lollardfish

Article on my AHA panel.

Nico turned three today and celebrated by heading to his first day at school. At three, children with special needs leave the "early intervention" program and head into "early childhood" special ed. Leaving our therapists has been hard, as some have been with us for two years, but it's definitely time to switch from one-on-one in the home to 3-on-6 in a classroom. So off we go!

It's great. Nico is definitely past the phase where he needs to have a parent at all times - in fact, we really get in the way. It's a big room with six kids, although rarely are they all in the room at the same time, as they get pulled out for therapy with some frequency. The day moves through a schedule (with pictograms) from work to play to work. Table time, individual work, group work, play with toys, music, and so forth. Nico took to it and to the other children in a fashion that would have seemed amazing a few months ago (when he was so shy). He listened ... pretty well ... to the teachers, and will soon adapt to the norms of their room.

When he came home, he once more devoured chicken nuggets (this is after a two month hiatus, which followed after a six-month hiatus), then fought his way to a well-deserved nap.

It's a good birthday.

Later, there was a cupcake. Pictures later.

It's been a long time since I wrote any kind of update on Nico. Certainly this summer, when he learned to walk, we went through a huge gamut of emotions, but were too exhausted dealing with the new baby, moving apartments, and wrangling a suddenly more mobile son, to do any real writing about it.

Right now, I feel about Nico's communication about like I did about his walking a year ago. ( Read more... )

Fresh batch of family pictures, starting on the bottom of this page.

I really like my kids.

Can anyone more knowledgeable than I point out any examples of the Vilification Tennis show doing productive social satire - that is, making fun of something in order to demonstrate its impropriety or nonsensical nature?

I'm seeing excuses that I shouldn't be offended at their upcoming show because it's productive social satire.

I think it's just an excuse and the show isn't about satire, it's about getting laughs by being as mean as possible. They are really good at it. They get a lot of laughs. I think they're kidding themselves about the satire, but I'm not that familiar with their shows.

Still working on this Vill Tennis thing, please skip if you're bored. The stakes, for me, go beyond the current issue. I didn't handle this one well, but someday my son will be old enough to know what's going on. Now he's just the reason, but at least he's unaware. Once he's older, I won't have the luxury of letting my emotions win.

Also, my wife is better at explaining this than me. I didn't want this comment buried.

( More thoughts. )

I do love my little lion.

New one-hand holding method. It's another step, no pun intended.

Nico wandered out of his room post-bath and discovered the baby, followed by a rousing game of "Who's a moose!"

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More pictures here.

Nico, grandma, and grandpa came to visit Lizzie (the current preferred nickname, along with my personal favorite, schmoopy) Friday in the afternoon, then we brought her home yesterday morning around mid-day. Nico is handling it well, though exhibits some signs of stress when too close to the baby. The hospital visit was fine - he snuggled with his mom for a few minutes, looked at the baby, then played with the tissue paper that came with Lizzie's godmother's gifts. Good times.

Coming home seemed more stressful, though partly it was right at mid-day and naptime for the boy. So he slept, long and hard (longer than usual). When he woke, he was a bit reluctant to leave his crib, and spent a full half an hour just laying snuggled on me on the couch, looking at mama and the new baby. I think it was a vital processing period. We're trying to alternate time around the baby and time spent with various parents in isolation.

Our first night home was fine for me, in that I can't feed Lizzie yet, so I rocked her when fussy but had to give her to mama when she was hungry. I'll get up with Nico each morning, though, and hope mama and the babe can snooze.

Pictures follow the cut. More new ones here.

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