So proud!

OF ROBYN!!!

She made the principal's list!!! Straight A Average :)  

Such a sweet daughter!!

Small Miracles...in triplicate!

Today seems to be providential for the number 3 in my life...

I received word that the trip for Liam's PIC class has been fully funded by generous donations.

Liam is saying a new word - "buddy" that he learned in school and can use in context!  He now wants to be everyone's buddy (so cute!!!)

And for the first time in a very long time, he wanted two vegetables for lunch at the same time and mixed foods of different colors on the same spoon, dipping back and forth!!!




So to celebrate, I think we're heading to the Charleston Fire Museum for a little play!

just how lucky we are...

Sometimes its worth remembering just how lucky we are... I was talking to Liam's PIC (preschool intervention class) teacher the other day about her classroom and about the program in general and she mentioned that her fondest wish would be to take her 9 students on a field trip by themselves to the Childrens Museum, she had even managed to secure a scholarship from the museum so that the students could go free of charge... but she had to find nearly $90.00 for the bus - and at $10.00 a child, it was going to be too much money for many of her kids...


Liam is the only child out of a class of nine who has ever visited the Children's Museum... we've been members since before he was born and he knows every inch of the place... and was there yesterday for 3 hours solid without stopping, asking for a drink or whining about anything - he was so entranced... and I know that every child should experience that...

So I have paid Liam's $10, and $10 for another child and have started to ask among my friends for 'sponsors' for each of the other 7 children in the program...and I sent an email out to about 70 friends and colleagues and have already had a response within 10 minutes that a third child has been sponsored...


We are blessed as a family and I am lucky at this time to share that blessing with the other students in Liam's class... it's times like these that remind us just how lucky we are...

Thanks for reading

Wordless Wednesday

The letdown...

I tend to throw myself into a project with full force and plow through to get it done... I've been working hard on completing the transcription and revision of my Grandmother's memoirs so that when my Mom and Dad go to visit her this weekend they can take a clean draft copy with them... and hopefully get some of the pictures to scan.... but its leaving me with some time on my hands while I wait... and the feeling of contentment and completion that I had when I emailed the draft off is now replaced by a funny kind of letdown and there is a void in my life as I wait... For almost two weeks straight, I had an additional purpose to sitting down at the computer and now its gone...

While working on the project there was a flood of memories and inspiration to write which has also left me... this piece for the blog is an attempt to snap out of the mental writers block... (probably not my most successful attempt, eh?)

I have topics to get back to... I should update you all on the GF thing, I could talk about what the kids have been doing or finally introduce all my bloggy world to my hubby whom I have sadly neglected to talk much about so far... but for today... I'm just kinda feeling blah and I've decided to ride the letdown... so you're stuck with these ramblings...

Hopefully tomorrow inspiration will strike and I will have much more interesting things to say... but for now, I leave you with the letdown.

There were three in the bed...

and the little one said - Roll over... so we all rolled over and one got out...

there were two in the bed... you know the song...

I am trying to figure out how one small creature (just a hair taller than 39 inches) can completely dominate a space - while sleeping....

My husband and I have a king size bed, that somehow on more than one occasion every week, the 3 year old kicks us both out of ... after he comes down to crawl in with us...

I'm not a good sleeper anyway, even at the best of times, so when he kicks I just give up and go... because I know that it will be quite some time before I get back to sleep anyway and there is always something to do at 2 am... (My sleep issue is that my body automatically wakes up when I do... even after 1/2 an hour of sleep and I feel wide awake for an hour or two at least before I can head back to bed).

Some nights he's good and just snuggles up and doesn't move after that... I can live with that and usually don't really even wake up...

but then there are his kickboxing nights and man can that little leg pack a punch in the kidneys when you least expect it...

I'm adding it to my random mysteries of the universe... right behind the question of how laundry multiplies but socks divide and why no one else in the house can replace the toilet paper or refill the sugar bowl...

Happy Monday all!

Sunday Family Stories - 10 things I learned from my Pompa (Grandfather)

As the first grandchild born into my family, which now has sprouted to 13 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren for my grandparents I claim to be the one who has known my grandfather the longest... and the girl who christened him 'Pompa'

I'm guessing that when I was too little to remember, that I couldn't decide whether to call him grandpa or papa, so I combined them... but one never knows what is in the mind of a precocious toddler... it morphed somewhere to plain old grandpa but he's always been my Pompa...

So what did I learn from him?

Lots... but I will pick ten of my favourites to share with you today...

1. If you want something bad enough, you will work for it...  my grandfather started working at 8 years of age, quit school before he finished 8th grade and worked full time for the rest of his life until he semi-retired at age 75 and finally retired just a few years ago... As my grandmother wrote in her memoirs, "He never owned a bicycle and by the time he could afford one, he wanted a car.  Education was important to him and he made sure that the children got the best possible one so that they could enjoy a better life than he had."
2. Which brings me to my second point- get an education and stay in school... he matched dollar for dollar every scholarship we earned from other sources, allowing me to go to university without debts, and to earn my bachelors degree.
   
3. More personally, he taught me to take time to spend with family - if you've read previous posts, you will have read about 'Iwannastay', the cottage that he and my grandmother purchased so that their kids would have a place away from the city...  Despite the fact that he regularly worked 60-80 hour weeks sometimes, he made the time to get away and be with family at the cottage - taking us for boat rides, teaching us to water-ski and fish, or just hanging out on the deck.
   
4. "Stay out of the way of hot spoons" ... if you sat next to Pompa at the cottage kitchen table for breakfast, you were likely to be treated to the 'hot spoon' treatment if you weren't paying enough attention to him... he would stir his coffee and then 'attack', with love...
   
5. You're never to old to have a birthday party!  My grandfather was 60 before he had a real 'birthday party' with all his friends and family.  I was especially proud to be the lone grandchild, at about 11 years old, to be invited to come to the adult party... and give a speech to him (one of my first writing/speaking engagements)
6. Naps are good - Siestas are fine in Pompa's book, especially during golf, baseball or other sporting events... but lead into the next two things I learned...
7. Never wake a sleeping Pompa - especially to ask about going for a boat ride to the "lodge"... it inevitably makes your time before embarking on the special trip much longer...
8. Never change the channel... it might wake the sleeping Pompa and he was 'watching through his eyelids'
9. Keep everything in good repair... even when he was 'off work' at home or at the cottage, if something needed fixing, he didn't procrastinate or make it worse...
10. Take the time to make fabulous memories - and cherish every one... this one is the hardest for me to write about and probably the most serious... as my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease several years ago, but as I write down my memories my grandmother is sharing them with him and its helping me to remember the special times, places and memories we share...

Now that I've shared my top ten lessons, I'd love for you to meet my Pompa in pictures:

On the deck at the cottage (Summer 07)

With me and my Grandma at my wedding, 1998

Reflections... (warning a little - no quite... maudlin)

I am blessed to have a big, wonderful family but cursed because I can't just reach out and touch them when either of us need it...

I don't live as far away as some do from their families, but sometimes it feels like a 1000 miles is closer to a million...because you just can't up and go when you want.

Why today do I need to reflect on this, as I sit here writing through tears... my in-laws who have been visiting from Toronto since before Christmas, and who had planned to stay for another two weeks had to leave suddenly this morning when we got news that a close friend to them and brother-in-law to Wayne's aunt and uncle passed away last night after a long battle with Osteo Sarcoma.  His condition had been deteriorating for some time since the holidays and in a way it is a blessing that he is out of pain, but death and the finality of it makes it hard to bear.  So of course, as soon as they heard the news, they were packing and heading home to provide comfort to Ralph's wife Jean and of course Aunt Diane and Uncle Gord and all of their families...

and two things struck me... I'm going to miss them like crazy, although I know they had to go... but having family here makes a whole lof of difference to my state of mind... and I can't be there... I've missed so many things by being away from family.  We haven't been home for Christmas in 3 years and summer for two... in that time, my niece was born, learned to walk and talk and became a toddler, almost preschooler (she's precocious), my grandparents have moved twice - both times to nursing homes so that Grandma's overall health and Grandpa's alzheimers can be managed most effectively. My sister has gotten engaged, had an engagement party and a shower already, been shopping for her dress and all of that... and I guess what is hitting home today is that everything is finite... and changing so quickly..

We've been lucky through our immigration woes to have had lots of visits from my in-laws, my parents, my siblings and friends but every time they come it is hard to let them go.  Most days its okay...I keep busy with the kids, the volunteering and socializing with friemds, but its days like today that it all just hits the fan... and I wind up in a puddle of gooey tears...

Tomorrow will be a better day and the countdown is on for our trip home this summer...

'Iwannastay'

Everyone has that special place where their childhood memories are all wonderful and you leave a piece of your heart... for me that place was my grandparents cottage on Chandos Lake in northern Ontario.  As my grandmother described it in her memoirs, its a beautiful, clear lake surrounded by Jack pines, maples, cedars and more.  It is a glacial lake carved into the Canadian Shield and is both deep and mysterious and sparkling and fun.  Their little slice of heaven was originally a 110 foot frontage that they eventually added to when their neighbour Paul sold his land and little fishing cabin to them.

You arrive at the cottage by way of a number of small winding highways, followed by dirt roads that get smaller and smaller... and hillier and twistier... if you hit some of the hills just right, you leave a little of your stomach there... but not for long...

As you get closer to the cottage the forest starts to envelop you, with occasional breaks for sparkling sunshine...  There's no glimpse of the lake after you leave the last highway... and even then its only a brief view at the public beach... but its enough to whet your appetite to jump straight out of the car, run past the building, down the stairs and off the dock into the cool, clear depths..

There are so many floods of memories once I am there that it's hard to pinpoint just one or two...and before I do, now that I've set the scene, I'd like to share a few of my favourite pictures.... Chandos Lake at twighlight... taken the last time I was there.... in Summer 2007.

 

Now as for memories... in a place that beautiful there are many.  My favourites were learning to play bridge and scrabble around the kitchen table after we had cleared off and washed the dishes.. no dishwashers there... jumping off the dock for the first time every summer, just to see if the water had warmed up.. but of course it was still cool, clear and beautiful... the lake was so deep that the water never really warmed past cool.

It was a great place to be a kid and explore... there was 'Club house mountain' where bits of wood had been cobbled together to make a table and chairs so that we could go and climb the large rock and have a place to eat the candy we had conned out of Mom or Pompa (Grandpa) after a boat ride to one of the three marinas... my favourites were always the shaped sugar candies that came in garbage pails, lockers and other neat shaped containers, but sometimes you just craved any candy...

There were trips to the neighbours cottage - we didn't really socialize with either of our direct neighbours - at least the kids didn't...there were no kids there :) but we'd spend hours at the Canden's cottage two doors over... not really an kids there either, but Mrs. Canden had all kinds of toys and neat things in her small cottage... and a really neat concrete dock that jutted high out of the water to jump off.  As we got older, the thing to do was to jump off our dock, swim to the Canden's, climb out and run, soaking wet, back to our cottage and start again... then we'd become better swimmers and would swim there and back, and finally, as we got older we'd be able to swim the other way... past several cottages of people that Nana and Pompa knew, but we didn't.

The other thing I remember about the cottage is that's where I developed a love of bird & animal watching.  The kitchen and living room  both had wide expanses of windows, due mostly to the fact, I'm sure, that my Grandfather was in the glass and mirror business... but it was a wonderful window on the world.... and with all those trees, not a minute went by when you couldn't see a curious chipmunk, chatty red squirrel, blue jay, hummingbird, chickadee, or any other of a multitude of birds, animals and insects...  my favourite to watch for was the Great Blue Heron... if you were up early enough, he'd be there waiting to say good morning, standing on the end of the dock, watching the glassy water for his breakfast.  Sometimes he'd do a fly by later in the day, but he was almost always there in the creeping dawn....

If you didn't know what bird you saw, Nana was the expert... with her Peterson's Guide to Birds, well loved and never too far away.  I also learned all about the fish in the lake, but was never really a fisherman... the rule was you had to bait your own hook and take off your own catch and that wasn't for me... so my brother and sister fished, and I cast a weighted bobber off the dock with no hook, just for casting practice...

My favourite time of year at the cottage was the middle of August... Raspberry season... There is absolutely nothing like fresh-picked wild raspberries that you've scoured the ditches by the dirt road for... juicy, tart and perfect... we'd pick pints at a time and they'd be gone within an hour... the only evidence was the raspberry stained plastic container and our juicy looking fingers... One year we actually had a bumper crop available, so much so, that we pulled all of Nana's recipe books down, searching for yummy raspberry recipes... and decided to make Raspberry Sherbert.. My Aunt Barbara helped and boy was it delicious...

The cottage was a great place to be a kid... and my Great-Uncle Dick Parker christened it with its name long before grandchildren were even a thought on the horizon, but he knew exactly what all of us were going to say at the end of our time there... "Iwannastay"

Writing Memoirs...

In a way, I'm glad I've started blogging now... because I am honing my voice and making a lasting impression of what is going on now ... I was never good at keeping a diary or journal... I guess I'm too much of an exhibitionist for that - I want to share my experiences and not keep them under lock and key... I always started with a blank journal and would get a day or two worth of entries in... and then inevitably the nice new journal wasn't new anymore and became relagated to shopping lists and phone messages...  because there's something about a nice clean start that makes writing easier for me... and I am such a cluttered person that the forced blank page of a blog is probably the better alternative to buying a tonne of journals to write a page or two here or there...
My mom has been after me for years to write books... because I am a voracious reader .... and speedy - I can knock down 'book candy' in under an hour... (read trade romance novels, which my mother got me hooked on at 10 or 11, because I was out of books from the library and bored...) and get through War and Peace in about 24 hours.... but writing is a different entity - you don't just need imagination, you need inspiration... and by choosing to blog about my family and life in general, I find inspiration in everything from watching my children to a cup of tea, to a photograph...
And the bonus of blogging is getting feedback... knowing that I am not the only one reading my thoughts squirreled away in some no longer fresh journal that will be lost in space soon...
I am finding as I explore the blogosphere I am also finding inspiration and encouragement from my fellow bloggers... I am reading more blogs than I ever thought I would when I started mine in isolation.. I had read ocassional blog entries, but never followed many blogs... I have found great blogs to follow though the SITS Girls (The Secret Is in the Sauce), an online community of wonderful bloggy women who comment on each other's blogs and share with each other.  I have also stumbled on several through NetworkedBlogs.com, which is a facebook app and sharing site. 
Today, as I sit in Starbucks, waiting for Wayne to finish in a meeting so I can take him to work (read one car family...) I can put these random thoughts into some semblance of order under the title of Writing memoirs and know that I am leaving both blogdom and my future generations a legacy of my attemts to act balanced... and as importantly, a piece of myself...

I'm A Guest Blogger!!

Today, for the first time, I am a featured guest blogger on one of my sweet and wonderful online friends while she is taking a long weekend retreat with her sweet and wonderful hubby!  Check out my post and her blog at: http://www.halleethehomemaker.com/

H.

Salt Art...

You all probably know my couponning and saving obsession... but one of the by-products of that obsession is sometimes overbuying 'freebies'... one of the things I have been able to get free all winter has been salt - so every time I need around a buck to make up a trip to be able to use a $ off $$ coupon, I reach for another $0.50 off salt coupon which doubles to $1.00 at my Publix and buy the $0.89 canister of salt...

I have 5 canisters of salt in my cupboard now... not including the one that has been open for almost 1 year, but is finally coming to an end... so I decided to find some other way to use my salty bounty and came up with these cute art ideas that I thought I should share with you.... I am going to try and substitute gluten free flour in some of the recipes to let Liam participate in some of the projects...

Texturized Finger Paint (one of many great paint recipes on one page at theholidayzone.com, so I copied and pasted it here..._

---

This paint, made from only the most basic ingredients, is not your typical smooth fingerpaint; however, young students seem to enjoy the grainy mixture, and they also like the feel of the finished product.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
3/4 cup water
food coloring OR tempera paint

Mix flour and salt, then add water. Mix untill all three ingredients are thoroughly blended. Add a few drops of liquid food coloring or tempera paint (dry or liquid) until desired color is reached. If necessary, you may add additional flower and salt in the following proportions: two teaspoons of flour, followed by one teaspoon of salt; alternate until desired consistency is reached.




Another one of many on one page so I copied it from fresnofamily.com
Salt Paint
1/8 Cup liquid Starch; 1/8 Cup Water; 1 Tbsp. Tempera Paint
Mix together and apply to paper with a brush. Keep stirring mixture. Paint will crystallize as it dries.




This one - Salt Art Pictures actually came across my desktop today from a blogger friend at adventures-in-mommy-land  where she has detailed pics of her son's progress and art!


This one from kaboose.com is along the same lines as the one above, but adds a step to make multi-colored salt!

Of course there is always bakeable Salt Dough - many recipes... many ideas but here are a few links:

Salt Dough 1 - Holiday Ornaments

Salt Dough 2 - Folk Aet Projects

Salt Dough 3 - Morton Salt 32 pg booklet!

These ones are probably for older children but look fun! 

Watercolour painting on homemade Salt Paper from Morton Salt

Salt Textures for watercolours from Watercolorpainting.com

Cool contest and yummy GF cookie recipe

Check out Simply Sugar and Gluten Free's blog post here for a yummy GF and sugar free cookie recipe and a chance to enter a draw for a $50 iherb.com shopping spree!

Munchie Mondays

I am going through our family recipes to see which ones I can modify for gluten free and which ones are already GF... this one, happily, is already GF and well loved by our whole family as a treat... although not the healthiest treat in the world sugar wise... they are very yummy!

Chocolate No-Bake Yummies

Melt 1/2 cup of butter in a saucepan
Add 2 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup milk
Bring to a rolling boil. remove from heat.

Add 3 cups of rolled oats, 1 cup of coconut
and about 5 tablespoons of cocoa powder.

Mix and drop by teaspoonful onto wax paper.

Enjoy!
Can be stored for up to a week in an air-tight container or frozen.

Sunday Family Stories - I'm a Tea Granny...

I was struck by a flood of memories while I was pouring my tea this morning ... probably because I have started to scan some old family pics now that I've finally hooked up my scanner... but the ritual of having a nice hot cup of tea goes way back into my childhood...

I've been drinking tea (heavily laden with milk) since I could drink out of a cup - its just the way things go in my family... but one of my fave stories from childhood is:

My mom was a Stay At Home Mom with 3 kids under 3 years old - me being the oldest and the bossiest of course... and so I had a standing once a week playdate at my Nana's house so that mom could have a bit of sanity in her world... (who can believe that a mom of 3 toddlers could need sanity...).  It started when my sister (the middle child) was little and continued on after my baby brother (not so little any more) were born... but somewhere in there, I was about 2 ... and I came home from my Nana's house to have a cup of tea with my mom and announced "I only drink tea from a china cup!"  "Nana says tea tastes better in a china cup!" to which my mom promptly announced that I should move in with Nana, because in her house tea came in mugs...

me and my Nana - whose name eventually morphed in to Grandma, 11 years go at my wedding.

Tea is one of the things that all the women in my family share - along with other rich heritage... All of us, the first daughter of a daughter (including my daughter of my heart, Robyn) all share Anne as a middle name.  I have a picture of me, my mom, my Nana and my Great-grandmother - the four Annes as we were called from when I was about 5 years old... (for Mother's Day 1980 as my Nana kindly inscribed the back of the frame)

 As a child, my Nana's house was a wonder - in her basement was a great family room and a closet that was six feet wide and chock full of toys from yesteryear - there was the large plastic dolly (toddler sized) with no hair and no toes who was walked up and down the street in the huge pram that I'd been walked in... barbies from the 50's and 60's and all manner of other great toys... She had a big family style kitchen with a cupboard full of neat instruments of torture... plastic containers, old pots and such that we could pull out and bang at will... there was the living room where you had to be on your best behaviour, with its floral couch, red chair and ottoman, big mirror above the sofa made for making faces in, and the fascinating bunch of grapes lamp that hung over the big red chair... but my two favourite things about being let into the living room were the covered candy dish that was always full of neat things and the end table that stored the memories - photos of all shapes, sizes and descriptions - from baby pictures to wedding albums to birthday celebrations - it was all there behind the doors with the little hooped pulls...

My tea this morning sparked all those memories and more, and what's more, I am currently transcribing my Nana's memoirs for her and learning more and more about the remarkable woman she is... stories I've heard and some I haven't are coming alive... so I dedicate this blog post to my Nana and plan to offer you more insights into my family history over the next several weeks ... so that maybe over time I can build a legacy for my children and grandchildren as strong as the one I am helping to transcribe :)

Thanks for reading,

H.

Kelsey's Story

I belong to a blog group called SITS (The Secrets in the Sauce) where women and moms support each other and their blogs by reading and leaving comments for each other...  I was reading down the list of blogs on the roll call and came across one that I had clicked on before with the new post Kelsey's Story...

From Tammy's Two Cents, I found the link to another blog - She Says the Darndest Things and found Kelsey's Story that I feel I should share with you,

She Says the Darndest Things - Kelsey's Story

Please consider visiting and reading Kelsey's Story

Yummy Recipes and where to find them!

I have been a fan of a great Recipe Webzine/website for YEARS... and I get lots of interesting recipes, meet lots of great 'foodie' people from around the world and also get great tips and tricks for the kitchen....

Chef Joe Barkson shares his love of all things food, his dogs, family and more with me every morning as I read through the e-zine delivered to my inbox :)

The other great feature of the subscription webzine is that you can post bulletin board requests to your fellow foodies - that hard to pin down recipe, a change in diet (when I had GD and now with Liam's GF diet they've been so helpful), or when traveling - to get the local skinny on the best places to eat, visit and be...

Also once you visit http://www.wwrecipes.com you will also find a treasure trove of well organized recipes in tons of categories  - all tried and true!

If you are a foodie like me you should check out http://www.wwrecipes.com and let Chef Joe know I sent you ;-)


Just a sample of recipes from the past week:


If you're always looking for new ways to get healthy fresh fruit into
your family's diet, here is one answer. You can make it even
healthier by using frozen yogurt, ice milk, or fat-free ice cream.

Tropical Fruit Sundaes

3 oranges
1/2 cup (125 ml) packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp (2 ml) cinnamon
1 medium pineapple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 large mango, peeled, pitted, and diced
3 bananas, peeled and sliced
Vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt, or ice milk

Peel the oranges and, working over a bowl to collect the juices,
cut between the membranes to remove the sections. Squeeze
the membranes to extract the remaining juice. Combine the
orange juice, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small saucepan
and bring to a boil over moderate heat. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes,
until the juice has thickened slightly. Let the syrup cool and
add the orange sections, pineapple, mango, and bananas.
Spoon the fruit and syrup over scoops of ice cream. Serves
4 to 6.


This soup is so quick and easy, you'll be surprised at how good
it tastes.

Quick Cabbage Soup

1 Tbs (15 ml) olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 small head green cabbage, cored and shredded
4 cups (1 L) chicken, beef, or vegetable stock
1/2 cup (125 ml) sour cream
2 Tbs (30 ml) finely chopped parsley
1 tsp (5 ml) caraway seeds

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over moderate heat and saute
the onion until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and
stock and bring to a boil. Simmer covered for 10 minutes.
Combine the sour cream, parsley, and caraway seeds. Serve
the soup with a dollop of the sour cream mixture. Serves 4 to 6.

Follow up to my whine yesterday...

All in all, Liam's transition to a GF diet has been a smooth one... the one thing he's been really sad over is not sharing bagels with his grandparents who have been visiting since just before Christmas... this was a special thing between them.. Fortunately we've found GF bagels that almost mimic the feeling... so Papa puts one in the toaster beside his so that they can share time if not the bagel...

The other sad thing was finding out that MacDonald's french fries are not GF (surprising I know..but they use some sort of beef flavoring which has gluten in it)... Liam loves their play place and what's a trip to the PP without FF... but fortunately Chik-fil-A and Burger king fries are still on the acceptable list...

For me as a mom and a frugal one at that, its been relying on ready-made treats because I haven't taken the leap into buying all the ingredients to make my own from scratch... but since I didn't make a new years resolution yet this year - I am resolving to make GF cookies and bars for Liam this week... from scratch... and then we'll try to work up to using the bread machine :)

Now don't get me wrong - I totally want to plug some great brands of ready made GF foods - Enjoy Life foods has been our mainstay - Liam loves their cookies, snack bars, bagels, bread and I'm sure I'm forgetting something :)  There hasn't been a product of theirs he's disliked... and the best part is he can share those with his little friend who has other devastating allergies to milk and eggs because they free of the TOP 8 ALLERGENS , not just GF!

He also really loves Glutino bars and they've got some mixes that I'm trying out... and they also make Gluten Free Pantry items which we're trying this week

and finally - to offset the dreaded tearful Publix trip without cookies, we've adopted Pamela's chocolate chip and Shortbread cookies as the ones most resembling his former shopping treat...

All in all, he continues to thrive on this new diet so we're going to stick with it...

As an aside, another mom and friend who has a son with autism shared this link with me that I thought some of you might be able to use too: http://gfcf-diet.talkaboutcuringautism.org/index.htm

Happy Friday and I hope everyone has a great weekend!

$35 to make a loaf of bread?

One of the things I am struggling most with Liam's gluten free diet is trying to include everything in our weekly grocery budget... which has shrunk considerably since I re-started couponning in earnest and trying to save for a few more trips home to Canada now that Robyn is allowed to leave the country.

I want to do the right thing for Liam and I've been reading lots of great blogs and websites about GF diets and recipes and was excited to find some that had things I knew Liam would like...

I found a new-to-me bread maker on Reuseitcharleston (which is a freecycle-like group that I highly recommend!) and picked a few yummy looking recipes including this one from the Gluten-Free Goddess :

My Delicious Gluten-Free Bread Recipe

Most gluten-free bread recipes rely on eggs for texture and rise. Not this one. This gluten-free bread is tender, crusty, vegan, dairy-free, rice-free, and egg-free. I baked it in my Breadman bread machine.

First- whisk together your dry ingredients and set aside:

1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup potato starch (not potato flour!)
1/2 cup millet flour
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/ 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 tablespoon rapid dry yeast

You'll need sesame seeds for the top; set aside for later. Or omit.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the bread machine pan:

1 1/4 to 1 1/3 cup warm water (at 110 to 115 degrees F)
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons honey- or raw agave nectar to keep it vegan
1/2 teaspoon mild rice or white wine cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 4 tablespoons warm water till frothy

Gently pour the mixed dry ingredients on top of the liquid.

Set your bread machine program for 1.5 loaf medium crust. I used the gluten-free cycle on the Breadman; if you don't have a gluten-free cycle, I believe a rapid rise cycle will also work.

Check the dough after a few minutes of kneading- it should be closer to a muffin batter than bread dough, soft but not too wet. Adjust dry to wet ratio with a tablespoon of flour or warm liquid, as needed. Humidity influences the dough. As does temperature (your bread will rise higher on a hot day).

If you like a crusty loaf, remove the bread from the pan and place it in the oven at 350 degrees F for an additional 10 minutes- keep an eye on it and don't let it get too brown. It should be a light golden color.

Cool the loaf before slicing for best results.

Enjoy fresh from the oven- the first day (as with most gluten-free baked goods) has the best texture and taste.

Store the leftover bread as slices, wrapped in a paper towel and bagged in freezer bags; freeze. Thaw and toast or grill for best results.

Karina's Notes:

This yummy bread was not only the most successful egg-free yeasted bread to date- the taste, texture and tenderness make it one of my all-time top faves in gluten-free bread land. It didn't crumble. And it didn't taste ricey (well, duh...there's no rice!). The combination of sorghum and millet with potato starch imparts a springy bread texture that reminded us both of our favorite ciabatta bread recipe from our pre-gluten-free days.

LOOKS GOOD right?

So then I started pricing the ingredients to make this for my picky son...

sorghum flour - $4.99/lb
potato starch (not potato flour!) - $3.99/lb
millet flour - $4.99/lb

xanthan gum - $13.99 pkg

egg replacer - $5.99

and then the additional ingredients...most of which I have around the house...

One of these days I will take the plunge... but I really wish there were coupons...

Just because... it makes me smile

I was looking through some old photos and looking for one to post on FB for Retro week and came across this one... which my dad had sent in response to the one I had emailed to him of Liam at about 5 mos old...

See if you can see why it makes me smile

The phone call...

Many of you who have read my blog from the beginning know that I was kinda depressed and had a hard time getting into the holidays this year because I'd hoped to go home to Toronto and visit family rather than stay here in SC but there was a little hurdle - Robyn was rejected for her green card when immigration determined that despite the fact that we had formal custody for 8 years, she wasn't officially adopted and only adopted children could gain green card status when a parent got it...

So we rushed through the adoption process with a fab attorney who went above and beyond the call - and if you ever need a good family attorney, Cindy Floyd and her staff are GREAT!

We got everything together under the deadline they set (which was November 7th) and waited... hoping that we wouldn't have to cancel Christmas plans to be home with everyone... and finally made the difficult decision at the end of November when we'd heard nothing... to stay here and have my in-laws come to us.... and just to celebrate vicariously with the rest of the fam...

Just before Christmas we got more bad news... they wanted more 'evidence', because the adoption decree wasn't enough apparently - they now needed copies of Robyn's birth parents official death certificates... and of course I couldn't establish standing to get her dad's in the time allotted to get it... so I appealed to her dad's relatives to order it for me and send it down to us.... fortunately they supported both the adoption and Robyn staying in the US with us and worked quickly to get it done...

With the holidays and mail, we barely made the next filing deadline... January 7th and prayed that that would be the end ....

So when I got a phone call from the immigration attorney last night I knew it was either going to be great news or reduce me to tears....

It did both...

Robyn is now officially able to stay in the US as a permanent resident and within 3 weeks should have her ID card so that she can apply for a SSN and we can all breath a sigh of relief that this odyssey is over... at least til we all consider whether to apply for dual citizenship in 5 years :)

Education decision reflections.. Robyn Part 4 - the finale so far!

Well we got through the major trials and tribulations of all our choices and crossroads in elementary school... until the middle of 5th grade when we had to finalize our choices for Middle School.....

We are lucky to be in Charleston - an area with tons of Middle school options... and cursed by the same fate... so much choice, so little time... and so many changes...

You wouldn't think that middle school makes much difference in the final student product that your child will become.. but with the specializations and choices you make for them in 5th grade, you really do steer their long term path... more so than elementary school in almost every respect...

So- our first indication that we had to make choices and 'apply' to schools came when we were accepted to stay at St Andrews Math and Science for 5th grade, but were told that this acceptance did not guarantee a place in the school that St Andrews feeds into - CE Williams.. so we needed to investigate the procedure to get into CE and to see if we even wanted to... and find out more about the school that we were zoned for - St. Andrews Middle... and then of course the discussion around the kitchen table became well... what else is out there?

I also asked around to friends with kids in middle school, high school and my fellow 5th grader parents... and the consensus became that there was no consensus...

Our options appeared to be:
CE Williams (Math and Science Magnet/ nearest our home)
St Andrews Middle (Our *home* school, busing available)
Charleston Charter School of Math and Science (Downtown, busing available)
West Ashley Middle (Also in district, busing available)
Buist (Long shot)
School of the Arts Magnet (required auditions)
Military magnet (not really a consideration but we could have...)

So, our odyssey continued with our first introduction to the 3 West Ashley schools... at a parents infomation night at West Ashley high school...that we got almost no notice of... So we trekked over there and listened to what they had to say... it was interesting to see the choices we had to make... St Andrews had gender divided programs (pros and cons from both parents and Robyn), West Ashley Middle was art and technology driven but seemed to drift away from the academics that we knew Robyn needed... and CE was still Math & Science but seemed to have reasonable options for the kids...  Robyn felt that we should visit both CE & St Andrews for closer looks, West Ashley was dropped from our radar.  Buist was never really on our radar and so we let this opportunity pass by too... since they really weren't accepting a lot of kids...  Robyn also decided that the audition process for SOA wasn't really where her talents lay... and she wanted to go somewhere else... so that one also came off the list before we did our visits...and Military Magnet wasn't really a consideration for us - too far and not really Robyn's style..

So having narrowed our list to 3 potential schools to see... we took 3 afternoons off and visited all 3 of our 'finalist' schools in action...  and decided that any of the 3 would be good... We filed the paperwork to get into CE's lottery and the Charter School...knowing if we didn't get in to either that St Andrews was a good back up plan... and best off - no application :)

And so the waiting began... In February we got a letter from CE stating that Robyn was in... did she want the space?  Two weeks later we got a letter stating that she was on the wait list for the Charter school downtown... After going for a second visit at CE, it was knocked off the list and St Andrews became our school while we waited patiently for other kids to get their acceptance at SOA and other schools and to not take the coveted place at the Charter...

At the end of March we got a curious letter from a school that had never been on our radar at all... Haut Gap Middle school on Johns Island (the second closest school) was opening up an Academic Studies Magnet program at their school and wanted to invite Robyn to apply... It was only accepting 50 kids .. and they had to have at least a B average in the past 2 years of school... hmmm... sounded good - at least worth the trek down...

still no letter from Charter....

We went to Haut Gap for a parent info session and saw several parents we knew from SASMS elementary..  we found out the pros to going there were special 'capsule classes' that pulled topics out of the regular curriculum and taught them in more detail & that the kids could graduate from middle school with 5.5 HIGH SCHOOL CREDITS!

So, still on the wait list for Robyn's preferred school, I gather yet another round of paperwork and submit them to Haut Gap... and we wait further...

Two days later we got the coveted acceptance into the Charter school which we promptly accepted...

2 weeks after that, we got the acceptance to Haut Gap... back to decisions...

Charter school pros (from both Robyn and us as parents)
- busing
- later start time (9am)
- very open and individualized program
- fairly new and innovative program with a lot of integrated technology
- ability to continue in the school through high school

Charter school cons (from both Robyn and us as parents)
- no honours programs
- no extended gifted enrichment
- no high school credits

Haut Gap pros
- Academic focus
- integrated enrichment and honours
- 5.5 High school credits
- New school building with integrated technology ... eventually
- Closer to home

Haut Gap cons
- 7am start
- no busing
- brand new program
- new building not ready yet

but in the end we picked Haut Gap and have been very happy with our decision so far - Robyn is being challenged and is excited about school and her lessons...

so hopefully we are good for a while... at least til we have to start scoping out high school... wow - high school...
-

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Education decision reflections ... Robyn part 3

This is part 3 of 4 and just to give you context, we pick up the story when we are planning our move to Charleston about 5 years ago...

Its the first time I started looking at school performance websites and info... We'd just asked around at the University for recommendations near Cal, because it was fairly straightforward and there were limited choices... but moving to Charleston... wow- the number of choices... Mount P, W Ashley, Summerville, Goose Creek, James Island.... buy or rent... what neighbourhood within them... and ofcourse WHAT SCHOOL...

We looked at Great Schools and were really surprised about what we might find in some school districts... we hadn't experienced the rigors of standardized testing yet... having only been in the states for second grade... but staring us in the face was more information about where 3rd graders placed in the MAP and PACT tests, and beyond that... how many kids were on free or reduced lunch, class sizes and more...

But it still came down to finding a school that fit, so when we went house hunting, we also visited several schools in our chosen area - West Ashley...

We finally decided to rent, and to do it in the St. Andrews School of Math and Science district... and it was great - Robyn found a school with caring teachers, an emphasis on math and science and I found a wonderful PTA and a caring extended school environment with lots going on - with everything from book fairs to spaghetti dinners... Robyn made friends and flourished there and loved everything except ... uniforms...

The only fight we had to fight was with staying in the school... after Charleston County implemented a residence verification process.. just before we were going to move out of SASMS district...  we verified for the first year while we were still in district and waited to see what would happen to the parents and students who petitioned to stay even though they were out of district... they granted exceptions for 5th graders and a few others for various reasons... but we now had hope...

We moved and waited til the start of Robyn's 5th grade year to make an appointment to see the principal - and told him that we'd moved but wanted to stay for Robyn's last year - we were sure that having already moved twice in her school career that starting over again wouldn't be in her best interest... and she'd be leaving in a year anyway...

We were fortunate that we didn't have to go before the board for an exemption - there was room for Robyn to stay... and one more educational hurdle was past...

All was well until.... November... when we started to shop for Middle Schools.... but that story tomorrow...

a break in the blog... a little praise for my little brother!

My younger, but not so little brother is a published author!    His book is available for pre-order now and is officially launching on January18th in Canada and February 2nd here in the US...
Despite the title, its a great resource for anyone interested in property investment in the US as well as in Canada!  I had an opportunity to 'sneak peak' and provide feedback for many of the chapters before publication and its a fabulous resource on creating a strong Real Estate investment strategy...


Investing in Rent-to-Own Property: A Complete Guide for Canadian Real Estate Investors is his first book (of many I'm sure), and comes from his own experience as a realtor and real estate investor.



 You can also find out more info about Mark at http://www.theversatileinvestor.com/

Education decision reflections.. Robyn part 2

Well, for a variety of reasons including staying close to family and the fact that the job was more permanent, Wayne took the job at California University of Pennsylvania (no, I'm not making up the name... There's also an Indiana University of PA, just to confuse more people) and we set out to find a home near the school... We didn't have tons of choices in terms of school districts, but we soon learned that there were two types of schools in the area - the haves and the have nots... we settled in Charleroi, partly because they had a relatively new school campus where the heat worked in the winter and the air worked in the summer and they actually had a library program... and hoped...

Well, Robyn took to the US education system like a duck to water... she was always bright, but the structure seemed to suit her in the beginning and she flourished, to the point though that by Christmas she had no mark less than 105% in any subject.  Now I guess some people would be jumping for joy if their child came home with grades like that... and don't get me wrong, we were proud parents... but we walked into our first 'official' conference with her second grade teacher determined that we'd get change...

~ first interruption ~

You see, I'm a big believer in letting kids experience failure early in life... not a ton mind you, but enough to know that life doesn't always come easy and that sitting on your laurels can lead to trouble... you see I remembered being a straight A student who, by highschool, had an attitude to match the stature and the work habits of a lazybones... so that by the time I got to university, I didn't get the full benefit of being there because I had learned to do only what was required to get the grade... and if I didn't even do that, to talk my way out of it... (again the rest of the story another time when I'm feeling nostalgic...)

~ back to the story ~
So instead of walking into the conference just to hear the teacher praise my child, I wanted to know what was going to be done to challenge her and give her the chance to not succeed as easily... and boy was the teacher surprised...

~ second interruption as I get on my high horse about education ~

I have a background in education, having experienced teaching grades 2, 2/3, and 5/6 before realizing that I didn't like the structure and rules of teaching in a traditional school.... and the one thing I loved, was challenging each and every child to do their best at everything... which meant teaching each individual sometimes, rather than the class...   In the US, the trend towards standardized testing has resulted in 'standardized' teaching and removed some of the options for creative and meaningful teaching, integrated lessons and more profoundly inspiration from many of the gifted teachers in every school...  there is something to be said that by 'teaching to the test' you miss the big and little pictures made by exploratory learning and organic development of ideas... it also means that individuality and differences are not celebrated in the classroom as much as grades, conformity and adherence to the formula of the day....

~ end of second interruption, getting down off the high horse with the aid of a small step stool and returning to the story ~

One of the things I became aware of at that conference that was different than any classroom I had ever experienced was that there was no room for change or expansion... the teacher was expected to teach the same page of math on any given day that the other six second grade teachers were teaching and that every child attempted to memorize the same spelling list, whether they could read the words or not... it was very black and white - you succeeded or you failed, and if you failed, you stayed for tutoring till you succeeded, but if you succeeded you were done...

So I asked the teacher how we could create dynamic learning opportunities for Robyn, who I was afraid would become me... disenfranchised and bored with the routine... she was already showing signs of poor work habits to come as she rushed through her work and did the minimum to get her A, without really taking time to think...

After a few more meetings and consulting with the principal, it was decided to test Robyn for 'Gifted and Talented' status... this was a big exception because they normally didn't test kids until the middle to the end of third grade for entry into a program starting in fourth.... but the squeaky wheel...

While we were negotiating how this would work,Wayne and I worked with Robyn at home to slow down her pace and do her work carefully, added our own questions to homework to make her think about her answers and generally supplemented her education as best we could

So finally, the school board came back with their criteria and testing model, modified for second grade... Robyn was to take an IQ test, several personality tests and other standardized tests to determine her eligibility for G&T status...

In most things she scored exceptionally well, but she failed 2 of the timed standardized tests... and we couldn't figure out why, because she knew the stuff... until I asked Robyn about it - We'd told her to go slow, think about every answer and why she would want to make that her answer... not to rush through her work and to be meticulous about reading everything... our own work was coming back to haunt us...  and no one had explained to Robyn that the tests were timed... She'd never taken a standardized test before and had no idea what it was... The instructions had been to read the questions carefully and not to expect to complete the test, but didn't tell her that there was a time limit (implied I know, but this is a literal child).  She also had never taken multiple choice tests where there were 'sorta right' and 'most right' answers...

So, with that in mind, they retested her, with the instruction to be thoughtful but work quickly and she passed with flying colours... once she knew the rules of the game and learned how to take standardized tests

By the end of March, she was pronounced Gifted and Talented and was the first ever second grader to become part of their pull out enrichment program... hanging out with 4th graders, but getting to try all kids of cool things... including helping to create a 'game show' for middle schoolers, taking a field trip to the Amusement park, not just to ride the rides, but to study the physics behind them... and doing tons of cool things that opened her mind to the possibilities...

Just as we got through that fight though, our family made the decision to move again, to a situation that suited Wayne better and would land us another 700 miles south, in Charleston, SC and start the next wave of education decisions...

Reflecting back, I know that fighting for her to be in that program, even for 3 months helped to shape the student she has become and helped to keep the flame of wonder burning...

Tomorrow's installment will breeze through the rest of elementary school (once we chose one) and embark on the dreaded middle school choices :)

Thanks for reading - I truly appreciate you for getting through my ramblings - please feel free to comment on any part of this

Education decision reflections...Robyn part 1

After reading a few of the responses to my bookends post I realized that I didn't talk about all the positives in my kids education ... sometimes when I write I am focused on one goal and in the effort to save my fingers and your sanity and patience, I tell part of the story or throw in a wrap up comment and that's what happened yesterday... I kinda finished up the post with a 'me against the education system' comment and that's not always true... but sometimes, just sometimes the way situations work makes you feel like you are up against the odds... so over the next few days, I am going to share some 'balanced' reflections on my kids education....

As a parent, I figure one of my most sacred responsibilities is to make sure my kids get the best education that I can help them get within the bounds of the systems we live in... and with Robyn that started when we knew that she was going to be living with us...  Wayne and I made our third major move in our marriage for a variety of reasons just before Robyn came to live with us, so school district became an important factor in our home search.  We settled on a sweet little house near Sheppard Public School in Kitchener, Ontario... the school had great options for us once she got older, a neighbourhood feel and a great reputation... and boy was that a great decision... Robyn sailed through Junior Kindergarten (4K for my american friends) with the right balance of success and challenge and our next major education decision came mid way through her Senior Kindergarten year... French Immersion or regular stream 1st grade... Our school district had a fabulous program opportunity for kids to take a half day in French and a half day in English...but it meant that Robyn would have to take math and science is a relatively unknown to her language... so we signed up and waited to see if there were enough kids signed up to run the program... and were disappointed to find out we were four kids short about a week before the deadline... so my first real fight for Robyn's education began... I wasn't taking on the school board, but the other parents in the kindergarten program... to convince them to try French immersion for their child...
One of the people that I approached was the mom of my daughter's best friend K - she hadn't really considered FI as an option and was dealing with several issues related to K not wanting to go to school... so I appealed to her in the only way I knew... I asked her what doors she opened by not pursuing FI for K and what doors she closed...
First grade is a scary time to be deciding your child's academic career path, so in the end I was able to convince her to give it a try (and we found 3 other families who came on board) by asking her to try it for a year...
Well, it turned out to be a great decision for both of us, although Robyn was only able to complete one year of FI before moving to the US, K found a challenge in the FI program and is now working towards being fluently bilingual and still taking half of all her programs in french in 6th grade....
Our next education decision came when my husband Wayne was ready to move from Kitchener after finishing his PhD at Laurier... there were two offers on the table - a post-doctoral research job in Hong Kong or a tenure-track teaching position in Southwestern Pennsylvania... the post-doc would be 2 years in a foreign country with the educational challenges that came with that... and Southwestern PA would be fraught with inherent challenges - no neighbourhood schools, a very rural environment and a very economically depressed area... check back tomorrow to see how this decision played out!

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H.

My bookends...

I was writing an introduction to my blog on another site the other day and came to the realization that my children really are bookends to the same puzzle... Robyn, my 11 year old is the daughter of my heart, who came to live with us at age 3 and is an exceptional child in many ways.  She excels at academics, loves math and science, but is socially awkward and as she heads into the murky waters of puberty is an emotional ball of goo on the best of days...  She's so much like my husband and his sister (her mom, who passed away 9 years ago of cancer) in so many ways, but her one 'unique' twist is that she is very rules oriented... and thinks that everyone should follow the rules.  She loves books, animals and lately vampires...my fault for unleashing the Twilight series into the house, but what can you do... She has a wicked sense of humour and even more like the rest of us, a keen need to be sarcastic...
My son on the other end of the shelf is an adorable, mischievous monkey who climbs on the furniture, jumps off the back of the couch and wants to spend his days swinging and sliding...if you've followed this blog, you know he has autism and doesn't speak regularly, although we've made leaps and bounds progress in the last few months... He's law and order, to a point... he follows the rules and then pushes the envelope to see just how far he can go... when he's running ahead of you and you call him to stop, he stops, turns around... grins... and then takes off... until you call stop again... or you call him back to you to start the whole game over again... When you tell him to stop jumping off the back of the couch, he goes over to the big arm chair and climbs on that...  he may not be able to communicate with words, but darn he has the say it with actions thing down pat...  now that doesn't mean he doesn't want you to follow his rules... the trains, cars and toys must be lined up in his order.
I've been fighting the school system a long time for my daughter - to make sure she gets challenged enough, to make sure that her school work is balanced... and now I am starting to navigate the same system with my son whose IEP is at the opposite end of the educational spectrum, but the fights are the same.... and what I'm learning is to shake the dust off, skim read all the books between the bookends and then pick the ones that are most important and fight to keep them on our shelves...

Calling an expert who...

doesn't know as much as you is like trying to ask Liam what he wants... Having made the choice to go gluten-free for Liam, I am reading the labels on everything twice as stringently as I did before and I jump for joy when I find something I think is going to work for Liam's diet that he might actually like!  But, since I'm no expert in the ways of everything gluten, I try to double and triple check with experts before letting it pass his lips...

Fast forward to the other day when I had a rare opportunity to go grocery shopping without help-- and with enough time to take a section of the Publix to read all the labels and note any likely suspects to add to Liam's diet without buying 'uber-expensive, specialty foods' made specifically for my poor deprived gluten free kid... cause if you've read my other blog, you know I hate paying too much for groceries, and there just aren't that many good coupons for specialty foods because they have a smaller market share than everything else... (rant for another time)

I chose the cereal aisle, since I already knew that most cereals would be rejected and that we'd found Chex in multiple flavours that is gluten free (and Publix and Bi-Lo had great sales with coupon matches so I have a stockpile) and cereal was one of Liam's favourite munchie snack...

So in boxed cereals, everything but Chex has been rejected - even Rice Krispies is full of Wheat... but whatever... so on to Granola... and I found a promising box of Nature Valley bars... no wheat, some soy, some oatmeal, but no 'glutenous grains'... and some of the flavours have protein, which is tough to get into my little vegetarian... but being the overly cautious mom, I phone the General Mills hotline and ask them to check if I'm correct and the product is gluten free...  and it went down hill from there.  It has oats in it and oatmeal has gluten doesn't it?  No, oh - I didn't know that... oh yeah, soy - that has gluten... oh no?  I though it did and so on.  I would love to hear from anyone else who is doing the gluten free thing and is further along than me, to take a look at the ingredients and let me know if I'm right in thinking it might be a good possibility for my gluten free kid, since the staff at GM can't help me.

***Although its' a moot point right now, since his sister offered him a piece of hers after dinner today and he soundly rejected it out of hand... oh well - back to the grocery store (and the drawing board)

H.

Managing the Gluten free diet with Liam

In a way we are lucky - Liam only regularly eats about 10 - 15 foods regularly and he is fearful of trying new things so its a fight to get him to try anything... but that works in our favor when trying to keep an eye on his diet.  He won't take food from anyone other than us, his babysitter and his teacher.  It needs to look a certain way, and usually be in a certain container, so we know that he's not getting food he shouldn't.

But he's a child of routine and the biggest one is that he won't grocery shop without a cookie.. and he needs to think its from the bakery at Publix or the bin at Harris Teeter.. so we now carry a cookie with us, drive the cart (the race car one of course) through the bakery section and whip out a gluten free cookie and carry on our way... again, not a big deal, but when you forget.... wow!

The one thing my sweet little guy has is a fabulous memory - if we turn onto the wrong street or drive by someplace he thinks he should be, or worse drive to his school when its not time for class... he lets us know... He knows to start pitching a fit when we turn off Bees Ferry onto the side street before Walmart, cause he hates the big W, he knows if we're going to pick up daddy and there is too much traffic on bridge A and I detour to the other bridge, and he KNOWS when he should be getting his cookie at Publix and WHERE...

At our Publix, the Gluten Free section is on the complete other side of the store from the bakery and that's not a problem 90% of the time, but when we forgot the cookie and he pitched the fit, we had to go that way... the wails got louder and louder... we got there and I broke the 2nd commandment of shopping - don't open packages... and tried to hand him the coveted cookie...

He pushed it away, screamed louder and threw himself to the floor of the cart.  I took advantage of the lack of sight, drove the cart back to the bakery and handed him the same cookie... and silence reigned...

Routine is crucial to kids with autism... and now I know just how crucial it is at Publix

A new year, a new experience...

Over the past few days, Liam has become much more talkative and reactive... he held my gaze for upwards of 30 seconds today, which for him is very new... but all of this has come with a new quirk that I'm still working at understanding without cracking up... my son has a foot/shoe/sock fetish... He has never cared much for socks and shoes, usually preferring (like me) to go barefoot in the house, put sandals on in the summer and reluctantly put socks and shoes on in the winter... but lately he's learned to put his own shoes on and every time I turn around after removing them because he likes to climb on the furniture & people (a blog topic for a later date, I'm sure), he's got them back on... and worse yet he SCREAMS when I try to take his socks off... but what's worse for a barefooter like me... he's following me around with my shoes and putting them on my feet ... even when I'm lying in bed.  He's very gentle but insistent... and he gets them on the right feet about 1/2 the time... but darn it - I hate shoes at the best of times... and worse, he tickles :)

(Liam wearing dad's shoes)

You take the good with the bad, but man am I hoping beyond hope that this is a short term fetish... I don't think I want to become a 24 hour shoe wearer...