![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Dec. 11th, 2011 07:27 pmYesterday I took Annie with me to class. Everyone assumed she was like 17, including the 16 year old there for dual enrollment. She sat behind me and continued with the book she's writing while I took my final, and then I took her and her duffle bag up to Cybele's where she staying for 4 days. She, Adrian and Sophia want to get their Future City project ready for submission later this month. I was like, did you remember your iPod and book (because she needs them when she can't sleep and everyone else is out)? And your deodorant (because she has serious BO now and doesn't always remember)? And x, y and z? She said, "I even accounted for the crazy weather Mom, I have a bathingsuit and a sweater." They're going to see the toned down, PG-13 live showing of Avenue Q on Tuesday, before meeting us at TLC.
As I left, her and Adrian were walking off down the street after their family dog that always escapes. Adrian is now taller than me, and she's like an inch shy of my height. And totally at ease, talking and laughing and gesturing.
Grant gave blood for the first time last weekend. I think about giving blood a lot because I received a life saving transfusion in 2007. I figure I should wait until Elise is weaned and make sure it's nowhere near my already-dangerous periods if I do. Apparently I'm also prohibited because I got a piercing in the past year, AND because of said transfusion. The guy said if I had a rare blood type they sometimes overlook transfusions due to need, but I'm AB+.
I don't get this. I really don't. 1. They test the damned blood. 2. There is a blood shortage. 3. The dude even told me they give HIV+ blood to HIV+ people, so there is a need for all blood. I mean...(re: the questionnaire) NO GAY MEN CAN EVER GIVE BLOOD?!?! I am straight up horrified by this. No pun intended :p Truly what is that even about? How can that stand? This is not 1985. I mean, why can women who have had sex with men who have been who knows where give blood, but not men? Peoples lives are at stake, here. This is gross. As a person who would have died without donated blood, it's just gross.
I was thinking about Ananda's various dyslexic "breakthroughs". Based on my reading and my observation of her, I think she is pretty severely dyslexic. She had the speech delays, the stuttering, selective mutism with trauma - words have just not naturally been a part of her thought process at all. And her extreme intelligence and artistic abilities - I think she's traditionally moved things around, mentally, for understanding A LOT. But there have been all these sudden, relatively spontaneous breakthroughs. When she could suddenly read (WELL) at 8. About a year and a half ago she quit writing numerals backwards, which was huge. About 6 months later, place values stopped being hard for her (that had seemed insurmountable for awhile!). For the past 6 months, she doesn't hate writing anymore. She writes A LOT - her creative writing assignments but also secret diary entries and stories she writes for herself and this book she's doing. It's crazy to behold...she writes with a very impressive vocabulary, clever phrasing, good ideas, and NO SPELLING ABILITY WHATSOEVER. A sample:
"She had ben wighting for a fish to come clos enof to cech for awal." (she had been waiting for a fish to come close enough to catch for awhile)
I don't do any correcting of her creative or independent writing (she does have grammar assignments that get corrected, and she understands that her spelling is crazy). I'm just astounded that she's doing it voluntarily. Sometimes pages and pages in a day. It's ridiculous when she's texting - "How do you spell 'was'? 'Will'? What about 'later'?" From the girl who's burned through The Hunger Games at about a book per day.
I feel very, very good about choosing to homeschool her and how she's doing.
Gloria and LJ came by last night. We threw together a pretty fucking awesome impromptu dinner for company - Grant tenderized and marinated skirt steak and chopped a giant bowl of pico de gallo while the grill heated up. He made a REALLY GOOD pitcher of sangria* for the grownups and I made a big jug of Arnold Palmer** for the kids.
I don't know if it's previously come out (haha...ha...ha) but Gloria is a lesbian and Lj is a born female who identifies as a male but doesn't like the trans label (I'm sorry if I totally blew that, Lj...). Anyway I'm mentioning it here because I responded to a freecycle ad for free books and when I went to get them there were, in addition to mysteries and classics and self help, DOZENS UPON DOZENS of gay/trans/genre erotica collections. Bags and bags of, like, "bears" and biker boys and, uh, I honestly didn't know steampunk porn existed? What? So yeah we passed on quite a lot of that :p
Today, I covered some posterboard in black felt I had lying around from a bee costume of some Halloween past (along with yellow for a star), and then cut out a Christmas tree from some green felt I bought for a caterpillar costume, and a bunch of ornaments from red that contributed to a ladybug. Now we have a big Christmas tree feltboard the kids can decorate :) Aaron came up with the idea to paint white stripes on red candy canes and I sewed some little black hooks onto the ball ornaments.
I've also been working on Annie's quilt top (since she's not here) and made some scones we had tea with outside.
*Almost a full bottle of red wine, with a few glugs of rum, half a small bottle of pomegranate juice, couple of splashes of oj, single serving bottle of Sierra Mist, and slices of lemon and oranges floating about.
**Juice of about 10 huge lemons, to which I added a kettle with 8 cups of hot water, 7 bags worth of steeped english breakfast tea, and almost 2 cups of sugar. Added water and ice til it was almost 2 gallons. Came out super yummy.
These two are months old, but I like them :)
Mostly because of Aaron peaking:
And because this is what happens to Elise most every day she gets home from preschool:
More recently - this is how people around here were dressed last week because it got down into the 70s. I'm not kidding, at all. It was 79 as a high, and no wind.
When I dropped Elise off at in shorts and a tshirt, her teacher (in a sweater, in the heated stuffy classroom) said "You guys must be snowbirds!!"
In the blood mobile.
He hates having his picture taken, lately.
So making this for Christmas.
Snuck and took this.
The guitars have been out a lot more lately. Ananda can suddenly read tab? And her and Aaron both want banjos, and they have jam sessions and play Nirvana songs they learned from Rock Band.
Terrible picture of Cybele, but her SHIRT!!
The seemingly brainless cat Elise's tortures daily, and Aaron's highlighter yellow cast.
After tea a few days ago, Elise fell asleep on Ananda's lap, out on the deck. Awhile later I came in for something, and then went back out to see if Annie needed help with her. They were gone. I found them in the library - Annie just carried her in and let her keep sleeping ♥
As I left, her and Adrian were walking off down the street after their family dog that always escapes. Adrian is now taller than me, and she's like an inch shy of my height. And totally at ease, talking and laughing and gesturing.
Grant gave blood for the first time last weekend. I think about giving blood a lot because I received a life saving transfusion in 2007. I figure I should wait until Elise is weaned and make sure it's nowhere near my already-dangerous periods if I do. Apparently I'm also prohibited because I got a piercing in the past year, AND because of said transfusion. The guy said if I had a rare blood type they sometimes overlook transfusions due to need, but I'm AB+.
I don't get this. I really don't. 1. They test the damned blood. 2. There is a blood shortage. 3. The dude even told me they give HIV+ blood to HIV+ people, so there is a need for all blood. I mean...(re: the questionnaire) NO GAY MEN CAN EVER GIVE BLOOD?!?! I am straight up horrified by this. No pun intended :p Truly what is that even about? How can that stand? This is not 1985. I mean, why can women who have had sex with men who have been who knows where give blood, but not men? Peoples lives are at stake, here. This is gross. As a person who would have died without donated blood, it's just gross.
I was thinking about Ananda's various dyslexic "breakthroughs". Based on my reading and my observation of her, I think she is pretty severely dyslexic. She had the speech delays, the stuttering, selective mutism with trauma - words have just not naturally been a part of her thought process at all. And her extreme intelligence and artistic abilities - I think she's traditionally moved things around, mentally, for understanding A LOT. But there have been all these sudden, relatively spontaneous breakthroughs. When she could suddenly read (WELL) at 8. About a year and a half ago she quit writing numerals backwards, which was huge. About 6 months later, place values stopped being hard for her (that had seemed insurmountable for awhile!). For the past 6 months, she doesn't hate writing anymore. She writes A LOT - her creative writing assignments but also secret diary entries and stories she writes for herself and this book she's doing. It's crazy to behold...she writes with a very impressive vocabulary, clever phrasing, good ideas, and NO SPELLING ABILITY WHATSOEVER. A sample:
"She had ben wighting for a fish to come clos enof to cech for awal." (she had been waiting for a fish to come close enough to catch for awhile)
I don't do any correcting of her creative or independent writing (she does have grammar assignments that get corrected, and she understands that her spelling is crazy). I'm just astounded that she's doing it voluntarily. Sometimes pages and pages in a day. It's ridiculous when she's texting - "How do you spell 'was'? 'Will'? What about 'later'?" From the girl who's burned through The Hunger Games at about a book per day.
I feel very, very good about choosing to homeschool her and how she's doing.
Gloria and LJ came by last night. We threw together a pretty fucking awesome impromptu dinner for company - Grant tenderized and marinated skirt steak and chopped a giant bowl of pico de gallo while the grill heated up. He made a REALLY GOOD pitcher of sangria* for the grownups and I made a big jug of Arnold Palmer** for the kids.
I don't know if it's previously come out (haha...ha...ha) but Gloria is a lesbian and Lj is a born female who identifies as a male but doesn't like the trans label (I'm sorry if I totally blew that, Lj...). Anyway I'm mentioning it here because I responded to a freecycle ad for free books and when I went to get them there were, in addition to mysteries and classics and self help, DOZENS UPON DOZENS of gay/trans/genre erotica collections. Bags and bags of, like, "bears" and biker boys and, uh, I honestly didn't know steampunk porn existed? What? So yeah we passed on quite a lot of that :p
Today, I covered some posterboard in black felt I had lying around from a bee costume of some Halloween past (along with yellow for a star), and then cut out a Christmas tree from some green felt I bought for a caterpillar costume, and a bunch of ornaments from red that contributed to a ladybug. Now we have a big Christmas tree feltboard the kids can decorate :) Aaron came up with the idea to paint white stripes on red candy canes and I sewed some little black hooks onto the ball ornaments.
I've also been working on Annie's quilt top (since she's not here) and made some scones we had tea with outside.
*Almost a full bottle of red wine, with a few glugs of rum, half a small bottle of pomegranate juice, couple of splashes of oj, single serving bottle of Sierra Mist, and slices of lemon and oranges floating about.
**Juice of about 10 huge lemons, to which I added a kettle with 8 cups of hot water, 7 bags worth of steeped english breakfast tea, and almost 2 cups of sugar. Added water and ice til it was almost 2 gallons. Came out super yummy.
These two are months old, but I like them :)
Mostly because of Aaron peaking:
And because this is what happens to Elise most every day she gets home from preschool:
More recently - this is how people around here were dressed last week because it got down into the 70s. I'm not kidding, at all. It was 79 as a high, and no wind.
When I dropped Elise off at in shorts and a tshirt, her teacher (in a sweater, in the heated stuffy classroom) said "You guys must be snowbirds!!"
In the blood mobile.
He hates having his picture taken, lately.
So making this for Christmas.
Snuck and took this.
The guitars have been out a lot more lately. Ananda can suddenly read tab? And her and Aaron both want banjos, and they have jam sessions and play Nirvana songs they learned from Rock Band.
Terrible picture of Cybele, but her SHIRT!!
The seemingly brainless cat Elise's tortures daily, and Aaron's highlighter yellow cast.
After tea a few days ago, Elise fell asleep on Ananda's lap, out on the deck. Awhile later I came in for something, and then went back out to see if Annie needed help with her. They were gone. I found them in the library - Annie just carried her in and let her keep sleeping ♥
Tags:
