Be A Good Mom

Pookie and Geetle had a great time.

I did not.

Why don’t people RSVP?  If you aren’t coming, at least have the decency to tell the host that, so she can move on and maybe invite a few Tier II guests instead.   Is your kid so popular that he/she gets literally dozens of birthday party invitations a week and you could not possibly reply to them all?  No?  Then have enough common courtesy to drop me an email telling me you aren’t coming.  We had party hats for you , Zoe and Jacob.  I made a candy necklace for you, James.  I bought enough donuts for you both, Yasmine and Britney.

I am glad 4 of our friends did come over today.  A party of 6 preschoolers was a good size.  We had fun playing pin the tail on the donkey, drinking out of teacups and eating birthday donuts.  But, I am mad that the others did not show.  Good thing Pookie and Geetle are too young to notice, I would hate to see their feelings hurt.  The ironic part is that I am sure Zoe, James and the others did not refuse to come….their parents never gave them the opportunity.    Stupid parents.  I will still say “Hello” to Zoe on the bus, but I might not talk to her Mom at the next Field Day.

Today we are having our first friend birthday party.  Things are all ready, and now I just have nervous energy to waste before the guests start to arrive.  I hope it goes well.  Few people formally RSVPd so I really don’t know how many to expect.   But we are ready for at least a dozen!  I will post the details after the party.

Geetle actually instructed me to do this today.  I was leaving for the gym and she stuck her head out the front door and yelled “Goodbye!  Tell the gym I love it!”  I think its one of her recent obsessions gone a bit haywire.  At bedtime, as we are closing the bedroom door, she shouts just one more good night and one more “I love you!”  Usually, its a “tell X that I love him/her!”, someone who is not in the room.  Sometimes its Giggles.  Sometimes its the fish in the fishtank.  Sometimes its BAGD.

So, tonite as I was leaving, it was “Tell the gym I love it!”

Crazy kid.

Giggles is starting to get lively and its alot of fun.  When I give her a bath, she kicks and swims in the tub.  She tries to grab toys (unsuccessfully, so far).  She pushes her bottle away when she is done.  She tries to imitate sounds that we make.  She blows raspberries.   She smiles and does a little gasping laugh.  She is 3 months old now…and its about time.  I tell ya.  Those first 3 months were rough.  Boooring!  Haha.  But you know what I mean.  She just laid there.  Now its like someone put fresh batteries in her.   Love it!

Last Saturday, Pookie and I went to a Sign Language Chat.  We joined a Meetup.com group and attended our first one.  The group is made up of a former ASL sign language interpreter and a bunch of eager amateurs.   While sometimes there might be enough people at the meetings to hold entire conversations in sign, at this meeting it was just Pookie, me and one other lady asking the leader how to say certain things.  It was fun.  Pookie likes sign language; he has a few DVDs of baby signs.  We like that it give him one more way to communicate and one more way to be reminded that messages/requests/statements are important.  Sometimes its like he just does not think to communicate.  We have been practicing at home and look forward to our next meeting.  We are doing a pretty good job of remembering our signs.

What to piss me off?  Be my son’s teacher and tell me this:

“As far as regression and recoupment data for extended school year,  at this time my data does not support the need for **** to attend school during the summer through the district.  The data needs to show that ***** is unable to regain learned skills after a 6 week period after returning from an extended break. ”

WTF?!  Your data does not show that he will  need summer school?  Hmmm….my data shows that he has autism.  Autism for crap’s sake!   That means that he gets to go to summer school.  End of discussion.   He needs every opportunity to attend school.  EVERY ONE.  Your data shows that he will take less than 6 weeks to recoup whatever skills he loses over the summer break.  How pleasant.  I would prefer that he lose no skills at all!  What you are saying is that he is not severe enough.  Oh sure, he has autism and all that, but not *too* bad.  So, whatever he loses over summer break, he will get back.   He’ll still end up a Grade A Autistic, don’t worry.  But that’s not our goal for him.  Our goal for him is to get as much out of life as he can.  Why would we purposely set him up for a period of regression?  Even if he will regain the skills in less than 6 weeks?  I do not want him to spend any time “recouping.”  He should be spending all his time learning new skills.

I know the game.  We have played it before and won.  I know what his IEP entitles Pookie to.   I know how to insist that the new IEP which will be written in the Spring include goals that he WILL NOT be able to do without Summer School.  I know the I in IEP stands for Individual, so I don’t care if you say students like Pookie do not qualify for Summer School.   The game begins here, school district.  And we will win, just like we did last year when you DID offer Pookie 4 weeks of summer school and we sucessfully turned that into 5 weeks and a private tutor for the rest of the summer.

Bring it on.

You know what I love?  The Schick Intuition Razor.

I got one of these free from a salon that I visited.  I thought, “whatever…just a razor.”  But, I do love it!  It has a built-in system for lather, so you don’t have to use shaving cream.  When I was pregnant, I found that it was the easiest way to shave my legs.  Just stand in the shower and swipe.  Minimal bending over.  Room for error.  No shaving cream all over that you can barely see anyway.   I think its the easiest/best way to shave your legs when pregnant. 

I also love it for “winter leg maintenance.”  I am not as meticulous with the neatness of my shave in the winter, so I can just swipe this thing up and down each leg a few times and *poof*  I am done! 

Its great. 

I will not catch a cold by going outside without my coat on!

I do not want to hear it again.  I dart in and out of the house 4 times a day managing the preschool bus pick ups and drop offs.  If I took the time to bundle up every time, you would write me up for being too slow getting my kid off the bus.  The bus is parked 25 feet from my front door.  I run out, hop on your over-heated bus, grab my kid, and run back inside.  I do not need a coat for that.  There are so many other stupid things we could make small talk about.  Can we move past me and my unwillingness to wear a coat?

Did you ever notice how you keep track of weird milestones for your kids?  Geetle is always telling me things like “*gasp*  This is Giggles’ first time at Target!”  or “*gasp* Giggles, you never wore tights before!”

I do it too.  I remember taking a picture of Pookie and Geetle eating their first Happy Meal.  I took a picture of them the first time they sat in the stroller seat, not using their carseat.  First gloves, not mittens.  First time using a paintbrush. First time drinking out of a coffee cup. 

Last week, I wrote about “One Great Thing about Autism.”  I have been thinking about that, and I have another one.   With Autism, you get to keep on marking weird milestones, for years, and that is incredibly exciting and fun.  Pookie had one yesterday.  I was so excited that I called BAGD.  I told Mamaw when she came over this morning.  Yesterday…Pookie grabbed his pee-pee in public and calmly announced “I have to go to the bathroom.” 

That’s huge. 

#1 - he usually does not know how to communicate those type of needs. 

#2 - when he has to pee at home, he just runs to the bathroom and goes.  Out in public, when he does not know where to run, he often gets upset or has an accident. 

#3 - right before he made his announcment, he was having fun.  He usually does not want to leave “fun” for a trip to the bathroom.

#4- all little boys do it….and so did Pookie!

So, there is another great thing about autism.  As parent, we like to mark milestones.  Even though Geetle is still making milestones too (first friend birthday party, first time saying thanks without being prompted, etc), the milestones that Pookie makes are different.   With autism, those milestones are more prominent and special, and hopefully you get to make them for years and years. 

Giggles is pretty quiet.  I am not sure if its because she is only 2 1/2 months old or because she has nothing to say.  Sure, she coos.  She smiles.  BAGD even got a laugh today.  But, most of the time she is just staring at us, contentedly.  Kind of like this:

BAGD says that my perspective is warped.  Last time I had a 2 1/2 month old baby, I had 2 of them.  So everything was doubled, including the noise.  He’s probably right.  She is just so quiet, it unnerves me sometime.   How much noise does one 2 1/2 month old baby make?