I'm Not Ready!

I’m tired. Tired because one of my wee ones with ASD has been waking up at 3:30 a.m. He’s not quiet. He runs around, turns on the lights, gets an apple, plays with noisy toys, etc. But, in spite of the fact that I am tired, I am also grateful about one little item.

Periods.

You see my 4 children with disabilities are boys. My daughter is NT. I thought about this today when I got a call from school. My daughter fell from a climbing device and caught her, er, crotch on a bar. The secretary called because my daughter reported that she was bleeding. I thought, “God, she’s just 9. It can’t be her period.” It wasn’t. She had injured herself in a delicate place but it’s minor and she’s fine. But, I thought about all my friends with daughters with special needs who have either reached that age or will be coming of age soon. And, I’m grateful that it is one thing that I won’t have to deal with.

When I thought that I would never get son #2 potty trained I decided that we would do laser hair removal. I was not going to be digging poop out of pubic hair. Sorry if that disgusts anyone but that’s when you lose your help. No one wants to clean up after an adult who cannot control his or her bowels. Dh agreed with me. We would do laser hair removal if training was unsuccessful. Thankfully, by age 9, he was fully potty trained. We still need to wipe him but so far, no issues.

So, back to my daughter. I’m going to have to start getting her ready, though. I guess that I keep thinking I have time since I was 13 before I got my first one. However, I was ready. Between “health” class, “Are you there God, It’s Me Margaret?”, and “Ann Landers”, I was ready. Darling daughter was born at full term weighing 9 pounds. She’s beautiful. She had dark brown eyes the size of dinner plates and lashes about a foot long. She’s creative, loves to draw, paint and do crafts. She’s coping quite well for being smack dab in the middle of two sets of twins, all with autism. She loves Hannah Montana. Interestingly though, her favorite songs are: Livin’ La Vida Loca-Spainish version, These Boots Are Made For Walking-Nancy Sinatra, What Have You done For Me Lately-Janet Jackson. I’m really not ready for this. She’s growing up and she’s my only little girl.