Costumes, 2008

Ti'anna and Ethan decided they would like to dress up as the Pevensies this year for our Harvest Festival, and of course I readily agreed. I ended up getting too late of a start (like that comes as any surprise) and so had to fudge on a lot of details as we raced right up to the last minute (we were actually almost an hour late for the party!), but thanks to several pots of coffee, two relatively sleepless nights, and my very sweet and helpful sisters, we got them done well enough to wear in time! Thanks to Izabelle for a great job drawing/stenciling the tabard, and to Hillarie, who lovingly handstitched the sleeves onto Ti'anna's bodice while I worked feverishly to make/attach the skirt. We did these solely from photographs, and had no patterns whatsoever to work with. I will be glad to do a full post on how I created Ethan's awesome armor if anyone is interested in reading it. More pictures can be viewed HERE. Aren't they just toooo adorable?!
The costumes!
The originals as they appeared in Prince Caspian.

Pictures from Spring '09

Finally got around to posting all the pictures I've taken this year so far on Flickr. Click each link to see a slideshow of that set. There is a set from our Christmas photo shoot, Ti'anna's birthday party, Passover & Easter, Ethan's birthday party, plus some miscellaneous stuff from spring and pictures of our new puppy, Hazel. You can see a video of Hazel after her first haircut below.

The Blessing Box.

The Blessing Box:

Follow the daily instructions below. Have a box ready and determine where you will give the money that will be in your Blessing Box at the end of 24 days. This begins on December 1st, but you can start late!

Day 1. One out of 5 children live in poverty lacking adequate clothing. Give 2 cents for each pair of socks in the home.

Day 2. Are you thankful for the gift of electricity? Give 2 cents for each light bulb in your house.

Day 3. Most people in the world have never touched a computer. If there is one in your home, put in 50 cents, an extra 50 cents for a scanner and 50 cents for the printer.

Day 4. Most of the world’s population lives beyond the reach of medical care. Give 10 cents for each box of band-aids in your house…an extra dime if they are not flesh colored.

Day 5. Are you thankful you have a roof and doors to keep out the wind and rain? Give 10 cents for each exterior door your house has.

Day 6. Are you thankful for all your clothes? Give a nickel for each closet in your house.

Day 7. Are you glad you have indoor plumbing? Give 5 cents for every roll of TP in your house, counting all the stored away rolls.

Day 8. To people in refugee camps, even a thin sliver of soap is precious. Give 5 cents for each bar your family has…A dime for each soap pump.

Day 9. Do you walk to town to get a bucket of water for washing, drinking, bathing or cooking? Or are you blessed with faucets that bring precious water to you? Give 10 cents for each faucet you have and don’t forget the outside ones.

Day 10. What a blessing to be able to see and have eye doctors to help us. Give a quarter for every pair of eyeglasses or contacts in your home.

Day 11. Give thanks and a dollar for every child in your family and do a secret good deed for them today.

Day 12. How would you like to live in your car as some families do? Give a dime for every vehicle in your family.

Day 13 . Epidemics often follow natural disasters. Give thanks if no one in your house has been too sick this month to go to work or school and donate 50 cents.

Day 14. Did a blanket cover you last night? Give a penny for every blanket in your house.

Day 15. Was it cold enough to wear a coat today? Were you thankful for your coat? Give a penny for every coat, jacket or raincoat in your house.

Day 16. In some countries of the world, most people can’t read. Are you thankful you can read? Put in a penny for every book in your home….(Yes, for most of us this is an expensive one)

Day 17. By now you have received many Christmas cards from many loving friends and family members. Give a penny for each card.

Day 18. Most people in the world cook over an open fire. Aren’t you glad you didn’t have to chop wood this morning? Give 5 cents for every burner on your stove and a nickel for every oven.

Day 19. Aren’t you glad that you have people that love and think about you? Put in 10 cents for each gift under the tree that is for you.

Day 20. Unfortunately this is the time of year in which many people suffer loss in house fires. Give 10 cents for every phone in your house in which you can dial 911 in case of emergency.

Day 21. Many people in the world suffer excruciating pain from the lack of dental care. Have you ever been grateful for toothbrushes? Give 5 cents for every toothbrush in your house.

Day 22. Many children in the world barely get one meal a day. How many did you have? Give thanks and five cents for each meal and 10 cents for each snack today.

Day 23. Give one penny for every slice of bread in your house.

Day 24. Make a list of all the fruits and vegetables that you can name and put in a penny for each one on the list.

After you've accumulated all this, on Christmas, count it up, and donate the equivalent to a charity of your choice. Merry Christmas!

Pictures from the road trip.

We all went to Nebraska by car in late September to visit Tim's family in Scottsbluff. We had a lovely time, spent 4 of seven days in the car, drove over 48 hours with no major complaints, and saw a huge swath of the United States in its autumnal glory. Didn't get a picture of the continental divide, though, as the time we passed it in the light, we were too busy gawking to remember to snap a few shots.
Click here for our favorite pictures from the trip!

Our new friend.

This is Amy. She is the tiniest variety of dwarf pet hamster available, called a Roborovski. They hail from the Gobi Desert, and they are very fast! Fully grown, she will only be about two inches long. So far, she seems to like corn, strawberries, and broccoli very much, and enjoyed a special treat of Heart to Heart Kashi cereal tremendously. Her favorite pastime is running on her wheel and hiding from Ti'anna and Ethan. :) Hopefully she will get used to us more soon; we are just doing our best to make friends with her and help her feel more comfy in her new home. We named her Amy because a creature that tiny needs a very tiny name. (We had originally thought to call her Bumbleberry, but agreed it was too big a name for her.) She is a bit sweaty in this picture from Dad's hands, as she is VERY quick, and difficult to hold on to unless we enclose her fully in our hands, so we don't hold her very often. Watching her play and eat is entertaining enough! We also bought her a ball, but it only works on the hard flooring in the kitchen and hallway. She's really too tiny to move it very well, as it is designed for a standard hamster which are more than double her size and larger.

Tiny photographers.

We've set up a photostream for the kids, since their camera-wielding has quadrupled in the last few months, and they are generating a metric tonne of photos. Many of these are actually pretty funny/endearing. However, they have requested the right to post the pictures they find to be best, so please keep in mind this reflects the artists' tastes. Mom and Dad retain the right to veto that which we deem totally unrecognizable (due to blur, lens flare, over/underexposure, or just plain nonsense) but what you will see is nearly unadulterated Ti'anna- and Ethan-ism. Enjoy! All these pictures are taken by the two of them, and totally unedited. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tianna_ethan/

My sister's wedding.

A few select pictures from Helen's wedding to Mr. Shawn Coons, March 22, 2008. Tim and I took all of these ones. Let me know if you'd like copies of any of them, and what size. :)

How do you ask...

...for a bathroom in China, if you don't speak Chinese? Is there a hand gesture or pantomime considered polite? Does saying it over and over in English get you very far? How long will you last until you run for the nearest bushes in desperation? What if you didn't realize that bushes were a necessary modesty?

http://www.autistics.org/library/dontmourn.html

This may be the most beautiful, inspiring, poignant piece of literature I have ever read regarding autism. How perfect that it was written by someone who has been classified autistic. This has been the battle cry I've been searching frantically for the words to since I realized Ethan was different. It sums up perfectly how I feel, and yet is still laser-like. Enjoy.

New pictures!

New pictures on Flickr! Clicky!
(For those unaccustomed to Flickr, this link will take you to my main photostream. I recommend selecting a set from the three listed on the right hand side of the page, like Ti'anna's 6th Birthday. When you get there, if you don't want to click on each picture successively, you can select "View as Slideshow" from the upper right-hand corner, which pops open a handy little dialog box. Click on any picture while they are playing for a closer view.) Enjoy!

Of special note: Ethan as a blur in a group picture (ah, art imitates life). Mom absent from all shots (life imitates art). Ti'anna holding a camera (she imitates me). Inverted glass pie plate holding a cake (pan imitates cake stand). That is all.

Christmas-ish, 2006

Our card reader for our camera has been on the fritz as of late-- so not only have we not been using our camera much, we also haven't been able to get the few pictures we've taken from camera to computer. Sorry for the delay. Don't forget you can click on each picture for a larger version if you need to!

Our newest family member!

Our kitten. We think her name is most likely going to be Cleo. But there's some voting for Chloe. And a half-hearted vote for Sweetie. (Swiftly vetoed by the powers-that-be.)

We'll keep you posted as the election rages on.

UPDATE:
The kitten is, in fact, male.
Where's the complaint department? The pet store assured me it was a female, I was VERY clear with them. *sigh* Ah, well. We've all been calling him a "her" and the name Cleo was finally settled upon when we discovered *ahem* the true nature of the creature. Ti'anna was looking through a cat care book and pointed out to me the "three dots under the tail" from the section on how to differentiate your kitten's gender. Cleo has three dots, sure as day.

Anyways, after another week of debating names--
Final votes came in:
Ti'anna: "Taggerung"
Ethan: "George"
Dad: "I don't care, what's wrong with Cleo for a boy?"
Mom: "How about Pigwidgeon? Or Crookshanks?"

Finally it was settled-- Dad said, "Look, guys- we all already think of her/him as Cleo, short for Cleopatra. Why not just change his name to Cleopatrick?"

And so it was.

A day at Third Beach, near La Push, WA

Ethan's 4th Birthday

Ethan chose chocolate for his cake, and Ti'anna chose the decorations and helped arrange them. We went outside after cake and blew bubbles! Thank goodness for the sunshine that day!

Inchworming along...

Ethan continues to astound me. It becomes more clear to me every day that what makes him different is a disorder, not a simple delay. Watching him advance at such a phenomenal rate in specific areas is helping the ways in which he is "behind schedule" feel like so much less of a burden.

He is speaking now- albeit at a skill level common to a child a year or two younger than him- and his speech is by turns cryptic and astonishing. (ie: ten lines of gobbledy-gook, punctuated by a precisely articulated quotation from a favorite movie, and followed by more gobbledygook) Speak to him slowly, and clearly, and in a sing-song voice- or even better, in phrases from his favorite shows and computer games- and he is (finally!) capable of following multi-step commands. He regularly expresses "theory of mind" (such as attempting to console a downhearted Ti'anna with the lion's share of his portion of dessert!) and is adept at reading facial expressions and body language, and reacting to it appropriately, though he lacks the language skills to describe what's taking place or how he feels about how someone else is feeling.

Perhaps the most astonishing to me is his growing command of written language. Somewhere along the line, all that endless repeating of the alphabet song, and watching us type and read, he discovered that letters represent sounds. Without direct and intentional instruction from anyone, he has learned to identify over 200 words- spontaneously. He loves to look through books and make up nonsense while tracing his finger along the lines of text and shouting out the word he knows when he gets to it. Last night, he was doing this to a recipe I was working from. Upon a closer listen, the mumbled nonsense surrounding the shouted, "E-G-G, egg! mumble, mumble, C-U-P, cup! M-I-L-K, milk! mumble mumble, O-R-A-N-G-E, orange!" turned out to be real words contextual to cooking. When I listened closely, I could make out: pumpkin, cake, bread, stir, mix-mix-mix! Although none of those words was on the paper, it proved to me that he was drawing the connection between what was on that page and what I was doing, even though I've never read a recipe to him. However, I let him help me make pumpkin muffins frequently, and I always have a recipe printed out in the same format sitting on the counter when we make them as I had out last night. Hmm.

Yesterday, he exhibited the first sign I've noticed that he's not just memorizing- he's actually working new words out based on words he knows. As we were getting him dressed for bed last night, we were yammering at him about his pajamas- "Pajamas, jammies, jams! One foot in, two feet in, hold still you! Jams on Ethan!"

He began repeating the word, "Jams!" He said it in the cutest way, with just a smidgen of a lisp at the end of it, and we giggled and said it over and over to get him to say it again. Then he started saying, "Spell, jams! Jams, J..." Here a brief pause. "Jams. J, A... F-- M, S! Jams!!!" he exulted. We were both dumbfounded.

"Did he just sound out a word?" I asked Tim. Tim looked at me with a smirk.

"Sure sounded like it."

So he can't tell me how old he is. So what? Who cares that when I ask him to "gimme five" he slaps my hand five times, and gets so into it that he has to go all the way to ten just to complete the pattern? (No matter how many times we demonstrate the "right" way for him!) I think its awesome. The victories are only that much sweeter for the trials that proceed them.

Happy Birthday, Ti'anna!

Ti'anna turns FIVE!
(click on the picture for a larger view)

holidays...

I realize I promised Thanksgiving pictures almost 6 weeks ago- but then there was Christmas, then New Year's, than birthdays, and woosh- time flies. The fun doesn't stop after New Year's Day around here- it keeps up until the end of January. We have 7 birthdays in the immediate family in January... *whew* I used to have several friends adding to this mix, but I eventually started hanging out with a more diverse crowd... *laugh* To complicate the photos situation, Tim and I hosted all the holiday parties this year for family/friends, so there was precious little time for shuttlebuggery. What few pictures I managed to snap on Thanksgiving before all the guests arrived and the last fifteen-minute prep frenzy I have combined here in a collage- all I have to say is my house sure looks a lot nicer in candlelight! Click on the image for a larger pic.



Ti'anna's 5th birthday is in a few weeks- I shall do my best to take more then. We're hoping to keep it pretty low-key, as we are practically partied out. (Motivationally and monetarily speaking!)

Oh, and Ethan is reading.

:)

SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!

ETHAN CAN NOW PUT TWO WORDS TOGETHER!!!

*does a slaphappy little jig*

I can't even begin say how excited I am about this!

Not just 'nighty-night,' but:

Ni'night, Mommy.
Ni'night, Tah'na.
Ni'night, Daddy.
Ni'night, Eh'tan.

What are we having for dessert? Not just 'cake,' not just 'chocolate,' but:

Chocolate cake!

Not just 'hello,' but:

Hello, Ju-ju! (Julia is a dear friend of ours who is over our house frequently.)

We don't have to tell him when to say goodbye now. He says goodbye whenever he's done having a conversation now! (OOOH, social cues!!! *giddy*) Instead of just wandering away when he loses interest in what we're doing, he pauses, looks at me, and says, "Bye-bye!" Then he gives me a little wave and off he goes.

Language HAPPENS!

in a nutshell...

All folks following Ethan's situation, PLEASE take a minute to read this. I found it extremely well put and easy to understand. I know I tried earlier this year to explain what I've meant when I've mentioned that Ethan is "autistic" but I think -as usual- I overexplained and got too technical to do any good. This is a wonderful (and mercifully brief) explanation of the basic reason people are diagnosed as being on "the autism spectrum" (and it has nothing to do with eye contact, head banging, or counting cards in Las Vegas! *grin*)- the common thread that links the broad spectrum of pervasive developmental disorders together. Enjoy!

like father, like son...?

We've been watching this last few weeks as Ethan is discovering a new aptitude: the computer. He's been fascinated with our computers for as long as I can remember. Because we run a computer repair/service shop out of our home, this fascination has often proved to be a fatal attraction, both for the PC's in question, and for the Perpetrator.

The television/VCR/DVD player have started to bore him now that he's so thoroughly mastered them (he even figured out entirely on his own- with a chair- how to get behind them to switch the audio/video cables from the back of the VCR to the back of the DVD and vice versa when he is ready to view a different type of media, so that when I want the house movie-free I have to hide the cables in another room!)

Naturally, he's turned to the other electronic equipment in the house now. He never really troubled with our computers before, even though we have them on all day every day, and mostly stuck to hitting reset switches (usually right in the middle of hard drives trying to reformat and other such tragedy) or jamming various tools into the manifold orifices of computers on the tech stations waiting for surgery.

A few months ago he unscrewed and "lost" the tiny black antenna off the back of a client's computer (part of the wireless network card) and we combed the house for it unsuccessfully for four days. Tim had resigned to send me on the hour-long drive out to Walmart to replace the whole card assembly at our expense, when it suddenly occurred to me that Ethan is not a thief without a purpose- ever. So what would he have intended for that thing if he had taken it off? Obviously little black antennaes are not standard on the back of machines (AARRGH! It's not the Way Things Are!!!!) but since it was attached so thoroughly, it MUST belong with the computer in SOME way... I popped open the case, and sure enough, he had stuck it back into the case through a small hole in the back left open for an expansion card. Perfectly intact, carefully handled, and with the computer to which it belonged- we should have expected no different.

As I have mentioned before here on the blog, Ethan knows his shapes, colors, numbers, and letters VERY well. Upper AND lower case letters, even recognizing them upside down or backwards. (Wow.) He has recently taken an interest in actually watching us while we work. Unlike his sister, who has a strong need to chatter incessantly and struggle to maintain our attention while we work, Ethan will sit right between us and watch quietly over our shoulder as we type or surf or what have you (he has even developed a remarkably accurate sound that replicates the noise of speedy typing).

But he's been watching. It only took a few times of walking out of the office for a minute and coming back to find that he had made fifteen new shortcuts to nowhere on my desktop, or had decided to send a nonsense IM (instant message) to a client at an attorney's office, to realize that we needed to lock our screen if we were going to step away from them even for a second. Our computers are networked (for anyone not computer literate) and so each user has a profile that they log in with. Since Tim uses several computers concurrently during the day while working, he is most often logged in as Administrator. So, when we lock our screens, a little dialog box pops up with the user name "Administrator" typed into one field, and a blank field waiting for the appropriate password. Every time we leave the office, he's in there like a flash, trying to appease that ever-present, ever-demanding "rectangyang" (as he calls it). We have found everything from his alphabet typed over and over, interspersed with numbers 1-9, or permutations thereof (such as 12131415161718191021222324252627282920) which pleased us, but was no real surprise to us. He started using other keys appropriately (like backspace, or when he didn't want to backspace the 300+ characters he had typed into the username field, he used "TAB" to switch between fields until the block of text was highlighted and THEN hit backspace to delete them all at once). He started fiddling with the mouse, watching it move when he moved it. Then it happened.

He typed "admnxstaori."

And he kept doing it, a little different, and a little more like "administrator" each time. We quietly observed as every day he got closer, not intervening. When he was consistantly typing "administao," we decided to help him, just a little. I showed him, once, slowly, our password. He typed it perfectly, and now gets it right every time. Two days after that, he got "administrator" right and logged onto my machine while I was in the bathroom, and now we're in for it!

We started deleting "Administrator" before we walked away, but he could do it from memory now without a hitch. So, we sneakily hit CAPS LOCK before we walked away. Now he could type it perfectly but not get in. Three days ago I found "admInIsTraTOr" in the username field. I guess he figured out the SHIFT key!

Tim and I are in a quandary. We want to encourage Ethan to figure things out, but every time we raise the bar he gets better at jumping. Now what do we do if we have important work in progress and need to answer the door or heat up our coffee?

A few days a week, I have the kids gather around the computer with me and explore the universe at Neopets.com, which Ethan simply adores. They haven't developed the skills to play the games on their own, but enjoy watching and participating. We've this week started allowing him and Ti'anna an hour or so to play on a game site built for small kids called Herman's Homepage, and Ethan has developed considerable mouse skills in only three days. He plays puzzles, memory games, counting games, and more all by himself without coaching. Yesterday, I allowed him to play while I was cooking dinner, and he ran out every couple minutes to get me, babbling nonsense punctuated by the word "help." He led me by the hand and showed me he had accidentally brought up a dialog box by hitting the right mouse button or had brought up a blank email somehow and needed me to return him to his game. This morning, I found this:

Click for a larger image

I guess he was done playing with Herman, and wanted to try Neopets out himself... Notice the attempt at Google, which I probably type 6+ times a day, and the perfect "administrator."

And all this from a little fellow who is practically non-verbal!

caterpillars

Okay, I apologize, and admit by so doing that I have once again let far too long slip past between posts... But I have a creative excuse, if you have a moment to hear it.

Watching Ethan and Ti'anna progress is like watching an inchworm and a millipede crawl along a branch.

Ti'anna is a smooth silvery millipede, who at first glance doesn't really appear to be crawling so much as gliding. Her supple scales move seamlessly, more shimmering than rippling as she cruises along. But when you look closer, you can see the symphony of amazingly quick and perfectly orchestrated steps her many legs are making. You becomes so fascinated with this movement that until you blink and suddenly come back to your senses, you hardly realize she's traveled a whole foot. She's such a joy to watch that you almost take for granted where it is she's trying to get- it's hard to notice milestones passing when you're entranced with the journey.

Ethan, on the other hand, is a translucent yellow-green inchworm. His movements seem awkward, and fragile. Sillouetted against the sky, you can see the sun shining right through him, illuminating him; he seems ephemeral and otherworldly. You want to reach out and put your hands under the branch in case he falls off. You feel like you should try somehow to help him, maybe nudge him in the right direction, but you're afraid to touch him lest you inadvertantly crush his soft, vulnerable body. His front end holds perfectly still, his hungry little mouth twitching wildly, and progress seems to halt completely. But his back end is working hard, bringing his middle up into the air as his hindmost legs get closer and closer to his front legs until suddenly... woosh! His head and shoulders are a whole inch closer to his goal, all at once, and the process begins again. It's both easy to want to cheer him on, and exhausting to watch.

I guess as a mommy, serving as both facilitator and equipper for my little springtime bugs, its hard to know when to call others to come watch the marathon with me. Some days I feel like every second of the process is monumental, absolutely vital. Other days go by and I hardly notice them as they breeze past. But the journey continues ever on, and I know only that I am indescribably priveledged to witness it, and encourage it in every way I can muster.

Thanks for helping me cheer them on!