February 2013 — Autism Daddy Monthly Facebook Recap

Frank Campagna

—

March 11, 2013

Friday February 1, 4:17pm —

This should be a very interesting evening. I hope to get home at around 6pm and take over hanging with the king for the rest of the night.

Why?

Because at 7:30pm wifey is hosting an autism moms “game night” at our house. 12 autism moms coming over for chips & dips, beer & wine, and card & board games galore.

The questions are…

1) Will the king go to sleep at his regular time with all that racket going on downstairs

2) If the king does fall asleep at his regular time, do I join in on the mommy partying?

I think if you’ve been reading this page long enough, you know the answer to question 2.

🙂

—-

Saturday February 2, 7:44am

I just discovered that at some point yesterday wifey matched up all the Tupperware containers with their lids in our cabinet.

I am so turned on right now….

🙂

SAME DAY, 10:52am

The king mid-jump at his swim this morning…

—-

Sunday February 3, 8:32am

Breakfast with the Beatles!

—-

Tuesday February 5, 9:34pm

The king is asleep and the wife and I are cleaning up and clearing off the table when she grabs a box of Cheerios off the table and says

“By the way don’t eat these. These are Kyle’s only. These are penis Cheerios”

That means that he had his hands down his pants while grabbing handfuls of o’s out of the box.

My response to her?

“Let’s write a big P on the box.”

—-

Wednesday February 6, 11:11pm

Met a friend out for drinks around 9 after both our kids went to bed. God I love buffalo wings and beer!

—-

Thursday February 7, 11:29pm

School’s already been cancelled for tomorrow. There’s 16 inches of snow heading our way. This winter can really kiss my ass.

—-

Friday February 8, 8:26am

I just found the king sucking on a penny. A penny from 1974!

When I discovered it I kinda threw up in my mouth a little….Especially when I think about all the nasty things that penny has seen and the nasty places its been in its 39 years on this earth!

Can I wash out his mouth with bleach? 🙂

—-
Saturday February 9, 7:04am

Almost 23 hours of snowfall! “Winter Storm Nemo” promised us 16+ inches of snow and Nemo delivered!

—-

Sunday February 10, 9:37pm

Just got back from dinner & a movie (“Identity Theft”) with wifey. She is now gonna watch the Grammy’s on our bedroom DVR and I’m settling in for “The Walking Dead” in the living room.

—-

Tuesday February 12, 7:01pm

The king & I are home alone eating popcorn and watching Dora on the iPad.

Wifey’s at what sounds like a pretty cool event planned by a local “Special Moms”group.

A bunch of special moms are meeting at a restaurant along with a bunch of first responders for an event “dedicated to learning about the training of first responders and educating our heroes about the cognitive and physical needs of our children in case of an emergency.”

Or as my wife put it on FB when trying to convince her special mom friends to join her “plus, bonus, we get to hang out with a bunch of firefighters and cops and stuff” 🙂

SAME DAY, 8:14pm

here’s a text exchange between me & my wife from 2 minutes ago…(if this doesn’t make sense read my previous status update)

ME: Any hot firefighters?

HER: About 10!!

ME: So you’ll be home late then?

HER: Don’t wait up!

ME: FU!

—-

Wednesday
February 13, 8:09pm

Seizure Boy
made a return this afternoon 🙁

The king had
a seizure at school and then fell asleep. Wifey picked him up from school about
30 minutes early. According to wife he was fine all afternoon then napped again
from 5-7pm.

At 7pm he got
up, ate dinner, and is now up as a pup and in a great, happy mood!

Because he’s
in such a great mood I’m actually looking forward to him staying up a little
later tonight…so we get some more time to hang out!

🙂

—-

Thursday
February 14, 10:51pm

This is what
being a 43 year old autism parent is all about…. 🙂

I just woke
up in a confused stupor on the couch with the wife dead asleep next to me. The
same episode of “Modern Family” from our DVR has been playing in a
continuous loop for over 2 hours.

This happens
virtually every night. The king’s bedtime routine has been awesome lately. He’s
asleep by 8:30pm at the latest.

So, after
that, the wife and I usually sit down on the couch, wide awake, ready to take
the night by storm.

“Let’s
just watch ‘Modern Family’ and then I’ll throw a load of laundry in and then
maybe we can do other stuff” she says. 🙂

2+ hours
later here we are…

—-

Friday
February 15, 12:21pm

The king
almost made it. He almost made it all the way from New Year’s to winter break
without missing a day of school.

He’s been
fighting a cold all week. It never seemed too serious or to be bothering him
too much… but today he woke up and just felt warm. We took his temp, under
the arm, and it was 101.

So we kept
him home. The streak was broken! 🙁

Wife just
took him to the doctor and alas he’s got strep throat.

Yeah it sucks
but I almost rather know what it is. Maybe that’s just a sign of being an
autism parent for such a long time.

Antibiotics
don’t scare me anymore. A few days on antibiotics and a lot of rest and liquids
and he should be back to normal in a few days.

We just need
to keep his fever down now that we are living on Seizure Street, but I figure
he’ll be back to normal by Monday…just in time for the week off…

🙂

SAME DAY,
7:56pm

There’s a power struggle going on right now in
the AD household. The king is wide awake after a two hour strep throat induced
nap. He is in a fine, happy mood.

Wifey is
sitting on the couch eating her dinner and trying to watch “her
shows”.

She’s trying
to watch “What Not To Wear” but his majesty wants to watch his shows.
So he’s “eeee-ing” loudly while bouncing on his big green ball right
in front of the tv with his big noggin blocking her view. 🙂

She’s
comically pleading with him “C’mon buddy, you’ve been home sick all day
and mommy let you watch whatever you wanted. Now it’s mommy’s turn to watch my
shows!”

And he’s
ignoring her and bouncing & eee-ing away.

It’s pretty
darn funny…

—-

Saturday
February 16, 7:24am

Did I mention
that when wifey took the king to the dr yesterday they threw him on the scale
and he’s up to 72 pounds!

Nov 27, 61.5
pounds

Dec 29, 68.6
pounds

Feb 15, 72.0
pounds!!

Thanks
Depakote!!! 🙂

Now we just
need to use this increased appetite to increase the variety of foods he will
eat…

SAME DAY
7:47am

“Dude,
where are your socks?! It’s cold in here…why do you keep taking off your
socks?!”

(this
conversation has been going on all winter)

SAME DAY 12:06pm

The sick (and giant!) king takes an early afternoon nap…

—-

Sunday
February 17, 4:25pm

The king is
holding a full granola bar and is taking bites out of it. That’s kinda a big
deal around here cuz lately his majesty prefers it broken up by an adult into
bite size chunks and put on a plate.

When I handed
him the full granola bar he looked at me like “what the F am I supposed to
do with this?!”

But he ate
it… I guess he was hungry enough to “rough it”

🙂

SAME DAY, 3:51pm

I’ve said many times that the king can find his reflection in ANYTHING. Well now he’s tall enough to see his reflection in that little tiny mirror on the wall only if he stands in that exact spot about 6 feet away on his tippy toes… LOL Well I guess that proves that his eyesight is pretty good…
🙂

—-

Monday
February 18, 7:57am

“I’m sorry I’m not putting on your show
fast enough, but SOMEBODY stole the card out of the cable box last night so the
cable won’t work. Where did you hide that dude?!”

—-

Tuesday
February 19, 7:13am

Don’t tell
the wife but I can’t wait to go to work today! 🙂

The king is
off from school all week. He’s getting over strep throat and has been stuck in
all weekend.

The wife’s
felt like crap for a couple of days too. She might have strep.

Kyle’s been
dealing with being sick better than wifey.

I might even
need to work late tonight…

🙂

SAME DAY, 7:34am

Just a typical Tuesday morning med break for his majesty…
This is what the double whammy of autism & epilepsy looks like…

SAME DAY,
6:52pm

I got home from work at 6pm to find the king
asleep on the couch. The wife said he just fell asleep.

She said he
had a good happy day, but the nap probably signifies that the strep isn’t completely
out of his system.

He might
sleep thru the night if we let him but I gotta wake him up around 7:30pm to
give him his evening cocktail of meds…

SAME DAY,
8:45pm

Conversation
between me & the wife earlier this evening while Kyle was taking a strep
throat induced nap.

HER: “He
had a good day, but he was a lot less cuddly and affectionate with me
today.”

ME:
“That must mean he’s feeling better, he’s on the mend.”

HER:
“Yeah I know.”

ME: “You
kinda like it when he’s sick don’t you?”

HER:
“Yep. I do.”

(cuz he’s not
normally that affectionate with her…others, yes… her, no)

🙁

—-

Wednesday
February 20, 2:06pm

I just bought
2 somewhat affordable tix to see THE WHO & ELVIS COSTELLO at The Theater at
MSG in NYC next Thursday night!

That’s right,
not the 19,000 seat MSG, but the 5,000 seat Theater downstairs!

It is a
benefit concert for Teen Cancer America and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center.

Happy
Valentine’s Day & Mother’s Day & Father’s Day to me & wifey!!

(cuz that’s
all 3 gifts wrapped into one)

Oh wait,
who’s watching the king? 🙂

SAME DAY,
6:57pm

We had
Verizon Fios cable installed today. Two HUGE benefits?

1) No card
for the king to pull out and hide.

2) They have
Sprout so the king is watching “Play With Me Sesame” on demand right
now!

He’s like a
pig in shit!

—-

Thursday
February 21, 9:56am

Thur 9:56am
— I just got in to work. What a pleasant morning so far.

The king is
off from school this week but has been stuck in the house since Friday
recovering from strep throat.

Since he’s
not contagious anymore wifey said “Let’s all go out to an early breakfast
before you head off to work. This way it’ll feel like he’s on vacation.”

So the 3 of
us, with Paula in tow went to a local diner for breakfast. And he was so good!

Since he’s
got an appetite these days we ordered his breakfast as soon as we got there and
he ate & “yumm”ed it all up.

A good time
was had by all.

Once in a
while my wife actually comes up with a good idea!

😉

In kidding
ladies, I’m kidding.

—-

Saturday
February 23, 9:01am

This might
get filed under “Too Much Information” but here goes…

The king has
a bit of George Costanza in him.

For some
reason he likes to take his pants, underwear, and sometimes socks off when he
has to poop.

🙂

SAME DAY, 9:51am

The king using his bed like a trampoline.
The way I see it he’s got about 2 inches left to grow til he hits his head on the ceiling and we have to redirect this jumping or (more likely) put his mattress directly on the floor…

SAME DAY,
8:56pm

The king is
asleep and the wife is getting all dolled up cuz she’s going out to see a
friend’s band at a bar. Maybe I’ll find a good movie on cable… 🙂

—-

Sunday
February 24, 2:17pm

We just got
back from the king’s special needs gymnastics & swim sessions…his first
big physical outing this week since he had strep. So nice (for mom & dad)
to get back to his “normal” routine.

He’s now
watching “Jack’s Big Music Show” while bouncing on his big green
ball.

A few minutes
ago he was curling up getting all cuddly on the couch and I said…

“Why
don’t you take a nap this way mommy & daddy can have some private time.
C’mon dude I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you go to sleep.”

And the wife
said, “Is that all I’m worth?”

And I said,
“No, but that’s all I can afford right now.”

And….Scene.

🙂

SAME DAY,
8:07pm

I noticed
this the other day and it made me chuckle.

Part of the
public bathroom routine…

“Kyle
grab a paper towel. Dry your hands. Throw it away.”

He grabs a
paper towel and goes thru the motions of drying his hands. But basically his
version of drying his hands is just crumpling the paper into a ball…and
chucking it.

At least he’s
got 2 out of the 3 down.

He must be
thinking, “why are they always handing me paper to crumple up and throw
away?”

🙂

—-

Monday
February 25, 7:48am

A little reading & flapping before leaving for school…

SAME DAY, 7:31pm

So good to be
back to the old routine after a week off from school for the mid-winter recess!

A normal,
uneventful school day, a happy king when I got home from work!

And now the 3
of us are all sitting in the living room on our own screens. Wifey & I are
on the couch each on FB on our phones. And his majesty is sitting on the
ottoman transfixed on “Elmo The Musical”.

The king has
eaten dinner already. Turkey chili is simmering, waiting for wife & me
after he falls asleep.

I said to the
wife earlier “It’s Monday night! That means it’s fall asleep on the couch
while watching The Biggest Loser night!”

And she said,
“Looking forward to it…”

🙂

—-

Wednesday
February 27, 7:16pm

I was just
thinking about “Desert Island Discs”

So, here’s 15
albums that if I got stranded on a desert island (wouldn’t that be nice!) I
couldn’t live without.

My rules are
no Greatest Hits Complilations & no live albums.

So these are
my favorite studio albums that I couldnt live without…right now.

Last year,
the list would’ve been different…Next year it’ll probably be different

Here we go in
no particular order…

Prince,
Purple Rain

Billy Joel,
Glass Houses

Red Hot Chili
Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magic

KISS, Love
Gun

Weezer, Blue
Album

Foo Fighters,
Wasting Light

Guns N Roses,
Appetite For Destruction

The Donnas,
Spend The Night

Barenaked
Ladies, Gordon

The
Smithereens, 11

Rage Against
The Machine, Rage Against The Machine

No Doubt,
Tragic Kingdom

Metallica,
Black Album

Bon Jovi,
Slippery When Wet

Good
Charlotte, The Young & The Hopeless

So those are
my 15 Desert Island Discs at this very moment in time…

What are
yours? And remember my rules!! No live albums or best ofs

—–

Thursday
February 28, 7:19am

The look of a typical school morning breakfast in the AD household (when his majesty feels like sitting at the table)

SAME DAY, 2:21pm

Sitting at my
desk at work eating the awesome lunch that the wife packed me. Leftovers from
last night. Sausage & peppers and tomato salad w/ black olives…

God I love
sausage & peppers…

And the
wife’s ok too. I think I’ll keep her… 🙂

SAME DAY,
7:45pm

Thursday
night, date night with wifey, Elvis Costello, and The Who!!! 🙂

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Written by

Frank Campagna

I’m a 48 year old neurotypical dad with a 14 year old son with severe, non-verbal autism & epilepsy. I created this blog to rant about autism & epilepsy while celebrating my son who I affectionately call “the king” :-).

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