kindergardens {winners!}

The results are in!  I was itching to see who the winners would be in the kindergarden contest.  I went to Kim's blog this afternoon, and there they were!  I was so excited for the winners in each category.  They were all very well-deserved.

And THEN, I got to the bottom, and read this:

And finally we have our best overall in the eyes of our judges.

They chose the one that they felt depicted the spirit of the kinderGARDENS contest best.  I must agree that this family went all out to make the garden a magical place for their child...and the groovy tunnel helped too!  So Thanks for the Lemonade is our judges' pick!

I nearly squealed - I am so tickled!  And surprised...and humbled...and honored...and thrilled!  

AND, one of the judges, Susan Morrison, author of Blue Planet Garden Blog threw in a few additional "unofficial" awards - and Kiddo got the "Cutest Cultivator" award.  Hooray, Kiddo!

We had such a wonderful time in our garden this year.  While we would have gardened anyway, the contest provided the extra motivation we needed to be creative and come up with some ways to make it fun for the whole family.  We're already dreaming about next year...it's going to be a loooong winter!

Be sure to head on over to the Inadvertent Farmer to check out the winners in all of the categories - and you can vote in the "reader's choice" poll for your favorite kindergarden!

helloooo, breakfast!

I went out to breakfast at a local cafe with one of my besties.  I ordered the special.  Cherry-stuffed pancakes.  They were HUGE.  And there were two of them.  I managed about half of ONE.

The macho men sitting at the counter were snickering at me.

So was everyone else.

My bestie?  She ordered a plain bagel.  With butter on the side.  She made me look like a pig.

But I still love her.  :)

farmers market

With no big plans for the day yesterday, we headed to the local indoor farmers' market.  Going there is always, shall we say, a unique cultural experience.  You never know what - or who - you'll find there.  There are fruit stands and meat markets and small lunch counters.  There are stalls with cheap wallets, cheap socks, cheap leather jackets, cheap perfume, cheap belts and cheap shoes.  There are stores where you can buy vinyl records, laser discs and cassette tapes.  There are barbers and nail salons, and a pet alligator ("please don't touch").  But Kiddo enjoys it for two reasons:

1)  The slot car track.

For two dollars, you can rent a car and race around the track for 15 minutes.  

It's where all the boys - and their dads - congregate (although you wouldn't know it from these pictures - Kiddo and Hubby had it to themselves while we were there.  As we were leaving, however, several boys were just coming in).

After we'd had our fill of slot cars, we headed to Kiddo's other favorite:

2) Auntie Anne cinnamon and sugar pretzels.  It's right across the walkway from the slot cars, and absolutely irresistible.  Yummmmmmy!  The three of us were covered in sugar and cinnamon granules (and probably left a trail of them down the aisle behind us), but it was so worth it. 

After a leisurely stroll through the rest of the market, we headed to the library (where I found a cute book), then came home to rake leaves, wash piles of laundry, and put the garden to bed for the winter.  Sleep tight, dear garden, can't wait to wake you up in the spring!

book review {The Curious Garden}

I found a charming book at the library today...

Little Liam lives in a city where all is drab and brown.  No flowers, no trees, no grass.  One day, Liam finds a set of stairs that leads up to an abandoned elevated railway.  He decides to investigate, and when he gets to the tracks, he finds a tiny patch of green.

"But when he took a closer look, it became clear that the plants were dying.  They needed a gardener."

Liam decides he can help.

 

"As the weeks rolled by, Liam began to feel like a real gardener, and the plants began to feel like a real garden."  Eventually, the garden becomes "curious," and starts expanding and exploring the railway bed and spilling over into other parts of the town.

There are funny bits...

And the illustrations draw you in with their simplicity and bright colors.

And as plants and gardens start popping up around town, others around town get the itch to grow things:

 

Until the city is bright and colorful and full of growing things.  

A simple story about a child learning to garden, and, in the process, teaching those around him as well.  Lovely little book to read with your little one(s) (or, in my case, by yourself, if the little one won't sit still long enough.  I've read it to myself at least three times this afternoon!).

kindergardens - week 24 {re-cap}

Despite the tropical temps the past few days (it's supposed to hit 90 this afternoon), Fall has arrived.

The mornings are brisk and cool, the leaves are changing colors, the geese are heading south, and the squirrels are busily stashing acorns away.  And we've come to the final week of the kindergarden contest.  What an adventure it has been!  We have had a blast gardening as a family.  There is an archive of all of our past kindergarden posts over in the side bar, but here is a re-cap of our summer (p.s. it is REALLY hard to condense five months of gardening into one blog post!):

We started out in the spring with mulch - lots and lots of mulch.

Kiddo created his own flower bed:

 

We've planted seeds and watched them grow:

We've been gifted seeds by a new friend:

We've picked and pulled and harvested:

We've snacked and grilled and frozen and dried and canned:

The highlight of our garden by far this year was the tunnel:

We've added some non-organic color:

(stepping stones)

(garden rocks)

(picnic table)

We've snapped and sniffed our way through the garden:

We've had some invited (and uninvited) guests:

(fish for our pond)

(more pond critters)

(birds)

(the less said about these little stinkers, the better)

(the butterflies loved Kiddo's flowers)

Hubby's grand peanut experiment actually worked (we're planning on roasting them in another week or so)!

And I have fallen in love with sunflowers.

Thanks so much to Kim, who dreamed up the kindergarden contest.  It has been an awesome motivator to get us out there together as a family.  It has been one of the highlights of our summer.  We're already dreaming and scheming for next spring (I'm so excited)!

Thanks for coming along for the ride.  Be sure to go visit Kim at the Inadvertent Farmer and be amazed at what everyone else has done over the summer - lots of cute kids and fabulous ideas!

the plunge

We took the plunge yesterday!  We sent in our application to adopt from Ethiopia.  We are nervous.  We are excited!  We are nervously excited.  We are excitedly nervous.  Kiddo has been asking lots of questions.  He is eager to know who his siblings will be.  He has been praying for a baby sister for more than two years now, but he decided this week that a little brother (or two) would be okay, too.

We have applied to adopt a sibling group under the age of six.  Boys?  Girls?  One of each?  Who knows?  God knows!  Can't wait to see what our family will look like in another year or two.  Stay tuned - and thanks for joining us on this incredible journey we've embarked upon!

friends

My friends are the best.  Thanks so much to all of you who commented here or on Facebook, who called and e-mailed about Kiddo's (and my) struggles with friendships at school.  Kiddo and I talked the other night and he would like for me to go in and talk to his class and read them one of his favorite picture books about kids with Asperger's Syndrome (awesome book - "I Am Utterly Unique," by Elaine Marie Larson and Vivian Strand), so I will try to plan that with his teacher.  Please pray that it goes well and that I will say the right things and his classmates will be compassionate and patient.  You all are awesome.  It makes such an amazing difference to have wonderful friends like you surrounding us and supporting us.  Thank you.

recess

I hate recess.

On the way to school this morning, Kiddo said from the back seat, "No one likes to play with me at recess.  So I'm going to think of some really fun games to play, and then maybe they will want to play with me!"  My heart broke a little. I told him I thought that was a great idea.  I suggested he should also think of someone he wants to play with, and then go up to them at recess and say "Hi, (Billy or whoever), what are you playing?  Can I play, too?" (he sometimes needs a script to follow in social situations).  "I know, Mommy," he said, "I tried that a couple of times already."  I started brainstorming.  I asked him if his classmates still played soccer during recess, since organized games are sometimes easier for him to grasp, and he has had some success with soccer in the past.  "Sometimes," he said, "but they wouldn't give me a turn with the ball, so I just left."  By this time, we had arrived at school.  I gave him a big hug, told him that if I could pick any kid on the playground to be mine, I would pick him, and sent him to class.  I held it together on the way home, but when I got in the door, I broke down and just sobbed.  Being a kid is hard.  So is being a mom.

I admire his spunk and determination so much, to go out there every day hoping for a playmate, thinking of creative ideas to try and get the other kids to play with him, and it breaks my heart to think that the other kids at school can't see what an awesome kid he is.  Who wouldn't want to play with this little guy?

Yes, he has his quirks, but he is also fun, and funny, and creative.  He gets so much joy out of being with other kids.  It saddens me that they aren't willing to have a little extra patience with him, to explain the rules of their game, to wait for him as he navigates the playground equipment.  He wants to play with the other kids so much, yet can't keep up with the speed of their social interactions, or the ever-changing rules of their games.  Or they will allow him to play for a few minutes until they realize he can't run or climb the playground equipment as quickly and easily as they can, and he either gets left behind, or told that they don't want to play with him any more.

What's frustrating as a mom is how helpless I feel.  How do I help him when I'm not there?  And even if I were there, what would I do?  Tell the other kids that they MUST play with my kid?  Stick to his side and coach him through every interaction?  There are teachers and staff members out on the playground, but I can't expect them to follow my child around the whole time, making sure he is included.  They have a hundred other kids to look after as well.  Maybe it would it help if I went in to school and talked to his class about autism and what they can do to help?  Or would that just single him out as being "different" even more?  What I probably will do, at least, is talk to his teacher and/or the special education resource room at school, to see if they have any suggestions.  But I think this is something Kiddo will struggle with for years.   

My prayer this year has been for Kiddo to find a friend.  Just one friend.  I had high hopes when school started a few weeks ago, but after this morning, I am worried that it won't happen, that the other kids won't give him a chance.  I'm sure that's a little premature of me, but I'm his mom.  I can't help it. 

Dear Lord,

Thank you for this amazing son you've given me.  Thank you for his determination, for his creativity.  Thank you for his sweet and gentle spirit, for his laughter and for the joy he gets out of life.  Please help his classmates to see the many gifts you have given him.  Help him also to recognize the gifts and strengths of others.  Please bring him one friend at school, someone who will see him as you see him, who will love him despite his weaknesses and idiosyncrasies.  And may this experience help my son to love others who seem a little different, and to treat them with compassion.  

Help me as a mom know how to help him and support him best.  Help me to know when to stand back and let him fight his own battles, when to coach him from the sidelines, and when to step in and get more involved.  Please give me wisdom as I parent this incredible kid.  

Love,
me 

***

P.S.  Now that I go back and read over this, it sounds like the other kids at school are mean and cruel.  They are not.  They are sweet kids.  I am in the classroom regularly, and they are wonderful children.  They just don't understand my son, and, with so many other "easy" playmates around, they don't take the time to figure him out.  I have also been very grateful for the teachers and staff, who love my son and genuinely care about him and want him to succeed.  They have been willing to go the extra mile with him, to help him over hurdles and rough spots.  Hopefully we can make it over this hurdle, too.

speaking of lemons...

The following is a repost from last spring.  I removed it from the blog over the summer because we had a potential birth family considering us as an adoptive family for their baby.  I gave them the blog address, but I wanted to explain Kiddo's diagnosis to them in person, instead of having them read bits and pieces of it on the blog.  But this is an important part of our family's story (and I was writing a post today and realized it wouldn't make much sense unless this post was available as background)...

*** 

You might say that one of the "occasional lemons" that we've found thus far in our journey as a family is autism.  Our son is autistic.  Not in the classic autism sense, but in the has-some-autistic-characteristics-so-has-been-diagnosed-on-the-very-high-functioning-end-of-the-autism-spectrum sense (did you know autism was a spectrum of multiple disorders with a variety of symptoms and a wide range of severity?  I surely didn't a year ago). 

I tell you this not to try and gain sympathy or pity (although sympathy from those who understand our unique challenges is welcome on those hard days).  I don't expect (nor do I want) to write regularly about parenting a spectrum child, but I feel like I need to provide a point of reference so that, if I happen to write about how excited I am that my son actually participated in a game of soccer with his classmates at recess last week, you will hopefully understand that I am not a crazy lunatic mom, but a mom who has watched her son struggle throughout the entire school year to understand the complex social interactions that are swirling around him with seemingly blazing speed, and it is crazy exciting to see him improve and grow.  Crazyexciting AWESOME (I still feel like jumping and cheering - or crying - when I think about that soccer game).

What does it mean to have a child like mine?  It means that I see my child eagerly wanting to spend time with other kids, but he is often on the sidelines.  It means that he has trouble keeping up on the playground because he can't catch or throw a ball and has trouble with jumping, balance, and other skills that his peers take for granted.  It means that he is a perfectionist who is occasionally overwhelmed by frustration when something isn't perfect [insert wailing and gnashing of teeth here].  It means that we have to deal with varying degrees of anxiety whenever there is a change in routine.  It means that if he wakes up crying in the middle of the night for one reason or another, we never know if he will settle back down within minutes and sleep the rest of the night, or if he will escalate into a full-blown meltdown [insert more wailing and gnashing of teeth] that keeps all three of us up for an hour.  It means that Hubby and I get to practice patience.  Lots.  And lots.  Of patience.       

And it means that we get to delight in our son's unique gifts.  He is smart.  He reads well and loves numbers and math.  He has an unbelievable memory.  He has an original way of thinking that is quirky and cool.  And he's just an amazing, sweet, gentle little guy (I'm totally unbiased).

At this moment, I'm not sure I would want to wish away his autism.  His hurt, yes.  As a mom, I would love to shelter him from at least some of that.  But his autism is also a part of who he is, and I love ALL of him - including the autistic parts (kind of like how God loves ALL of us, too - only He does it better).  I am so excited to see what kind of person my boy becomes.  He is so unique and special, I am really enjoying watching him learn and grow and continue to become the kid he was meant to be.  It is a pleasure to parent this boy, even with the unique challenges that come along with it.  We will still work to give him the tools he needs to successfully navigate this world, but I don't want my objective to be to change him, to make him like everyone else.

This journey is an adventure.  Definitely.  There are low spots where we slog through the day and throw up our hands in exasperation, but they are overshadowed by the high spots - the peals of laughter, the curiosity and thirst for knowledge, the wacky creativity and sense of humor.  And the adorable missing-tooth grins.
  

Sluuuurp.  This is pretty tasty lemonade.


(for more info if you are really interested, our guy's "symptoms" are almost an identical match to Asperger's Syndrome, a disorder also on the autism spectrum.  More info can be found here).

kindergardens - week 22 {paint and peanuts}

With our garden getting ready to sleep for the winter, we decided to go for "whimsy" this week by adding some color to our yard...

I scrubbed the pollen and grime off, Hubby sanded...

I painted on a couple of coats of white house paint (we thought it would take three or four gallons to paint our garage last year - it took half a gallon.  We have LOTS of house paint), and then I handed the paint brush to Kiddo and let him loose!

...and here's the end result!  Ta-dah!  Bet you don't have a picnic table like this one.  Meg was our inspiration.  You should go visit her and fall in love with her blog.  I even stole her colors, as I was feeling pretty indecisive, standing in the paint aisle at Lowe's.  You should have seen the looks they gave me when I asked for five different (bright!) colors of exterior paint.

We tried it out on Labor Day.  Next to our drying gourds (not rotting yet - yay!).

(I caught Hubby mid-chew.  Sorry, Hubby!)

The picnic table is actually a part of Kiddo's swing set.  We are talking about using the rest of the paint to do the whole swing set.  The neighbors won't mind seeing a rainbow swing set outside their kitchen window every morning, right?

In other gardening news...drum roll, please...

we've got PEANUTS!!

My hubby is the next George Washington Carver.

We are looking forward to roasting them (or attempting to), but apparently we are supposed to let them dry for a couple of weeks first.  More waiting.  Sigh...

And finally, last week I wondered aloud about why purple beans turn green when their cooked.  And Grace found the answer for me!  Thanks, Grace!

Be sure to check out the Inadvertent Farmer for more kindergarden news.  This week, Kim posted about the Oregon Gardens.  They have some awesome ideas in their children's garden - including a hobbit house and awesome pot people.  I'm really tempted to find a place for some pot people next year.