Last winter I designed an Advent Wreath for my Sunday School Class. It is one of the many interesting posts you will find at the

Make It From Scratch Carnival

that my friend in blogging Mama Bear is hosting over at her place. Why don't you go check it out? You will find lots of delicious looking recipes and fun craft ideas just in time for the busy Holiday season.

Menu Plan Monday

Well, I fell off the wagon for a couple of weeks and you know what happened? Stress. Late dinners. Grumpy family. Random trips to the grocery store for random things. I also learned what was at the bottom of my freezer, which was a good thing!

So, here we go again.....

Meal 1: Lemon Chicken and Rice

Meal 2: Shepherd's Pie

Meal 3: Apple Pork Chops

Meal 4: Tuna Noodle Casserole

Meal 5: Grilled steak and Mediterranean-style potatoes

Meal 6: Sweet potato stew and Ham Sandwiches

If you want to see what other menu planners are up to check out orgjunkie.com

I also want to mention my two go-to cookbooks. They have never led me wrong and almost everything I have tried in them has been delicious. The food is healthy, ingredients easy to find. They are real gems to have in your kitchen.

Eat Shrink and Be Merry and Crazy Plates were both written by two sisters that care about healthy tasty food that will please your family. They sneak health into everything! I swear by their trick of adding broccoli slaw to tuna when making sandwiches now!

I'm a carrot.

A couple of evenings ago we were sitting around the dinner table chatting. The conversation turned to how old everyone was and how we were all related.

I explained to Charlotte that Emmett was the oldest brother, Matthew was the youngest brother and she was the middle sister. I compared them to a sandwich, with the boys bread and she the filling.

We decided the kids were a cheese sandwich, with Charlotte being the cheese. I then asked Charlotte what Daddy was. After a moment of thought she declared that Daddy was a pickle. I then asked her what I was.

"Mommy, you're a carrot!"

So there you go.

Flashback.

If you are Canadian and of a Certain Age, this is your childhood in four video clips:

Young kids had the gentleness of The Friendly Giant (with Gerome and Rusty) and Mister Dressup (with Casey, Finnegan and the ubiquitous Tickle Trunk) to entertain them.







When you got a little older you had to rush home from school lest you miss this:


And, if you were feeling naughty you would sneak out of your room after bedtime and turn this on (quiet! you don't want Mom and Dad to know you have the TV on!)

Squishy New Socks.

Just in time for the cold, some new woolly socks for my chilly feet. This is special yarn, impregnated with aloe and jojoba to sooth winter dry skin.

I bought it on vacation in Moncton a few summers ago. It is my first toe up sock and my first short row heel. I love the look of the short row heel with self striping yarn, I need more practice with it.

I had to fight the kids for them this morning. It turns out that hand knit wool socks are the perfect thing for sliding on our hard wood floors with!

Stats for the yarny folk out there:

Pattern: Toe-up socks with a short row heel that I cobbled together from a couple of on line sources. (Toe, and heel. The rest is K3 P1 rib with a K1 P1 cuff)
Yarn: Austermann Step in Gras colourway
Needles: 2.25 mm Clover Bamboo dpns, my old friends.

What do I cast on next??

Pudding Therapy

As I have mentioned before I am a big fan of cookbooks. Nigella Lawson is a favourite of mine when I need a little light hearted entertainment. I love reading her books, but rarely cook from them.

That is, until a couple of days ago.

I love rice pudding. It is the ultimate comfort food for me. Rich, sweet, creamy, full of starchy carbs.....it is just perfect. tangent: No raisins, please. Don't even make the pudding with raisins and then tell me to pick them out. When you make rice pudding with raisins the flavour permeates the pudding so the whole thing tastes like raisins. Yuck.

So, a couple of days ago I get out my copy of Nigella Bites. There is a recipe in the book for "Rice Pudding for Emergencies." It is made on top of the stove with Arborio Rice and you cook it like you would cook risotto. About half an hour standing at the stove stirring and you get gorgeous creamy, rich rice pudding. The extra starch in the Arborio rice gives the pudding fantastic consistency. Really. I liken it to that really expensive Kozy Shack pudding you find in the refrigerator aisle at the grocery store, only the grains are bigger and more toothsome.

Really. This pudding is fantastic. It is fantastic on a few levels:

• When the kids have been screaming and fighting for half a day and you need to hide for a while, just put on some soothing music in the kitchen. (CBC Radio 2 is my radio station of choice.) Pour a cup of coffee and plant yourself at the stove, and meditate on the soothing repetitive action that you MUST do. You must not leave the stove.
• After the therapeutic stirring portion is complete, you get a smooth, sweet warm treat that you can either shovel in standing at the stove, or split up and share with the ungrateful rugrats who seem intent on giving you ten new grey hairs every day.
• If you share with the rugrats, you get at least two minutes of silence while they eat their shares.
• If you share with the rugrats you get to have a Good Mommy Moment where you can revel in the smug satisfaction that you have made something nourishing from scratch for them. Stirring for 20 minutes at the stove instead of microwaving something or throwing something out of a package at the kids gives you Bonus Points.
• In my draughty house, stirring something at the stove for 20 minutes is sometimes the only way I can warm up now that winter has really settled in here.

Want a little pudding therapy of your own?

Heat just over two cups of milk in the microwave until scalded.
While that is cooking, melt a tablespoon of butter and a couple of spoonfuls of white sugar in a heavy saucepan. Add 4 tablespoons Arborio rice and stir to coat. Add the milk, a splash at a time, stirring all the while. Keep the mixture at a brisk simmer. The pudding is done when the rice has absorbed enough milk to be soft and creamy. That takes at least 20-30 minutes of stirring. Add a splash of vanilla extract at the end and more sugar, if desired. I like to garnish with a sprinkle from my vanilla sugar grinder.

You can take any basic risotto recipe and sub butter for olive oil, sugar for the onion and milk for the stock. Finish with a splash of vanilla extract and some cream, if you really need to guild the lily. (Hmmmm, I wonder if a splash of Bailey's would be good if the kids are in bed and you have a girl movie queued on the DVD player?)

It's my bloggyversary.

Three years ago today I started this little blog. 412 posts . 28, 219 times someone has clicked onto my little corner of the internet. I love checking my hit counter to see how Google has led some of you here. (Dora Knitting Pattern and Arachnoid Cyst are recent popular keywords)

Now, I know that some people have give aways or draws to mark their blogging anniversaries. Sorry. I don't have anything to give right now. Oh wait I do have one thing:
Thank you very much for stopping by and reading. Thank you for your comments and support during the ups and downs my life has had these past three years.

Quick question? Who the heck are you? Bloglines says I have 12 subscribers. Blogger says I have 7. Sitemeter says I get around 35-40 hits a day. I know this is not a huge following, but I do appreciate each and every one of you.

Today is the day to de-lurk. If you are a regular reader, show yourself!!! Tell me what keeps bringing you back. Tell me what you want more of. How did you end up here in the first place?

Thank you for your co-operation on this urgent matter.

Santa Musings.

Every Christmas Season it's the same. The kids say "Is Santa coming?" "Where's Santa?" Santa. Santa. Santa. My stomach clenches. I start the debate in my head. How do I feel about Santa? Is he encouraging mass consumerism in my offspring? Is he teaching about giving with love? Do I like maintaining the illusion, essentially lying to my kids?

Do I like (how do I put this?) playing the party line that he lives in an undisclosed Polar Hideout with Henchmen (er, elves) and a Magical Flying Vehicle propelled by Magical Flying Reindeer?

Wow. When you put it that way, he kind of sounds like a Supervillain. (Cool!)

There is a whole industry designed to support his case. In Canada, every letter to Santa is answered by hand. NORAD tracks him.

I know many parents use Santa as a parenting tool in November/December, bribing their kids to behave with what are probably empty threats. Have you ever known anyone who got coal in their stockings instead of presents??

I got really cynical this weekend when there were two Santa Claus Parades in relatively close proximity happening at the same time. I wondered if Santa at the mall went away while the local parade was happening.

I talk about this with Richard every year. He thinks that we are protecting the kid's innocence by letting them believe in Santa. He reminds me of the fond memory I have of talking to Santa on my Dad's Amateur Radio on Christmas Eve. He reminds me that I was not devastated when I discovered the truth. The newest issue of Chatelaine Magazine had an editorial where the author found out that finding out about Santa is harder on parents than it is on the kids.

Saint Nicholas was real. My church celebrates the feast in his name every year. I think I might let the kids pick out names from the Giving Tree at the Mall so they can play Santa themselves this year.

.
I gamely play along. Emmett wrote his letter. (Click on it to see it big enough to decipher his printing) I will help Charlotte write hers.

How do you deal with Santa in your home?

PS--if you want to write a letter to Santa, his address is: Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada, H0H 0H0

Putting the Knit back in to Knit Wit

My blogging has been kind of boring lately. I've been busy.
A lacey beret for me, a neckwarmer that is going to be a Christmas gift for our respite worker, , some cozy socks for Matthew, and a helmet liner for my brother to wear on the cold days on his oil rig.

I have a couple of other things on the go too, but you can't see them! If you are on Ravelry, look me up. My knitting secrets will be spilled there. I am Prairieknitwit, just like I am here.

On the Mend.....

I am feeling a lot better. A trip to the chiropractor and some good old fashioned rest helped.

Grandma helped too. Everyone knows the about curative effect of fresh baked biscuits and a new magazine, right???

Pain.

I am not the most graceful duck in the pond. This is a well-established fact. As a child my shins were permanently bruised and are now kind of lumpy if you run your hand over them. I stepped on a rake once. It is not as funny as it is in cartoons. I didn't see little birdies flying around my head. I will trip on a busy pattern in linoleum. Last week I sliced my finger so badly I superglued the cut closed so it could have a chance at healing. How did I do it? By washing out a freezer I was preparing to sell. There was a teeny shard of glass stuck to the bottom that I didn't see until I ran my washrag over it.

Yesterday I proved my talent for self injury is growing. I managed to fall UP my basement stairs. My basement stairs are not attached to the wall. When I tripped, I managed to wedge myself between the staircase and wall. In hindsight that was probably preferable to falling towards the side of the stairwell open to the basement. Instead of head trauma I have a hideous scrape on top of an apple-sized bruise on my left upper torso. You don't realize how often your pectoral muscles are used in day to day life until you have an apple-sized bruise on one of them. I have aches and a few random scrapes and bruises all down the left side of my body. I am pretty much in constant pain right now. Sleeping was awful. I couldn't face the water in the shower this morning.

I am feeling pretty sorry for myself right now.

Make me feel better. I need to know I am not the only total dorkwad klutz out there. What was the clumsiest thing you have ever done? Spill! (But please don't slip.)

Menu Plan Monday

Well, it looks like my Slow Cooker is getting a workout this week!

Meal 1: Java Roast Beef, salad

Meal 2: Sweet and Sour Chicken, brown rice

Meal 3: Slow Cooked Pork Chops

Meal 4: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans

Meal 5: Sticky Chicken breasts (I didn't make it last week, we'll give it another go this week)

Meal 6: Buffet (aka: Leftovers)

Breakfasts are simple around here: Oatmeal with frozen fruit or toast and PB&J. Lunches are sometimes leftovers, sometimes sandwiches, sometimes pizzas made on pita bread.

Need more ideas? Check out what other Meal Planners have in store this week!.

Relief.

Something big happened today. I went into Matthew's room to get him after his nap. He pointed to the ceiling in his room and said: "Light".

His first word.

I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

Given that hindsight is so acute, I knew from the start that Matthew wouldn't face the challenges that Emmett has. He nursed like a champ from his first moment out of my belly. He eats anything I set in front of him (well, anything except mushrooms) He has chattered and burbled and babbled like any regular baby does. He climbs on everything like a monkey. He calls me Mama sometimes. Emmett didn't call me Mom until he was three.

Now, I know what you are thinking. What about Charlotte? She has met every milestone like clockwork. Even tonight I was treated to a lovely serenade after the church fall supper. Grandma was at the piano. Char belted out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and played the triangle like a little Diva. Apraxia usually affects boys. I have always watched Matthew a little closer. Searching for signs. Checking things off my mental list of symptoms.

I am getting to the point where I can feel blessed that Emmett and I are on the journey we are together. (I sure didn't feel that way at first!) He has made me the Mom I am today. He has brought some fantastic people into my life (Hi Sandy!!)

I am just kind of relieved that I don't have to go on this roller coaster again.

A little thing.

From Mama To Mama:

In northern Haiti:

* Just 1 in 5 women receives skilled medical care during childbirth.
* Haiti has the highest maternal mortaility ratio in the Western Hemisphere.
* 1 in 40 women will die as a result of pregnancy complications, unsafe abortion, or obstetrical emergency.
* Twelve percent of children die before the age of 5.

About Konbit Sante:

Konbit Sante is a Maine-based volunteer partnership working to save lives and improve health care in northern Haiti. In Haitian Creole, a konbit is a traditional method of working together to till your friends' and neighbors fields as well as your own - a cooperative effort. Sante means health. The name defines their committment to address the staggering health problems in northern Haiti where most lack basic care and live without running water.
One aspect of their work involves OB/GYN care . Konbit Sante is working to assemble Safe Birthing Kits to be distributed by traditional birth attendants in the desperately poor Fort St. Michel area of Cap-Haitien. These kits - consisting of plastic sheeting, hand sanitizer, a sterile piece of string and razor blade, and these newborn baby caps - have the potential to reduce infant and maternal mortality, and give babies a safer, healthier start.

My dear friend Poppins is collecting little caps to send to Maine to be added to the Safe Birth Kits that Konabit Sante is assembling. Simple little caps made from soft t-shirts that you probably have laying around your house, shrunk in the wash, oddly stained, or just not a colour you like anymore.

I raided my drawers and found four t-shirts. I cut the simple pattern out after bedtime last night and sewed eight little caps during Matthew's nap this morning. All told, I think I invested under two hours of my time to keep eight little newborn heads warm.

Babies need precious little. I think we tend to forget that in our cushy Western lifestyle. Heck, I was stunned to see what is in the safe birth kit for midwives in Hati. I can tell you that there was a lot more equipment littering my bedroom during my own homebirth last year.

One adult-sized shirt can easily make two caps
You don't even have to hem them! (I hate hemming)
One seam
Easy!
Eight little heads covered.

A little something for my American readers.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow!!!

Menu Plan Monday

It's Monday. We are in the throes of Daylight Savings Time-induced jet lag. This week's menu is full of simple and easy to prepare food. I am not assigning days this week. I change my mind randomly.

Meal 1: Broccoli, bacon and roasted red pepper quiche

Meal 2: Hoagies and split pea soup

Meal 3: Home made pizza

Meal 4: Spaghetti and meat sauce

Meal 5: Sticky chicken breasts with mashed potatoes

Meal 6: Leftovers (or as we call them in my house: Buffet)

Do you need some more menu ideas? Check out who else participates in Menu Plan Monday.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2008 in three bullet points:

• Here are a couple of Halloween pictures for Grandma. The kids were in a hurry to start Trick or Treating so, believe it or not, the top picture was the best one I could get of everyone!
• Richard wins the good husband award tonight. Matthew only came home with one sock. These are socks I just finished knitting for him a couple of days ago. Richard retraced the Trick or Treating route and found the missing sock. (Thankfully, it was not far from our house.) The man understands what it takes to be married to a knitter!
• Emmett was very sweet and shared his candy with us when he got home. I even got to have a coveted peanut butter cup.
  

Mmmmmm Aliens.......

So, this morning I was checking out Pioneer Woman's Food blog and came across her recipe for cake balls. I thought they looked so cool, but didn't really have an excuse to try them.

Fast forward about an hour. I am sitting in a conference room at Emmett's school in a meeting with his therapy team. His teacher leans over to me and asks if I can bring a sweet treat to the Halloween party tomorrow instead of crackers and cheese, as I had planned. Yay!!! I get to make Alien Cake Balls!!!!!

I ran out to the Giant Craft Store and bought the essential supplies. I baked a gruesome looking Red Velvet Cake and then set to work. Grandma Jean helped with the decorating. I hope they go over well with Emmett's classmates!

Thank you Kitten!

Kitten has bestowed upon me this thoughtful award. She is a sweet person with a heart of gold. I am flattered and touched.

This blog invests and believes, in ‘proximity’ [meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' - being close through proxy] "They are all charming blogs, and the majority of them aim to show the marvels of friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate?" Then let’s try to give more attention to them!

So with this prize we must deliver it to eight bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.”


A lot of blogs I read have already received this award. I don't know who to pass it on to!

Ok, here is one worth noting:

Sandy

Menu Plan Monday

I try to plan menus every week to maximize our grocery spending and minimize food waste. This is the first time I will be participating in Menu Plan Monday hosted over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.
If you are visiting from that site, then Hello! Nice to meet you! I hope you like what you see. If you are a regular visitor over here, then Hello! Nice to see you again!

A few notes about menu planning, Knitwit style:

• Monday's are busy here with dance class dangerously close to dinner time. You will usually find a casserole that I can make at lunchtime or something bubbling in my crock pot on that day. (Um, except for this week, it seems.)
  
• I usually only plan to cook five meals in a week as we get respite care one evening a week so I don't cook that day. (Well, does reheating chicken nuggets in the oven count as cooking?) I also plan to eat leftovers at least one night a week.
• If you want a recipe that I don't provide a link for, let me know and I can email you.
• Grocery shopping was done on Sunday, so Menu Plan Monday actually started a day early here!
• Emmett and Charlotte visit with my Mother in Law most Fridays so you usually find a meal that the kids normally wouldn't eat on that day.
  

Sunday: Hot Pizza Dip with pita chips. Baked rice pudding for dessert.
Edited to add--if you try the rice pudding grease your pan very, very well or use a silicone liner. I think I may have to soak my dish overnight to loosen the baked on sugary milk bonded to the sides of it.

Monday: Creamy carrot soup, Tuna Melts, carrot sticks and hummus or ranch dressing to dip.

Tuesday: Crock pot roasted chicken, steamed frozen vegetables.

Wednesday: Chicken salad panini.

Thursday: Respite night.

Friday: Shrimp pomodoro pasta.

Saturday: Lasagna. (I haven't decided if this will be lazy skillet style, crock pot, or traditional.)

Last Days of Fall.

The wind is a lot colder. There is snow in the forecast. Every time we go to the park we wonder if it will be the last time there will be sand to dig in.

One Saturday Afternoon.

Memememememe

Kidlet's mum wins! What? I don't know. But for those of you who are curious, the title from my previous post is a line from The Simpsons.

It is Thanksgiving weekend in my neck of the woods. My delicious No-Knead bread is minding it's own business on the counter, waiting to be baked and devoured at dinner tomorrow. My brother's hat is looking more hat-shaped, and my grey hair is now a lovely shade of magenta. I don't have much else to report, so I am leaving you with a fun meme. Please feel free to spread it around. If you comment on my blog and take it, let me know and I will be sure to comment at yours.


If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now,(even if we don't speak often or ever) please post a comment with a completely made up and fictional memory of you and me.

It can be anything you want - good or bad - but it has to be fake.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph in your blog(if the spirit moves you) and see what your friends come up with.

Egghead likes her booky book.

I love to read. I have loved books as long as I can remember. I love sharing books with my kids. When I had Emmett I could hardly wait to share with him a book I remember from my own childhood:

The Monster at the End of This Book. I remember my Dad reading this to me and how much fun we had together. The kids love reading it and turning the pages as Grover gets more and more agitated. Some of my other favourites are:

Cunnigham's Rooster. This is a gorgeous story about a musician Cat who has lost his inspiration to write. His creativity is renewed upon meeting a Rooster who inspires him to write his magnum opus. Unfortunately, it is now out of print. I took my copy from my Mom's house and keep it in a safe place. I read it to the kids, but it is not on the shelf of books that Matthew can reach!

Someone is Eating the Sun. I was a wee sprog during a solar eclipse (I think it was Feb 26, 1979 according to a NASA website) My parents read this book to my brother and me to help explain why the living room got suddenly dark in the middle of the day. The illustrations are different in this edition, but the story is still the same. I need to track one down for our collection.

When I was in Grade 1 my teacher kept a log of the books her student's read. Once you read 100 books, you got a book to keep. My 100th story book was Cinderella. Of course I still have it!

When I got older and could read on my own I started a longtime love affair with EB White and Laura Ingalls Wilder that lives on to this day. I guess I even named my daughter after a spider!


I could go on for days about my favourite books. I even had library cards in two towns when I was little (One at home and one in my Grandparent's town)

What are your favourite children's books?

*You get bonus points if you know where I got the title of this post.

Who made this rule?

Background information: Some nights Richard will spend the night on the couch after staying up too late playing computer games or watching TV. Last night was one of those nights.

As I am laying in bed this morning I notice three things: 1. I am alone. 2. The sun is all the way up so that means I got to sleep in. 3. Emmett is up. I snuggle under the covers and listen as he goes downstairs and then comes back up and goes into his room. I then hear him tell Charlotte that they can't go downstairs because Daddy is asleep on the couch. So, what do they do? The come into my bed and jump on me. (But not before Emmett tells Char to whisper and tiptoe because Daddy is asleep.)

Does this sound fair to you??

I am NOT going to ignore the kids and house and read this all afternoon......

.....Emmett and Charlotte are going out with Grandma.

Click on the link and you will find the whole book. Free. Before you settle in, at least load the dishwasher and put on a pot of coffee, OK?

Bad Blogger!

Yep, that's me. I don't feel like I have much to say lately. My days come and go at the hectic pace that three kids will give you. We are busy, but not much noteworthy happens. Emmett and Charlotte get chauffered to school and dance class, Matthew packed along for the ride.

Our wedding anniversary came and went. We saw Elton John play for three hours. Fantastic concert. Richard was a good sport despite the overly enthusiastic woman sitting beside him. She got more and more enthusiastic as the concert went on and she drank more and more beer.

Emmett is adjusting to a new school routine and new therapy routine. I got a note home yesterday saying how he broke down in therapy trying to explain something to the therapist that she couldn't understand. My stomach twisted. I am reading the Well Trained Mind and several books a kind homeschooler sent me (Emmett LOVES the games you sent, Wendy!) and as I am learning more about apraxia, homeschooling is sounding better and better. As it turns out, a classroom may not be the best place for a kid with apraxia to be. When you put a child like that in a group of kids it is too easy for him to get overwhelmed and not be allowed the extra time it takes to formulate sentences and then speak. So far we are fortunate that his class is very small and he has an aid with him. I just feel in my heart that at some point I will be bringing my boy home so I can help him the way he needs to be helped. Maybe I just have a fundamental mistrust of the school system??

I am finding time to knit. I am finding I need to read again. So far there are two books I am working my way through and one on standby and a new project on my needles. (The Well Trained Mind, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Twilight on standby and a helmet liner for my little brother so he stays warm on the oil rig this winter)

So there you go. I am still here.

Goofing around.

A nerd is born.

A new computer arrived on our doorstep yesterday. Emmett waited all day for Richard to get home and open the box. Richard wasn't even allowed to eat dinner. The computer had to come out. The box was opened, the new computer was unpacked. The phone rang. I answered it and Richard went outside for a moment. When we both got back to the dining room, the new computer was set up and running.

Richard had to take it apart and install a couple of things, but Emmett wasn't upset. He watched very closely and Richard started teaching him the names of everything inside the tower. Emmett was then allowed to play with the carcass of the old computer. He was in heaven. Who needs toys when you have a dead computer and a screwdriver????

I don't know if I should be impressed or scared.

Emmett's first week of school.

We did it. We survived the first week of school. There are some bad rumors circulating about Emm's school because it is located in the core area of our city. I am now it's biggest fan. I can't say enough good things about his teachers and support people.

His teacher and he have bonded. We had one bad day this week where Emmett had an accident in his pants, but they handled it quickly and as far as I can tell, discreetly. I talked to his resource teacher afterward because she phoned me to follow up. The way she was talking reassured me that we are all on the same page with regards to our expectations of Emmett. No one thought Emmett needed to be banished to diapers because of one slip up. The principal even realized that it would cause a regression if we did that because he is the father of small children himself. I feel like I am part of a team. The staff seem really motivated to help Emmett. I spoke to his Speech Language Pathologist today (SLP) and gave her his history. She described the curriculum she will follow and told me how she is going to train the TA to help. The school has decided to add a monthly visit to the Occupational Therapist to his regime as well, on the advice of our neurologist. There is a notebook in Emmett's backpack that gets sent home every day where the teacher or TA scribbles a little line or two about his day to keep me informed.

Emmett has made a friend.

So far, so good!

We might be a little nerdy......

Emmett got this book for Christmas a couple of years ago. Whenever Richard and I read it to the kids we automatically change the repeating chorus through the book so it is gramatically correct. I cannot read the book the way it is written. That particular sentence makes my teeth itch.

What are we going to do when the kids learn to read????


One more thing. File this under "Out of the mouths of babes."
Emmett was looking for something today. He said "Where the hell is it?"

We went from no speech to cursing in a matter of weeks. Richard and I are trying to figure out where he picked that particular phrase up. Neither one of us use it. We blame Knight Rider. (The original series. We kick it old school here.)

Mother Nature is changing her clothes.

A little boy is excited and nervous.

Today is his first day of school.

Party Paralysis

Confession time: I hate planning/throwing birthday parties.

When it comes to birthdays, planning, inviting, baking, gift bag making.....it all makes me want to lock myself in my bedroom and suck my thumb for days on end. I never know who to invite, what to serve, I worry that no one will show up or that that if they do no one will have fun.

I am a big dork. But now you know.

If you don't get invited to a birthday party here, don't feel bad. It's not that I don't like you, it is probably that I forgot to plan something and we ended up eating birthday cake at Grandma's house instead.

A year ago today........

I held this little bundle in my arms.


Today I am lucky if I can catch him long enough for a quick hug.

Happy birthday, Little Man. Why did you have to grow so fast???

My week by pluses and minuses.

There are a lot of jumbled thoughts swirling around in my brain. Here are some bullet points to highlight the past week.

• +Charlotte started preschool this week. Parents are allowed to stay for the first week to help their little students get acclimated. I did not have to. She saw toys. She saw kids. I didn't even get a wave goodbye.
• +The teachers at preschool were so happy to hear about Emmett's breakthrough they shed happy tears for him. I am going to try to drag him in to say hi when we drop Char off tomorrow. He didn't want to go in on Tuesday. He said "That is my old school. I go to my new school now."
• +We met Emmett's new teacher and EA today. They are very sweet and very enthusiastic about helping Emmett be the best he can be. They copied a few things from preschool that worked for him there. When Emmett saw his visual schedule in place he relaxed noticbly. He will be ok.
• -The Resource teacher informed me that they only have funding for Emmett's helper for 21 days. I have to go to another meeting to plead his case and get the funding extended. (insert expletive here)
• -My respite worker lost her temper at me and yelled at me in front of my kids about my lax housekeeping skills. She came into the house after two days of constant rain. We were ankle deep in toys. The table was piled high with various art projects. I called the co-ordinator today. She will not be returning to our messy house again.