Smoother Things!

Things may have been a bit on edge yesterday but this morning, when Kurtis woke up, it was evident the meds had helped him a bit. At least, his eyes weren't quite as puffy as they were last night and he didn't look like a minature drunk!

Before I launch into a ramble about how my day went today, I finally got around to downloading some photos taken last Friday. Just though maybe I might have an appreciative audience to view them. (As I write this, I am now downloading some picture Mandy took too -either yesterday or today -of the four little kittens. Mama cat, Nina, moved her babies -again -Monday night. Took all four of them back upstairs. I was sitting here, watching tv and out of the corner of my eye, noticed Nina walking by and it looked like there was something in her mouth. My first thought was that she had found a mouse in the house and quietly had killed it but when I glanced around again, I saw it was a kitten she was toting and heading for the stairs with it too. So Mandy got up, followed her upstairs and then, came down and helped her move the rest of her family -along with the tote container Mandy had fixed for a "nursery" of sorts for the kittens. They are all doing fine and dandy -getting fat and also, starting to play and getting a tad sassy now too!

Last Friday morning, Sam -Kurt's TSS (wrap-around aide) brought a visitor with her to our house. Her dog, Aspen! She was curious to see how Kurt and Maya would respond to Aspen and also, how well Aspen would respond to the kids too as she says he tends to be vere quiet and quite shy too. Well, let me tell you this -he was a hit and a really big one too not just with the kids but with Mandy and me as well! Although Mandy is truly a cat lover at heart, she -like me and numerous ancestors too -is also a big-time dog lover. (I lean more to dogs, to be honest although I do like cats a lot too though.)

So, here's a couple pictures of our meeting Aspen.


He is just beautiful! Really big too but neither Kurt nor Maya was intimidated by his size and both of the kids were also very nice and gentle with him which probably explains then that he relaxed almost immediately around the kids as well as with me and Mandy!



Here's a little video too of Kurtis trying to lead Aspen around the house on his leash. The dog took it all in very good stride and we had a riot watching the little guy enjoying his encounter with this gorgeous animal. (I didn't know it at the time -Mandy told me this later -but Aspen also has a bit of wolf blood in him. Maybe that's what there is about him that gives him a bit of a different aura?)

I mentioned the other day that we met up with my older daughter (Carrie) and the older grandson (Alex) down in Bellefonte and had a very nice supper then together at Bonfatto's Restaurant there.

Here are a couple photos of the family at Bonfatto's.
When we first arrived at the restaurant, Kurtis was really wound up -pretty much bouncing off the walls with energy! Maya was only slightly behind him and between the two, there were a lot of movements going on along the bench side where we were seated.
Here's my older daughter, Carrie and my Prince, Alex! Isn't he just one really handsome young man though? Not just because he is my grandson, but I have to add that Alex is really one of the nicest and best behaved young men I've seen in a long, long time!
And here's Mandy with both the little ones. Incredibly, we finally got a picture of both kids looking full on into the camera! Normally, trying to get a picture of them giving that kind of eye contact is next to impossible to do but somehow, Friday night, the timing was just right!

That's it for the up-dating via the photos now for this post. On to a few other things from today and then, it bedtime for me!

This morning -or rather Wednesday morning -I had a meeting at church I had to attend for the Social Ministry Committee. Nothing really exciting to note about the meeting other than we did have a bit of a discussion about maybe having a community dinner on Thanksgiving Day. Nothing about this idea was resolved today -just tossing the idea around a little and will be giving more thought to it perhaps a couple months from now. The idea though that we discussed today was to have a big Thanksgiving meal offered to anyone within the community who would be interested in attending. Gearing it particularly towards those who have no one -no family in the vicinity, or not much to come and go on either perhaps -but also open to anyone who would be interested in the fellowship of friends and neighbors and maybe even whole families too -was the initial thought here. I like the idea of bringing people from the entire community together -kind of like the way it may have been at the very first Thanksgiving Dinner, ya know. We'll see if this idea takes hold at all and progresses to a real plan in the future.

Wednesday afternoon, Mandy had to take Maya up to our local school and register her for kindergarten. She thought it would be a very quick process so was quite surprised when it ended up taking them close to two hours of filling out papers, Maya meeting with teachers, therapists and such and also, being tested too so they could ascertain a little of what her level of learning as well as potential ability would be in the class room. One of those assisting with the testing process was Mandy, the former speech therapist who worked first with Maya for almost two years and then, with Kurtis for 18 months, until his third birthday. So Mandy -the therapist -is very well acquainted with Maya and she, with her too! She (Mandy) later told Mandy (the mother) that she felt Maya missed some questions during the speech testing process because she was distracted and watching Mandy the therapist and not paying as much attention as she should have to the therapist testing her. She told Mandy that she forgot to tell the other therapist that in order to get Maya's full attention and usually maintain it, she needed to tap her fingers to her chin and gently tap Maya's cheek to get her to look at her while telling her "Look. Look, Maya." It was a teaching trick Mandy used early and often with Maya and also one that she showed Mandy and me early on too and yes, it works quite nicely too, most of the time.

But anyway, the good news is that Maya did very well with the testings, etc., at the school! Only missed a couple of questions -mainly about some things dealing with phonetics. But she whizzed through the alphabet -saying it, identifyiing it in both upper and lower case, recited or read numbers with ease and even read a little bit too! Yay, Maya! You rule, my little Princess!

After she got home, I needed to run up to the local grocery store and she went up there with me. She really behaved quite well there too -didn't stray out of my sight at all and only once, tried to convince me to buy something in the toy line of stuff too! Progress, folks!

Then as we were leaving, we met an old friend and former neighbor of mine from childhood who was about to go into the store. "Aunt Sue" -who isn't an aunt to my kids at all but that is how we refer to her. The kids and I even call her that too! Anyway, there was Aunt Sue and she had the cutest little boy with her but who I didn't know. So I asked her who the little cutie pie was and it turns out he is her stepgrandson. Talk about a handsome little dude! Wish I'd had my camera with me to take a picture to show you of him! We talked a little bit but the whole time we talked, Maya just stood there, looking at this little guy -really checking him out from head to toe ya know. Finally, I asked Maya if she could at least say hello to Tristan and what does she say?

"What kind of seat do you sit in?"

The funny thing about that question really is in the fact that Aunt Sue knew, automatically, what "seat" Maya was referring to. She wanted to know if he had to sit in a booster seat in the car like she has to do! Who would have thought that a little kid would have that as a first question to another little child upon their first meeting? Sometimes, it is really quite a challenge to wrap your mind around where Maya's mind and thoughts might be going!

Oh an we have another development ongoing in the house now too. Seems Miss Kate, the wayward stepgranddaughter who got ticked off last fall with Mandy and moved out and up the road aways to live with her mother, has returned home now. She just appeared here yesterday afternoon with her gym bag holding a few items of clothing, spent the night last night here and tonight, while eating supper, she announced that she thought we should have spaghetti for supper tomorrow, which would be tonight now, you see. That plus when Bill finally got home from work, she had him take her up to her Mom's and she returned with a few more items of clothing. I guess maybe this evening (That would be Thursday night in case I have you confused flipping back and forth with my use of "today," "Yesterday," and Tomorrow or tonight.)

And I wonder how long the peaceful atmosphere she is putting out about herself right now too will last? Guess that remains to be seen if she thinks she can put up with Mandy's rules and regulations any better now than she did in the past.

Time will tell, I guess. Right?

It would be nice if it can stay fairly smooth for the duration -like it was Wednesday night anyway.