Taking the Scenic Route

A very good thing

This week I went to an ASD/PDD parent’s group meetup.  It was really fun!  I felt connected to pretty much all the other parents immediately and hope to have some playdates soon.  I wish they all lived closer to me, but it would be worth it to drive (as much as our car will allow) to go see them.  It was so lively and fun, with no less than three conversations going on at any one time and we all shifted topics over and over again.  It had a similar energy as when we get to spend time with my best friend and her husband.  It was a bunch of adults, who all had a larger than life personality, who were starved for conversation.  What is sort of amusing is that most of the group either was not from Kansas, or are self-described as not really fitting in to Kansas culture all that well because we aren’t, by nature, quiet and passive.  Most of us seem to have an activism/advocate gene too.

I also got to go to a restaurant I have never been to before, but hope to return to.  Old Chicago (at Kellogg and Rock) hosted and it was really yummy.  They let us have a meeting room, so we could be as energetic as we wanted to be. 

Even though it was a few days ago, I still find myself smiling when I think about it.  A very good thing for us.

A very scary thing

Zane broke away from the group at the Corn Maze for a bit.  As soon as we noticed (we were stopped, helping the littlest ones with something…don’t remember what, but we remembered a group of middle-school aged kids running past us, and speculated that he ran after them), I took off in a sprint down the corridor.  At first it was just one straight shot, and the only offshoots were dead ends, but then I came to a 4 way intersection, and couldn’t see him down any of the paths.  I had to choke back the panic and visions of police and news crews searching for the “lost autistic kid” in the large maze.  In what can only be described as a miracle, despite the wind roaring through the corn and the rustling stalks, I heard his footsteps, running, and turned that direction and sprinted down the long path, looking for him at each intersection, just barely catching the sound of his footsteps running as I went, propelling me towards him. Suddenly, he ran across my path, another 20 yards in front of me and I shouted his name and “STOP” and he stopped.  I could see the fear in his face as I got closer, and yelled to the group that I had found him.  He met me, and we walked back to the group.  As we went back, I was amazed at the distance we had covered.  There is no way I should have been able to hear him like that.  It was impossibly windy.  Thank goodness for miracles and answered prayer.

A very sweet thing

My folks came up last night and we had a nice evening.   They brought up some steaks and we put them on the grill for supper.  Both of the kids were really excited to see them.  Zane brought over a book and read to Grandma, and was eager to show them the pumpkins.  At one point the stem broke off of his little pumpkin and he was asking for glue to put it together.  Just a note…washable school glue does not hold on pumpkin stems. 

Zora was content to just snuggle with Grandma for a while, and borrow her bracelets to wear.  When she did finally climb down from Grandma’s lap, she kept bringing her books to read. 

Later, Zane brought the pumpkin carving kit to Grandpa and described what he wanted to do.  (carve pumpkin, but he described it in the steps).  So, when we finally said yes, he ran to his room where he had taken the big pumpkin and lugged it out (dropping it over the gate in his doorway) and took it to the table.  He wanted to use one of the templates, but chose the only “face” for us to carve into the pumpkin.  He helped as much as he could, but the actual pumpkin carving was a challenge for even Zach, so it was really too hard for Zane to do the actual cutting part.  He was very much present though and excited as the pumpkin took shape. 

After Grandma and Grandpa left (with waves, “I Love Yous” and blowing kisses by both kids) we got the bowl of pulp and seeds and separated out the seeds.  Zane helped with the seed separation, and Zora played with the pulp.  Once the seeds were separated, I rinsed them off, then put them in a bowl with some brine and left them on the counter to soak a bit before roasting them.  That was a bad idea.  I sat down for a bit, and noticed it didn’t sound right in the kitchen.  I went in to discover Zane stirring the bowl with the smallest pumpkin, and upon further inspection, discovered that he had added both cereal and milk to the bowl of raw pumpkin seeds in brine.  Yeach!  It took a while to pick out the soggy cereal pieces and rinse the milk out of them, and by that time, we put the kids to bed and decided to roast the seeds today instead. 

We were so tired we didn’t even watch a movie.  Just sat on the computers a bit and then called it a night.