aelfie | Entries tagged with gray

First up, we have shopping for clothes at Costco. The girls saw these coats and wanted one. Gray decided to get into the act and demanded the pink one. That's my boy!

Three weeks ago, our "female" mice had babies. Here's all the remaining five in my hand. The all gray one is Ash. Gray and white is fog, The black and white directly underneath is Oreo, the other black and white is Star and the dark one is Thirsty. We took them to the Vet where she squeed like a little girl "OMG!!! They are so CUTE!!!! I've never seen mice so small!!!" She gave us the unfortunate that all but Ash are definitely boys and she's not sure about Ash either. I have about 5 days before they start killing each other because male mice are territorial. If I can't find homes soon, I have to decide if I'm going to euthanize them and give them away as snake food. Or hope for the best. Personally, I think a trip to the freezer is kinder. (Which is actually what happened to the OTHER half of the litter. Shhh...don't tell the kids.)

Elli got her first pair of glasses. I and most everyone else think she looks adorable. She thinks she looks ugly. But honestly? She's adorable. Suck it up kid.

And finally, some signs that it's getting cold. One morning after I made the bed, I went back into my room later and found Magic all cuddled under the covers with her head resting on my pillow. Awwwwww.

Joe took the non-sick children on a bike ride today. After about an hour, I got a phone call. "Come get us." I drive over to where they are riding and this is what I see. My baby sitting in the middle of the road, bawling, covered in blood, tears, and road. He was going down "the big hill" and lost control of his bike and got smashed up. A quick visit to the ER (less than an hour!) got him x-rayed and examined. (He was holding his wrist funny, so I thought he might have broken it or his thumb). He's good. Covered in road rash. Not the first, and won't be the last. My little dare devil. (And yes, he was wearing a helmet, so no head injury other than road rash. Good thing too.)

I thought about it and realized that I needed to post pictures here with my phone and then come back and annotate them. Easiest way I know to do this. They are not in any proper order, I'm just posting them.

We spent a night in Jackson, WY on our way from Salt Lake City and Yellowstone. The night before was the super rough one with Gray up in the night puking his guts up. Earlier he had enough energy to go down the Alpine Slide, but after that he didn't want to get out of the car. This was taken on our way to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. We were driving to get to the highway and stopped when I saw this. That arch is made from shed elk antlers. What you can't see is that there's one on each corner of this park. Ut.

We took a ride down an Alpine Slide. It's something a ski resort carves into the hill side so that there's some way for them to make money during the winter. Runs right under the chair lift on the left. In the Winter it's completely covered in snow and you'd never know it was there. This is the first time I ever rode a chair lift. Fun! Gray wasn't feeling well but well enough for a ride.

Gray rode down the slide with me. So I only managed to snap a picture of Gwen as she went last.

You can tell they are so enthused to be at the Grand Tetons. I thought it was beautiful. They were "NO MOM! We don't want to have our picture taken!!" "Too bad, get out of the car"

I saw this as I was pulling out of that parking lot and thought it was hysterical.

On our way out of West Yellowstone, we found there is a Wolf and Grizzly refuge. This picture is not zoomed, the wolf came that close to the window. Beautiful!

A HUGE mushroom on a tree I spotted as we were leaving a rest stop somewhere in Montana.

The really, really, really cool Dragon on A Merry go round for Missoula.

As we left Missoula for Kalispell my van flipped 100000 miles. Woot

I left home last Sunday with a fully packed van and four kids. And a dog. The dog got left with mom.

The ride to Reno was uneventful. We checked into Circus Circus with no problems. We were disappointed to find the buffet closed, so we ate at their in-house diner. The kids had hamburgers.

We got up early and started the drive to Salt Lake. I was warned by several people that there's not much to see between the two. I found them wrong. Gently rolling hills, little valleys, rivers, trains, livestock and gorgeous colors of vegetation! I was really impressed by the abrupt change in the landscape between Nevada and Utah. You knew immediately you were someplace different.

We spent two nights in Salt Lake visiting one of my friends. We went to This is the Place Heritage Park in the morning. The kids really enjoyed it. Its a living history park and the houses are either historic buildings moved to this area or are recreations. I liked how they showed both the homes of poor people and those who were better off. Ike was fascinated by the blacksmith. We also got to see the live version of "gotta piss like a horse" I've never seen that before and the kids were impressed. We spent the afternoon down in Temple Square. The history museum was interesting and the visitors center was fascinating. Then we walked around the temple. There are two sets of impressive doors that haven't been used in ages. If temple-goers want to go in, the entrance is a street away and you go underground. I shudder to think about how they would get everyone out case of fire. The other thing about the Temple that struck me is it's size. Or rather lack thereof. Now. It's tall. It's gloriously tall and impressive. However, the footprint is quite small. I think my Mom's parish church has a bigger footprint. I was expecting something like a Roman Catholic Cathedral size. It's not. I was told they spent 40 years building it. For some reason, I wasn't too impressed. They've been working on the Gaudi Cathedral for over 100 (131 so far with another estimated 13 to go (a couple of wars halted construction, go figure)). Gray decided that he was going to get sick that afternoon and spent the afternoon in my arms. Sleeping. He also decided to pop a pretty good fever that night. But he woke up the next morning bright and chipper.

We spent the 28th driving to Jackson, WY. I got to see wheat fields for the first time ever! Cool. I tried not to breathe too deeply. Pretty drive. I found a road

allanh s husband Randy needs to drive. Not only did it have the joy of curves and ups and downs...you got to dodge livestock! It was an uneventful drive. Jackson is gorgeous! We definitely want to go back. We only spent this one night and there's so much to do! Gray decided to get really sick on this night and we were up from about 1:30-4:30 with him alternatively vomiting and extreme EBS. Poor thing. I left a huge tip for the housekeeping crew, he threw up all over the bed several times (after Ike woke us up at 6).

We got up and went to this alpine slide I read about. It was awesome!!! First time I've ever ridden a ski lift. Then we hit the road. Drove through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Amazing thunder storm overhead as we entered Yellowstone park, and then we crested a hill, and the storm was gone. Blue skies and warm sunshine. Had to convince the children to stick around long enough to see Old Faithful. I had to bribe them with ice cream. Wow. Just wow. Drove out of the park to our next hotel. Gray was miserable by this point and needed to go to bed. Ended up seeing a bison just wandering down the road in the opposite lane before we got out of the park. Yes! Only wildlife we saw in the park. Got to the next hotel and put everyone to bed.

On the 30th we drove to Missoula, MT. There's all these little signs on the side of the road telling you interesting things to see. I stopped at one called the "Lake that Tilted". It kinda caught my attention. Serious earthquake in 1959 literally tilted the lake and created another billion gallons of storage area. It also dumped 80 million tons of rock on the north end and drowned a campground. The mountain damage is obvious and you drive ON TOP of the fallen rock. It was kinda eerie, but also fascinating. Got to the hotel in Missoula.

Everybody felt great the next day on the 31. Joe was flying in and we had time to kill. We had breakfast and then I started to feel awful. So did Ike. I finally got us out of the room and into the car and stopped at the Carousel for Missoula. There's a dragon for the kids to ride!!! Ike was sufficiently sick, he stayed in the car to sleep. The other three rode it twice. Then we hit the road for Kalispell and Joe. The drive was nice, but I was feeling too awful to really notice anything. I got to Joe an hour late. =( But we got to the next hotel and I went to bed while Joe took care of the 3 non sick kids.

This morning we got up and moving and checked out from the hotel with like 5 minutes to spare. We stopped at a local grocery store for food for a couple of days and made it to the house we are staying at. It's gorgeous. On a lake. The kids played. And passed out.

Bit the First: How I view some people and I knit for them to show them I love them.

Lets see:

Last weekend I went to a baby shower for the daughter of one of my oldest and dearest. The thing that truly amuses me is that this "child" is the same age as

mollygm (i.e. near to 30). Molly I view as a peer. Jenner is my peer's daughter and I tend to think of her when I first met her 18 years ago, rather than the capable young woman she is. Regardless, I'm very happy she's having a wee one, and I knit a sweater for him. It came out so cute. I just learned how to do cables and it knit up very quickly.

Bit the Second: Scenes from Cultural Elitism

(hat tip to

oxymoron67 for the subtitle)

The children are finally getting old enough that we can buy memberships to more interesting museums beyond ones specifically for children. Yesterday I took them to the California Academy of Sciences and bought a membership. There were two new exhibits since the last time I went. One was a place to worship the size of Larry Ellison's penis (it was something about speed in water, blah, blah, blah, but focused in the end on Larry's America's Cup team. See? I have a boat!)

Anyway.

The other one was on Earthquakes. It's San Francisco. Of course there's an exhibit on Earthquakes. It was a short video and then an Earthquake room. The room was made up to look Victorian and out the window was a scene of the Painted Sisters. First, we got to feel Loma Prieta (1989 quake for those not keeping score at home), which lasted 15 seconds. Pretty much what I remember. Then the lights went out, the picture of the Painted Sisters changed to 1906...the sample only lasted 30 seconds...which was only one third of the total time of the Earthquake. Damn. No wonder it did so much damage. (That and the lack of proper Earthquake prevention in the buildings/water supplies (fire did MORE damage than the quake itself. Lack of water was the main problem. The pipes broke in the quake.))

While in line there was a green screen and a nice helpful person took your picture. Elli and Gray went with me to this exhibit. So they got their picture taken. I love it. It's just perfect. I can't get over how awesome Elli's expression is.

It was a good day and we will go back. This is one of our favorite museums. We actually got up to the roof this time. Pretty cool looking close up.

First for the fun part. Gray. This child has consistently done developmental items WAY before he was supposed to. He started walking at 7.5 months (I kid you not. Not fair I tell you.) This youngest child of mine turned 4 not even three weeks ago. We decided to give him a bicycle for his birthday. Cute little thing with training wheels. Last night, he went to Ike and said "Take 'em off!", so Ike being a considerate older brother (wow) removed the training wheels. And let him loose. A few minutes later, I got to watch this.

Ut.

Second. Ike. This one comes home last week after a week in Yosemite unable to breathe. A quick trip to the ER resulted in a breathing treatment and a diagnosis of Reactive Airway Disease. And a suggestion for another OTC adult strength anti-histamine. After a weekend of suffering, I got a phone appointment with a pediatrician who not only gave us a referral to Allergy, but got us an appointment this morning. We just got back. It's official, he's got asthma. We got sent home with a Rx for flonase and a new inhaler. Joy. And he got a demonstration shot of what the allergy shots he'll be getting later this fall...and he agreed that the shot wasn't a big deal and he made a huge deal out of nothing. Go Ike. So now that he's agreed to shots, I can get shots.

The ice cream man knows us. He slows down in front of our house just to make sure we have enough time to get out the door to stop him.

This is breaking the bank.

Earlier this week I purchased ice cream bars on sale at oh...20% the price that the ice cream man charges us. I keep them out in the freezer in the garage. Today while I was working, and thinking Gray was out in the back yard playing, he actually went out to the garage, climbed the freezer shelves and ate what was left of a box of ice cream bars (3 bars)

The only thing I can say is at least he didn't eat Ike's. That would have caused a huge ruckus.

I bought a bag of BBQ Potato Chips for lunch, he was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of them

"Mommy! These chips are spicy!"
"Good spicy or Bad Spicy?"
"Bad spicy Mommy. They are too spicy. You shouldn't eat any. Too spicy."
"I shouldn't have any because they are too spicy?"
"Yes Mommy. They will upset your stomach"
"Oh, so that means you get more chips?"
"Yes! You can't eat any Mommy, too spicy! Upset your tummy."

Too damn funny!

Gray just slept all night in his own bed! Charlie the dog took his place in my bed.

Which is where Kaiser sends you when you need to be seen, but you don't need the ER.

I'm inside the house getting ready to go to the gym. Gwen comes in screaming (and man, oh man, is she screaming a LOT lately)
"Gray fell down!!!!!"

I shrug...he falls a lot and generally gets right up. I start to get up and I hear him come inside crying. I pick him up and give him love. He tells me "I hurt my head!" I give love and cuddles and feel his head gently. And find a nice sized goose egg on the back of his head. Ouch! I get an ice bag, put ice and water in it, put it on the back of his head and take him to the chair to nurse. Eventually figure out he was attempting to climb a tree in the backyard ("'cause its there!") and fell down and hit that little lip at the bottom of the fence.

He falls asleep. Normally, after falling this would have bothered me. But! 1. It was nap time and 2. he roused easily. Especially when I tried to put him down before he was done nursing! Not a happy camper, let me tell you!

After he passes out I grab the phone and call Kaiser's Advice nurse. Goodness knows, I've been through the wake 'em up every 2 hours routine enough, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Get the nurse on the phone and she has me wake him up. It takes a bit, 'cause he's a heavy sleeper and didn't take any more time than normal. Blah, blah, blah...vomiting=bad, call if we need help, keep close eye on him for 48 hours...fine. No biggie. Got it. And I hang up.

Gray is awake, but wants more comfort. So I nurse him some more. 20 minutes later he comes up for air. There's blood on my arm. uh-oh. I check the back of his head...ewww...big oozing cut on the lump. The ice bag must of kept it from bleeding before. Call the nurse back...cut seems big enough to be looked at and an appointment is made at the MIC. Let the kids watch a movie as I change (don't want to go to Kaiser in my gym clothes.) pile all four kids into the car and head out.

Doctor cleans cut, determines that sutures are needed. Applies a topical anesthetic to the cut (has me hold it to the cut with a glove on my hand...'cause its powerful enough to cause me to lose feeling in my fingers...where the hell was this stuff when I was a kid????!!!) Wait 15-20 minutes with a squirming Gray on my lap, trying to keep all 4 of them entertained. Doctor comes back in, staple gun in hand. Staple gun? Cool! Elli and Gwen flee in terror. Ike stays to watch. I hold Gray on my lap, face planted between my boobs, nurse holds his head still, I hold his hands still. He fusses with the Betadine. The Doctor takes up the gun and...Click, Click..........click. Done. No tears, no flinching. Fastest sutures I've ever seen...even faster than the liquid ones.

We go home. Gray's head is tender, but bouncy for the rest of the evening. He complains of a headache and Joe brings kids tylenol home. (I don't have any in the house...I hate that toxic shit. But I can't give him Ibuprofen...its an NSAID like asprin...it thins the blood and prevents clotting. Which is why you can't take it before surgery. Never knew that. New tidbit of info to file away.)

Could of been a lot worse! But thankful it wasn't.

I'm posting a lot about Gray lately and that's okay...he's too cute not to. =)

Earlier in the spring I had a head of garlic sprout on me. Rather than cook it up, I decided to find out what might happen if I broke the cloves apart and planted them.

About 3 weeks ago, Gray and I pulled them out of the ground.

Not a bad harvest for a head of garlic!

Didn't realize there was a second part huh?

On last thursday, Gray shattered our sliding glass door. First thing Friday morning (the next day), Gray follows me out to the garage. I go back inside, he stays to look at something (Lots of interesting things for a 2 year old to look at in the garage). After a couple of minutes I hear a crash and "mama!".

I go out to the garage and Gray has dropped a jar of pasta sauce on the floor. Lovely. Its the morning rush, I can't deal with it right now, I shove him back into the house and pour liquid cleaner powder all over the mess intending to come back later and sweep up. (There is this cleaning product that absorbs liquids. Its a powder and you pour it over things. It absorbs it all and you sweep up the mess. Comes in handy when your 4 year old ~~dumps~~ ~~pours~~ spills a gallon of bubble solution. Useful stuff, every mother needs a bottle.) The day goes on.

We get home from running around, say, oh, 4:30 in the afternoon. Kids are watching a movie, I'm relaxing with a book. Good times. Gray gets down from his chair and wanders into the garage. And comes back in crying, feet covered in pasta sauce, and walking on the heel of one foot. Oh yea, pasta sauce. I pull the little piece of glass stuck in Gray's foot out and clean up the mess in the garage.

Thankfully, he stopped his glass breaking rampage at this point (for now anyway)

Been too busy to post.

Last Thursday afternoon, Gray was sitting in my lap and everyone else played in the living room around us. Gray was toying with a small rock from the nature table. He looks at it, and hurls it at the sliding glass door.

*CRASH*CRACKLE*

The glass door is now completely spider webbed. Thank goodness for double paned safety glass. The rock he'd been playing with had a pointed end to it and it hit the window just right and destroyed the inside pane. Ut.

I find the receipt from the people who installed the window and give them a call. The door itself isn't under warranty, but the labor at least is. So the helpful person on the other end tells me he'll order a new door and should take about two weeks to get in, then they will call and arrange an installation date. Then he tells me to get out an old sheet, put it under the broken door, take a hammer and knock out all the glass. I thought he was bullshitting me.

Nope. Its better to take it out controlled than wait for it to fall out on its own.

So I kicked the kids and the dog outside, get out a sheet from the 70's my Gram gave me. Get the hammer from the garage and start knocking out glass. At least I had the presence of mind to snap a picture at this point

It took about 15 minutes to knock it all out. And I have to admit, it was kinda fun. How often do you have a good excuse to take a hammer to a window? I gathered up the edges of the sheet and lugged it to the recycling (note: sheets will start to rip quickly, have a laundry basket nearby to put the sheet and glass into to carry it through the house and outside) (also note: a sliding glass door's worth of glass is heavy as hell.)

I vacuumed the area three times (high, medium and low height settings) and then let the kids back in.

I made an intelligence check and called Joe at this point saying I was out of spoons and please come home. Then Ike and I taped up plastic sheeting over the opening as the edges are still kinda rough and I didn't want anyone cutting themselves.

Ahhh...the joy of kids.

And it has been too long since the last time we did so. And thus, it was awesome.

In January I hired a local SJSU student to come by 3 afternoons a week to take Ike, Elli and Gwen to the park while Gray napped. Every once in awhile, I left her with the kids and either ran errands or went to appointments (like the dentist!). So, once school started I didn't need her as often anymore. But I did, however, set up specific times for her to come by during the month so that Joe and I could spend some time together. Last night was the first time we went out on this new schedule.

We went to the mall and had dinner (Panda Express for him, Kalamata for me. They had orzo in the Avgolemeno dammit!) and then we went to the first theater movie in 2 years. Cowboys and Aliens is a very silly movie, but good. I enjoyed seeing it. I really enjoyed sitting next to my husband and holding his hand.

After the movie, we hit Cold Stone (The peanut butter perfection is, in fact, quite awesome.) And came home. All was quiet, and Gray was asleep on the couch in the office. We paid A and sent her home. Then I noticed that she'd been busy while we were gone. Not only had she swept up, I think she mopped. But she did, in fact, scrub the table, counters, and stove. Then I noticed she had also scrubbed the cabinets clean. OMG. I love this girl. And I am so tipping her the next time she comes by, she is sooooo worth the money we pay her. She likes my kids and cleans my house. I only hope that I raise my kids to be as thoughtful (okay, and enterprising. Cleaning does equal more money.)

I finally made a connection on part of the reason why my hands are hurting so much, its not the knitting or the computering...its the driving. I'm spending at least 90 minutes a day driving. The other part is that Gray is over 30 lbs. Nursing him is killing my back and hands. I'm in the process of weaning him. I'm trying to confine the activity to our home only, I'm mostly sucessful. I am, however, not nursing him at the kids school. If I end up teaching and have him in my class, I don't want to be nursing him. It annoys him, but he's getting used to it after 2 weeks.

We had a family BBQ to celebrate Elli and Gwen's impending 6th Birthday today. A good time was had by all I think. Well, at least I had a good time. =)

As the evening was winding down, I'm sitting on the couch, nursing Gray, sitting next to

riseorbleed who was snuggling with

kineticphoenix and chatting with them and

mollygm . As I'm nursing Gray (who spent the day in a diaper BTW. He didn't want to wear clothes today. Fine. Whatever it was warm outside.), I look down and notice that he's got his hand in his diaper and he's playing with himself. I look him in the eye and say:

"Gray. You can either nurse or you can play with your penis. Which do you want to do?"
"ennnis"
"Okay, that's fine. But you have to either go to the bathroom or your bedroom to do that, its not something for the living room."

He hops off my lap, shoves his hand into the front of his diaper and walks off in the direction of his room.

All the nearby adults who heard this conversation begin to die laughing. Through our tears of laughter we finally hear Gray going into the bathroom and starting a bath...where he spent a good long time playing in the tub.

Only my child.

It felt soooooooo good to laugh. Its been too long since I've laughed that hard. I feel like I've forgotten how to laugh. I've been taking life much tooooooo seriously lately.

Now Gray is getting into the act.

I baked a banana cake to take with me this weekend for LifeWays. Its been sitting on the counter most of the afternoon cooling. Right before dinner I catch Gray, who has pulled a kitchen chair up to the counter, gleefully grinding fresh pepper on top of my cake.

The only good thing is that I hadn't frosted it yet.

Ut. I managed to slap another one into the oven in 15 minutes. Gotta be a record.

Or in my case Pride goeth with the fall.

I was carrying Gray into my local Lucky's...and missed the curb. Full flat out fall, my knees and right hand took the brunt of it, but so did Grays butt and head. I spent a couple of minutes soaking my knees holding a screaming baby. We got surrounded by people, and there was an ambulance crew on a coffee break at the Starbucks looked him over. Ouch...poor baby. He's had a rough day!

We are both still wet and dirty, sore in places, and my pretty new ring is mangled. (The stones are fine, but the underside of the ring got flattened out and needs rounding out again...its a bit uncomfy to wear now. Not that I'm taking it off mind you.)

I may call Dr. Kelli and see if she'll meet me in the office tomorrow...my upper back is starting to feel very sore.

Gray won't stop eating the cat food. Every time I can't find him, he's in the garage chowing down. I keep moving the cat dish, but he keeps climbing to get it.

Oy. And I think its what's giving him the runs...poor kid.

I thought I might do some writing/musing

Will Development/Weight Management
I am a sugar addict. Oh hell, I'm a food addict. But sugar is the biggest problem of all. I get on that roller coaster of highs and lows and its just awful. I have managed to stay away from sugar for almost three weeks. This is big for me. I want to be healthier, but most "diets" have you cutting everything out at once. And it doesn't work. So right now I'm focusing on sugar. Baby steps will win the race. I don't know if I've lost any weight or not, but my Mom says I'm not as puffy as the last time she saw me. And my scale in the bathroom doesn't automatically go "TILT" when I step on it. It actually has to think about it before it does it. So I see that as a vast improvement.

Sleep
Oh my god do I need some. For the last four nights Gray has gotten up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours. I finally figured out he's probably teething, so I've been giving him ibuprofen. Problem is that it wears off in the middle of the night. So my night is really broken. I'm crispy. Thank god I'm not eating sugar to make it worse!

Homeschooling
Has actually been going well. We do better on the days we stay home all day, but overall school is going well. The other day Ike said to me "Mommy, I love doing school here. J (boy down the street) has to go to school all day, has homework when he gets home, and we're done by lunch! I get a lot more time to play" Smart boy. We are working on American Tall Tales right now and Melisa is right as usual, when you read a book the lesson goes flat. So I will be telling the next couple instead of reading the cool picture books I found. I'll save those for story time (which is something new I've managed to institute. I read to the kids for about an hour every afternoon). He's also found pencils are much easier for him to write with than using crayons. So we are making headway there.

I did a lot of thinking and meditating this summer on how to approach teaching this year. I gave myself permission to not beat myself up because I can't manage a Waldorf School experience at home. I'm Homeschooling! Not Schooling at Home. So I'm not going to kill myself trying to squeeze in everything. I'm working on stories, some writing, handwork, singing, penny whistle, verse memorization, and some painting. Which is still a lot. And I'm not even going to bother teaching Grammar this year. Ike doesn't read! It makes no sense at all to me to teach a non-reader grammar. I'm also not going gung-ho on teaching him to read. He's not frustrated enough yet. He's starting to get there, but he's not there yet. And when that frustration sets in, then I'll work on turning him into a reader.

I also got inspired by another Homeschooling Mama of 9(!) kids. So, in addition to focusing on less things, I'm leaning a bit toward child-led education. I'm giving the kids the option of a lesson (but they have to finish a lesson they start). And if someone expresses an interest in a subject, we'll look at it as appropriate

Steiner did say once that not having to go to school to age 12 would be a good thing...so I'm still schooling them (I'm not that brave to not do "anything" until age 12), but I'm backing off on forcing the issue. There's no rush. Everything will be covered in due time.

LifeWays
I had my first class on Saturday. Awesome, but long day topped off by a Stupid Tax courtesy of SFPD. (Not only was I blocking someone's driveway, I forgot to curb my wheels. Whoops! I'm glad they didn't tow it.) We started the day with singing, then Steiners Ages and Stages (going whole to parts, of course), lunch, sewing, and knitting. My kind of day!

The knitting component was starting on our year long knitting project...the knitted farm yard. I've gotten the first two squares done. I had to rip out what I did in class 'cause it was messy and uneven. And I didn't like the needles we were given at all! Bamboo makes for really slick needles and it just drives me up a wall! I'm completely sold on my Knitpicks wood circular needles. They are perfect in my book.

Autism
So I'm finally doing some major reading on autism. When Ike was diagnosed a year ago, I just wasn't up for any reading. Now that I'm finally feeling like my head is out of the water since I got pregnant with Gray, I've got the energy to read. (yea, I know I read a lot. But this is a different type of reading. I just wasn't ready). Things I've figured out/found out. Kids with Autism have fewer mirroring neurons. Which is why a baby smiles back at you when you smile at them. The fewer the number the more pronounced the autism. Ike has problems with Executive Processing. Which is not only causal relations (i.e. if I hit my sister, she'll get hurt, then I'll get into trouble) but sequential thinking (i.e. first I pick up, then I dust, then I vacuum). It also impairs his ability to take verbal instructions. He just can't do it beyond a certain point.

I also found its quite common and expected for younger siblings to mimic elder siblings behave. In due time, as they mature, they outgrow it. (Thank goodness!)

Handwork
Oy, am I knitting up a storm. I've been focusing on my shawl. I'm finding I have an urge to make something. I've been cleaning out my work basket. (Where things are put to be repaired) so far in the last week or so I've repaired 2 Heavy Babies and I've finally put together a Gingerbread Man I knitted up last year. Turned out really, really cute! Gray will enjoy it for Christmas!

I'm starting to look toward Christmas and decide what needs to be made by then. I want to make the kids their own Hobby Horses from Santa. I have 5/6 of the material I need (I need to find a co-ordinating fabric for Ike's Horse, which is red of course) I need to set up my sewing machine as I want to make the girls their Halloween costumes on top of everything else.

So that pretty much sums up everything going on with me. How's things with you?

Gray has a new word. Upping his total to 3. Mama and Bye has been the extent of his vocabulary for a couple of months.

His new word? "MINE!!!" with a dramatic throw of whatever is in his right hand across his body to over his left shoulder.

Totally cute.

The other first?

He threw himself on the ground and had a temper tantrum.

Also totally cute.

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aelfie

January 2016

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Page generated May. 15th, 2025 07:17 pm

Jen's Mental Scribblings

Officially "Too Twisted for Color T.V."

Entries tagged with gray

Pictures from this week worth remembering

Gray, meet Road. Road, meet Gray.

Yellowstone and Environs

The trip thus far

Quickie update (With Pictures!)

My Boys

In which Gray becomes a 3 year old

Conversation with Gray

Breaking news!

And another trip to the Minor Injury Clinic

Farmer Gray

In which Gray destroys a bunch of glass part 2

In which Gray destroys a bunch of glass

Joe and I went on a Date!

Gray makes me laugh

It begins

Pride goeth before the fall

Only my child: Gray

The State of Jen

Two new firsts for Gray