u/glitzglamglue

I have a son who just finished kindergarten and a neighbor friend's daughter who is about to start so I figured this was the best place to tell this story.

I haven't been feeling the 250th spirit but I decided last week to try for the sake of my kids. I bought a quill pen and ink, colonial hats, and a replica Declaration of Independence. I wanted to talk a bit about the Declaration and then have them practice their "John Hancock" on some paper that I bought that looks aged. I described the Declaration as a letter to King George.

Well, the kids wanted to write their own letter. I asked, "do you want to write it to King George?" "No, he's dead! We can't write to him, silly." But they still wanted to write a letter to "the King." I told them that the current King of England is King Charles. OMG I blew these kids' minds. "What do you mean there is still a King of England? Are you saying that England people still have to do what the King tells them too? Oh no!" This is what they asked me to write.

"Dear King Charles,

We, the kids of ______ city, Arkansas really like being able to vote. Look at the back of this letter. (This is a prank included by the 4 yo who wanted the king to turn the letter over and see that there wasn't anything there.) Let your people go! Stop being King! We ❤️ your people. You and your people should be able to make their own decisions.

Signed,

(Children's names)

Now my problem is that these kids fully expect me to mail this letter as soon as possible to the King so that the citizens of Britain can be free.

I guess this means that they took something from my lesson lol. If you live in the UK, congrats on your newfound freedom.

He just did this huge sigh, hung his head, and then jumped up and said "okay, I go get baby milk."

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I have treatment resistant depression. Sometimes I do have to steel myself before I go do something. I'm fighting for my life out here.

It just made me want to cry. He's noticed even at his age that I'm depressed and struggling.

I've always been a little weird about textures, clothing, water on my hands, how food tastes. I have to sleep with a blanket between every part of my body not a single area of skin is touching another bare area of skin. My legs can't touch nor can my arm be touching my body. I even stick a blanket between my boobs so they don't touch since I sleep on my side. I wear shorts to bed so you might think "but Glam, why don't you just wear long pants?" Idk! I've tried it and it doesn't feel right. I can't even let my husband cuddle me to sleep at night.

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But I also am sensory seeking. I love touching everything when I'm shopping (COVID was awful because I had to break that habit.) I love touching flower petals, leaves, fabric, rubbing them between my fingers and holding them up to my cheek.

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Sounds bother me too, stuff like whistling or people clicking their tongue or smacking their lips. And some electric toothbrushes make such a horrible sound. But lately, sounds have been really overwhelming me. It seems the more stressed I get, the worse I respond to loud noises. It's like people are screaming all the time. Or they talk way too much all at once. Which is not good since I have two little kids.

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I don't think I used to be this bad. It feels like it's gotten worse in the years since I left college. The thing that has changed is that I got an ADHD diagnosis and have been taking medication for it. Is that the problem? I've heard that women with autism+ ADHD will frequently see an increase in autism symptoms when their ADHD symptoms are being addressed.

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But I don't see how it could be autism. I don't have any other symptoms. I've never had to force eye contact, never had much of a problem making friends, I don't take statements literally, I have no need for predicability or routine. Everything that's "wrong" with me can either be explained by my anxiety/depression or by ADHD, all except this sensory processing issue.

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Anyone else in the same boat? What do you think? Is this just more extreme ADHD symptoms that I'm not aware of?

I do the weave method with a loom thing. I want to make a rainbow patch for my 6yo son's jeans. It's not a Pride month thing; he likes rainbows but more of the pastel colors so that's what I want to do. But I don't know if it's better to use color changing floss or use a different color floss for each row.

Thoughts?

The rash started on his butt and then spread. I realize now that it was making a mad dash for his hands and feet but at the time, I thought it was some sort of jock itch or fungal diaper rash that was spreading via water from showers.

I compared the rash to every single thing I could think of: measles, chicken pox, diaper rash, scarlet fever. And I had no match. I finally accepted that it wasn't a diaper rash and took him to the doctor today. Lo and behold, it is hand foot mouth disease. But why did it start on his butt, you and I ask. Well apparently it's a common presentation location. The pediatrician even said that they should add a B to the name HFM disease to cover it. And yeah that would be helpful because I never compared the rash to hand foot mouth disease because it started on his BUTT!

Everyone's been posting, I assume, mother tongue English color wheels but I wanna see some other languages' color wheels. Russian would be cool because they have two different words for blue голубо́й (sky blue) and си́ний (mid to dark blue). It's similar to English's pink and red situation.

Kindergarten graduation is in 10ish days and my son didn't get one single invite to a classmate's birthday party all year. I know that it's his fault, no one wants to invite the autistic know-it-all who has meltdowns and pees/poops his pants once every other week, but it still hurts. This isn't what I wanted for him.

He turns on his friends at the slightest provocation. He cries and whines when he doesn't get his way. He even bit another child when he thought the child was threatening him. But he was telling me today about three new friends who all formed a club, turns out they are imaginary friends.

Since he has a birthday really close to Christmas, I have wanted to let him have a summer send off party to sort of make up for it. But I don't really want to. What if no one shows up?

I've tried hard. I really have. He was in intensive ABA therapy for over a year and if our pediatrician hadn't died, we would have him in some sort of play therapy by now, but there's not a single pediatrician who takes our insurance in a *50 mile radius.*

I want to overcompensate. I want to throw a lavish summer send off in hopes that it will earn him some friends. I spent so much money on his birthday so he could have his party at Chuck E cheese and invite a couple of friends. And I checked with him, he says he's not friends with either of the kids that came then. Back in January and February, he was so awful and getting removed from the classroom multiple times a week that I went and put together goodibags to give out for Valentine's Day. And when I tried posting about it, not here, hoping that maybe another parent of a ND kid understood.... well it didn't end up that way.

Maybe I'm ultimately sad for myself. I remember how terribly lonely I was in high school. How I would hide in the bathroom in the mornings, how I ate lunch in the library because I had no where to sit in the cafeteria, but what's wrong with wanting to prevent my child from experiencing that kind of pain?

I just wish things were different.

And it's all stuff that I bring on myself. I'm sleeping badly and my husband said that he heard me stop breathing a few times last night in my sleep so I might have sleep apnea. Because that's just something women get in their late 20s I guess.

I keep scheduling things and saying yes like it's all happening to someone else. Whole events are passing me by like they are days. My family is asleep and it seems like they've been asleep for hours. I'm so tired. I need therapy. I'm getting more anxious than I have in years. The world is falling apart and it feels like it's happening to someone else.

I've never recognized myself in the mirror, like, I've always known it was me but it doesn't feel like it's me. And now it feels worse.

I had been reading about ADHD and mirroring which is when people with ADHD do tasks better when they have someone physically there with them. My son is autistic and has ADHD.

Brushing his teeth has been a nightmare. I don't even brush his teeth in the morning because I can't do that fight twice a day. Even if my husband does the nighttime brushing, I would still hear the fighting. My son just hates brushing his teeth. He's already had one cavity.

Usually, I do my nighttime routine after the kids have gone to bed. But this past weekend, I decided to try out mirroring on my son with brushing teeth. I invited him into my bathroom and showed him all of my skincare stuff. I let him use one of my cotton pads and he washed his face with micellar water (though I think I'm going to have him switch to just plain water) then he put some lotion on his face. This was all while I was doing my skin care routine. Then we brushed our teeth together. And he didn't even fight! He never complained! I decided to push my luck and flossed. We haven't even tried flossing with him. And he flossed his own teeth with me (we use those floss picks). It was insanity. I never thought we would get here.

I bought him some aloe vera gel to replace the lotion (that's the most kid skin safe stuff I could think of) and we've been doing our skincare and dental care every night together. He won't go to bed unless we've done it. He's never been the "needs a routine" kind of autistic. No amount of routine would make things easier in the past. Now we will retry everything and see.

A few nights ago, he said "it's great how we are taking care of ourselves." Guys, my heart! Maybe I got something right this one time.

I had been reading about ADHD and mirroring which is when people with ADHD do tasks better when they have someone physically there with them. My son is autistic and has ADHD.

Brushing his teeth has been a nightmare. I don't even brush his teeth in the morning because I can't do that fight twice a day. Even if my husband does the nighttime brushing, I would still hear the fighting. My son just hates brushing his teeth. He's already had one cavity.

Usually, I do my nighttime routine after the kids have gone to bed. But this past weekend, I decided to try out mirroring on my son with brushing teeth. I invited him into my bathroom and showed him all of my skincare stuff. I let him use one of my cotton pads and he washed his face with micellar water (though I think I'm going to have him switch to just plain water) then he put some lotion on his face. This was all while I was doing my skin care routine. Then we brushed our teeth together. And he didn't even fight! He never complained! I decided to push my luck and flossed. We haven't even tried flossing with him. And he flossed his own teeth with me (we use those floss picks). It was insanity. I never thought we would get here.

I bought him some aloe vera gel to replace the lotion (that's the most kid skin safe stuff I could think of) and we've been doing our skincare and dental care every night together. He won't go to bed unless we've done it. A few nights ago, he said "it's great how we are taking care of ourselves." Guys, my heart! Maybe I got something right this one time.