What a Day! (Mixed Bag)

Right on cue, melty days are followed by a trip to the doctor.

This morning, I heard it, the sound that now strikes fear into my heart and shudders through my brain- the bark of the croup cough. Since Joey has a tendency to turn blue, I didn't mess around. Andy was dropped at school, and Joey and I went straight to the Medic One (a miracle of medicine in this town- you see the doctor in about an hour, instead of days!) Diagnosis: the very beginnings of upper respiratory infection. We now have an inhaler and some amoxicillin for the boy.

We went to get Andy, who came out proudly sporting an Andy O'Shenanigans hat (and orange beard). Ah, 'tis time for th' wearin' o' th' green!

But wait, the excitement isn't over! Andy started on a new therapeutic listening program. This one is going to work with both vestibular and speech. I managed a sinus headache (very rare for me), so our beautiful, wonderful Miss Lisa took both boys back to play! So I got busy getting rid of my headache, and they got busy getting out the wiggles.

After that, it was time to get home and get some rest, especially for Joey. So what happens?

Yep- I now have a snaggletooth boy! Time for the Blue Bunny to come visit! I wonder if she has any blue cars left?

Days in 360

I have a suspicion that some time this week I will be home with one or two sick boys. Whenever we have odd days like this one, we tend to have a real issue several days later.

I knew we were having an off day when Joey got to swimming. Andy didn't go this morning at all, he was sleeping in and spent much of last night saying he didn't want to see Ms. Heidi, he wanted to stay home with Daddy. He got his wish. Joey got to the pool, and right away I could see Ms. Heidi was having a harder than usual time getting Joey to do his swimming- and Joey loves swimming. Was it the rain? or a harbinger of something else?

At home, the moods are spinning. One minute we're happy, playing trucks or decorating our leprechaun trap for school, even watching a little TV or having some popcorn- and suddenly, with little to no warning, its time to melt down. A torn sticker. A dropped kernel. A truck that rolls just a little too far. The world blurs into meltdown.

Melty days are hard. For one, I have few tools to uncover the underlying issues and problems; I am stuck with trying to put out the little fires with no way to discovering what is smouldering or why. Also, the lack of warning means you have a lot of sudden noise, which means not only do I get startled, but Andy is also more likely to melt down. Trying to keep everyone engaged is harder to do, and no guarantee of peace. It also means all the usual tricks are used up by lunchtime.

They are also dizzying. Laugh, giggle, quiet, SCREAM, giggle, SCREAM, fine, quiet, giggle, SCREAM. Mood changing so rapidly that it is hard to know which one is current, and no way to know why.

Having it happen on a cold, rainy day only exacerbates the issues. You can't put them outside to make noise for a while. They are caught inside with you.

So it looks like tonight will be a swell night to pull out some amaretto after the guys are in bed, taking three deep breaths, and hope school goes OK in the morning.

When Children Beg for Vegetables

My children have been amusing the folks in the grocery store lately. When you come in to our grocery store, you come in to the produce section. Our produce section has vegetables lining the right wall, and the fruits in islands to the left. Most kids will zip past even these and head for the longer aisle beyond, with the sugary cereals or the poptarts or the chips. Not my kids. They make a beeline to the right...

...and beg me to buy broccoli.

I had Andy with me this week in the grocery, and we started off in the produce. He was wound up, asking me what each thing was. He became enamoured with a spaghetti squash, so I bought it for him to try. (Hey, any of you know what to do with a spaghetti squash? Because I haven't the slightest clue.) Even later, when he was screaming for some other thing, and he could have the sweet or the squash, he decided he wanted his squash.

I'd love to be able to write a long, wistful post about how many vegetables my kids eat a day, but I really can't. Usually, getting Andy to eat dinner at home is a battle. The only place he consistently eats is Grandma's, where he will eat from the time I leave him to go teach, until the time I pick him up. Granted, I usually leave him with a supply of ham, strawberries or grapes, and Cheetos. Not vegetables. But there you are. Joey likes vegetables OK, but the on;y one he really goes out of his way for is broccoli. I tried to send it in his lunch, but apparently raw broccoli is a different vegetable from hot, steamed broccoli.

But you still have to love kids who go into a grocery store and beg for mom to buy them vegetables. It certainly gets smiles out of even the most stolid and sour-looking shoppers.

BEcause I am an Art Historian, After All.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Wordless Wednesday: Dinosaurs Are Awesome!

Is it Wednesday again already? Wow.

Upcoming Campaigns

The plan is to start some new campaigns around here. Joey is six years old; he'll be seven in April. There are lots of things around the house he ought to be doing, and needs to start learning how to do. I am calling these the "independence campaigns" because they will include skills I believe Joey will need to be independent; things like cooking for himself and caring for his own things. However, I have no idea what seven-year-olds really can do. I am basing these skills on things I was doing at about seven, and remember doing myself at that age. Let me know if any of this sounds unreasonable.

The biggest campaign will be the cooking campaign. I thought I would start easy and rewarding: peanut butter sandwiches. However, we're going to knock it up a notch as well. At the book fair, Joey fell in love with a Sesame Street snack cookbook. I bought it because he was so enamoured with it- mostly with the fact Elmo was on the cover. He's been very into Elmo because of his classmates is very into Elmo, so they've been doing a lot of Sesame Street stuff at school, as well as Andy's new interest in Sesame Street at home. He gets it double-barreled. Then I actually got home and read the book- and it is really awesome. The recipes are simple, and most of them have several child-friendly steps. They are simple enough to include JOey in the prep as well as the actual cooking. Also, the recipes are relatively healthy, and emphasize healthy ingredients. So not only are we going to work on things like preparing his lunches himself, but also more general cooking- following instructions, following steps, and coming out with a yummy reward!

The bed-making campaign will also be starting. Changing Joey's daily routine in this way is going to be a huge deal. however, keeping things in order is going to be an important skill for Joey- especially if he has inherited some of my very poor cleaning and organizing skills. I'm going to have to wade through the sea of toys and cull the things he isn't interested in as well- make sure his things all have a place- so he can put his things there himself. Yep... a clean your room campaign!

Next, dressing. We know he puts on his own shoes at school, so we need to start having him do it at home. With new shoes, we have a ready-made excuse for the new change: you have new big-boy shoes, you need to put them on yourself. We kept the velcro. One thing at a time. However, we also are going to start looking at the buttons and zippers issue. Though he can get through life in pull-up pants, it will be easier if he can do snaps and buttons on jeans. I'm going to alert school on this one. The OT there swore he could do buttons two years ago, but we have yet to see any evidence of it. Its good for his fine motor skills!

And finally: sleeping in his own bed all night. I'll miss waking up with a little guy every morning, but the many nights in the recliner are not good on my back. He needs to be comfy in his own space!

Hmm, writing it down, it suddenly looks like a lot. We'll see how it goes.

Wordless Wednesday: More Snowday Delights

Happy Spring, Happy IEP Season

Yes, the IEP season is fast closing in on us, and I find myself opening small word files and pulling out spiral notebooks, filling them with lists of things that might need focus in next year's program. I scatter these listing tools throughout the house. This is not just for IEP lists- I have spiral notebooks full of all sorts of lists of things I wanted to remember and needed to do. Then I promptly misplace the notebook. Anyway, I have these tools scattered through the house so that when I notice something needing attention, I can write it down, and try to remember to mention it to Mrs. H so it can be considered for IEP-worthiness.

This is not as easy as it sounds. After all, to me, Joey is Joey. I have no reference to "average" 6-year-olds running around my house for comparison. I have no idea what "average" 6-year-olds do, how they speak, what they like. I am still shocked to hear of first and second graders talking about House (and I'm a Hugh Laurie fan) or even High School Musical; my kids are still on Magic School Bus and Oswald, with a new smattering of Sesame Street. Joey likes Wow Wow Wubsy and Go Diego Go, but he has never watched the shows, he just likes the arcade-style games through the website. Superheroes? Joey doesn't know any. Star Wars? Why do 6-year-olds know about Star Wars??? I thought that was for the 8-to-12 crowd???

Thinking about him in terms of deficits is just not something we do. It takes something very obvious to catch our attention. For example, I have quite a few notes about his speech patterns, especially now that we've had an uptick in original, unscripted speech. Constructing original speech is very difficult for our little Mrs. Who, so all the mistakes in language, which you might expect from someone just learning to speak a language, are coming out in force. I can break them down and write them up into lovely IEP goals to make forming speech easier and more natural-sounding.

Field Day is a good day to come out and observe Joey. I learned this last year, when I felt the shock of seeing Joey in a room full of "average" kindergardeners, and how very different Joey really was. I was invited again to chaperone this year, so i was looking forward to getting an eyeful, and prepared myself for the eyeful. Realizing how hard it is for Joey to function and how much he really does struggle with things other kids find easy- everyday things like running and following a game- is really very hard. But this year, I was ready, I knew this was a tool for me to think about focusing effort and what skills needed more attention.

Then it snowed.

So now I am left to think of other options, other ways of getting the information I need to think about Joey and what he needs. Do I try to visit school while he is in one of his inclusion classrooms? Do I make more notes about issues we see at the park and other public venues? Where else can I get a good look at Joey in "average" contexts? What will these observations tell me? And will I remember where I wrote them down?

Snow!

Forget that namby-pamby dusting we've been getting the last few years. This, folks, is snow.







I remember as a kid getting two or three of these a year. Once we were even snowed in at my mom's house for a couple of weeks. Wild. So I'm here with two happy, if cold and snowy, boys.

Grumps

I'm supposed to be doing a mountain of grading, but I'm grumpy, and it is never fair to grade when grumpy. The fact that a barrage of student idiocy and rudeness is the cause of the grumpiness is beside the point. I just can't do it. It's not fair.

Besides, I've already grumped at my children, grumped at my husband, and grumped at the falling snow. I spent an inordinate amount of time in the grocery store today. When I left the house at 7 am, the forecast said something vaguely about two inches of snow on green areas. By the time I reached my mom's house, following a swimming adventure with Frick and Frack in which Frick was all about swimming and Frack just wanted to scream instead of dipping his face in the water (sometimes I wonder which one is the "special needs" one... perhaps that is something for another post), around 9:30 am, we were expecting 6-10 inches. Its never good when it snows in Atlanta. Only I didn't know we were now expecting a blizzard. I just didn't think twice when my mom asked me to run out and grab groceries for her, because she's been sick and even two inches of snow can be a problem on her dirt road. When I got home after meeting JoeyAndyDad at Chuck E. Cheese (where the boys had a marvelous time, despite the crowd because we got there later than planned) and discovered the new predictions, back to the grocery I went. There is a huge difference between "might have to entertain the boys with snow for a few hours" and "may be stuck in house with boys for two days". (Since we live in the city, I doubt we'll be stuck here longer than that, even if it doesn't immediately warm up.)

Whenever the "s-word" hits the forecasts, people around here go nuts. I went a little nuts myself, buying things like chips and crackers I wouldn't normally buy, and more drinks than usual, but I felt I was kinda prepping for a snow party. The people around me seemed to be stocking up for a major blizzard, as if they expected to be snowed in for the week. Actually, more like for the month. A week's worth of groceries on a Sunday wouldn't be that unusual, except for the huge number of people buying them; but these folks were going crazy. It also was putting off my nice, comfy schedule. This should have been a wonderfully relaxing day: a morning swim, a visit to Grandma's, a fun early lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, then home for an afternoon of cleaning the basement and enthusiastic boy-squishing, followed by a bit of grading after bedtime. Instead, I spent a lot of time crunched with crazed idiots who thought the world was ending, or would if they didn't have a month's supply of toilet paper right now.

I could do a whole blog just on adventures I have in grocery stores.

And instead of getting to read lovely stories about snow to my beautiful boys, I spent an hour trying to solve problems for students who, it turned out, weren't interested in solutions. That makes me really, really grumpy, especially when those students sent me emails of desperation complete with TMI excuses for why their work wasn't getting done, in cranky tones- as if it was my fault they hadn't bothered to do anything earlier in the week when solutions could have been easier to implement. And I still have three weeks' of discussions and two sets of exams staring at me. If I stuck an A on each and every one of them and tossed them back, not one of those students would care. In fact, they'd probably be happy. Who needs to learn stuff, anyway? How depressing is that?

Outside, the snow keeps falling, which means tomorrow's Field Day will likely be cancelled. In fact, I'm likely to have a snow day with my little guys, so I made sure I had hot chocolate with marshmallows on hand. If I don't get to grading soon, my grumpy butt will be stuck grading exams instead of playing in the snow. And that would just suck.

Rest Well, Paul Harvey

A voice from my childhood was silenced today.

I remember riding in the back seat as my folks took a drive, bouncing down 522 through Woodville and Scrabble, listening to Paul Harvey. It was a voice from a golden age, lost to modern walkman-toting teens like me. He read the advertisements the same way he read the news, as if he were encouraging a friend to buy this wonderful thing. he used small details of lives to illuminate what it really meant to be an American, to value freedom and practice respect. He made you think about larger issues in human scale, and understand why integrity and self-respect were important, the larger effects of small acts of honesty, kindness, and compassion. He opened up the possibilities by showing how everyday people became extraordinary. It was more than just cold facts in a news article; there was a very human side, a lot of shades of gray, even in the most black-and-white moments. What choices would you make? Where would those small choices lead in the larger world?

You could count to a surprise ending, a twist in the tale that showed how this yarn, itself a masterpiece of values in hard work, caring for others, and doing the right thing for its own sake, was actually about a larger personality, a small moment in a life that was changing the world. Small moments became momentous. He revealed the deeper fiber of a person in a single episode from everyday living.

I wish I knew more about Paul Harvey, who revealed so much about others, and showed us exactly why they- and we- were great. I wish I had the rest of the story.

Good day.

Afternoon Art

"Fish out of water"


"Stegosaurus"


"Ankylosaurus"


And the most fearsome of them all... "Turkey".

Instant jacket removal

The boys both got new coats for the winter. I got Joey a beautiful blue one with matching snow boots because his old coat was getting small and the lining had disappeared (and rather unusually, has yet to turn up). Andy's new coat appeared after Christmas, because his old coat, which had been Joey's old coat and going strong for 4 years and through two boys, finally gave up the ghost (washing it had no effect on the filthy look, all the velcro had been pulled off, and Andy's wrists stuck out of the sleeves). Grandma found him a lovely red one, one of those fluffy down ones. Very warm, and it would crush better to make getting him in his car seat easier.

All was well until Andy decided he didn't like coats. Specifically, he realized it was easier to get into his car seat without one, and when you aren't wearing a coat in a car seat, your back doesn't get sweaty. Also, I think the weight difference was a factor- his old coat, being one of those lovely 4-in-one coat systems (I'm not being facetious. I love those 3-in-one and 4-in-ones: buy one coat, wear it the whole year round, just wear the parts you need! Totally, totally, awesome) had some weight and thickness to it that his new coat lacks. He's happy to wear it as an actual buffer against cold, but he's figured out that the car, once warmed, is, well, warm.

And now that's been generalized. The minute he hops into the car, he's stripping off his jacket. The temperature makes no difference; even if it is freezing, he knows that in about ten minutes, the car will be warm. The fact that he'll catch his death in those ten minutes without a coat is of no interest to him in the slightest. This from the child who, up until three short months ago, insisted on having any jacket with a hood worn with the hood upon his head. Even indoors.

It also makes no difference which jacket he is now wearing. It was warmer than usual the past two days, so I pulled out the sweatshirts. I thought the weight might also encourage him to keep it on. No dice. Open door, hop in, remove jacket. It's a ritual now, ingrained into his the pathways and set on automatic. Open, hop, remove.

The teachers at his school, who have to put him in my car and strap him into his seat, find this very odd. They are busy trying to get him wrestled into the seat quickly, and he's trying to remove his jacket, which he wore for all of a half-dozen steps between the door and my car. She actually chuckled this morning, "Poor guy. If they come with a jacket, we have them wear them home; even if its just for ten seconds!" I was glad for the implication that my child isn't the only one to hit the car and strip.

On the Playground

We had an interesting encounter at the playground today. A boy ran up to Joey saying "I know you!" Joey was very happy to see him, though it took Joey a minute to acknowledge him. Then Joey realized there was also another child from school whom he knew. Joey tried very hard to play with these boys. However, they were playing some kind of make-believe involving swords (maybe Star Wars?) and at some point in the play, probably because Joey couldn't follow what they were doing, they started running away from Joey whenever he approached them (had they decided to make him the villain, perhaps?) Joey became very upset that these boys kept running from him. Finally, as I was trying to intervene and get Joey to calm down, he said, "I don't like them running away from me. It hurts my feelings. I am going to go tell him."

And that is exactly what he did: "Don't run away from me. It makes me feel sad!"

I was so proud of him.

Unfortunately, the boy responded, "You can't tell me what to do!" and ran away. The two boys also kept inviting Joey to play when he gave up and tried to do other things, then running away from him, which I thought was a little odd when he had so clearly told them he didn't like that. I don't know if they meant to be upsetting to him, but I finally packed the boys up and took them home.

What the Fly Hears In Andy's Room at Night

Once upon a time, there was a T-Rex, stomping through the woods, stomp stomp stomp stomp. He saw some bubbles in the trees, and followed them because they were so pretty. He found his good friends, Blue Lizard, Red Lizard, and Green Lizard. They were blowing bubbles and having a great time. They asked T-Rex if he wanted to blow bubbles.
"Yes, thank you!" said T-Rex, and the Lizards gave him a bubble wand and he blew bubbles. Then he found a treasure chest, right there in the middle of the woods. It probably belonged to some pirates. He opened the chest, and it was full of pirate swords.
"These probably belong to a pirate," T-Rex said. A pirate ship sailed up full of pirates. Well, there was one pirate. And T-Rex gave him the treasure chest full of pirate swords.
"Thank you!" said the pirate.
"You are welcome!" said T-Rex. They gave each other a sweet kiss, and the pirate sailed away with his treasure chest in his pirate ship.
Then T-Rex saw a dragon, flying across the sky. It was a baby dragon, and it was orange. He flew down to the ground.
"I want my mommy!" said the dragon. T-Rex helped him find his mommy. They looked all around. They went to Fox's house, but the Dragon's mommy was not there. And they went to Mouse's house, but the dragon's mommy wasn't there. And they went to spider's house, and dragon's mommy wasn't there, either. then T-Rex looked and he saw lots of dragons, and there was dragons mommy. Then were dolphins and gulls all around. And there was a mommy dolphin, and two baby dolphins, and they were dancing.
"Let's play!" said mommy dolphin. "Let's dance!" So the bay dolphins danced with their mommy. She gave them lots of kisses. They gave her lots of kisses. Then one of the dolphins hid.
"Where is the other one? " said the baby dolphin.
"I don't know," said mommy dolphin. then the other dolphin leaped out and shouted "surprise!" and surprised the mommy dolphin. And they all got kisses.
"Good night, my babies," said mommy dolphin, and she gave them kisses.
"Night night!" said the baby dolphins. "This is my bed!" said one baby dolphin. "No, it's my bed!" said the other baby dolphin. So mommy dolphin had to give them both more kisses and tuck them into bed, where they fell asleep.

The end.

Communicate The Way You Know How

We've been having some trouble with Joey. This isn't a huge surprise- spring is here, the weather is all over the place, the light is changing, the world takes a shift for Joey- his sensory needs tend to shift about now, he tends to be trying to process things more and have a harder time with processing about now. The frustration level goes up. Behavior- like any child- also goes a little haywire.

OUr latest campaign is teaching Joey to use words to tell us how he is feeling. The idea is to teach him instead of showing us his feelings by screaming, hitting, slamming doors repeatedly, tracking, and other behavioral ways, he should use words to communicate his feelings. We've been encouraging him to understand different relationships and the roles of people in his life, and how his words can be used to communicate his needs to these people. We've let him know we want to know how he feels, and he can always use his words to tell us how he feels. Instead of fidgeting with things on the teacher's desk, he should say, "I am uncomfortable. I am frustrated. I need a break."

Sounds good, doesn't it? Except you never know what a child hears. How is Joey interpreting what we are telling him, trying to teach him?

Joey got sent to Ms. T this week. The reason? An accumulation of behaviors that was becoming increasingly disruptive. Use of rude words (such as his favorite, "wiener"), putting marks on other children's charts towards "timeout", giving teachers checks, saying other children are responsible for his behaviors, and other inappropriate outbursts. This is very worrisome, as we are trying to keep him in inclusion settings, and these kinds of loud, inappropriate behaviors can get him sent back to self-contained environments. Fortunately, our school personnel- especially Joey's teachers- have been very understanding and willing to try to help him. However, a trip to Ms. T is a bit of a trauma. Joey gets upset when his classmates get sent to Ms. T, so to find himself in her office... well, he's a bit upset. Besides, Ms. T tends to raise her voice, so we've gotten a lot of shouting this weekend (and lots of "Ms. T is loud!")

How to help him? What is going on? What has happened to get Joey so out-of-sorts? Where is my Deerstalker and pipe?

My mom had an absolute brainstorm of brilliance. She's good like that. What if he has taken what we are teaching him- use words to express feelings- absolutely to heart? Instead of lashing out, he is saying words that, to him, express his feelings? After all, that is how Joey uses language- he attaches feelings and meanings to words and phrases, and uses them to convey those feelings and meanings, even when the words have nothing to do with the moment. What if he is using this tool of words to "give himself a break"- to get out of an uncomfortable situation?

We keep urging him to communicate, and to use words to communicate. Perhaps he has generalized that lesson in his own way?

Strategy

"iapeng-in!" Andy waddles, then flaps his arms and runs. I suppose he is a penguin underwater, instead of on land.
"I am yellow! I am Bus 30! If I hit you, you will break!" Joey vrooms, turns the plastic ring he calls a steering wheel and zooms through the first floor after the penguin.

What Joey means is he is going to play chase. This is a favorite boy game,especially during the Witching Hour. Unfortunately, it can go horribly wrong during the Witching Hour, as they get tired and annoyed with each other, with their communication hurdles, and with the determination and differing wills of each other. For example, one wants to play penguin and the other wants to play bus. That is going to annoy each other, as opposed to two boys playing penguins, or two boys playing buses.

But I worry about what those words could mean if he uttered them in school, with no interpreter handy. How would his very real fear of being hit by a car be handled? Would it be interpreted as a threat?

Both boys end up crashing into the couch. Someone stubs a toe. Someone else gets annoyed about the two different games. I hug my boys, and they are off again, a bus in one direction, a penguin in another. They run into each other. It's an accident, but the results are explosive. I have to close my computer completely and get the boys engaged. We jump on the trampoline. We play a round of Feed the Kitty (a great game!) Joey gets onto his computer to play some games. Andy wants to watch some Sesame Street. The dust settles. Andy works on some of his art, darted between the kitchen art table and the living room where Sesame Street plays, constant motion.

Distract and engage. Diffuse the frustration, redirect attention, provide opportunities for success. It may not always work, but it is always worth trying.

Yummy Lunch

Joey had off school today for President's Day- and Andy didn't. So I got to hug and squish my Joey all to myself for a few extra hours! We didn't do anything super-special; it was pretty cold, and lots of stuff was closed for the holiday. We went out to cheer up Grandma, and played some video games, and took a ride. We took Grandma to a store where she bought chocolate and flashlights for the boys. She wore out pretty quick, so we dropped her off after we picked Andy up, and I took the boys to lunch.

Taking two small boys to lunch by yourself can be a challenge, especially if the restaurant of choice is a salad bar place. Fortunately, we are well-known at the place, so they were happy to seat us next to the bar and in the window, so everybody could get food without leaving small boys unattended.

And we proceeded to have the Perfect Lunch. Joey got his mac and cheese and green beans and sat down. Andy got his lettuce, dip, pickles, cheese, bacon, and butter, and sat down. I got my salad together, and we had a lovely lunch. Our lunches came, and the boys buckled right into their chicken strips. Food was actually consumed. We talked about Andy making a hat at school. We talked about it being President's Day. We talked about George Washington, and that he was born at the farm we frequent, and spent his youth across the river from our house. We talked about President Lincoln being the 16th president and being born in a log cabin (something Joey needs to know for SOL tests). We played tic-tac-toe on our placemats. We got ice cream for dessert, with sprinkles. The boys spent the time eating it practicing signs and Spanish (well, Andy practiced his Spanish).

They were so lovely and charming, the elderly couple sitting next to us actually came over and told us so.

How's that for a yummy lunch?

Happy Valentine's Day!

With love from us to you!

Midnight Meandering

Ah, the boys are asleep, I have finally finished my online class discussion boards (over 200 messages to answer! Yikes!), and here I am. Not asleep. I am an idiot.

I have checked the locks on all the doors. I've been doing that with more diligence, now that Joey comes down and plays on his computer in the middle of the night, or early in the morning, or times when we're asleep. Just what we would need is for him to get a wild hare and decide to go out and play. What will we do when he gets older and can work the locks? Mom has suggested I go talk to the police department about him now, before there is trouble, in case trouble begins. On my "to do" list for the week. There only needs to be a problem once for it to be a serious problem. Perhaps I ought to look into GPS, in case his wandering gets more serious. He knows where he is going when he runs, but we don't. Finding him in the middle of the street again would be Not Good. Especially at four in the morning.

With spring comes another bumpy patch for all of us. Traditionally, Joey gets wild hares this time of year, as the winter fades out and spring comes on. Maybe it is a change of light and weather. Maybe he is tired from being in school. Maybe all the odd days off- teacher work days, holidays, snow days- add up to confusion for him. Maybe he just gets a little crazy before making a leap forward in development (a leap we usually have in late spring). Maybe he leaps forward because whatever is going on now resolves. I've been so proud of him, with his spelling bee, and his wonderful job at his dance concert. I wonder if these things are more of a challenge this time of year, or if these activities help get him through the rough time. He was so happy yesterday, flapping his butterfly wings in his Bolivian folk dance. He was even in time to the music when he clapped and stomped, a big deal for Joey (who is often half a beat behind in such things.) My baby is growing up.

Andy has a bumpy patch about now, too- allergies. Andy and I took Grandma to the doctor's today. Andy and I needed our ears checked because on top of the lingering cough, we now have headcolds. Well, actually allergies, according to the doctor. My poor mom has inflamed lungs from coughing so long. It would be lovely if we could all just take some nice long naps and get all better. That includes you, my friends. All of us. Let's have a big Group Nap. Or maybe a Nap-In. We could protest the lack of sleep due to fighting with schools and government agencies for services the law says it is our right to have for our loved ones or for ourselves. A big Nap-In. Then we can all wake up and have the big Bake Sale.

I think I may have wandered off-topic. Sorry.

Wordless Wednesday: Proud Boys

Current events

Wow, exciting life here. The weekend weather was so beautiful, we were having too much fun enjoying it to spend lots of time at the computer. The boys got to go to the park and play with lots of other kids, including some friends from school. they had such a good time that Andy was sad when we stopped a the park yesterday, and no one was there (they were all in school!) We have one more beautiful day coming before the cold returns. We're going to make the most of it.

The boys went to the dentist today. We've been not hurrying to take them, because we haven't had dental insurance, among other issues. It was definitely time, now that we have decent dental insurance. Good news- we've been brushing their teeth with those motorized toothbrushes- the only ones they will let us put in their mouths- and it has paid off. No cavities! I think they actually had a good time, but I'm not sure. I wasn't allowed to go with them. I did warn them about they guys when I made the appointments, so they were prepared. Also, I only use the dentist office I know to be the best in town- not just the great dentist, but great support and reception staff. If you're in this area, there is no other place to go.

The boys got balloon dogs as rewards. They of course promptly popped, causing some natural melty episodes. However, I think they left with a positive dentist experience.

Tomorrow I have our first pow-wow with Mrs. Huff about next year, and the issues with history and social studies this year. Mostly next year- making sure we are on the same page about what we want for Joey, the settings we are looking for, and talking about the teachers she has already interviewed. We want no real surprises at the IEP.

Thursday Joey has a school concert- a dance and music performance. I'll let you guys know how that goes. The camera better be working.

Full plates here. But I'll keep checking in when I have a breath.

Schedule changes

Joey finished Fast Forward today (Thursday), a day earlier than we anticipated. This means that he begins his new schedule begins today (Friday). Another change.

The good news is we start with 35 minutes less of Mrs. A tomorrow, instead of Monday. She just hasn't been a good fit for my child, and perhaps that is as far as I should now discuss the matter. 35 minutes less there means 35 minutes somewhere that will be a good fit. Specifically, he will get extra 1:1 time working on language arts, social skills, and subjects he needs extra support on, such as social studies. Time is a funny thing for Joey. He is fascinated by clocks, analog and digital, and by time and telling time, and has been for over a year. However, the idea of past and history completely elude him. And I don't mean in the normal, kid-has-trouble-imagining-life-different sort of way; I mean it completely eludes him. The abstract idea of "once upon a time" gives him a lot of trouble, trying to wrap his mind around it. Some more focus will probably help, it usually does. He is good at knowing where he is supposed to be when, but asking him what he did last week- issues.

Joey is usually very good with change, as long as he has a clear idea of what is expected when the change comes. Giving him some warning- even if it will just be this evening and tomorrow morning- will help a lot. Sudden change, not so good. However, we've now shifted his school schedule twice. Winter/early spring is a funny time for Joey, he tends to get ready to "spring" in development (read: we get a huge uptick in anxiety and ritualized behaviors and then mid-spring we see him move forward. All that processing!) This could be a bit of a hairy patch ahead. I think I will stock up on Joey's favorites: popcorn and diet orange Sunkist.

Wordless Wednesday: Fur babies

For our lovely, patient girls, Luna and Ellora, who are learning to accept Momma's kittens.


















And in memory of our Puma Girl.

Developing

Ah, things keep moving along here. As we start our preparations for next year, we begin our information gathering, organizing the data and analyzing all the clues for what we will need. Two boys. Two whole systems to meet their needs.

We are starting the process of determining appropriate placements for Joey for second grade. Mrs. Huff will be interviewing teachers, looking at rooms, considering options. All the special ed kids are required to complete a program called "Fast Forward." It usually takes a few years to do. Joey will be done this week. this will give us another 35 minutes a day to work on his goals, his social skills, and subjects he is lagging in (especially history).

In the meantime, I have started the ball rolling for Andy. I have contacted the school to start Child Find again, alerted our OT, and have a parent who is going to let me peek at her son's 504 for sensory dysfunction. I hope to get an idea of what kinds of things can be included in a 504.

So, moving right along. I'll keep you posted.

An afternoon walk with the poop

We took the boys out to Wakefield for a stroll in the pretty weather, as it promises to become icky later this week. The sunshine was abundant, the eagle was winging about the river, the sheep were out, and it promised to be a glorious walk.

At ages 6 and 4, boys have a strange fascination with bodily functions. I don't remember girls being that interested in poop. However, my guys- and many boys I have met- are mesmerized. On a working farm, there is no shortage of poop about. Sheep poop. Horse poop. Cow poop. We even saw a little pig poop. And apparently, "poop" is a fun word to say when you are 6 and 4. Poop, poop, poop. The sheep were upstaged by their own poop.

So we rambled along, and came upon the beautiful magnolia tree, the pods scattered over the craggy roots, where the boys like to climb and play. JoeyAndyDad and I stopped upon Joey's command and watched them scramble happily over the tree.

And then JoeyAndyDad said, "Look! Tree poop!"

Yes, it was an instant hit. Tree pods and nuts are now tree poop. That's one way to make a nature walk a success.

We stopped into the colonial kitchen to look around. Joey has been having trouble grasping the concept of past and history, and that people did things differently and lived differently. So we popped our heads in and I asked them what they saw that was different from our kitchen at home. Andy noticed butter churns. I pointed out that there was no stove or oven, just a fireplace. JoeyAndyDad noted that there was no refrigerator. Joey noticed there was no mac and cheese.

Then we went back to exploring, and Joey slipped and fell. He's been doing that a lot more, as we have been missing OT sessions (Get better, Ms. Janene! We miss you!). He was very upset, because it was a muddy spot, and he got a lot of cold mud on his pants.

"Oh no!" he wailed all the way to the blacksmith's shop. "A cow pooped me! A cow pooped my pants!"

We managed to distract him by having him sit down for a little and catch his breath, then promising a peek at the pigs. Joy of joys, we wandered out (avoiding the poop) to see the pigs. Fortunately, there was one out in the pig yard to see (sometimes there isn't, especially in winter.) Then we wandered back to the trees (avoiding the poop, but pointing out every lovely pile) and took a rest on a bench. Andy found a walnut (more tree poop), and discovered some mole tunnels. When I told him what they were, he was delighted. He likes moles.

And so we wandered back to the car. We saw ducks diving on the river. We saw vultures playing in the air currents overhead. And we rolled the tree poop down the hill and giggled. A good time had by all.

Planning the Future

For those of you who don't know, I am already starting to think about and plan for school next year. Yes, now. Actually, I'm a little late getting my butt moving.

The season is now officially open, as the subject was actually broached by Joey's teacher, Mrs. Huff. She is starting to look at second grade teachers and settings so that Joey can continue being in the "regular" classrooms for his reading, math, science, and social studies, and possibly move into "regular" setting for writing, too. She was apologetic about wanting to keep him for a couple of hour for language and social skills... I wasn't sorry. I know she's going to have a boatload of new kids next year- as many as eight, plus the four she has now- but perhaps having some group social skills would be a good thing. The bad thing about this possible scenario is I may have to put together a case for him to keep Macy, since she would be needed back in the autism room if there is going to be eight new kids there. There's just no money to hire extra aides.

In broaching the subject about Joey, and how we looked forward to keeping him "mainstreamed" (he loves having so many friends!), we also mentioned Andy. To be frank, Andy isn't going to need "special education." We've worked hard to make it that way. However, his enunciation is still not right. He has sensory issues. He is going to need some eyes on him that know what they are seeing. Otherwise he's going to be labeled a discipline problem, just as he was at our first preschool.

It isn't easy thinking about 504 plans on top of IEPs, but I will definitely keep you posted about the process. I think I may poke around and make sure I'm talking to the right folks first. But this weekend, I'm looking to exactly what a 504 plan is and how is works, and what it would mean for us. It is my understanding that 504s are more difficult to enforce (there's no force of law as there us with IDEA), so do wish us luck.

F-o-t means "I'm tired!"

Ah, the spelling bee. Thirty-six kids. Each spell a word. Then we start again. How long does it take 36 kids to spell one word?

Through this lovely adventure, all the children not spelling a word are expected to sit in a chair and be silent. This is not Joey's strong suit. Come to think of it, it isn't Andy's, either.

All things considered, Joey did spectacularly well. When you think that this time last year, there was no way he could have sat in a chair for fifteen minutes, then gotten up, gone to a microphone, listened to someone ask him to spell a word, and then spell it, it was downright miraculous. Add on top the fact that they do a practice round before beginning the real bee, and you wonder how on earth he did what he did, even with divine providence on his side.



He lasted five rounds, plus the practice round, and threw in the towel on the sixth round (so he got six words right.) On that seventh word, it was pretty clear he was done. Fidgeting was way up, he was getting out of his seat to spin, he was being grumpy with people helping him, he was tired and ready to go. So when asked to spell "vote", he got up and spelled "F-O-T." He turned and waited for the bell (indicating a misspelled word), then turned to his aide (who was allowed to be with him on stage), and according to her, whispered, "Vote. V-O-T-E. Vote! I wasn't paying attention!" Now, this last has become a formula for "I am messing up on purpose!" She was upset that he threw the word on purpose, but you know what? We've been trying to teach the child to self-regulate all year. I'm not going to complain when he actually does it.

I learned some about spelling bees, and have some ideas for next year (such as, they let other contestants get up to use the bathroom, why can't Joey get up to have a walk-break?), and I think Joey did have fun with it. All in all, I am just busting proud of him. He did a great job!

Alex Barton Update 8

Alex Barton update: Wendy Portillo files an appeal.

Polar Bears

Joey had a project to do for his science class this week: he had to do a project about animals. The project had to mention what covered the animal (fur, feathers, hair, etc.), whether it lived on land or in the water, and what appendages it had (arms, legs, tails, claws, etc.)

Joey decided to do his project on polar bears. I suspect this may be related to the fact that the same class has been collecting change to adopt an arctic animal, and polar bears were one of the choices (I think I'm also sending in change for a walrus.) I tried to get him to google polar bears, but that met with limited success. So we went down to the library and got a real book. We took about four days to read the book, because the easy first-grade-level book was checked out, so we went for the third-grade book (and hey, since he can read that level, why not?) So he read, and we talked about it, and talked about it, and I worked on getting him to learn something new from his reading.

Next, he needed to decide what the project would be. At first he wanted to do a poster, so I had him look at a bunch of pictures of polar bears, pick some, and we went to Walmart and printed them out together. But on the way home, he got a bright idea- he wanted to write a story. So no problem, we made a book.

Each page I had him glue a photo, then write a sentence about polar bears. He was so proud of himself, he read it to me at bedtime. Then he read it to Andy. Then it read it to me again.

And now, for your reading pleasure, I present to you, Polar Bears, by Joey Guyton!


Polar Bears
By: Joey Guyton!

Polar bears live in the Arctic.

polar bears live on the land and in water.

Polar Bears eat seals of meat.

Polar Bears Have paws! (and claws.)

Polar bears' fur is clear.

Polar bears have black skin to keep them warm!

polar bears have cubs!