First Day

First day completed. Kids attended school for 45mins. No one really knows what the point of that is. Everything was a bit chaotic, as the first week usually is. River was up at 5:30, anxious about the day ahead and whispering to himself in bed. Something he does to help to calm and reassure himself. I took them to school and was glad to see River's aide from last year. She'll be with him for the week, but we don't know what will happen after that. It is very difficult to prepare River when we are given no information. As well, we do not get a say in the person who will work with our son day in and day out. This is incredibly frustrating and is not, it seems to me, in the best interests of the child. It is not even mandatory for this person to have experience with children with autism! I prepare myself for another round of trips back and forth to the school. Oh well, only 10 more years of this to go! Bronwyn strode in in her new outfit like a professional. "Majestic" as the new word seems to be. "Awesome" is, like, totally out.

Mike spent the rest of the day with the kids and they busied themselves torturing him with their constant bickering and unreasonable demands. He looked a bit frazzled when I got  home. I'm wondering if we'll ever be able to get a babysitter!

This week work is a matter of sorting the classroom and getting it ready for the kids to arrive next week. I have a great teaching partner, Jess, and I'm looking forward to getting started. The other teachers are very young, I am the only one with children. Makes me feel very old some days...but then again, keeps me young when I listen to their conversations. Young people seem to assume that when you are a mother, you must want to talk about your children and so, with me, the conversation is directed towards them. Questions asked, followed by a glazed, blank expression when I start waffling about them. It is not easy to be interested in other people's children - particularly if you don't have any yourself (and it's not even on your radar). Of course, I don't really want to talk about them much, I'm just answering polite enquiry...but what can you do? I have been taking my knitting so that I can knit during the lunch break at the same time as hold a conversation and participate in a kind 'team-building' exercise. A couple of people want to learn to knit...yay! So it looks like I'm going to start a Friday lunch knitting club!

Day 2 of school today - the full day. Fingers-crossed that there are no melt-downs and phone-calls to me. When things get a bit settled I will write a letter that details strategies we use with River. Perhaps we can prevent the disruptive behaviours that River has indulged in every September for the past couple of years. Of course, it would entail the school listening to me and taking my advice - no guarantee of that.

Catching up...

Here are some pics of things we've got up to recently.

I learned to ski! Well...let's just say I can get down a not-too steep hill with skis on my feet. No points for style, that's for sure. But it's a start. I went to Seymour Mountain with my friend Helen (who kindly lent me some of her ski stuff and guided me through the process). It was a lot of fun. If I'd realised just how much fun it was, I would have done it years (and years) ago.

On the 'slopes'...the flat bit

 I went once again on my own to Grouse Mountain. Quite scary, but I was proud of myself for going. When I first moved to Vancouver I would look across at the mountains; in particular at Grouse Mountain and the ski run that is most visible called, 'The Cut'. It felt great to actually ski down the hill. The scenery was absolutely fantastic. A breathtakingly beautiful day that completely showed the  mountains and the coastline at its best. When I say 'ski', I use that term loosely. Mostly, I was going down with not much clue as to what I was doing, but trying to do it a lot slower. Still a lot of fun and I felt proud of myself for going.

The beautiful view from "The Cut"

From the chair life...spectacular!

Then last week Mark took the day off and we went back up to Grouse. Not quite the same. Blizzard conditions; wind and snow whipping across our faces. The fresh snow was built up so that I found it difficult to do anything at first and was quite dismayed. I kept getting stuck and spent quite a bit of the first part of the trip inspecting the snow up close. Eventually the middle section flattened out a bit and I was able to get in some practice. Mark is a good skier...but was very patient!

View from the chair lift...a week later

 

Mark on 'The Cut"...no view this time

We had a couple of snowy days in the city, but it quickly melted. It is always beautiful while it lasts; the city and beaches transformed by the white blanket and the sunshine.

A snowy walk to school

A trip to the Museum of Anthropology on a rainy Sunday is something I really enjoy doing. The kids love it and, aside from trying to pull River out of the displays, it works out well for us. And it is wonderful to be immersed in all of the Native Art. There was a reel-to-reel recording of an old, perhaps no longer spoken, Native language. River was transfixed by it, as he is all recording devices.

Listening

I went to the symphony with my sister; Mahler #2 (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra). It was very moving and beautiful, but by far the most beautiful part comes at the end when the choir joins in. We had to ward off a giggle-fit; you know, the ones you get in places where you know that you CAN NOT possibly have a giggle fit. My shoulders shook as I silently tried to think of terrible things that would distract me from the quiet joke Trini had made. Not easy. Also, for the first time in years, I went to a real, actual play...an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot". I accompanied our friend, Kyle, to the Fredrick Wood Theatre at UBC. I was a bit worried at first when I saw on the programme that the play was 3 and a half hours long...but it really moved along and was incredibly entertaining. I miss going to plays.

River got an attack of bloody headlice. More combing and laundry...(the laundry...the laundry!). I think we have killed them, until the next outbreak.

Oh...a great weekend in Whistler with my Wendy and other writing buddies. Wendy has a great condo there and invited us to join her...thanks Wendy! We didn't get as much writing done as we planned (I was only there overnight), but it was great to meet up. The plan is to go for longer next year and actually get some stuff done. I took the greyhound bus up to Whistler. It was a beautiful clear day and I thoroughly enjoyed the bus ride; relaxed and lost in thought. I think I'd do the bus-ride again...just go there and back and sit and stare out the window. Write-ins with Wendy are continuing and I think it is well worth doing.

Beautiful views just near Wendy's place in Whistler Creekside

 Also...I have been working on a knitting/dyeing project with Helen. I tried different home-based dyes but the results have not been very satisfactory. Got to try it out again.

Oh yeah...I almost forgot. I GOT A JOB!!! I am going to be working part-time at the preschool located at Bronwyn's school. It is not particularly well paid, but there are a lot of fringe benefits, including not needing childcare. Childcare is an issue; expensive and also River needs extra support in any childcare situation. I know that eventually I will have to cross that bridge, but for now I think this job will work out well. It is a bridge between being a stay-at-home-mum and whatever it is that I do next. I am excited to start working again.

So there we are...a bit of catch up. A bit boring, I know. But sometimes it is all you can do to try and get stuff down.

Settling in...

We are into October and the kids seem to be settling into school. River seems to be okay with kindergarten, although there are still some anxieties. He has a very inexperienced Special Education Assistant. This made us nervous at first. Some ways of dealing with River (and kids with autism in general) are way better than others. River's has quite a severe communication delay so it takes time to understand him and read his behaviour. Anyway, he decided to try out, and got away with, some behaviours that are not conducive to learning, i.e., running around the classroom and crawling under tables, and being really silly, etc. However, in the past couple of weeks we have worked with River's SEA and with the school. Matt has been willing to come to the house to work with River's ABA interventionists and also with our consultant. Sometimes inexperience matched with a willingness to learn can be a better thing than experience. So River seems happy and is beginning to understand what is expected of him. He's even brought some little projects home that he completed; cutting and pasting type of stuff. We still pull him out 3 times a week for at-home Behaviour Intervention sessions, which he needs. The school is fine with this and so it is working well. So far I am quite encouraged, but it is early days so I am still a little wary. I'm not sure what we are getting into with IEP's (Individualized Education Plans) and all that. Also speech therapy has gone by the wayside as we wait to go on the school board's list.

The other kids in the class seem to accept River. He cannot really communicate with them and they, being only 4 and 5 years olds, lack the patience that is needed to wait for an understandable, 'typical' response from him. But they take an interest and I think we may be able to put together a birthday party for him. It will be the first birthday party that River has invited his peers to!

He is very into garbage trucks...I could write a whole seperate post on it because I know a lot about garbage trucks now, oh yes. We also discovered that there are A LOT of people out there who are into garbage trucks. You may even be one of them. We discovered all kinds of YouTube videos. I even made one for him of the garbage truck going down our own alley. That is a favourite video. His favourite truck is the "side-hauler"...in case you're interested

Here's one of his favourite vids. A treat for all you garbage truck lovers...and you know you're out there! And the music is a cool too.



Bronwyn continues to love school. I hope it stays that way...but doubt that it will. She is growing up so fast it is amazing.

I am putting out feelers (not very successfully) for work. Trying to find references and update my resume. It is scarier than I thought it would be. The world is not a forgiving place; particularly if you are a woman in her 40's who has left the workplace for 5 years. Thinking about working and what I can do...thinking about childcare (and childcare for River in particular) is giving me some anxiety I must admit. But it must be done. Five years is long enough and I am ready to do something else besides being a stay-at-home mum.

There's a small...and boring update. I will try to do more regular updates. I am conscious of the fact that I have slacked off lately. It happens.