2012 New York State Festival of Balloons NYSFOB

This past Summer we went to a hot air balloon festival for the first time.  The New York State Festival of Balloons was held in Dansville, NY.  We all had a great time, even my 10 year old son who was sure it was going to be boring!

There were a lot of booths and vendors and we had a fun time exploring while we waited for the balloon launch.  One cool spot was the Pan for Gold booth.  The kids were given a bucket of sand with little treasures in it, which they then wash out in a sieve.  The shark's tooth necklace they each found was a hit with both of them!

Another unique spot was the Game trailer.  They had TV screens and game consoles set up and you could rent screen time for different lengths of time.  For a boy with Asperger's on a very hot, sunny, dusty day... it was an awesome break to help him get through the day.  I was thrilled (as was he)!

When the time came, we set up our lawn chairs to watch the balloons launch. It was an awe inspiring sight!

Rainbow Cupcakes and Cutie Marks

We were inspired to make My Little Pony rainbow cupcakes by Ro at Nerdy Nummies.  See her video here.

We used the Pillsbury Moist Supreme cake mix following the directions for the egg white only recipe.  Leaving out the yolks allowed the colors of the batter to be more vibrant.  Especially since our "home grown" eggs have such bright yellow yolks.

Then we split the batter into six bowls and colored each one with food coloring.  About one half spoonful of each color went into each cupcake wrapper.  

After baking and cooling it was time to decorate.  See below for the results as well as the MLP cutie marks created by my 10 year old son.

My oldest (19) colored and decorated these.

Here come the MLP cutie marks!  I was impressed my son decorated these completely on his own, frosting, cutting out the shapes and all.

Rainbow Dash's cutie marks

The 3 diamonds is for Rarity; the blue star is Twilight Sparkle; and the three orange "apples" in the upper right is for  Apple Jack.

Apple Jack

Pinkie Pie on the lower left

Fluttershy 

One of the proud bakers

My 12 year old colored her own icing to make these lovely pastel creations

The one in the lower left is SO HAPPY to see you!  

Parenthood and Aspergers

Sometimes the television show Parenthood really knocks me out. Part of it is that they cover Asperger's Syndrome in such a real way. So many times when I'm watching it feels like the show is about my family's and my feelings. I really like the characters.

I just watched the most recent episode called Missing. The son with Aspergers left his home to go to the museum by himself because his family couldn't take him. One reason this really hit home is that one time my son left home because he was tired of waiting for his father to come home and do something with him.  My husband was dropping off our daughter about 2 miles down the road and my son decided to walk there because he knew where it was and he felt that my husband had taken too long.  A couple stopped and tried to help him but he would not say a word to them.  Fortunately my husband saw him as he drove home. Not good!

Another reason that the episode really touched me is that it showed how hard it can be on older siblings.  I have a teenager that struggles with this as well.  A child with Aspergers can cause huge disruptions in the family and we as parents don't react in the same way we would if he was neuro-typical.  It feels unfair.

Have you seen the show?  Have you ever seen a reflection of your life?

Slice™ Safety Cutter - Great for couponers

I had the chance to try the Slice Safety Cutter from Slice Products.  It's a handy little tool for cutting coupons, scrapbooking, opening plastic packaging and many other uses.  It has a very small ceramic blade that you draw across whatever you are cutting.  It's very sharp when used on paper but is also very safe. I poked myself with it (as shown in the product pictures on the website) and I was not injured at all!  So this would be safe for my kids to use as well.  Also since the blade is ceramic it stays sharp and won't rust.

The Slice can fit easily in my purse (where I carry it), has a hole to add it to a keychain, and also has an internal magnet so that it can hang on the fridge.  I like that I can easily cut out a coupon while I'm at the store!  I really like how attractive the Slice is as well.

As I've mentioned before, my son has Aspergers Syndrome.  So I was excited to learn that they company funds Autism research.  Here's some information from their website: "Slice was founded in 2008 by TJ Scimone as a way to help fund long-term care for his son, Alex, who is autistic. A minimum of 1% of all Slice product sales is donated to help fund autism research. By purchasing our products, you’re helping to find a cure for the millions of children and their families who live with autism every day." 

Slice™ Safety Cutter - Great for couponers

Using it to cut school pictures

Used the magnet to hang it on the fridge

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

I thought Aspies were supposed to be good at math

Well, my dreams of the boy's future career as an engineer are drying up.  His second grade teacher sent home a math paper that needed to be redone.  Out of 20 questions only 3 were correct.  Admittedly, it's subtraction with regrouping but it wasn't the regrouping he had the issue with.  It was the subtraction.

Here's an example problem and our conversation about it.

20-16= 16.

Me:  What's 10 minus 6?
Boy:  Can't you just tell me the answer?
Me:  Of course not, you won't learn anything that way.
Boy:  Dad tells me the answers.

Me:  Hmmph, what's 10 minus 6?

Boy:  *Thinks for a bit* Isn't it something like 8 or 9?

Me:  No, it's nothing like 8 or 9.  You do realize that there's only one correct answer to a math problem, right?  It's not a matter of opinion.

Boy:  Mooooooooooom.

The conversation continued in this vein until I finally dragged the correct answer out of him.  I will admit to telling him the answer to the last two.

So now that we've ruled out careers that involve people skills and math, I'm keeping my eyes open for ads like this.

Help Wanted

Gamers needed.  Excellent pay and benefits.

Ability to play video games for hours without 

moving or blinking is a must.  Enjoyment of 

watching hours of youtube videos of people

playing the same game you just played is a 

plus.  If you can then spend the remaining hours

of the day talking about said games... you're our man!

Good News and Bad News

My son, who is 8 and in 2nd grade, has a bedtime of 9:30.  About 10:30 pm he walks down the stairs and in his best announcer voice says...
I have good new and bad news!
The good news is that I only have a LITTLE homework!  The bad news is that I LOST it!

He apparently needs to work on learning the definition of "good news." Fortunately, we were able to find the HW and get it done in just a couple of minutes.  A meltdown was averted.

I Know What Boys Like

Boy:  Mom. do woman understand everything about boys?

Me:  Well, we do understand SOME things about boys, but not everything.  Like we don't understand why you like The Three Stooges so much.

Boy: Oh.  Well, I think the thing women really don't understand is that we just LIKE guns and fighting.

Me:  Yes, you're right, I don't understand.

I thought that was very insightful for an 8 year old with Aspergers.  I expect it was brought on by several years of his mother sighing and saying things like "you wouldn't want to kill a REAL person with that light saber right?"  to which I would receive an eye roll and a disgusted "Mommmm, light sabers aren't real you know!"  

Which really isn't all that reassuring when you think about it.

The boy with some "knights in shiny armor"

Temple Grandin - The Movie

The movie, Temple Grandin was finally delivered by NetFlix and my oldest (17) and I sat down to watch it.  I've been looking forward to watching this movie because it's supposed to be a very good movie but also because it's about an autistic woman and my son (8) has Asperger's which is on the autism spectrum.

It was an excellent movie.  It was very uplifting and interesting and left me feeling very moved.  Clare Danes did a wonderful job.  I highly recommend it!

My son decided that I needed to turn it off because it broke our two swear word rule (if there are two swear words then it gets turned off).  Well the words were crap and d*mn, which I don't allow him to use. But really crap doesn't count as a swear word. So I tried explaining this to him and then I turned it off and waited till he left and turned it back on (he was not tricked) and then I tried explaining to him again.  One thing that is very common with kids with Aspergers is that they are very attached to rules.  He was so furious with me that he yelled "You are BANNED from my room for a WEEK!" and then he had a minor meltdown.

Sigh.  So I had to deal with a meltdown while (and because) I watched a movie involving a woman having meltdowns. Ironic, huh?  : )

Blogging for Autism - Asperger's and my family

My son who is 8 years old has a form of Autism called Asperger's Syndrome.  There is a saying that if you've met one child with Autism, well, you've only met one child with Autism. Meaning that there is a huge amount of variation in symptoms and severity and each child with this disorder is different.

Generally speaking, Asperger's effects motor skills, speech skills, social skills, ability to deal with disruptions in routine or with frustrations, preoccupation with a favorite subject, sensitivity to noise, lights, etc.
For more see: http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/tc/aspergers-syndrome-symptoms

In my son's case some of his symptoms are quite mild.  For example his speech; until he was diagnosed at the age of 7 I didn't realize that his odd way of speaking had anything to do with the other issues we dealt with all of his life.  Other symptoms are more severe such as his noise sensitivity, impulse control, and ability to deal with frustrations.  Major meltdowns where he hurts himself, others and destroys property are not uncommon.  On the other hand he can be a delightful funny and friendly guy to be around. 

One of the many things that I've learned from my experience is the truthfulness of the Bible verse at Matthew 6:34 - "So, never be anxious about the next day, for the next day will have its own anxieties. Sufficient for each day is its own badness."  I've found that it is easier to survive each day if I take it on it's own.  Constant worrying about the future makes life almost unbearable.

I'm  very sorry that this post is so late.  I'm also a bit sad that I don't think it's well written and it doesn't say what I want it to.  It was both harder and more painful to write then I anticipated. 

Thank you for reading.

Karla