Rainbow, Coronado, Dr. Seuss, Llama & a Geyser

It rained a lot last week.  I had to drive in it a couple of times.  This was the gift for my efforts:

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Monday before last, I took the little boy to Coronado.

We went to our favorite park and then walked along the bay to the Coronado Cupcakery.

The plain white cupcake was just as good as I remember, but our to-die-for selection this time was a chocolately blob of goodness with a cheesecake layer on top.  And chocolate chips mixed in.  Oh my.

You’ll have to get your own.  I’m not sharing.  🙂

The boy had some fun, but he ran out of steam pretty fast.  It was late in the afternoon and he wasn’t really his best.

I tried to climb up the side of an old wooden play structure.   I didn’t make it.  😳  I lost my footing, scraped my palm and came home with a fat black bruise on my shin.  Fun.

It was a cold, clear, and beautiful day.  The bruise was a small price to pay for that view.

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Yesterday, the school held a chalk festival to put some steam behind literacy week.  Each classroom was given an illustration from a Dr. Seuss book and tasked with recreating it on the sidewalk.

The kids all worked really hard and clearly had a great time participating.  Our class did a page from The Cat In The Hat.  The little boy helped to color in Thing 1 and Thing 2.  😀

Oh, and speaking of Dr. Seuss and kids and literacy and all that, the little boy read two books to me this week.  Two!

He read Go Dog Go by P.D. Eastman and Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.  He read them out loud, with very little assistance.

This is huge.  HUGE.

My son doesn’t like to read books to me.  He generally becomes annoyed if I try to read them to him.

This time, he selected the books and he wanted to read.  WANTED.  TO.  READ.

Be still, my book collecting heart.  ♥ 🙂

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This morning, we saw a geyser on the way to school.

Someone drove her minivan over a hydrant.  😦

The water pressure was kind of shocking – forty feet in the air.  You could see the top half of the geyser way above the buildings.

It spewed for over twenty minutes.  All that precious water just flowed into the street.  Sad.  Chaotic.

The traffic was a little dicey at the usually empty intersection.  The little boy didn’t seem to notice the red lights.  Hmmm, maybe I can arrange for a geyser every morning.

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On Monday, I drove Mom and Lou out to Simpsons Nursery.  Lou is a llama whisperer.   He got some great pictures.

Sweet.

BIG.

Charming.

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We also picked up a couple of Yellow Jasmine vines.  They are really fragrant.

Can’t wait to plant them.  😀

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That kind of sums up the last ten days or so…

That, and a bit of marital strife, a couple of tantrums, a tad of depression, a crock pot full of delicious potato soup (thank you, Traci!) and some 80’s music.

Yeah, that about covers it.  😀

What did YOU do this week?

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Just Some Stuff

What a stressful week.  This is my fifth attempt at a post for you, but nothing is coming together in my head.  It’s really scary in there – don’t look.

I’ve decided I just have to write, see what comes, then click “publish” before I think about it too much.

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Our school district took yesterday off in honor of Cesar Chavez.

I didn’t remember this until I drove up to the bus loop and found the parking lot completely deserted.

My son couldn’t have smiled wider when I told him he didn’t have to go to school after all.

Yippee!  I was relieved too.

Things are getting dicey again.  He’s having more tantrums and the aides and teacher seem increasingly weary.

On Monday it took five people to wrangle him back indoors at the end of recess.  Naturally, he had a meltdown in the classroom.

I can’t blame him for wanting a break.  I want one too.

I feel like a broken record when I say that there is no environment that makes me feel less successful than his school does.

That’s really more about me though, not them and certainly not him.

My son is in the right place for the moment.  He likes it.  He learns.  He needs the routine and it’s free.

The problem is, every inch of it makes me uncomfortable.

In the course of advocating for my son over the past three years, I’ve ruffled some feathers.

I know that there are people on the campus who may not like or trust me or approve of the way I handle things.

I’m not blind to my impact on the school’s agenda, but I do what I have to do for my kid and for my own sanity, you know?

I help when I am directly asked, but I never volunteer for things.  I am not part of the PTA and I don’t attend other meetings or events if they are not directly related to my son and his educational goals.

Next week, there will be a brief conference with the teacher.  I am sort of dreading it, but not because it will include any surprises or that it will be something I can’t do.

I am dreading it because I grew up wanting everyone to like me and that’s the first casualty of a life with a special needs kid.

I have to go to these meetings knowing I will make myself unpopular.  I will ask for things they don’t want to give or don’t know how to give.  I will have to push and explain why “no” is not acceptable.  I will ruffle more feathers.

And then for a few weeks, I will have a heightened sense of disconnect with the whole place as I recover from my boldness.

I will be a little paranoid around the other parents, wondering if they know I’m that mom.

I will sit alone as I wait for my kid at the end of each day.

I will try to discern from a two second interaction with the teacher whether or not there is improvement or if she finds me and my son hopeless.

I will bite back the stressful butterflies in my stomach and go forward.  Things will get better with new strategies in place.

And then it will start again.

Yeah, I need a break.

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We went to Coronado today.  I never get tired of that!  Even with big gray clouds overhead, it’s beautiful along the water.

We started at Tidelands Park as usual, played for a while, then walked to Burger King, The Coronado Cupcakery and Coldstone.

The little boy chose a big lemon cupcake with bright yellow frosting, but as usual, he rejected it without a taste for reasons we’ll never know.  😦

Husband and I were happy to eat it for him.  It was really moist and included a thin surprise layer of lemon curd near the bottom.  Delicious.  🙂

You may recall that their vanilla cupcake already has my heart♥felt approval.  Two for two.  Good job, Cupcakery!!  I love you.  😉

I haven’t been to Coldstone in about five years.  Our intention today was only to get a small scoop for the boy since he seemed disappointed with his cupcake choice.

Standing in front of the counter with a rainbow of options before us, husband and I realized we were defenseless.  Despite the cupcake still working its way to our guts, we couldn’t resist.

I highly recommend the Sweet Cream with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups crushed in.  Yummy spectacular!

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Hmmm…

Can’t really think of anything else to say.

Except, oh yeah…

Big Fat Happy Birthday to my beautiful niece!!  😀

Are you really 17?

No, you can’t be!

Oh…I’m old.

Old.

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