My Winter Home

Much of the snow has melted, but there is still enough left for Patrick to make a little snowman.

Household Happenings.

Here's what it looks like outside right now.  That could change in a little while as we are expecting another big snowstorm.  We have stocked the fridge and are (I hope) well-prepared.  I'm hoping this will be the last snowstorm as state chess tournament comes up in March and right after that?  Another stupid hernia surgery for me.  My third.  It was a relief to hear that, actually, because my regular doctor thought I had a huuuuge tumour for a little while there.  No worries.  Just my guts falling out again.  :/

In homeschooling, Emperor has just read through Silas Marner and Conrad's Heart of Darkness.  I think he enjoyed Silas Marner much more and found the other book a bit disturbing.  His new math curriculum is all graded on the computer (sample lessons here!).  Here I am teaching him by doing absolutely nothing.  He ran into a bit of a problem because he forgot how to multiply fractions.  So then he spent today reviewing with Khan Academy.  There is no excuse not to homeschool because you don't know all the answers when the internet is out there, right?  Changing the subject, I bought this little house at the thrift store; I don't know why.  I just like it.  It is a "handpainted Delft."  I think it is a salt shaker because of the little holes in the chimney, but it sits on my windowsill.

Rose can read simple words and do matching games and easy games like Candyland.  She also helps out around the house frequently.  I found this little girl looking over my shoulder while I was watching Hoarders the other day.  She would like you all to know that garbage goes in a bag.  Poopies go in the potty!  And as she watched, she wondered, "Why is she doing that?  That's disgusting.  We don't throw trash on the ground!"

When Woodjie has the sniffles or is just not feeling himself, I will give him a "hairbow" so he can look like a little unicorn.  He will lie down with his blankie and twist his hair for a little while.  He is starting to use full sentences most of the time and can count up to 42.  He is just so cute, isn't he?

Christmas Elves

I cannot believe this.  Elf is upset that Woodjie brought home a Christmas Elf hat from kindergarten.  Only he is the Elf.  Woodjie says, "Now I a Elfie, TOO!  There TWO elves!"  Rose had to jump into the picture and G... well... what a goof. 

Hanging Out This Afternoon

Rose is supervising Woodjie's creative process.

I'm teaching Rose "ladder checkmate."  The second queen is an upside-down rook.

I'm also in the process of teaching Rose how the knight moves.  If your knight starts on a star, he'll have to hop over to the other star.  If he starts on a smiley, he ends on a smiley.  Two up, one over.  He always winds up on the opposite colour from which he starts.  The confusing thing about it is that this is true all around where the knight starts.  In the center of the board, there are eight squares to which the knight can move.

After Rose does a chess exercise, she gets to pick out a sticker and put it on her new princess. 

A Picture Post!

This was Patrick's "ghetto racket."  He bought it (in better condition) at a thrift store for $3 and was too cheap to spend his money on a new one.  His team-mates kinda made fun of him for it.  I finally bought him a new one, but everyone remembers Patrick as the "ghetto racket" guy.

Elf got a magazine from Hy-Vee grocery store in the mail and tried their strawberry-banana recipe.  He added a bit of topping as well.

"Aaaaaaammmm!"  Too bad the pic does not have sound effects.  It's part of the whole dessert experience.  Elf demanded I take this photograph and share it with you.

Woodjie's first day of kindergarten/summer school was Monday!  Woodjie is now a SHARK because that's the mascot of this elementary school  He is in their "integrate the disabled kids and hopefully not spend any money on them next year" program.  Ok, it has a nicer name than that.   But hopefully he does well!  I have no idea... there are no notes home in elementary.  I suppose I will call his teacher in a couple weeks and say "hi!" after the class is well-established.

Miss Rose is Vogue-ing a shirt I lengthened with a bit of fabric.  The pic doesn't do it justice; the shirt flares everywhere as she walks about and is really quite cute.

I hemmed in/made narrower a medium T-shirt I bought at the thrift store for a dollar.  I'm thinking to make the shirt more "dress" like that I will need a ruffle or something at the bottom.  Or.  With a little less smiling and the right footwear she can just be Emo.

Braces Are On!

This is what is going on inside Emperor's mouth AFTER the tooth extraction.  Imagine a huge pair of teeth there with roots that go way up.  Ok, it's still a mess, isn't it?  I have a feeling poor Emperor is not going to be finished after his crossbite is alleviated.

But yay!  The braces are on and Emperor chose purple covers for his brackets.  He goes back at the end of the month for a tightening-up.

Woodjie got a vaccine.  He is very angry about it.  He said it hurt and "it not nice!" that they did that to him.

Rose can write part of her name!  This is an excerpt.  Note the typewriter-style lower case "a."  Emperor still writes like that.  I don't know why that isn't taught in schools but is mostly a teen girl thing.  To my mind, lower case "a" and "o" are too similar when printed by hand most of the time.

Woodjie @ The Kansas City Chess School

He needed a lot of help with his moves.  He tried to go to the bathroom in a closet but couldn't find the potty.  He wasn't quite up for a tournament-level game.  But hey.  He went and he had a nice time.

Obnoxious.

I sure wouldn't appreciate if YOU took my picture while I was sleeping and posted it on the internet.  Somehow, though, the cuteness factor makes it all morally OK.  Miss Rose no longer falls asleep on the couch downstairs with Woodjie and has Dad carry her up around 11:30 pm.  Mom insisted:  new room, new routine.  (Bad enough Woodjie has such horrific troubles with bedtime; we had gotten into the habit of letting Rose do what Woodjie does.)  But now, we brush her teeth, read a book, and then Rose is free to read books in her own bed and turn out the light herself when she is ready.  :)

Happenings at Home

I don't like yelling and I find singing at my children when they are naughty to be three times as obnoxious anyway.  I thought I knew for sure that I would be damaging any love for music that they would have otherwise developed.  Not so!  Elf wants to transcribe my angry song into something for EVERYONE at his school to enjoy.  He envisions the entire orchestra playing the "Mad at Kids Song," originally sung by his mother but properly composed by a very small Elf.  When it is finished, he will show it to his music teacher and she will love it for the masterpiece it is.  Elf also wants to be sure to have some sort of memory of my song after I am dead.  Nice, huh?

Woodjie!  I just luv Woodjie.  He was able to tell us that "ear hot" and fuss a bit so that we could take him to the doctor.  Sure enough, ear infection, in the ear he indicated.  Poor lil guy. 

Rose can "poo poo in a potty."  And is a "pwincess."  And had her birthday.  She lost her three!  She is now four, and that means pink PRINCESS cupcakes.  She has all the sparkly rings from the top of these storebought concoctions (schools don't let you bring homemade... and as there were 13 children in the class and I had to buy cupcakes in dozens... sigh).   I couldn't find a good present for her and D said yesss, we don't have to spend any money!  Ha.  Nooo, that just means that because Rose doesn't realize she is missing out and therefore won't pester me, I have lots more time to research expensive gift ideas on Amazon.  I'm thinking lifesize pink pony. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Goodbye, PECS Book.

We got this beautiful PECS book when Woodjie was absolutely non-verbal and added to it over time. How it works is this: take several of these little velcro-backed pictures (called PECS) and pop them on the cover. I've organized them on different sheets: foods, toys, places to go, things to do (painting, play-doh), routine items (go to bed, eat, brush teeth). Woodjie can make a choice (for example, to play with bubbles!) and hand it to you. I know, you're saying to yourself, "If he can pick a choice from the board and hand it to you, shouldn't he be able to say the word?" and I'd have to answer, not necessarily. It's also useful to "show" the person you're communicating with what is going on.
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Woodjie used this to make breakfast and lunch choices (sandwich or bagel? and so on) and communicate some of his needs for a long time. I was cleaning because Woodjie's preschool teacher was coming over and I wanted to pretend that the house is usually neat, and I got a bit overzealous: with Patrick's help, I cleaned out and COMPLETED ALL THE PUZZLES IN THE HOUSE. While I was finding odd pieces here and there in my cabinet, I came across this book. Still in new condition, all lost and forgotten.
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I cried. You know... for so long, I thought this book or something like it would be a part of our lives forever. And it isn't. I took out the "go home" PECS with our house pictured and other personal items, and gave it away last week.
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It was my privilege and honour to give it to someone who was instrumental in getting Woodjie to talk. Ms. "P" runs the "communication classroom" (code for: autism room) at the local public preschool. When Woodjie began school at age three, he knew three words: ball, no, and more. He can now say short sentences such as, "I see a animals." Hey, I never said his grammar was great. I just said he can talk. Every word is precious.
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Because Ms. "P" works in a "communication classroom," she will be able to give it to a family that can REALLY use it. :)

What's His REAL Name?

"MIKE!! It on a wall!" screamed Rose, jumping and pointing. Woodjie came over to look at whatever "Mike" is. I'm in the middle of bagging poopie diapers (ugh), rounding up dirty laundry and reallllly looking forward to washing my hands. With soap. You just can't stop in the middle of a job like that. It would be too hard to get back into, you see...

"Ee MIKE!" Woodjie starts to scream. They both start hopping about and screaming. "Mike! Momma, Mike! MIKE! Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike! MIIIIKE! IT ON A WALLLLL!! WOOK!"

I'm thinking, great, they're naming spiders and I'm way too busy to kill them at the present moment. Bleh... poopies tossed into garage trash, clothes thrown next to washer two floors down, run upstairs and ahhhh water time. And grab a shoe.

"OK, where's this 'Mike?'"

"WOOK!" Woodjie points to a little green scratch on the brown wall. "MIKE!"

Siiigh. "His name is MARK, Woodjie. There is a Mark on the wall."

"Ee MIKE. Wight dere," Woodjie insisted. Well, ok. I have trouble remembering names, too. I guess he's Mike now.

The Dish Snob

Ok, so I'm getting the kid his plastic plate and he asks for "poyits pawyyery." He is now insisting on using Polish pottery at every meal. The kid has maybe 50 words, but two of them are "poyits pawyyery," I guess. At least he hasn't figured out how to ask for the catalogue so he can pick his own set of dishes as some other boys have. The unhappy face, as near as I can figure, is from his back teeth bothering him. He is getting some four-year molars and tells me it hurts. I'm very grateful that he can show me where his owies are. That was one of my big fears, that he would be hurt and not be able to tell us what is bothering him. We at least can get "hurt" and a location. :)

All About Woodjie

Something has happened to Woodjie. I would no longer classify him as non-verbal at all. SURE, he calls a skunk a "padda-bear," (why, I do not know) but he can get across what he needs to for the most part. Unfortunately not the "I need to go potty now" idea. But hey.

Now mind you, he's still autistic and doesn't get some of those obvious social cues. Sometimes this is an absolute riot. One day, we were waiting at the doctor's office and Woodjie was bouncing around and trying to tap the window where the office workers were manning the front desk. One of the ladies slid the window over and ask, "Can I help you?"

"Hep!" he said, boucing about and squeeeealing. And here he did that huge arms out and hand flapping thing he does when he's reallly happy.

"Ok," she asked. "HOW can I help you?"

"Ries?" he asked. She looked quizzical. "I eat a RIES? Crabby Patty? 'Leese?"

"Oh, you want FRIES?"

UH- HUH! (jump jump) "Ries! I have it ries!"

"Well, I don't have any fries."

"Ries?" No, no fries.

"App-ol?" Finally, the ladies gave the little children fruit snacks. Very sweet.

Today there was an older fellow Woodjie was bugging. He had a penguin squeeze toy and told the man it was a duck that said "quack quack" and "Here. You have it. See. Ee a duck. Wook." And of course Woodjie was jumping and flapping.

The old guy didn't seem to notice. He told me this was the most social and kind child he'd come across in a long time. And hey little fellow, want to come home with me? Uh-huh, and Woodjie was following him for a bit before we all laughed at how cute he was.

"Well," he said, "I can take you home for a little bit but when you become a teenager, you'll have to go home to your mom. My wife says no more teens in the house." He gave Woodjie a pet on the head and went on his way.

Going Out With Woodjie

Sad to say, he'd never been to a restaurant before. Ever. I might have taken him along when he was in the baby carrier, but that doesn't count. So last night, I got brave.

Well, not TOO brave. I took him to a buffet and paid first so I could scoot if I needed to. No sooner had we gotten in the door when Woodjie asked, "Ot dah MELL?" (What's that SMELL?) He's a polite one, he is. I guess Chinese food smells funny to him.

Brought him over to get a plate but he took off running. "ISH!!" he hollered. "Wook A ISH!!" Had to have the waiter move our table so that Woodjie and I would be near the fish. He spent most of the meal stimming and commenting on the behaviour of the various fish in the tank, what they were eating and what their names were.

Woodjie loved serving himself fries and other foods from the buffet. Just this once, I didn't worry about his allergies, though I knew better than to outright give him pudding or ice cream. He kept asking to try all these really outlandish foods, I think one of each. Of course he didn't believe me when I told him he wouldn't like it. (And, he didn't. But he ate plenty of fries and tiny donut holes.)

I just thought I would tell you that Jell-O? Is great. It's awesome. It's fun. But put it near Woodjie's MOUTH, and it becomes frightening! Surely I don't really mean for him to eat it. It's for playing!

Well, he was pretty cute and didn't cause too much of a commotion, and at this age, people still humour his saying HIIIII to them or asking "what doing?" Though at one point he DID try to figure out how the fish tank worked so that he could get in there with his fork for dinner. Okayy, he won't eat Jell-O, but he seemed pretty willing to go fishing with his silverware. Sorry, dude.

Eventually, it was time to go. But first, off to the potty.

"No," he said. "Not yet." Not yet? Never heard that before. Waited around a while several times and asked again. I kept getting "not yet." Finally it was one more minute, then done. He cried on the way to the bathroom, but nothing too awful. He calmed in the hallway before we got to the potty. Here we go into the stall.

"Eew," he told me. "Ee-yucky."

Woodjie, it's just a potty. Sure, it's really grubby in here and the place needs a remodel, but you are a BOY. Boys do not care about things like "cleanliness," especially when they're peeing. So let's go potty.

"No," he told me. "You on't do at." You don't do that, or... in other words... do NOT even try it.

Well. I learned something. This child doesn't say THANKS for the clean bathroom each day, but at least I know he appreciates it AND that he has some standards. Odd that he would classify the bathroom at the Chinese place as too dirty to pee in, but there you go.

Tornadoes.

In the summer, it's tornado season. A friend of mine had no idea about tornado sirens! I thought everyone had those, but maybe not. So I'm posting some pics of our closest one and chatting a little bit about our "season" so far.

When the siren goes off, it means to get into your basement or best cover right now. It could be the result of a county-wide warning, or it could be specific to where you are. Just get into the basement and tune in to your radio from there to see what's up.

 The siren goes off every Wednesday at the same time. Eeeven though it was a Wednesday yesterday, I knew it was a for real siren. It was turned super loud as if to tell everyone that people, this is not a drill. And it went on for I'm thinking an hour and a half or so.

Emperor was already freaked out about Joplin. He understands. He is very, very afraid. I distracted him by making him match my huuuuuge collection of single socks. I mean, why not. I told him I would give him a nickel for every pair he folded together. I'm tremendously bad about matching socks with this size of a family. PLUS, there is the fact that G has until recently only worn one sock at a time, being in a cast/boot and all. (BTW, he is still in a brace. So... not done yet.)

Emperor was very nervous and upset but the job helped a bit. When he was done it was eeeeerie quiet, odd whistly outside and he sat with me. Little tears in his eyes.

"Momma, if I live, you owe me 70 cents," he whispered as he got in my arms. I held him close and even Woodjie and Rose sat and were suddenly still next to me for a minute. They have no clue, but they were still a bit. I don't know what could have caused it because usually they don't stop and crouch like that even when there is shouting and upset in the house. They remained down a good ten minutes. Was it a tornado nearby? I still don't know.

After a long time, it didn't sound eerie or even angry outside any more and the sirens stopped. Emperor had a hard time being coaxed out of the basement. Poor guy.

There is some photographic evidence on a major news channel of a funnel cloud about a half a mile from our house yesterday. One neighbour of mine (who is not given to hysterical fits of exaggeration) reports that the tornado passed OVER our houses. Why she went outdoors to look, I could not in a million years tell you.

If you are interested,  here is a YouTube video of a tornado siren in action. Promise it is louder in real life.

"Me Happy"

Sometimes I'm surprised at the times Rose tells me this. Often it is when things are quiet and not much is going on. You'd also be surprised at the things that make children UNhappy. Recently there was a very big fight about "My sun!/ No, MY sun!/ No MYYY SUUUN!" going on between Rose and Woodjie. I kept trying to break it up but I swear off and on it lasted an hour. Notice: the sun now belongs to MOM, but she shares it sometimes because she is NICE. :)

How We Work at Home

Woodjie has a little drawer full of coloured plastic animals, flash cards, his Game Boy, and a Boggle timer. As you can see, his worksheet is a laminated picture of him with five velcro buttons. There are real buttons with sticky velcro on them we use as tokens. When the board is full, Woodjie gets to play with his Game Boy until the timer runs out.

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I have flash cards from school that I laminated (smiley face = "happy," or we have "heart" and other common words). I show some of these to him and after I feel he's done enough to earn a token, I give him a button. There really are no rules as to how many he must answer correctly. Sometimes I give out buttons when I see he was frustrated but did a good job on a card. Other times he's zooooming through his cards and perhaps I give him a button when he finally pauses for breath!

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The girl is usually nearby doing her own activity (today it was stringing plastic beads). Woodjie is very proud of his work and is showing his sister his game on the Game Boy in the last picture.

Woodjie Update

"Ot dat, Mommy? See, Mommy, see? Ot dat?" Woodjie is constantly asking for the names of objects. He seems to have trouble remembering them, but hey! He knows everything has a name. He can ask for his fave kind of cereal and many other foods. Taking him places is still very hard, and he still hasn't figured out how to use the potty to poop despite much teaching.

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But he is doing very well in preschool. His teacher is starting to work on a few sight words and he will be joining a regular class soon part-time with his aide. Not sure how that works if one is still pooping in a diaper, but they seem to think he has enough functional behaviour and language that he can leave the autism classroom (ok, they call it the "communication" classroom, but whatevs) for a little bit each day.

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He has forgotten how to write all his letters, but he can now say, "I want... have it. Me." So he's getting a lot of stuff that he wants... have it... him. I am reading a book about how to potty train people on the autism spectrum and have been charting the time of day he poops and eats and all that. Maybe it will help to get some sort of schedule. He just urinates when I take him and doesn't ask, so technically he isn't urine-trained either. Some of the things in the book about the child remembering to go potty, asking, getting to the toilet and doing everything himself are still a verrry long way away. But I can save a little work for myself by teaching him to put on his pants after his bath. If I line it up for him, he can usually do this. Someday he will pick out his own clothes and dress himself! Yes, he will. :)

Woodjie's Birthday

Woodjie turned four recently and got to eat Burger King for dinner. We spent over $70 on the food! He's been running about and being busy all day. He's helped his father make puppies happy on the computer. He opened up a "you ee full" package with Lightning McQueen and his buddies. Little Rose was a bit jealous of the attention and present- OPENING, but never had a fit about the presents themselves and the fact that she never got any. I guess they have learned that they must share everything, and they did. Quite nicely. Most of the time. Woodjie has had several new things to say just out of the blue such as "Careful!" and "See you later!" and "Wook. A diya- saur." I don't remember his learning what a dinosaur was or how to tell people to be careful. He'd been exposed to it about a zillion times and now finally - out of nowhere - strange words are starting to pop out of his little mouth. He doesn't get when we are finished with something fun. The answer to that is, "No. You don't do that!" and you'll get an angry pointing at.