Boys

Since Rachel was able to sleep in this morning, she got up on her own, got out some magazines, and spent some time looking through them. I am so thrilled that she is getting up on her own when she is ready! She ate and got dressed without saying much and without much help. Then she went back in her room to look at her magazines again. A little while later I could hear her crying very loudly. I went in and asked her what was wrong and she pointed to a picture of a girl hugging a boy and said "it's MY birthday!" and started crying even louder. I got her calmed down a little, but she kept saying things like "I hate boys! Boys are bad! I don't like him! Boys are rude!" and pointed to several pictures of boys with girls in the magazine. Might this have something to do with being a 19 year old girl and wanting a relationship with a boy? If it is, there is nothing I can do about it. She doesn't have the maturity to handle anything like that, even if I could orchestrate anything that complicated. When she was 16 she went to prom as a group with her class. One of the peer tutors was her date, and he was very attentive and kind to her and she had a marvelous evening. She still, three years later, talks about that night and that particular boy. I don't honestly know if it was good or if it was like showing her something awesome and then snatching it back and saying "no, you can't have that!" I want her to have as much of a "normal" life as she possibly can, but there are some things that just won't be available for her. I wish I knew what would make her the happiest, long term.

Yesterday we took Rachel with us to run some errands. We were at a house where the people had a talking bird. She loved it! the minute she saw it she started grinning and wasn't afraid of it at all. They got it out of the cage and she got quite close to it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've never really wanted to own a bird (since my oldest son was a year old and was terrorized by a parakeet), but now I wonder. If we got her a bird that was really tame, maybe it would help her. I know they've done studies about kids (autistic or not) and animals, and how pets help them. So I'm thinking....

Last night we were watching a little bit of TV and Rachel started looking tired, so I sent her up to get ready for bed. Some times I've been able to send her upstairs and she would put her pajamas on, put her clothes in the hamper, her shoes in the closet, go to the bathroom, and come back and tell me she was ready for bed. Lately (and by lately I mean the last year or so) she has to have her clothes and pajamas laid out in a specific order for her to be able to put them on, and she usually has to be reminded to put them on. Anyway, I sent her up to go to the bathroom and intended to follow her up in just a minute, but I fell asleep. About an hour later I woke up and went to check on her and she was sitting on her bed, in the dark, half asleep. She hadn't put her pajamas on. I felt really bad. So I put her to bed rather quickly. She knows how to turn her light on and she knew where I was, so I hope she was just relaxing and not feeling neglected. She seemed relieved to be in bed. Guess I should get to bed earlier, too.