I am the other Mommy on this blog. I call myself High Functioning Mommy because I believe myself to be one of the under-diagnosed. I scored a 185 out of 200 on the Autism Quotient Test but I'll leave my dissection of that for another post. I'm 32 years old with two children, Destructo is my almost-four-year-old son and Jellybean is my five-month-old daughter. Also, I am an uncaffeinated Autism mother.
For now I will call my husband Grumpy Booth until he gives me another nickname. Ever watch the show Bones? Watching Brennan and Seely is like watching my husband and I. The normal emotional person versus the literal minded nerd. They misinterpret each other, they fight, they make up. But they love each other to death. When we first met, we bonded over Star Wars. Spent the next two weeks apart from each other. I was convinced I was going to marry him after that first day.
Destructo will be four this winter, and was diagnosed with Autism when he 21 months old. I believe he was autistic from birth; he is very typical of autistic children who have sensory processing issues and gastrointestinal problems. He has a condition called Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. I'm not going to get into it here, you can always check out the International Association for Food Protein Enterocolitis website for details, but suffice to say my son cannot have dairy or soy. Add to this Destructo's severe texture defensiveness and we have a little boy who only eats five foods. He is on a prescription amino-acid based formula to get the healthy calories he needs.
Food allergies aside, Destructo is speech delayed but appears to be academically ahead for his age. By the time he was two, he could recite the entire alphabet and count to ten. By the time he was three he was able to count to 20, count backwards from 15, and spell his name. He can't hold a conversation yet but he is in an amazing preschool program where he's made great progress in the past year. He receives physical, occupational, speech, and feeding therapy at school. I believe his speech development is around that of a two year old, because he will repeat anything he hears. Spontaneous speech has been improving very well over the past few months. He can even read a few words, his favorites being "surprise" and "stop" and he even uses them in context. My little Destructo is tall like Daddy and looks like Mommy.
Jellybean was born in just before spring. She looks just like her Daddy. She is the reason that this High Functioning Mommy is decaf as she's never had a drop of formula. So far, she appears to be a normal baby...which is a new experience for me! Jellybean's ability to sleep through the night was the first thing that confused me. Apparently babies DO sleep. I do find myself actually being able to enjoy her babyhood...I wish I could remember more of her big brother's but I was extremely sleep deprieved, and I still feel guilty about it. Anyway, I just know Jellybean and Destructo will have plenty to teach each other!
Right now we don't have any furry family members, hopefully that will change in the future!
So, that's us. And since it's taken me about four hours to type of this post between Destructo, Jellybean, and an overheating laptop with missing keys (courtesy of Destructo), Live Long and Prosper!
High Functioning Mommy
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