Home

Angels We Have Heard
Are High

angelic kitsch...from Hell

Cavalcade of Bad Nativities
it came upon a midnight weird

The Passion of the Tchotchke
holy week kitsch-o-rama

Stations of the Kitsch


 


I am not responsible for the content of the above ads, which are often hilariously mis-matched.

 

 
Monday, August 31, 2009

your heart is a glorious MIGHTY MACHINE

There is so much going on inside Isaac's little blond head. A few recent highlights:

He loves to clap and say YAY! given even the slightest excuse. Dennis was watching some of the press coverage of Sen. Kennedy's death last week, and they showed a clip of one of his speeches, and when the audience burst into applause, so did Isaac.

Also, the number after 10 is YAY. I suspect this is because he has a very cute embroidered counting picture above his changing table, and after almost every diaper, we stop to count 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 and then clap and say YAY! Sometimes he climbs up there himself (grrrrr...) and counts and claps. He knows what order the numbers go in, and can identify them. We've been playing with his number train floor puzzle which goes to 20, and trying to introduce the next set of numbers after YAY. YAYleven, YAYelve...

He has been trying out other words (bubble, pop, doggie) but none of them have stuck the way YAY has.



He played with a friend this weekend! Nathan (3.5) came over and they did their usual "I am playing with these trucks, you are playing with those trucks don't touch my truck!" parallel play, which is pretty age-appropriate, but then they started playing a chasing game around the house and were interacting with each other! Nathan would chase Isaac out of his room into the living room, and then Isaac would push Nathan back toward his room (which is Isaac for, "I'd like you to go over there now, please,") and chase him in there. They were giggling and out of breath and kept it up for a very long time. It was freaking awesome.

He only has about six weeks left of his current program, because once he turns three he's officially the school district's problem and will need to transition to their program. He has a bunch of evaluations scheduled and we have meetings coming up and I'm mostly trying not to be a giant ball of anxiety about it, and I'm researching private programs even though I can't imagine how we'd pay for it. It's a constant ball in the pit of my stomach. I'm not good at uncertainty. Dunno if you've noticed that about me.

My parents are on their way out here right now, and I'm taking next week off from work to hang out with them and maybe try to relax a bit. What I really need is some creative time. I've been knitting, but I really need to do an insane project for the house or dust off the sewing machine or something, because I'm feeling - what's the word they use for Isaac when he's off-kilter? Unregulated. I am unregulated, and the best cure for that usually involves fabric or paint or glitter or all three.

Random link of awesomeness: Leigh's most recent cake. She's already working on plans for Isaac's third birthday cake. Stay tuned.

link | Comments []

[back to top]


Tuesday, August 11, 2009

funny paws

We have the beggingest cats who ever begged. To review, our feline companions are Bea, who showed up at our door at about the time we brought Isaac home from the hospital and announced that we needed a little black kitten with a fluffy tail; and Gracie, she of the deformed feet and soft soft blonde fur. They look at us accusingly and perform their Yowlathon for Empty Bowl Syndrome (we can stamp out EBS in our time! Yes, technically that is food in our bowls, but we would like an upgrade.), and we fill in their ultimate selling points - "I was homeless!" "I have funny paws!"

I feel like right now "My kid has autism!" is my "I have funny paws!" Not that I'm using it as an excuse, except maybe for why I've put about 20 of the 45 pounds I lost last year back on. I'm doing a study on Pie Therapy for the treatment of OFMKHA (Oh Fuck My Kid Has Autism) Syndrome. Early results are promising, including a serious benefit for suppliers of Fat Jeans. No, it's more just this basic weird new fact of my life that I find myself constantly trying to get my head around.

That's all coming off a lot more self-centered than I mean it to; I know this isn't about me and my pie-lust, but I'm starting to try to process what this means for me and for Dennis as well as for Isaac. Hopefully, this is healthy. I haven't really crashed the way I did after Isaac was born; I've cried a bunch at totally random times, but overall we're handling this, at least for the moment.

link | Comments []

[back to top]


Thursday, August 06, 2009

small breakthroughs

Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone. They are much appreciated.

One nice side-effect of having in-home therapy is that my house looks reasonably good at least two days a week. I did a massive anxiety-clean before the first visit, since they were videotaping us (eep!) and I didn't want anyone viewing the tape to be distracted by the dust-buffalo (they're way beyond bunnies at this point) stampeding under the train table. Since then, I've been doing a compulsive straightening on therapy days.

Over the weekend, Isaac started playing a "put mama and daddy to bed" game - this isn't too surprising given that we've had some (ahem) struggles around bedtime lately, probably related to the giant upheaval in his daily schedule now that he's in school every day and having additional therapy most days.

Anyway, he herded us into his room and pushed us on his bed (currently a twin mattress on the floor, after a total refusal to accept the adorable toddler bed) and then closed the door. Since we were playing the Isaac role, we wouldn't stay in bed, cried at the door, wandered out, etc. He was giggling with delight as he rounded us up and sent us back to bed, and said "night-night!" as he pushed Dennis' head back on the pillow. That's the first night-night we've ever gotten, and he was also saying "Daddy!" so if we want to use a very loose definition, he was using a two-word combo. Yeah, it might not hold up in court, but we thought it was very exciting. It was also the first time we've seen him role-play like that; he seems to be inching toward symbolic thought lately.

Last night, I put on a Mighty Machines video for him while I got his room ready to start the bedtime routine, and when I said it was time to get ready for bed, he gave me a crafty smile and did a perfect three-point gaze (tv, me, back to tv) and got pretty close to the sign for "more" - the little monkey was asking for more video! Of course I praised him all over the place and let him watch one of the short episodes. Hey, if watching stock footage of Canadian dumptrucks motivates him to communicate, I'm not going to argue.

link | Comments []

[back to top]



archives
current
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003