Just when I thought I could get my little guy back to school, we have a snow day! This is some serious s***! The folks on the weather channel have lost their grip with reality. They are wild-eyed annd caffinated. The snow here fell in thick fat flakes and the wind rattled the windows. Tennisfiend didn't even bother going to work, instead he shoveled snow every four hours since our pissy snow thrower couldn't handle more than a few inches at a time.

Check out this awesome time-lapse taken from our nearby resort town of North Hampton:




Wow! And thanks to cameratown for posting!

Glamorous!

For the first time since i've lived in New Mexico, I've had highlights done! And I am soooo pleased! I've been waiting for the right time to have it done for too long. I was tired of my yucky "from a box" color that turns my hair to straw. I was also tired of my very precise, but stubborn hair dresser, Rob, who gives me the same chunky cut regardless of my preferences. He was surly with me last time I visited and I didn't like the cut or attitude.

So... I went with Shakira at Shaggin Cuts and she gave me a wonderful new look. I should have a pic to post, but I'm too lazy. Anyway, I'm very pleased!

A Day to Ourselves

Whew!

What a relief it was to finally get Tyoma back to school! He was a sweetheart getting ready this morning, as if he too was relieved the long break was over.  Unfortunately, the complaints about  his classmate, Maureen continue and getting him to eat a respectable dinner was a chore.

Tennisfiend took most of the morning by himself--playing guitar and whooshing the vacuum cleaner about. I surfed and organized my zentangle notebook. I am such a collector! Finding new zentangle patterns is such a special treat. I am so grateful to all those who share although I have nothing to return.

Snowman

This is our first snowman since our first winter in Merrimack. Tyoma was actually pretty excited about the whole process and helped assemble the snowman's face. His mouth is a red bell pepper slice and yes, the neckerchief is a JC Penney kitchen towel. A far cry from the blank stare he gave to snowman number one when he was two and a half!



If you look to the right behind T, you can see his little line of snowballs. It's still more fun to line them up rather than throw them!

Snow!

Well, here we go! the first snow day of the season. It's been terribly windy and TF has been struggling in the gusts to keep our driveway clear, primarily so we can get Tyoma out to play tomorrow! The aquarium sickness lingers, but T is recovering nicely.




The cool time lapse is by MPCentauri, not us. It's awesome when folks take the time to make such cool videos!Please note-the wind was crazy! It swept all the snow out of our driveway for us! Our neighbors were not so lucky, most of it drifted in a huge V by their porch.

Aquarium Christmas

Winter break 2009 was miserable. This year, we decided to create a better itinerary to manage a preschooler bored by long days with his middle-aged parents. Last year, boredom (us and him) and sickness (also us and him) was excruciating. This year it will be different.
 
Our first change of course was a little trip Boston to visit the NEAQ. I figured that we would have the aquarium to ourselves since it was so close to Christmas. I took Tyoma out of school a day early so we could spend two nights at the neighboring Marriott. Normally, Long Wharf is beyond our budget but the combination of seasonality and remodeling knocked the price down to slightly affordable. This discount tipped the scale in favor of going to Boston. Why stay at the economical but remote Holiday Inn when my getting lost time would be tripled by bonus Christmas traffic?
 
Our drive was minimally plagued by route recalculations or GPS echolalia, but the cold wind and new experience made Tyoma bawl as the doorman unloaded our luggage. The next hours were a jumble of elevator rides, bossiness, whining and malfunctioning electronics. The portable DVD player could not be hooked up to the TV, which resulted in two service calls, both of which were met with objections and disapproval from Tyoma. (DVD player=familiar programs=less anxiety).
 
T was so unabashedly rude and boisterous that I felt compelled to enlighten the second repairman about Tyoma’s autism. He gave me a weary smile and said, “My daughter has it too. She’s eight now. It gets better over time.” Judging from his serious demeanor and grim survey of Tyoma, the unspoken part our interchange was, “Why did you bring your son here to come unglued?” I guess my unspoken reply was, “Change of scenery, Buddy.”
 
Tyoma eventually settled down after flinging a few DVDs and eating a less than adequate lunch. Soon after, we went to the aquarium and had a blast. Despite the squirming and irritating behavior, he totally “got” the aquarium. He was so excited to see the fish and penguins. Jabbering enthusiastically, he ran up and down the central spiral ramp, chirping, “Hi fishy! Look! They’re swimming!” He was so bright active and joyous; I chocked all his previous fussing up to nerves. Of course, in an hour, there was a bit of trouble--but first:
 
 


This is such a cute picture, but totally shocking in that he REALLY looks like me! Goodness? He was so delighted and happy to see all of the colorful fish.

Five Little Pumpkins

This is the coolest little video from Tyoma's preschool! Acting is in the family blood! My dad was in theater all while in college and well known for his astonishing memory. Dad can recall pages of Shakespeare, including most of the major soliloquies, so yay Aspergers! And, ya something else, too. It turns out that one of Dad's uncles was in Vaudeville. I'll have to check that out sometime. Anyway, T had so much fun doing his little performance, that he "helped" everybody else who flubbed their lines! Too funny!

Board Maker

arrived

Meeting With Dr Bollick

After two months of behavior problems with Tyoma it was time for a meeting with Dr. Bollick. She is an autism/asperger specialist who has published a number of insightful books. Her Asperger Syndrome and young children: Building skills for the real world, sits on my bookshelf and is well read. I like her and respect her. She set aside an hour and a half to talk with me and was tremendously helpful and supportive. Basically, I did a wonderful job despite the circumstances and she explained to me what Tyoma was going through. Essentially Tyoma is going through a period of intense cognitive growth as he learns to socialize and develop friends. She said that there will be intense stress on him until well into February, but that the most stress came from our recent family changes. She also said that she does not advise on an extended Russian family stay simply because it is too stressful on both Tyoma and me. This was sweet music! I won't get into the specific interventions, but she did say, give it time. I feel myself struggling to recover from the whole debacle. It is important to see the past two months from Fontess'a point of view. How excrutiating it must have been to stay here with hardly anyone to talk to. Her grandson can't seem to spend more than ten minutes with her, her daughter in law is stressed and not able to give the companionship she craves, and her own son is working extra hours and is has grown far beyond from his former role of child. I think the hardest part of the whole visit was the lack of internal resourses I had. I have just enough energy to cope with Tyoma and Papa and keep well myself. Although he meant well, constantly trying to convince me that Tyoma was normal, her conversations invariably became heated and stressfukl, draining the life out of me. At which point of his two month long screaming festival did she see "normal?" Sigh.

Field Trip

So, back to the field trip to Currier Farms....

I showed up at Tyoma's school my obligatory 15 minutes early and waited for other mom's to assemble. Fortunately, Roumanian Grandma was there to keep me company. I think that we an unspoken camaraderie since in a way we are outsiders. I am a total spazz, and she is a Roumanian National, far from home. i did mention to her that T has ASD, and she looked so sorry for me. I think she was surprised to hear how well he speaks and how fantastic his memeory was. We all loaded up on a big yellow school bus and sat at the back, the noisyest part.

I was surprised to find that we were going to another school to pick up other kids. As we drove to Mastricola, Tyoma shouted "All aboard!" just like on the Dinosaur Train. The school bus was like a huge lurching boat. it seemed to float rather than drive and it even had the slight sway of a ship on the ocean. Freaky.  If this troubled T, he did not say. He was thrilled about the bus ride and began singing his Dinosaur ABC's






Other folks were listening in on our patter, which was actually quite lighthearted. I noticed Miss Ann with her inscrutable smirk and wondered if Tyoma has been reciting his dinosaur ABCs all week. Nahh, most likely she was thinking "Like Mother, like child."

Our ride was smoggy, boyant and a bit frightening. Our driver would swing a turn on a dime and I felt certain that the whole bus would tip over or at least teeter on two wheels. i literally had to remind myself that she knows what she is doing, but when turned up the rutted and uneven road to the orchard, I felt the jostling shudder to an end as our balance seemed precarious.

We arrived safely and I seemed like the only one felt that the ride was as thrilling as tyoma who was jazzed beyond belief. next stop was a tractor drawn "hay ride." Rickety was not the word for the cart we rode on, over small for the children parents and teachers that crowded onto it acutely aware of the mothers and children hunched up next to me. tyoma felt the same discofort and i tried to block him off some personal space teacher from another school prompted me to move. i was about to speak up and say, no, we need space when i looked to miss jerry who was just as scrunched up with one of tyoma's autistic peers, who was enduring equally cramped conditions without complain. so, i moved. the side rail to my right came disconnceted an a techer held ity on as we took our ride

amazingly able to relax and enjoy the ride poking closeness was distracting. tyoma immediately and loudly complained about the heat, about his jacket and about wanting out. i was mortified. he was the only kid complaining and all i could say was we'll be there in a second honey. "I'm Hooo-ot. I want out! When will we get there? I want ooooo-ut!" I was clueless. I could not think of what to say, really, and the more i thought about not knowing what to say, the less focused i was and able to intereact with tyoma.

Finally we arrived and diembarked from the hayride. Tyoma ran off, which seemed like an excellent idea. I follwed him to a quiet spot while everyone else gathered around the farmer to hear his little spiel. we were the only ones off on our own. i steered t back to overhear the plans, find an apple, pick it and eat it. These trees are okay, these are not. So we found a mishapen fruit dangling from a stunted tree