Baby Coming!
Ack! JP's water broke this A.M., so her daughters Danielle and Elise are here with us for an indefinite period of time. Poor Danielle's birthday party got pre-empted by the labor festivities, so we're trying to think of how best to make it up to her. I say Ice Cream, and lots of it.
New babies are so fun when they're somebody else's, aren't they?
12.14.2003
12.13.2003
Musk
Godfather M on why humans like truffles so much: They smell like sex.
---
The three of us on French vs. American cheese snobberies: Fuck the French!
Godfather M: I've fucked the French!
Squid: Hmm, I don't think I have. Does half-German count? Maybe he was half Alsatian...
Seymour: I haven't either, but I'll wear a beret later if it'll help.
It's 10:30 and the kids are still up. Which means we all get to sleep in in the morning. Ah, weekends.
Godfather M on why humans like truffles so much: They smell like sex.
---
The three of us on French vs. American cheese snobberies: Fuck the French!
Godfather M: I've fucked the French!
Squid: Hmm, I don't think I have. Does half-German count? Maybe he was half Alsatian...
Seymour: I haven't either, but I'll wear a beret later if it'll help.
It's 10:30 and the kids are still up. Which means we all get to sleep in in the morning. Ah, weekends.
Squishy Brain
I am so fricking tired my brain is bulging out of my ears. Don't know why. It is unbelievably annoying since, as always, I've got shit to do!
Crafty items did not arrive today. No presents for anyone, sorry. I will give you coupons for big sloppy kisses instead, unless I use my superpower and pull something out of my ass! (Appropriately enough, Iz, after a two-day Tick marathon, has been badgering me to come up with a better Battle Cry than "Don't Pick Your Nose!")
I am hiding in the office after a long day of errands and fun that took us from Los Altos to San Francisco and back home again. One stop was the salon. Another was (slurp, dribble) Ti Couz. The latter place has a full-length mirror in their bathroom, which I didn't realize until I turned around and almost screamed. That was the color Iz picked out for my hair? Cool, but it looks like I painted my head with mercurochrome. And, no denying it now, all the black clothes in the world are not going to change my official status as dumpy. Crap. Oh well, if it was truly an issue I'd do something about it.
We also picked up Iz's Godfather M on the way, and brought him home to stay the night (I am "cleaning the guest room" right now). He is preparing dinner for us. He is a professionally trained chef. I hope I stay awake long enough to enjoy his meal.
I am so fricking tired my brain is bulging out of my ears. Don't know why. It is unbelievably annoying since, as always, I've got shit to do!
Crafty items did not arrive today. No presents for anyone, sorry. I will give you coupons for big sloppy kisses instead, unless I use my superpower and pull something out of my ass! (Appropriately enough, Iz, after a two-day Tick marathon, has been badgering me to come up with a better Battle Cry than "Don't Pick Your Nose!")
I am hiding in the office after a long day of errands and fun that took us from Los Altos to San Francisco and back home again. One stop was the salon. Another was (slurp, dribble) Ti Couz. The latter place has a full-length mirror in their bathroom, which I didn't realize until I turned around and almost screamed. That was the color Iz picked out for my hair? Cool, but it looks like I painted my head with mercurochrome. And, no denying it now, all the black clothes in the world are not going to change my official status as dumpy. Crap. Oh well, if it was truly an issue I'd do something about it.
We also picked up Iz's Godfather M on the way, and brought him home to stay the night (I am "cleaning the guest room" right now). He is preparing dinner for us. He is a professionally trained chef. I hope I stay awake long enough to enjoy his meal.
12.11.2003
For Dedicated Fans Only
Today was a good day for both kids. Even though Leelo's been sick and having severe separation anxiety for the last month, he's still making steady progress. We are pleased.
Example: Last night he perfectly followed every direction to remove each item of clothing and put them in the laundry hamper. He then asked for help with his diaper, and he himself put it in the trash. Most parents of three-year-olds would probably say "big fucking deal," but keep in mind that we are describing a boy who, as little as six months ago, responded to exactly one direction: hold my hand.
And there was more diaper excitement today! Maybe he is ready to toilet train. I emerged from my personal pit stop to find his personal pit stop lying on the ground thankfully contained within a diaper, and arranged next to his pants. He was galloping around the living room, swinging free, with that energizer bunny power he exudes so frequently.
Not so great things for Leelo today: I'd forgotten how good he is at spitting out undesirable foodstuffs until I found myself sprayed with lemon-lime Cod Liver Oil this afternoon. He's stopped grinding his teeth, but has replaced that behavior with hand-biting. AIIIGH! Also, he had many bouts of the uncontrollable laughing fit crazies this afternoon. They drive me nuts, as he's almost impossible to reach when he goes into this mode.
These crazies are one of the reasons we're trying to get him seen by the good folks at Stanford. Though he's been seen and evaluated by many people who deal with subsets of his autistic symptoms (speech therapists, ABA therapists, occupational therapists, DAN! doctors), he's never had a thorough clinical, psychological evaluation by autism experts. The GGRC evaluation was brief and by-the-books. It lit a fire under our butts and got us working, and qualified him to have his small-group language classes funded, but it didn't give us a comprehensive picture of where Leelo is compared to where he should be, and what symptoms he might be exhibiting that we aren't noticing. Couldn't hurt, anyhow.
My conference with Iz's teacher went well, surprisingly. She's still a little shit, but less of one than in times past. She is paying attention more, and while she still needs encouragement re: follow-through of tasks she dislikes, it's not the wrestling match it used to be. Mostly we need to work on not torturing vulnerable children like poor Merlin. She had some interesting things to say about local schools, and suggested that I may want to visit some local K-2 classes before jumping straight into the Spanish immersion school. More work, great. Big sigh.
Sorry this is so dull but I'm just blogging away on this one as a record of where we are today.
And one for the shameless bragging file: Iz's teacher says that our girl reads "like an adult" (i.e., fluid sight reading plus enunciation and in-character voices), that she's one of the best readers she's ever had, and that putting her in kindergarten next year would be a complete waste of time. Which means even more research work for this lazy mom. Dammit.
Today was a good day for both kids. Even though Leelo's been sick and having severe separation anxiety for the last month, he's still making steady progress. We are pleased.
Example: Last night he perfectly followed every direction to remove each item of clothing and put them in the laundry hamper. He then asked for help with his diaper, and he himself put it in the trash. Most parents of three-year-olds would probably say "big fucking deal," but keep in mind that we are describing a boy who, as little as six months ago, responded to exactly one direction: hold my hand.
And there was more diaper excitement today! Maybe he is ready to toilet train. I emerged from my personal pit stop to find his personal pit stop lying on the ground thankfully contained within a diaper, and arranged next to his pants. He was galloping around the living room, swinging free, with that energizer bunny power he exudes so frequently.
Not so great things for Leelo today: I'd forgotten how good he is at spitting out undesirable foodstuffs until I found myself sprayed with lemon-lime Cod Liver Oil this afternoon. He's stopped grinding his teeth, but has replaced that behavior with hand-biting. AIIIGH! Also, he had many bouts of the uncontrollable laughing fit crazies this afternoon. They drive me nuts, as he's almost impossible to reach when he goes into this mode.
These crazies are one of the reasons we're trying to get him seen by the good folks at Stanford. Though he's been seen and evaluated by many people who deal with subsets of his autistic symptoms (speech therapists, ABA therapists, occupational therapists, DAN! doctors), he's never had a thorough clinical, psychological evaluation by autism experts. The GGRC evaluation was brief and by-the-books. It lit a fire under our butts and got us working, and qualified him to have his small-group language classes funded, but it didn't give us a comprehensive picture of where Leelo is compared to where he should be, and what symptoms he might be exhibiting that we aren't noticing. Couldn't hurt, anyhow.
My conference with Iz's teacher went well, surprisingly. She's still a little shit, but less of one than in times past. She is paying attention more, and while she still needs encouragement re: follow-through of tasks she dislikes, it's not the wrestling match it used to be. Mostly we need to work on not torturing vulnerable children like poor Merlin. She had some interesting things to say about local schools, and suggested that I may want to visit some local K-2 classes before jumping straight into the Spanish immersion school. More work, great. Big sigh.
Sorry this is so dull but I'm just blogging away on this one as a record of where we are today.
And one for the shameless bragging file: Iz's teacher says that our girl reads "like an adult" (i.e., fluid sight reading plus enunciation and in-character voices), that she's one of the best readers she's ever had, and that putting her in kindergarten next year would be a complete waste of time. Which means even more research work for this lazy mom. Dammit.
Oh, the Excitement!
Yeah, baby! Our Leelo had a real formed poo last night, and again this morning. This is a major achievement for a boy whose GI tract has been on the fritz for two years, and who has never produced anything but slurry and slop (apologies if you're eating).
He's finally, finally all better (wish I could say the same was true of all our friends). So we added Cod Liver Oil to his regimen last night. It comes in lemon/lime flavor now, did you know? Want some? He only has to take 1/2 tsp. per day, so we're putting it into a dropper and squirting into the back of his mouth. It makes him retch, but he's just going to have to get used to it. Poor little bit. His ABA sessions are going really well.
Today is Iz's parent/teacher conference. I have learned to fear these. Her teacher tends to dwell less on what she's doing right ("you know she's doing well, we don't need to talk about that") and more on how skillfully our girl has learned to skirt rules and torture other children. In a happy, gleeful, but still not Montessori-sanctioned way.
The materials for making my secret non-lame but still crafty holiday gifts have not arrived. Shite. No one is going to get anthing this year if they don't arrive tomorrow or Saturday.
Still, I am in a somewhat less fearsomely bitchy mood today. Possibly because Ep took Iz for most of yesterday afternoon (bless you) and I had a nap. Also because Rook loaned me his personally recorded videotapes of The Tick. Spoon!
Yeah, baby! Our Leelo had a real formed poo last night, and again this morning. This is a major achievement for a boy whose GI tract has been on the fritz for two years, and who has never produced anything but slurry and slop (apologies if you're eating).
He's finally, finally all better (wish I could say the same was true of all our friends). So we added Cod Liver Oil to his regimen last night. It comes in lemon/lime flavor now, did you know? Want some? He only has to take 1/2 tsp. per day, so we're putting it into a dropper and squirting into the back of his mouth. It makes him retch, but he's just going to have to get used to it. Poor little bit. His ABA sessions are going really well.
Today is Iz's parent/teacher conference. I have learned to fear these. Her teacher tends to dwell less on what she's doing right ("you know she's doing well, we don't need to talk about that") and more on how skillfully our girl has learned to skirt rules and torture other children. In a happy, gleeful, but still not Montessori-sanctioned way.
The materials for making my secret non-lame but still crafty holiday gifts have not arrived. Shite. No one is going to get anthing this year if they don't arrive tomorrow or Saturday.
Still, I am in a somewhat less fearsomely bitchy mood today. Possibly because Ep took Iz for most of yesterday afternoon (bless you) and I had a nap. Also because Rook loaned me his personally recorded videotapes of The Tick. Spoon!
12.09.2003
Angered Anew
Fucked up shoddy research techniques and conflicted loyalties are deplorable in any publishing scenario, but when you're talking about frying kids' brains, I would think journalists and researchers would be honor-bound to do the job right. Guess not. Looks like someone's been stirring the waters in that murky pool of mercury, Thimerasol, and autism.
Here's the link if mine doesn't work: http://www.insightmag.com/news/573542.html
And you know what, fuck it. Here's a paragraph from the article, and if this doesn't at least make you eye-poppingly pissed off, I hope it will make you cry. That's what I'm doing right now.
This veteran member of Congress puts it plainly: "We're not going to get answers to these questions until Congress or some outside group starts poring through this information. But it's very coincidental that they added the hepatitis vaccine, the HiB vaccine and the chicken-pox vaccine - they added all these additional childhood vaccines around the time when the autism rate started to skyrocket. Then when you actually sit down and do the calculations, according to the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], they were giving these kids very toxic levels of mercury. I mean as a 150- to 200-pound adult the EPA says you're not supposed to take in more than one microgram per day. They were taking little seven- and 10-pound babies and pumping 50 and 75 micrograms of mercury into them in one shot. That's like giving an adult 1,000 micrograms. And, on top of that, the World Health Organization says mercury is 10 times more toxic in children than it is in adults. It's horrifying."
from
CDC Study Raises Level of Suspicion
Posted Dec. 8, 2003
By Kelly Patricia O Meara
Insight Magazine
www.insightmag.com
Fucked up shoddy research techniques and conflicted loyalties are deplorable in any publishing scenario, but when you're talking about frying kids' brains, I would think journalists and researchers would be honor-bound to do the job right. Guess not. Looks like someone's been stirring the waters in that murky pool of mercury, Thimerasol, and autism.
Here's the link if mine doesn't work: http://www.insightmag.com/news/573542.html
And you know what, fuck it. Here's a paragraph from the article, and if this doesn't at least make you eye-poppingly pissed off, I hope it will make you cry. That's what I'm doing right now.
This veteran member of Congress puts it plainly: "We're not going to get answers to these questions until Congress or some outside group starts poring through this information. But it's very coincidental that they added the hepatitis vaccine, the HiB vaccine and the chicken-pox vaccine - they added all these additional childhood vaccines around the time when the autism rate started to skyrocket. Then when you actually sit down and do the calculations, according to the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], they were giving these kids very toxic levels of mercury. I mean as a 150- to 200-pound adult the EPA says you're not supposed to take in more than one microgram per day. They were taking little seven- and 10-pound babies and pumping 50 and 75 micrograms of mercury into them in one shot. That's like giving an adult 1,000 micrograms. And, on top of that, the World Health Organization says mercury is 10 times more toxic in children than it is in adults. It's horrifying."
from
CDC Study Raises Level of Suspicion
Posted Dec. 8, 2003
By Kelly Patricia O Meara
Insight Magazine
www.insightmag.com
When to Avoid Eye Contact
*Am I wearing metallic greenish-grey slightly fancy cargo pants with a clashing chocolate-brown cashmere turtleneck? Then I am too depressed to do the washing, and am tapping the dry-clean-only reserve tank. Avoid!
*Am I wearing the same shirt as when you saw me the day before? Even though I spilled something on it? Then I had a morning so phantasmagorically fucked-up that I can't process grooming basics. Avoid!
*Did you greet me pleasantly, only to have me respond with a growl and then completely ignore you? No explanation needed. Avoid!
*Does is look as though I slept in my clothes? I probably did. This means, that, on top of being grouchy and depressed, I probably smell. Avoid!
*Am I wearing metallic greenish-grey slightly fancy cargo pants with a clashing chocolate-brown cashmere turtleneck? Then I am too depressed to do the washing, and am tapping the dry-clean-only reserve tank. Avoid!
*Am I wearing the same shirt as when you saw me the day before? Even though I spilled something on it? Then I had a morning so phantasmagorically fucked-up that I can't process grooming basics. Avoid!
*Did you greet me pleasantly, only to have me respond with a growl and then completely ignore you? No explanation needed. Avoid!
*Does is look as though I slept in my clothes? I probably did. This means, that, on top of being grouchy and depressed, I probably smell. Avoid!
12.06.2003
Blessed Sleep
Leelo has finally decided to sleep. This is good. He whined and fumbled with the doorknob for an hour, but things never escalated to intervention levels. I just checked and he is even in his bed, as opposed to in a heap by his door (and bite me if you think that's heartless, his room is carpeted).
What a pleasant capper to a fucked up week of tantrums and not going to sleep unless he had daddy no mommy wait mommy and daddy lying on the bed with him. Not the kind of crap we'd usually give in to, but again, the boy's been sick.
He's been more entertaining awake. Yesterday I took him with me to visit Dr. K the world's funniest OB/Gyn, and ended up sitting him on my chest during the exam. I couldn't put him down because each time I did he would go grab my pants (at which point my thankfully tolerably clean underwear would fall on the floor) and plead "pants back ON!" He just doesn't like nakedness in general these days. As soon as he gets out of his bath he starts sobbing "shirt, shirt!" and will go pull his soiled one out of the hamper if we're not quick on the draw with the clean one.
Aside: Many thanks to Badger for pointing out the brilliant writings at Chez Miscarriage.
Leelo has finally decided to sleep. This is good. He whined and fumbled with the doorknob for an hour, but things never escalated to intervention levels. I just checked and he is even in his bed, as opposed to in a heap by his door (and bite me if you think that's heartless, his room is carpeted).
What a pleasant capper to a fucked up week of tantrums and not going to sleep unless he had daddy no mommy wait mommy and daddy lying on the bed with him. Not the kind of crap we'd usually give in to, but again, the boy's been sick.
He's been more entertaining awake. Yesterday I took him with me to visit Dr. K the world's funniest OB/Gyn, and ended up sitting him on my chest during the exam. I couldn't put him down because each time I did he would go grab my pants (at which point my thankfully tolerably clean underwear would fall on the floor) and plead "pants back ON!" He just doesn't like nakedness in general these days. As soon as he gets out of his bath he starts sobbing "shirt, shirt!" and will go pull his soiled one out of the hamper if we're not quick on the draw with the clean one.
Aside: Many thanks to Badger for pointing out the brilliant writings at Chez Miscarriage.
For A Good Time Call...
Someone sent us six bottles of wine. I think it was me. Seymour doesn't want to stack them on the counter; he thinks that anything over that which fits in our teeny wine rack should be banished to the garage. I am wiser, and know that it would be much more effective, not to mention salubrious, to simply drink all the excess wine. That's going to be some playgroup on Monday.
Someone sent us six bottles of wine. I think it was me. Seymour doesn't want to stack them on the counter; he thinks that anything over that which fits in our teeny wine rack should be banished to the garage. I am wiser, and know that it would be much more effective, not to mention salubrious, to simply drink all the excess wine. That's going to be some playgroup on Monday.
Void Redux
Figured out an idea for that holiday card. It is lame--which is far worse than nothing, but nothing is unacceptable for all the friends of my and Seymour's parents who are just waiting for something "soooooo creative!" from us. Was telling fellow soldier MB about how tempting it is for me to play the "we're too overwhelmed with Leelo crap" card this year, but, y'know, since I've got "nothing to do" while Leelo is in therapy all those hours, the people in question wouldn't buy it anyhow and they'd dish out the crap, overtly or subtly, and then I'd be doubly depressed.
At least Photoshop is fun. I could play with filters for hours.
Figured out an idea for that holiday card. It is lame--which is far worse than nothing, but nothing is unacceptable for all the friends of my and Seymour's parents who are just waiting for something "soooooo creative!" from us. Was telling fellow soldier MB about how tempting it is for me to play the "we're too overwhelmed with Leelo crap" card this year, but, y'know, since I've got "nothing to do" while Leelo is in therapy all those hours, the people in question wouldn't buy it anyhow and they'd dish out the crap, overtly or subtly, and then I'd be doubly depressed.
At least Photoshop is fun. I could play with filters for hours.
12.05.2003
A Mighty Void
Cannot come up with an idea for this year's holiday card. Fark.
Here is the card I would like to do:
Side-by-side images of Christina Aguilera, Ann Coulter, and Britney Spears.
Underneath each , it says "Ho."
So, "Ho, Ho, Ho!" Ha ha hahahahahaha.
Well, I think it's funny. But I am too lazy to print them all out myself, and sites like Ofoto.com have copyrighted material policies. Ah well.
Cannot come up with an idea for this year's holiday card. Fark.
Here is the card I would like to do:
Side-by-side images of Christina Aguilera, Ann Coulter, and Britney Spears.
Underneath each , it says "Ho."
So, "Ho, Ho, Ho!" Ha ha hahahahahaha.
Well, I think it's funny. But I am too lazy to print them all out myself, and sites like Ofoto.com have copyrighted material policies. Ah well.
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