Special Olympics, Day Two

I am so happy to report that day two at the Special Olympics went more smoothly.

It didn’t start off that way though. For obvious reasons, Puppy was nervous. The tantrum he had the night before had left its mark on him. He was wearing a band-aid over his injury and now his teacher and the aides will know he did not have the good behavior we are teaching him. But he had to face the day like any other and managed to calm down enough to get on the bus.

He talked his teacher and explained he had the tantrum and in his mind it was old news and not going to happen again…or so he promised…again.

The events were getting on their way, and I hadn’t mentioned that Puppy’s campus is walking distance from the district’s student activity complex.  In fact, he goes there often throughout the year for walks and runs with his classmates.  But today he was participating in the softball throw.  I remember his first competition in this sport, not so good; so glad he’s improving and focusing on eye-hand-coordination. Here’s a picture another parent sent me. He’s waiting for all the students to arrive and take their turns.

Puppy did pretty well. He placed second and received the Silver Medal for his efforts.

Oh the joy on his face. I’m so thankful for my friends who knew I couldn’t be there, and captured this picture for us. But doesn’t end here, there was a celebration dance! And yes, his teacher sent me a picture of this, too.

This was a sweet end to a much better day.  Congratulations Puppy!

And congratulations to Claire for achieving what seems like an impossible task of inserting images.

Special Olympics 2012, Day One

This year’s Special Olympics has come and gone.

The two day event went a little differently this year. For starters, it was the first year I didn’t get time off from work to watch the competitions. Puppy wasn’t too happy about that and even voiced that he didn’t want to participate, in his words, “I don’t want to go outside today.” I was hoping that after his morning call to my sister on Wednesday, he would get his pep talk and be convinced to get on the bus, go to school and change into his uniform for the events. Luckily, it pretty much happened that way. His teacher wasn’t going to let him sulk or stay in the classroom alone while they all went to the field.

On the first day of the Special Olympics, he did fine at the 50 meter run. In pictures that were taken by another classmate's mom, I see he was grouped with 4 other kids, him being the tallest and biggest. I think those little runners had an advantage over him…just saying. He didn’t place and came in 4^th or 5^th. 

It was it long day in the sun for Puppy though. His after school routine was changed, too. He was dropped off at my parents’ house after school. My sister was there and asked if I would like her to take him with her to my brother and his wife’s house until I got out from work so I wouldn’t have to deviate further from my route home. I got there and he greeted me like he usually does. He was excited to tell me about his day at the Olympics and how he ran as fast as he could to get his ribbon.

I sat down on the sofa to visit with my sister, my nephews and niece. Puppy on the other hand, was ready to go home. When I told him we’d leave in a while he didn’t like it, but waited. My brother got there, then my sister-in-law, and so I was catching up with them as well. By now Puppy was even more bored and asking to leave again. My sister-in-law asked us to stay for supper, but still…Puppy wanted to leave. When I said to him we’d leave after we ate, he took a deep breath and walked to another room and screamed he was going to bit himself if we didn’t leave. I told him soon, let’s eat first. And he took his hand to mouth and bit down as hard as he could. His braces left a terrible mark and open wounds on the backside of his right-hand. He started yelling, “I bit myself hard!” “It hurts!” I went and found him sitting on the bed crying with his hand in the air. Puppy’s first response was he’s sorry. He knew it wasn’t good behavior and figured I’d be angry. I was, but it was done. My instinct is to comfort him. It may not be the right thing because generally it was giving him attention. But as I saw it, my attention did not reward him and we were not leaving. Instead, I did comfort and his wound was cared for with ointment and a band-aid; and we walked to the kitchen to eat.

I read his face and saw embarrassment. But he tried to make small talk with others just the same. By this time Ms. H had arrived to meet with us for the evening. He sought her undivided attention for a while before asking to go outdoors. He was fine for the remainder of the evening. This was the end of day one.

What caused his tantrum? I will never know. I can take guesses. I can speculate. But Puppy has autism and can’t tell me himself why he turned to self-injury. Something triggered it, but looking for attention was not it, because attention does not take him to another location like he wanted. He wanted to go home and probably wanted some of this day to have routine to it and ultimately…none of this day was familiar or routine to him.

Puppy is doing well now and looks down at his hand. “Why did I do this, mom?” I don’t have an answer.

One Gold and One Silver

I've been worn out by the sun this week. I'm so glad it's Friday. But let me back up and let you know why I spent time in the sun.

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I took time off from work to attend the Special Olympics. This was Puppy's fourth competition. The games were rained out two years ago or it would have been his fifth year. Anyway, this year he was participating in the 50 yard dash and the standing long jump.

I was worried about the choices because Puppy has put on a little weight this year. I wasn't sure why the coaches would pick an event like the standing long jump for a student as heavy as Puppy. The only plus to this was that he had previously competed in this event both four and five years ago (in a leaner body, hehe). And as for running, last year he surprised me when he did the four person relay and ran 100 yards!

So to be brief, the opening ceremonies started at 10 A.M. instead of the usual 9 A.M. Then, they decided to present awards to school officials, politicians, and law enforcement which pushed the games back another hour or so. Once that was over, we found out that they changed the location of the relays from the South end of the field to the North end. Several runners were scratched from Puppy's school and other campuses because of the change. But after a long morning, and now 1 P.M., Puppy finally got his turn and ran his 50 yard dash against three other students and placed second for a Silver medal. He was excited and happy to have the day of events end. So was I...I got more Vitamin D than I wanted.

On Thursday, the officials and judges took their time arriving at their prospective posts and had the kids waiting until 9:30 A.M. to get started at the standing long jump event. Puppy's turn came up at around 10:15 A.M. and two other students on his team were no-shows, so it was only him and one other student competing against each other. He really tried his best and was successful to win the Gold! The only sad part was it took another hour of waiting to get to the presentation of the medals.

Puppy was proud of his wins and enjoyed the party and dance after the end of the Olympics. Another year, another successful participation. I didn't mention any problems with behavior because Puppy loves to be outdoors and he was at his best and in a calm state of mind on both dates. Congratulations, Puppy!