Strong People...

I just read a phrase from an autism board: "Strong people need other strong people, you just need to find them... and they're tougher to chase off." That sounds very interesting to me for some reason. When I think of myself I don't immediately think that I am strong. I think about my weakness for chocolate or strawberies & cream, or Milano Double Chocolate cookies, or a can of Coke (OK, those are all food items, so let's group that under "weakness for certain foods"). I think about how being lazy could get the best of me, if I didn't have three babies that depended on me to be on time and be there for them. I think that I am focused on making things right, or better, for my kiddies. When people don't tell me that I need a break, I don't think about it. I just keep marching forward, probably not thinking about taking care of myself, so when someone comes along and tells me that I need "Me" time, that could turn out badly for me because then I'll start thinking, yeah, I DO need "Me" time. Then I'll get resentful and anxious, then the babies' cries and screams get louder and under my skin more. But when I put on my focused, resilient mask, I am better able and determined to get things done. I guess that's what girlfriends and sisters are for, to remind me to take a break, eh? :)

Aside from the multitude of eye contact I was getting from Nikko today at variable times, there were just two things I noted worthy to record. One, Nikko has figured out that light switches in the kitchen turn the lights on and off if you flip it. He discovered the light switch above his chair at the table. And this morning he hauled the stool over to the door and leaned over to switch off the lights on the other side of the kitchen. I think that's pretty cool, honestly. The other thing I noticed is that Nikko has been crashing a lot over the past few days. A LOT. During mealtimes, he would calmly push aside his chair and then take off full speed from the wall to the door, and crash into it with his hands. Then he'd turn around and run full speed back at the wall. He narrowly passes between the table and Ronin's highchair. Once he did bang his cheekbone into the corner of the table (a rounded corner) and hurt himself long enough to stop and cry out for help, but he got over it in a few minutes and resumed crashing. On Thursday Shelly had told me to see how soon he would go back to crashing after OT. She felt that he did so much running and climbing that he probably wouldn't be crashing until Saturday. Well, he pretty much continued to crash throughout the day on Friday, and definitely today. He's not always running back and forth all over the house; it depends on the room he's in. In the kitchen he seems automatically programmed to run into the door. In the living room today he started running on top of the couch from one armrest all the way to the other. I'm sure it was fun, and perhaps he found the bouncy cushions stimulating. But it was looking stimmy to me after a while. Nikko has just picked up the cold that Audrey is soon leaving and that Ronin has full-blown. Ronin has it a little worse than the others right now because he's also sporting a little temperature. I also had to give Ronin albulterol in the nebulizer 4x today because his breathing was getting rapid and possibly labored. I hope it gets better by tomorrow. Nikko does not seem to be jealous or upset when I have to give full attention to Ronin during a nebulizer treatment. If we're in the kitchen, Nikko might sit behind me and toy around with the tubes of the nebulizer, but in the living room he may come by us and be curious, but pretty much leaves us alone.