An ordinary Saturday

Yesterday was cloudy and cool (by Southern California standards, that is). Rain was "imminent" and unpredictable, so we didn't plan to go anywhere at all - usually we go to a local park or a local amusement, like the zoo or aquarium, sometime during the day. The boys arrived; we had lunch.

As usual, Mikey helped Grandpa with "chores." Chores almost always include taking the dry cleaning to the laundry. The ladies in the store know Mikey and always give him a lollipop. Then Grandpa and Mikey usually have a least one other chore - get gas, get a few groceries, etc. - and they come home.

While they are gone, Grandma spends time with David on math. We spent a lot of time on math this week. David is in pre-algebra. We don't know why it's called, "pre-algebra" since there is a lot of algebra in it, and geometry, and probability. Lately, I have been giving David homework to do outside the ALEKS program, to reinforce concepts. The abstract concepts are hard for him. He has not been doing well - or at least, has not been demonstrating well. I am not sure if he is just being sloppy or if he really does not understand well enough to do the work. He seems OK with it when we do it together, and I remind him to watch the signs, or how to raise a power to another power. I do know that, unless he "gets" or remembers how to do these things, that later concepts are not going to be possible.

Computer Restriction

It is really hard to filter content on the Internet - I'm sure that is not news to anyone - so we have resorted to allowing no sites except those we approve. YouTube is not one of those sites. A simple query on "Barney" can lead to ... stuff about Barney, parodies of Barney and Totally Inappropriate Parodies of Barney ...

Of course, there is a lot of good and fun stuff there as well. Lately, Mikey has declared he wants to see "The Lion King" on Broadway. That would be the RIGHT Coast, and we live on the LEFT Coast. Mikey has never been on an airplane. He is generally a good traveler, but dealing with lines, Security, waiting, sitting when told, turning off the Game Boy, and Whatever General Weirdness Occurs are things we want to build up to.

YouTube does have some videos of parts of the performance. So, using "Grandma's computer" and with admonitions that he was not permitted to touch the screen [one of his stims is to touch things on the screen and recite their names], we watched some footage of the stage performance.

Mikey loved them, and asked to have them repeated several times. During the last repeat of “The Circle of Life,” he jumped up and said, “Dance.” He was actually imitating the dancers as they moved like the animals in their puppet-costumes! I got up and joined him. It was lovely!

Both boys did ask to “go somewhere” during the day. We explained that today was a day to stay at Grandma’s because the weather was bad. There were a few protests … Mikey demanded “Aquarium” several times … but there were no real tantrums or outbursts. All in all, a good, “ordinary” day.