Updatyschmatyness
Today, Keainid was off. While of course (as of this point in the evening) not everything has been done that was planned on or hoped for, it was still a fairly productive day for him. Not so for me, but if I'd been productive, he would've had to have been watching Jamie to allow for it, which means he wouldn't have been productive. We can only BOTH be productive after the kiddo is asleep, assuming we're up for it by then, and the productivity isn't noisy or require business hours. ;-) Eniways, he vacuumed our bedroom, and got our bed (wrought iron, queen sized canopy bed -- aka HEAVY) raised up on the castors we finally found that'd work for it, so we could get our under-bed storage actually under it, instead of sitting on the floor in front of my dresser, being in the way. (There was just shy of enough room without need for yanking, on these sadly shag rugged floors, with the heavy bed still pushing down to floor level, but the storage thingers being lifted by the rug.) Now the sweaters and sweats are tucked away under the bed for the Summer. In the Winter, I'll trade them for the tanks and t-shirts in the dressers, so I don't have to bend as much to get to the things in constant use. Since he was pulling the mattress and box-spring off anyway, to make lifting the bed frame easier, he also remade the bed with fresh linens while he was reassembling things, and added the bed-skirt that came with the comforter set we'd bought cheaply off a craigslister a while back so we'd have something else actually sized for our bed. The skirt is just the right length to cover the box-spring and go down alllmost to the floor. There's an art store nearby that supposedly sells several different kinds of fabric dyes, so the next step will be trying to pick up something that can successfully dye the synthetic velvet drapes we'd gotten from freecycle, with the intention of my turning them into bed curtains to trap heat in the Winter. I wasn't going to adapt them until they were dyed, so I knew what to match thread and any hardware to.
Keainid also spent a number of hours collecting more black raspberry bushes -- this time from the mother of the craigslister we got the last few from. These are much bigger and fuller. As long as they take the transplant as well as the first ones did, we should have a nice little harvest (more than the small handfull every few days we've had twice so far, from the other ones) shortly. None of the berries on these were ripe yet -- I actually sent Keainid with a bucket to collect any that might otherwise have fallen off and smushed in the van! But eniways, yeah....the other bushes made it maybe 1/3 of the way down one of the short sides of our fenced yard. Now the bushes go all the way down that side and 2/3 of the way down the long side (the back of the yard). We can probably fit in a few more by filling in some spaces that were left, but not much beyond that, unless we put them elsewhere on the property. We don't want to plant them too close to the swingset. As it is, we've gotta go where Roxanne got her free tree trunk slices and see if they have anything good we can use to make a low wall around where we planted the bushes, to keep Jamie's ball from rolling right under them, and inviting him to dive headfirst into the brambles. We could plant them deeper -- that is, further out into the yard -- but much of our yard is sloped, which only leaves so much area for the kiddie pool, the grill, tables, or anything else. Maybe we'll plant some more along the sides of the house, once I get more of those weeds out. (Who the hell has 4 foot tall dandelions? I don't think anyone weeded here since the place was built in the 80s!) They aren't exactly pretty, and there are those thorns to consider, but I LOVE being able to walk out of my house and pick some fresh berries.
I really have to find a decent bathing suit. I've been putting it off because they are expensive, and....I haven't worn one in over a decade. My last suit -- a bikini, because they didn't make tankinis yet and I never found the right long-torso one-piece -- was bought 40lbs ago. Yeah, that's not happening. I'm also hoping to get at least some of my pre-Jamie waist back, so I don't want to invest a ton in a suit that will, ideally, only be worn a few times. But we got the kiddie pool for Jamie two birthdays ago, we got the garden hose and whatnot this year, since we were able to get the yard safely fenced and could finally use it as a play zone for Jamie, and the only thing standing between us and our use of it now is something for me to sit in there with Jamie, IN. (Keainid can still fit in his old old old swim trunks, and Jamie has some hand-me-down ones.) Besides, it would be nice to be able to use the kiddie pool (and the sandbox, which still needs sand) not just for us, but also for playdates. Roxanne's actually thinking of buying a bucket swing for OUR swingset, so that when her godchildren (one year old twins) are part of coming over to play, they can swing too. Since the city randomly took away the old playground right next door, a month or two ago, there's no baby swings for her to use with them, any more.
Toddler tidbits...
Unfortunately, by the time I'm getting the chance to get these down, I know I've forgotten the stories behind about three of my notes. ::sigh:: Oh well. Here are two, anyway...
Coming out of a bad patch (full moon + bad weather don't help), Jamie hasn't been big on the idea of eating solids. After much struggle and time, we've been having the most luck eventually getting mini ice cream cones or pudding into him, but....well anyway... Yesterday he made things harder on himself. We weren't yet at the point in the day when I would've refused to give him any more milk unless he finally ate some actual food first -- but then he tried to trick me, so he ended up in that position anyway. It's always interesting when our wily little boy tries to trick us, tries to manipulate the patterns he's picked up on and the new things he's learned. That kind of thing was why in any weaning process (losing the pacifier, switching from bottles to sippy cups) we had to go cold turkey with him -- any grey areas, and he'll focus on trying to manipulate them, instead of adjusting and adapting. Eniways, in this case, Jamie decided he was going to try to use what he's learned -- including verbally -- about progressions of activities. Specifically, he knew I was likely to respond to a request for milk by suggesting that he have, say, crackers first, and then milk. He knew I was likely to resist giving him milk for a while, until I'd tried several times to convince him to eat something else first, instead. So what did he do? He said, "Mommy, y'want crackers first, then milk, pwease." He had me sit him in his high chair, put on his tray, give him his crackers. And then, he said, "All done crackers, put away, milk now, pwease." Oh ho ho ho ho...nice try, kid.
Once again, we are reminded that his neurological disability is non-retarding. He's actually a very bright, wily little kid, with pretty darn good problem solving skills, for his age. We are also reminded of why, if he ends up with a PDD-NOS diagnosis and not an ASD diagnosis, it'll be because the social profile of Autism is the one primary component he doesn't match up well with. He not only can pick up, in many ways, on subtleties about how people work, but he'll actually think about them and try to find ways to make use of them.
And now, for a bit of cute, also tangeting off of a mealtime theme, actually. Keainid finally convinced Jamie to try a little bit of cereal, after some pudding, yesterday evening. Basically a cinnamon toast grahm squares generic type cereal. In any event, one of the squares broke while Jamie was examining and considering it. He looked up at his daddy and said, "Iss bwoken...can you fix it?"
~~~
I wish I knew how to stop Jamie from biting his nails. He figured out how, a while ago. Hell, he even tries biting his toenails off. But his fingernails are now getting bitten to the quick. I'm expecting them to start bleeding soon, it's that bad.
~~~
I have to publish a lot more mostly-ready Examiner articles. If the pubtool will let me. Having to fight with it definitely isn't good for my work momentum, there. Neither was having a large chunk of notes, articles, references and images that I compiled during round one of fighting with the PubTool, get trapped on the computer that needs repair. But I've got plenty more sitting on this computer now, it's just getting it ON THERE. At least my channel manager can't really hold it against me, since she's had PubTool issues herself while trying to see if she could fix some problems it wasn't letting me fix. But in the meantime, while tech support tries smooshing the bugs from the system that we're finding, it's not helping me earn my pennies. Bah.
Still, for all that I have only 6 "articles" on there so far, and have barely begun promoting (because there are only 6 "articles" on there), the response thus far has been decent. At least, it seems decent to me. Those 6 articles have 381 views, I've got three subscribers, I've had two comments left (one from someone I definitely do not know), I have interviews set up with someone who does an autism podcast, a special needs parent who does twittering and a radio show once a month, an aspie author/speaker, and just yesterday got an e-mail from a PR person from the Block Institute, offering the institute and it's head as a resource/connection. That one is pretty cool.
Ok, I've gotta finish this off and get going.
Keainid also spent a number of hours collecting more black raspberry bushes -- this time from the mother of the craigslister we got the last few from. These are much bigger and fuller. As long as they take the transplant as well as the first ones did, we should have a nice little harvest (more than the small handfull every few days we've had twice so far, from the other ones) shortly. None of the berries on these were ripe yet -- I actually sent Keainid with a bucket to collect any that might otherwise have fallen off and smushed in the van! But eniways, yeah....the other bushes made it maybe 1/3 of the way down one of the short sides of our fenced yard. Now the bushes go all the way down that side and 2/3 of the way down the long side (the back of the yard). We can probably fit in a few more by filling in some spaces that were left, but not much beyond that, unless we put them elsewhere on the property. We don't want to plant them too close to the swingset. As it is, we've gotta go where Roxanne got her free tree trunk slices and see if they have anything good we can use to make a low wall around where we planted the bushes, to keep Jamie's ball from rolling right under them, and inviting him to dive headfirst into the brambles. We could plant them deeper -- that is, further out into the yard -- but much of our yard is sloped, which only leaves so much area for the kiddie pool, the grill, tables, or anything else. Maybe we'll plant some more along the sides of the house, once I get more of those weeds out. (Who the hell has 4 foot tall dandelions? I don't think anyone weeded here since the place was built in the 80s!) They aren't exactly pretty, and there are those thorns to consider, but I LOVE being able to walk out of my house and pick some fresh berries.
I really have to find a decent bathing suit. I've been putting it off because they are expensive, and....I haven't worn one in over a decade. My last suit -- a bikini, because they didn't make tankinis yet and I never found the right long-torso one-piece -- was bought 40lbs ago. Yeah, that's not happening. I'm also hoping to get at least some of my pre-Jamie waist back, so I don't want to invest a ton in a suit that will, ideally, only be worn a few times. But we got the kiddie pool for Jamie two birthdays ago, we got the garden hose and whatnot this year, since we were able to get the yard safely fenced and could finally use it as a play zone for Jamie, and the only thing standing between us and our use of it now is something for me to sit in there with Jamie, IN. (Keainid can still fit in his old old old swim trunks, and Jamie has some hand-me-down ones.) Besides, it would be nice to be able to use the kiddie pool (and the sandbox, which still needs sand) not just for us, but also for playdates. Roxanne's actually thinking of buying a bucket swing for OUR swingset, so that when her godchildren (one year old twins) are part of coming over to play, they can swing too. Since the city randomly took away the old playground right next door, a month or two ago, there's no baby swings for her to use with them, any more.
Toddler tidbits...
Unfortunately, by the time I'm getting the chance to get these down, I know I've forgotten the stories behind about three of my notes. ::sigh:: Oh well. Here are two, anyway...
Coming out of a bad patch (full moon + bad weather don't help), Jamie hasn't been big on the idea of eating solids. After much struggle and time, we've been having the most luck eventually getting mini ice cream cones or pudding into him, but....well anyway... Yesterday he made things harder on himself. We weren't yet at the point in the day when I would've refused to give him any more milk unless he finally ate some actual food first -- but then he tried to trick me, so he ended up in that position anyway. It's always interesting when our wily little boy tries to trick us, tries to manipulate the patterns he's picked up on and the new things he's learned. That kind of thing was why in any weaning process (losing the pacifier, switching from bottles to sippy cups) we had to go cold turkey with him -- any grey areas, and he'll focus on trying to manipulate them, instead of adjusting and adapting. Eniways, in this case, Jamie decided he was going to try to use what he's learned -- including verbally -- about progressions of activities. Specifically, he knew I was likely to respond to a request for milk by suggesting that he have, say, crackers first, and then milk. He knew I was likely to resist giving him milk for a while, until I'd tried several times to convince him to eat something else first, instead. So what did he do? He said, "Mommy, y'want crackers first, then milk, pwease." He had me sit him in his high chair, put on his tray, give him his crackers. And then, he said, "All done crackers, put away, milk now, pwease." Oh ho ho ho ho...nice try, kid.
Once again, we are reminded that his neurological disability is non-retarding. He's actually a very bright, wily little kid, with pretty darn good problem solving skills, for his age. We are also reminded of why, if he ends up with a PDD-NOS diagnosis and not an ASD diagnosis, it'll be because the social profile of Autism is the one primary component he doesn't match up well with. He not only can pick up, in many ways, on subtleties about how people work, but he'll actually think about them and try to find ways to make use of them.
And now, for a bit of cute, also tangeting off of a mealtime theme, actually. Keainid finally convinced Jamie to try a little bit of cereal, after some pudding, yesterday evening. Basically a cinnamon toast grahm squares generic type cereal. In any event, one of the squares broke while Jamie was examining and considering it. He looked up at his daddy and said, "Iss bwoken...can you fix it?"
~~~
I wish I knew how to stop Jamie from biting his nails. He figured out how, a while ago. Hell, he even tries biting his toenails off. But his fingernails are now getting bitten to the quick. I'm expecting them to start bleeding soon, it's that bad.
~~~
I have to publish a lot more mostly-ready Examiner articles. If the pubtool will let me. Having to fight with it definitely isn't good for my work momentum, there. Neither was having a large chunk of notes, articles, references and images that I compiled during round one of fighting with the PubTool, get trapped on the computer that needs repair. But I've got plenty more sitting on this computer now, it's just getting it ON THERE. At least my channel manager can't really hold it against me, since she's had PubTool issues herself while trying to see if she could fix some problems it wasn't letting me fix. But in the meantime, while tech support tries smooshing the bugs from the system that we're finding, it's not helping me earn my pennies. Bah.
Still, for all that I have only 6 "articles" on there so far, and have barely begun promoting (because there are only 6 "articles" on there), the response thus far has been decent. At least, it seems decent to me. Those 6 articles have 381 views, I've got three subscribers, I've had two comments left (one from someone I definitely do not know), I have interviews set up with someone who does an autism podcast, a special needs parent who does twittering and a radio show once a month, an aspie author/speaker, and just yesterday got an e-mail from a PR person from the Block Institute, offering the institute and it's head as a resource/connection. That one is pretty cool.
Ok, I've gotta finish this off and get going.