New Couch

My beautiful, wonderful mommy bought us a new couch today. I can hardly wait for it to come! It's a lovely light green to go with my livingroom, the fabric is softly comfy while seeming durable, and the lines classic.

My oldcouch belonged to my grandparents. I am very upset about losing it. As a little girl, when we spent the night at Granny and Pop's with my folks, this couch is where I slept. It was extra-deep, so very comfy for a child, and even for a teenager. (When I visited without my folks, I slept in the upstairs bedroom- I'll blog about that some other time.) It sat int eh livingroom under a huge mirror. Many a special occasion was marked by checking to see if my Granny and/or Pop would approve of my clothes, my hair, my demeanor, before setting forth. The cushions were often my fort or my playhouse or my lion's den. My little fingers would brush lovingly over the fabric, alternating between the smooth silky bckground and soft velor foreground.

However, it was also very bouncy. Joey discovered this at a very tender age, and long before we owned a trampoline. Andy followed suit. The straps and frame are broken, the springs are sagging to the floor, the fabric wearing threadbare and thin. After all, the couch- and the fabric- is 40 years old.

May the new couch last as long, and be as loved.

Book Quiz

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Meet the Teacher(s)

We went to Open House this evening. Grandma and I took Joey and Andy out to dinner, then over to school to meet our new kindergarden crew. It was really exciting. We got a copy of Joey's schedule and met both of his teachers, made sure we dragged our supplies with us, and even got to meet one of the other sets of parents. The self-contained class is really small right now, which will be all the better- everythng can be tailored to our kids, and Joey is going to be a real wing-ding of a challenge. The one teacher noted they have never started out with a kid as smart as Joey- meaning as far along academically- and we are looking forward to reading groups already! Joey spent most of the evening writing on the dry-erase board- letters, words, even "Come to school", and math (12 + 12 = 24). Show-off.

Its kind of weird to be explaining to a teacher, "well, he already knows how to read, he writes all his letters and numbers, and he can add...academics isn't the problem." When she asked, "so what's the problem?" all we could really say is, "everything else." Fortunately, these two people have seen Joey. They understand what we mean.

The adventure beings on Tuesday.

School update

I have now spoken with school folk, and the word is Joey will indeed be split between two teachers. One is the self-contained kindergarden teacher, theother is the new autism teacher. The current plan is to pull him out of language arts, where kindergardeners are learning letter sounds and writing (which Joey can already do) and place him in teh autism class to learn language and social skills. Sounds like a plan to me.

How Weird Was Your Day?

This was one of those weird days that seem like two or three days packed into one. We started off at the gym, wher ethe guys got to play with their friends while Mom failed to lose any more weight (as she has failed to do for now eight weeks running). The lady who runs the kid section takes special care of Joey, mostly because she likes him, and she said he was all out-of-focus today. This was bad because we were out of milk, which is a disaster. So we went to the store anyway, and we manage to get milk, but my legs are now bruised from little boys kicking their feet while riding on those little bench attachment things, and they threw hissy fits the whole time. So we went home for lunch, and Grandma came by. She had an appointment with the surgeon this morning because the radiologist wanted her to get her gall bladder out, but the surgeon told her if she isn't having any symptoms, call him when she does. This is good news, and we celebrated by having lunch delivered instead of cooking it. Then I inflated our pool and let the guys splash around in it until the sky looked threatening, but it never rained. They spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the livingroom with various amusements and watching Little Bear. I managed to get a chicken in the oven for dinner. Very surreal.

Joey starts back to school next week. I need to sort through his clothes, organize his room, get the huge box of stuff the school wants all packed up to send in, and buy them both lunchboxes. I keep forgetting they need lunch boxes. I still don't know how many classrooms I am buying supplies for. If they split him between two teachers, do I need to send supplies for both classes?

Orientation is Thursday. I'll ask.

Being nice

Niksmom has kindly nominated for the "Nice Matters Award." This award is really cool, because you give it to people you think are nice and supportive:

This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good
blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.

Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award.

Yes, good feelings and inspiration. Well, that would be all the blogs I read. Which isn't really that many, but tagging all of them would also be unfair. Tag. You're Nice. (I can't be fair all of the time!)

If I had to pick to top seven people who "inspire good feelings and inspiration" in my life right this minute... hmm... I mean, beside Joey, Andy, Allan, and Mom, because that would take up four slots, so maybe I can just put "Family" in slot one. Now I can still pick on six other people.

My friend Christina is a great inspiration. She keeps on chuckin', and then calls me with her bright, cheery voice to shine some sunshine on my day. Gotta love that!

My friend Sue, whom I don't often blog about, is anther one of those tethers to reality and cheerfulness. She has an NT son who is just a dollface, and sometimes its nice to hear about some normality.

Maddy must be included on this list. Maddy was the first person to comment here, letting em know I wasn't all by myself after all. There are other places where "goldfish" is a food group.

Whenever I think about nice people, and what "nice" means, I think of Howard and Kimberlee. When my cat Puma was very very sick in the last stages of feline leukemia, she needed an emergency blood transfusion. They were the only people we knew who had healthy cats, and though we didn't really know them that well, we asked them to help us with one of their beloved babies. They never even hesitated, asked questions, nothing- they grabbed their young, healthy cat Pepin and came to the rescue. Their kindness gave us another week with our Puma, and I will never forget it. There are real, courageous, nice people in the world.

Another great inspiration is my friend St. Anne. Her little boy has been a great companion, classmate, and buddy for my Joey this summer, and she's just another epitomy of a nice person, with supportive comments and advice for everybody (especially me!). Thanks for the Diet Cokes on my rough afternoons.

I'd also like to mention Joey's first preschool teacher. Even when she moved off to another distrcit, she has stayed interested in Joey, and helped us learn how to advocate for him. Shes the kind of teacher I wish everyone had- interested in her students, willing to go the extra mile and do the extra research to make sure she is doing the best she can to help her kids and their parents. You can't ask for much nicer than that. She always has an encouraging word (and supportive indignation) when we're at wit's end. Thanks, Miss Angie.