Busyness

I've achieved a blogging milestone: not posting for an entire week (the horror!). What is frustrating is that I actually do have a lot I could blog about because I've been so busy this past week; but because I've been so busy I have not had time to post anything new (do you see the irony). Generally my life is not highly scheduled (an understatement), however, I have had at least one thing (sometimes two) every night and the days have been uncharacteristically full also.

Peter with Adara & Kylie at the library

One of the culprits of my busyness is a project I'm working on for Young Women's (the girls ages 12-17) at church. A few weeks ago, I foolishy and naively (I want to emphasize the foolishly) volunteered to do the program for New Beginnings (a special activity and program that outlines and explains the Young Women's program, it's theme, motto, values, etc.). I got a really great idea from my Mom (who always seems to have really great ideas) that required me to take multiple photos of the girls in various situations. I will then use the photos in a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate the eight values. Of course I didn't really think about the difficulties of scheduling times to take these pictures with 30+ teenage girls. And I forgot how forgetful/unreliable they are sometimes. So for the last 3 days I've been tracking them down and listening to their excuses of how terrible they look (I wish I could as good as they do when they look "terrible"). On Friday I drove to different locations for some of the photos with 3 girls. Peter loved being with them (unless I went out of his sight). Fortunately, Ryan had Peter duty for the rest of my photo shoots.

On a related side note, it was eye opening to go inside so many people's homes in a short period of time. In just the past few days I've been in over 20 houses. I found it interesting that most of the homes were either clean and picked up or pretty messy, there didn't seem to much of a middle ground. (For the record, I'm not counting daily clutter and living as messy.) And every time I was invited in there was an immediate apology for the condition of the home whether it was messy or not (except at one house where I was worried I would disrupt the perfectly ordered living room simply by breathing). It seems that I'm not the only one suffering from the misconception that everyone else has a spotless home. If anything this New Beginnings project has helped alleviate my feelings of inferiority in regards to my housekeeping—now I know I'm not the only one who utters a ritual apology for my house when someone comes to the door.

Photography Skills

Isn't this an exceptional photo? Okay, I admit that it in no way qualifies as a good photo or even a mediocre one, but I am still incredibly proud of it. Why, you ask? It's the first photo Peter has taken with a camera; not too shabby for a 23 month old. On Friday, Peter was playing on the computer. (No, I haven't converted him to the awesomeness of video games yet. He was literally playing on the turned off computer—moving the mouse around, tapping the keys and pushing buttons on the front of the monitor.) I had stupidly left my camera on the computer desk and of course Peter noticed it. However, I did not notice it until I heard the distinct fake shutter sound on my camera indicating a photo had just been taken. I turned around to find Peter with his finger on the camera and a huge grin on his face. He knew he had just done something cool. So above is the result of Peter's stolen minute with my camera. I think he did an impressive job setting up the shot, creating an interesting composition. Or maybe he just pushed a button (who can resist the siren call of a button?).

The Nicest Thing in My Kitchen

Well, for Christmas I received a cutting board that actually makes me want to be in my kitchen doing something other than heating up soup or pouring a bowl of cereal! Cooking is my least favorite domestic task (yes, I view it as a task and/or a necessary evil) but I just might have to start doing it more so I can use this cutting board. My wonderful (and obviously very talented) friend Faith actually made this.

Unfortunately, my sub par photography doesn't truly capture how beautiful the craftsmanship is and definitely doesn't show how smooth the wood is (I've had bed sheets that didn't come close to being this smooth!). It is truly a beautiful piece made from walnut, cherry, and maple and put together with the end grain facing up. It is not an exaggeration to say that the addition of this cutting board has classed up my kitchen. Thank you Faith!

I'm in awe of Faith's exceptional woodworking skills. She's been taking a woodworking class for years and has made numerous pieces of furniture (including her son's crib!). I recently decided that I would take the class with her this semester (it starts at the end of this month), but I must admit that now I'm even more intimidated than I was. I guess I will be Faith's foil in the class.

First Day of School

Peter started school today. Wait a minute! How old is that kid? He can't possibly be old enough for preschool already! At the suggestion of Peter's doctor, Ryan and I have been thinking for several months about placing Peter in an early preschool but were concerned about finding a quality one that would help Peter with his Austism Spectrum Disorder. Fortunately, the Early Intervention service that helps Peter has an early education center on site. So after discussing it with his EI team we decided to have him go there. So now my little will-be-2-in-February-boy is going to preschool for 5 hours a week. Peter will go 2 hours on Mondays and 3 on Wednesdays.

Young McPetey Had A Farm

Animals are taking over our house. But at least they are small, don't smell or shed, and never pee on the carpet (unlike Peter). Peter's SLP (Speech and Language Pathologist) Gayleen and his EIS (Early Intervention Specialist) Lindsey want me to use animals as part of Peter's daily home therapy. So Peter received several animal themed toys for Christmas. ("Peter NEEDS this Ryan. It's for his therapy; it will really help his Autism.")

One of the cutest toys is a Farm Memory Game by Little Tikes. It's a plastic egg carton with animals and eggs. There are 10 little animals that can be split in half. You separate the bottom from the top, then hide the pieces under the included egg cups. Peter loves this toy. He likes opening the carton, taking apart the eggs, finding the animals and putting them back in the carton (he's still a little too young to match the animals, so we keep them whole). But his favorite thing is to take the animals and line them up on a table. Then he moves them to the coffee table, then a chair, then a bookshelf, then the stairs, then the couch, then back to the table.

One of the most prevalent Autism Spectrum behaviors Peter has is his obsessive need/want to order and line objects up. Several months ago he would literally spend an hour moving 6 bottles of haircare products from one location to another on the second floor. He would carefully move the objects, organize them to his liking then immediately pick them up and start the entire process over. He would melt down if someone tried interrupting his process or moved things out of his order. Most of the time he would "play" with his toys this way unless someone was right there making him play with the toys correctly. Peter's doctor and EIS told Ryan and me that we needed to interrupt and prevent Peter from doing this lining up too much. While it's okay for him to do it occasionally for short periods of time it isn't okay for it to make up most of his solitary play. I've been working really hard since October to distract and redirect Peter when he starts lining things up.

Fortunately, Peter has made a lot of improvement; now most days he only does it once or twice for about 10 minutes. Then I bought those cute Little Tikes animals and the temptation was too much. Peter loves lining those animals up. Oops. I've had to hide them and only bring them out for a short time each day. Peter and I have a fun time moving those animals around. I try to make it more interactive by performing stunningly accurate imitations of animal sounds (except for the bunnny; what noise does a bunny make?) and requiring Peter to point and sign. Now if I could only get Peter to think cleaning and organizing the house is fun...