Anakin demanding attention

'Almost looks like a stuffed animal, doesn't he? Being a lap cat isn't enough for Ani... he wants your undivided attention. Thus this picture of him plopping himself down on my keyboard because my fingers were on the keys instead of giving him a tummy rub. He seems to want to be where people are and in the middle of all the activity. And Ani will sit contentedly next to Dana while she plays or reads. He's even trying to schmooze up to Alex. More like a dog than a cat really. Not many cats answer and come when you call them.

Today we got him a baby blue collar and an ID tag. He must have never worn a collar before because he kept trying to get at it (and the little blue bell) and was flopping all over his furry self in the process.

The other night I was trying to read while I waited for the kids to fall asleep and Ani kept pawing at the book. Finally giving up on getting any reading done I ran my fingers along the pages to make them flip and fan his whiskers... and he found this absolutely fascinating. Over and over again. One would think he was autistic. I put the book down to see what he would do. He looked at me and pawed at my hand, pushing it towards the book. Ok, more page flipping! After three more times, I put the book down again and sat up and away from it. Ani looked at the book, put his paw on the cover and looked up... then began waving at me! He's a clever little thing!

"Say hello to my little friend!"

We got him last night from a lady in Bethel who had a whole bunch of kittens up for adoption. He got his coloring from his manx daddy and his fur from his persian mommy (though no where near as fluffy as she is) and will be 4 months old come Sept. 27. He's big for a 4 month old kitten. He'll be one hefty fluff ball when he grows up. Of course, Dana had to pick the one poofy kitty (the rest were short haired) out of the bunch.

Dana named him Anakin ("Ani" for short). She's a big Star Wars fan and can watch the movies over and over again without tiring of them. He's actually already starting to respond to the name. Initially she wanted "Luke" but Alex can't pronounce that. It comes out sounding like "Yuck."

I had my misgivings looking at all that fur.

All that light colored fur.

I might as well throw out all my dark colored clothes.

We've invested in some serious brushes for daily grooming, special kitty shampoo for baths once a month or two. Fortunately he seems as interested in the bath and water as persians are known to be so this shouldn't be too bad *knock on wood*. His fur will look better when I do more brushing. The woman said if we groom daily then it should be under control. She should know... the mommy is a persian... the very definition of fluffy. And he loves being brushed... all that fur is so soft!

Dana did pick the best out of the litter. Ani's very sweet and mellow for a kitten like a true persian. His other brothers and sisters were very skittish (except one lovely medium haired black kitten but the woman's daughter was keeping her... drat!) and he was really the only one who didn't mind being picked up and carted around. And like his manx daddy, he seemed/seems more drawn to people than playthings. He "talks" back! :)

After the whole Nicky disappearance thing, Ani will absolutely be a strictly indoor pet.

Alex watched me bring him in. "CAT!!! CAT!!!" He immediately followed and, when Ani settled down, pet his head and touched his ears. Then proceeded to startle Ani with his excitement. Thus Ani's a little freaked by Alex at the moment. Just give it a little time. Nicky had the same reaction at first.

And Dana loooooves him.

Sunday Birthday party!

Happy Birthday Alexis and Adam! Dana and I had a great time at the Gonzalez enclave on Sunday while Daddy and Alex had some father-son bonding time.

We got to meet my bff's (heehee) family from Norwalk and I have graduated from "the Oobi Woman" to "Ate Mary." Yes, Gladys, I am determined to have your family over for a bbq. Your mom made me crave palabok and lechon with all the trimmings. First person to say anything to their cardiologist gets a noogie.

P.S. I have not forgotten that your Uncle Monty promised a charcoal drawing workshop for us.

P.S.S. I didn't get to see/hear you play the guitar!

Pucker up!

Give us a kiss, my Preciiouuuusssss. Daddy caught this toad the other night as it was hopping around just outside the kitchen door.

Isn't he cute? Dana's "Princey" has returned. We let him go (sans smootch thank you very much) in the morning once we realized crickets we'd thrown in were not being consumed and we didn't want him to starve.

Knock it off

Dana was making a wooden letter "J" dance on Alex's head. As you can see from the way he's looking at her, he was not amused. I'm happy to see it. It's not the blank stare that indicated he was receiving transmissions from the mother ship. It's a very expressive "What the heck are you doing?" I can always count on her to pester him 'till she gets a reaction. *hive fives Dana* "What, honey? You want the Star Wars Geonosis Battle Pack with the blue twilek Jedi and a super battle droid? Sure!"

He wanted to stand on the rock wall near the mailbox yesterday. Hugged the tree there, of course ("Hi, how are ya?"), and just stood there looking around.

"Alex, do you want to go the park?"

"No."

"Do you want to go in the car to the store with Mommy?"

"No."

"How about the playground?"

"No."

"What do you want to do?"

He pointed to the street. "Watch cars." Two words he'd never used together before (actually... he's never said the word "watch.")

There's a few lines in Patrick Suskind's book Perfume (the movie now out on DVD) that struck me as a good way of describing what seems to be going on in Alex's head when these words suddenly come out of his mouth.

"One day as he sat on a cord of beechwood logs snapping and cracking in the March sun, he first uttered the word 'wood.' He had seen wood a hundred times before, he had heard the word a hundred times before. He understood it, too, for he had often been sent to fetch wood in winter. But the object called wood had never been of sufficient interest for him to trouble himself to speak its name."

Sorry, Boo Sweetie. In this house, spoken language is not optional.

Raven's Progressive Matrices

The list serve for Autism Link sent out an email weeks back on a Newsweek article by Sharon Begley titled "The Puzzle of Hidden Ability." It was about the "unfairness"of using the standard I.Q. test for disabled people like autistics to measure intelligence since the test is highly verbal and requires a kind of social reciprocity... and autistics have serious issues with both (otherwise they wouldn't be autistic, hmm?). "Testing autistic kids' intelligence in a way that requires them to engage with a stranger 'is like giving a blind person an intelligence test that requires him to process visual information,' says Michelle Dawson of Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital in Montreal."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20226463/site/newsweek/

And I can see their point. There are amazing little things these kids will do that seem to come out of nowhere. From the beginning of his therapies when he was 3-4 years old, Alex showed skills that neurotypical children his age did not have. Some things, actually, that even most adults couldn't do. Like being able to keep some 12-15 plastic eggs all spinning on their pointy ends at the same time for 30 minutes.

I didn't say it would be "useful."

I'd like to note that the part of Alex's diagnosis "mental retardation unspecified" was so because he was, at the time, completely untestable. His teachers who see/run his school work and ABA programs insist he is not MR. That, actually, there are moments when he's just too clever. Lull them into comfortable complacency then wham! The little stinker likes to keep them on their toes (especially whenever there's a new therapist on board). But they tell me one of his strengths is patterns.

In comes the Newsweek article and the I.Q. test known as Raven's Progressive Matrices. Raven's measures the two main components of general intelligence: eductive ability (the ability to think clearly and make sense of complexity) and reproductive ability (the ability to store and reproduce information). "The Wechsler (standard I.Q.) measures 'crystallized intelligence'—what you've learned. The Raven's measures 'fluid intelligence'—the ability to learn, process information, ignore distractions, solve problems and reason—and so is arguably a truer measure of intelligence, says psychologist Steven Stemler of Wesleyan University." Participants have to identify the missing segment required to complete a larger pattern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven's_Progressive_Matrices

Alex has not taken it but I will see if the school district has the version for children (there are several) available. The point isn't that I'm grasping at straws, hoping that he isn't really MR. Actually I find it easier to tell people Alex is MR when he acts up in public (less and less so thank goodness) because they can understand "mentally retarded" and I don't get the "Can't you control your child?" comments. But it helps me (and I need reminding some days!) and others to understand that he does have intelligence, potential and, more, to take the time to find out exactly what his strengths are and build on them. In the darkest moments, it's Hope.

Now I never wanted to take the I.Q. test myself in case it popped my delusional but happy bubble of competency and brought to the world's attention my raging stupidity. But, I did take a few minutes to take a sample test that mimics Raven's...

http://iqtest.dk/main.swf

P.S. If you're curious... I scored a 115