The New Year

I know you guys may have been wondering whether or not I had died, seeing as how I can't seem to get my act together to put down a few sentences on my blog lately.  I have all sorts of reasons as to why my writing stream seems to have dried up to a trickle, but I'm not going to bore you with it, or try to justify anything.  Let's just suffice to say that I resolve to do better in the New Year, and I hope that my kids and their schedules will agree with that resolution.  ;)

The New Year's party settings and guests, Birdie (L), Hubby, and Princess (R)

Me in my styling 2013
party glasses decorated by Birdie

The Kitty Ball

On New Year's Day, just before noon, Princess surprised our family with a New Year's party.  The party was a spur of the moment event, but P had put some time (20 minutes, at least!) and effort into putting together her shindig.   She made refreshments "from scratch", which consisted of Toaster Strudels and Capri Sun juice pouches.  Her party also had "formal" table settings (which means fancy stacked dishes and cups, and folded napkins), name cards, and party favors, which P commissioned Birdie to make.  To make the party complete, Princess made a New Year's Resolution game called "Pass the Kitty Ball", where we passed around a stuffed kitty toy and confessed our resolutions to the family.  When Princess was holding the Kitty Ball, do you know what that child resolved to do in 2013?!  Very solemnly she vowed,
"I will try to improve my kindness to others."

*cue sound of screeching brakes here*  Whoa!  What kid makes that their New Year's resolution?!!!  We-ellllll... If you knew the whole story...

Awareness and What A Diagnosis Is NOT

Aahhh... the magical diagnosis.  In the world of special education, a child's diagnosis is the compass rose and key that educators use to draw the map of that particular student's learning plan.  The diagnosis, by definition, is an evaluation of an individual to determine what is contributing to their educational and behavioral difficulties.  The diagnosis, therefore, is a tool.  It is a tool parents and teachers use to raise awareness and understanding about a child's particular set of behaviors, and nothing more.  It is most decidedly NOT meant to be an excuse for academic and behavioral shortcomings. It is not permission to stop parenting.  It should, instead, be a parent's notification of hard work in the near future.

I'll just apologize in advance-- this may turn into a bit of a rant.

The Crazy Train Olympics

I have to admit that I'm not much of a fan of televised sports.  Not even the Olympics arouses my interest much.  I will occasionally watch the beach volleyball, since those are about the hottest athletes to ever walk the face of our planet.  A bit of the high diving competition never hurts, either-- those insane divers are fearless and amazing!  (They make me just dizzy watching them.)  I will watch some gymnastics too, for the same reason I watch diving-- gymnasts are truly unbelievable!  I wish I could do those things, so I live vicariously through them for a few moments, until it becomes depressing how obviously low their BMIs are, and I begin to feel the need to self-medicate with ice cream.  (It also occurs to me that those little girls could totally kick my ass.  I have never even imagined myself in as good of shape as they are in!  Even when I played basketball and spent hours everyday in the gym, I didn't hold a candle to the fitness level those girls achieve!  Ugh.  But I digress...)

I have tried this week to interest Princess and Birdie in watching some of the Olympic competition.  Why not, right?  After all, the Olympics only happens every four years, and there are some great lessons in sportsmanship and dedication to be learned there.  Even if the girls got totally addicted to watching the games, it would all be over in a few days, and life would go on as normal (no possibility of fixating on it they way they did with the Pocahontas movie or Sonic X ).  I tuned into the equestrian event, thinking the horses might tickle their fancy-- not even a flicker of interest.  We also tried swimming, water polo, volleyball, and gymnastics, all with flagging enthusiasm.

After many attempts at watching many different sports, Birdie finally asked me "I don't understand.  Why do these people practice these sports so much, Mom?!  Wouldn't it be better to know that you are the best at a sport naturally, without all the practice?"

What a Week for Delirious Mom!

This past week has been jam-packed with activity on the Crazy Train!  The word whirlwind comes to mind.  I don't know how so much could possibly happen in one week, and happen so painlessly at that.  (I should probably knock on wood right about now! *rapping on my head with my knuckles*)  I just give you a brief recap of the week, with the little funny bits that deserve mentioning added in.

Posing for a photo op: Prince Charming, Princess & Birdie
No one looks particularly enthusiastic about the camera.

Monday:  The Crazy Train took a ride to The Natural History Museum, accompanied by Princess's future husband and mother-in-law.  We had an absolutely nerdy blast and stayed over 4 hours.  Four hours, people!  That's like a year in being-social-and-on-the-spectrum time.  No one was more surprised than P's future MIL and me-- we both kind of figured we'd spend more time in the car than at the museum.  We had no drama, no meltdowns, and no security issues.  The only fallout from the whole event happened hours later at home.  Birdie briefly worried that her stuffed dog could possibly have gotten cancer from the full-body x-ray he received during the security check at the Ronald Reagan Building.  Once I showed her the "cancerous spot" was really just a piece of black paper stuck to her stuffy's ear, all was well in Birdie-Land again.

One Special Daddy

Daddy's girls

Yesterday, my husband celebrated his ninth Father's Day.

Yesterday, my girls and I celebrated another year with the most amazingly perfect father I could ever dream of for my girls.

Birdie and the Child Find Committee

I know you are expecting a conclusion to the story of the girls' birthday weekend, but you will have to wait until next time.

Today I did something I never imagined I would do.  Today I submitted a referral form to the school requesting that Birdie be the subject of a Child Find Committee.  It was easier and harder to do than I could have ever guessed it would be.  It was easy to do, because in my heart of hearts I know that despite her incredibly amazing brain for knowledge, Birdie could really use some help developing her "social brain".  What made this process so damn hard was that in some ways it feels like a bit of a loss, too.  So much for me having a pseudo-normal kid... not that was ever truly a possibility.  I mean really, look at me!

Control Issues-- We All Have Them

I am learning from motherhood that most of life is about managing the craziness that is taking place around you.  The rest of life is about ignoring the crap that is bothersome if  it is something you can't change.  I don't think realized this before I had kids.

Sometimes It's Lonely Riding the Crazy Train

Following on the heels of a mostly successful Spring "Break", the kids in our school district had one more day off today due to a Teachers' Workday.  It's the end of the grading period and certain things just have to get done at school.  Like report cards.  And lots of other teacher-y things.

I am now employed by said school system until the end of the school year, so I had to be there for the workday, too.  Seeing as how I make roughly $95/day for services rendered to the school system, and a sitter for the 7hr workday was going to cost me $110, my girls had the pleasure of accompanying me to work today.  And I have to say, they behaved beautifully.  Princess even commented at one point that she much preferred school without all the kids being there.  Hahaha!  Of course she does.  (I think that maybe a few of my fellow staff members felt the same way.)   Overall, I think my ladies had fun today.  Who'd of thunk it, right?

Nonetheless, I felt bad that they had to be there at all.  I mean, come on!  It's still Spring BREAK, for crying out loud!  


I know it sounds weird, but my kids having to come to work with me today made me feel all alone.  I guess it reminded me that my family is a little island, inconveniently removed from the rest of our relatives.

The Things We Hold Onto

In the beginning...

I look into the abysses that are my daughters' rooms.  I am NOT going in there.  Hurricane Katrina has nothing on my Princess and Birdie.  Clothes are strewn about their rooms with great abandon.  Toys clutter the floor while their toy bins stand open and empty.  Books are in piles all around the room-- sometimes the books are piled by topic and sometimes they're just piled up to clear a path to a pile of something else.  There are bits of trash and paper and "treasure". (Treasure in this instance translates to most folks as "random, formerly shiny crap found in the Target parking lot".)  And then there are the stuffies-- tons and tons of stuffed animals fill every gap, nook and cranny that remains in the room.  How would I get in if I wanted to?  Why would I want to?