Sandwich Maker 101

Now I can’t remember exactly when Riley started eating grilled cheese sandwiches. It was at some point during our Operation IFO era. We started that back in September 2013. Five. Yes 5!  Looooong. Years. Ago! 

The only food to successfully come out of that hair-pulling…poke-my-eye-out-with-a-fork…ummm "trying" year was a grilled cheese sandwich.

Today was our second attempt at using the sandwich maker. I decided “Riley” needed a break after Monday so he wouldn’t get toooo stressed out thinking about it.

I have to say I was very surprised when I called him and he didn’t protest too much when he saw the setup. Some things do improve with age.

I wasn’t going to record his buttering technique again but how else will you be able to track his progress?!?  In case you did not know or do not notice in this clip, Riley has quite the aversion to getting his hands messy. 

If you can't see the video...click here to watch.

I have an aversion to blobs of butter so will admit to smoothing out the butter before we proceeded. Not sure why this clip is blurry…perhaps I got some of that butter on the lens. 

If you can't see the video...click here to watch.

Next…checking the status.  On Monday we set a timer but that didn’t work out all that well (it got a little overcooked) so decided we would just “sneak a peak” every so often. That is if he could get the lid open.  So many things that one takes for granted.

If you can't see the video...click here to watch.

And…VOILA!!!

If you can't see the video...click here to watch.

Oh, and just because he eats a food does not necessarily mean he enjoys the food……

If you can't see the video...click here to watch.

How We Handle "Undesirable" Activities in Riley World

When it comes to Riley World…it is all about “incentives”. Motivators so to speak.  Some may refer to these as “bribes” but that…to me…sounds so negative. ;)  So let’s just go with incentives shall we??

Whenever an undesirable activity is in the foreseeable future, my mind immediately starts to play out all possible scenarios in which things could go sideways and then…how to try to minimize the fallout.    

One of the activities of Riley’s new program is grocery shopping and then cooking lunch.

I received an email about what was planned for the following day:

And for cooking we are making hot dogs and french fries, so everyone can either pack a lunch and take what they made home, or eat it for lunch! 

This was good. This could work. Hot dogs are one of the few foods R will eat. Sort of. Okay. Wieners. He will eat wieners. Close enough. I responded with:

Awesome...hot dogs and fries! I think I will only send a drink with R and prep him for eating hot dogs for lunch.  He will probably not eat any of the fries but...go for it!!  :D  Peer pressure can sometimes work.  Probably not but you never know.  :)  Also...R usually only eats the wieners (boiled) BUT we have, in the past, worked on eating an actual hot dog (with bun...plain only...bun and wiener) so also feel free to just put one on his plate. 

You could always give him a choice:  One hotdog with bun or 2 wieners.  Totally up to you though. 

May the force be with you.  Good luck!

Diane

After prepping Riley…I sent this email in the morning:

The incentive is in place.  :)   He's prepped to eat 2 hot dogs (with bun) and to try at least one French fry. Maybe two.  We can only hope.  I mentioned the bun but I will leave that up to you.  He will probably say 2 hot dogs (the incentive) but if you think he's really struggling with the bun...after he finishes one w/bun...you can suggest he just eat the 2nd wiener.  He will be most pleased with that suggestion.  :D  Be prepared for piles of ripped bun on his plate.  Hahaha!  I told him G would check to see if he did "a good job" in order to go get his incentive on the way home.    

So what is R’s “incentive”???  5 cases of pop. Yup. You read that right. 5 cases (12 cans/case) of pop. Orange Crush, Fanta Orange, C-Plus, Sprite and 7-Up. The number of cases will vary based on how undesirable the activity may be.

I know what you’re thinking. Why bother with all this…“Won’t he just eat when he’s hu…”  STOP! Just…stop right there!! No. No he will not. It doesn’t work that way in Riley World. We started working on trying to expand his diet (aka Operation IFO) a couple of years ago. Although we did manage to add a few more things to his menu…it is still pretty limited. *sigh*

As soon as he got home he immediately unloaded ALL 5 cases (this is not our kitchen fridge). The line-up on the top shelf???  I think he is imitating pop "displays" at the eateries in food courts. Or not. Your guess is as good as mine here. He has one shelf and the rest...

well...they are relegated to wherever he can find space beside the fridge.  

As you can see...orange is his flavour of choice.  Praying we won't need an incentive in the near future. 

We are COOKIN'......#OperationIFO

Did you think I had given up??? You would be close. Although the introduction to new food groups in Operation IFO has yet to happen we have been eating a few meals together again…well at least for the 3 minutes Riley is at the table.

Riley keeps me on my toes which means I have to change things up. Often. I usually offer Riley at least one preferred food choice per day. After all…I don’t want his system to go into shock.  :) 

About a week ago I decided it was time to reintroduce cooking lunch. R used to cook his lunch two times a week at school. It never transferred home. I know. My bad. I thought the easiest way would be to start Riley off with hotdogs. OK…really just the wieners. Having to eat the bun as well as cooking would have been too much to handle in one meal. For both of us. It actually went better than I thought. A few vocal outbursts; some intermittent hand-slapping; otherwise…pretty uneventful.

Today I decided it was time for another cooking session. Much to my surprise Riley opted for perogies. Sorta.

Me:       For dinner tonight I’ll make you oyako-donburi*.

R:         YES!  (happy as a clam)

Me:       So for lunch YOU can make hotdogs or YOU can make perogies.

R:         Thinking…  Perogies. I’M HUNGRY! (NOT)

Me:       You want to make perogies?  (very surprised but tried not to sound it)

R:         NO!!  You can do it!

Me:       I'M going to make YOU dinner. YOU can make lunch.

R:         I’LL BE WHINING!  TOOOO-GETHER!!!

Me:       Sure. We can make it together.

*Riley World version.

Lucky for you I got some of it on video. In the beginning I was only going for audio then thought…WTH! Get it all on tape. I have nothing to hide. Except perhaps that I was still in my PJ’s.

As I was watching, some things really stuck out for me. Some are observations (mostly about me), some are reminders (mostly for me) and some are eye-openers (again FOR me). The up/downside of video-teaching. Let me explain.

First the observations:

·         My voice!  I am just getting over a cold. I usually sound worse.  :D

·         Riley is wearing the same t-shirt and shorts. Those are his home clothes. I do wash them regularly. 

·         My monotone voice. I never used to sound that way. I used to be very enthusiastic and animated. Ok so not nearly as much as my sister *wink* yet waaaay more energetic than now. Why?? Well in Riley World: The Early Years, we found that Riley was extremely sensitive to the inflections of a person’s voice. A calm and even sounding demeanour worked best. At times very difficult when I was tired and stressed out to the max.

·         I appear to be ignoring much some of Riley’s comments/questions. Ummm…yea. Busted. Haha! Actually I am trying to prevent an outburst and redirect his need to perseverate about his displeasure.

·         I say “Nice job!” and “Good job!”…a LOT!! Positive reinforcement is key in Riley World.  :)

Second some reminders:

·         I should have found out how he cooked perogies at school. How did they drain the perogies? Did they use a strainer, colander, or scoop them out of the boiling water? Easier to transfer learned skills than starting from scratch.

·         You will notice G stepping in to help Riley drain the pot. I do the same thing. I see something R may be struggling with/to do and immediately want to help him. We need to let out the apron strings as much as we can. 

Last…eye-opener:

·         There is this thing called echolalia and it is HUGE in Riley World. I am going to defer to my now IRL bloggy friend Bec’s post “Understanding Echolalia” for an explanation. I hope you pop over and read it. It explains a LOT!

When I say Riley repeats things…I mean he really, REALLY repeats things. Sometimes when a person (that would be moi) hears or sees the same thing over and over and over AND OVER again, said person begins to ummm...errrr...well...tune/blank out. For me it has been a survival thing. Listening/watching the same 7 second sequence of the same show for the 50 bajillionth time over 14+ years……I am only human. 

In the video, when Riley is sitting at the table and talking about Hansel & Gretel…that is an example of one of those times. Riley repeats/scripts when he is stressed. He repeats/scripts as a stim. He repeats/scripts as a conversation starter. Different situations, at different times yet all for different reasons. Yup. Echolalia in Riley World…a hard one to figure out and one that I am still learning about.

Oh…I just about forgot. Here is the video:

Click here or on the picture to watch the video.

Are you working on anything challenging in your World?  How's it going???