Happy Halloween!

I will not promise pictures of Monkey’s Halloween costume because I am probably not going to witness him wearing it…but his teacher reported yesterday that he wore it nearly all day at school!  This is huge!  He hasn’t worn a Halloween costume willingly since he was 2!  The other times he wore it just long enough to get a photo or two and then stripped.  He also ate enough sugar at his Halloween party to make himself sick but he had bounced back by the time I picked him up.

We’re on our way to Maine today to dig potatoes and to celebrate my mom’s birthday, it should be a long, fun day.  In the meantime, here are those photos I promised….a while ago 🙂

The Fair! And an apple picking bonus! (Did I ever even mention we went apple picking??  I’m such a slacker!)

The fair!

An agricultural fair is just about the most exciting place ever for me.  I mean, how can you not love it?  Cows, goats, chickens, bunnies, sheep, the smell of manure, the sight of men walking around eating turkey legs!  OK, those last two I could do without.  It’s funny, I’m certainly no vegetarian (and as if I need further proof that I’m a big, fat hypocrit, our cow goes to the slaughter house tomorrow…) but it really grosses me out watching people chowing down on those greasy turkey legs.  I like my food to look a bit less like the animal I was just feeding grain to, thank you very much!  In my defense, I’ve never met our cow much less fed it grain…which would have gotten me in trouble anyway because this cow is grass fed not grain fed so … wait, where was I?

Right, the fair.  We had a lot of fun.  We saw some farm animals, ate some fried dough, bought Monkey a ridiculously overpriced toy (which he loves, so maybe it wasn’t that overpriced.)  The only part of the fair we skipped was the midway.  It’s way to overstimulating for Monkey but I don’t much like the midway either.  I like to be nice and those people really, really want my money…I feel almost compelled to just walk through and hand out money to everyone.  No need to play the games, I’ll just skip to the part where my wallet is empty.  We did walk on the very edge of the midway though, it’s hard to avoid, and one of the carnies almost made a huge mistake.  He wanted to hand Monkey darts to play one of the games.  The problem is Monkey would have just tried to play “catch”…hopefully with the operator but most likely me or Duhdee.  He has a good arm, he has hit me with balls before and it stung…trying not to imagine dodging darts.  Eep.

I’ll post some pictures tonight.  I would do it now but I forgot to download the pictures yesterday because Duhdee and I were too busy rearranging the bedrooms.   That was just a ton of fun, let me tell you.  I was worried that it might freak Monkey out, he’s not a big fan of change, but he was fine.  Barley, our Aussie mix, was not fine.  He was so freaked out that everytime I bent over or sat on the floor he was trying to crawl inside my skin…I’m not entirely sure that even that would have been close enough.  Poor, crazy mutt.  I guess we should have given him his anxiety medication before we started!  Next time.  Another 6 years seems soon enough for me!

Just the right kid for me.

I can be a little…forgetful?  scatterbrained??  both???  I’m one of those people who will get out of the car, lock the doors, put the keys in my pocket and then forget where I put the keys until they turn up in the dryer.  Oops.  (Those little clicker things don’t like being washed and dried, FYI.)  And  I do this stuff a lot….I take the clip out of my hair and then 10 minutes later I can’t find it.  I take my wedding ring off and put it somewhere “safe” and forget where that safe place was.  I try on two different shoes to decide which to wear and when I make the decision I leave the rejected shoe wherever I was standing and move on with my day…later I can’t find both of my shoes.  I finish talking on the phone and I carry it around until I set it down…somewhere. 

Poor Duhdee trails along behind me grabbing the keys and hanging them up, putting the phone back on the base, helping me search for my hair clips, reminding me where that other $&(*&%^( shoe is.   It makes him a little crazy. 

Last night I realized that Monkey is a mini-Duhdee in this regard.  When I walked through the front door he told me to take off my jacket and pointed toward the closet.   He told me to take off my shoes and pointed to the front hall closet again.  He followed me around while I was talking on the phone and, when I finished, he took the phone from my hand and put it away.  It’s rather funny, I do what he tells me without even thinking about it which makes Duhdee smirk and mutter something about Monkey having me wrapped around his finger.  I’m not really sure Duhdee’s reaching the right conclusion though, the way I see it Umma has two assistants doing all the stuff she never remembers to do 😉

I can’t believe we did this but…

we’ve decided to embrace another of Monkey’s obsessions.  Duhdee signed Monkey up for his very own IM account and installed an instant messenger program on Monkey’s profile on our computers.  We’ve set it up so only people who are on his list can IM him and his only friends are Duhdee and I. 

How long before he is asking for a cell phone and wanting a texting plan?  Srsly.

A day off.

Monkey created his own day off from school today by waking at 2 AM and staying awake until 5:30 AM when he finally crashed.  Umma was woken up again at 7 AM by a whiny little boy who had run from his room, where Duhdee was trying to wake him up to take a shower , and hopped into her bed.  He had the covers pulled up to his chin and he looked to be on the verge of tears with his eyes were squeezed shut.  Just by looking at him I knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold it together today if we made him get up so I called off the torture and let him go back to sleep.  He slept there until a little after 9.  Umma still had to get up and go to work though.  I sure hope he’s feeling better than I am right now!

Obsessions

Monkey has gone through various little obsessions in his life.  When he was newly diagnosed it was spinning objects and we came down a little hard on that one.  We refused to let him play with toys that encouraged the behavior as if that would 1. stop him or 2. make a bit of difference to his development.  I mean really, if you just STOP him from spinning things he’ll be better, right?  It sounds pretty stupid, even to me, in hindsight 🙂

Anyway, we now embrace, and at times encourage, his obsessions.  The ones we encourage are those that he’ll share with his peers…obsessions about trains or playing ball, for example.  There are some that are just so unique (and cute) that we enable him despite the fact they won’t ever be very useful to him.  The latest of these is his obsession with receipts.  Not just any receipts though, he prefers the receipts that the library hands out each time you check out books.

On Friday, I came home from work and was greeted at the door by Monkey, “‘per (paper)?”  I told him I didn’t have any paper but that I could go and get some if he wanted, he replied “Yesssss!”  So I tromped off to the library only to find that it was closed!  I forgot that it closed at 5 on Fridays.  Dang.  I went home feeling guilty and a little apprehensive.   I didn’t know how Monkey would take it when I walked through the door empty handed.

I was, again, greeted at the door, “‘per?”  I apologized and explained that the library had closed, I didn’t have any paper.  “hoot (receipt)?” he clarified as he eyed my library bag.  “Sorry bud, no receipt.”  He wandered off and started searching through various books to see if he could find one he had somehow missed.  I was expecting a night of constant “‘per?  hoot?” but he soon moved on. 

On Saturday, he once again asked for paper.  I knew the library was open so I asked him if he wanted me to get him some paper.  “Yesss!!!”  I asked him if he wanted to go with me.  He firmly said “Noooo! Home! Dogs!” as he walked as far from the front door as he could get.  I grabbed my coat and keys, he came running to yell “Byyee!” as I left the house.   When I got home, about 20 minutes later, Monkey ran to me and shoved his arm into my book bag.  With a worry line between his eyes he searched “‘per? hoot? ‘per?”  He finally found the receipt and took off running while he hugged it to his cheek, “Awwww, hug!”

Not 5 minutes later, Monkey was in tears and asking for paper.  What???  I began searching for it but Duhdee had to break the news to me.  Monkey had FED IT TO THE DOG!  Copper, the older, gimpy one, has an obsession with paper too.  He will shred and eat any paper or piece of cardboard he can find.  Monkey will often tease poor Copper-dawg with his paper and play keep away.  He thinks that is hilarious, right up until Copper wins and eats his prize.  *Sigh*

The library was closed for the day but…Umma had been tricky.  She had checked out her books and Monkey’s books separately and had TWO receipts!  Of course she then had to spend the rest of the weekend chasing Monkey around telling him “He’ll eat it, put it away!” and telling Copper “Touch it and you go in the crate!” 

Do you think the librarian will mind if I ask her to put each book on a separate receipt from now on?  Actually, I think the better question is…do I care if she does?