Taking the Scenic Route

Touring Magnet Schools on “Oma Day”

26th January 2011

Touring Magnet Schools on “Oma Day”

This semester, on Wednesday, my mom comes up to Speech Therapy to pick Zora up during Zane’s Friendship group and spends the day with her.  This time we are switching things up.  She is going to have a day with Zane instead.  He wants to go the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson and to “Subway, Eat Fresh”.  Zach got off work to go with Zora and I to tour different magnet schools.

By the end of the day, we think Earhart will make the top of the list, with Hyde a close second, and Buckner (the closest one) as our third choice.  We liked all the schools we went to, but those seemed to be the best fit for Zora’s personality.

posted in Autistic Life, ST, School, The 2 Opas (J's Parents), Zane, Zora | Comments Off

9th December 2010

Preschool Gingerbread House Party

The last time I will have an architect at the preschool Gingerbread House party.  As usual, Jennifer (the lead Clinical Educator for the preschool), went all out making each of the gingerbread houses.  They all include a light inside.  She bakes and assembles all of the houses herself.  That is commitment.

Designing the decorations is very serious business.

She included a hose on the back of the house.   :thumbsup:

posted in Christmas, ST, School, Zora | Comments Off

2nd December 2010

Thanksgiving Feast Day! (a belated post)

Zora was totally stoked about having a “FEAST” at school and talked about it for more than a week before.  Much to her delight she had both me and Oma as her guests.

We were told she was also very excited about her Oma and Opa and Uncle Steve coming over that night for our family Thanksgiving Feast.  Originally we were going to go to a restaurant (Zach & I were both fighting colds and not sure if we were going to be up to cooking), but as it drew closer, we decided we would rather cook the traditional meal.  As it turned out, Zach (with Zane helping) did all the cooking because I went with Mom and Zora to pick out Christmas outfits for the kids.  We found some awesome sales for her dress, and hit paydirt at the consignment store for his outfit.  The consignment store even yielded a few other items for under the tree/birthdays, so it was a very successful trip.

The meal was extremely excellent, and it was a particular treat to come home from a day of shopping to an already prepared Thanksgiving feast with all the fixings (and a clean kitchen to boot…damn, he is GOOD).   We missed Nora, but had a nice evening.

If you notice, there are no pictures of the evening meal.  The only downside to the day was me accidentally leaving (and not realizing it happened) my camera at school.  So we were without a camera for our family gathering, and the entire thanksgiving weekend.  (which is why the picture for putting up the tree are so weird…they are taken off a huge clunky video camera that we dragged out of storage in desperation).  I can tell you it makes me really twitchy to not have a camera for nearly a week.  Thank goodness the people at the school recognized the camera and kept it safe for me over the weekend.  I was SO relieved to get it back that I cried.  (also why the post is late, I wanted to wait to see if the camera would reappear and get the school pictures off of it before I posted)

posted in Extended Family, Our Family, School, Thanksgiving | Comments Off

28th October 2010

My Favorite “Little Stinker”

Zora’s preschool had all the kids dress as “something from a farm”.   I assumed she was going to want either cat or dog, but I listed off all of the possibilities:  cow, duck (even had an online friend with a great costume for this), horse, cat, dog, goat, chicken….”  Jokingly, when she was oscillating between several, I said “skunk” under my breath.  She heard me and was convinced that it was perfect.  Couldn’t really argue with her with a straight face.  So, here is my “Little Stinker”

The face is because she wants to go, not stand still for pictures.  She was very enthused about the make-up.

Happily wiggling her tail.  She and Zach picked out the fun fur and the white feathers that I sewed to the back of the black coveralls (which were from Zane’s old pumpkin costume).  The ears were a pipe cleaner strung through a little jaw clip, then felt put over it and sewn together around the pipe cleaners.  It worked a lot better than attaching them to a hairband for her because they were easier to position, stayed put, and didn’t pull or dig into her head.

The project was to make your own pumpkin pudding.

She had a lot of fun with her costume, swinging her tail around, and chasing her friends around “spraying” them with her tail.  I don’t think she understood the mechanics of how a skunk sprays exactly though; she would pick up her tail and say “spray” while aiming her tail like a hose.  The other kids giggled and made a lot of “eww, stinky” declarations, so it was all good.

posted in Giggle, Halloween, School, Zora | Comments Off

2nd September 2010

First Day of Preschool

Carrying her nametag (that she has been asking for since it arrived in the mail a few weeks before), she excitedly sets out for a new year.

Daddy’s reaction to dropping his baby off to school.

posted in School, Zora | Comments Off

11th May 2010

Park meet-up with preschool friends

It is the first time I have been to this park, but will not be the last.  It is a drive for us, but it is awesome.  It is fully fenced in, handicap accessible playground, so it accommodates nearly any playdate we might have.

Zora was SO EXCITED.  Not only a great play area, but a lot of her friends from school also made it.  She was in heaven.  Zane found a whole lot more to enjoy here than he does in typical playgrounds too (and with the fenced in area, I didn’t have to hover to make sure he didn’t leave), so it was truly a win-win for our family.  It was really nice to sit and chat with the other moms instead of chasing after kids every moment.

(merry-g0-round)

And from one of the other moms…

posted in Autistic Life, School, Zane, Zora | 3 Comments

6th May 2010

Last Day of Preschool

Zach took Zora to her last day of Preschool.  They were planting flowers and decorating the flowerpots for Mother’s Day.

She was very proud of her flowers.

It was a great year, with lots of growth, and I can’t wait until next fall when we can do it all again.

posted in ST, School, Zora | Comments Off

22nd April 2010

Firetruck Day!

Zora was stoked.  The fire department came by the preschool and gave all the kids a ride.  The fireman even gave out hats, which has been played with nearly every day since at our house.

:bago: On a “bad mom” note, I noticed the jacket she was wearing.  It isn’t ours.  I am guessing that she didn’t wear her jacket to school, and they gave her one that they had sitting around for such occasions.  The really embarrassing part?  I think Zane wore the same one years before, at the same preschool, for the fire trucks coming.  At least I am consistent.  (we are all warm blooded and since both kids reject coats, we only push the issue when it is cold enough for frostbite risk or, in situations like this, when we know that we will get a stink eye from people who get cold much faster.  I just didn’t pay attention when she and Zach left for school)

posted in ST, School, Zora | Comments Off

11th February 2010

Valentine’s Day at Preschool

After we took Zane to his last day at Heartspring, I left Zach and Zane at home to go to Zora’s Valentine Party at school.  She handed out the valentine cards with the conversation hearts (which seemed more appropriate than usual at a “speech-language-hearing” clinic) to all of her friends and the teachers.  Since she can barely write her name, and can’t really write it small enough to put on the cards, I did the writing in a crayon of her choice and then she put stickers on the card.

Then she made a 2 cards from all of the fun supplies.

This is the Clinical Educator and Student ST in charge of her individual therapy.  The valentine’s cards that Zora picked were those hologram ones where there are two pictures that change as you move the card.   In her ST sessions this week they had similar hologram stickers  and called them “teasing” stickers (they were stickers in the session, and they were talking about teasing), and when Zora saw these valentine cards she wanted the “teasing ones”.    Here she is showing them the valentine’s card she bought, plus the one she made (the white paper with the “writing” on it), connected to the baggie of conversation heart packages.

She had fun and it was good to see her at school.

posted in ST, School, Valentines, Zora | Comments Off

28th January 2010

Back to School!

Zora started back at preschool today. She was VERY excited to get to see her friends again.

The theme/book this week is “Tacky the Penguin“, which is one of Zane’s favorites, so Zora was familiar with it too. It was reported that she was excited to inform the teachers that she knew the book.

Her penguin home

Her penguin craft

I didn’t understand exactly what happened, but some of the preschoolers, including Zora, decided to trade a little stuffed penguin they got for a dollar. She was very excited about her dollar and had definite ideas about how she wanted to spend it.

Zora’s picture story of her Dollar as told by Zach and the camera:

The “Orange Store”

“I do it myself” (self check out aisle)

Her favorite “Circle Candy” (peppermint patties)

Sweet victory

posted in School, Zora | 2 Comments

  • Zane's age

  • Zane is 22 years, 2 months, and 23 days old
  • Zora's age

  • Zora is 18 years, 2 months, and 27 days old
  • Random Quote

  • I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision — Maya Angelou

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