2 posts tagged “paolo”
I just had a glimpse of what Paolo dreams of - he actually told me one of his dreams! For a mom who had nagging doubts of Paolo ever being able to tell me stories about what he did at school or daycare - my favorite little autistic boy has come a long way :) Since his Lolo and Lola came, he's improved quite a lot in the extemporaneous self-expression field, making me have a glimpse of his brilliant, creative young mind.
Here's how his dream goes: He'll eat a planet, it's not big, it's small - small enough to fit in his tummy. It's a small purple planet, with spots and a chimmney that spews out sprinkles. Then, he eats a little red planet and a blue one. His tummy gurgles. He goes to the potty to poop . As reward, Lola will give him chocolate kisses. The End.
If there was an award for Most Creative Extemporaneous Story Telling of a Dream - he'd win in for sure. It was short, sweet, highly descriptive and very original. Five Stars...and hugs and kisses from Mommy. I figured he was telling me stories to keep stalling bedtime too. It actually worked - he got a 30 minute bedtime extension. I admit, he pulled a fast one over me, but it was all good. Tricky little genius. But now that I've got him talking, I think I better watch out for my little cutie-pie from being a smartmouth. Just a while ago, he passed by a lady who didn't greet him back a 'Hello' after his two animated 'Hi's'. He promptly concluded by saying "She doesn't have a brain" within earshot, the lady finally answering back a delayed 'Hello'. In the end, he got what he wanted - which makes me think...is he really austistic or is this one big intricately woven prank he's pulling over us?
Since I always post songs here now, and it's my Feist themed weekend - here's a remix of Mushaboom by my son's favorite band The Postal Service....
I was meaning to post this before, but I haven't had time to do so. I've finally taken some pictures of stuff that Paolo's been building with his blocks:
"Baby Duck" (transforms into flying duck)
"Spot" (Paolo's rendition of Rolie Polie Olie's dog)
"Turtle" (Paolo's version of Tuck from Wonderpets - complete with the Scottish hat)
"Toopy"
Toopy is his first and favorite one and more often than not, he can't leave the house without Toopy in tow. Toopy also has a 'fight mode' (he just rearranges the 'arms') and a sitting mode. Weirdly enough, if you give him an exact replica of Toopy (the original cartoon character it was based on), he'll still play with his lego version of it. Paolo just loves to build stuff and often asks me for creative input on how to make lego versions of things he likes. I don't mind at all, however, I get stumped when he asks me to create a ball with his lego duplo blocks. I then argue on how difficult it is to create a round object with rectangular and square blocks- but he insists, and I try with some gruesome looking lego 'ball' results.
Paolo's been doing really well the past few days - he isn't as hard to handle as before and he's been dutifully using sentences when he talks as he's been instructed. The only thing now that's been really bugging us is the toilet training. He's real good at asking to go to the toilet to pee, but not to poo. Rayms is worried that he might not be toilet trained when the time comes when he starts school -- which is this September. I, on the other hand, am playing it cool. He'll get the hang of it eventually - maybe a couple of days before the start of school. He might be like me, I always love to wait till the deadline nears to finish things. And of course, when nagged to get things done, more often than not, I feel the natural urge to slow down. Might be something my son inherited, you'll never know.
But what if the time comes and he still isn't toilet trained? - my husband asks. And I say - there are other kids out there with disabilities that have wheelchairs and need nursing support to go through the day. Paolo has a disability too - a real big learning one, that's why he'll have a person there for one on one support - to help him with his trouble toileting. And then I felt it was a pretty sad answer. There it was again - the realization that 'Oh yeah. He isn't like normal kids'. We forget that sometimes. He looks oh-so-normal, but yet, how does his behaviour consultant call it? Not neurotypical (a more scientific term for mentally normal). We just hope, his natural tendencies to do autistic behavior dies down a bit, just a bit, just enough to make him seem normal enough for everybody to see - functioning without much of a hitch, in everyday, normal, ho-hum life.
