Taking the Scenic Route

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
William Shakespeare

This quote always comes to mind this time of year.  (although, honestly, I had remembered it as “methinks thou doth protest too much”….obviously I need to read some Shakespeare again.  lol ) 

The constant buzz of people ‘outraged’ when they are asked to consider other people’s beliefs and the fact that not everybody is celebrating “Christmas” this time of year brings this prophetic quote to mind.  We celebrate Christmas in our home, but our neighbors (in the biblical sense) might be celebrating the Winter Solstice or Hanukkah or Ramadan.  Although I don’t have a clue if people decorate for Ramadan, I know that the Solstice and Hanukkah have similar types of symbolism going on and I just can’t understand why people get so worked up over them also wanting to celebrate their beliefs.  It doesn’t diminish my holiday or my belief system in any way to see other celebrations. 

To qualify this, what I am talking about is what is used for decorations in our public spaces, the ones supported by tax dollars.  I think that it is perfectly fine to put up specific “Christmas” decorations, but I also think that Jewish and Pagan and other cultures should also be represented since they also pay taxes.  I think that private citizens and businesses have the right to put up whatever they want, within reason. 

I wonder if the people who rant and rave about being forced to be inclusive realize it makes them look not only like idiots, but like they are really insecure in their faith.  If seeing a Menorah is going to ruin your holiday season, you have a big problem and weak faith.  Good grief.  It is like those preachers that go on and on about how homosexuals are ‘ruining marriages’…the louder they rant, the more you start wondering why it is so important to them.  The only way a homosexual can ruin a heterosexual marriage is if one of the partners is homosexual and decides to have an affair. 

The only thing that these “Christians” are doing when they protest so loudly is make the holiday season, one which celebrates Christ coming to this world to transform it through love rather than war/hate, a little less about love, and a little more about hate.  Such a sad way to spend this sacred time. 

Please keep Jamie and her kids and their family in your prayers.  I just can’t imagine.  Tamera is organizing help for the family.

Last week at OT: 

One of Zane’s favorite things in OT is when Elise sets out plastic bowling pins, puts him on a scooter on the top of a ramp, then has him push himself down the ramp into the bowling pins.  Tickles him to no end.  (funny how a lot of OT things seem like supervised versions of all those things your parents tell you not to do.  lol) 

Last week, when Elise told him it was time to clean up, he swooped in and grabbed a blue and red pin and put them behind his back.  He looked up at her grinning, with that ornery glint in his eye and asked “(do you) want red or blue?”  She was taken a bit by surprise, but quickly responded “blue”, at which point he started pulling one of the pins from behind his back.  She then interjects that she “wanted blue” (he was pulling the red one forward) and he quickly looks down and pulls it back behind his back and pulls out his other hand with the blue one.  It was so adorable and such a neat social interaction.  It is so neat to see him finding new ways to show off his sense of humor with people.

Point of View:  Test time folks.  Pull out a piece of paper and draw this figure.  (have your kids do it too if you want)

Now…how did you draw it?

If I understand correctly, most kids see this as two triangles, and produce it by drawing the bottom triangle first and then have to work to figure out how to draw the upper triangle in the right place.  Most adults see it as an “X” with a line across the top and the bottom.  Zane, however, did something his OT hadn’t seen before…he drew a “Z” and then put a line through it.  I thought that was interesting. 

Grandma brought all manner of tasty treats to decorate cookies with. 

The two of them spent the afternoon together decorating and baking and making sweet memories. 

Last Day of Preschool for the semester.  Making Gingerbread houses

eta:  I can tell already that I am the “mean mom” because I wouldn’t do it for him like most of the other parents in the room.  lol. 

Sadly, his last day with Janet, whom he really likes. She is a grad student and has a different assingment this spring.

Some random cuteness

These are from late November, but I realized I forgot to post them, so here goes…

I wanted to get a picture of both kids by the tree top section of the tree.  There are about 20 pictures of this variety…

until I finally just gave up getting both of them in the picture at the same time 

Zane directing the action.  He had been asking for the tree for several weeks.

ahhh

Zane was pretty possesive about the Christmas tree and ornaments.  One of the problems with trying to get a picture by the tree topper was that he was fine until she touched the tree and then would drag it away from her or meltdown if I would have a grip on the tree.  He also wasn’t convinced that she should touch any ornaments.  It was fun to be navigating a typical sibling rivalry and within a few days he was able to handle her touching the tree and the ornaments with a lot less anxiety.

First we went to my dad’s side of the family.  Anika, the other little girl, is only a month and a half older than Zora.

Then we went to see my mom’s mom, who is recovering from bypass surgery.  Zora moved too much to get many non-blurry pictures here in the relatively short time we spent there.  (didn’t want to wear her out too much and both of the kids were tired at this point)

She loves pears as long as they aren’t in little pieces.

Zane made with Janet & Terese

Everything is going well for us, I am just too busy to post.  When I finish my Christmas project I have a ton of photos to post from the last weeks.  Every second I am on the computer, I am working.  I haven’t even been to my websites as much, and usually only when Zora is nursing, so I haven’t posted much either. 

Zora is walking holding on to one hand now.  Zane had his last day of preschool for the semester.  He had his official diagnosis:  PDD-NOS…he didn’t have enough of one of the six markers for autism to get a pure classic autism diagnosis, but is officially “on the spectrum” with a “Autism Spectrum Disorder”.  I felt validated that he didn’t have full blown autism but is on the spectrum…it seems like a correct diagnosis to us.  We had our big family reunion for my dad’s side of the family, and we have been doing crafts and other Christmasy stuff…lots of fun with some cute pictures.