Faith’s First Fandom - Club Penguin!

Faith’s been having fun modding screencaps of Club Penguin. I’m sure she’d love it if you all took a look.

Faith’s Club Penguin Stuff

Had a Bad Day?

The Mom, over at Shoved To Them, posted the video for Bad Day, a charming song. It reminded me to post our favorite Club Penguin version of Bad Day by Kraziiboi498. Enjoy!

my neigbor’s keeper

I was outside today to check on the volunteer mulberry tree we have in our front yard. It’s right under an overgrown yaupon bush and honestly it’s a total mess of a botanical war as the two plants duke it out. The mulberry had a few berries last year but this year it looks absolutely loaded with them.

As I wandered around it, trying to find an early ripener, I saw a man riding down the middle of my street on a bicycle. He looked to be in his early twenties, black, with short hair, a beard and moustache, and glasses. He was wearing a baseball cap advertising the tire shop down the street, football jersey and sweatpants, and athletic shoes. I waved as he rode by and he stopped his bike and said “Hi!”

I said “Hi! It sure is a pretty day. This tree’s just crazy, isn’t it?”

As I spoke, he walked his bike over to me, a bit too close, and squinted at the tree.

“It’s mumblemumble!” he said, and pointed. Then he walked right up to the tree and plunged into the underbrush. He gestured to me excitedly, and I walked over to look where he was pointing, inside the trees. He spoke like he had a mouthful of marbles.

“It’s two trees, two trees, two trees!” he said.

“It is two trees!” I said. “And look, this one has berries!”

“Two trees, and berries!” he repeated, beaming at me.

“The leaves are different too, this one has small leaves, and this one has big leaves,” I said.

“Well look at that!” he said.

“I have to go back inside now, my children need me. Have a nice day!” I said.

“Have a nice day!” he said, got back on his bike, and pedalled off.

So, bike man’s loved ones, somebody else on 24th Street is keeping her eye out for him. No worries.

recent amazements

Bede’s visit with his psychologist was good. My mother was able to come with us and got to meet Dr. Mobley, who(m?) she liked very much. We were late getting there due to getting a bit turned around in Norman, but it was fine since Bede was able to handle about 30 minutes in her office before he became completely unable to control himself. When we left he was trying to remove all the clocks from her walls and scale the Dutch door into the office kitchen. Yeah, time to go!

Diana noticed Bede’s mental flexibility and ability to cope with the unexpected had improved markedly from last year, which is true, and his referencing of me for cues as to what is going on/how to feel. She also thinks that occupational therapy to address his sensory integration problems will help a huge amount, so we will definitely pursue that and see. (Regular readers of this blog will remember that Bede does not wear clothing, well, ever, unless he’s in a public place and actively reminded to remain clad.) She noticed he was toe-walking to avoid the berber carpet in her office, which would make sense in the deep-pressure seeking, light touch avoidant kind of way that Bede is.

She also said she thinks I’d have gotten an Asperger diagnosis as a child had there been one to give me, which didn’t surprise me at all. When I said “Well, sure I had those traits as a kid but now, you know, I’ve outgrown the diagnosis, right?” she actually chuckled and said something like “No, no, I don’t think so.” So I guess I could pursue a formal diagnosis but I don’t see the point. That’s enough for me to know I’m not making it all up, you know? Expect some introspective posts about all this soon…

Good Lord, look at the time! Have to go to bed.

Happy Mother’s Day, all you mothers!

diapers drying on the line

I pledged to myself to not use the dryer on days I do use the air conditioning, you know, as a trade-off. Last year we didn’t use a dryer from May to November!

Steampunk Moves Between Two Worlds

Being Miyazaki and Firefly fans we love us some steampunk around here. Here’s a NYT article all about it too.

Package Mapping

I just ordered some stuff from Dharma Trading and I was wondering where it was. So I checked the email they sent me when it shipped, logged in to the UPS website and saw it was last seen in San Pablo CA. I wondered where that was, and then had an idea: what if I could track the package on a map?

This being the internet and all, of course someone has already thought of that, and here they are. Yay, internets! The kids ask me all the time where things are on their way to us, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner…

mosquito teen repellent and autistic annoyer

Kristina Chew blogged recently about The Mosquito, a device that emits a high-pitched obnoxious whine that is generally only detectable by people under 25, and is used to deter teens from hanging around a given area. As we age, our ears lose the ability to detect really high sound frequencies, so it doesn’t bother adults with normal hearing. It seems to drive many autistic people up the wall, however, whatever their age, so some businesses are not going to use The Mosquito any longer. (Here’s a BBC article about the device, if you’d like a little background.)

So, my question is, can you hear it? Post yes or no, along with your age if you dare, in the comments.

It’s the pulsing “beep beep beep” noise, not the voices and background noise. I expect nearly everyone who’s not hard of hearing or deaf can hear that.

the many moods of Gloria

itteh bitteh knitteh kitteh

For my mother, for her birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!

 Ravelry details here.

Bede’s quantum leap

Today Bede volunteered that D is sad. W is happy! on one of our favorite DVDs, They Might Be Giants: Here Come The ABCs. Totally just, you know, telling me stuff, in unscripted standard English. They don’t say that the letters are happy or sad on the DVD, but they obviously are, from their body language.

If you don’t have a minimally verbal autistic child you may not get the import of this. Jennifer, I’m looking at you! It’s been with such happiness mixed with hopeful anticipation that I’ve read your posts on Zane’s language. I’m so pleased to be writing a few of my own!

He’s also been very conversational about other stuff too, from comments on food to little back and forth letter and word improvs between us.

This has been building for a few months and now boom! He’s so awesome!

I just want to say

I fully support the new legislation here in Oklahoma requiring pregnant women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound prior to the abortion.

Here’s the Daily Oklahoman’s article about it.

this important message

I finished Faith’s socks last night while Sean and I were watching Foyle’s War. Love that show. Will post sock picture later when I have a chance to upload from the camera.

I’m going to be posting less and spending less time on the interweb too, I’m a bit overwhelmed. If you don’t see me much that’s why :-)

ETA picture:

 

Ravelry details here.

Where have you been? (Out.) What did you do? (Nothin.)

http://playborhood.com/ wants your kids to get out of the house and play play play!

G-Lo kickin it old school…

…in 2 pinned Gerber gauze flats, rise adjusted in back, bikini-twisted.

She’s three months old today!

gloria laughed!

Yes she did, yes she did. And Sean heard it too!

Abby and Faith will be thrilled.

Gilbert in the springtime

There was a smudge on my lens but he’s still cute as heck.

And yes, those are Fruit of the Looms peeking out. My baby boy is officially Big now.

Autistic man tortured and shot in Alva, Oklahoma

http://newsok.com/article/3229109/

ALVA — As a mentally challenged man screamed and pleaded for his torture to end, his attackers held him down, shot him repeatedly with paintball and BB guns, and branded him with searing coat hangers.

“Mommy, mommy,” the victim screamed, to no avail.

His torturers videotaped the episode, with one so proud of his work he listed his own name as the video’s director, producer and star.

Now, two Alva men face felony charges in the undated video. A Woods County judge set bail at $75,000.

“It was a gruesome assault,” said Ben Orcutt, Alva’s assistant police chief.

The victim, Harry Dahling worked with Jesse T. Wallace and Marvin Michael Tarver at a local food processing plant.

Police confirmed the victim is autistic and said he had trouble answering questions about the assault.

“He may be 20 or 21 years old, but he acts like a juvenile,” Orcutt said.

This happened here, in my home state, about 2 hours drive from my house. When I read about it in yesterday’s paper I was almost physically sick. It felt like a punch in the stomach to read about Harry Dahling crying out for his mother as he was tortured.

My autistic son is on the sofa next to me, having fallen asleep in my lap while we watched a movie. He is happy and safe.

But the fear and loathing that has been in my throat since I read about Harry will keep me awake for much of the night. Like every parent, I am concerned with my childrens’ futures, but unlike most parents I don’t have a default cut off point to stop worrying. He will likely need some assistance for the rest of his life.

Will he ever cry out for me when I’m not there?

Bedeisms

Here are a few Bedeisms. Bedeish.

Pants are ‘japans.’ Always.

He likes me to make letters out of Play-Doh. He specifies “Want see ‘a’?” or, alternately, “Want see CAPSLOCK ‘A’?”

We have a box of candy canes that look like these. He saw them in the cabinet a few days ago and said “Want see Bob? Want see red-n-white Bob? Want see red-n-white Bob Js?”

And my favorite… arms up, sweet boy says, “I love you!” as he’s scooped up for a great big hug.

random acts of kindness

Today I got a package of diapers and yarn from kaymadmom and a gift of a year of Flickr Pro from abigailvr! Thanks guys!