When I was growing up, as I’ve mentioned before, my dad used to take us to sporting events on a regular basis.
None of us were really that “baggage heavy” at the time – I was 6 or 7 when my dad took me to my first pro basketball game, and by the time we were going regularly to sporting events, I had to be in my teens (meaning all of my sibs were mid-elementary school or later). Continue reading
There’s always tradeoffs when you’re dealing with what’s best for your children, weighing what is in their long term best interests versus the shorter-term benefits and trying to figure out where to strike a balance.
The decision on where that balance is really is different when it comes to parenting a special needs child, and I don’t think that’s something I was ever really prepared for. Continue reading
Yesterday, we decided to take in a movie.
Now… I don’t get to see first run movies very often. The largest problem really is that we don’t have a regular babysitter, but we also don’t go to see many movies as a family due to the obvious issues – movies are generally very bright in a very dark space, they’re loud, and there’s not much tolerance for a child who can’t sit still. Continue reading
I grew up going to sporting events.
I was very, very fortunate as a child – between my father’s season tickets to the New Jersey Nets and New York Jets (and what fabulous seats those were), and the ocasional tickets that we were given by neighbors to go see the Yankees, we kids frequently got to go see sporting events. I always assumed, as I was growing up, that I’d be doing the same someday with my kids. Continue reading
For some strange reason, we have a week off between camp and school on either side of the summer break.
When I was a kid, the camps were basically set up to start the week after school ended, and then we had two weeks after camp before school resumed. (Our camp also offered a ninth-week program for those parents who didn’t want to have us lingering around the house.) This meant that parents had a good stretch of time to plan for, rather than having to fill two smaller periods… Continue reading
My company, or at least my local division of it, has a couple of major recreational activities each year. We have a Halloween party to end all, where the kids are invited to come trick-or-treat around our office, and the employees have a major decorating contest with massive prizes. We have a formal holiday party that’s just to die for, and gets better every year. And we have the company summer picnic.
For the last several years, the picnic’s been at a local club where we could have a cookout, eat hard-shell crabs and go swimming. This year, as a change, the company picnic was at Six Flags America, down by Washington, DC. Continue reading
Tomorrow is the Monster’s gymnastics day, one of his favorite activities that’s going to soon be coming to a temporary end as the school year moves into the summer camp period.
It’s not a lack of money that’s going to be ending his time at gymnastics for now, but really just a lack of time – we don’t know how it’s going to work, getting him from the camp bus to the gymnastics center, what his energy level’s going to be, and so it’s better in our minds to hold off until the fall. Continue reading
I hear a lot about how children with Autism “play” with toys.
Now, when I read about other kids – and indeed, when I watch the Monster with his toys – a lot of play involves making the wheels spin, or the like. It’s not what the toy was perhaps meant for, but it’s what entertains or fascinates them. Continue reading
All thirty teams in Major League Baseball are doing Autism Awareness Days. The Orioles had theirs yesterday (which is why there wasn’t a post) and we got out to the game for a change.
We were there with the Baltimore-Chesapeake Chapter of the Autism Society of America, though there was also a large contingent from Autism Speaks and a school that had raised money for research as well. Continue reading
The wife had originally thought of taking the kids to the Zoo today – it seemed to make perfect sense, since (in theory) folks would be in church and we could squeeze in a few hours before it started to rain. Of course, it was cold all day and started to drizzle, and the baby decided he needed a morning nap, so that went right out the window. Instead, I took it on myself to try to get at least some of the Monster’s homework done before the wife’s left with it. Continue reading