special gift

They say all autistic children have a gift, I'm beginning to think freya's is her memory. I have already mentioned the 'carrot' she drew on my wall, this was months ago and is basically just a line but every time she looks at it she says carrot?!
I also mentioned the whales she has drawn on the walls when I've not been watching her every move, these are in different places in different rooms behind doors etc yet she can show me all of them.
You cannot tell her you will do something later or tomorrow unless you intend to do it as she will remember. She spent one whole day waiting for her sister to come back from school and as soon as she came through the door she went and got some bread and her coat and said ' ducks'. Her sister had promised her the previous evening she would take her after school the next day.
now I know we watch far too much peppa pig as its one of only three programmes she will watch, but about ten mins after the last episode she has just come in and said ' onions, tomatoes, spaghetti and chocolate cake', it took me a while to recall that this was peppas shopping list in that episode??!!
Maybe it's just me but that just seems remarkable for someone who is two and can just about pronounce the words in a manner I can understand!
Watch this space, now how can I channel this into something positive??

New bed set

Freya is very happy with her new peppa pig bed set :)

   

It's also an excellent opportunity to remove the ton of stuffed toys off her bed, we found two dummies and I was very impressed that she gave me them to put away until tonight rather than stuffing one in and running off with it like usual :)

Hmm this is new! I assume the logic is that baby Lucas always has his quilt in here to sleep on so I will join in?? It took an awful lot of bargaining to get her back upstairs into bed. There she re-made the bed with the ton of teddies!! If only she would keep the rest of the house this tidy! Ah well

ocd

Never happier than when she's organising! This lining up of things began a long time ago but has become more obsessive in the last year.
Her bedtime ritual now involves a kiss, eskimo nose kiss, hug, high five and she knocks knuckles with me for respect?! The joy of teenage sisters!! If I don't do it right she won't stay in bed :/ she has recently added both hands for the high five and respect, I do worry how long it may become!

When you let the madness unfold..........

you understand it a little better!

Starting this blog

Since discovering my daughter Freya was autistic about a month ago I have decided to start this blog to document the little and big things that living with an autistic toddler involves. Sometimes she is hilarious and other times I think I will never survive the day. I hope this will help anyone else out there wondering if they are alone in their situation....

This is freya at our favourite garden centre sploshing in the puddles in between the plants with her canvas shoes on!!! Needless to say she wasn't allowed back in the car like this!

Everywhere we go people watch her and look at us like why are you allowing your child to do that, the answer is simple, she's autistic, she's not being naughty she's having fun, she doesn't want to look at plants so in order to be able to look at them in peace we let her jump in the puddles. Normally we remember to insist on her wearing her wellies and normally she lives in the wellies but this day we forgot and lets be honest she doesn't see the problem, that smiley face says it all!

This is freya in her hat and wellies! Like I say the wellies are on most of the day and the hat is a new addition in an attempt to bribe her out of the winter hat she's been wearing for the last few months. She often wears the hat out with her rain coat and wellies and there is no point explaining it's not needed when it isn't sunny as she really doesn't care or understand! She loves water and I try to encourage her to play with it in the garden but if not she is just as happy to empty water all over the floor, on the furniture or all over herself :0/

This is freya in primark, you can read about this shopping trip in my other blog teenagers v toddlers, she is having a fab time trying on the hats and running off around the store with the bags. She is happy so you may wonder what's the problem? The problem is it's impossible to keep an eye on her as she's dashing between the isles grabbing handfulls of clothes and flinging them on the floor. It's twice as hard to try to at the same time return the clothes to the rails! When she was younger I tried putting her on reins but this was about as popular as the buggy. She has always hated being restrained, she is much better behaved at bedtime now she has a bed than she was when she was in her cot?? I suppose in her mind in the cot her mind was occupied in trying to get out where as now she just lies there with all the toys neatly organised around her.

I find it confusing that she does some things so well and is incapable of doing other things which would be quite simple for someone else her age.

This organising and repetitive behaviour is both highly amusing and incredibly frustrating. She makes the oddest connections in her head and yet maybe they are actually perfectly logical. I tell her daily to sit to eat and use a fork/spoon and she never does it yet she can remember that a squiggle she drew on my bedroom wall is a carrot??!! The latest thing is whales, she draws whales all round the house and will show you them and where the tail is, she knows where they all are and as much as I would like to paint over them I don't know if this would really distress her, I imagine it would so I leave them there.

I will keep adding photos as I find them......