Kangaroo!!

Kinesiology Exercise Programs for Parent and Child

When James was younger, we were lucky to participate in some great programs at Sonoma State University (SSU): the CATS program, Saturday Sidekicks, and Cycle Without Limits. 

Now the Kinesiology folks, who created the Saturday Sidekicks program, have a couple of new programs: Family Fun Run and At Home Exercises.

Neither James or I are up for running at this point, but paired exercises at home sounded great. I answered the email and we signed up. 

As this is a study in progress, I am going to keep it simple - we did some basic tests at the beginning for basic medical information and (for me) dexterity and mobility exercises. Now, each day at home, James and I together perform a practice and then coordinated exercise at home and take a photo at the end. The exercises are introduced by a video and a video game concept. 

Today's theme: Kangaroos!

Not gonna lie, it was fun. Stay tuned.

ABA, O/T, Meds, and Drink Mixing - How's Your Summer?

James has been triggered by what most people consider every day sounds: dogs barking, vacuums, leaf blowers, hair dryers, edgers, trimmers, young childrens' voices and crying. His behaviours and scripting kept him out of program even before COVID-19 hit this year. Goal: Work on lessening the impact for better social integration.

Practical: We now have our own home instead of being in the apartments at a busy cross street. James has headphones that he can use. I and his support crew are providing more "expected" scriptings he can use to communicate his discomfort and displeasure. We have started meds for anxiety. 

OMG, yes - we have started meds for anxiety! (there is dancing going on, offstage.) ABA, O/T, and his psychiatrist have all ganged up on him with the most positive of support. It's made a huge difference, along with the new meds having a milder taste and smoother emotional ride, so to speak.

Services: 

• ABA has started in person park sessions. They are tough. James brings out his button-pushing, inner toddler worst personae and pairs it with shooting the birds randomly. So, glad not a lot of people loitering about. Kicker? James will wear his mask, more often than not, but then shred his headphones or snack. Gah.

• O/T has started working with James over the video interface. We are working on eating, self-care (hygiene tasks), and relaxation techniques. Big excitement last week: James made a smoothie in a blender. He tasted his creation (the tiniest of tastes, but he did it). And then I got to finish it - it was very good! James tolerated the sound - probably because he got to push buttons and watch the blending speeds change. 

I got so happy, I made blended gin fizzes the following weekend. 

Here's to summer!

Seeing Summer, Together

I am really enjoying traveling the back roads, getting to see the country in summer with James. James is too. Road trips are our quiet time to just be together, getting out of the house and into life, away from getting stuck in our own heads. When I told his O/T about this, he mentioned they were good for James vestibular integration. Best of all, it's not impacted by COVID-19, as we do not get out of the car.

What started it all - going to "see the deer" at Deer Hill South.

We have been dealing with heightened anxiety behaviours at school, in public, and at home for over half a year now. The OCD touching things and incredible time it takes for him to go anywhere (out of his room, down the hall, into the car) have gotten a lot better. We are getting more into a routine of getting him back to doing chores and then doing something he enjoys, like going for a drive.

We make our drives into our own little games. I call it Discovering New Roads. James likes seeing "bonus" animals, such as skunks, possums, and bats for out night drives and quail, white egrets, hawks, cows, and coyotes on our day ones.

My "bonus" sightings are the beautiful countryside and nature:

Discovering New Roads: Sweetwater Springs Road

We live in a beautiful art of the world, where there are also many roads to explore. James and I are having fun expanding our looking for deer (the moms and new fauns are out now - it's adorable!) to discovering where that side road goes that we are usually too busy to explore.

This week, James wrapped up a good week's work and wanted to drive along Westside Road. It's a pretty Sonoma County country road, full of curves, dips, farmyards, vineyards, and old country homes. Scenic and relaxing.

Part of the way there, I caught side of a side turning we'd noticed before. "Want to see where that road goes?" I asked. James said "Sure!", and off we turned, onto Sweetwater Road. 

It curled away from the main road, between the folds of rolling hills, lichen-decorated boulders growing out the ground, shaded by shaggy California Oak trees and wandered past cows grazing impossibly on steep hillsides, ridiculously close (for us city slickers) to the road. 

The car tires thrummed as we crossed one cattle crossing grate after the other. California quail scuttled and fluttered in front of us, crossing the road in the late afternoon sun. I drove slowly and carefully, as the road was narrow and winding, and much patched in places. 

The road crested a hill and dropped us down in a valley, where just like that, we were surrounded with ferns, dense redwoods, shadow, and  running next to a creek, fed by deeply grooved channels in the earth, running down to meet it. It felt like entering Mirkwood, and I told James so.

Unfortunately, we did not have enough daylight to follow the road to its end. We plan to try again this weekend. 

Eureka Trip

For years, James has seen the signs on the freeways that show the miles to Eureka. "What is Eureka? "Where is Eureka?" "Can we go there in 30 minutes?"

Last weekend, after a very tough week, we hopped on 101 and found out, taking in the journey:

Deer mural in downtown Eureka

Two thousand + year-old tree, which fell finally in 2006

James in Eureka

Bears carved from a redwood tree, still attached to the trunk.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we drove through a giant redwood.

Pulling in the side mirrors ...

Inside the tree

Myths and Our World

Homework assignment for James: Come up with your own mythology: 3 sentences, less than 1 piece of paper. I weep.

James has been fascinated with the deer who live in the area around us. He loves to spot deer on rides through our agricultural region. Today we took our first drive along Geyser Road since the fires came through and ravaged our county a little over a month ago. It was very evident that this road served as a major firebreak.

During the hour plus-long drive, all I heard about were the deer. Did we see the deer? What did they do? What do they eat? Did they escape the fires? Do they get hit by cars and die? We did saw the deers, didn't we?

He gave the deers voices and dialog, usually "Oh no, we're on fire!" or "The deer are eating, Mother, hear them? Munch, munch, nom-nom-nom." and "Crash! The car smashed into the mommy deer and the baby deer! Aaaaah!"

We saw one deer dash across the road out of a burn zone, across the road, to the foliage on the other side. We talked about that one darned deer for 37 minutes.

All this came together for the Mythology assignment:

1. The deer had bright colours (like purple and red).
2. They walked into some smoke.
3. The smoke turned their colours into camouflage.

Thank goodness, a productive outcome!

First Passenger Train Ride

James loves trains. He has been on train rides before at Disneyland:

Travel Town:

Little Steamers:

But on the West Coast, there have not been a lot of chances to experience passenger rail. That changed this weekend with the opening of SMART. We took an afternoon trip from the Sonoma County Airport to downtown San Rafael and back. Standing room only, most of the way. Luckily, we arrived early enough and got seats.

What an exciting was to spend a Monday. Here's to more train trips!

Airport Run

"Can we go somewhere?" is a common James question these days.

On early evenings like tonight, this is still our go-to spot:

For those of you at home who answered "Airport" - you win!

Santa Rosa still has a pretty sleepy little airport, despite recent growth. The REACH helicopters continue to be fascinating. The blinking blue and red lights are fun, and when the sun goes down, the colours in the sky and surroundings are magnificent.

We watch the planes take off and wonder where they are going. We wave them goodbye and tell them we hope they have a good trip. It feels like our family airport.

Then we take the back roads for the short trip home.

Food Prep Pep

James has been upping his survival skills by learning to prepare some food for himself: toasting frozen waffles, assembling snacks for his lunch bag, and cooking his chicken nuggets.

This may not sound like much, but small starts are big things with us.

Over the winter break we even made and baked chocolate chip cookies from scratch because a friend with a bad cold sent out a distress call for cookies via social media and we thought "what the heck - why not?"

The cookies were weirdly shaped, but completely delicieux.

From the movie Ratatouille: (Gusteau) "You must be imaginative, strong-hearted. You must try things that may not work, and you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul."

Cooking, autism ... it's your life - go for it!

Way Cold

We had an arctic chaser to our latest Pineapple Express. The watering can, wheel barrow, and assorted pots and jars turned from rainwater collectors to ice machines.

James jumps around excitedly as we bustle about on our morning chores: "Look at the little snow! It's like feathers, Mother!"

Yin-Yang Holidays

It's been a rather black week, in which I had a day that literally sent me home early to go lie down in bed. A week who's motto should be "getting old is not for sissies." Where the bleak things in life had a party at my house, neighbourhood and family alllllll week long. And then followed me to work and popped up at my church.

So it's been an extreme relief to have a few days off, gather with family for a Thanksgiving together, hug my kids, and go see friends.

It was great to watch the next gen of cousins play together. Except for James, they are all now in their teens. Every time they get together, James asks to play hide and go seek, just about the only social game he knows and loves to play. Every time, they say yes, and then for HOURS they have the best time playing. They are so accepting, it is awesome to watch.

This year was no exception. The new twist is that James' cousin is a hide and seek ninja. Over 15 minutes and they could not find him in the house, which is not that big. Three times in a row.

He is good!

Freedom of a Friday Night

We felt like celebrating the release from school for a week. Projects got finished at work. James had finished his homework packets and his school had their Stampede event that morning. He raised enough money to proudly wear his t-shirt. We made sure his good tennis shoes were on for the race. I wrote a note to please excuse him from running the event, asking that he be able to jog/walk it. I probably did not need to write the note, but it made James feel better.

After the afternoon pickup from Boys & Girls Club, which was suffused with a gleeful atmosphere, we enjoyed some time at the public library. James likes the library because he can play computer games and check out movies.

The nights are crisp and cold. We agreed that dinner out on the Town Green would be just the thing. So we walked over to KC's Diner and were seated by the fire pit on the patio. That and the waiter were as good as a floor show for James. He took it all in and sat the entire meal in his chair, which is something new for him.

We checked the Warriors game occasionally on the TV monitor, discussed the merits of ketchup and lettuce, and theorized the construction of the fire pit. Chicken strips, spinach salad and fried were consumed, and we were able to relax from weekday routine. The walk back to the car was cheerful and comfortable. James has been scripting the dining experience from the viewpoint of the waiter. It makes a nice change of pace from Spongebob, fractions, and spelling.