Sure, it really is an honor just to be nominated, et cetera and so forth...

So, the ever-fantabulous Hartley, amazing author and tireless champion of parents with SPD/ASD/special needs kiddos, has a little awards shindig going on over at her blog.  Nominations have been going on for the past few days, and I just received the news that my blog has been nominated for an SPD Blogger Award!!  In the category for "Humorous Blog" no less! (I've checked out the competition and it is fierce, *gulp*!)

This is literally the first good thing to happen to me this year so far.  Yes, I know we're not even 3 weeks into 2011 but so far? It has bitten the big one.  We're in the midst of another major battle with the school district regarding Kiddo's current IEP and have further heard that it is 99.9999999999999% sure that Kiddo will not be granted an aide for next year (or ever again after this year) when her CSE meeting rolls around in March.  Kiddo has now been examined by a pediatric pulmonologist, who confirmed what her pediatrician has been suspecting for several months now - Kiddo has asthma, and with the relatively "late" onset of symptoms, it is likely that she will have asthma for the rest of her life (as opposed to kids who have it as toddlers and then outgrow it).  Have you ever seen a major sensory seeker on not one but two asthma meds simultaneously?  Holy bouncing off the walls, Batman!  We're working out an appropriate med regime that controls the inflammation with the least amount of disruption to her life, but the working out phase involves dealing with issues like difficulty falling asleep/restless sleep and other fun stuff like that.  (If you think a major sensory seeker hopped up on two stimulant asthma meds is a scary enough sight, add to that a lack of adequate rest and we have a new horror movie franchise in the making.)  On top of that, Kiddo has just been more challenging than usual behaviorally.  I won't go into details, but she was Majorly Grounded for almost a week, which effectively killed our wedding anniversary date night out plans (and on top of that, it's never fun to have to be the Grounding Enforcer/Prison Warden anyhow).  Last but not least, she's been sick for more days this January than not, so we're stuck inside with playdates and birthday parties falling by the wayside thanks to those evil, evil germies.  (Side note: someone told me that the odd years are always more challenging than the even years.  Six was pretty dang delightful around here, especially in light of how seven has been.  I'm willing to believe that at this point, especially if it gives us a light at the end of a tunnel that will only go another 5 months... Anyone else ever hear that one?)

So, like I said, 2011? Not the best year so far.  (Isn't this the big Mayan Apocalypse year?  Are all these issues actually harbingers of the impending doom - and if so, where the heck are Dean and Sam and Castiel when I need them?  Will I start dreaming of Phyllis Diller again?  Did I mention that coming up in December, I turn the big 4-0?  Isn't that bad enough for one year in and of itself?)  

But... then I received the news from Hartley that I've been nominated for an SPD Blogger Award - and it's a MAJOR AWARD, you know.  I'm hoping the prize looks something like this:

And yes, it's just an honor just to be nominated, especially since I didn't nominate myself - someone out there likes me!  But then again, if you really do like me, please drop by the voting page starting tomorrow at 6am and help me stuff the ballot box, mmmmkay?  I mean, George Clooney and Hugh Jackman have presented Oscars and Golden Globes before, so what if it's one of them presenting the SPD Blogger Awards?  Do you want to be the one to make me miss out on that?  Let's reverse the trend of craptastictude for 2011 by landing me a Major Award!

I promise I'll mention you in my acceptance speech - maybe even give you a shout-out from the red carpet when Ryan Seacrest stops me to find out who I'm wearing..... "Microfleece yoga pants from Target, Ryan, of course!  Mind the sparks, now..."

Mostly Wordless Wednesday - Back to School

Here is our second grader in the traditional "First Day of School" pose with her customized backpack. (Customized in that I laboriously affixed that Disney Princesses patch to the front, along with a Tinkerbell patch on her lunch bag. Apparently I need to own more than one thimble; I poked enough holes in myself while wrestling the needle through the bag material that if I were a cartoon and I drank a glass of water, you'd see water come shooting out all over my thumb, sprinkler-style.)

Here's hoping it is another great year at school for everyone!

In which I tell you of an awesome, "new" discovery

Let me preface this by acknowledging up front that I tend to be a bit, how shall we put it?  Late to the party when it comes to the hippest, most happening, latest things.  (See? I just used the word hippest which I'm fairly sure is no longer hip.)

Well, one of the things that is a new discovery (to me) that I wanted to share with you is this little thing called Pandora Radio.  Now, I apparently had already discovered Pandora's website once before, but it didn't take the first time.  (I only know this because when I rediscovered it, it turned out I'd set up an account for myself at some previous juncture and then promptly abandoned and forgotten the website entirely.)  I re-discovered Pandora as an iPod Touch app, and have become utterly smitten.  Smitten, I tell you!

So for those of you who are as un-in-the-know as I, let me tell you what Pandora does - it is a radio station where you get to pick all the music and then it plays the songs you want for you.  But more than that, it uses the info you've given to it about songs and artists you like and then comes up with other music that is similar and plays that for you, too.  There's a thumbs-up/thumbs-down feature that helps it tailor the musical choices for your own personal stations as well.  

It is so, so cool, y'all.  I (re-)discovered Pandora a couple of months ago, when I was looking through music apps for my Touch while we were in the midst of The Great Renovation Project, Phase II - Stripping and Painting, and I immediately set up a few different stations.  First, I made an 80s station.  (Duh.)  When Hubby got too sick of All 80s Music, All the Time, I obliged him by creating a Classic Rock station.  It was really darn delightful because by putting in the names of artists I liked (and then dashing over to my iPod mid-paint-rolling to thumbs up or down a particular song), it played classic rock type songs I enjoyed (The Eagles, Steve Miller Band) and not ones I haaaaate (the Horse With No Name song, for example).

I've created a few other channels, like Old Time-y Country (the Oak Ridge Boys, Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakum, Kenny Rogers, Alabama) and the "J.J. Cazh" station (as Hubby and I nicknamed it thanks to the various Andy Samberg bits on SNL) which plays Jack Johnson, my friend Tulpen's boyfriend, Five for Fighting, Dave Matthews, the Wallflowers, and so on in that vein.

And.

I made one more station - my Harry Connick, Jr. station.  Because I love me some Harry Connick, Jr.  Seriously love.  Have been a fan for decades (which makes me sound old, but it's technically true, so there you go).  As in, I've been a major fan since high school before When Harry Met Sally came out and he started getting really famous.  I went to the opening night of his first run on Broadway way back in 1990.  Actually, I was quite a Harry groupie in my younger years, and even met him several times.  (Nothing remarkably groupie-like ever happened, I must admit, although he did accidentally drive a remote-control car over my foot one time outside his tour bus in Syracuse.)  That was the same night he autographed this:

which I promptly had framed for an exorbitant amount of money (especially for a broke, college student, which I was at the time) and proudly hung on the walls of every college dorm room and apartment bedroom in which I lived from that moment forth until Hubby and I moved in together, when it was deemed no longer appropriate decor and thus has been living in the basement for the past 16 years.  (Sorry, Harry... if it meant you'd come and visit us - and hey, we have a piano! - then I'd totally hang it back up right this minute!)

Annnnnyhow, of course I needed a Harry Station, so I set one up toot sweet.  I added Michael Feinstein, Barry Manilow, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Frank Sinatra to that station as additional artists I like, and let her rip.

And do you know what I've learned since starting that station?  What Pandora has taught me?

That I am a big Michael Bublé fan.  Huge.  Now, please note that prior to setting up my HCJr Pandora station, I only had the vaguest idea of who Michael Bublé was - he floated out there on the far periphery of my knowledge.  I had seen him on SNL, where he was funny in that skit with Jon Hamm but as we were watching SNL off the DVR, as we do 99% of the time, we fast forwarded through the musical performances.  I'd caught snippets of his songs during my daily "Five Minutes To Try and Stay Current and Hip" (dang it, should I not be saying "hip" so I sound more hip?  How about "groovy" instead?  "Fly" perhaps - or with a ph like phat?  Phly?) in which, shortly after waking up in the morning, I start out watching one of the various iterations of MTV (thanks to which I have more than a mere inkling of who Lady Gaga is, for example) but within moments, I'm back on VH1 Classic where it is always 80s videos in the morning and odds are good that instead of seeing anything new and current, I'll find videos like Take on Me or The Reflex.  Ahhhhhhhh, sweet, comfortable nostalgia.  But I digress.  My point is, every time a song I didn't immediately recognize (or, more to the point, I didn't recognize that particular rendition, since 99.9% of this station is standards), I'd look on my iPod and voila, it was Michael.

So there you go.  Pandora is so awesome it gave me a new artist to lurrrrrve.  I'm not saying it doesn't have its occasional misstep, like the time I was merrily making pad thai to the strains of my Old Time-y Country station, when sandwiched between the Gatlin Brothers and George Strait came.... I Don't Want To Miss a Thing by Aerosmith.  ?!?!?  I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Aerosmith fan, but I don't want to hear a rock power ballad in the middle of my twangin' and pickin' and harmonizin' - not that I thumbsed them down.  I mean, I couldn't do that to my beloved Aerosmith, even when they popped up on the wrong station.  So, while Pandora isn't perfect, it's a pretty awesome discovery, at least for my groovy world.

Stay tuned for further "breaking news" of new discoveries I've made, like about the horseless carriage or the light bulb............

    

Operation Seven Candles

We had Kiddo's birthday party here at the house on Saturday.  Kiddo is a *huge* fan of Kim Possible (she's done all the Kim Possible missions at Epcot, which are a highlight for her of every trip we take to Walt Disney World), and after checking the pricing at just about every venue in the area from renting a lodge at a nearby park (as we did for the past two years) to doing the party someplace like Chuck E. Cheese or the zoo, we decided we'd host a Secret Agent themed party here at our house.  This would not only save serious money (we couldn't justify spending upwards of $300 or even more on a child's birthday party lasting less than 2 hours in duration), but would enable Kiddo to invite as many friends as she wanted.  She wanted to invite her entire class, plus her Daisy troop, plus a couple other friends who are neither classmates nor fellow Daisies.

The invitation looked like this:

(the code key was on the back of the sheet, so you're looking at the front and back of the invite side-by-side above) and they were delivered in plain, manila envelopes.  31 children were invited, 27 RSVPed that they'd be accepting the mission and 25 actually attended (had some last minute cancellations due to illness, as is par for the course when one is talking about an invite list full of germmongers kids...).

Kiddo was collected bright and early Saturday morning by her grandparents, who kept her occupied and away from the setting-up process so as not to spoil any of the activities.  They delivered her home just in time to wash up and start greeting her guests.  We totally lucked out with the weather, as the entire weekend's weather basically ranged from "steady downpour" to "torrential thunderstorm" with the exception of one, 10 hour window, that being, thankfully, Saturday from midmorning through evening, thereby giving us glorious sun and warm temperatures for the Operation.

The itinerary went as follows:

- Registration at Mission HQ: Give decoded password, sign Secret Agent photo ID card which I made ahead of time, using the Secret Agent Code Name the kids gave when RSVPing:

Kiddo and the girls all pretty much chose flower or animal names for their Code Names - Sunflower, Lilac, Pony, Sassy Cat.  The boys went for comic book character or more scary type names - Spiderman, Hammerhead, Fear Ripper, Ghost.  After checking in (and obtaining a phone number for each Agent's grown-up, just in case), the kids headed to the back yard, where Hubby had a CD of Secret Agent theme music playing on the lanai.  (He'd made the CD using various songs - Mission Impossible theme, Kim Possible theme, James Bond theme, Dragnet theme, Hawaii 5-0 theme, Scooby Doo theme, etc....)  Once all the Secret Agents had arrived, we split them up randomly into three teams.


- Secret Agent Training: Egg on spoon relay race, limbo pole. We were going to do a ring toss as well but scratched that at the last minute due to time constraints and lack of anything handy with which to pound in the ring toss stakes.


- Mission: Master of Disguise:  A costume relay race.  Each team had a disguise comprised of 4 elements: shirt (one of Hubby's old button-down, long sleeved shirts), pants (old gym shorts/pajama bottom shorts of Hubby's and mine), a lei (from Kiddo's rather extensive lei collection) and eyewear (sunglasses, pirate's eyepatch, novelty glasses).  We would've done hats or other headwear, but there were issues with children catching/spreading head lice at birthday parties last fall that involved dressing up, so we opted to not take the risk of being the first head lice party of 2010 (I mean, we don't think any of the kids had lice; we were just erring on the side of caution).  The first Secret Agent on each team had to put on the disguise, run down to the other end of the yard and back, then take off the disguise, which the next Secret Agent then had to put on, etc.  This game was particularly hilarious to watch for us adults and the kids were all cracking up as well.


- Mission: Mystery Sounds: Hubby made a CD of mystery sounds (coins dropping, horse hooves galloping, siren wailing, paper being crumpled up, etc) and each Secret Agent was given a sheet to write down their answers as he played the sounds one by one.  This was a good way to settle down a bit after all the running around and activity.  We also went through the better part of a case of water and a case of Capri Sun juice pouches by this point, given the sun and heat.  This led to a rather lengthy line for the bathroom, too...


 - Mission: 7 Candles: The birthday cake.  Given Kiddo's food intolerances and the food allergies of some of her friends, we've always baked her cake at home ourselves.  Kiddo requested half chocolate, half vanilla for her cake, so Hubby baked one 9x13" chocolate cake and one 9x13" white cake, set them out side by side (trimmed to match in height) and frosted them together with white frosting.  We ordered a cake topper from the same online company we've ordered her cake toppers from for the past 3 years, this year starring Kiddo's favorite, Kim Possible -

I wound up organizing a quick game of "Telephone" to keep the kids seated and quiet while Hubby was getting the cake set in the kitchen.  It takes a surprisingly long time for 25 Secret Agents to pass along the message "the cake is chocolate and vanilla" which was helpful since they were all very, very excited about the upcoming sugar rush.  (Yes, I know this was "Operation 7 Candles" but the cake had eight - one for good luck/to grow on, of course!)  We used "trick sparkler" candles, which did relight twice but weren't very sparkler-y.  It turned out to be okay that they only relit twice, because otherwise there might have been a riot.  Cake was enthusiastically consumed and then we moved on to


- Mission: Prize Hunt:  For goody bags/favors for the party, we found these spy kits online.  We made three clues, the first printed backwards so it would need to be read in a mirror, the second in invisible ink, the third written in the same code used for the secret password on the invitation.  Hubby, being the genius that he is, thought of hiding the clues in balloons (which he'd been blowing up at the time) so we did that, and I labeled them CLUE 1, 2 and 3 respectively.  We explained to the Secret Agents that they'd need to hunt to find their favors, and handed each team one balloon.  Once they'd all solved their clues, they put them together and learned that the favors were hidden down low, outside in the back yard.  Out they went.  It took them a surprisingly long time to find the large box containing the spy kits, given that it was hidden in mostly plain sight in the patio stairwell.  We didn't actually distribute the spy kits right when they found them, though, because we had one more mission for the kids -


- Mission: Target Practice: The three teams lined up on the front lawn and were each given water balloons to try to toss into chalk circle targets drawn in the driveway.  Amazingly enough, no children took the opportunity to hurl water balloons at each other, so the only person who got at all wet in this mission was me, by dint of standing on the other side of the driveway to take pictures and thereby having water balloons bursting about my ankles from time to time.  (I was wearing my fantabulous, new Lands' End flip flops, so no harm, no foul.)




By this point in the party, the parents had begun arriving to collect their Secret Agents, so we then moved on to


- Awarding of Secret Agent Stars which were those star stickers your teacher had back in elementary school, affixed to their ID badge and handed to them along with their spy kit favors.


I'd love to share pictures of all the fun, but I haven't permission from any of the 25 Secret Agents' parents to do so online, so unless you're one of my Facebook friends (I've got an album up over there), I'm afraid you're out of luck at this point.  I can and will, however, share with you a few shots of Kiddo and myself decked out in some of the mustaches from her spy kit:

We tried taking a family portrait using the timer on the camera as well, but it didn't come out that great as it turns out we were too far away from the camera -

So, there you have it.  Operation Seven Candles - a smashing, Secret Agenty success!  (Even if my plan didn't win the birthday party contest thrown by a group of organic food companies - yes, I'm still a tiny bit bitter since they included my idea as #3 on their list.)  Now all that's left is for Kiddo to write eleventy million thank you notes.....  I also owe a heartfelt THANK YOU to my friends Andy (aka The Creative Junkie - if you aren't a loyal reader of her blog already, you should be, she's fantabulous) and Freyda.  Andy lent us four tables so that we didn't have to rent any, and Frey stayed for the duration of the party and helped out with containing the chaos managing the missions.  Your assistance was most appreciated, ladies!

Wordful Wednesday - some serious awesomeness for Heather's Hobbity Hooves

Last summer, I was shopping at our local Lands' End Inlet store and I happened upon a display of flip-flops.  As faithful readers may recall, I have feet issues.  To wit: unevenly sized, misshapen, Hobbity, rhino hoof feet issues.  The first thing I noticed was that these particular flip-flops didn't have the dreaded "between the toes thong" which automatically would rule them out for Heather's Hobbity Hooves.  WIth my feet being two different sizes, walking in flip-flops with the between-the-toes thong becomes an instant game of How Fast Will Heather Stumble and Fall? and as I barely can keep our house stocked with sufficient quantities of bandages for the kid's various boo-boos, adding the cost of bandages for Flip Flop Fumbles by me (with my considerably larger surface area for skinning-n-scraping) would be just too much.  I don't think banks loan money to folks for first aid supplies or general klutziness.

Anyhow, there I stood, perusing the display of non-between-the-toes-thonged flip-flops.  As I gazed and pondered, another shopper walked by, and she had a pair of the same flip-flops on her feet, so I asked her if she liked them (because, you know, I'm like that with the whole "randomly yet politely accost strangers in public and strike up a conversation" and all).  Her response was instantaneous and enthusiastic.  She loved them.  Lived in them.  Most comfortable flip-flops she'd ever owned.  Now, she wasn't some Skinny-Minnie, petite little thing, either.  She looked to be about my age and was taller than I am, so this wasn't a case of someone walking around in their size 4 shoes or anything.  We chatted a bit further as she kept extolling the virtues of these flip-flops above all others she had ever worn, and commiserated with me about the discomfort that comes with most other flip-flops out there in the world.

Well, I decided at this point that if there was a pair in my size, and being on sale at the Inlet as they were, it was Meant to Be for Heather's Hobbity Hooves to find themselves shod in a pair of these flip-flops.  I looked through the display, and lo and behold, there was one pair in my size.  Snatching them up, I slipped off my trusty Birks and tried them on.  They.  Were.  Heavenly.  I walked them right over to the register, paid and wore them out of the store.

One year later, they remain my most favorite flip-flops, ever.  They've worn well, held up to the torment that comes with shoeing my Hobbity Hooves, and have generally been a delight.  As such a delight, I wear them all the time now that the weather is warm enough to put away my ample supply of woolly socks and clogs.  I've even worn them to the grocery store - they're that comfy.  My Birks don't know what to do with themselves, with all this rest they've been getting.

I wear them so often that I hardly even notice they're on, which is exactly what happened one day last week when I busted out my roller and paint tray and got to painting the living room walls.  (We're just finishing up Paintathon 2010, more on that in another post.)  I have a pair of "painting shoes" - those being a pair of mint green bedroom slippers that I wear just when I'm on the drop cloth and painting, then kick off before stepping onto clean floors so as not to track paint everywhere.  (Have I mentioned I'm a klutz?  And that if there is wet paint within 100 yards of my body, I will find a way to get it all over my body and step in it, too?)  Well, on this particular morning, I waved goodbye to Kiddo as the bus pulled away, headed back inside, picked up my roller, poured a tray of paint and began rolling away to the musical accompaniment of my Pandora Radio 80s station.

It was several moments later (well, one White Wedding and a Reflex later, at least) that I went to roll a particularly spattery load of paint, and felt it splash all over me.  No big whoop, since I had.....................

whoops.

Oh.  No.

I hadn't.  I hadn't put on my painty slippers.  I was still wearing my flip-flops.  My beloved flip-flops, which now had a glob of paint right smack dab in the middle of the top strap.

Sob.


I immediately abandoned my roller and rushed to the laundry room to try to minimize the damage.  I scrubbed and I scrubbed and I Oxicleaned and scrubbed some more, but there still remained traces of Soft Linen paint in a satin finish on my flip-flop.  I was devastated.


So devastated that I immediately took to my computer to bemoan my idiocy to the world.  I tweeted about ruining my flip-flops by painting in them, I whined on Facebook.  After wrapping up my internet whinefest, I put on my painty slippers and got back to the task at hand.


A little while later, I was back at my computer and saw a tweet to me from someone at Lands' End.  They'd read my tweet (!) and tweeted back:

Your painting efforts impressed us – let us treat you to a new pair of soon to be your fave Lands’ End flip-flops!

 !!!!!

I exchanged a few tweets and then emails with a lovely woman at Lands' End with an equally lovely name (shout out to Raija - you rock!) and before you know it, Lands' End sent me these beauties which just arrived this evening, a week to the day of my painting mishap:

Aren't they fantabulous?  Yes, yes they are.  Fantabulous and comfy and definitely my favorite flip-flop footwear.

Here's one in action on a HHH:

(Yes, I know, it's not a pretty picture.  I clearly stated I have horrible feet.  The "scratched-til-it-bled" mosquito bite, half-assed attempt at a self-pedi to help hide my damaged big toenail and glimpse of pink flamingo-n-palm-tree jammies just add to the overall beauty, too, don't they?)

Now, I've been a loyal Lands' End customer and fan for years.  I've never had an issue with their customer service or returns on the very few occasions that I've had to return something.  I have contacted their customer service either online or by phone with questions about sizes, etc several times over the years and their customer service reps have always been friendly, helpful and professional.  I've always found the quality of their merchandise to be excellent (for example, despite her best efforts, Kiddo is unable to destroy any of their Super-Ts, be they long- or short-sleeved) and they have sales often enough that it is rare for me to ever have to pay full price for any of their stuff.  All that aside, how completely awesome is it that they sent me a free, new pair of flip-flops after I was scatterbrained and klutzy enough to spatter paint on a pair through my own sheer idiocy?
 
Lands' End, thanks!!!  I was already a fan, now I'm absolutely a fan for life!

I wonder what would happen if I tweeted about the scratches on my Sienna.............

Mostly Wordless Wednesday... Lilac Festival

The lilacs were well past their peak this year, but the skies were blue and clear, the sun was warm, the company was delightful and the artichokes French were, as always, delicious...  Even in an off year, the Lilac Festival is still one of my favorites in a region known for a multitude of festivals.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...

I am bursting right now.  With pride, not chocolate (though the bunny that remains pristine, whole and untouched in Kiddo's Easter basket has been calling to me quite loudly today).  You see, today, for the first time ever, Kiddo did this:

Yep, she rode her bike without the training wheels.

I know you're thinking "What's the big, flippin' deal?  Isn't she almost 7?!  Of course she's riding her bike without training wheels!"  Yes, she will be seven at the end of May.  I know that most kids are riding without their training wheels way earlier than practically-seven-years-old.  But for Kiddo, bike riding came with extra challenges.

Due to her SPD, Kiddo has always had issues with two of her senses in particular.  Which two? The vestibular and proprioceptive senses.  "Whaaaa?" I hear you ask, "Those aren't senses..." But yes, they are.  They have to do with balance, where one's body parts are in relation to each other and in relation to everything around the body, and how much pressure/effort is needed by the muscles to achieve a certain task.  This has always been a problematic area for Kiddo.  When she was younger, before she was diagnosed, we just chalked it up to her being extraordinarily clumsy.  Seriously, not a day would go by without her walking into a doorjamb or table or wall or trip on a stair or curb - something she was paying attention to and looking straight at as she was moving, yet still, KABOOM.  Once she was diagnosed, it was an "a-ha!" moment as we finally had an explanation for the extraordinary levels of clumsiness, and I'm happy to say that in some areas, (like, for example, the walking into doorways) Kiddo has improved greatly with a few years of OT under her belt.


Still, bike riding just wasn't coming to her.  Even with training wheels, she wobbled a lot and often crashed and fell.  Her SPD was really making it difficult and frustrating for her, to the point that she eventually refused to even try to ride her bike.  She preferred "scootering" - on a three-wheeled scooter from which she still has falls and crashes regularly thanks to the same issues that were preventing her from riding a bike - and it seemed like the day would never come that she would master bike riding.  It isn't that Hubby and I haven't tried to get her going without the training wheels, mind you.  We tried every trick suggested by well-meaning friends and relatives whose own, younger children were merrily pedaling rings around Kiddo.  None of them worked for her, because her sensory system was unable to help her brain figure out how to balance on two wheels.  Knowing how frustrated she was broke our hearts.


Here, in our new neighborhood, she has friends from school.  Friends who ride their bikes past our house, who race their bikes up and down the streets, who invite her to join them.  Motivation anew for her, but still, she was nervous and hesitant to try.  Hubby did some research on the internet (actually, he was looking for a different program that Kiddo's PT and OT had mentioned in passing when I asked them for suggestions on how to help Kiddo master a two-wheeler) and found a system that seemed worth a try, so he decided to give it a go.  He had Kiddo watch the explanatory video yesterday and she was super-excited to try this method out with Daddy after school today.


This system is called Pedal Magic and all I can say is that within 10 minutes of Hubby and Kiddo starting to use the system in the parking lot up the road, she was doing this:

I was at home, busily stripping wallpaper, when the phone rang.  It was Kiddo, giddy and breathless with excitement, asking me to come up to the parking lot and watch.  So I did, and I'm telling you, I could've started crying, I was so happy.  Sometimes it's the little things, you know.  When we got home, she was bubbling over and couldn't wait to call her grandparents to share the news.  She was busily planning outings on her bike with friends as I tucked her into bed tonight.



Of course, she's going to need more practice at things like turning and stopping, but just the fact that she can maintain her balance on a bicycle unaided?  That's huge.

Now I just wish the Bike Fairy would come and leave Hubby and me each a bike in our garage so we could go on family bike rides this summer.  Sadly, every last cent of income that is above and beyond normal living expenses is slotted towards the neverending home renovations, so there will be no bikes for us this summer unless I can find a great deal on Craigslist or at a garage sale.  I've been keeping my eyes peeled...  You see, when I was a kid, we would go on family bike rides all the time in the good weather months.  We'd spend entire afternoons riding our bikes, exploring our neighborhood or some other scenic spot.  I have such fond memories of those outings, which started when we were too young to ride our own bikes.  Dad built a "bicycle seat for two" child carrier for the back of his bike (I recall plywood and shag carpet remnants being primary components) so my sister and I could sit side-by-side on his bike, while our youngest sister rode in a more standard child carrier on Mom's bike.  Eventually, we were all biking under our own steam, and we'd ride for miles, us kids zooming off ahead, then waiting for Mom and Dad to catch up.  Good times, very good times.  Now, the idea of doing that with Kiddo is so much closer to being a reality, despite the stumbling blocks her SPD threw in front of her bike tires.  And this is why I am bragging about my kid riding without her training wheels.  I hope you will indulge this proud mama!  Yay, Kiddo!!!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: I love a parade

You know what was even better than watching a parade, at Disney World, on vacation, featuring lots of my favorite Pixar and Disney characters? Kiddo getting chosen by one of the performers to dance in front of the crowd in the parade and having the time of her life.  Literally - she said to Hubby, after it ended and she was back with us, "I have never been happier in my entire life!"

(PS - Yes, she's wearing a fleece jacket and gloves.  Yes, I said "Disney World" - it's been ridonkulously cold all week.  Still, the sun has been shining and it's warmer than home, where we hear there's snow awaiting our imminent return......)

Whew!

The big CSE meeting was yesterday morning. Many, many shenanigans occurred prior to the meeting, and Hubby and I wound up writing a letter to the CSE outlining our deep concerns about some of these shenanigans that we sent on Monday. This stirred things up a bit more, needless to say. All of a sudden, the person who had no-showed twice for an in-class observation of Kiddo turned up at school and observed her. All of a sudden, the principal of the school was there for the meeting. We were very, very, very stressed out by this time yesterday.

And then? It all went our way. Improbably, unexpectedly, shockingly our way. With our concession of allowing them to label Kiddo as having ADHD (which, for the record, we are not yet convinced she has, but a doctor's statement that she presents with characteristics that are consistent with ADHD was all the CSE committee needed), they continued her classification as a student with a disability, OHI. They also approved the continuation of her services, including her aide and sensory diet. After the meeting, there were tears and apologies - to us, not by us. My gob was thoroughly smacked, to say the least.

So, whew. Kiddo will be able to continue to learn and succeed and be a happy, well-adjusted first grader. She will have the support she needs so she will not fail. Whew.

I am a very happy mommy.

Breaking News for Harry Potter nerds like me!

Have you heard that Universal Studios theme park down in Orlando is opening a whole Harry Potter-themed section next year? Well, they are, and the details about the Harry Potter world were released today. You can read about them right here!

How cool does that sound? I totally want to go there when we're down at WDW next August! Chilling out in Hogsmeade for real? Learning about Hippogriffs from Hagrid? Going into HOGWARTS CASTLE?! Woo-hoo!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: We're baaaaack!

Sadly, our excursion to Walt Disney World has ended and we are now home (as of around midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning). I've clawed my way through a mountain of laundry and jumped in to pre-start of school stuff with both feet. In between playing catch up and getting back into the swing of things, I've been uploading and sorting through the approximately 1,000 (I kid you not) pictures taken by either someone in our family or a Disney photographer. Here, therefore, is a first batch for your kinda-sorta Wordless Wednesday viewing pleasure...















More to come once I've finished the sorting and editing......... perhaps by Photo Phiesta Phriday!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

All my bags are (mostly) packed,
I'm (almost) ready to go,
The housesitters arrived
and the cat ran to hide
Already I'm counting the minutes 'til we say goodbye...

My husband's ready, soon he'll be blowing the horn
with the minivan loaded up to head out later this morn
Kiddo will be buckled in with a chosen few of her "guys"

Let's hope that the plane is not delayed
And that Bill and other hurricanes stay away
the Orlando heat and humidity are enough - we're gonna fry

'Cause we're leaving on a jet plane
Ten days 'til we'll be back again
Oh yeah, to Disney World we will fly.......

Leaving on a jet plane
Ten days 'til we'll be back again
Ten days 'til the reunion of the internet and I.........

***

Which is to say, today's the day! We leave in a few hours for the airport. Housesitters in place, house all cleaned, kitty litter and fish tank water as fresh as they're gonna be, all crops harvested over at my plot in Farm Town and from my own back yard (where the sum total of the harvest thus far has been two pitiful tomatoes), copious amounts of SPF 70 packed in our suitcases and two cans of Mountain Dew Voltage coursing through my veins. Hubby and I didn't sleep well last night, though Kiddo was out like a light and even slept in past 7 this morning. I'm pretty sure I haven't forgotten anything, packing-wise, which invariably means I *have* forgotten something, but that should be no big whoop, as we have a rental car waiting for us in Orlando and therefore can race out to the store for whatever I have managed to leave behind. (Kiddo and I are both really, really hoping that we get a convertible. Hubby's rooting for the eminently more practical minivan. We'll have to see what is sitting in the lot when we arrive!)

As I mentioned in my previous post, Hubby helped me set up my ancient mobile phone so I can tweet and update my Facebook status from Florida - even (supposedly) post pictures while we're there. The bad news (for me, at least) is that I will not have regular internet access for the next 10 days (and yes, I'm twitching at that thought) since we're not paying the ridiculous internet fee and Disney hotels don't come with free wifi. (Humph!)

Now, I just have to remember that when Kiddo asks to go on the Spinning Teacups a second time *in a row* like last year.....



that it is *not* a good idea unless I want to walk around the Magic Kingdom feeling like I'm going to hurl for the rest of the day....... (that picture, by the by, I took of myself last year. The "hand on head" pose was purely functional - had to hold my sunglasses on as Kiddo and Hubby cranked the wheel on our teacup for all they were worth. It was about 9am and already a thousand percent humidity and at least a thousand degrees.)

Not sure if I'll be able to post between now and our return, but I'll definitely tweet ya while we're gone!

Things I have learned...

Things I have learned that have been going through my mind this week include:

- That I shall always have Hobbity Hooves. Seriously. I had actual stress-related nightmares the night before I was planning on having my first-ever pedicure. I wound up not going, because I couldn't imagine how something that stressed me out enough to have nightmares could possibly be relaxing or enjoyable. I did slap some nail polish onto my toes and Kiddo's, and that's gonna be as good as it gets.

- That if you google "hobbit feet image" you need to be prepared for the approximately 177,000 images that come up. If you hate feet as much as I do, I'd recommend skipping that particular google search keyword combo. *shudder*

- That if, after your housesitters arrive, you spend oodles of time describing your crazy cat's typical, ridiculously bizarre behavior so that they are prepared for what they'll be dealing with over the next ten days, your cat will lounge calmly atop a box on the lanai and utterly refuse to do anything remotely nuts.

- That when the housesitters aren't in your bedroom later but you are because you're trying to pack, your cat will leap up from a dead sleep to perch precariously on top of the TV in the bedroom and then sit at full attention, gazing intently at a spot on the wall right below the ceiling, as though receiving a message of vital importance from the Cat Home Planet. Of course by the time you can collect a witness to view this behavior, the cat will no longer be atop the TV but back in a more "ordinary" cat-type position, sleeping on the edge of the bed, all "what? me? crazy? Noooooo!" (I do, however, have no doubt that she was just putting her best foot forward, because she realizes these are the humans who will be responsible for feeding her, petting her, putting up with her shenanigans and possibly cleaning up the odd hairball or twelve. I'm sure her true colors will reveal themselves soon enough, likely as not in the aforementioned hairball form...........)

- That when describing your appearing-perfectly-normal-n-mellow cat's insane behavior to the newly arrived housesitters, your child *will* pop up at your elbow - seeming to materialize out of thin air - to helpfully comment on how Mommy has stepped on hairballs barefoot LOTS of times before, isn't that hilarious?

- That when we are approached in Disney World by one of the official photographers and asked to pose for a Disney "magical" photo in which we are instructed to gaze amazed at Kiddo's empty hands as though looking in awe at the magically photoshopped-in-later Tinkerbell, I must try not to look *too* amazed, or it will merely look like I'm wanting to bite Tink's head off for a tasty, tasty snack...



But that even if I *do* overact the faux amazement, someone else is just as likely to make a goofy "reaction" face at some point, so it won't be just me...


(That, by the by, was my growing-out-hair while in the Humidist Place on Earth from a year ago... I had my hair trimmed again this week, so it is much shorter for this go-around.)

- That if Kiddo wants to get her hair cut "super short" and I let the stylist take about 5.5 inches off of her hair, the result will be cute but that this?



Isn't quite long enough to do a single braid in the back or a single, decent ponytail. It will be interesting how Kiddo's hair gets done and how it will look when we are in the aforementioned Humidest Place on Earth.

- That you need to stop by my hilarious friend Andy's brilliantly written blog here and enter her giveaway tomorrow morning. Trust me, you want in on this - the prize is fantabulous. I'm going to enter, which is a good thing for everyone else, because not only do I never win anything on Andy's blog, but the winners tend to be either people I know or random internet strangers who happen to post directly before or after me. Seriously. The random.org gods hate my guts!

- That, thanks to Hubby's assistance, I will be able to live Tweet (and Facebook status update) our trip, even though I only have a crappy, old, non-full-keyboard-for-easy-texting type cell phone!!! (Unlike, say, Hubby's Blackberry or an iPhone or even a phone with an actual keyboard...) This means that you are guaranteed at least one message with typos kvetching about the heat and/or the humidity each day from tomorrow through the end of the month! Doesn't that make you want to follow me on Twitter (if you aren't already)? Heh!

- That being here


with these two people is awesome, amazing, fun and fantabulous, and that I will be there by this time tomorrow!

- That I will probably be on my computer again in the morning, so I should go to bed now.

If you haven't checked your calendars yet...

Today is July 1st.

That means it is exactly TWO WEEKS until

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

opens at a theater near you! (Well, a theater near you if you are in America, at least - not sure about the international release dates.)

You can bet your sweet bippy I'm going to be parked in a comfy, reclining seat with a big ole bag of popcorn on my lap, gazing in wonder at the most recently filmed scenes of Harry and Co. on the 15th. I am also fairly certain I'll be crying at certain points, after all I did sob rather heavily at certain points in the book...

I'll be going with my BFF, with whom I've seen every other HP movie so far (and every one on its opening day except for Chamber of Secrets, which opened while Hubby and I were in L.A. for me to tape my big Jeopardy! appearance, so he and I saw it opening day out there and then I saw it with her again when we got home) and with whom I waited up until midnight at Barnes & Noble back when Deathly Hallows came out.......




Oh yeah, I'm way, way excited. Aren't you?

The eyes have it!

I've got a monster of a post that I've been adding and adding and adding to since last week, and I'm not sure whether I'm just going to break it up into a bunch of smaller posts or heave it all out there into the blogosphere in one, gigantic post at some point.

In the meantime, I have some news to report. Went to my new eye doctor (side note: I've been going to the eye doctor for over thirty years now ((side side note: dang, but that makes me sound ooooold)) and this is the first time in my life that I've ever had a female eye doctor. Isn't that odd?) this morning for a check-up. Longer-time readers of my blog might recall I've had some eye-related issues in the past, that led me back to becoming a primarily-eyeglasses-wearing kind of chick after twenty solid years of being a primarily-contact-lens-wearing chick. It's been over a year and a half now since I reverted back to Heather Four Eyes, and I've mostly gotten used to it. A minor inconvenience, really, that is a pain mostly when having to do that Mr. Rogers-esque switch from regular specs to sunglasses (prescription, thick as heck, and *enormous* in my case - very Hollywood Celebutante-ish, oooh la la. Um, except for the "thick as heck" bit) whenever I'm going in or out of doors, and, of course, when I'm trying to perform various depilatory acts while showering.

Well.

My new, fantabulous Eye Doctor Chick not only confirmed that while yes, my ocular allergies have returned, no, I do not in fact have any recurrence of last year's Major Eye Ick, but she also had a new, better prescription to replace the "eh, I guess it works better than plain old Visine, I guess" eye drops I've used in the past (and gave me a sample bottle to get me started, too), but best of all she told me about a brand-spankin'-new type of contact lens that *might* just be my ticket back to Four Eyed Freedom! This lens is made of silicone instead of whatever kind of plastic or Saran wrap or whatever it was my lenses have always been made of up until this point, and that means that they are much more conducive to eyeballs with my kind of ridiculous protein output. (Yes, my eyes have a veritable superpower when it comes to protein production. Woo.) Even better, these fancy-pants silicone lenses are way the HECK cheaper than the daily disposable ones I'd been told were the only ones I could possibly ever wear last year by my old eye doctor. Like, a quarter of the price cheaper. She promptly produced a sample pair that I'm going to wear for the next two weeks (well, once my pupils return to normal from their Heather Looks Ever-So-Slightly More Insane Than Usual, Totally Black from Massive Pupil Dilation state) and if all goes well, I'm in business. Wooooooo-hooooooooooo!

I must pause here for a quick Happy Dance, done to Jamie Foxx's ubiquitous tune Blame It, which has been stuck in my head for the past 24 hours thanks to my five-minute-long flipping sessions through the music channels on TV each morning (part of my vain and desperate attempt to stay "current" but I always wind up watching the comfortable, familiar videos I recall from my youth on VH1 Classic and hoping that they'll play a little Duran Duran before Hubby is done in the bathroom and I must get up and on with my day...) coupled with the fact that I fully blame my night of horrid gastrointestinal distress plus feverishly bizarre dreams last night on a bad glass of OJ I chugged as I made dinner last night............

Okay, I really, really, REALLY need to get some curtains or shades for this office. Stat. And if someone could please explain to me the point of that video, besides Jamie showing off his cool, famous friends (Ron Howard? Really? Richie Freaking Cunningham? Does he have street cred now? I always thought Fonzie



was the cool one.......) that would be great. I mean, I *get* which are the cool guys in the Duran Duran videos. (Hello, John Taylor...) I just don't get today's videos and music. Is T-Pain in every video right now? Is there a rule that you can't just do a song - it has to "feature" someone who may or may not actually have more of a part in the song than the "main" artist? And what the freak is up with Lady Gaga? She scares me. Yeesh.

Annnnnyhow, the news that I might be returned to my previous state of contact lens bliss isn't even the best news to come out of my visit to the eye doctor today. You see, we were chatting during my exam (I know: Me? Chatting? No way!) and somehow got around to the topic of kids (again, I know: Me? Talk about kids? No way!) and the fact that Kiddo has intermittent exotropia came up. I honestly don't remember exactly how that came up, really - I remember we were talking about going to Disney World (her family's going for the first time later this summer) and next thing I know, it had worked its way into the conversation. I do remember mentioning how much I'm worried about and dreading the very real possibility that Kiddo might be needing eye surgery later this summer, as I don't think the current regime of patching is doing diddly or squat.

It was at this point that she filled me in on some new information (well, new to me, anyhow) both about the surgery typically done for Kiddo's eye condition and about vision therapy.

Oooh, did you hear that? The chorus of angels that sang out when I typed the words "vision therapy" just then?

See, there they go again!

Yes, my friends, it turns out that there is a course of vision therapy that, according to Fantabulous Eye Doctor Chick, can cure Kiddo's eye condition without any surgery. And she's not just a doctor, but the wife of someone who had the exact surgery Kiddo would be facing when he was a young child. (Surgery, I might add, that left him with zero depth perception. Which is a typical result of the surgery. Yikes.) Anyhow, she knows of another doctor who does such vision therapy, and while I was out in the optician's area waiting for my pupils to explode and trying on eleventy squillion frames and cracking the optician up with my commentary (sample hilarious joke: "Yes, but do these frames make me look 50 pounds thinner?" Seriously, she was a way easy audience. There might've been a two drink minimum going on sometime earlier in her morning. I mean, it's always five o'clock somewhere, even when it's just 10am in my corner of the world...) the Super Awesome and Most Fantabulous Eye Doctor made a phone call to the Vision Therapy Doc and spoke to her about Kiddo, so that when I went owlishly blinking my way back into the exam room, she had all this info including contact info for the doctor nicely written down for me.

Seriously, I will try *anything* that doesn't involve cutting into my kid's eyeballs. Let me repeat that: Cutting. Into. My. Kid's. Eyeballs. Nope, doesn't get any better no matter how much I say, think or type it. So, I giddily left rambling voicemail messages on Hubby's Crackberry and office line (I know: Me? Rambling? NO WAY!) as I squinted my way home behind my Really, They Are Trendy Magoo Sunglasses and left a voicemail for the vision therapy eye doctor as soon as I got home. (Then Hubby called back, and despite being quick to inform me he had listened to BOTH of my messages in their entirety, I repeated the entire thing to him again, because I was just that excited and because I could only type him an email by closing my eyes and that was annoying as heck.)

So, tomorrow morning (assuming my pupils have returned to normal and I can look at the screen again without squinting) I have to call the insurance company to see what, if any, of this doctor's services might be covered. I know that although it would seem like a no-brainer to cover something other than surgery and hospitalization, when have insurance companies ever been accused of having a brain? So, I'll find out how impossible it will be to get coverage on that end of things and also call the vision therapy eye doctor's office back again ('cause, surprise surprise: I left a kind of rambly message on her voicemail, too, and I'm not sure but I may've been cut off before I actually left my name and number) and see what I can do about getting Kiddo evaluated there.

Since her vision issues play a role in some of her OT issues, I'm thinking I may be able to work that angle and possibly get the support of her most recent therapist if need be, too. I will gladly work any angle necessary to get Kiddo any treatment that (a) might work well and (b) doesn't involve scalpels and eyeballs.

So, there you have it. Good news for both of the brown eyed girls in the Smith fam. I shall now return to shaking my shuwumple in a happy dance and bid you all good night.

Blame it on the Minute Maid,
Blame it on the Tropicana,
Blame it on the Sunny-D,
Blame it on the organic, blame it on the generic...
Blame it on the O-O-O-O-O-O-OJ
Blame it on the O-O-O-O-O-O-OJ.........

Bonus Phriday Photo Phun - KGW edition!

Yep, it's officially the start of Spring Break for us. Also known as Kindergartners Gone Wild!

As evidence, I give you my own Wild Child, recently returned home from Caribbean Beach Day at her elementary school, rocking out to her Boyz in the Sink CD in her room:













Oh yeah, it's kuh-RAZY up in here! We will be road-tripping for the first half of Spring Break, not to some southern, sunny, sandy shore someplace, but rather to NJ, where we will be hanging out with my side of the family. Hubby isn't coming along, as he has to golf work and all, so it will be a Smith Chicks Road Trip starting bright and early Sunday morning.

Right now, though, Hubby's out on the deck manning the grill and I'm sitting here with all the windows open and the sun still shining in and we're thinking after dinner, we may head up to the beach for the first Abbott's of the season. (Oh yes, Abbott's is the best stuff on Earth as far as "frozen dessert treats" go. Well, Del's Frozen Lemonade is pretty good stuff, too, but we only had access to that when we were living in New England, and Abbott's is a hometown treat for us now.)

If you too are Spring Breaking this week, hope you have a great time, and wherever you are, I hope you are having as lovely a day as we are in our corner of the world! (Except for you, Em, what with your rain, hail and tornado warnings, etc... I just hope you have good weather watching but nothing dangerous going down!)