tart and pleasantly bitter

Choice Henry quotes of the week:

In the bathtub:
MAMA?!!
"What, Henry?
Have you ever thought about what it's like having a penis?"
...
"It's like it has A LOT of energy."

Reading a Where's Waldo book; on the page among the people jumble, two Catholic priests:
"And that guy is saying to that other guy, I love you..."

Well, crap. I have been writing and researching for my shitty novel since Henry finally fell asleep and forgot to upload Halloween photos. My hormonal blehs are done and I'm manic and should really get to sleep but old Sears and Roebuck catalogs are my crack.

The weekend began auspiciously with a dinner invitation and the promise of a kid-free evening doing something awesome, like getting in fights with hobos or knitting hand-warmers in a quiet coffee shop.
After eating the appetizer (fried calamari and artichokes) I started to feel a bit woozy. Then my stomach started to rumble. While I was trying to power through my entree my bowels started to clench and on the way home I thought whatever it was that was liquifying my dinner was going to start shooting out of my orifices all over Pam's car. Fortunately my willpower (and/or sphincter control) is so strong that it happened in the privacy of my own home. I spent the rest of the night wrapped in a blanket, weak and shaky until I could finally manage to get down some tea and a popsicle.
Since then, I've been feeling very blah.
Halloween night was just okay.
My visit to Value Village yielded nothing tangibly awesome but did reinforce the fact that I will need to get to the gym regularly if I want to fit into my jeans.
I made food all weekend (buttermilk waffles, roasted chicken and root vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, banana-choclate chip muffins) and my kitchen is gross, I have piles of dirty laundry AND unfolded clean laundry, my balcony garden is a mess.
My NaNoWriMo idea seems dumb and I am trying to not eat chocolate dipped in peanut butter.
So, yes, bleh.

Choice Henry quotes from this week:

"Mama, in my dream I was fighting in a war. And I was not afraid."
And later:
"Mama, I sense darkness in [name redacted]."

I'm fairly certain he's a Jedi.

Henry: Are these people gladiators??

No, those people are just doing that for fun.

I WANT TO MOVE THERE!!! CAN I WORK FOR THOSE GUYS WHEN I GROW UP???

It went really well!
They took all of my comments and suggestions very seriously and will add the accommodations I requested to the IEP and the reading teacher was very complimentary about my engagement in his success and Henry's improvement since last year and his "adorable" manners (whee! if anyone recalls that he used to be a toddler-sized Godzilla roaming the park punching kids and spitting on them, this is a HUGE accomplishment for us both) and his teacher-teacher really enjoyed the Sensational Kids book and I am SO glad everyone seems to be on Team Help-Henry-Succeed.
Relief.

Thanks to those who had advice wrt to Henry's reading issues. No response yet, but I think I did a good job explaining his needs while still being respectful of her intelligence. We'll see. I'm trying not to worry about it too much.


I had such a great dare night with my husband on Saturday. We went with a big group of people to The Corson Building, a hipsterish communal-dining northwest locavore kind-of-place, Herbfarm-lite. Expensive, but we weren't paying, so awesoooome! I drank wine! Me! I talked to adults! I wore a swishy party dress! Whee!

I reorganized Henry's room to make space for sensory diet equipment--a swing of some kind? a miniature trampoline? I obtained a brush and have started the brushing protocol. It's so weird to brush your kid and compress his little joints in hopes that it will make him less insane compared to other kids.

Other exciting news: I am committed to walking every day. I went to the gym twice this week.

I kind of want to do NaNoWriMo...I've had a really intense recurrent dream for years now that would make an excellent scary story.

The my milk toof blogger wrote Henry and me a very nice reply to our email and photo of Henry's Lardee doll. I made an 'ickle but I'm not happy with the yarn. I think I'll need to redo him.

Henry is in love with My Milk Toof.
The only doll he ever played with is the crocheted "RoBotCha" doll Pam made for him for his fourth birthday. So I was surprised when he asked me if I could make him a Lardee toy. And it surprised me that I was able to actually figure out how to do it since I am so not an amigurumi knitter.

( two more under the cut )

Congratulations, Ms. Herrera: You have a sensory-seeker!
( Henry is officially a SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD. )

Henry: Someone said I smelled good today.
Sarah: Oh yeah? A teacher or a kid in your class?
Henry: A kid.
Sarah: Uh, well, did you say thank you to her?
Henry: No, I did not say thank you and he kept smelling my head.
Sarah: ...

February Lady Sweater: http://www.flintknits.com/blog/?p=151

This morning in my bed, snuggling:
Me: Ok. Let's talk about what we need to do before school. We need to take a showe--

Henry: Hey, hey, hey! Let's pretend we're pandas planning our day. Wake up, eat some bamboo, take a nap, eat some bamboo, play in some snow, take a nap, eat some bamboo...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

HENRY IS SO ADORABLE LATELY IT IS KILLING ME.

I mean, look at this GQMF.

Tonight he (willingly) read to me 4 BOB books. No mistakes, seemed to understand what he was reading while he was saying it. I am amazed. I asked him how he managed to learn to read all of a sudden and he replied "My reading teacher taught me really well." OMG HE IS SO CUTE. Maybe you need to hear it in his sweet voice but he really is the most adorable child ever.


My baby is in first grade and it totally freaked me out.
I mean, like unable to leave the house for a week because of deep depression freak out. But then I got really sick and he stayed home two days last week and I'm totally over it.
His teacher is really accommodating. I am actually still a little freaked out about the IEP meeting scheduled next week. Oh, and finally getting him into the neurologist next month.
But other than all that I think we are going to be okay.
I'm...mulling over the idea of having a baby. (insane, unworkable, probably hormone related)
OTOH, I need to go back to school and actually get a degree in something lucrative so Henry can go to college. (or gladiator training)

And I'm so freaked out I can't fall asleep. Instead I will knit and watch Hulu.

Henry: "I wish for...a corndog, and a Playmobil castle, and a LEGO castle, and a suit of armor, and to be a GREAT ADVENTURER!!!"

Wheedled an invitation to a new friend's beach house in order to escape the grueling heat wave that has afflicted the PNW. No pics as I forgot my camera in the rush to pack but highlights include: The nude beach where temps in the 50's are the norm, a city called Humptulips which contains a Humptulips Dike Road, and a Rock Candy Mountain Road that we passed, squealed at, then simultaneously groaned because neither of us had the camera ready.



Today:
Tiny middle-aged white lady wearing enormous generic ethnic pattern muumuu/poncho-type outfit smoking in front of a local restaurant: "I AM SICK OF GOING TO GOD-DAMNED CHURCH."

It’s not so funny reading it but repeating it to myself, subtly changing the stress and intonation, delights me on so many levels.

Also delightful:

It’s so very bad yet I envy their ukulele skillz/lack of shame.

Slept in!
Woke up to egg and bacon breakfast burrito!
Husband took the boy out!
And bought me a ukulele! With case!
And an ice cream cake (mint chocolate chunk!) from Ben & Jerry's!
I got a haircut!
I went to my favorite place in the world, Value Village!

Now I am home, eating my cake, being waited on by my husband, waiting for my mother to fly in and take me out to a nice seafood dinner.

Went camping with Tim's entire country bear family, plus, oddly enough, Billy Crudup and James Purefoy. My arm somehow became infested with Guinea worms which caused me to miss getting a manicure.