Scream or Laugh...

Three days ago one of Andrew's meds were increased. Wednesday evening, Andrew woke up in a rage about one o'clock and we spent several hours together downstairs. Last night Andrew was laughing and running around his room and so we took another trip downstairs so the rest of the crew could sleep. While I like insanely happy Andrew better than the mean raging Andrew, I'm hoping for a "regular" Andrew tonight.

Doing chores together!

This morning Andrew helped me fold a load of clothes.  I laughed as he folded towels and T-shirts.  One of Andrew's teachers had told me he could do it and I just had to see for myself.  Later I held Andrew's hand and together we chopped the tomatoes for tonight's chilli.  I got out the tomato juice and the chilli beans and asked my elder daughter Anna to come take a picture of Andrew and I opening the cans however, I must have spoken too loudly near Andrew and he pinched my arm.  (Insert sigh here... )  

At lunch I had Andrew help make his burrito and he loved it!  If only we could have skipped the pinch that left the bruise on my arm. 


Andrew coloring in our basement

The glow to the left is his navity toy that lights up and tells the gospel story.  My mom gave it to him several years ago before she died and Andrew has always loved it.  When I made him a basement play area this summer, I put all Andrew's noisy toys in a big tub.  It doesn't bother me if he makes it play a hundred times while we are down there.

Our talker works again!

Today a new cord arrived for Andrew's communication device! I gleefully sighed for the package and had it unwrapped and plugged into an outlet in under a minute. We watched as it began to boot up and when rhe picture symbols came up on the home screen Andrew smiled and promptly asked to watch Shrek.

:) Color us both happy as we have been working with just a few picture cards since summer school ended more than two weeks ago.

Add in a nice walk to the park, coloring in the basement and nothing more than an unhappy growl when I gave him grapes instead of tortilla chips for snack and you have the makings of a much better day!

Sleepy

I woke up this morning at 3:27. Andrew was awake and making noises in his room. We went downstairs where I put in a video for Andrew and mindlessly played a Nintendo 3-DS game.

At six I went upstairs to get ready for the day and my kiddo ate half a pepper, half a cucumber, several handfuls of spaghetti and three pieces of baloney. (This was all in about seven minutes.)

Later, about eight, My middle kiddo came down stairs and switched Andrew's music video to Toy Story 2. Aparently Andrew was sure this was the worst thing ever. The fit that insued was rather epic.

I talked to the doctor and she is raising one of Andrew's meds. The recent downward turn in his behavior is frustrating as Andrew was doing so well for a while.

The saddest part is that when Andrew is "good" he is honestly a real sweetie. Last night our family went to a local metro park and we had a delightful time. Here's hoping we can even out the mood swings.