Rearrainging Life

This week is vacation week for all of Liam's previous classmates.  For us, it's prep week.  In addition to moving into a whole new rhythm for our family, we've also been dealing with having a family member in the hospital, which has been a reminder of the old saying, "life is what happens while you were making other plans."

We have to find our rhythm, since both my husband and I work at home, but also be flexible for situations (like family emergencies) that take us out of that rhythm.  I still feel like I'm finding my footing in a moving stream. Today still seems more like a weekend than a Monday.  The dry Santa Ana winds brandishing desert dust and pollen outside make me want to curl up with a book and a cup of hot tea and let the kid run as he may, but I know I have to get it together and start to work the plan, at least the life-skills part.

Liam needs to do things independently, which ironically means that for a while he'll need to be supervised.  Yesterday I let him make his own lunch.  On removing the bagel from the toaster, he dropped it out of surprise from the heat, exclaiming, "it's flames!"  He made the bed on just a suggestion this morning and managed to get himself dressed.  Later today, we'll go to the bank and the mall.  I'll give him a budget to buy something and let him calculate it on my iphone.   I'll also let him choose some foods at the grocery store for his lunch and dinner.  Expanding his self-limited food choices is one of the goals - allowing him more potential choices when we're out around town or traveling and he can't have a bagel and chips.  Right now the out-of-the-house go-tos are french fries and pizza (sometimes).

Meanwhile, Liam is in a Klasky Csupo frame of mind today.  He was picking out the theme on the piano this morning.  Here's a crazy picture of how he programmed a piece of John's gear to display the name of the animation studio.  John assured me that it isn't easy to figure out how to do that on this particular piece of gear (which I never use).  While we're out, Liam will make videos of digital displays on my iphone and edit them into imovie to make his own videos later.  Onward.