"Huh-cane"

Yeah, no one from Discovery is banging on my door for my underwater photography. Believe it or not these were actually the best of the goofy shots. We don't have a waterproof camera but my brother gave me the idea of sticking my old digital camera in a clear Ziplock bag to get pics of Dana underwater. We were bored. It was fun.

The weather's starting to get too cool for the pool. It was up to 82 today. Hoping it'll be warm enough tomorrow to get it up to 86 or so with the solar heater and the kids can sneak in another dip or two before we take it down.

The past couple of days, we've been seeing Alex's expressive language come back. He's stringing multiple words together and all of that completely without prompting. The problem though seems to be he's saying it so fast (and some of his articulation is still garbled) that I can't make out what he's saying. He's actually had to repeat himself once or twice before I get it. Most of the time though you can understand what he's saying.

Like I was in the kitchen talking to Daddy the other day and Alex comes in, "Cookies, pease... cookies (stands there looking at me)... I said I want cookies, pease." I got him a few of his Kinnitoos "oreo" cookies and he took my hand. "Huh-cane DVD!"

"What?"

"I want huh-cane DVD." We have a DVD of a Nova special on hurricanes that had been sitting on the shelf for some time. He went through a "hurricane" phase when we lived in NY when he was 4 so I got him this DVD back then. Do you realize that from space a hurricane looks like a big flushing toilet? Then there's footage of lots of wind, lots of trees blowing in the wind, flooding and rough ocean surf... how could he not love it? We hadn't watched it in a long while. He's never even said the word "hurricane" so it took me a few seconds to make it out. Usually he just wants help setting it up then he wants to be left alone to watch (and rewind and fast forward over and over again to all his favorite scenes) but he grabbed my arm this time.

"Stay. Sit. Stay."

So, Mommy-and-Alex-time, curled up on the couch to be potatoes and watch Gilbert wreck havoc in the Gulf in '88.

"Cut hair!"

"Good morning. Shear Fun."

"You guys are used to children screaming, right?"

The woman on the other line laughed and assured me, yes, her hair salon (that caters specifically to kids) had seen the worst of the worst.

I'd been avoiding it for weeks. Alex was in dire need of a haircut. So finally sucked it up last Saturday, dragged his father along insisting that we would need another pair of hands to help hold Alex down, and went to a kid's cut place in Monroe where I hoped the woman who cut his hair about two years back had either left or forgotten about him by now and, vice versa, Alex had forgotten the place himself.

We went in, saw the "barber's seats" that looked like those kid-rides you stick 50 cents in and they wiggle, rock, whatever for 2 minutes. Kids normally love them. Alex got this panicked look on his face. Oops.

"How do you want it?" the woman asked.

"Short. Fast."

10 minutes of buzzing, snipping punctuated protests and the picture here was the result. I swear it is a huge improvement compared to what it looked like when I tried to cut it myself a few days earlier. The alternative was a buzz cut which was vetoed by grandparents on both sides of our family.

During the cut, the owner was telling me that they do get a lot of autistic children. And in fact, there is an assisted living community not far away and they do the hair for many of the people from there.

And Alex emerged none the worse for wear. That evening, after his bath, he saw himself in the mirror as I got his pajamas on. He tried smoothing down what was left of his locks (sticking up all over the place) and started laughing hysterically at his reflection. I guess he likes it!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year...!"

Anyone remember that Staples commercial where a dad is gleefully flying around the store, filling his shopping cart with school supplies while his two children look on sullenly?

Dana and Alex are, however, happy to be back in school. The kids went back on their buses for the first day of school yesterday. Alex actually giddy with excitement as he climbed aboard (the pic here is where he's getting off the bus to come home... notice the comparative lack of enthusiasm).

It was wonderful to see his driver and aide are once again Cheryl and Patricia. The special ed kids have to be on a bus (short bus) with an aide and they're not allowed on or off by themselves since either they can't (wheelchair) or, like Alex, there's the possibility of them running into the street (which he did try once but I grabbed him in time). And there are frequently drivers on our stretch of road who do not stop for a stopped school bus (lights flashing, stop sign out, etc.) and will even go around the bus to pass. #@!$%! Note we are also in a 25mph school zone (which no one pays attention to either). Other houses along the route have filed complaints but the police won't do anything (though one officer openly admitted they know "it's a bad area") and will probably wait 'till a kid gets killed before something is done.

Dana's driver this year is Michael. She was hoping it would be Dirk, who likes to make origami animals and things for the kids, but I'm just happy it isn't last year's driver, Elizabeth Ann, who was downright nasty, seemed to ignore the schedule and come and go when she felt like it. It pissed me and a bunch of parents along the route enough that we took the kids off the bus and just drove them to school ourselves.

Ok, ok. Other parents have to worry about school shootings, gangs, etc. All we Redding moms have to complain about are the bus drivers.

Rant over.

School's in session and I have (I hope) more free time! Yayeee!

Cannonball

Ok, so, this isn't a picture of Dana doing her cannon ball into the pool at the Mystic River Yacht Club but I couldn't get a decent shot of that. This was Friday after her last watercolor class and before our heading back home. The pool was too cold for Alex to do more than step into it up to his ankles but he was content to play with the water shooting out of the spigot.

Ahoy!

I thought it had rained much of the time we were in Mystic but actually the weather had been nice enough that the kids did get to be on and in the water a good portion of it. Thursday, off they went again with grandma and grandpa. And, yes, no one fell off the boat.

Meanwhile I got to sneak off to browse the shops on Main Street... I was good... 'just bought two books from Bank Square. One was Perfume by Patrick Suskind (the movie also already out on DVD... I wanted to read the book before watching the movie but from what I hear both are pretty amazing) and the other, The Priest's Madonna by Amy Hassinger (a fictional story revolving around the priest from Rennes-le-Château who supposedly found out the whole secret behind Mary Magdalene). Yes, ala DaVinci code for those who just can't get enough of the whole Dan Brown phenomenon. I actually did have my fill of the DaVinci code thing but the few pages I skimmed over seemed well written and it's supposed to be told through the eyes of the priest's housekeeper and *gasp* lover. Well, color me happy, I needed some fluffy reading.

Dana's watercolor paintings

These are my favorites out of Dana's work. Flowers, dragonflies and... some kind of branch with leaves. Eva said she had shown the kids a technique for loading the brush with two colors (you can do three or more actually). I wanted to stick around to watch but they kicked the parents out once the class started.

Drat.


Deeply intrigued by seeing how quick, simple brush strokes can create something exquisite. It's very different from my style, which is heavy on line and detail (though I'm sure there are artists who work with the medium who have very detailed paintings). For now, I want to explore this more minimalist approach to art. I ordered two books on Chinese watercolor painting from Amazon.com (one by Lian Quan Zhen and one by Jane Dwight) and can't wait to give it a shot.

Catching up... Watercolor Wednesday

I know, I know. I'm way behind, but just haven't gotten a chance to be on the computer long enough to put anything up.

Our week with the grandparents also included art classes at the Mystic Art Association. She took a class on Chinese Watercolors with the artist Eva Leong. Featured here is a piece by Eva (not by Dana, but give her time :)) with 3 goldfish. Dana came home with a number of works on rice paper that will absolutely be framed and put up around the house and some put on the blog soon as I find my bloody scanner.

Eva made me smile when she talked about where she was going with her artwork and where she wanted to take it. I don't mean galleries (though that helps a lot I'm sure) but in terms of artistic vision. She said she had been working on a series of oils where, upon simply looking at the painting, the viewer would hear the music behind the piece. Now she's working on a series based on scent... the viewer smelling as well as seeing the artwork. You know, make synaesthesia more accessible to normal people without needing to turn to hallucinogenic drugs or rewiring brain circuitry.