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Dec 8, 2008

The Fun Is In Playing, Not Winning, Right?

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It’s been decided that Christmas will be held at our house again this year. It’s a tradition that my family has long held, actually. When I was young, my mom was the only one from her family who had a child (both my aunts never married or had children), and so Christmas was always held at our house to make it easier on her. I never understood how that made it easier until I had kids of my own. Not having to get up early to get the kids ready, pack bags, get food ready to transport, pack the gifts, etc. – it really is easier to stay home.

And so the tradition has continued that the person who has the kids hosts Christmas. I don’t even have to cook unless I want to – the majority of the food is purchased now. Since my family is fairly laid back, we even let the kids stay in their PJs until after presents are opened.

One tradition that I kinda miss is having the family play games together after dinner. While my grandmother tidied up (because she can’t let any dirty dish escape her) my aunts, my mom and I would clear off the table and break out the board games. Every holiday meal was digested while playing a board game or card game of some sort.

Some of the games were a lot of fun. I could usually win at Uno, and a little mystery game called Scotland Yard was perfect for my family of smart problem solvers. Occasionally we’d pull out Monopoly, but since the average game of Monopoly takes roughly 4.5 days to complete (played all the way through, not just until people walk away out of frustration because one person has hotels on half the board and doesn’t give discount rates) it was often left in the closet.

The one game that always came out at Christmas, however, was Trivial Pursuit. In a family of smart people, this was the game of choice. Colors would be chosen – I was always the blue circle – and the battle would begin. Mom and Aunt Lynn put up a good fight, and I held my own for being a child, but the winner of every. single. game was my Aunt Dona.

I should point out that Aunt Dona isn’t just a natural genius. She has a Masters of Library Science and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies. She’s lived in three countries and can read Arabic. So you can assume that she has a bit of an edge over everyone else. No matter the category, she knew the answer, often filling up her circle before I had my second pie piece.

Occasionally the game got boring when she would answer 20 questions in a row correctly, traveling from one side of the board to the other and back, collecting pie slices while the rest of us wondered if it was time for dessert yet. As I got older, we bought expansion sets for the game to keep the questions fresh – 80’s Edition, Welcome to America expansion, Genus II, Junior edition, etc. But no matter what expansion set we bought, Aunt Dona was the master of general knowledge.

However, I miss playing Trivial Pursuit. Even though I never won a game, I was always willing to jump in and fight for a chance to win. The competitive spirit was there regardless. Maybe this year I’ll pull the old faded and worn leather storage case out of the closet, dust off the board, and challenge everyone to a round of Trivial Pursuit this Christmas.

Too bad they don’t have a Preschoolers’ Pop Culture expansion to give me a chance at winning – I’m sure I could top everyone in my knowledge of Blue’s Clues, Backyardigans and Disney movies.

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Hey, want to win some games? This post is part of a PBN blog blast, sponsored by Electronic Arts, ending tonight at midnight. Hurry to get your post in for your chance to win an armload of fun games.

Filed Under: family time, holidays, me me me, memories ·


Dec 5, 2008

Haiku Friday: Finals Week

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Haiku Friday
Two more exams are
between me and the end of
this quarter of school

I was crazy to
think that statistics would be
not much extra work

With my days being
so full, I often forget
I’m a student too

One nursing class and
one math class have me thankful for
ending this quarter

Assuming I pass
these exams, two more quarters
until I’m all done

And best of all: I’ll
never take more than one class
at a time again

Why I ever thought I could take statistics while deep into my nursing program I’ll never know. I put it off for way too long – taking this class before I started the formal program, and before I had two kids, would have been the wiser choice.

But after three months of multi-tasking hell, the end is in sight. Two more exams, one for each class, must be taken in the next five days. Once those are done, I can relax and enjoy the three weeks off before classes begin again. Yep, three weeks off, with only my family and my blogging to keep me occupied. (OK, maybe it’s not so much of a break.)

Two more quarters, two more classes, and then I’m done.

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1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. What’s a haiku, you ask? Click here.

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3. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! I will delete any links without haiku!

Filed Under: Haiku Fridays, me me me, school ·


Dec 4, 2008

Feeling Lucky

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I can’t say that I’m someone who never wins anything. When I was younger I had really lousy luck and couldn’t win a contest even if I bought all but one of the tickets.

Over the past few years, though, I’ve had better luck. While I usually win small prizes, like a book or a pair of shoes (still very useful prizes!), earlier this year I won a $200 gift card from Elizabeth at Table For Five to help with textbooks for nursing school. And then last week, Parent Bloggers e-mailed me to let me know I won the blog blast shopping spree for Oliebollen.com.

I’m not one to get outwardly giddy over anything, and at first I was kinda stunned. I won a shopping spree? I had 12 hours to visit the website and choose up to five items with a total value of $400 or less. As I perused all they had to offer, that excited feeling from deep inside began to build, until I was annoying Aaron all evening with, “Should I get the fancy diaper bag or the Melissa & Doug castle? I’ve only got four more hours left to decide!!”

(As you can probably guess, his response was less than helpful. I think it was something like, “I don’t care, pick out what you want!”)

So after a lot of hand-wringing and having the “practical versus fun” debate with myself over and over, I decided on my five items. Here’s what I picked:

For Mira, a Daily Tea dress and pants.


I’ve always loved this brand, but like other favorite brands of mine (Hanna Andersson, anyone?), I can rarely justify the expense.

For Cordy, a dress so expensive (although on sale right now at Oliebollen!) that I would have never considered it if I was using my own money, because we could pay the electric bill with that kind of money.

I love this dress – with her pale skin and blonde hair, she’ll look stunning in this. And it’s probably the only time she’ll have a dress this expensive until her Senior Prom.

For both girls (mostly Mira, though), a Rody jumping horse.


They’ll never get a pony, no matter how much they ask. But this is a cute substitution.

And for me, a Fleurville sling tote diaper bag.


I’ve always heard moms rave about these diaper bags, and while I’ve drooled over some of the gorgeous designs, they’ve been out of my reach. But since I now had the chance to splurge, I figured it’s time I gave myself a little gift, too.

I should point out that the site has lots of other fun toys and clothing that aren’t quite as expensive as these. I wanted to maximize my shopping spree. Go big, right?

Big thanks to Parent Bloggers and Oliebollen for the contest! Now I’m going to hope my luck holds as I try to enter all 50 HP giveaways – have you seen these? LOADS of HP computer equipment is being given away! Winning a new laptop would be awesome.

Filed Under: me me me, money · Tagged:


Dec 3, 2008

One Year. 525,600 Moments of Change

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Last November (2007), a note was sent home from preschool letting us know about the upcoming school picture day. Cordy had only been in school for a little over a month – placed there after making quite an impact at her developmental evaluation – and was still in the phase where she trusted no one and screamed whenever I dropped her off at school each day.

I knew Cordy didn’t like new experiences. The smallest sensory disturbance would set her off into epic meltdowns. She was fearful of bright lights, loud noises, and strange people. So when they announced picture day, I worried how she might react.

The report from her teacher that day was the story of a struggle. It took over an hour to even coax her into the darkened room with the bright flash. She had split her bottom lip that morning from a post-breakfast meltdown, leaving it slightly swollen and red. Long after the other kids flashed smiles and moved on, her teacher continued to work with her to preserve this moment.

Cordy, as she was at that point in time, was clearly displayed in the picture that resulted:


And now a year later, the new photo displays a different Cordy. A Cordy who has ever so gradually learned to cope with the sensory onslaught around her, tempered her emotions to avoid meltdowns most days, and occasionally does what is asked of her.

She still sees this world as a scary place, but she’s coming out of her own little world, ever so slowly, and reaching out to put trust in others. You can look at her face and see how these small changes over the past year have made a difference.


There’s still much work to do, but the progress so far has been impressive. I truly believe Cordy wants to free herself completely from that barrier surrounding her and keeping her from fully participating in the world around her. And our hands are firmly grasping hers, doing our best to lead her out of the fog and refusing to let go.

Filed Under: Autism, Cordy, growing up, school ·


Dec 2, 2008

No Surprises

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Early on Saturday morning, two women showed up at our door with folders of papers and a little tackle box full of toys. They were here to do the full evaluation on Mira’s developmental progress. As they walked in, Cordy gave a loud “happy Halloween!” greeting to them (she still hasn’t figured out that Halloween is over), and Mira peered at them from behind my legs.

Aaron took Cordy upstairs for a bath so she wouldn’t disturb the evaluation, and I sat down on the floor with them as they began with a basic puzzle of two shapes and the holes to put them in. Mira quickly figured it out, but refused to take them back out of the puzzle and give them to the occupational therapist (OT).

When she put a Cheerio in a little bottle and handed it to Mira, she quickly turned it upside down to get the Cheerio out. But before the OT could say, “Now put it back in the bottle” Mira had already shoved it in her mouth. She took out another Cheerio and gave it to Mira, this time getting as far as “Can you put it in-” before Mira again popped it into her mouth. The third Cheerio was eaten as well. That’s my girl – she likes to eat.

She did pretty well on gross motor skills and fine motor skills, so the primary focus became communication. The speech therapist asked me several questions about how I interacted with her – do I repeat words, do I correct her if she mispronounces something, do I ask her to say what she wants when she points to it? In short, do I actually bother to talk to my child? Well, of course I do. I’m a blogger – I’m full of words.

None of the questions bothered me, until I was asked, “Has she said the typical first words? Mama, dada?” I looked down at Mira with a touch of sadness. “No, she has yet to say those.”

They both tried to persuade her to talk, but other than a few “nooo”s and some squeals and shrieks when they tried to make her do something she didn’t want to do, she remained mute. She also refused to play along with many of their games – a trait that seems to run in our family. After 45 minutes, they packed everything up, said they would need to score her evaluation at the office, and unceremoniously left. My only regret is that she didn’t smile or laugh for them even once, just gave them her icy stare. She’s really a goofy kid, but it’s a side of her that she refuses to show to strangers.

The call came this evening. Based on their evaluation, they’ve determined that Mira has a speech delay and will begin receiving therapy for it. They were especially concerned with her expressive language, but also a little concerned with her receptive language. I’m sure the receptive language perception was due to her disinterest in their games, because she responds to many things I tell her to do. OK, not that many – she does choose to ignore me when she doesn’t want to hear what I’m saying.

After we got the news, Aaron and I looked at each other and shrugged. There were no surprises here. We know she doesn’t talk, and that otherwise she’s a fairly typical 18 month old. As I’ve said before, compared to what we’ve already gone through with Cordy, this doesn’t seem all that bad. Even if Mira never speaks (practically impossible, I know), she’s a bright girl who knows how to get her message across. She has the will and temperment to demand anything she wants in life, even without saying a word. This is nothing more than a bump in the road.

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Filed Under: big issues, Mira ·