My wife writes much better headlines than I do. It's no contest.
Recently in Family Category
...as I was saying...
The past two months have been filled with a move, work, unpacking, and some family fun. In the time crunch, alas, this unpaid blog was one of the things to go.
Hopefully I'll have time to repopulate my tiny corner of the blogosphere. To get started, here's a guest post I wrote on my wife's blog late last week about taking my oldest son to a Cubs-Giants baseball game. He's now six, so this is likely the first game he'll remember, and we were rooting for different teams.
One of my wife's blogging friends just announced that her autistic son has been expelled from public school. And, wait for it, the teacher did not document hundreds of incidents on daily communications logs.
Nice surprise there school district. Oh, and illegal. There will be more to this story.
Meanwhile, my oldest son's (who has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS on the autistic spectrum) kindergarten teacher thinks we need to seriously consider another school option for first grade. My wife does a comprehensive job telling that story on her blog.
"This music is my life," my friend Jonathan would sometimes say while bouncing to the beat of a particularly great song.
Five years ago today, one of my best friends was killed in an avalanche. I miss him, I miss hearing his stories, I miss trying to figure out if I could join him at an eddie from ohio concert when the group visited the Bay Area.
I miss him.
I went back this morning and reread the remarks I made at his memorial service. I remember sitting with my laptop the day before and staring at the terror of the blank screen. A few of our friends came by to talk, and through their remembrances (and some e-mails from those who were unable to make the trip to Cincinnati) words, laughter, and tears began to flow.
During this past year, Jonathan traveled frequently. He drove around the country. It was his Freedom Tour. Down to Los Angeles, across the south to Texas, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Boston, Cleveland, Seattle, and points in between.Jonathan had fun. He revisited places where his family had vacationed earlier in his life. He met with family and friends. He learned more. He thought—both amusing and serious ideas. He was always aware. He was always doing stuff. He did not settle.
Jonathan’s father last night told a few of us about how remarkable it was that so many people, from so many different social circles, consider Jonathan one of their best friends.
I think so many people feel that way about Jonathan because he tried to live a life that mattered to other people. He cared for and took an interest in those around him.
In the end, there is no higher compliment. Jonathan, I still adore you and miss you. That will never change.
Update: My wife Kari also has some thoughts today about our friend Jonathan.
On Friday morning, my two-and-a-half-year-old son decided it would be cool to dunk my Treo 700p in the bath tub.
Remarkably, after a weekend to dry out, it appears to be functioning perfectly today. Whew.
As my wife explains, this was only one of the little guy's exploits the past few days. I have to admit, however, that toothpaste makes a nice smelling body paint...
Time, time, time
See what's become of me...
Now, just what could send me on a Bangles flashback this morning? Of course! Forgetting to set the clocks back an hour to welcome Standard Time back into our lives.
This is not such a big deal for me. But it was a big deal for my five-and-three-quarters-year-old son, known on the internets as "The Cat."
The Cat is extremely interested in time and clocks. He thinks about time a great deal. When he oversleeps, and misses his 7 a.m. wake up time, he gets very upset. That is the schedule -- he wants to start on it. He sets timers for many activities. The Cat is focused on time.
The Cat, therefore, was quite confused this morning when he noticed our atomic clock was reading the correct "fall back an hour" time, while every other clock downstairs was now an hour ahead.
Oh-oh. This presented a significant problem.
He became really aware of clocks and time sometime after we sprung forward this spring. We also have not traveled outside of the Pacific Time Zone this year. So, for him, time is concrete. A constant.
Until this morning. I tried to explain why I was resetting the clocks. He heard me tell the story of daylight savings time and standard time. But it did not make sense. The Cat was now having something akin to an existential crisis.
Then, after a few moments of confusion, he started to cry. He was very, very sad. I was eventually able to calm him and ask him why he was upset, since everyone (okay, mostly everyone) in our country was doing the same thing this morning.
The Cat responded that he was afraid. Scared that now he would now have to go to bed at 7.
This is a big deal because it only happens when he was been extremely naughty. He wondered if this meant that he is in trouble until March -- the date, as I had explained to him earlier, when we would move our clocks back forward an hour? What could he have done to be in such trouble for so long?
He was sorry. He wanted another chance.
After calming him again, I explained that he was not in trouble. That everyone was changing their clocks today. It is just something we do to have more sunlight at night in the summer. For kids to play. For farmers to work. To save some energy.
You have not been naughty, I told him. You are okay. The Cat has calmed down. He knows, I hope, that he is not in trouble.
But while for us this fall-back-an-hour thing may be a small deal about clock setting or perhaps showing up for brunch an hour earlier than intended, for The Cat this has been a big deal.
Something solid in his life -- time -- has just been shaken and mixed up. I suspect it is going to take him some time to get comfortable with that idea.
My oldest son, known on the internets as "The Cat", has never been much of a snuggler. Too much on the move. Whether this is related to his PDD-NOS diagnosis is a question about which I've often wondered. Sure, he'll sit on my lap to watch a favorite show or to read a book, but rarely longer than 20-25 minutes -- and rarely calm.
This morning he bounded into the bedroom at 6 a.m. This is a fairly regular occurrance. He then usually wiggles around and tries not to wake me, but he's too full of energy for that.
This morning, though, he came in, jumped into my arms, and fell asleep. Just slept. Until 7:11 a.m. 71 minutes of snuggle and calmness.
It is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Speaking of the Cat, he has produced a scary video (with editing help from his mom), after figuring out how to make movies on the camera we have been letting him use to take thousands of pictures the past few weeks. You can see the scariness here.
When purchasing ingredients to surprise your spouse with mimosas on a Sunday morning trip to the grocery store, make sure you select pulp-free orange juice.
Doublecheck. Do not let the craziness of children distract you.
There is no way to overemphasize how important this detail is to a successful mimosa presentation.
Sorry I've missed the past few days. Readers of my wife's blog know our family was thrown into considerable turmoil since Monday.
Short version: our oldest son has a mild form of autism. We figured a public school situation would prove too much for kindergarten this year. We found a local private school which had a good reputation for dealing with quirky kids. It did not work out, our son was expelled on Monday.
While I cannot blame the school for their decision given the particularly bad week my son had, I think their reputation for tolerating quirky kids is just a bit overstated.
Sorry, but after this incident involving my two-year-old escape artist happened yesterday afternoon, I wasn't in the mood to comment on anything.
Deadbolt gets installed this morning. He's sleeping happily in his bed.
My son first asked me to type out a googol. So, I did:
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000
Then he took over the keyboard and told me that I had to love him this much:
110000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00440000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000055550000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000
I will do as I am told. :)
I hope you have/had a great day!
My apologizes for being away. As a few of you have wondered, I have been busy with my son's surgery and recovery. Things went well and he's recovering nicely -- especially when he takes his medicine. Sometimes that takes more of a negotiation than it should, but the pain usually helps convince him. :)
My wife has written several posts about the surgery and recovery at her blog. Feel free to check it out!
A shout out to my wife, Kari, who is now blogging at ClubMom. She started blogging seriously after last year's BlogHer conference, and I'm really happy that she has this opportunity.
Congratulations!
