Little Debbie....Round 2

To state Kalisha becomes obsessed with something is an understatement. I realize I have written about this before, but I am revisiting it today. I saw a cartoon on an autism site which said, "I am not addicted. I am obsessed." Yes, I understand.

At least it makes me know she is not alone in this way of thinking; although I have to say I sometimes forget that and have a hard time understanding her obsessions with some weird things (or so they seem to me.) There have been shoes, certain clothing, and PHONES, of course. I understand the phone thing; it is her lifeline, her 'normal' thing.

Her current 'thing she has to have' is Little Debbie Cakes. This is not the first time around for these.

 

If you have read this blog for any time at all or if you have read the book, Not Different Enough,

you already know she is occasionally obsessed about a person or persons. This usually ends badly; for her.

 

 

Several years ago, she was totally obsessed with a city bus driver and rode her bus every day. This woman took advantage of Kalisha's benevolent nature and asked for Little Debbie Cakes every day. I can't begin to tell you how many boxes were purchased and shared or just given to this woman. (If you owned stock in Little Debbie, I'm sure you saw an increase in dividends during this time.)

At one point, Kalisha had 6-7 boxes of the Valentine cakes in her room. When the friendship became a disaster, the cakes were moved to the basement cupboard and eventually disposed of or given away or eaten; I don't remember.

 

Since that time, Kalisha has had a box every now and then, but recently, the LD urge took over again. She started with one box. Okay. She didn't even open it; she just HAD it. Then last week, she went into Kroger to buy 5 bottles of her flavored water. She came out with water and 2 more boxes of Little Debbies.

 However, the kind she really wanted...because she saw them online and on FB (Little Debbie has a FB page....who knew? Obviously, Kalisha.) were only available at the Coldwater WM. She couldn't rest until she found a box of those.

 

I asked her to take a picture of her boxes for this post, so she lined them up on the couch. She keeps them in the garage refrigerator and as you can see in the photo, only opens a box to get one for her lunch when she is packing it for her volunteer job.

 

It isn't like she gobbles them all down in one day or even a week. She may have these 4 boxes until the end of the year; but she HAS them and that's what counts, for her.

 

I should probably be happy she is enamored with a fictional Little Debbie, instead of a real person. As I said earlier, those friendships rarely end well. More about the latest people obsession in the next post.

 

 

 



 

 

 



 

Don't Misunderstand

I truly love getting comments, positive or negative, because it validates the fact that someone is reading what I write about Kalisha and our activities. I started this blog to be of some help to parents of children diagnosed with autism, no matter what age they were. Even if they are young children, they will eventually be adults with autism.

Of course, every child is different and has different ways of dealing with situations, but there are some similarities. If the things I write about can inform and perhaps, warn about some areas, it will accomplish what I set out to do. There are always those parents who read about Kalisha and say, "My child will never do that." Perhaps not, but one never knows.

I recently received a comment from a person I only know on FB. She had read one of the posts about a particularly trying day at our house. She was feeling very sorry for me, giving me all kinds of credit for my patience and worrying about how I could deal with problems on a daily basis.

Her comment gave me pause. I replied that I didn't always have patience and Kalisha was a great girl and my best friend. We have a lot of fun together. I don't want to paint Kalisha as being a big pain and me as a martyr of some sort. That is not what our life is like. If someone only reads a few of my posts, I can understand how they might get that idea, but if they read more of them, they will see the whole picture, I hope.

I can't imagine this blog accomplishing much if I write that she got up, had oatmeal for breakfast, watched television, took a nap, read her books, ate dinner and went to bed. There are days like that, of course, but if you have a child with autism, I would hope you would learn a lot more when you read about her stubbornness, her tenacity, her laziness, and a few other behavioral quirks. OR, you can read about how I only get it right-occasionally.

She will soon be 29 and I am still learning every day, but thank the Lord, with His help, I do get it right-occasionally.