Mommy and Sam Sitting in A Tree

I'm in that place where I haven't posted in a few days and the longer I wait, the more things come up that seem more important than blogging. M being sick, me being sick, snuggling and playing with the kids, and watching the Temple Grandin movie on HBO last night. So I am forcing myself to share, instead of focusing on HGTV and cuddling with Sam, who's the only other person home. He has moved from a blanket on the couch with Puppy and iCarly to trains to HGTV with Mommy.

The sickness...M started out with a head cold, which I woke up with yesterday. Not too bad. But then, while he was food shopping in the afternoon, I started to feel ill. In my stomach. After I started cooking dinner (chicken, black bean and sweet potato enchiladas), the ill feeling increased and M suggested (strongly) that I go lie down (in the bedroom rather than laying across the ottoman moaning). So I did, uncomfortable in any position, trying to avoid the hurling feeling, unable to read (the worst kind of sickness), listening to music to pass the time. Eventually, I fell asleep, until about 10:30, when M came in and told me how great the Temple Grandin movies was. Then I couldn't sleep, between the congested person in my bed's snoring and moving around, so I went back to the couch and found that the movie was on again at 11:45! Followed by Without a Trace and CSI (on different channels). Then went back to bed at 3AM, to be awakened by Sam at 5. However, I am such a trooper that I still managed to go to breakfast with Poppa and The Little Person. And I'm so glad that I did. We went to a new place that was close by and totally worth it. Fresh, seasonal ingredients and from-scratch pastries. GOOD coffee (and espresso), nice atmosphere, and a cushioned seat for The Little Person. Our waitress was...well cute and in high school and clearly preoccupied by her cuteness. Fortunately, the other waitstaff was great at picking up cues, and the owner was very attentive. I had crepes with seasonal berries that was fantastic. And an Americano. It was like being back on the West Coast.

Still feeling kind of blah, but stable. The Little Person spend some time at Grandma's while Sam 's had respite with L, so M and I went for a walk at The Sheep Pasture and then came home for lunch. L said it wasn't one of Sam's better days, but that she'd seen worse. Now the gangs all here, and Babysitter Extraordinaire is coming in three hours. I think we may just go over to Mom and Dad's and go in the hot tub/order Indian food/watch TV. We aren't really motivated to do anything, but don't want to miss an opportunity to get away from the kids.

On Friday, I picked up Sam for his home visit with Mrs. H. He actually did great work, so much that I think it may be time to make the home visits longer. It was the first time I saw him trace letters without someone physically guiding his hand. We have a clinic meeting with his teachers on Monday, and should get to see the new Dynavox (voice output device in action ). Exciting! Also, I got some feedback on what I need to put together so that Sam can do work for us at home. Extra time at future visits will give us more time to discuss work Sam can do independently after school. Hopefully, software will arrive this week, and I got the bulletin board, so I need to work on printing out First/Then and Activity Schedule materials. Along with that is laminating and snacks/edibles for rewards.

I have to mention the Temple Grandin movie. Even at 11:45PM-1:40AM, it was fantastic. Claire Danes (who you almost wouldn't recognize if you didn't know it was her), plays Temple in during the 60's and 70's. Temple Grandin is a woman who specializes in engineering cattle chutes and humane design of slaughter houses. She has a masters and PhD, and teaches at Colorado State, as well as travelling all over the world to consult and do presentations. She is also autistic (or artistic as our friend Karen says. I love the artistics, she says!) and didn't speak till she was 4. Doctors told her parents to institutionalize her. One of her books (yes, she's also authored at least three books, in addition to numerous articles on animal husbandry) is called Thinking in Pictures, and the movie (produced by HBO) does a great job explaining what this means. She's brilliant, and socially inept, bluntly straightforward and extremely literal. And she knows what it feels like to be different. Less, not different, is how her mother puts it. I love that. She designed a contraption she called The Squeeze Machine, as a therapeutic tool in her college dorm room. It is a mechanical "hug," and emulates the feeling a cow gets when it's in the thing where it's head hangs out and the sides come up. She noticed how it calmed the cattle down and thought (rightfully so) that it might calm her down as well. Her roommate flipped out, so she designed a psych experiment recording how different people felt inside The Squeeze Machine. Genius. I can't wait to ask her if she still has it when we hear her speak in person at a conference next month. Anyway, if you can, definitely see it. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it's better than Cats.

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