Fast things and slow things (deadlines and walking)

Where to start...Did you ever read a deadline incorrectly...but it was  good thing?
I had to get this grant thing done, and I was just about ready last night, for it was due today- the 31st, the last day of the month.  Uh Oh, the deadline looks like its the 30th.  That's really odd, it definitely said the end of the month.  Well, I thought, I hope they accept it tomorrow because its almost midnight, things are not printed out, and I'll probably find mistakes when I proofread tomorrow.

I've been working really hard to redo this grant... first I found we have to ask for a small grant, not a large one, and then, bombshell at the end of last week- a space offering- starting NEXT WEEK.  Mind you, not the greatest space on earth, but I can't really not accept free for a year in a very desirable location.  However, it needs some renovation, and the restroom is innaccessable to people who can't use stairs- as is a lot of the space.  Its a also a shared space- good in that its shared with people who do music and art classes for kids- our users, bad in that we have to figure out how to divide it.

So now to ask for different things from the grant, and try to consult with other's in the organization... well, not a lot of consulting happened because teacher people are rather busy this time of year.   I went to bed a bit late.

I woke up early (I heard my son before 7 am), but I got up because I had to turn in the grant- and that required a lot of printing, and also because my son says he wants to walk to school, and that takes almost an hour.  And then it hit me.  The deadline is not August 30, its SEPTEMBER 30- the last day of the month.  Small grants are turned in later than large grants which are due September 1st.  I have a whole month to figure this out better.
On the other hand... we have the space, in theory, next week.

So, what did I do today?  I walked my son to playcare the "other way".  This entailed walking on a road that was closed for construction.  I figured, how bad can it be to walk through a little construction in our village?  We can always walk in people's yards.  Of course I allowed my little star to wear shorts, so walking in other people's yards where there was likely to be poison ivy was a bad idea.  Well, walking through construction can be a bad idea also.  First we had to wait for dust to settle after a small construction vehicle passed us.  Then we had to squeeze past a large truck that dirt was being dumped into on the other side.  We paused to watched the digging from a relatively safe vantage point (my son loves this) until it stopped.  At this time another truck came to relieve the first one of its load. The road wasn't very wide, so we stepped in the ditch, but we were still belched with dust and diesel fumes as the trucks moved by.  Yuck.  I decide we'd have to abandon the "other way" until construction was done.  They are putting in a sidewalk we think, so perhaps it will be nice in the end.

I dropped off my son, and walked back up the hill to see about getting science toys related to magnetism from the college for Friday's event.  I was well rewarded with an electromagnet, a magnetometer, some magnets, and a bunch of other things. On the way home I stopped by the post office and our little store.  They've started carrying Wallaby yogurt cups.  Its not cheap, but I can see us spending some money on it.

At home, since I don't have to do grant things today,  I've been mowing the lawn.  The batteries for our electric mower are not doing well.  The original battery was losing its charge so we bought another one that has never been very good.  I think the original one is still better.  Unfortunately the company that makes our mower has now moved everything to Canada, and shipping batteries (or spare parts) from there is very expensive.  We think the battery we ordered from Home Depot has probably been sitting around and is as old as our original.  In any case, we have limited strength on these batteries and we are still trying to get the highest grass (the grass that grew while we were in CA) mowed.   So each night we quickly run down the batteries.  I ran them out without finishing the job just before it started to sprinkle.  I imagine we'll get it under control soon.

At least I'm strong enough now so that I don't have to use the "drive" option on the mower- that really runs down the batteries. We got the mower with it because,  I'm pretty weak, and I really needed it to begin with.  It's nice to know I'm stronger now.  I wonder if I will have to build up strength every summer, or if I manage to lift weights all year that I will keep that strength.

About strength- did I mention my little star seems to be a bit stronger now?  Monday he asked me if we could walk to school instead of bike.  I figured I had enough time, so we did.  Yesterday we went on this long long walk all morning.  We were able to walk far enough to get to some local trails that do a loop between our neighborhood and the highway.  I believe I got some exercise. We must have walked at least two hours, and I was so pleased that we got to walk in the forest.  Its  a nice little patch that has lots of old growth trees and logs, and surprisingly little poison ivy.

My little star talked about moss covered stones- there were lots of moss covered logs, stones, and forest floor.  Sometimes before bed I sing him this song because I like the tune- it goes:
Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose,
When will I see thee wed?
I will marry at thy/my will sire
At my will

Ding Dong, Ding Dong,
Church bells ring on an April morn
Carve your name on a moss covered stone
On a moss covered stone


An apple, a peach, a plum, a cherry
Anything to make us merry
Hey Ho Nobody Home
No Meat nor Drink nor money have I none
Still I will be merry...
(I'm not sure if the last verse is actually one verse or two or if they even go with the first two exactly since I am combining sources, but the tune is the same.)

Anyway, I always thought the moss covered stone had something to do with a church and was like carving your name in a tree.  But after my son brought it up, I thought, no, this song is about a tomb stone.  In fact I think it might be comparing getting married (albeit, possibly against your will) to dying.  

I'm sure my son doesn't even try to understand the words to the songs- if he's anything like me, he won't get the real meaning of most songs until he's adult or has studied the time periods they come from.  He's not singing with us much anymore, but it is fun to hear him singing to himself sometimes because he combines all the songs.

He claims he wants to walk home from playcare too.  He asked me on Monday, so today I said maybe we could walk part way.  At first I thought it was ridiculous to think he could walk home, all uphill, after a day at playcare, but he does take a nap there, and we do generally have to get him some exercise before bed if we want him to sleep at a reasonable time.  So maybe he does have the energy.  If I have the time, all the walking can only be good for me.

Is my little star autistic?

This post about that I continue to be slightly worried that my son is somewhere on the autism spectrum.  But when I start to worry, I think that it doesn't really matter.  My son is what he is, and I love him; I can't really imagine him any other way.  If we find out some day that he has some diagnosis we'll work with it, just like any other parent has to do.

On friday I picked my son up at play care. As is often the case, he was playing by himself in the sand box.  (Sometimes I find him playing "with" other kids at the water table, so he's not always by himself.) He's getting better with potty training (though he had an accident today), so instead of having an accident as soon as I got there (this has been happening a lot), he got out of the very questionable squatting position he was in and sat on the corner of the sand box.  I let him play a bit and lo and behold he stayed dry.  Progress?

There were two other kids on the other side of the sandbox, kids in his class, kids who have been there since he started in December.  They were playing together making a sand castle.  One child, P, has long, almost blond hair, and is a girl who wears a lot of pink.  The other child, C is black, a boy and has short african type hair.  My point is they look nothing alike aside from brown eyes.

I asked my son who he was playing with in the sandbox.  The two kids of course heard me and P mentioned C's name.  My son then said C's name.  So I asked him about the girl.  He said her name was Z- Z is a boy who hasn't been in his class for at least a month.  This lack of knowing the kids names is typical.

We had a conversation about how C and P looked different.  The only difference that seemed salient to him was that their shirts were different colors. I asked him what color P's hair was.  He said brown... OK, sort of- its kind of a dirty blond.  I asked about C's hair.  He said brown... sort of- I mean if black is brown.  I asked who had long hair, and he figured that one out- with coaching.  He also seemed to think he had long hair.  He doesn't, but he might think so because his Daddy is always cutting it when we think its too long.  I didn't bother with the skin color. If he didn't notice that, well thats a good thing at this age.  I asked him if P was a little boy or a little girl.  A little boy he told me.  Well, I don't think kids his age necessarily understand gender yet, so I told him she was a little girl but not how he was supposed to figure that out.  I don't really think gender differentiation at a young age is very positive anyway.  Still I didn't feel like I'd really given him much help in differentiating people's faces.  Even I can't really describe how faces are different to me.  I really think he need's some professional coaching here.

And then I read this blog that had a piece on the new findings about siblings have a higher chance of autism:
"Drilling down into the things that we know are early signs of autism -- interest in people, responding to their name, responding to other people, smiling at other people."  
The quotation is cited from an NPR piece  that Ozonoff who directed the study.
NPR article

OK, I'm guessing Ozonoff means that autistic kids LACK interest in people, etc.  That's my son mostly. He does watch other kids, so I guess that's some interest, but its not like he wants to interact with them!  Sometime he responds to his name.  Often he ignores you, and it seems quite deliberate.  He's certainly not likely to respond to people other than me and my husband without a lot of effort on the other person's part.  He smiles when he's happy, but I wouldn't exactly call it smiling at other people.

And then someone suggested that maybe he had dyspraxia.  I looked it up.  Well, only a few symptoms fit him, so I don't think he has that.  You see, the person hasn't really every heard him talk except when I prompt him.  Rest assured the boy talks just fine without prompting at home and when he gets comfortable with people or a situation.  It just takes a long time for that to happen.

So really, my main concern is that if he needs some early intervention, that he gets it.  Obviously (to me) he's quite functional right now, but that doesn't mean he won't have trouble later on.

The danger of reading a good book

So I returned from vacation and didn't write anything.  The reason is simple.  Anathem. I started reading Anathem before I left CA, and I wrote how it was kind of hard to get into.  But then I got into it.  It's amazing.  And its 1000 pages that I had exactly 14 days to read (or so I thought).  Anathem was not just some brain candy action scifi book.  I enjoy those.  Adventure and new encounters with strange situations that include interesting worlds.  Plucky heros and heroins outsmarting the bad "guys".  Of course these thing are part of Anathem, but there is a lot more to it.  There were parts to it that made me slow down and think about philosophy and math.  There were detailed descriptions that clearly the author had worked hard to create something physically realistic and interesting.  It was  a book that made you slow down to read it, and made you think you were exercising an academic part of your brain.  I still read it too fast- after all, I had other things to do, and the electronic copy was due to EXPIRE.  It seemed that as long as I kept the file open it didn't expire, but I was not able to check on when it should expire, so I'm not sure if I got some extra time out of it or not.

The book is certainly worth a reread (in PAPER copy).  I don't know if I missed a plot point or really one last thing was never resolved.  However, most of it was, enough that the ending was satisfying.  In any case the book has my resounding recommendation if you are a little bit geeky and like the science fiction part of the science fiction/fantasy genre.

And now I can get back to working on my projects.  Good books are dangerous and get in the way of doing other important things (for me). Not to say I have COMPLETELY neglected other things.  In fact, Friday night and Saturday morning I was making hoop gliders with kids.  I haven't done a ton of outreach activities- that is, I've done some, but I always feel slightly inexperienced if I am in charge, and don't necessarily look forward to it all the time.  I usually see it as something that should be done, something I can do, and something I'm reasonably competent at.  I think I've changed my mind finally.  I really ENJOYED my time with the kids on this, and I felt very energized and inspired afterwards.  I look forward to the next activity.

I think I just feel more competent now.  I also really enjoy watching the kids be little scientists.  They find ways to improvise and try new things that I just find so inspiring.  Its not the same as when teachers talk about how they like the Aha moment when a student figures something out.  Here its the moment when I see a kid being creative, trying to go about something in a different way than perhaps I had expected or explained.  To me, that is the interesting and inspiring moment. Its the moment that says this kid has curiosity, an open mind, initiative, and creativity, and I am encouraging these things by bringing in some materials, some constraints, some possibilities that they take run with.

Oh, and we are not getting a space for science play this fall because... the money really exists better in the spring and at the same time, we really need more publicity, fundraising, organization building first (have to change the grant a bit for this).  I feel that after a space exists all our time will go into running it rather than those other things we need to do.  Of course now I had to do all those organizational things I've been neglecting- and feel less competent with.  There is always time to grow.

A slow day on CA time in OH

We are still on CA time... I think.  I finally got myself to bed last night slightly before midnight, only to discover my little star's light was ON.  He was sitting there playing, and of course immediately burst into tears when he saw me.  At least he knew he'd done something wrong.

I should have been suspicious because he had said that it was time for me to leave after I'd sung a few songs.  Usually he does not ask me to leave.  I should have checked to make sure he was lying down, but he'd seemed pretty sleepy.  We had heard him kicking too, but assumed he was still in bed.  Not.

He seemed in a good mood despite all this, and I think he woke at about 8:30 this morning, which is closer to OH time.  We finally got out of the house at.. well, some time before eleven this morning.  I decided we would BIKE into the city to attend a moms2moms gathering... if it existed.  I wasn't sure if I had the right week, or how late they would be there.  But the weather was nice for a bike ride, and I feel this need to be healthier/stronger.  Somehow I thought I could handle going  up the hill to get home at the end.  I've done it a few times, but only once after a long bike ride carrying my little star.

So we biked into town.  I was a bit worried about this since I've never biked with my little star in traffic.  However, by using side streets I mostly managed to avoid traffic. We finally reached the place at noon.  Nobody was there, so we headed back, checking out a playground on the way.  Little star refused to use bathroom facilities three times on the way back, so he really was testy... and so was I.  The bike seat makes the bike very tippy, and its very hard to get him in and out, so I insist on  doing it exactly right.   Anyway, we did finally make it back home.  At least all the bathroom stops gave me some rest.  It was about four miles on the bike trail plus a few miles at either end, so probably 10-12 miles round trip.  I got my exercise.  I still haven't mowed the lawn.

By the time we got home, and I gave him lunch, he used the potty, etc, I finally got him to take a nap... at 4 pm.  I suppose that's about right for CA time.  Hey, at least I GOT HIM TO TAKE A NAP.  Me.  At home. In his bed.  And he didn't even have much exercise this morning since he mostly sat in the bike seat.  So I hope the nap (as late as it is) sets a precedent for nap taking at home.

back home: suburban village life

We had a charmed trip home from CA.  Our flights were not turbulent.  They were on time.  Actually our longest flight got in early. My little star did well, and he even took a nap.  We actually had to WAKE him up to put his seatbelt on for landing.  He even stayed dry in his diaper.

I began reading The Seventh Tower, which I think is meant for kids, but I quite enjoyed it.  Yes, my little star was so well occupied I got to read.  He spent a while just singing to himself.   Anyway, it was one of the those books that was hard to put down, and I am now trying to figure out how to get the last three volumes.  Our library appears to have only the next two of them.   I broke my rule of starting a series before having all the volumes, but that was because the first three were just there begging me to start.

We drove home without any rain.  (In the past it always get rained (or snowed)  on us when we park in never never land at the airport).  My little star began singing to himself on the journey home in the car and it was quite enjoyable because he has a very cute voice right now, and he was totally mixing all the songs he knew together.  We got home early enough that we went out for dinner close to home.

Our house survived and looked even a little bit clean inside.  We were pleased to find our new neighbors checking out their house.  They are not really new neighbors- they just lived on the other side of the block.  That is, between their old house and their new house almost across the street from ours is some woods, probably filled with poison ivy.  In any case, although they lived nearby, we rarely saw them because it still was too far away.  I am very pleased they are moving in as they have a daughter a year or two older than my little star and an older son.  We also found out that another house up the street will have a two year old next year.

So I have my hopes up for finally having a "neighborhood".  What I mean by that is some idealized version where when we go out to play we see other kids and families.  Maybe our kids will even play with each other without a "play date".  Maybe we can have some neighborliness that happens more than a few times a year. Like last night: we noticed the lights were on in the house and stopped by... and so did some other neighbors who had friends over- it was like a big impromptu party in the empty house.

Well, you never know.  Its good to have a vision to work towards.

Today, we seem to be on CA time- that is we got up really late and didn't seem to get much done all day.  I was going to mow the lawn (OK just part of it)- which is high, but not yet ridiculous, but it was rainy.  So I checked out the gardening. My gourds look GREAT.  There are some really pretty green-yellow ones right in the front on the trellis they are sharing with the anemic "hardy" kiwi plants.

The happy gourds are a good thing because my garden looks terrible.  I did manage to harvest a few cherry tomatoes, a tiny bit of green onions, a little basil, a few poles beans, and an enormous cucumber (one of many).  Its mostly weeds beyond that except for two blooming sunflowers.  Oh, I also took an orange pumpkin with squash beetles on it.  It looks kind of damaged by the beetles, so I just left it out to look pretty in its round orange color.

I noticed some enormous vehicle damaged our front yard by the road in front of the gourds.  The truck seems to have tried to turn and gone way off the road, sinking deep ruts into our lawn that slopes down from the lawn. The rut had a puddle that did not disappear.  Perfect for mosquito breeding.  Impossible to mow.  And its not the first time. Big trucks really should not be on our narrow street at all.  Funny thing is, the street really isn't that narrow.  Two cars can pass with no trouble.  I think the problem is that it has NO shoulder and its raised.  When the trucks try to turn they, of course try to avoid the culverts on the other side of the street... and end up on our lawn.

End of Vacation

We finally celebrating my birthday with this enormous "american" chocolate cake.  It was about five layers, and the smallest slice was almost too much for one person to finish.  It was quite enjoyable.

My husband made his very wonderful yeast based waffles and impressed the whole family.  They were very good (as usual).

Its the last day of vacation, and my little star is finally comfortable enough with the grand parents that not only did he spend a lot of this morning with them, but grandma got him to take a nap in about ten minutes.  I am VERY impressed.  He didn't even have any physical exercise this morning.  However, he did get to feed the chicken, weed the garden, look through grandpa's drawers in his office, and type his own name on the key board.  He also did not protest when I took him to the potty this morning, and later he let grandma take him there and produced.

I got to read the NYT and our local paper (on line), and am now beginning to read Anathem, highly recommended.  The premise is quite interesting, but so far I'm finding it hard to get into because the author chose to use a lot of unfamiliar terminology made up for his world.  I know that's part of establishing the fantasy world, but for me its rather distracting, and seems to take a way from imagining the setting and what is going on.  I find myself skipping or at least skimming long descriptions because its too hard to figure out what he's describing when I don't easily know what all the words mean.  I just want to get to the "action". (By action, I don't necessarily mean movement, it might just be thoughts or conversation).  I'm assuming it will get better with less of this, or all this weird terminology will start making sense.  Usually it doesn't take more than 50 pages for me to get into things, but I hope it will happen soon.  I've been kind of in a rut reading the same authors for a number of years, so I was hoping to break out of that with this book.

That's all for now.

Real Vacation things

No interesting thoughts today.  I'm just writing about vacation because what we did yesterday was what people do on vacations.

We went to the BEACH yesterday.  We don't get to do this very often, so its a big treat.  My son loves the water and the waves.  We don't swim yet, but we sure do wading, and he gets wet.  I love to watch him in the water with his dad.  My husband swings him up over the waves and they both look so happy.

I take my little star into the waves and we run back, or I pull him up, but I try to avoid picking him up much because its hard on my arms.  So I walk along the beach, and watch them, or hold his hand.  His grandpa and aunt were there too taking him into the waves.  We stayed for a few hours.  It was slightly overcast, so the weather was wonderful- not too hot or cold.  There were no shells at the beach, but that was alright.

We stopped at In and Out burgers(?) for lunch.  The californians were proud of this, but I'm not exactly sure why they thought the concept of  a limited menu takeout fast food was so interesting.  I think they were proud that it started in CA.    They were also proud that they knew about the "secret" menu- you can ask for things that are not on the menu if you know about them.  Like Veggie burgers.  So, yay, you can get a veggie burger, I thought.  This is good because my husband, and generally myself don't get fast food beef burgers.  I knew my son wouldn't eat any kind of burger.  We got him french fries and I had a banana for him.  I didn't feel so great about this because that's NO protein for him.  I figured we could offer him part of the veggie burger.

But then it turns out the veggie burger doesn't have a patty in it.  Its just lettuce and tomato.    Nobody else seemed disappointed.  I guess they already knew?  Perhaps that's why they don't advertise them on a menu. We had got a milkshakes too.  Now, I haven't had a milkshake since I was a kid- once.  I didn't like it that time, and haven't bothered with one since- I mean its not like they are particularly good for you, and I'd rather have a real dessert.  Well, this one tasted mostly like chocolate ice cream so it was pretty good.  Too bad my son wouldn't try it.  No protein for him.  He didn't seem upset, and made it through the rest of the afternoon- probably because it was too much fun- we figured if he didn't fall asleep on the way there (as he did to the In and Out), that he'd fall asleep on the way home later and get his nap in.

In the afternoon we visited Balboa Island and my little star not only got to ride the carousel, but his daddy took him on a small ferris wheel. (I was worried I wouldn't like the ride down- which is too bad- I never had the chance to ride one when I was little (I think), and I think I would have liked it then.  My little star quite enjoyed that.  He also liked the ferry ride over to the island.  I was surprised to realize he'd never been on a boat before.  I have been remiss.

On the way home I thought maybe my pants were irritating my legs.  So I took them off.  Major sunburn.  I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs.  I rarely wear shorts like I did at the beach, so that was asking for trouble.  I haven't had sunburn since... well last time we went to the beach in nice weather almost two years ago.  Perhaps next time I will learn.  Luckily my little star escaped sunburn- he has slightly darker skin, he's been exposed more this summer, and I had put some sunscreen on his face.

Today we relaxed at home, and I actually got some work done while he took a nap.  Yes, my husband magically got him to take a nap again!