She didn't, and I asked more firmly.  She didn't again, and I suggested she go in the "screaming room", a long ago strategy to try to contain her screaming to one room, the bathroom.  I went with her.

In the bathroom, after more screaming, I did what we so often do---thought up a song on the fly.  It was more of a chant, really.  It went "Janey is ANGRY because Daddy is LATE!"  I clapped on the "angry" and the "late".  Janey started repeating it near immediately, and we chanted it probably a hundred times.

How I must have sounded to Janey

Then she surprised me.  I did what I often do after she gets a sentence down.  I said the "Janey is angry because..." part and left the ending out, expecting her to say "Daddy is late".  Instead, she said "Mama said NO!"  She said the "no" in a (I hope) very overstatedly nasty voice, and while saying it, shook her finger in my face.

Well, I hope I don't sound like that when I say no, and I don't THINK I usually shake my finger in her face, but I can't say it's impossible....And I thought about it.  A little before Janey started screaming, I did say no to her.  She asked for more cheese.  We are trying to think about calories a bit more with her, and she'd already had a good deal to eat, so I said I didn't think we needed more cheese right then.  She didn't react much at the time, but I guess it stayed in her mind.  Or perhaps she was referring to when I told her not to scream, after she had started the screaming.  Either way, I made her angry and she let me know.

I've been working on getting Janey to verbalize her feelings, or on a more basic level, to recognize what she feels as angry or sad or hungry or happy or surprised, every chance I get.  I feel like the more she understands what her feeling are, the more she can tell us what she is feeling.  Yesterday felt like a bit of a breakthrough.  Maybe it wasn't the answer I wanted, but she told me that I made her angry. I am going to look at how I say "no".  There will still of course be times I have to say it, but I'll try to say it in a kinder and softer way.

After the screaming talk, the afternoon actually went well.  Janey calmed down a huge amount, and we watched videos and had a good time.  Just before Tony got home, one of her videos talked about having a cold and sneezing, and Janey started one of her favorite games lately, pretending to sneeze.  We do a lot of pretending like that---pretending to sleep, or cry, or get angry, or cough.  It seems like a way to work on feeling and symptoms and so on without actually having to get angry or sick.  I'm pleased that Janey seems to get the concept of pretending, at least in a basic way.  We pretended to sneeze back and forth for a good ten minutes, and then Daddy was home at last.  And I took full advantage and closed myself up and read for a long time.  Not a bad afternoon, overall.

One Afternoon

Janey gets off the bus with manic excitement, something I've learned over the years to be a little wary of.  She runs into the house, dropping her coat and hat and backpack as she goes, and dashes to the refrigerator, pulling out cheese and pesta and ketchup, and yells "Cheese, please, cheese!  Want to pour ketchup!  Pesto, please!"  I fix her multi-course snack, and she eats.  Then she asks for Angelina Ballerina.  I hold my breath as I put it on, and sure enough, after about two minutes, she starts screaming.  She stomps her feet and bites her arm.  As I walk over, she lunges toward me, teeth first, not exactly biting but hitting my chest with her teeth.  I pull away and say as calmly as I can "The TV is making you upset.  I am going to turn it off"  She flings herself onto her bed, screaming loudly.

I stop, take a breath, try to not fall into a useless despair.  I remind myself she hasn't had a mood this bad in a long time, probably a few months.  I tell myself to be patient, to stay calm.  I get on the bed with her and say "You seem very, very angry"  She screams more.  I pick up a few of her stuffed toys, which she never touches, and make them say "I am so angry at you, Mama, for turning off the TV!  I'm VERY ANGRY!"  Olivia Doll says it, Angelina Doll, Kitty Doll.  Janey watches for a bit and then repeats "I'm very angry!"  I rush to praise her.."Great talking!  You told me how you are feeling!"  She grabs my hand and bends my fingers backwards, while kicking me.

I get off the bed and say "I can't be on the bed with you if you are hurting me"  I walk away, keeping her within sight.  She screams and flails around.  Then she screams out "Want to watch Hercules!"  I say "I can't put on the TV until you are calmed down"  She screams louder.  I say "Would you like to take a shower?"  At this point, I'm counting the seconds until Tony gets home, and thinking how a shower would kill some time.  She screams back "WANT TO TAKE A SHOWER!" and so we do.  I don't get in with her, not feeling like being bitten or hit.  I sit in the bathroom and hope she wants a long shower.  She fiddles with the taps and makes the water too cold.  I fix it, and remind her not to touch the taps.  She does it again.  I tell her next time she'll have to get out.  She makes it hot and yells "FIX WATER!"  I get her out.  She is furious.

We go in the living room.  She says "want to watch SpongeBob?"  I ask her if she can calm down.  She responds by taking a deep breath.  I put on SpongeBob, unsure as so often if I'm doing the right thing.  She watches for a few minutes, and then punches the TV and screams.  I walk toward her and she lunges to bite me.  I block her.  I am out of ideas, out of patience.  She goes back on her bed, screaming.  She asks for the iPad.  I give it to her, and sit out of biting range.  There are ten minutes until Tony gets home.  She plays with the iPad for about 5, and then asks for cheese again.  I cut some for her.  Two minutes until Tony.  She asks for the TV.  I say no.  She screams and tries to put it on herself.  I hear Tony coming in.  I tell her Daddy is home.  He walks in the door and asks how things are.  I say "hellish"  I tell him I'm going to the store for a minute, and I leave, shaken and tired.

To the others out there living this life---how are we going to make it?  How are we going to get through the rest of our life that's like this? How can we help the kids we love so very much?  How can we keep them safe while keeping ourselves safe?  What are we going to do?

World Autism Acceptance/Awareness Day, through my own Janey lens

Well, here it is again, that day that I am sure is like Christmas for all of you out there---World Autism Acceptance/Awareness Day!  All sarcasm aside, sometimes I'm a little glad there's a day of the year set aside for autism---a day that is about what every single day is about for my family and me.

I thought I'd write about Janey's afternoon yesterday.  It illustrates the best and the worst of how autism affects Janey, and therefore affects our family.

Pictures I took this morning of Janey

Janey got off the bus in a fairly cheerful and mellow mood.  She was happy to find some chips to eat, and we had a quiet and companionable half hour as she ate them next to me.  Freddy got home then, and Janey was happy to see him.  Her hands were covered with chip dust, and he said if she washed them, he'd take her to the ice cream store, as she had asked (as she asks every single day after school).  After a few reminders, she washed them like a champ, and he kept his promise and took her to the store.  They both came back in great moods.  Freddy remarked on how very good she was, and how much fun they had.  The ice cream store (as most of you know, actually a corner convenience type store) is only a few houses and then a few businesses away from us, on the same side of the street, and now as we pass our neighbors' houses, we no longer have to hold Janey's hand.  She loves that---she skips along singing.  We take her hand again by the gas station, as Freddy did yesterday.  It was great seeing what a good time they both had, and Janey ate her ice cream happily.

A nice moment before they left---after Janey washed her hands and Freddy told her he'd take her to the store, she hugged him---her full-on, somewhat overwhelming hug.  Freddy was quite touched.  She is gradually showing more and more of an interest in her siblings, and it was really a nice moment.

Taken within three minutes, they show her changing moods.

So---great afternoon, right?  Well, then it took a turn.  Janey decided to graze the refrigerator for something more to eat.  She found raw turkey meat.  Freddy caught her in time and told her to put it back, and when she came over to sit by me, I said "Janey, you know we never eat meat that hasn't been cooked"  Evidently, that was something she found unacceptable to hear.  She hit me on the nose, very hard.  I grabbed her hands and said "No you don't!" and she lunged hard at me, trying to bite me with all her might.  I yelled to Freddy for help, and he carried her away to a chair and held her back as she tried as hard as she could to bite him too.  Being unable to do that, she kicked over a coffee table by the chair, with Freddy's afternoon coffee on it.  It spilled all over the floor.

Freddy told her, very calmly, that she needed to clean up the coffee.  And so started the 20 minute siege.  She was not inclined to clean up the coffee.  She wanted instead to bite Freddy.  He stayed calm and insistent, telling her to go get the paper towels, which she finally did, after about three biting attempts.  Then, again interrupted with many, many lunges at him, she very, very slowly did clean up all the coffee and threw away the wet paper towels.  By the time that was over, we were all exhausted.  Janey got her iPad and sat quietly and cruised YouTube.

It's not all smiles, so we take them when we can!

And that is Janey---albeit, a rather extreme example of Janey at her best and worst.  That is what we are aware of every day.  That is what we have leaned to accept.  Sometimes it's very easy to accept Janey.  Sometimes, it's very, very hard.  And as I talked about yesterday, accepting doesn't mean liking always, or not liking, always.  Sometimes it means adoring.  Sometimes it means despairing of.  But if I could tell the whole world about autism, I would like them to understand both sides of it.  I don't want a gauzy unicorn and rainbow filled fantasy autism image.  I don't want a horrifying, Autism-Speaks-Style tragic view of autism.  I want people to know Janey, and to know all of your girls and boys, all the many, many faces of autism.  I want them to know the stories, and to know the children we love so much.  Janey, this day is for you.  I love you so, so much.

A Tale of Two Afternoons

Janey gets home from school this year at about 2:30.  This is far earlier than other years, when she went to after-school.  I looked into after-school for her this year, and talked to the director, who seemed great, but it would only last until 4:15, and has no transportation.  That would mean I'd have to pick her up, as Tony would not be home yet, and driving out into Boston traffic at that time is not something I want to do.  So for now, Janey has the afternoon at home.

Mid to late afternoon has always been the toughest time of day for Janey.  I think she gets tired by then, due to her poor sleeping, but she doesn't nap.  She has used up her day's reserves of holding it together.  Daddy isn't home yet, and I am tired too.  If she hasn't eaten well, she's hungry.  Her medication is wearing off.  There's tons of reasons, and they all combine to make around 3-5 pm the most likely time of the day for meltdowns.

Monday, Janey got off the bus ready to explode.  She ran to her bed and flung herself onto it, something that looks like a teenager to me and almost makes me laugh, if it wasn't usually the start of trouble.  I went over to her and did my afternoon bit "I'm so happy to see you home!  I missed you a million!  How is my sweetie?  How was school?"  As usual, she doesn't respond.  Her pull-up was very wet, and so I started to change her.  When it came time to put another pull-up back on, she threw a fit.  She ripped the new pull-up.  If any of you have priced pull-ups for kids 8-14, you know they cost close to a dollar each.  So we discourage ripping.  I said "You don't have to wear a pull-up right now, but you have to wear some pants"  Janey decided she didn't want to.  She let me know this by starting to scream and grabbing my hair and pulling as hard as she could.  It took all my strength to get away from her.

I'll spare you all the details of the screaming, hair pulling and flinging about of things from that afternoon.  Suffice to say it was one of the longest two hours of my life.  When Tony got home, I was beyond discouraged and tired.  Janey was screamed out.  She looked burnt out, glassy-eyed.  So did I.

The next afternoon, I got her off the bus and braced myself.  She didn't look at me as she walked in.  She went straight for her computer, and started watching You-Tube videos.  On impulse,  I said "I'll be here reading if you need me".  She didn't.  For the next few hours, we barely interacted.  A few times, she went to get a snack and needed help cutting cheese or opening a jar, and I helped her, but we barely talked.  The house was quiet.  About an hour into the afternoon, she came over to me and said in a fast and odd voice, one I hadn't heard before from her, "Need a new pull-up"  I changed her as quickly as I could, without comment.  She gave me a look I won't forget soon---a look that said what she couldn't say in words---that she was thinking of the day before and glad we were doing this day differently.  When Tony got home, prepared to see us both as shells of ourselves, he was amazed we both looked rested and happy.

So what's the message?  I don't know for sure.  Whenever I think I've figured something out with Janey, I realize I haven't, so I'm reluctant to draw many conclusions.  But on Wednesday and Thursday, I took the same approach.  I kept things as quiet and low key as I could.  I interacted with Janey only when she requested it.  And we had great afternoons.

I keep thinking back to how I often greet Janey.  I do what I did for years with the boys.  I overact.  I truly am happy to see them after school, and I want them to know that.  I shower them with attention.  I think the boys liked that.  But the boys are different people than Janey.  Maybe it took me until now to really understand that isn't what Janey wants.  She has had an intense day at school, and she wants what a lot of kids want---to kick back, do her own thing and have her mother stay cool.  Every kid is different.  What Janey wants or needs, regardless of her autism, is not what William and Freddy want or need.  So for now, I'm going to back off in the afternoons.  No more dramatic greetings or smothering attention.  I will play it cool, and we'll see how that goes.