Zoe's Life Would Be Perfect if Nobody Sneezed, Burped, Coughed or Cried!

Today Zoe and I stayed inside.  It's nice not to have to take her to a doctor, evaluation or therapy session.  We have been working on potty training.  Potty training is an arduous task for most moms and toddlers.  Potty training a 3 year old with Asperger's is more difficult than sitting through a new episode of Mob Wives.  My next blog post will focus on what I like to call, "The Perils of the Potty."

Today we also worked on sneezing.

One of the components of Asperger's that is the toughest for me to deal with is the predictability.  Zoe makes everything predictable.  She will talk out loud about what she will do before she does it, so when she does it, there are no surprises.  She follows her routines so she feels comfortable in her skin.  Unfortunately, there is only so much I can do.  I can tell her her schedule beforehand, but things happen that even I can't predict OR stop.  

Most toddlers will throw tantrums if they can't watch t.v. or have a piece of candy.  My daughter goes from happy go lucky to extreme stress and anxiety if someone sneezes, burps, yawns, coughs or cries.  Why?  These things are unpredictable.   

She is in an art class and a little girl was coughing a lot and Zoe could not focus or function.  She began to cry and call for me.  The sad thing is as soon as I heard the girl cough, I cringed knowing how Zoe would react.

Sometimes when someone with us sneezes I get mad at them.  HAHA!  How dare they?  I would even stop myself from sneezing to avoid getting her upset.  Then I realized the harm I was doing.  So now I pretend to sneeze ALL the time.  Of course Zoe has tried to make this predictable.  She asks me why I sneeze so I told her from dusting.  So now whenever I dust she is okay with me sneezing.  She is a smart little girl.

So today I had her toys and stuffed animals sneeze.  She was very alarmed and stressed, but she did great.  I was very proud of her.  Crazy the things I am proud of.  Most moms take so much for granted.  Today Zoe didn't cry when her favorite stuffed animal cat sneezed unexpectedly.  AHHH CHOOO!  :)