Yikes!! It’s been way too long since I sat down at my keyboard to share something meaningful. There have been a few things I wanted to share but inspiration did not see me through. Unlike an Instagram or FB post my blogs come from deep within me so they are not churned out as quickly as I’d like. Something must inspire me, good or bad. Maybe I overthink and fear I will start sounding repetitive  or maybe….quite simply ….I’m just not that good of a writer to pull it all together. For whatever it’s worth, I’m back!

Enter Brian’s reet. A little piece of string or material that Brian has clutched and played with since the beginning of time (his time that is). The word reet came out of Brian’s mouth in an attempt to say the word ribbon and it has stuck and become a daily part of our #lunderful vocabulary. Long ribbons, strings, lanyards, phone chargers, cords, ties and belts. Anything long and linear can be reets. Brian finds them in our house or other people’s houses (sorry friends) and gets very attached. He manipulates the reet until it disappears, disintegrates or his dog cousin Louie eats it, whichever comes first.  Brian’s reets serve an important purpose. They are his preferred object to stim with and as his mom I see it serving an important function. Stimming is a hallmark characteristic of autism. It is the repetition of physical movements, sounds, words or in this case manipulation of objects. Stimming arouses the nervous system and acts as a release for many children with autism. Brian is a huge stimmer, always has been and probably always will be. Unfortunately it calls lots of attention to him everywhere he goes. I’ve seen people laugh at him and I’ve seen people look very confused at him. I’ve even seen people mock him when they don’t know I’m looking. Not cool. He has been trained to keep his stims to a minimum at school but when he comes home it is …..well….a stimfest.  One of these days I’ll video him stimming, but for those of you who know him, I’m confident you’ve seen it.

Last week things got very stressful in the land of #lunderful. Brian’s most recent reet disappeared into thin air. Literally. One minute he was in our family room happily playing with it and the next it was gone. This has happened before. His hands move so fast that the reet flys out of them but we have never not been able to find it. He called for help by saying “reet” over and over again. I stopped what I was doing and started looking for it. 15 minutes later I enlisted everyone in the house to help. Although I knew we were in trouble when I couldn’t find it because like most moms I can find mostly anything in our house. Believe it or not our search and recover mission lasted for hours! We moved all the furniture, removed all cushions and even rolled up the area rug. All the while Brian kept desperately begging us “reet!” “reet!” With each hour his calls were becoming more emphatic. Keep in mind, Brian asks for nothing in life. Other than pizza, cinnamon bread, fruit snacks, filet mignon and water.  So not being able to find the one object that brings him comfort was very stressful for us. The situation was magnified because earlier in the day our AC unit blew and our house was registering 87 degrees. Hot, tired and getting frustrated we searched every room on our first floor. The reet seems to have evaporated. It was and still is no where to be found.  Quite a mystery.

We must have 50 potential reets laying around our house. We kept offering different ones but he would not take one. He eventually fell asleep on the couch and Donny and I at 11 pm had a well earned gin and tonic which is not a common occurrence. We sat for a while watching him sleep and talked about how frustrated Brian must feel most of the time before we feel asleep in our hot house.

SHOUT OUT TO DONNA FROM JOANNE FABRICS

The next morning I took a trip to Joanne Fabrics trying to replace the beloved reet. I was looking for something made of a similar material and texture. I looked high and low in the ribbon and cording section. I grabbed a few things that might work but honestly I wasn’t satisfied but I didn’t see anything else. I needed to pick up Brian from camp and was running out of time to try another store. I approached an employee and told her my plight. Her name was Donna, ironically and  I explained to her the events of the previous night and she stopped what she was doing and her whole demeanor changed. Her expression dropped and empathy was written all over her face. She showed me fabrics that might work which I didn’t think possible because I thought they would fray. We picked a handful of fabrics and cut them into 24 inch strips. I must say….I was excited!! I think we nailed it! I couldn’t wait to get Brian and show him all of these potential reets. Heck I was so proud of myself I almost started stimming with one of them!! One was going to be perfect, I could feel it.

When presented a box of new strings after camp Brian was so happy! He picked up each and every one laughing and jumping and like always he zeroed in on just one. With a little effort and help from a kind employee who cared about my son’s happiness balance has been restored in the land of #lunderful.

For now anyway.

Brian and his new reet 🙂