Maine now has 149 positive cases.
Prince Charles has tested positive.
Angela Merkle has put herself in self-quarantine.
Idris Elba has had to defend himself by saying he is asymptomatic, not being paid to say he has tested positive.
My daughter's extremely patient BHP came today. She started the session by not only washing her hands but by bringing my daughter to wash her hands. I notice she has brought her own hand sanitizer and hand soap. Our apartment has two floors. The first floor has the kitchen, then a small room that most would use as a dining room but I use it as a book room, then the living room. Upstairs are the bedrooms and bathroom. I bought a small toddler-sized table and chair set for the kitchen and put Lego table and plastic chair in the bookroom as places for the BHPs to do activities months ago. Now I am glad I have because we can social distance when they come. I try to keep my son sequestered in the living room. When it's lunchtime I wash my hands and prepare my daughter's lunch and place it on her little table. Then, I tell the BHP and they come in. I apologize that I am trying to give them space but it's hard in the close space. She tells me that it's ok. Before she leaves, she hands me a new policy from the company. They have a new policy due to the coronavirus. I agree with the policy which is mostly about sanitation and notifying the company immediately if a family member becomes sick. I normally spray all the surfaces they work at with a vinegar solution when they are done and tell her I will continue to do so. I also don't touch the materials they use because they mostly belong to the company. I tell the BHP I will continue to not touch their materials.
The hardest behavior my daughter is exhibiting is that she is extremely clingy. If I leave her sight she cries and yells "WHERE DID MOMMA GO?". When the BHP came she started crying and said she didn't want to work, she wanted to color. I told her she can color with the BHP. My daughter said in a very tearful voice "I want to color with you." My heart broke. She also cannot leave any room without three Minnie Mouse dolls that she has to eat with and sleep with. Anxiety is common with children with autism when their routines get disrupted. This has to be incredibly hard for her because she is extremely social and has friends at school. I can't explain any of this to her. She is too much in her own thoughts to understand that other people are getting really sick and we don't want to get sick or spread bad germs to other people. All she knows is school stopped, going to stores stopped, going to the indoor sensory gym stopped. Life stopped. Everything stopped. The only thing in her world that hasn't gone away are me and her brother.
My son's teacher called. She explained how the programming works. She told me that to use the token board, since its a school thing and not a mom thing, that I should give him a token after completing a small task, like putting one puzzle piece in the right spot. That way he will get his reward quicker and eventually I can space things out a bit. I told her its hard to do this on my own so we are exploring outside the box learning activities like flashcards and books. We also watch Sesame Street and sing a lot of nursery rhyme and preschool songs. She said that's honestly ok. I tell her that I have a newfound appreciation for educators and Ed Techs. I always thought I could teach and I learned that I cannot. She said she will post more videos and call once a week. The teachers basically had a frantic day or two to prepare their classrooms for an indefinite time without a clear plan of what the future would hold.
There were so many bright spots today! My parents finally found toilet paper in Rhode Island!
Want to hear Captian Picard read you Shakespeare every day? You can here: https://www.instagram.com/sirpatstew/?utm_source=ig_embed
Do you want a daily free opera from The Met? In this topsy-turvey world we have that now! https://www.metopera.org/
My daughter's school will be pairing with telehealth and we will have speech therapy, PT and OT again!!
It pays to stay positive.
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