Five and Sixty Four

Gee, if I were to reverse the order of those numbers, it kind of reminds me of the beginning of a very famous speech -"Four Score and...."

But no, my post is not about the Gettysburg Address -or anything else even remotely similar to that wonderful speech, so don't go getting your hopes all up high for something spectacular.

Nah, instead it's just another rehash of my day today. Or rather, just a little insight to how much fun it can be -and how irritating it can be at times too -residing with two pre-school age kids, both autistic.

This morning, Mandy had Maya all ready to go to school -heavy winter coat on over her nice little outfit and they stood outside for a while, in the cold, watching it snow, while waiting for the van to show up to pick Maya up and take her over to Clearfield for her classes. After waiting out there for almost 10 minutes, Mandy came back in to call the school to inquire if there was a problem that "Mr. Fred" wasn't here yet and that's how she learned that school had been cancelled for today! Hmmm. A phone call earlier in the morning when they decided to cancel classes would have been a nice gesture, don't 'cha think?

Amazingly enough, Maya -and Kurtis too -were both fairly civilized most of today. No meltdowns at the supper table tonight anyway, and a meal without a meltdown from one or the other child is ALWAYS a bonus day!

This afternoon, a good friend of Mandy's and mine stopped by to visit and have a cup of coffee with us. His given name is "Joe" but Mandy and , in the past, would often tease him, calling him "The Evil One." (Joe and I share a lot of similar traits -ok, mainly one -we both live for sarcasm!) But recently, he started to refer to himself as "Precious" -don't know what inspired him to do this but, it is what it is ya know. Maya knows him -knows his name quite well too. But today when he came to the door, we told her to go open the door and see who was there and she told Mandy and I, "It's Precious!" She said that as he was walking in and the three of us just cracked up that she remembered this was our pet name for Joe.

This evening, after supper, while Mandy ran into town to pick up some stick margerine for me -for my baking needs over the next couple of days -Bill was left to supervise the two kids, get them prepped for bed, etc.

Step one -give them both some pudding -laced with their meds! Maya gets a little bit of melatonin; Kurtis gets melatonin along with some cingular for his allergies, all stirred into a lovely little pudding cup. (Later, he gets a nice big old bottle with an extra dabble of meds -benadryl -which also helps alleviate the allergy issues and helps him sleep a little sounder -usually.

After the pudding, time for a bath and brother, the screaming that ensues with that announcement! Enough to make one go deaf! Prior to the pudding and bath time though, we had a smallish meltdown with Maya who didn't want to sit down, be quiet for a while (so Gram could hear the dialogue on the tv) and because of that and some other minor behavior issues, she was remanded to go sit on the stair steps again. Same as last night's visit to sitting there -screams, shrieks and crys of "I need parents! I need parents!" Don't know where this came from initially -why she decided that would be a good attention getter, but again, it too is what it is, I guess!

But after the bath -my what a difference some nice warm water doth make! Dr. Jeckyl and Ms. Hyde -a regular transformation! Sweet smelling, all smiles, sanitary! What more could one ask for?

Maya returned to the living room, all dressed in her snazzy little pajamas, dancing around and singing to me, "I'm number five! I'm number five! You're 64! You're 64!" Guess she figured at my advanced age, I needed to have this little reminder about my age!

Kids! Gotta love 'em though, don't 'cha?