Aug 9
I’ll probably be dropping down to one post per week until the end of September. There are a couple of different reasons for this, but the main one is that I’m trying to finish up my entry for IFComp 2010. There’s a lot of work left to do, and I’m really needing to use as much of my time as possible on this to ensure it’s a top-quality entry this year.
Once that’s been released I’ll try to pick the pace back up again.
If there was one thing that defined him, it was his love for his food. Or your food — the distinction was lost on Marco. When he was young and we’d just brought him into our family after he grew too large to be a show dog any more, he’d scarf down his food so quickly you’d think he’d choke. After he’d bolted his own meal, he’d horn in on his sister’s food, pushing his snout into her bowl and trying to shove her aside until she’d had enough of him and went medieval with snaps and growls and bared teeth.
Even when he started getting older he still had a hearty appetite — Thomas started an exercise program when Marco was 11 that consisted of holding out a piece of dog treat and running circles around the ground floor of our house, Marco scrambling along behind, always straining to reach the morsel.
Last night he wouldn’t eat his dinner, wouldn’t eat a spoon of chunky peanut butter, wouldn’t eat his favorite dog treats.
He loved playing with his sister and with people. We used to play “soccer” — I’d kick a ball around and they’d attack it, with the odd nip at my heels thrown in for good measure. They’re a herding breed, and when the two of them ganged up on me there was almost no way to get the ball past them. It was very clear to me whenever I played with them what a wayward sheep on a Shetland Island moor must feel like.
When we’d play fetch, we’d throw a big rope bone out in the yard and the two dogs would sprint out to it. Aurora was always faster and reliably got to the bone first, but Marco quickly learned that his size could compensate for his laziness, and would grab on to the bone when Aurora started to return and body-check his sister to wrest it away.
In that first year after we got him, when he was still very young, he’d nap in the sunlight on the carpet downstairs by the big glass door and his paws would twitch as he chased rabbits in his dreams. He tried to be a good watchdog, but he was never as protective as Aurora — you never knew who might feed you, you know — and since his breeder was deaf and lived in a suburban neighborhood he’d been de-barked before we got him. Not that it stopped him from trying, but he had a very soft, “Yarf”-sounding bark that would never have scared anyone away.
He’d had problems getting to his feet on slick flooring for a while, but something worse happened to him last night. Around 10:00 he struggled to stand, and mostly couldn’t. His head listed to the side and even when he could get some footing he staggered sideways. He looked confused, and didn’t seem to be able to lay his head down flat. He needed a pillow or a leg to rest his head on in order to get truly comfortable.
He was the gentlest of dogs. There was never any concern about having our kids around him. From Thomas to Katherine to Jonathan, baby to toddler to rambunctious, active child, Marco was always tolerant and affectionate. Even in his waning days, Jonathan would come over and play with his ears (gently, or we’d remove him), and Marco seemed to enjoy it. It was hard to tell for sure. He hadn’t wagged his tail in months.
We knew he was getting sicker, knew his time was short and that we were going to need to make The Decision sooner rather than later. Robin talked to Thomas about it when he really started having problems standing up on the hardwood floor a couple of months ago. She explained that when he got so sick that he wasn’t enjoying life any more and was suffering, that we would talk to the vet. If he agreed, we’d give Marco some medicine that would make him go to sleep peacefully and die without pain. He understood.
But even though he understood, when the time came today he still cried, as we all did. Goodbye, Marco. Goodbye, old friend. We love you.
We’ve had some changes around here lately. A big storm came through a couple of weeks ago and took off another chunk of our tree, so we had to give up and have it removed. It was very sad; that tree was really well-placed and looked great, and the garden looks much poorer for its absence.
Also, it’s time to repaint the house! We got a recommendation for a good crew of painters and they just started work on the house a day or so ago. So far they’re doing great work, and although the paint color Robin and I chose is not wildly different than what we had before, it’s different enough that we like it much better. It’s a warmer beige with more reddish tones than the greenish-leaning one we had before. We’re also going to a dark brown for the door and accents rather than black, and a nice light trim color.
Here are some photos of the havok going on in our yard:
My son Thomas has been voraciously reading the Harry Potter novels. He’s now over halfway through the second one, and asked me the following question at dinner the other night:
Dad, why does Moaning Myrtle hang out in the bathroom?
I responded:
Well, she died in the bathroom, so that’s where she haunts now.
I kind of expected that to be the end of the conversation, but he had a followup:
Dad, did Moaning Myrtle die on the toilet, like Elvis?
Now, Thomas is 9. I’d bet serious money that he has no idea who Elvis Presley is. And he’s 9. Did I mention he’s 9? How did he possibly find out that Elvis died on the toilet?
No, I think she slipped and fell and hit her head. But how did you know that Elvis died on the toilet?
Of course, I’m waiting with bated breath to hear this one. And I guess it makes sense in retrospect:
Anthony [a kid at school] told me!
So now I’m left with trying to envision just how this came up in conversation. Were they discussing Pokemon or their favorite Wii games, and Anthony just happened to bring it up? “Yeah, the penguin suit is really cool, but the fireflower lets you shoot fireballs. Hey! That reminds me! Did you know Elvis died on the toilet?”
I’m just coming up short here.
On our last day of our 4th of July staycation, the whole extended family went out to McDonald’s for breakfast. We chose this for two reasons:
So we ended up at Mickey D’s. We deliberately chose the one nearby that doesn’t have video games, so we wouldn’t have to constantly chase the kids away from them.
When we got there, there was only one other family there. A deaf man was there with two cute little toddler girls. We couldn’t tell whether they were hearing or not; they just signed to communicate with their dad. Over the course of breakfast, several other families arrived as well. Towards the end of the meal, Thomas was walking around with a little Hispanic girl that either couldn’t or didn’t speak, and who looked slightly dysmorphic. She was hugging him with a huge smile on her face, and wanting to hold hands as they went around the play area.
It was fairly obvious that she was special-needs of some sort; after Thomas and the girl played together for longer, her mother came over and told us how wonderful she thought Thomas was, as he was “the only child that was ever nice to her”. Even allowing for a bit of maternal exaggeration, we were extremely proud of Thomas for his kindness and tolerance for being hugged and fussed over, even though it was obviously a bit embarrassing for him.
Shortly before we left, another young boy came in with his parent or caregiver. He was an African-American boy who looked to be about Katherine’s age, and he was also either mostly or completely nonverbal. He bounced a lot and hooted, and was approximating some sign language. He had the hugest grin on his face the whole time; it was obvious that he loved being in the Playplace and was having a great time!
So, counting Katherine for our family, there was exactly one couple there who did not have a special-needs child at the Playplace that morning — Robin’s sister and brother-in-law Polly and Rick.
I think before we had Katherine and learned to understand and deal with her autism I would have been really freaked out with that many special-needs kids around. But given where we’re at and what I’ve learned over the past few years, I just enjoyed the fact that everyone was playing together really nicely and having a great time, whether or not they had any disabilities or differences.
Jun 29
We recently picked up a new toy, pictured at right. When Robin got her new phone, with the built-in flash video camera feature, we found ourselves taking quite a bit more video. It’s very convenient to just pull it out and start filming, and it’s very easy to get the resultant video out into a form where you can do something with it.
Robin has also wanted for some time to do some video therapy for Katherine. She learns very well based on what she sees on video, so Robin wanted to get the therapists and our family on an instructional video they could use to do some of this type of teaching. If we had gone with our original tape-based camera we’d be sunk; it would be very difficult to get the video off the tape, convert it, and get it edited.
Enter the new Handycam. We knew we wanted a flash-based camera (no tapes or mini-DVDs), and since we already had what amounts to a flip camera built into Robin’s phone, we figured we go for something with good optics and image stabilization. We are extremely happy with the new camera. It’s very light, very easy to work with, holds charge for a long time, and takes great-looking video. We’ve probably taken more video in the week we’ve had this camera than we used to take in a year with the old one, and it’s incredibly easy to get at the video.
There’s no way we’d ever go back to a tape-based camera — once you use a camera that stores directly to RAM and links via USB to your computer, you’ll never look back!
Jun 21
We had a pretty good weekend! My mom came down to watch Thomas’s swim meet on Saturday morning, but also got to see his baseball game on Friday night. Thomas got two good hits but never really got the ball in the field.
At the swim meet, he demonstrated improved form in his freestyle, breathing on both sides and getting his arms out of the water, but his kicking is still pretty weak and not propelling him enough. He ended up either fourth or fifth out of six in freestyle.
He was last in backstroke — we definitely need to work on that stroke — but in breaststroke he did great! He was second place in his heat and his form looked great — if he hadn’t kept looking to the side to see how he was doing against his competitors I think he could have won. He also had by far the best breaststroke form in his heat, so he should only get better with time.
The rest of the weekend was fun also, although Katherine had an upset tummy early Sunday that really made her miserable. Fortunately, she had recovered by evening and had a good time swinging out back before bath and bed. Before my mom left, we went to the new Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant up in Shawnee, where the food comes out on overhead tracks to your table. That was pretty fun, and was a nice way to end up the visit.
Below are some movies of Thomas’s swimming. In freestyle, Thomas is second from the right. In breaststroke, Thomas is in the far left lane.
Jun 16
First, I think it pertinent to report that JC Penney Portrait Studio has decided they need to set new standards in the field of photograph security. I had Jonathan’s 6-month pictures taken there in March and got a detailed explanation about not being able to pick up the pictures without the identification page and a driver’s license even if I have the photographed child with me.
Well today I went to the Fort Knox of photography studios to pick up the pictures. You may wonder why I am just now picking up pictures that were taken in March. All I have to say is that is the life of a mom with four kids (Thomas, Jonathan, Katherine & Autism). Anyway, when I arrived today there was no one there and the counter displayed a sign saying they would be back at 3:00. Since it was only 2:00 and it had already taken me 3 months to get myself over there, I was a little unhappy.
Having previous experience with JC Penney Portraits, I knew that if there were someone there they would just find my pictures in a file drawer and hand them to me (after checking all pertinant sources of identification). For a few minutes I stood in the studio archway, there is not even an attempt at a door, observed that no one was disturbed by my presence, and then decided to find the portraits myself. I peeked in a few drawers that were out in the lobby just enough to notice that they did not contain portrait folders. Then I noticed drawers behind the counter labeled “portraits”. I went to the one on the right since our last name starts with “W”, leafed back through the envelopes, found the one labeled “Robin Wigdahl” and took it.
So much for security procedures! If JC Penney is going to make a big deal about providing identification they shouldn’t leave their facilities so wide open! I could have walked off with a whole stack of pictures that didn’t belong to me.
Admittedly, I was a little jumpy about breaking the rules. I am a rules-following type of girl. However I paid for the pictures all the way back in March so I was only taking what already belonged to me. I was careful not to disturb anything else so I feel that I observed the intent of the law if not the letter of the law.
Jun 15
This weekend we had some very heavy rain. While we were running around town, we passed over a bridge on K-10 and saw that the creek below had completely overflowed its banks. We decided to make a little detour and stop in at the Streamway Trails park near Northwood Trails, the neighborhood we used to live in, since the creek passes through there. We suspected it would be high, but what we saw was pretty amazing!
The kids had fun stomping around some of the flooded trails, so we spent about a half-hour there just looking around and playing. Katherine wanted to stay and play on the playground, but it was completely saturated so we decided to pass on that.
We also got some movies off Robin’s new jeejah, which functions as a pretty good speelycaptor. (OK, I’ll quit with the Anathem references…) I’ve uploaded them and linked them below.
Jun 14
Jonathan only moved from belly crawling to hands-and-knees crawling about two weeks ago and now he is pulling up to a full stand on furniture and climbing full flights of stairs. We’re going to need some more baby gates! I’ll need to look back and see how that compares to Thomas & Katherine.
There is at least one thing special about Jonathan and that is his magical ability to spit out medicine no matter how I contrive to give it to him. First we tried moving him to lay on his back so the medicine would immediately flow to the back of his mouth. No dice! He blocked it with his tongue and pushed it right back out. Then we tried sliding it in just a little at a time thinking it would be harder for him to catch and push back with smaller amounts. He could sometimes still make a direct spit and if he couldn’t he would let the meds roll around in the back of his mouth until it mixed with enough saliva to give him a spitable quantity. We tried adding sugar water to make it more palatable. Then, at the recommendation of our pediatrician’s office, we tried mixing it with chocolate syrup. But by the time we got around to making it taste better he was already firmly attached to his no-medicine policy.
Jonathan wants to control his destiny at all turns. He even feels strongly about being able to voice his opinion. Thomas used to slump into a relaxed stupor the second the binky made contact with his mouth. Jonathan likes the binky on his own terms when he is already happy but views it as a gag-order when he is crying. If he is upset, he wants you to know it and is not interested in being pacified by a pacifier. He has two approaches for dealing with an unwanted binky. First he came up with a move Thomas calls the “power spit”. Little J uses his tongue to shoot for distance. Most recently, as he has gained more motor control, he pulls it from his mouth and spikes it on the floor. He really slams it down as though he needed to emphasize his point. Fortunately he is a pretty sweet tempered little man so hearing his opinions is usually pretty pleasant.
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