Story Share

My Friend T.J.

We saw T.J. and he came over.  And he was on the swing.  T.J. ran in the house.  He is my friend.  T.J.’s racecar has a broken wheel.  We played soccer.

The End.

by Ben

**notice the actual figures in Ben’s drawing.  This is a FIRST!

The Bunny

We saw a bunny next to our house.  Mama put a blanket in a basket.  We still have it.  And he runs away.  And he run away to the pond to find his mama.  His mama is a bunny.

The End.

by Will

**Will drew a rainbow and a bunny figure after watching his brother make his figure-filled illustration.

Casey

Casey is our new dog.  She is happy.  She’s not sad anymore.  She makes a smile and licks people.  She eats food and she drinks water.  She barks.  Casey has a tail.  She misses her owner.  She sniffs people and the baby, Ella Rose.  And me.  And me, too.  We love her and we hug her.

The End.

a collaborative effort by Ben and Will

illustrated by Ben

More on Casey

We’re over the moon about Casey, the Wonder Dog.  She really is just a fantastic addition to our family.   We always knew we’d have a family dog, but we were waiting for the ‘right time’.  When Mark was serving in Iraq, I was overwhelmingly pregnant with Will, Ben was a toddler not walking or even close, and we had just moved from our big yard house to a teeny yard house–that time–was *not* the right time.  Thank God for Aunt Patty and Uncle Jim who adopted our first pet, Max.  Here they all are visiting us on their spring break last week: 

Having Max stay with us confirmed how ready we were for another pet.  There’s so much to be gained in the way of learning and enrichment for the kids–taking care of another being, responsibility, respect, loyalty.  Max was a puppy when we adopted him from the shelter.  Training him was a lot of work.  We knew we didn’t have the kind of time needed to train a puppy this time around.  We had agreed to get an older dog, but not too old.  We wanted an active dog that would run and play, but would not have to pee every 10 minutes nor chew things that would make us unhappy.

I had also been doing some research on therapy dogs for children with autism.  It’s probably not much of a surprise to dog lovers, but early “research” is showing that there are more than physical needs fulfilled through interaction with a trained therapy pet.   This study is looking specifically at development of social interaction with the help of animals.

Solomon hypothesizes that interactions with well-trained therapy dogs—which are simple, predictable and very rewarding social partners—help autistic children practice social interaction and fill gaps in social behaviors that didn’t develop earlier in childhood. In the future, she hopes to study the results of adding animal therapy to existing clinical programs for people with autism.

“Dogs could be like a catalyst in a chemical reaction,” she said.

I liked that the article spoke in terms of remediation, a la RDI.   Going back for a ‘do-over’ is a simple way to think about it.  Could a dog help in our RDI efforts with Ben?  Who couldn’t use a catalyst?

Enter Casey.  The craisglist post proclaimed her “the poster child for the perfect family pet”.  After 3 days with her, we really cannot argue that claim.   We’ve witnessed great affection and “private” moments between both boys and Casey that are worth any cost of having her.  Already.  How cool is that?

Here are some photos of the boys doing some training work with Casey.

“Casey, come!”“Sit.”“Lie down.”

And then there’s Will’s technique…

“Casey, come and eat this yummy treat.”

“Lie down like me.”“Have another yummy treat.  Good girl.  She likes me!”

Welcome Casey!

We welcomed a new furry family member to our household this week.  Casey is our new dog.  She’s a four year old yellow lab who came to us via craigslist.  Her owner was reluctantly looking for a new home for her.  He is newly married and poor Casey does not get along with the new wife’s toy poodle.  We’re thrilled to have her, though.  She’s an awesome dog so far–well mannered, affectionate, playful, and gentle.  She has responded very well to learning the ‘house rules’ and is loved to bits by the boys.   Ella Rose is taking her time warming up to Casey’s wet nose and generous “kisses”.  She enjoys her mostly from a distance right now.

These photos were taken yesterday.   We seem to have caught a spring cold and all the kids had a fever.  Will was pretty warm when these were taken.

And, yes, that’s her *on* the bed.  With Will being sick and so snuggly with her, I didn’t have the heart to make her get off.  I may regret this decision later.  So be it.  Sick kid trumps dog hair-ed quilt.

Our “Girlie”

It is not a name I would have chosen. 

Ever.

If I think about it too much, it has the smell of misogyny about it,  in that icky backhanded 1940’s  slang sort of way.    You know where “dame” and “broad” , “toots”, and “doll” were used in a patriarchal pat-on-the-head “you’re so dumb, but cute” fashion.  That is, when they weren’t being used outright as derogatory terms.

I am a “Free to Be You and Me” child of the 70’s.  I am not supposed to take whatever is dished out as acceptable, ‘just’ because I am a girl (woman).  I can do anything boys can do.  I can do ANYTHING!  Hear me roar! Etc. Etc. Etc.

But.  If I don’t think about it, I can handle it.  And.  There’s not much I can do to change it at this point.   It’s sticking.  She responds to this other name as easily as she does her given name.   And I have even found myself referring to her  in this way.   For what it’s worth, and I think a lot, the name only suits her in a contradictory manner.   Ella Rose loves her baby doll, but drops it without a thought for a Hot Wheels car.  She insists on wearing her brother’s old Lighting McQueen t-shirt, making loud car noises in church, and playing in the dirt.

She is a fairly competent wrestling partner for Will and offers up her fist for a bump with much more force than you might think possible in a sixteen-month-old.

Our Girlie’s eyes light up at the sight of a motorcycle and will shout out “boo-doz-ah” when we pass the bulldozer on a walk.  She was a climber before she could walk, scaling the playground ramp up to the top platform without a spotter.  ["has anyone seen the baby?  Oh my God, how did you get up there?"] 

Her spunk is matched only by her ‘art of persuasion’ which usually sounds a lot like Hollering to Raise the Dead, until you find what she wants and hand it over.  To which she will grab, smile sweetly and say “tank yoo”.  If she could wink, I think she would add one in there, as well.

So, “Girlie” it is.  Used in the sassy, backhanded, car-vrooming, knuckle-bumping, eye-winking way that says “I am a child of a child of the 70’s.  I am Grrrl–hear me holler!”

Story Share

The Bowling Alley by Ben

We goed bowling in the car.  There were no bowling shoes.  That was a bummer.  Bowling is rolling balls fast down the lane.  The pins make the balls crash!

Will’s Story

We went in the R.V.  And we picked stuff up the top.  Daddy drived the R.V. and we tooked it home.  We got valentines.  We made them.  The End.  by Will

Blueberry Picking

You might remember back in March we went strawberry picking. We had so much fun and the berries were so good that we went back several times to restock. Well, we’re a bit late in the game for blueberry season, apparently, as Myers’ Farm might call it a season before next week. Boo hoo. Although, as it turns out, blueberries (at least in the quantities that Will consumed–think handfuls at a time shoved and smeared all over his cheeks) are a bit too digestively advanced for his tender, toddler tummy. Too much information? Ah well. It’s one of those duties they forget to put on the job description for parents–Poop Patrol. But, I digress. Let’s just look at blueberry picking photos. Happy happy children, (almost) organic blueberries, a bucket-like box that didn’t “kuplink” or “kuplank”, but definitely “kuplunked”. ‘Huh?’, you say? Go read Robert McCloskey’s Blueberries for Sal.
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