Other Stuff

Putting Our Children Online

shootingstars's picture

Recently I found a Myspace profile created for a 15 month old baby. The mother is the other woman to the father to my neighbor's children. She often hacks his profile. This girl is notorious for putting last names of everybody out there. Even to children who are not her own.

I reported her son's profile for the reasoning that she listed his age in the about me section, which is 15 months. Though she put 18 years old on the main information. She also listed where he lives, which is a small town. His first middle and last name. The girl also went on to list both of his parent's first and last names. This child is in foster care, and neither parent will eer have rights again, so he is slightly more protected, but I thought this was disgusting.

Identity theft is rising rapidly, and it is becoming easier to find somebody's details. Many young people lay it all out there on public profiles. Children are not safe from this crime.

There are also so many perverts out there. Some may be satisfied to browse and find pictures of little kids. Some specifically search for areas close to them. Adding your children's names and locations like that is almost asking for somebody to hurt them....

This is a sad world we live in. Which is why I take some extra measures to protect my son.

I have a myspace profile, like millions of other mothers. I am keen on custom layouts, which I design myself. So I cover up all the information. My profile is simple yet nice. My profile is public because I hate the look of private profiles, but I put all my pictures as friends only. I have more of Michael than anything.

I also keep a blog specific for Michael. Though I would like to add pictures, I refrain since it is public blog. I keep the information to the type you would talk to a child about. Nothing too personal or revealing.  read more »

Gas Dropped

shootingstars's picture

Gas dropped twenty cents here! There is a reason to celebrate :)

Michael Dances

shootingstars's picture
Your rating: None Average: 4 (2 votes)

I had a hard time to get him to stay centered, so finally gave up and just recorded. But it is cute.

See Video

Monkey Trouble

shootingstars's picture

My son is such a couch potato. If I do not have the tv on he will turn it on. If he does not like the channel he will cry. I do tire of Disney Channel all day every day. Even if he is not watching Mommy cannot change the channel. I know another boy who has Asperger's Syndrom and he ios like Michael always TV TV TV

Monkey Trouble was on last night, and then repeated today. Michael loves that movie. The whole time he is sitting here yelling MONKEY. I may have to buy the movie. If it will help him work on his real words I am not going to complain about the tv.

On a much wetter note.. My mother is out of town this weekend, and rented a car so that I can have hers and go feed her pets... I woke up to a beautiful dawn thunderstorm. It was the type of rain that makes you just curl back up and sigh. I left the car windows open last night... I just know the seats are going to be soaked when we go to leave...

Visualization and Relaxation

scottie's picture

My friend Mr. John Wooler has worked with the practice and facilitation of relaxation using visualization techniques for years. When he met my Autistic son, Nicholas Miller, Mr. Wooler simply asked Nick; “Would you like to learn to relax more?” My son Nick answered “yes!” without any hesitation.  Nick followed a request to go into a quiet room in our house without distraction, and followed Mr. Woolers? additional instructions which were to sit down in a comfortable position and to close his eyes. In a short amount of time I saw my son Nick begin breathing more slowly, & remaining in a calm sitting position with no fidgeting and squirming. Nick?s body language and facial expressions demonstrated to me that Nick was indeed in a very relaxed state . He was also responding to questions and was talking with Mr. Wooler about how relaxed he was feeling. Some of the conversation during this relaxation session between my son and Mr. Wooler was about how Nick my son could help himself to feel relaxed by returning to his “quiet place” that Mr.Wooler was prompting Nick to describe in detail by asking Nick “What did this quiet place have in it?” The visualization activity seemed to motivate Nick to stay involved in the personalized relaxation activity.

Naps are Bad

shootingstars's picture

I have started making Michael nap again... Only he is sleeping for several hours. He is still going to bed like an angel. Normally a parent would rejoice in this, but he is getting up before 7 in the morning and coming out to watch TV.

Waking up to the TV blaring some Disney show is not a pleasant way to wake up... So I usually have to make sure I change the cable back to Disney so he has something in the morning to watch. And I need to make sure I leave a cup of something to drink out for him. Like me, Michael is not into eating first thing in the morning, so I can usually lay there in bed for a little bit longer. 

But just one morning I want Michael to sleep in rather than waking up early to run to his best friend, the TV.

FAST FIXIN DINO BITES (frozen food section)

Cindy's picture

Fast Fixin'® Dino Bites - 5 lbs.

I found something fun for our picky eaters. Chicken shaped like dinosaurs. It nukes up fast and my picky eater loves 'em!!

Keyboards

shootingstars's picture

I accidentally spilled an entire cup of tea on my keyboard the other night. It then started acting funny when I towelled it off. So silly me took the blow dyer to it. I deformed one of the keys. Well needless to say the keyboard was toasted. So my Ma picked me up a new one the next morning. She hated mine anyways because she needs to be able to see the letters on the keys. I set aside mine and Michael came up and asked "My Turn?" So I let him play with the old keyboard. He loves sitting there typing like Mommy.

I had to go without a mouse once, but I tell ya, the keyboard is much more essential... I was in the middle of a Yahoo conversation with someboebody I actually am starting to like-like. So I ended up on my Yahoo on my Cell and that really is not fun unless you have the cool phones with a keyboard. I personally want a LG UX260 they are nifty. Maybe when my contract is up I can get one. I think I have a few months left. The guy better feel special because my thumb was numb.

Before you all get excited and go around singing "Holly Met Somebody" he lives 2 hours away and we have not really talked about Michael or Michael's dad. David is usually able to become a problem in my other relationships without him even being around. It is like I am not allowed to care about anybody else, especially the father of my child.  Or people expect me to cheat and it would happen with him. Who knows. But I have been hesitant to bring it up because it feels like the guy actually likes me and I am not wanting to scare him off before while we are just friends. And the idea of somebody else takingup my time other than Michael feels like too much for me to handle. It is a decision only I can make, and my heart has to want it. So no telling me to just go for it. If it feels right, I will, until then it just feels nice to know somebody may like me...

Mom's are blogging, what about dad?

Todd Fugere's picture

One observation I've made so far is that it's mostly Mom's around here doing the blogging. I sometimes feel like I'm the only dude around here.

Do you think that guys don't need to express themselves as much as women? Is it because guys don't have the time to blog? Are they not interested in meeting others? Is it the baby blue site? What do you think is the reason? What do you think we can do to get more men using AB?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. 

MY BIG BROTHER CARL

Cindy's picture

I love this picture of Carl. He's looking at Marcel in the pool with daddy....,

I love it because he's tickled to see his nephew having so much fun in

the pool =)

I Wonder

shootingstars's picture

The internet seems to be such a big place to escape. We blog, we research, we find games. You can even find love. I wonder what I would be if not for the net. Probably some puddle watching the same movie again and again. I think I escape from all the stress way too easily with the internet. Neopets, Myspace, DeviantArt. They all provide a world to escape to and pretend that all is well.

Any of you taken kid with Autism to Six Flags? How was it???

autismretortdotcom's picture

We recently had a GREAT experience at Six Flags, http://autismparents.net/six-flags-autism-friendly-park/ , but I am wondering if we just benefited from their policy not being enforced???

You are supposed to go in thru the exit, and schedule a time to get on the ride.  The idea is you have to wait as long as the regular line.  The kid running the ride is supposed to estimate wait time in the regular line and pencil you in to come back after that time passes.  

In actuality, this is WAY TO BUREAUCRATIC for the teenagers running the rides.  We basically got right on most rides at the STL park, not because of their policy, but in spite of it.

If we had to go in thru the EXIT and then leave to come back, that is MORE likely to call a meltdown.  Here we are at the ride, now leave.  You would have to send one parent or someone ahead to schedule.  Seems like in this day and age they could use technology to help with this.  Like you scan disability tag at the ride and get assigned a time from computer, etc.  They have a similar thing for the speed pass thing you can buy.

 With that said, I cannot say enough good things about OUR experience.  

Bitsy's Bait & BBQ

WyattsMom's picture

This note is to Shootingstars, private message wasn't working for me today for some reason.  Anyway, I just started reading this library book, Bitsy's Bait & BBQ and I don't know, I thought you might like to check it out because it sort of reminded me of you and your horse farm dream.

http://www.amazon.com/Bitsys-Bait-BBQ-Pamela-Morsi/dp/0778324230

In the book, a young single mom (Katy) buys, with settlement money, what she thinks is a Bed and Breakfast, off of the Internet, because it is her dream and she wants to make a nice new life for herself and her son.   But it turns out to be a Bait & BBQ!  Also in the book Katy has a bossy sister whom she loves dearly.  Another thing in the plot is that the boy's grandmother is trying to win custody.  The book is written from a bunch of the characters point of view, so you get to see a slice of the boy's father's life, Katy's thoughts, the bossy sister, and the grandmother.  The reader reviews on Amazon are better than the official book reviews.

Methyl B12

autismretortdotcom's picture

Are any of you guys going methyl B12 shots?  I have to say that this is the treatment that gets the most bang for the buck around here.  Since we have been doing the shots, my daughter is LOTS more aware of everything and more interested in US.

It was worth it alone for the time we came home from being out of town at the Green Our Vaccines rally a few weeks ago. We were gone4 days and she was on cloud 9 to see us.  Lots of kissing, laughing, huge smile.  She pulled us all together and we had a group hug.  She was saying "DADDDDDDDYYYYY".

 Her sense of humor also seems to have improved and she sings a lot.  She has actually done things to make us laugh and you can tell it was on purpose.  She has lots of laughing now days.  She started laughing at something yesterday and I swear she was doubled over and even slapped knee.  

 The MB12 is not a cure and it hasn't done a lot on speech for us, but still it's the treatment that I would say is the best value so far.

 PS - Starting Specific Carbo Diet and I thought GFCF would be tough.  Gulp.

 Fielding

http://autismparents.net

http://autismretort.com

In 3s

shootingstars's picture

They say death comes in threes. Today three of Michael's five birthday tiger barb fish died today. I feel so terrible. I was so certain they were all alive earlier when I fed them. But then I realized I never really looked. I had to yell at him getting him out of my way so I could dish out the dead ones at the bottom of the tank. I wanted him to get upset and run to his room so I could get them out before they risked the remaining two's health any more than they already have.

I just sat there staring at the last two feeling like a failure. I do not know what killed the three. I wanted to start crying, but scared to let loose in front of Michael...

He looked in and knew there were fish missing. I ignored him because I have no clue what to tell him. I have a bad feeling the other two will die tonight.

I know fish die. They are just fish. But they were Michael's fish... Something he did so well at feeding, and loved to sit and watch. Since he was a baby he has always loved fish. These were all his. He did not have to say goodbye to them at a store.