Taking the Scenic Route

Looked it up. It is a Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca Sexta), a close cousin to the Tomato Hornworm, but the Tomato one has a black horn and the Tobacco one has a red horn. Both eat tomatoes. I discovered that this is the last stage before it goes into a cocoon and emerges a gigantic, beautiful moth. It is horrible in gardens for tomatoes, but a good pollinator and I am trying to figure out what I want to do with the sucker. I really hate to kill it, but I want my tomatoes. It didn’t seem to be going very fast so I figured I would think about it overnight.

Today I did incorporate the caterpillar into the home school. Instead of having Zane work with pictures on his Visualizing and Verbalizing work, I took him outside and used the prompt questions to observe and describe the caterpillar. Some of the things I was planning on showing him didn’t work so well in real life. After looking at videos of the hornworm on YouTube (there are lots), the bugs apparently ooze green goo out both ends when they are disturbed (like when people pick them off of plants). I was going to annoy it with a stick and show Zane that because I knew he would think that was cool. The worm was slumped over and showed almost no resistence to being moved. I put him on the ground and he responded just enough to let me know he was still alive, but probably not by much. I guess mother nature took care of the decision for me.

I did find one person online who likes these critters enough to raise them. Apparently, they are also used a lot for scientific studies, sort of the lab rat for the insect world, because they are big enough to really see the organs with the naked eye and easier to dissect.

Later this evening or tomorrow I plan on helping Zane look up info about it and attempt to have him to make a report (as much as we can…might be pretty short. lol), but I am really tired and he isn’t cooperating well. (he usually does, so I assume he isn’t feeling great either)

And one last bit of good news, Finally, we have a red pepper. mmmmm

Saturday evening we went to see dre.dance perform “beyond words”, a piece about autism. It was a powerful evening.

The dance told the story of an autistic boy growing up and the experience of autism. It took all of the everyday stims and movements and rhythms and made a beautiful, powerful piece. It was really cool. So much of the focus on autism in the media is so negative and to have somebody show that there is also beauty is really refreshing.

The directors didn’t really have a librato because they wanted you to intrepet the dance on your own terms instead of saying what it was, but I will give my interpretation of the story line:

It starts with the boy, center stage, in a hot spot. He is lining things up (in an abstract dance). The “parents” get upset, try to get him do different things (dance with them), he doesn’t. They argue and are upset. This scene had me doing the ugly cry and trying not to disturb those around me the first time I saw it at the Dance Festival, and I still cried this time…as a parent, it really got to a deep dark place. In the next scene the stage is filled with people and the boy is moved around, pushed, pulled and lifted by the large cast in an attempt to try and get him to dance with them, (which I interpreted as a flurry of interventions you seek after a diagnosis) and at the end, left to his own devices, he is still autistic, still lining things up.

There is a really neat scene in here where the boy and a man mirror each other’s movements and stims, and I interpreted that as the transition of the boy to the man (growing up).

The middle part of the ballet seems to be an exploration of the stims, in dance form. They included rocking, finger flicking, propriorecptive & other kinsetic stims (including Zane’s propensity for being upside down), and vocal and breathing stims. There might have been a story line there, but I was lost in the dance and just facinated seeing the everyday movements turned into dance form, so if there was a story line here, I missed it.

In the last section, there was a man that was clearly the boy grown up, and some of the early movement themes were repeated. Now the stage was filled with dancers, all moving together in whirl of complimentary actions (based on stims) for a while, and suddenly dancers start falling to the floor. The autist goes around trying to make them stand up, but more and more dancers fall to the floor and everything starts falling apart. He then starts moving between the dancers and dancing and clapping and everybody gets in sync again and is dancing beautifully. This last part was interpreted in dramatically different ways by other audience members, but I don’t agree with them. I think the last part was showing that the autist had everything arranged how he liked it and something came in and messed it up, and everything fell apart for a while, but since he is an adult, he has learned how to get everything back together on his own (the parents weren’t there). I found it really inspirational.

I don’t think I can tell you, in words, how incredible this dance is. I have always really enjoyed dance and going to ballets are one of my favorite things to do, but I know I have never been as affected by a dance before. Powerful experience. I hope they are able to get the funding to tour, but it will be coming to New York in the next months.

Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party of a little girl turning four.

I have never really spent much time in the “girly” aisle’s at Target before and it took me a while to figure out what the heck to get her. I was a little overwhelmed with the creepy eyed dolls, both the people and the animal dolls. I had no idea that “My Little Pony” now came tiny, without the cool hair to brush, and had their own fashion boutique and outfits. I had heard about Polly Pockets online, in parenting forums, but was rather taken aback when my first glance at them was a package of disembodied heads, a bunch of torsos, and legs. It looked like “serial killing for girls” at first glance. I figured out later that it is the new thing…they come apart like that so that you just put them together like that to make new outfit combinations instead of having to dress them. Not all of the Pollys look like they have been hacked up into fashionable little pieces.

I ended up getting Zora a little Polly Pocket Stackable playset. They only had two there…a bathroom and a bbq on the deck set. I ended up getting the bathroom. I was slightly weirded out at getting her a bathroom, but really, it was better than the bbq. I hope to get her a little kitchen and maybe some other rooms too. I am in desperate need of something small that she can play with in the ST waiting rooms. I can’t exactly take those giant Little People playsets or the big wooden dollhouse with me, but she seems to like playsets. I looked for a while in the boys stuff to see if there was a cool hot wheels car playset, but they didn’t really have anything and I seriously don’t need another train set in this house so the take-along-Thomas set was out. I was hoping for those cool animal playsets (you know, with real looking animals, not creepy big eyes with blue eyeshadow and wardrobe “pets”) I have seen at Toys R Us, but Target didn’t have anything like that and I didn’t have time to make it to the other place before closing because I had just spent an hour and a half trying to figure out what to get the girls. lol.

Anyway, the party itself was much smaller and less chaotic than her big brother’s parties. We watched her open presents and then ate cake and ice cream. It was nice.

I snapped pictures of her opening the gifts, but the thing that makes this interesting is Zane in the background. Zach, who was next to him, said that he was making up stories and acting them out in the castle. This is something that we almost never see him doing, so it was pretty exciting. (later he had the castle opened up and had knights on horses tromping through)

They perform this Saturday at Wichita State University

dre.dance site

It was a great day. I wish my Dad could have made it, but he had a really awful cold. Mom and Steve both met us there though. It was good to see Steve again. It was especially good to see him spend time with the kids and start to really get to know them better. (something he could never really do with his soon-to-be-ex) After a week of constant rain, it finally cleared in the afternoon and we were blessed with perfect weather too.

The fair is such a big deal for our family. Steve and I were often at the fair every day as kids/teens because we didn’t live far away and we were very involved and often had many various entries, from art, to FFA, to FHA, to competing in the band contests. My mom said she has only missed two fairs her entire life: the first when she was about Zora’s age, when there was a big polio scare, and the second when she was in the hospital having Steve. (his birthday always falls during the fair, and this year it was the day we all went there).

The Illinois State Fair was a big deal in Zach’s childhood, and one of Zane’s strongest and most enduring interests is in roller coasters and rides (he plays Roller Coaster Tycoon on the computer quite a bit and loves to design rides, pathways, and landscaping on the game).

It was a really fabulous day for all of us.

Through the poultry building on the way to get some food.

The look at the poultry was pretty much over when Zane realized that the rides were just on the other side of the building. We first went and got a Pronto Pup to eat because all of the adults were starving, then on to the rides.

Zane wanted to go into the obstacle course ride. We held our breath as we watched him climb up rope ladders, traverse a narrow swinging type bridge, and navigate through other obstacles until he finally made his way to the triumphant big slide. We didn’t have to go in after him and he didn’t seem to hesitate on the different obstacles…we were happy to see that.

Zora waiting with her brother for her first ride ever.

For her first ride ever, she insisted on the car ride. While Zane chose the back seat of a jeep thing, Zora went straight for the two seater red sportscar.

Another one where I go…you take him…I don’t wanna.

Letting us know she is good to go on the NASCAR ride. lol

Zach and Zane sat in the back row, Steve and Zora right in front of them. We were a little shocked when Zora asked to go on this thing. I know it is a “kid’s” roller coaster, but still. The girl has serious daredevil genes.

The adult roller coaster, this time Zora sat out (too little), but Steve came along for the ride again. Zane loves this thing.

After riding “Ye Olde Mill” and the train, we decided to split up because Zora wanted to see the animals and Zane wanted to go back to the rides. Zach and Zane ended up on two or three more rides, including one that was more intense than the adult roller coaster. Zane, of course, loved it. We were there late enough that Zane got to see the rides with all the lights on. He and Zach rode one of the rides that Zach remembers riding with his dad in the dark…it was called the “Blizzard” and is the one I remember being called the “Schletterbaum”…where you go up and down in circles really fast, then it takes you backwards, with really loud music and blinking lights, half of the area covered, half outside.

Zora seemed most interested in seeing a cow. What she really wanted was to go up to all of the big cows and bulls, but what we let her do was pet the calves. Here she is showing us the cow.

Zora and her “unka ‘teve”

This was the response when I told her she needed to wash her hands.

She insisted on getting Steve to show him the 4 horned sheep. He was able to convince her to wash her hands with no problem. lol.

We wore them out. They didn’t even wake up when we carried them inside and into bed.

He has really gotten to know the doctor though. Monday and Tuesday were consumed with appointments and tests to see if the leg that is hurting is a blood clot (no), diabetes (no), or a pinched nerve (maybe). He was only able to get to work for a half day through all of that because of the length and spacing of the appointments. Today he woke up at 5am and spent the morning in the bathroom, both ends. He is now at least able to rest a bit between boughts, but still pretty dang miserable.

Zora and I went to the store and got him some Gatoraid, crackers, and chicken noodle soup. Naturally, when I need chicken broth, I don’t have enough left. lol.

Obviously, we aren’t going to make it to the fair this year unless everybody is healthy on Saturday. Crossing my fingers.

She is off center because she is looking at herself in the viewfinder of the camera and I am having to work to keep her from touching the lense and grabbing the camera…so, not the best shots, but shows how animated she can be.

And, I’ll finish with a sweet story…

Today was a rough day for the grown-ups.  Zach spent the day in drs. offices having some tests done on his leg (not a blood clot and not diabetes…probably just a pinched nerve, but will talk to the dr. again tomorrow morning).  I had the world’s worst headache.  The kids were being, well, kids.  Loud, demanding, and all at once it was too much for me.  The headache started crossing the thresh hold into migraine and I went downstairs and laid in bed, with the lights off, trying to find a quiet dark place. 

Zora followed me into the room.  It was everything I could muster to patiently tell her that “Mama doesn’t feel very good”, and she asked if I was “Owie” and I said “Yes, Mama Owie”.  She left, and I let out a sigh of relief.  A few minutes later she was wiggling the handle and noisily made her way back into the room.  I was so irritated and working my darndest to not get snippy with her, when I saw her come up next to my bed, trying to get a band-aid out of a package.  She pulled it out, and carefully put it on my forehead, then gave me a kiss.  I about cried from the sweetness.  I think I’ll keep her.

And, a shot of them not killing each other at the computer.  (a rare moment, usually they are fighting for control of the mouse)

Robert stopped by with the kids.  Cody and Zane played Lego Star Wars, and Alex entertained the girls for a bit with a game of tag that had them giggling like crazy.

WooHoo! There is so much I could say here, but I won’t. Not yet. At least not until the divorce is final, but I will say that I am so utterly relieved that my brother finally saw who she was and won’t let himself be run over any more. He should have done this years ago, but at least it is happening now.

No more family gatherings where everybody walks on eggshells the entire time so that she won’t take out her convoluted perceptions on my brother. Ahhhh.