Taking the Scenic Route

This is one of Zane’s first phrases, and it has stayed this way since he first uttered them.  It is his way of asking somebody to play with him, usually a game of some sort.

Today when Zach and I were standing in the kitchen talking after he got home from work, we hear an enthusiastic voice ask “TWO PLAYERS!” and, without missing a beat, I said “please wait a minute Zora, we are talking right now”, and continued on for another three words and suddenly Zach and I realized that it was the wrong kid using the phrase and just started laughing so hard. 

She is going to grow up bilingual…english and zane-ish. 

They had a party for the kids. Crafts, games, cookie decorating, Santa, and meeting up with friends, both other families we know and therapists that have become friends over the years. It was fun.

Zane was super excited to meet Santa and headed right to him as soon as we got there. He told us before he got there that he was going to ask Santa for “a box of play-doh and a wii”. He said it very quietly to Santa, so we are glad we asked him before what he wanted. lol.

Santa gave him a sticky ball and told him to throw it against a wall, so the first thing he did was go around searching for a wall to throw it against.

Eventually, Santa threw it up to the ceiling for him and he waited for it to come back down, giggling as it slowly slimed down the wall and then released.

Unlike Zane, Zora was a bit wary of Santa and wanted to do stuff first, but kept glancing over to Santa as the evening progressed.

She was still a little shy, but eventually wanted to talk to Santa.

Then we were goaded into a photo. *snort*

Zane found a ceiling he could get the ball onto and Zora was able to decorate a whole second cookie while we waited for it to come back down before we could leave.

In Speech Therapy this week he decorated cookies. He specified that he wanted the tree for himself, the reindeer for Zora, the bell for Daddy, and the snowman for me.

We had snow, but it warmed up enough that they could go stomp around in the melting snow the next day. (wouldn’t be able to do that now, way too cold)

Saturday was the last week of the semester at Exploration Place. It was a Christmas Party and the kids all added some decorations to a big gingerbread house that would be on display, made sparkly Christmas Tree crafts, Rang bells, and the story was the Nativity Story.

Zane’s tree

The last few weeks, when we go from the room to the carousel, Zora has been holding hands with the other little kids. It is really cute to see the little lines of kids holding hands.

Much anticipated carousel rides

Going home

The Christmas Pagent at Church was after the worship service this Sunday. My parents and brother all came up to go to the church service (we were having an orchestra and choral music “Moods of Christmas” thing…our church has a lot of professional musicians and it is just spectacular when they do stuff like this) and to watch the kids at their first ever Christmas Pagent.

Honestly, my kids were the most challenging; Zora because she was the youngest (and pretty spirited too), and Zane because it was chaotic and difficult for him. However, both of them made it through with no meltdowns and I am happy that they were able to participate. I was really impressed by the other kids who helped my kids out so much by taking their hands and helping direct them when they couldn’t figure out their cues very well. I really like this group of kids a lot and am continually impressed with their maturity and acceptance.

They were absolutely adorable in their costumes. Somehow the scrape on Zora’s chin just seemed to add to the ironic charm of her costume.

Gathering around for “Away in the Manger”. In rehearsal that morning Zora was quite upset when they took away baby Jesus to reset the scene and wanted to know “Where Baby Jesus?” over and over.

After this scene is when they are supposed to line back up, ready to sing “Joy to the World” and “Christmas Truth”, but this is where my pair went off script. Zora wouldn’t leave baby Jesus and was in the back, guarding the manger, and Zane’s headpiece came undone, and he tried to get it back on his head but couldn’t get the headband on it and it kept falling off his head (looked like a dinner napkin on his head at this point). This disoriented him and he started walking across the stage, up to the second microphone, and was just starting to talk into the microphone as I reached him, took his headpiece and told him to “go back to your x” in his ear (we had an “x” marked on the stage where he was supposed to stand). He did (thank goodness), and the play ended just fine (the leads were focused enough that they didn’t seem affected by Zane’s detour)…welll, except that Zora stood in between the lines (one of the older girls had gotten her away from the manger, but she wouldn’t go back up to where her “spot” was), but she was singing and doing the actions. If I would have had a camera, I could have gotten great pictures of her singing from side stage. lol.

edited to add: a link to mom’s account of the day: Littlest Angel

Yesterday, the kids kicked off their shoes to run around outside.

Today, it was freezing cold and snowing. In an unusual conflict, Zach and I both had to be downtown at conflicting times, and only one vehicle could be driven in this kind of weather. (I never purposefully make plans anywhere at a distance during the week in the winter, but the Saturday class for this last Saturday at Exploration Place had been full since the beginning (the first class to fill up) and we were on the waiting list. Last week we got a call that there were openings for today’s class and the weather looked like it wouldn’t be a problem. Wrong.

Anyway, we decided that Zach would work from home in the morning (he can log in remotely and work by phone as easily as going into the office) and I would take the kids, and then he would drive in after lunch. On the way there, it was snowy and a little slick, but not bad. The trip home was much more dicey and I didn’t even want to chance the interstate after almost being slid into a few times before I hit the onramp. (a fender bender seemed like a much better deal than an injury accident at higher speeds). I was almost involved in two more accidents after that too, and gave really wide girth when I saw other trucks sliding through intersections and into adjoining lanes to avoid rear ending people. This is Kansas…people are not unaccustomed to bad weather here and usually scoff at people who can’t drive in nastiness.

We got home, ate some lunch, and Zach headed out to work. It took him 20 minutes to get to the onramp area and it was like an ice skating rink out there, so he turned around and came home. We drive an all wheel drive SUV, so it was pretty nuts for it to be sliding around like that. We heard there were well over 100 accidents by noon, and even though the snow was getting better, the slush had frozen over due to the wind and it was not fun, even for people who are used to the weather. (the wind was pushing us around a lot too, and without good traction, you would change lanes whether you intended to or not)

Anyway, the morning was good. Both kids had fun and were listening well enough that I wasn’t ready to pull my hair out by the time we left. There was some whining that we had to go right away, but I knew I needed to get the vehicle back to Zach (and really glad I left when I did because the roads kept getting worse) and they both were upset, but no meltdowns or total tantrums, just complaining. That was really good. The combined temperments can be really challenging, especially when there is only one parent, so I was really pleased and proud of them today.

The theme today was “Gingerbread” and they each made a little gingerbread house, a gingerbread craft, and some gingerbread themed toys, gingerbread colored playdoh, with a gingerbread snack. Zane ADORES gingerbread houses, so this was a lot of fun for him.

Zora’s gingerbread house, with help from one of the workers there

Zane’s gingerbread house, his design, although I had to help with some of the squirt frosting because it was really hard to get it out of the can for some reason.

Zora playing with the kitchen. She wanted to take her playdoh cookies with her to the kitchen area and protested when I thwarted her plans, but had fun anyway

The white squiggly things were too long, and there were no scissors, so he carefully folded them behind and glued them down to make it look neat. He did the craft totally independently.

Every week, at the end of the session, the kids get to go to the old fashioned, hand carved carousel. Zane rides independently, and stand next to Zora for safety.

Waiting for it to start

I grabbed my camera on Monday to snap a few shots of Speech Therapy.  It is going so much better now than it was earlier in the semester.

Many of the shots are a bit blurry because I am in a dark hallway/viewing area and looking at Zane through a one-way mirror (a mirror on his side, a window on our side).

Zora sometimes will play with toys, but the last week or two she is totally bored with the toys she has, so she wants cookies.  I am pretty sure the desire for cookies has more to do with taking the trip down the hallway to the vending machines and out of the viewing area

protesting returning to the hallway

annoyed because she couldn’t reach

problem solved….sort of

Now they are trying to blame rainy weather.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27536036/

Now, everybody lip-sync “Blame it on the Rain” lol

WASHINGTON – Children who live in the U.S. Northwest’s wettest counties are more likely to have autism, but it is unclear why, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Michael Waldman of Cornell University and colleagues were searching for an environmental link with autism, a condition characterized by learning and social disabilities.

They got autism rates from state and county agencies for children born in California, Oregon and Washington between 1987 and 1999 and plotted them against daily precipitation reports.

“Autism prevalence rates for school-aged children in California, Oregon and Washington in 2005 were positively related to the amount of precipitation these counties received from 1987 through 2001,” they wrote in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, a London physician who wrote “Defeating Autism: A Damaging Delusion”, expressed doubt, noting that autism diagnoses are on the rise in all climates.

No one know what causes autism, whose symptoms range from severe social avoidance to repetitive behaviors and sometimes profound mental retardation.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one in every 150 children has autism or a related disorder such as Asperger’s Syndrome. Rates in many countries have been rising, although that may be partly due to increased reporting and diagnosis of the condition.

Doctors agree there is a genetic component to autism. They also theorize that something in the environment and possibly conditions in the womb can trigger the condition.

The researchers said their study supports this idea.

Perhaps infants and toddlers are kept are kept indoors in front of the TV more in rainy climates, and that somehow causes brain changes, they said. Or perhaps they breathe in more harmful chemicals while indoors.

Vitamin D deficiency caused by insufficient time in the sun might also be a trigger, they said.

“Finally, there is also the possibility that precipitation itself is more directly involved,” they wrote. Perhaps a chemical or chemicals in the upper atmosphere are transported to the surface through rain or snow.

“In recent years autism has been blamed on everything from discarded iPod batteries to mercury from Chinese power stations, from antenatal ultrasound scans to post-natal cord clamping, from diet to vaccines,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a long-term study to find the causes of autism and other childhood conditions.

I feel like I lost a friend…anybody know if she has a new blog anyplace?

Today when I was having Zane do a sequencing task during homeschooling, I was pulled away for a bit by Zora and left him on his own to work on the task. When I turned back to him, he looked up at me and asked, pointing, “is that right?” on a section. Woah. It is hard to act like it is the most normal question in the world when it is the first time he has asked it. lol. (getting too excited when he makes a verbal leap tends to make him retreat…acknowledging it is fine (and I did), but making too big of a deal backfires bigtime.)