Alan Skypes with his Grandma

Yesterday, Alan's Grandma turned eighty-five. I was extremely tired all day yesterday and laid down in my bed at 9 p. m. I could hear Alan in his room. I realized he was on Skype and he was greeting his Grandma. I don't know if he has ever Skyped with her before. He has Skype on his computer in his room and I don't always know when he is using it. It sounded to me as though he was greeting her appropriately, wishing her a happy birthday. I don't know what all they talked about as I did not listen to it beyond that. Around 9:30 I shouted to Alan that he needed to take the dogs out. When he came in, he came to see me. I asked him how his call went. He thought it went fine. I asked him how he ended the call. He said that he had to go now. I sure hope it went as well for Grandma as it sounded from what I could get from Alan. Initiating a birthday call and carrying it out on Skype seemed to me wonderful progress.

Some Flexibility Progress and Social Progress

I have been thinking about writing about how Alan is progressing in being flexible. He has shown many such instances recently. Just tonight, his dad and I went out to shop and I got him a couple of long-sleeved sweater/pull-overs and several T-shirts. During the shopping, I called Alan and asked him if he wanted a T-shirt with The Beatles on it. He said, "No, I want plain shirts." I did get him one completely plain one and one with a stripe and a different color on top of it. Dad picked out a Bob Marley shirt with an up-beat saying on it. I got another one with a music design with a microphone since Alan likes to do karaoke at his acting class. None of them were the skulls Dad had teased him about at the supper table.

Once home, at first, Alan rejected all the choices. He even threw down the blue sweater (a steal at $6.95 which will fit him next year also). I suggested that he needed to look the shirts over and also to bring down the shirts he is done with. He said that he thought his shirts needed an update. He brought several too-small shirts down. I selected one to return to him and took the rest for donation to the charity which is coming to our door in the morning. Dad told Alan he wants him to wear the Bob Marley shirt next Tuesday night when he goes to gymnastics because Justin always wears a different shirt with some graphics on it. Alan did not object.

Several times lately, we have had to change the order in which Alan has done one of his activities or his books. Sometimes he has objected but always without much fuss now. In fact, he is often able to talk himself through it. He does a lot of self-talk aloud which lets me know the progression of his thinking over what is happening.

On a recent Monday, when Alan wanted to get to the Teen Center on time, I was late picking him up from Janet's. Alan tried to reach me on his cell phone, but mine was set on mute and I could not quickly figure out how to change it to the audible setting, so I simply drove as safely and fast as I could to get him. In the meantime, he had begun to demand I return immediately while with Janet and Ian. Janet managed to get him to realize that if he made me nervous or upset, it would take me longer to get him there. When he got into the car, he calmly took my phone and took it off mute with a couple of button pushes. Then he simply rode quietly for the few minutes it took to get him to the Teen Center. He was calm when he entered the building a few minutes after the door was opened. Phew!

Today, Alan had both gymnastics and climbing at Boulderdash. I made arrangements with the coach so that Alan took his lesson early, without the other students. Alan got ready early and arrived with no bother. He listened to the coach and did several things he had not done before in class. Right afterward, I drove him to Boulderdash. While there, he was able to engage a couple of kids and an adult in conversation. One girl took his cell phone and put her cell number in his phone and she put his number in hers, telling him they had the same model of phone. While I cautioned Alan that he could not simply call her up repeatedly and that he had to wait until she texted or called him, he was elated that she did that. Prior to going to the event, Alan asked me about some possible topics of conversation. I also suggested that he ask her what she had been doing lately. While I did hear him announcing that he had recently had a hair cut, for the most part as far as I know the topics were reasonable. Alan did sit down next to her on some bean bags at one point. She motioned to another girl to come sit with them, between them, and he did make room for the other girl. Then he got up onto his feet and joined another line waiting to climb. All in all, I think he would agree with me that this was a successful afternoon for him.