7/29/11

Toby, a photo by Hamstocks on Flickr.

Exhausted and thinking about new ways to use the blog. I have been thinking about some new writing projects.
I am going to try and post every night with a recap of the day. I also want to try putting together a zine. Here is today.
Toby woke us up around 1 am last night. This means I am presently exhausted. Toby went back to sleep... Lucky kid. Yogurt and granola for breakfast. A mellow day at the office. Home for lunch... Bagel sandwich. I made what I hope will be the final rough design for this high performance home campaign. I came home and had meatloaf for dinner. Henry's eye is in a weird place. He is taking both allergy medicine and antibiotics. His recovery is slow going.
The day was pretty boring, but really it was doomed from the start.

The eye which is pink

Moments, this week, a photo by Hamstocks on Flickr.

It is already Thursday. Geez. I made it back to the gym last night. It does feel good to be covered in working sweat, not just being hot sweat.

Henry has got the pink eye. I am super paranoid about catching it. He wasn't getting better and got a fever on top, so Virginia took him back to the doctor for stronger medicine. Two shots in the butt. He hates that. Shots in the butt are his biggest enemy. Maybe he will get better now. Let's hope it doesn't spread around.

Tonight will be working around the house. I want to get the studio ready for an easy transition this weekend. Going to get the new office/hobby room ready. I made a new batch of kombucha the other night and expanded it into a bigger container. I have to make sure it grows well, so that mold doesn't get in there.

Sleepless

A day's plans get thrown so far out of whack when the kids wake up at 4 am. The morning was lost. I let Virginia sleep in, then I went back to bed. Next it was toby's turn for a nap. We tried to save a bit of the afternoon. I fixed the composter, and we put kids art in the dining room. Now, it is a little after 8, and I am in bed for the night. I sure hope we don't repeat this in the morning.

trying to figure out a weekend plan

A big and nice list. It would be nice to do some sort of fun outing with the kids. I am thinking maybe swimming at a friend's house or going to the museum (maybe the springs).

Lots of work needs to be done. We are going to start getting Toby's room converted to an office and Henry's room converted to a shared space. This also means cleaning out the studio space a bit, and getting the crib and changing table sold. This also means getting our bedroom cleaned up (taking out the desks, etc.). I also want to figure out why the composter isn't emptying compost the way it should. There is also a plan in the works to put up kids art in the dining room.

It should be a pretty serious work weekend, but maybe we can make it fun as well.

Success

Dominoes, a photo by Hamstocks on Flickr.

Henry and Toby did really well sharing the bunk beds. I couldn't sleep, being paranoid about what would happen if Toby woke up in the night. It worked out though. Also, Henry pooped in the potty. This is a very big deal. Also I went to the gym. I tried out reading the Ipad on the treadmill. It worked out okay except that the Ipad kept hitting the incline button, and I kept being surprised by having to run up a very steep hill. Eugene was there and it was nice to have a friend to run with. We have loose plans to meet back up on Wednesday.

A new week

We did a stenciling project this weekend and Henry was really into it. Mostly though, he has just been wanting to knock down dominoes.

It is Monday and I am sorting out my week. Tonight we will do a trial run with Toby sleeping on the bottom bunk and Henry on the top. If this works out, Toby will be moving into Henry's room very soon, and we will turn Toby's room into an office/hobby room. This is also great because it will make putting the kids to bed a one person job, making it feel less selfish for one of us to go out in the evening. Also, it will make cleaning out the studio easier, because we can prioritize what we want to keep and put these few things in the office (everything else must go).

I am trying to plan some trips to the gym this week, and maybe something fun for the kids next weekend. I want to either go out or have people over once a week. That should be a minimum.

At work I have some projects that are starting to come around and launch. This is kind of a brainstorming and focusing week for these things (newsletter update, high performance home campaign, document library, Wild Spaces Public Places Report).

Henry has two hyperbaric sessions this week. Maybe this will give us a better idea of how well it is working.

Time to clean up

Fun Sunday in the kitchen

Made bread, mango pineapple sorbet and Popsicles, peach lemonade, and a hard boiled egg in the shape of a bunny.

Ice cream birthday party

Bunk bed and bird feeder

Early breakfast

The kids decided to wake us up super early, so we went to the plaza for breakfast. Then lawn mowing and bunk bed making. Now I am out shopping for a mattress. Good day.

Lunch-break visit with Henry

It is about to get started

Morning ride to school/work

A really good week from a few days ago until a few days to come.

I am really excited about seeing the Mountain Goats Wednesday. I am thankful to whoever took this video of the last Mountain Goats concert I saw. I love this.

First post after the autism conference and man there is a lot going through my mind. Toby started what we like to call school, but is really day care today. He was happy to see us go and seemed into his new crew of friends. We also found out that there is an opening at Millhopper Montessori, so I guess this day care will be short lived. He starts real preschool in about a month.

Coming home for lunch today was interesting. I did not have to put Toby down for a nap. Henry finished school last week, so he is home for the rest of the summer. Virginia is planning this time for some home based therapy and the conference was a great inspiration for that.

I spent part of the morning organizing notes from the conference. I really did learn a lot. Lots of practical ABA advice. There were a couple of people who did a workshop that blew my mind about teaching through drawing and writing. The technique helps kids to learn theory of mind, and to place other people's existences into the general existence of, in this case, Henry. It seems completely obvious to most people that other people are in a room and that these people have thoughts and are a part of your experience. The reality about autism is that this is hard to learn, and this workshop pointed out that this is, in fact learned.

I also learned a bunch of OT relaxation techniques. There was a great workshop on how dogs help kids on the spectrum to relax. Relaxation is a big deal. If you have anxiety, it really effects mood and behavior.  I will probably find some way of posting the notes on the blog. I am thinking about posting them on my public drop box folder, so that Virginia can have access to them.

There was also a pretty inspiring workshop about the statistics on divorce and parents of autistic families being completely wrong. There is a often quoted statistic that couples with kids on the spectrum have an eighty percent divorce rate. It is actually about the same as any family with children, around thirty five percent. It is just nice to know that the relationship is not doomed.

Wednesday is the Mountain Goats. This should be awesome. I am also trying to map out some home projects, and getting ready to call some fencing companies about the fence and pergola ideas that we have. This feels like a really good week.

Thanks to Toni for keeping up with the kids while we got out of town for awhile.

Also, I bumped into my old friend Mike at the conference, and that was a super rad surprise. 

The boys

Very cute photos of the kids taken by Toni while we were out of town.

Wretches and jabberers

Watching wretches and jabberers presentation at morning keynote.

Everyone should see this movie.

Crazy bedspread in our hotel room

Blurry kids

I am missing these guys

Cheesecake factory

Done with the conference for the day

Now IKEA

The day

There is a kids dancing competition going on next door to the autism conference. It definitely helps lighten the air to see kids in crazy outfits getting ready to dance.

The conference is great, and we have learned a lot. The attendance seems pretty low and hopefully this event won't bankrupt the autism society.

The hotel

This place is pretty enormous

Henry has been really into these monsters lately

Crazy all the time

photo 4.JPG, a photo by Hamstocks on Flickr.

Let me get a good solid blog post in.

The three day weekend happened and that was good. Toby is in full potty training mode. I worked some overtime, had some friends over, got a few things done around the house, made some more pickles and things like that.

I spent some time in our studio/storage room over the weekend. I kind of made a plan for getting it cleaned out and cleaned up. The plan involves working on projects that haven't been done or finished, building Henry and Toby's bunk bed so that Toby can move into Henry's room, selling and giving away lots of stuff, and organizing paper in file cabinets. It didn't seem as daunting as I thought it would.

I am leaving this evening for an autism conference in Orlando for a few days. This is the biggest autism conference in America and we are pretty lucky that they are having it pretty close to us. Virginia is already there doing a pre-conference workshop on positive parenting. The last conference we attended was great, and filled us with ideas. The workshops look at least as good for this one. I am going to try to treat like a vacation (low stress).

I spent part of the weekend looking through a vegan cookbook for new things to make for Henry. I made a cheese recipe for his burger the other night, but he was not into it. I made a list of several things to try, and it got me excited about just cooking in general.

It's only a two day work week, so that's good right. In spite of it being crazy budget preparation week, my desk has actually been pretty mellow. Loving the new Ipad.