when good ankles go bad!

I have tendonitis. I have been dealing with it for a good twelve years now. It's the Achilles tendon, to be precise, and it has it's good friend Plantar Fasciitis running around with it. They are both chrinic conditions, which means the chances of them deciding to go away are slim to none. Normally, they are well behaved, only one acts up at a time, and it's generally not bad, but every now and then, I will get an acute flair up. Acute means sharp, sudden, out of the blue, hurts like hell.
Once again, though, they generally decide that only one of them needs to be bad at any given time. Generally, I live with a constant low, dull, easily ignorable pain.
For some inexplicable reason, they ganged up on me. i guess they were conspiring against me when I was taking walks in sandals instead of my good tennis shoes, and not wearing any of my ankle braces, which I should be doing most of the time. The tendon decided it would swell, and constrict, the facii decided it would tense up. The end result is a rather unique, rather painful, pain.
I am gleefully counting down the time till my next big ol round of ibuprofin, and Hubby is out finding an ankle brace that will not pinch with the swelling.
Tennis shoes are my friend. My braces are my friend.
My foot right now? not so much my friend.

Butter tastes good.

that is all, carry on.

Thor intensive post.

Generally, I try very hard to mention at least something small about all of the Pantheon in each post. This isn't going to be like that, this is going to be a very Thor intensive post.

Sometime in the last week or so, a part of Thor's brain unlocked itself, or came out of hibernation, or woke up, or whatever you want to call it. We have been getting new words, in context, left and right, we have been getting appropriate, pretend play, unprompted, and we have been getting helping/showing/doing behaviour.

Normally, a breakthrough like this can be traced to something, a change in diet, schedule, routine, or medication. There haven't been many changes in Thor's world, so we are all at a loss.

Last night, when I told him it was bed time, he grabbed a blanket, climbed into my lap, and pretended to sleep, complete with fake snoring noises. I didn't tell him it was play sleep time, he did it on his own, completely unprompted. You could have heard a pin drop in the room, if not for the "kwaagh-shooo" noise Thor decided was snoring. Whn I have asked him to hand Buddha a sippy cup, he does, making a HUGE production out of it, but the cup gets directly to Buddha. If I ask Thor to go get Hermes for me, he does. Thor will try to say Hermes name, and if that doesn't work, he grabs his hand and says 'come'. He has also been telling us good job, calling us by names or titles, playing nice with the WonderDog, and letting me know that Butter is 'sure good, yep". Thor likes to try and eat sticks of butter-he likes the flavor and the texture, I guess.

Parts of me are thrilled, parts aprehensive, and parts scared. I am thrilled that all of a sudden, something is happening. He still isn't on par with other kids his age yet for speech and reactive listening, but it is getting closer. It is happening in leaps and bounds, almost all at once, a little overwhelming.
The aprehensive part is worried I will toss too much at him at once, and that he will shut down.
The scared part understands that, statistically, this won't last. He might not progress further, but then he might.
Autism spectrum disorders are one of the few disorders that people can sometimes 'snap out of'. It doesn't happen often, but every now and then, the affected person will just...well...be mostly normal. They still have to catch up from where they were, but they no longer have stimming, repetition, and are no longer vacant.
Thor was only two when he was diagnosed. This gave us a much larger 'what if' zone than if he were diagnosed at three. We never really knew where he was on the spectrum, other than at the higher end. We know he has sensory integration issues, and will probably have them his whole life, but as he gets older, we and he will learn more coping techniques. It may be as easy as tinted glasses, and heavy, thick bracelets-He may be forced to be trandy-Oh noes!!!!1 We know he is PDD/NOS-Pervasive developmental disorder-this is because, frankly, he has developed in the wrong order-and is continueing to do so. Things he should have been doing a year ago, he is just starting, heck, somethings that should have happened 18-24 months ago are just starting, but at the same time, his fine motor skills are off the charts, always have been, and when he uses is, his orginazation and labeling skill are off the charts. PDD will eventually even itself out, with a few really awkward periods. It's the NOS part that has always niggled at us. Not Otherwise Specified. They know he is different, they don't know why. He isn't autistic enough to be have autism, but he is to autistic to not have autism.
The doctors have always been honest with me-it could get better, or it could get worse-with his age it wouldn't be stable. I must be ever vigilant for signs of depression, bipolar disorder, and even schizophrenia as he gets older, as no one knows how his brain will protect itself from the sensory issues, and being trapped in itself until the speech develops.
I was cationed, time and again, to not hope for him to get better, because if e didn't, it could be crushing. And even if it is getting better, to look for 'lost' words and activities. If he is gaining at the loss of things he already possesed, it isn't any better.

It seems, right now, that it is getting better. He is starting to seem more and more like a 'normal' kid every day. It'll take time, and lots of work, and we will need to get him into a physical activity-probably gymnastics and martial arts-so he realizes he is stronger than most, and hyper flexible, but also learn control and restraint.
There is a chance that he may lead a somewhat normal life, and I can let myself honestly embrace that hope now.

I know it will get old fast, but...

One of the bain of any parent-of-a-toddler's life is the word 'No!' or the expression 'No! Mine!'
for the last,mmmm, just about year now, I have been praying for those words. Personal pronouns are very important, and many kids on the autism spectrum do not have them. Thor did not have them, recently they would flit in and out of his vocabulary, but never anything concrete, and we never knew that he realized that mine and me meant that this belongs to me, and me is the person who is talking.
In the last few days, no has become a part of the vocabulary, even the crowning phrase, no mine! followed by grabbing the contested item, and holding it to one's chest.
I verified today that Thor understands that no is not affermative, that it is the oppisite of yes, a word he understands, and says, well. We tested this when I was getting Buddha a sippy cup. I asked Thor is he wanted one, and he gayly stomped around the kitchen singing "No nonono No" So I told him I was putting the milk away. He said NO! I asked if he did want a sippy to drink, and he said yes, brought me the sippy, and the lid. I asked if I should give the Sippy to Hermes, he said no, and I asked if Thor wanted it, he held out his hands and said yes.

This exchange is huge. We were on one topic for over a minute. He only used to words, but he had the appropriate actions to go with them. He responded when asked something, and when he didn't have the words he needed, he showed me, and brought me, what he wanted.
We are working on 'Please' and 'Thank you' as well. Thank you is pretty good. It comes out more like sank uu, but it is good. We are realizing, though, that by having him say please. apple. plant, and pineapple and pan and pot that Thor has an issue with the "PL" sound. He can do the 'puh' p noise fine, but the 'pl' feels wrong in his mouth. As much as I don't want him to say the words wrong, I am debating teaching him words the wrong way, and working on the pl combination after he has more practice. He is pleased to say pease for please and be understood. He is frustrated to go pl pl pl, and not be understood.

As happy as I am for new words, I am certain that in about two weeks, I will be sick of No! and Mine!, but for now, they are pure heavenly music.

Cereal in the washer.

As any parent of small children know, odd things will appear in random areas, and no one knows how they got there. Sandwich under the bed? Must be the monsters are hungry again. Spiderman in the toilet? His web must have broke. Hotwheels in the kitchen sink? They must need to be washed. Anything whatsoever in the vacuum? Just wanted to see what it would and wouldn't eat.
No one knows how this happens. Apparently, there are imps whose sole purpose in life are to put things where they don't belong.
Knowing this, I should have checked the washing machine this morning before I put in laundry. I figured, at worse, a toy would be tunbled with the towels and kids clothes. It could be worse, really. Kix cereal has this amazing ability to disintegrate, then reform into some type of super cement. Kix cereal in the washer, with clothes, that I had sincerely hoped would come out cleaner than they went in? Forget it. The clothes and towels are now on their third pass through. I am fairly certain that all the sloppy, wet, the spin dried ceral has been removed, and that this might be the pass it takes for the clothes to get clean. Otherwise, I will have to dry, then shave, everything.

Note to self-always check the washer.