Monday, October 25, 2010

Renovations and reintroductions

I made some noise last spring about putting my focus on writing about Asperger's.  At the time, I thought about starting a new blog altogether.  Over the summer, this idea morphed a bit until I decided that I wanted to shift the focus here.  I already feel that my identity as Mouse has moved this direction and that I have something of a presence, albeit a small one, as a commenter on Asperger's at other blogs.

To this end, I am slowly sticking most of my old posts into draft and making a few minor changes to others.  The ones that will not be moth-balled at any point are those that are most directly related to Asperger's.  Other posts will come back as I get a chance to go through them and as I write new posts that refer back to them.

In this process, I have also decided to change how I refer to my family members.  Scooter, in particular, has outgrown his epithet.  Following is the cast of characters and locations.  Since I'm not editing comments, I list both their previous and new names.  New designations are a mix of first and middle initials.

M.--That's me, Mouse.  Aspie mother, grad student (they haven't kicked me out yet), education student (almost have my certification now), middle school teacher.

A.--Formerly Trillian.  She's technically neurotypical, but geeky enough and "grazed by the arrow" in some categories, so she's not completely flabbergasted (most of the time) by E.'s and my particular quirks.

E.--Formerly Scooter.  7 1/2 and in second grade.  It's been almost exactly a year since his Asperger's diagnosis, but more than three since we started researching it.

J.--Formerly Thumper.  9-months-old.  He's been deemed neurotypical by none other than Tony Attwood, but that's a story for another post.

We live in Springfield; the main employer draws lots of scientists and such, so we're a quirky town.  My in-laws live in nearby Capital City.  Further down the road is Big City.

5 comments:

Bea said...

I didn't realize until now that the initials in your family form a pattern.

Deemed neurotypical by Tony Attwood? At nine months? That's a story I want to hear. My sister-in-law has an almost one-year-old baby, and with autism on both sides of the family and advanced maternal and paternal age, he's got a higher than statistically average chance of landing on the spectrum. But I have never seen a baby LESS ASD-like in my life - he is very socially motivated and adaptable. I've been assuming, though, that the jury will stay out for another year or so. I'd be interested to know what approach they take with babies.

Mouse said...

To be fair, it was not anything official with Tony Attwood. We attended a conference at which he was one of the speakers. J. was with us (5 months old at the time) and he stopped during one of the breaks and chatted for a minute. Lots of great stuff from that conference!

We wouldn't have had the full name pattern if J. had been a girl. But it works nicely for us.

nutella said...

Still following along, looking forward to reading what you have to write.

Aliki2006 said...

I love your new home! Do you mind if I put the link up on my FE blogroll? Tell me if you do--no problem. I know you are more private, so I don't want to link to you if you prefer I don't.

Mouse said...

Feel free, Aliki. One of my goals with this renovation is to find my voice as a blogger on Asperger's, and I would be happy to find an audience for that.