Cough Cough

I've been the one doing the coughing, in on and off heavy doses and, for the past two days, in rather monstrous bursts. I am thinking, or maybe just hoping, that this is the last stage of the various illnesses I have had, starting when (as I've been saying to Jim) Hosni Mubarak was still in power in Egypt.

Charlie, who was the first in our household to get sick just about a month ago starting with sniffles on the day of the ice storm, has been very, maybe even close to completely tolerant, of the hacking sounds emitted by his mother (and, less and less, by his dad---Jim is back to health this week). This tolerance to the admittedly unpleasant sound of my coughing is new: Not too long ago, I'd run down to the basement to sneeze or cough as the sounds were misery on our sensitive to everything boy's ears. And I probably went through way too many packs of Ricola cough drops in an attempt to keep the cough minimized while I drove with Charlie on edge in the back seat.

Perhaps Charlie has been handling the coughing and other sounds of illness that have permeated our household these past couple of weeks better because he himself had a bad cough for some days. Overall, he has been much more patient and enduring with the noises and inevitable disruptions when people are sick. I do think our being sick and not our usual selves has been one (among other) reasons that Charlie has been clinging to the green shirt and brown pants so adamantly. 

We had gotten into a not great but can-live-with-it routine of Charlie wearing his 'uniform' to school and then changing into different clothes, generally with a smile, and then changing back into the green-brown combo prior to taking the bus. But Tuesday was the first day Charlie was something less than inclined to change and he got, his teacher wrote to us, quite upset. They were able quickly to whup up a basic social story about the whole clothes situation and to go over it with Charlie as he was calming down---after which, as his teacher also wrote, Charlie went to get his other clothes from his book bag and changed.

Give things a little time, and, what do you know, presto chango.

Comments

[emma]

It's great that the school can get fix a social story on the spot! And a good response from Charlie. Sounds like you could be right about not feeling well and Charlie wanting his "comfy" clothes, I guess we all have things like that, so why not Charlie too (although, apparently, according to "make over" shows I really should bin the fleeces)

It seems to have been a long winter for cold/icy weather and viruses! Hope that starts to change soon, sometimes it's really hard to shake off a cold or flu, and Charlie and you all have all been doing great and with a lot of patience.

Is that coffee cups Charlie is collecting in the picture?

[Kristina Chew]

It was like 'social story on demand'!

A few years ago it seemed that Charlie (and we) could not live without fleece. He still has a big fleece blanket on his bed but he doesn't have any, um, strong feelings so to speak about having a fleece jacket or gloves to wear (in fact, the 'yellow jackets' are hard and stiff and made of synthetic sort of stuff).

He will definitely NOT wear a scarf.

I am still coughing! Pathetic. I need to swear myself off from talking as that exacerbates it.

He's holding onto two reusable/refillable plastic cups from the Mexican fastfood place he loves to go to---if you use them, it's 99cents for soda (an appalling amount of soda is imbibed around here, more than enough to terrify a nutritionist). (Yes, Charlie takes a multivitamin.) -- Of course, though, the cups have become an object of OCD-ness in and of themselves---doesn't matter if we go to the Mexican place or not, the cups must be in the two cupholders in the car!