Pumpkins and Monkey Poop

Ok, that's really two different topics, but it does sound funny together, eh?

Pumpkins
So, we bought the kids some ginormous pumpkins at Sam's. Only $5! Awesome, right? WRONG.
These pumpkins have some sort of titanium exoskeleton that killed:

• two little pumpkin saws (the ones that come with the pattern kits)


• one of the slightly larger safety pumpkin carving knives


• an electric knife (like the kind you carve turkeys with.

And that was only to cut off the top of one! I finally made it through with one tiny pumpkin saw #3, proceeded with the very basic of jack o'lantern faces, and left the second pumpkin whole.

Lesson learned: Next year we paint the pumpkins.

Monkey Poop
Chase LOVES the Speed Racer movie. I wasn't sure that he'd like it, so I got it with Netflix. We've had it for like 3 weeks now. I'm going to sneak it back in the mail tomorrow.
Anyway, there's a chimp in the movie, who when in a tough spot, throws poop in the bad guy's face.

Chase finds this HILARIOUS. He'll be sitting in the car and suddenly be laughing. I'll say, "What's so funny?" "Mom, monkey throws poop!" More laughing.

Anyway, Chase is Speed racer for Halloween, so we here this joke A LOT. It's actually pretty funny. Here's a few pictures of his school party. You might notice it's a "homemade" costume. It does have a white collar that goes with it, but Chase decided he doesn't want to wear it. Chase has never been willing to put on a costume. The "Jedi episode of Halloween 2006" was a doozy and taught me to give up until he's older. I've also learned that it's not a good idea to spray Chase's hair black, even if he insists. We'll call bath-time last night the "Hair washing from Hell incident of Halloween 2008".

















Also, here's a few other pictures from a corn maze that we went to back in early September.









And, here's some of Craig's projects: "our" beer (mostly Craig makes it and I drink it) and FRED (who is done, except for another coat of paint next spring.)





Happy Halloween!

Sick

And I don't mean "sweet" or "cool".

I'm kind of glad that I don't feel better because then I'd have to ponder whether or not to be happy I got sick after everyone else.

Even with my stuffy nose and accompanying headache, we brought the kids to a "tailgate" party at my work for the MSU/U of M game. Since it was cold, wet, and muddy, we stayed inside most of the time. Chase and Cory made it for a few hours, thanks to cookies, pop from the free pop machines, and playdoh. Luckily, the people that work in the marketing building like to keep creative things, including playdoh, out in the meeting areas.

The only major issue we had was Chase's breakdown when his hotdog bun broke. Just to bring you up to speed, if he's eating a hotdog and the bun splits, he gets very upset and refuses to eat any more of the remaining hotdog, even if we put it on another bun. And, since he's into these whining breakdowns, he's very noisy, agitated, and teary when this happens. It's interesting how much louder it sounds when you're with ten of your coworkers, instead of at home.

With some slight of hand that would make Penn and Teller proud, we were able to replace the hotdog bun with Cory's without either kid noticing. Throw in a no bake cookie, and we were set.

Another funny thing, last night Craig was trying to watch Cold Case. Chase was playing with his new favorite Speed Race car, racing it around the table in the dining room. Chase kept coming out and turning on the basball game. He was listening to it from the dining room. It was really interesting. He's never shown an interest in baseball on tv before.

Autism Moms Unite!

I wanted to share something with you all. I know that some of you also have Autism in your lives. Some of you don't, but someday will have to help your kids understand our kids.

Anyway, there is a very good blog by an Autism mom called Diary of a Mom. The woman, Jess Wilson, and her blog are listed as Resources on the Autism Speaks website.

I've checked it out periodically, but this post made me really want to share it.

I hope you all take a look at it sometime. I wish I had enough time to think and write like she does. Maybe too many years of writing about computers and procedures have broken my creative side.

Daycare Woes

Well, over the past year and a half, I've been very happy with our daycare. Chase is a handful some days, but the teachers have been very understanding and given him the extra attention he needs to survive in a daycare situation.

Until now, that is.

For some background, Chase (and Cory) go to a very nice daycare each morning. Chase leaves around noon to go to his "real" preschool class.

At daycare, he's in the 4-5 year old preschool/daycare class. There are about 20 kids and two teachers. It seems to me that one of the teachers does not want to "deal" with him.

Yes, he takes some negotiating on certain things. But, once he's comfortable, he does pretty well.

At his "real" preschool, which is afternoons at the Elementary School for our district, he is doing good. The class is about the same size, but there are three teachers.

So, yesterday, we had his Teacher Consultant (who helps his teachers to meet his special needs) observe the daycare.

Her feelings were like ours: The teacher was not going to put any extra effort in to help Chase. She was actually excluding him to a certain level, and even though we offered ideas to make things easier for him, it was going "in one ear and out the other."

So, we took him (and Cory) out of the daycare. My angel of a Mom is going to watch the kids until we can figure something else out.

We've been at that daycare quite a while, and I'm sad to have to do this, but we don't really have a choice. They never said that they could handle special needs kids, but so far, the teachers have cared enough to put in a little bit of effort.

There's actually other autistic kids at that daycare, but these kids are less functional than Chase, keep to themselves, and do not interact with the teachers or the other children. So, these kids are "easy" compared to Chase, who wants friends and to interact but doesn't really understand social norms and rules.

It makes me scared to think about future school classes and how those will go. sigh.

Better?

Well, we had a good weekend and most of the sickness is out of the house. We went up north for the trees. We had a good time and beautiful weather, but the colors were just past peak.

Here's a few pictures:
















We also had two dogs show up at our house last night. I think that they might be purebred Jack Russells. We're looking for their owner. They're pretty cute, but the puppy keeps going after Copper, our 90+ lb German Shepard/Great Pyrenees mix. That's not going to work for too long. Here they are:



(We are calling the puppy "Sparkles" and the big one is Jack. Chase helped name them. I think that Sparkles is one of the dogs in Barbie and the Diamond Castle...)

(Jodie, you probably can't tell, but all those images are from the Jing embed code...)

Yikes.

So, today was the first day I was in the office this week. Chase has been sick. Viral something on Tuesday and 12 hours later, he also had an ear infection.

The kids did great at the birthday party, except for leaving... I was the only one with issues. I get so worried when both kids are not in my sight. There were several times when I didn't have either in my sight. It's a safe place, but I'm a worrier. Anyway, I survived.

So, Craig's home tonight, so hopefully things will get back to normal.

All my STC grad friends: We're hiring another writer, so anyone interested in working for an awesome company in Okemos, MI, let me know and I can let you know how to apply.

Have a good weekend!

We've got a birthday party, book club, and Craig's leaving for a conference in Texas.

I'm excited for Chase's first "friend" birthday party. It's at one of those big inflatable places. He's pumped for it. Of course, I'm wondering if he's going to fit in with all the other kids. I sure hope so.

Oh, funny enough, Chase LOVES the song Real Gone by Sheryl Crow from the movie Cars. He's been trying to sing it in the car lately. It's pretty fun to see him doing that kind of thing. It's his first song that doesn't involve numbers, monkeys, the alphabet, baby bumblebees, or Dora the "Explora".

I'm back...

After MUCH prodding, I'm back. While it seems I have time to check out other people's blogs, I can't seem to take the time to write anything myself. So, here I am.

Since it's been so long, here's a list of random stuff:

• Craig finished Fred. It's a great barn/shed/garage-like building. He did a great job. I'm so glad my husband's so handy!


• We had a nice, but busy summer. Lots of random stuff. I can't believe it's over!


• Chase is now in a "regular" preschool class. He still has an aid in the class, but he's doing pretty good. It was a bit rough at first, but things seem to be settling down. He's super smart and so high-functioning that most people see him as being "just difficult". He's not flexible in a lot of situations, and they seem to forget that he's autistic.


• Cory is something else. She's got a LOT of personality and attitude, but super polite. EVERYTHING is "please" and "thank you" although, we're hearing "gracias" more than thank you. (Thanks, I mean gracias, Dora.)


• My mom's car was shot at by a potato gun on her why to the mall after picking up Cory from daycare yesterday. A high speed potato hit her window and exploded. It sounds funny, but if her window would have been open, it would have hit her in the head. What's wrong with people. Oh, and this was in town on a residential street. WTF?


• We got a new cat this summer. His name is Jing (yes Jodie, like The Jing Project. It's just so awesome, and I'm a nerd.) He looks a LOT like Mica, so sometimes it's a little weird, but Jing is much, much nicer than Mica ever was.

That's all I can think of for now. Really, I'll try to post more.