Be A Good Mom

Pookie, age 5. Loves to draw and sing. Doesn’t like new books, new toys, new shirts or new people…until the second time he sees them, at which time they become is most favorite thing ever. Loves Heathcliff, Little Einsteins, Super Y, Lyle the Crocodile and anything by Laura Numeroff, Ed Emberly or David Shannon. Trying his best to figure out a world in which its OK to jump on the downstairs couch, but not the upstairs one.

Geetle, age 5. A scientist, by her own proclamation. Asks alot of questions, and actually waits to hear the answer. Tells everyone she wants to be Giggles’ best friend, but secretly wants to be Pookie’s. Loves Tinkerbell, Polly Pockets and art projects. Says Hello, Please, Thank you and You’re Welcome because she really means it.

Giggles, almost 5 months old. Just discovered the baby in the mirror, and thinks she is hilarious. Follows Pookie and Geetle with her eyes, arching her neck. Knows that someday she will get to follow them on foot. Reminds us all that every day is long, but also very short. Giving us all the chance to do the “firsts” one more time.

since you enjoy www.icanhascheezburger.com so much, did you know there is one for dogs at www.ihashotdog.com? Check it out. New ones EVERY DAY!

I was feeling a little bad about Pookie’s art habit. Not really, since I think his art is a huge part of his life and brings out some of his best characteristics. But, each day as I sift through his dozens and dozens of pages, I was curious what it meant for the environment. Especially after an art day like today:

According to this website, An average tree would make 188 reams or 94,000 pieces of office paper. So, at his current rate of 15-20 pages per day, Pookie is using 4% of a ream a day. Which is .0212% of a tree a day. He is 5 years old. If his art habit continues at this rate, which we hope it does, until he is 40, he will use 255,500 sheets or 2.71 trees.

That’s fine with me. I call these 3 for him. Dibs.

There is a new show on the History channel about logging; Ax Men. I was a big fan of their show “Ice Road Truckers” so I would probably enjoy this one too. But, when I first read about it, I wondered if it would cause some bad publicity. We all know where paper comes from, but no one likes to think about all the fallen trees and naked forests. I will try to catch the series and see if they address that issue. In the meantime, I understand what the conservationists are saying, but I also understand that we all need paper. I think what Pookie draws on is recycled; if not, I will make sure our next ream is. But, in the end, I will let him draw on as many sheets as he wants. Drawing and writing are a huge part of his day. I would rather take away all his other toys.

If someone said “Hey, they’re hauling a huge dead whale down main street at 3pm!” You know where I would be. Yep, right on Main Street. You gotta see that.

Well, then I would have been sprayed with whale goo. Check out the shocking pictures.

I also highly recommend the other photos on this website, www.truckspills.com the website of odd, strange, interesting and unbelievable things spilled on the road by trucks. Its the best part of the 10 o’clock news, all in one place.

Reports say that J-Lo has named her babies Max and Emme. Cute names. But, unfortunate. As a first time parent, one cannot expect her to know this, but those are the names of the siblings on PBS’ “Dragon Tales”.

They’re nice kids and all. And they are Latino. So maybe it was on purpose. If not, lets hope that the show is not still popular when her kids get to school.

By the way, I predict if Jennifer Lopez has a third child, she will name him Enrique… he’s the tall one on the left.

If some kind of genie were to tell me that I could have one wish granted right now, without hesitating, I would say “I wish for a million dollars.”  I would be proud of myself for not wishing for some crazy amount of money; $1mil seems reasonable without being greedy.  It is a wish, afterall.  I would not wish to “cure” Pookie, because I love him the way that he is and understand that Autism is part of who he is.  I would not wish for world peace or and end to the war in Iraq, because those are complicated things I can’t control with one wish.   I feel that my wish is reasonable, a pretty good one. 

That’s the difference between grown ups and kids, right there.  I would wish for money.  What would kids wish for?  Well, 3 year old Prabesh Sapkota wanted just one thing.  He wanted to ride a yellow school bus and go to kindergarten for a day.  Just days before he died of leukemia, he got to do it. 

I am happy for Prabesh.  I am also very sorry that his parents lost their little boy.  And I am ashamed of myself for wanting a million dollars.   

What would you wish for? 

Are you proud of that? 

And then read me this site, because I need to know how to do this. I am not sure what language this website is in, but whoever can read it AND to this to money is pretty cool.

Geetle got her report card this week.  It was somewhat of a non-event for us.  Its just a preschool report card, sure.  But that is not why it was no big deal.  Its no big deal, because the girl has gotten “A”s (Above Target) in every box for the past year and a half.  I think she once got an “S” (satsfactory) for one-to-one sequencing, but that was eons ago.  She has never gotten an “N” (needs improvement). 

She’s a smart little cookie.  She asks me advanced questions like “where does all the melted snow go?” and “Can you be a cousin if you don’t have any cousins?”  She is always complaining that she can’t read, but actually she can read more than she knows.   She will sit down and write letters to me and BAGD.  She copies words off of cereal boxes and tries to draw things she sees in books. 

But eventhough we are not surprised that she got all “A”s, we talked about what the report card said and what it meant.  We read her the teachers comments on the back and she grinned.   The best part about her being a smart cookie is that she knows she is a smart cookie, and she likes it.  If this keeps up, I don’t think we will have any trouble keeping her engaged in school. 

Giggles rolled over by herself yesterday.  Twice.  All by herself.  Not the kind of “all by herself” where I position her arm and give her a push either.  Really all by herself. 

I’m very excited.  Its a small thing, but its really the first big developmental checkpoint. 

I am very aware of developmental issues.  I tell myself not to be so worried.  But its like the 800 lb gorilla in the room.  The odd thing is that Pookie was 100% on track with ALL developmental goals other than language, until he was 3 years old.  He did not fit the autism mold back then.  He made eye contact.  He didn’t stim.  Even now, he still hits all the milestones.  He’s 5.  He catches a ball, swings a bat, walks up the stairs one foot per stair, cuts with a knife, brushes his teeth, strings beads on a shoelace, dresses himself, uses a proper pencil grip, zips his coat, does puzzles, follows multistep directions, has impulse control, shows affection, makes eye contact, etc.  He just has a few “extra” things that he should not….he flips his hands occasionally, he is echolalic, his conversations are one sided, he gets obsessive about certain things. 

So, if Pookie met all his developmental milestones until age 3 and is still developing at great strides, why do I worry about Giggles? 

I worry about Giggles because that’s what parents do.  I don’t think I would worry any less if she did not have an autistic sibling.  Its a weird thing, and in the back of my head, I am completely aware of the fact that it is crazy.  But, that’s what I do.  That’s what we all do. 

I had the best Stumble Upon session today. Like 60% of the pages it brought me were cool. Here is a few of what I saw today:

Create a work of art at www.mrpicassohead.com. Your work of art will be stored in an online gallery. Check mine out.

Everyone likes Etsy, the place for handmade art and craft items. But, did you know that you can sort your Etsy experience by color? Lets say you wake up feeling like “hmmm…I am in the mood to buy a unique handmade item today, but I am also feeling like I would respond best to the color fuschia. How can I accomplish this?” WELL! go to http://www.etsy.com/color.php and click on the color you desire. Cool.

I seriously considered printing one of these “flatpack toys” out and assembling it for the kids to play with. But, then I realized I would be too anal to actually let them play with it….since it would most likely take me an hour to assemble and I would be highly protective of it. Anyway, you should check it out, you are probably less uptight than I am. http://readymech.com/

Were you cool in the mid 1990’s? Did you lace your deckshoes in that weird beehive thing? I can’t explain it…you laced them so that the laces did not cross over the tongue of the shoe, they layed straight across. And then the rest of the lace was twisted into a beehive at the top. Maybe that was just us in Wisconsin. But this site shows 33 cool ways to lace your shoes. The beehive is not listed. I guess it was just cool in Wisconsin.

Sometimes you need to know the plot of a movie in order to fit into society. People make jokes, references to movie plots, and if you have never seen the movie, you don’t get it. I don’t get it. But now I have this website.

I have tuna, bacon, milk, lentils, baked beans and canned tomatoes. What’s for dinner? Howabout “Speedy Tuna Casserol!” If I had one of those refrigerators with the integrated computer in the door, I would have this site bookmarked. I played around with it and it seems to really work. Put in what you have in the fridge and pantry…they will come up with a recipe for you. The recipes are basic, but it would count as dinner.

Cool clock.