Ok, I don't actually know any songs about horse therapy. This is huge, HUGE. He tried something new and scary that he didn't want to do. And loved it. He rode the horse for about half an hour.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
What I love about our new place
Surprisingly, The Bud Light ad:
Most days, as we drive home/away from home, we pass by a mini-mart that advertises heavily for beer. We have a lot of conversations with our 5-year old about what that is and why he can't have any. Also, he has taken note that I don't want any beer either. Now, whenever we are in the store and we see someone with beer in their shopping cart, he says, "I hate beer!!". He says it with gusto. He sounds a little like Bobby Hill, as he growls the word 'hate'. If you know anything about autism, you may remember that there is a component of repeating patterns, repeating speech, obsessing over ideas or objects. Hating beer is one of his obsessions.
Lake
Every couple of weeks we go to the lake and spend most of Saturday on the beach. On Mother's Day saturday Jeff took me to a fancy restaurant on the lake and I got crusted halibut with mango chutney. I'm such a foodie. Thanks hon!
Things to do
We stay super busy with gymnastics, playgroup, OT & speech, and every week we get to go see the coolest music lady ever. We can never get enough of the children's museum here and there is another big one down the road 30 minutes. Z really loved school this year and tells me at night, how much he misses it.
Neighbors
I got to feed our neighbor's dogs for a couple of days while they were at a motorcycle rally. 2 austrailian shepards...the sweetest boys in the whole world...now I want another dog. This time I want one that fetches. Speaking of animals, we have a kangaroo mouse in our backyard. (I'm thinking CAT). There is a birds nest in our gutter. We have a squirrel, quail and once I saw an owl.
My new can-do attitude
I needed a hobby when we came here. I have begun building my own furniture. First I built 2 bookshelves from one sheet of plywood and some trim. Now I am working on building a desk. Jeff is a great resource when I mess it up or need to improvise. Thanks Diane, for telling me about this website that got me started.
House
When we first walked through our house, there was a family renting it, including two little girls. It was the girls that sold me the house. They were riding their scooters up and down the longest hallway I've ever seen in a house. Scooter riding and other shenanigans are encouraged here.
Here is Z dancing in the long hall. Don't ask him to dance for you, he won't, he is not a trick pony. PS. Jeff didn't know I was filming; secrecy is really the only way to catch these things on tape though.
The house has all of my big requirements. The kitchen is amazingly
functional, I don't want to change a thing. Since it has a country
theme, I decided to go with it and do the cutest country kitchen ever. Color is important to us and we are painting very slowly through the rooms. Z's room is green and cream.
When we put the green on CC helped (she had paint in her hair for days).
Now she loves to touch the green wall and rub her cheek on it. I think
it's time to put some color in her room too.
Most days, as we drive home/away from home, we pass by a mini-mart that advertises heavily for beer. We have a lot of conversations with our 5-year old about what that is and why he can't have any. Also, he has taken note that I don't want any beer either. Now, whenever we are in the store and we see someone with beer in their shopping cart, he says, "I hate beer!!". He says it with gusto. He sounds a little like Bobby Hill, as he growls the word 'hate'. If you know anything about autism, you may remember that there is a component of repeating patterns, repeating speech, obsessing over ideas or objects. Hating beer is one of his obsessions.
Lake
Every couple of weeks we go to the lake and spend most of Saturday on the beach. On Mother's Day saturday Jeff took me to a fancy restaurant on the lake and I got crusted halibut with mango chutney. I'm such a foodie. Thanks hon!Things to do
We stay super busy with gymnastics, playgroup, OT & speech, and every week we get to go see the coolest music lady ever. We can never get enough of the children's museum here and there is another big one down the road 30 minutes. Z really loved school this year and tells me at night, how much he misses it.
Neighbors
I got to feed our neighbor's dogs for a couple of days while they were at a motorcycle rally. 2 austrailian shepards...the sweetest boys in the whole world...now I want another dog. This time I want one that fetches. Speaking of animals, we have a kangaroo mouse in our backyard. (I'm thinking CAT). There is a birds nest in our gutter. We have a squirrel, quail and once I saw an owl.
My new can-do attitude
I needed a hobby when we came here. I have begun building my own furniture. First I built 2 bookshelves from one sheet of plywood and some trim. Now I am working on building a desk. Jeff is a great resource when I mess it up or need to improvise. Thanks Diane, for telling me about this website that got me started.
House
When we first walked through our house, there was a family renting it, including two little girls. It was the girls that sold me the house. They were riding their scooters up and down the longest hallway I've ever seen in a house. Scooter riding and other shenanigans are encouraged here.
Here is Z dancing in the long hall. Don't ask him to dance for you, he won't, he is not a trick pony. PS. Jeff didn't know I was filming; secrecy is really the only way to catch these things on tape though.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
I just found this post in my draft pile. I don't know why I never posted it, so here it is
I love that Zealand picks his nose and then puts the booger in the other nostril. I love that when he needs to use the bathroom, he says, "so anyway, I need to go potty." I love that he farted in the tub and called it "poop bubbles" (that was last year). He also referred to the hot-water-bottle as a "water purse". Genius. When I say "Dr. Seuss" he corrects me. Did you know it's actually "Dr. Susan"?
I love feeding Charlotte. She reminds me of Zealand, except that she might be easier to wean. He was so broken-hearted. I want to remember that she prefers to nurse while she does gymnastics with her legs. She is incredibly strong and she loves to grab my arm or belly and squeeze the life right out of me.I have a half-dozen claw marks on my belly right now. A few months ago, she was less sophisticated and she would dig her thumbnail into my collarbone and twist it back and forth like a thumbnail screwdriver. When she was newborn, I adored the way she would rest her hand on her belly as she ate, as if to say, "Oh, I'm stuffed, great dinner by the way".
Charlotte kisses me. Last night she bit my nose. Over and over again. Even in the dark as I put her to bed. She makes a sound by using her fist to flap her lips up and down while talking. I think all kids do this. She does it really slow. Zealand never had a lovey...except me. Charlotte's lovey is a wet dishrag. When I wipe down the kitchen countertops, she cries and cries for the rag. Now she gets her own rag most days. She just loves to suck all the water out of it. Charlotte is afraid of people blowing bubbles in their bubble gum. She has started crawling over to her bed and squawking at me until I put her in it so she can do laps around the crib and mug on her pink horse, which lives there.
I guess this post came about because Charlotte is almost ready to start walking and it just hit me fast that her first year is almost over. I have also been organizing our digital photos and remembering how much fun it was to get to know my first baby, even though he is now a big kid. I need to post/take more pictures and mark these events because being a mom is the greatest time of my life.
I love feeding Charlotte. She reminds me of Zealand, except that she might be easier to wean. He was so broken-hearted. I want to remember that she prefers to nurse while she does gymnastics with her legs. She is incredibly strong and she loves to grab my arm or belly and squeeze the life right out of me.I have a half-dozen claw marks on my belly right now. A few months ago, she was less sophisticated and she would dig her thumbnail into my collarbone and twist it back and forth like a thumbnail screwdriver. When she was newborn, I adored the way she would rest her hand on her belly as she ate, as if to say, "Oh, I'm stuffed, great dinner by the way".
Charlotte kisses me. Last night she bit my nose. Over and over again. Even in the dark as I put her to bed. She makes a sound by using her fist to flap her lips up and down while talking. I think all kids do this. She does it really slow. Zealand never had a lovey...except me. Charlotte's lovey is a wet dishrag. When I wipe down the kitchen countertops, she cries and cries for the rag. Now she gets her own rag most days. She just loves to suck all the water out of it. Charlotte is afraid of people blowing bubbles in their bubble gum. She has started crawling over to her bed and squawking at me until I put her in it so she can do laps around the crib and mug on her pink horse, which lives there.
I guess this post came about because Charlotte is almost ready to start walking and it just hit me fast that her first year is almost over. I have also been organizing our digital photos and remembering how much fun it was to get to know my first baby, even though he is now a big kid. I need to post/take more pictures and mark these events because being a mom is the greatest time of my life.
Friday, January 18, 2013
We Moved
We moved! I can't believe how fast we got out of our house. Thanks to our neighbors and family, we couldn't have done it without you.
Before going any further, let's just talk about one thing: Clementine stems. The little green stub on an orange peel. Zealand likes to pop them out of the orange. I left this one in so you could tell what it is in the picture.
Z pops the stems out of the oranges and then he puts them here:
In the heating duct.
I asked Jeff about it and apparnetly this has been going on for 2 years, but I didn't know about it until the week we moved out. That kid cracks me up.
Ok. The move.
It was a crazy move. A grueling drive through the desert with little kids, I should have planned snacks and toys; we had them, hey we had everything we owned with us, but I could have had it more 'together'. I should have known not to stay at the Clown Motel....never again. (Paula-I was so so glad you were packing ham for breakfast, we almost ordered food delivered to the hotel.)
We saw a mini-cooper on the side of the road in the middle of the desert. The airbags were deployed and the car had hit a black angus cow. The passengers had abandoned the car. We could have easily hit that cow.
Being without internet service for a week in a new city is lame...just sayin'. We very glad to be wired up again.
We are mostly moved in to our new "in-partment", as Z calls it. The other night he insisted that we refer to our inpartment as "home", not "the apartment/inpartment". That was the same night that we got on the freeway to shoot to the other end of town and he became alarmed that we were taking him back to our "small brick house" (he thinks the apartment is big because it is 3 stories, nevermind that the apartment is less than half the size of our house). I don't know exactly why or how it happened, but that kid loves it here in Nevada. School is working out for him. He shares a room with Charlotte and refers to her as "my baby". Sharing a room is new for them and a challenge for me. The other day sis was up for 1 1/2 hours in the night. After trying everything we could think of, Jeff put her on the floor and she walked over to Zealand and kissed him without waking him, then asked to be put in her bed and went right to sleep. Z loves to get the mail and visit with the apartment manager, who makes cookies every morning.
The boxes that have yet to be unpacked will probably remain that way until we find a house. I want to buy in a certain neighborhood that has a great school. This might lead us to buy another old house because it is an old part of town.
Before going any further, let's just talk about one thing: Clementine stems. The little green stub on an orange peel. Zealand likes to pop them out of the orange. I left this one in so you could tell what it is in the picture.
I asked Jeff about it and apparnetly this has been going on for 2 years, but I didn't know about it until the week we moved out. That kid cracks me up.
Ok. The move.
It was a crazy move. A grueling drive through the desert with little kids, I should have planned snacks and toys; we had them, hey we had everything we owned with us, but I could have had it more 'together'. I should have known not to stay at the Clown Motel....never again. (Paula-I was so so glad you were packing ham for breakfast, we almost ordered food delivered to the hotel.)
We saw a mini-cooper on the side of the road in the middle of the desert. The airbags were deployed and the car had hit a black angus cow. The passengers had abandoned the car. We could have easily hit that cow.
Being without internet service for a week in a new city is lame...just sayin'. We very glad to be wired up again.
We are mostly moved in to our new "in-partment", as Z calls it. The other night he insisted that we refer to our inpartment as "home", not "the apartment/inpartment". That was the same night that we got on the freeway to shoot to the other end of town and he became alarmed that we were taking him back to our "small brick house" (he thinks the apartment is big because it is 3 stories, nevermind that the apartment is less than half the size of our house). I don't know exactly why or how it happened, but that kid loves it here in Nevada. School is working out for him. He shares a room with Charlotte and refers to her as "my baby". Sharing a room is new for them and a challenge for me. The other day sis was up for 1 1/2 hours in the night. After trying everything we could think of, Jeff put her on the floor and she walked over to Zealand and kissed him without waking him, then asked to be put in her bed and went right to sleep. Z loves to get the mail and visit with the apartment manager, who makes cookies every morning.
The boxes that have yet to be unpacked will probably remain that way until we find a house. I want to buy in a certain neighborhood that has a great school. This might lead us to buy another old house because it is an old part of town.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Clean
I've been working on something. Something big. I've been learning how to make my house CLEAN ENOUGH. Not spotless, just liveable, so I'm not embarrassed if someone stops by. To do it I neglected most of the house for roughly 4 months (the book I read, the one that helped me accomplish this feat, estimated it would take me 6. I thought, no way, I can get it done in 1 month. Ha ha). Then I carefully considered each item that I own. Let that sink in for a minute. Every single thing. In every cupboard, on every shelf. I catalogued problems, repairs, needed remodeling projects. I considered whether the things I had were things I loved, or if I kept them because of guilt or frugality or some other reason besides actually wanting to keep them. I also examined whether or not the things I owned had a place where they belonged.
A concept that is completely shocking and new to me is this: If I don't have room for it, I can't keep it. This is causing me to get rid of things like my eliptical machine, furniture, clothing, books, records, 8-tracks, and even MY CD'S. If you know me, you know that in high school, I had all my cd's in a book (they probably numbered about 200, they had grown significantly since) and I would tote it to my car and back again anytime I went anywhere. More recently the cd's were making me crazy since they were always being left face down on the countertop, microwave, kitchen table, craft table, in the car, and on and on. So I sold the bulk of my music at our yard sale for $20. Now I get to start over with a digital music collection.
I still have work to do. Some of the projects I want done are too big to do now. I have not done the outdoor areas of the yard, cars or garage yet. I set up new systems for dealing with clutter and some of these systems still need adjusting. Here are some of the things I changed:
*a new mail/paper sorting system- i sort the mail each day
*laundry system ( and family chore system- these are integrated.) So far, I've got the dirty laundry down, if anyone has any pointers on how to get the clean laundry actually put away- please share
*I collected swimming gear in one bag (thanks Shanalee for helping me see that this needed to be done)
*I collected gift wrapping gear in one closet
*my home office is in the hall closet
*bill pay/letter writing center
etc.
I went so fast and now I'm running out of steam, so maybe writing this post will help me to remember how far I have come so I can keep going. Once I get through everything, the house should run so much smoother, I can't wait.
A concept that is completely shocking and new to me is this: If I don't have room for it, I can't keep it. This is causing me to get rid of things like my eliptical machine, furniture, clothing, books, records, 8-tracks, and even MY CD'S. If you know me, you know that in high school, I had all my cd's in a book (they probably numbered about 200, they had grown significantly since) and I would tote it to my car and back again anytime I went anywhere. More recently the cd's were making me crazy since they were always being left face down on the countertop, microwave, kitchen table, craft table, in the car, and on and on. So I sold the bulk of my music at our yard sale for $20. Now I get to start over with a digital music collection.
I still have work to do. Some of the projects I want done are too big to do now. I have not done the outdoor areas of the yard, cars or garage yet. I set up new systems for dealing with clutter and some of these systems still need adjusting. Here are some of the things I changed:
*a new mail/paper sorting system- i sort the mail each day
*laundry system ( and family chore system- these are integrated.) So far, I've got the dirty laundry down, if anyone has any pointers on how to get the clean laundry actually put away- please share
*I collected swimming gear in one bag (thanks Shanalee for helping me see that this needed to be done)
*I collected gift wrapping gear in one closet
*my home office is in the hall closet
*bill pay/letter writing center
etc.
I went so fast and now I'm running out of steam, so maybe writing this post will help me to remember how far I have come so I can keep going. Once I get through everything, the house should run so much smoother, I can't wait.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Funeral
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Easter 2012
We went to the city's Easter Egg Hunt for the first time this year. Z couldn't figure out why everyone was screaming. There were plenty of eggs to go around. He calmly picked up half a dozen and then he was done. He treasures them, he won't eat the candy- just saving it up.
Sis was calm about the whole thing too. In fact we are just a pretty laid back crew. We saw one mom dragging her daughter across main street, screaming at her because she had done something embarrassing. The mom kept saying "How could you do this to me?". I felt bad for the little girl and her ruined Easter. I'm trying not to be a screamer.
Sis was calm about the whole thing too. In fact we are just a pretty laid back crew. We saw one mom dragging her daughter across main street, screaming at her because she had done something embarrassing. The mom kept saying "How could you do this to me?". I felt bad for the little girl and her ruined Easter. I'm trying not to be a screamer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)