The Tripped Up Life celebrates 1000 Ausome Things #AutismPositivity2013

Today I'm participating in the Autism Positivity Project Flash Blog by celebrating two of the most "ausome" parts of my world: Angel and Princess triplets. This flash blog is about showing the world the positive side of autism, the acceptance part of autism. And, on the last day of Autism Awareness month, I felt it was important to participate in - even though I'm really late in the day.

Here is a description from the author of The Third Glance blog, who is one of the major organizers in this effort. I couldn't have explained it any better than this: Last year hundreds of bloggers came together in a show of support and solidarity in response to an anonymous person’s Google search “I wish I didn’t have Aspergers”. The posts that came flooding in from all over the world were a beautiful example of the power of strength in numbers. With so much negativity still surrounding Autism and the misinformation and misconceptions that continue to abound, we invite each of you to share one, or two, or more “Ausome” things! 

Princess and Angel triplets

No matter how difficult life can be when raising triplets, two of which have neurological differences which make communication extremely difficult, there's never a day without moments of pure and overwhelming love and pride in my children - all my children, those with autism and those who are neurotypical.

No matter what trouble Angel triplet has started, my heart always melts when she looks up and says, "Hi!" Just like how my heart always skips a beat whenever Princess triplet sings one of her favorite songs.

These are my awesome girls. These are my sweet, strong, and determined girls who work so hard every day just to fit in a world that doesn't really understand them. Every day they make me smile, every day they make me shake my head too, just like my other children. Every day they are my children first and little girls with autism second.

These are my "ausome," positive, hopeful, proud things that I get to shout to the world about. I have the privilege, the honor, (and yes, sometimes the struggle), the responsibility of raising these amazing autistic daughters - for that I am truly blessed.

Yep, she'll eat anything

Brussels Sprout - raw, stolen off counter & gnawed on.

Angel triplet really does put anything in her mouth. She was eating grass in the backyard on the first day of real spring last week. Really.

So, this everything in the mouth issue sometimes has its benefits. Angel triplet likes vegetables, unlike my other two triplets. She likes some vegetables more than anything else at dinner. While she attempts to grab any and all food that may be on the counter and unprotected during meal prep (peanut butter, syrup, raisins, bananas, etc), tonight's snatch was rather interesting. Brussels Sprouts, intended for a pot of boiling water, and nabbed instead by Angel triplet. The remnants of the one she tried to eat is above. I'd say she got pretty far.

Anyway, we ended up having green beans and Angel triplet had thirds on the beans. Maybe that's why she has the "Angel" nickname. In contrast, Sunshine triplet had her own drama at dinner, summarized by this statement amidst tears: "there's a bean in my mouth and I don't like it!" (We required her to eat at least one bean before she could have seconds on grapes, I know, we're cruel).

And Princess? Well, as long as her dinner has tomato sauce in it & lots of spice, she's usually happy with that. Just don't ask her to eat regular veggies alone - raw or cooked, doesn't matter.

So cute, it almost made me cry!

Pink fabric is rain coat side, brown polka dot is cotton lining.

Those actually were my words. I was in the fabric store for only 10 minutes, I swear, and then I saw this incredibly cute material that would be perfect for a windbreaker/spring jacket for the triplets.

So of course I had to buy it, because why wouldn't I make my own hooded reversible rain/wind jacket with adorable buttons for the cutest kids in the world, right?

Why wouldn't I pay a boatload of money just to get the supplies needed to make a super cute raincoat (with pockets and ruffles, I might add) in triplicate. A ton more money than I would have spent at a regular store, except they don't have this perfect material, and ohhhh these buttons! So thanks Pinterest and Whimsy Couture for the great idea, ahem, ahem, for the EXTRA WORK, yeah, thanks.

Yes, I turned into some ooohhing and ahhhing craft monster and yes, I guess I am SEWING new raincoats for the littles now.

Embracing simplicity

I've had trouble with clutter my whole life. Holding garage sales, donating to charity, or simply throwing things away were difficult tasks for my parents too while I was growing up. I remember once, while helping pack my mom's kitchen for a move, finding a weirdly-shaped serving dish. The ensuing conversation shows how much holding onto too much stuff has been drilled into me.

Me: "Mom, what is this? I've never seen it before. Can we get rid of it?"
Mom: "That's a French bread server."
Me: "A what? Okay, so can we just get rid of it then?"
Mom: "Oh no, that was a wedding gift!"
Me: "Really, but we never use it. Can't we just get rid of it?"
Mom: "I've used it once I'm sure. You can't get rid of a wedding gift."
Me: "I'm sure they wouldn't even care by now Mom, who did you get it from anyway?"
Mom: "Oh, I don't remember.

BEFORE: Main floor play area - mid-day play time

I'll admit as an adult I've had an inner desire for my home to look like those fancy magazine photos or at least like my really organized friends' homes. In reality, it looks like someone vomited toys at my house, that and clutter of all kinds on almost every flat surface. It's not that we really ever wanted it this way, it's just how it seems to end up.

Angel triplet has a propensity to get into everything, pull things apart, and put everything into her mouth. I usually feel like I can't keep ahead of her. She is still a big "dumper" of toys, running from one bin to another to simply dump everything on the floor, without much functional play with any of them. Putting toys away after dumping is quite the challenge for her and usually requires someone to work with her, helping her by doing the activity with her hand over hand. Now add in a stubborn Sunshine triplet who simply doesn't want to either stop playing or needs her one-on-one attention to encourage clean up, plus a Princess triplet who just wants to wander around with various objects twirling them in her typical stimming fashion. When it's a 1 adult to 3 kids ratio, it's really tough to insist on the clean up routine. Often, you find yourself giving up and deciding to clean it up yourself after the kiddos go to bed that night. Unless, of course, you're too exhausted.

Too many toys, too much clutter and lots of dumping. It all leads to a great deal of stress. On top of that, the need for structure and organization is high with Princess and Angel triplets, even though it often looks like Angel is bound and determined to wreak as much havoc as possible. Tripped Up Mommy's natural spontaneous personality and overall cluttered approach makes it more difficult for them to order their own brains, body, and ultimately life. This is exactly the moment for intentional parenting - it's time for Mommy to get more disciplined and make things easier for them. Thanks to one of the girls' teachers, who recently spent 4+ hours with me in our house, we've made some HUGE strides in simplifying our upstairs play area. With   help from their teacher and Tripped Up Daddy's entertaining of triplets, we dug in and made a lot of little changes that added up to a huge one.

AFTER: Main floor play area - mid-day play time

Here's what we did:

1. Grouped like items quickly & put a bin together for odds & ends items that will be sorted later.
2. Reduced the total number of toys available by about two-thirds.
3. Purchased and labeled special bins where small toys can be stored.
4. Planned out new rules for the girls which included no dumping of more than one bin at a time. 
5. Created a workable plan for addressing toy boredom (switching out the toys within a planned time period).
6. Reduced the anxiety of "but where do I put all this junk on the top of a cabinet?" question by using a box to store excess clutter with the understanding it will be sorted at a later date.
7. Set up a plan of action that will make it easy for anyone (including Tripped Up Daddy, Lotte, babysitters, Grandma) to put the room back in working order within 15 minutes.
8. Took perfectionism out of the mix as much as possible 

After a week and a half of a cleaner slate, I've noticed it's a more child-friendly environment and everyone seems to be calmer. There's also more functional play from Angel and Princess triplets already.Yes, the Tripped Up Castle seems happier and less stressed. Plus, we only bought new bins so it was very economical as well. Who knew something I thought I couldn't do would help the girls so much in such a little amount of time? The re-design made a huge impact and gives me the courage to look at doing more simplifying in other areas of the home. Have you done re-works similar to this in your home or life? How did you do it and what were some of the obstacles you faced?

This is why it's difficult to find sitters for our triplets...

Angel triplet? Angel is her nickname? Really? Hmmmm...

This is why Tripped Up Mommy should never, ever, ever use the bathroom when home alone with Angel triplet, especially when the refrigerator door lock has failed and has not been replaced yet.

It's also why we own a steam cleaner and why we have not replaced the yucky carpet that was here when we moved into this house four years ago.

Angel triplet has dumped every breakfast food you can imagine on this carpet now: syrup, butter, jam, juice, peanut butter, and, finally, eggs.

Tripped Up Daddy is bringing home two refrigerator door locks today after work, an extra for the next failure. That and more eggs.