Be A Good Mom

What?

That is what he said.

I’m just telling you what he said.

Any hoo. This is a story about a little boy with autism and his amazing grasp of the English language.

I made a batch of Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles for Uncle JoeJoe’s birthday. Some are rolled in walnuts, some are rolled in powdered sugar. I was finishing them up as I made dinner. Pookie came over and told me he was hungry. As I was rolling the truffles, I replied “I’m making dinner.” He looked at the truffles…to see what I was “making.” Liking the look of what I was “making”, Pookie decided he wanted one. But, he did not know what they were called. Putting on his thinking cap, he remembered that I said I was “making dinner”.

Pookie: (eyeing the truffles) “I want a dinner circle.”

BAGM: (snickering) “No, not right now.”

At that point, Pookie wandered away. He returned a few minutes later and tried again.

Pookie: (noticing that I was rolling chocolate centers in powdered sugar) “I want a chocolate vanilla.”

BAGM: (smiling) “No, not right now. I will give you one later.”

Finally, after I was done, I gave him one as a pre-dinner treat. He’s a big fan. During dinner, he asked for another one. I gave him one and asked how he liked it. His reply?

“I like white balls.”

So, there you have it. A boy who tried several different ways to get his message across, using adjectives and descriptive phrases when he did not know the right title for an object. A boy who, instead of getting angry when told “No” decided to try a different approach and kept his eyes on the prize. A boy who clearly has 10x the stuff going on in his head than he does coming out of his mouth.

Screw you Autism.

Giggles can sit up by herself…kind of. She has really good muscle control and seems to have no trouble controlling the upper half of her back. But she is still working on her abs. With a Boppy pillow around her waist, she sits up very nicely. She still prefers laying on her back and kicking her legs, but she is getting used to sitting up too.

Such a big girl.

Geetle and I had some alone time last weekend. She wanted to do something momentous, something important. We could not leave the house, since Giggles was asleep upstairs, so our options were limited. She decided that we should sew something.

I have a nice sewing machine. I hack around with projects. But I am no expert, especially on pattern reading. Especially when a 5 year old is breathing down my neck helping me. The pressure gets to me.

But, I wanted to make her happy, so we started to make a lamb, from a quick and easy pattern. Right off the bat, the lamb became a bear, because I cut out the wrong pieces. Then I cut 2 of the pieces wrong side up. Then I screwed something up on the seams and he is pinched and tucked in odd places. Finally, due to that cutting error, half of the bear is inside out…yes, inside out. In the end, we made BaBa Bear, Geetle’s newest friend, who likes to sleep on her pillow, I am told.

As deformed as poor BaBa is…Geetle loves him. He was born on Saturday. On Sunday he went to Wisconsin. On Monday he slept on her pillow all day. On Tuesday, he went to Movie Night at her school. Everytime I look at BaBa, I am embarrassed and want to explain that I made him in less than 20 minutes and that Geetle ran the gas pedal on the sewing machine and that hand-sewing is not my best skill and that I could do better if I tried harder and had enough time.

Everytime Geetle looks at BaBa, she tells me that she likes the way he is white on one side and purple on the other, and that he likes to sleep on her pillow, and that his name is not Bubba, its BaBa.

BAGD says there is a lesson in there for me.

I hate it when he is right.

We gave Giggles rice cereal for the first time this week.

You know how babies are supposed to drool and push it out of their mouths, sometimes crying and getting freaked out by the whole new experience? And in the end they eat, maybe, half a teaspoon of it?

Yeah. Not Giggles.

She loves it. She ate a “whole bowl” (which is a tablespoon of cereal and 4 tablespoons of water).

She even let a few unqualified amateurs feed her.

She seems to understand the mouth movements and is very tidy when she eats. She likes it and has no problem eating it and then drinking her bottle. No wonder she is growing so fast.

“The only thing I was sure of, prior to my daughter’s birth, was that I did not want to wear a hospital gown. Thank goodness for Binsi. I put my skirt on as soon as I got to the hospital, and I felt so good! What a difference from those hospital gowns.”

From www.birthinbinsi.com, which sells labor and birth apparel. You know, so you don’t have to wear those painful hospital gowns. Oh wait…maybe it wasn’t the gown that made the whole thing so painful. Anyhoo… they are only $38. So, I am sure everyone buys them. I heard JLo brought her own hospital gowns to the delivery, maybe these are the ones she had. But, back to my original prattle…”the only thing” you knew for sure is that you did not want to wear a hospital gown? Oh honey. Perhaps you should have paid more attention during your 15+ pre-natal appointments. If this was all you had going for you, I think you are lucky.

According to this website, you can also wear this skirt after a C-Section, because it will rest below the incision. Maybe its just me, but after my C-section I tried to hike everything WAY WAY up, not WAY WAY down. Sure, I did not want to touch the incision, but I had some other things I was trying to hold in, if you know what I mean. I am not even sure if could have kept up a pair of pants/skirt that sat below my incision. Mine is pretty low. If I wore my pants all the way down there, I would have 6 inches of underwear showing in the back every time I bent over and a crotch closer to my knees.

Although I sound negative, I must confess that I would totally have worn these skirts while I was actually pregnant…but not in labor and delivery! When its time for the actual labor and delivery, what I was wearing was the last thing on my mind. I, for one, enjoyed the paper underwear and droopy nightgowns they gave me. I brought my own stuff, but I never put it on. Why bother. I did not want to get too comfortable there. Get in, get out. Go home with baby. Get someone else’s stuff dirty, leave in clean clothes.

Just my humble opinion.

Pookie has gotten several “Uh-Oh!” faces on his daily sheet this week at school. He has been a bit of an “Uh-Oh” boy at home recently too.

• He spit on the floor in gym class
• He hit Jacob on the head at circle time
• He changed seats while the school bus was moving
• He drew a little smiley face on my bedsheets, with a black marker
• He dumped out 2 loads of clean and folded laundry, so he could jump in it
• He has taken to replying “No. I do not.” when asked if he wants to come brush his teeth or go to the bathroom before we leave the house….our fault for phrasing it as a question, I guess
• He licked the wall socket, also in gym class
• He gave Geetle a double handed shove in the kitchen
• Papaw had him carry a box into the UPS Store. 3 feet inside the door, he lifted the box to his shoulder and heaved it as far as he could towards the counter. When it did not make it all the way, he rolled it the remainder.
• He tried to eat BAGD’s Baconator and when told that he could not, he then demanded chicken nuggets as compensation.
• He was caught trying to use my new sewing machine, which he knows is wrong, proven by the fact that he closed the door in order to give himself some privacy
• He has taken to knocking on the fish tank, scaring the poor brainless fishies

Hmmm. But he has also done the following this week:

• Gave Giggles a Nukkie when asked
• When shown Geetle’s new Polly Pocket dolls, clearly understood who Polly was, but quizzically asked “where’s the pockets?”
• Played secret games with Geetle, games Geetle made up and he followed along with, without me staging them and forcing them to play together.
• Willingly left the couch twice during a favorite movie, in order to use the bathroom.
• Asked me for a baby doll, one he could feed, then proceeded to bottle and spoon feed her for 15 minutes.
• Began to draw a new kind of face. He has been stuck on faces for about a year, most of which look alike, until this week when he began to make almond shaped eyes and very angular noses. He also gives the people “shirts” now.
• spent half an hour experimenting with sprinkling salt, pepper and other spices into a tray of water. Emptying it out, getting fresh water all by himself and starting over, very deliberately
• learned how to safely use an electric pencil sharpener

Its a tough call. Bad week? Good week? Just another Pookie Week. He’s not on auto-pilot. More and more, he is really engaged in his world. Sometimes that leads him to do naughty things, but we would rather see that than a blank stare.

Good Week.

Did you hear about the Orlando Fl woman who was caught on videotape spraying her toddler in a carwash, as a form of punishment?   Its wrong.  Totally wrong.  Physically abusive and dangerous.

But what about the 16 year old caught driving 100 mph whose mother forced him to stand along the highway with sign stating what he had done?  Right or wrong?   Not physically abusuive, but is it emotionally abusive?

Where is the line?  For me, I think its OK to punish your kids, but not with emotional or physical abuse.  Yes, you can make them walk back into the 7-11 and apologize to the manager for stealing a pack of gum.  But you can’t make them stand in front of the store with a sign that says “I Steal.”  Yes, you can take away the car if the kid refuses to pick up little sister at ballet practice.  But you can’t make them go to school in her tutu.

I recall several reports recently about parents making their kids hold up signs in front of stores or putting ads on Craigslist/Ebay selling the toys of ungrateful children.  When did public shame become the best way to discipline your kid?  If you raise your kid right, they should be more affected by knowing **YOU** think they messed up, than if all the cars that drive past the KFC know.   Think about it.

Stop over at www.beagooddad.com and tell him Happy Birthday. He thinks he is 32 today, but he is really 33; he lost track of a year somewhere.

The first birthday I knew BAGD, it was new and awkward, so I couldn’t get him a real birthday gift. So, I got him a Shamrock Shake from McDonalds. He loved it, seriously.

This year, I did not get him a present. I am chipping in with the rest of the family for some “not quite a laptop” nerd command station that he wants. I don’t really know what it is, except that it will rock his world and if we all give him Amazon gift cards, he can get it.

But, I wanted to get him something special too. So, I made him his favorite thing when we ate at his parent’s the other night.

It doesn’t really have a name. He calls it “that huge nacho thing.” I have never made it more than once a year. I usually make it on College Bowl Day. Its just a big pile of nacho toppings, arranged in a pleasing manner, until the first person drags their chip through it, then its a mess.

But, once again. He was in heaven.

After we ate nachos, there was ice cream and cupcakes.

Then he collected his gift cards and we sat around watching Pookie and Geetle do “science speriments” with bowls of water and whatever spices they could convince Mamaw to get out of the spice cabinet.

I think he had a good birthday. I hope he did. He’s the best and I would add a layer of Shamrock Shake to the nacho pile, if it made him happy.

I am cheap. But there are a few things that will get me every time… Books and anything that I think will make the kids smile. The other day, I fell for a new one.

Novelty Spaghetti.

$8.97 Novelty Spaghetti.

Yes, $8.97. American.

What makes spaghetti worth $8.97 you say? Well! Let me tell you!

This spaghetti, folded over in the package, appeared to be nearly as tall as my children. We just had to have it. We borrowed a giant pot from Aunt Shel just to cook it up. (She just got married, so she has the best kitchen stuff.) Once it was cooked, this spaghetti was TALLER than my children!

It was very messy to eat, but they had fun. Giggles (seen in the background) was confused, yet intrigued.

So, while the spaghetti was fun, I must also say it was very tasty. Much better than “American” (Creamette and whatever the name of the one in the blue box is) spaghetti. It was thicker and firmer. And I swore it had a sweet taste, which I confirmed on the label, where they boasted that it was “cold water kneaded” for sweetness.

Just to sum up…this is what makes spaghetti worth $8.97: