It feels like Saturday!

X-man was off school today. We got to get up a little later than a typical school day, but we had a parent/teacher conference at 8:45 a.m. The conference went okay. Most of X-man's struggles have to do with his trouble writing, so I contacted the OT I know today and we're setting up a time for her to evaluate him. She'll also get to see him at school starting Oct. 29th. His teachers were very happy with his verbal expression, reading comprehension and how much he enjoys and excels at math and science. We saw vast overall behavioral and confidence improvement from last year, too. So, the socialization and behavioral issues are definitely improving with age and counseling. But he still has trouble operating as part of a group. He does better one-on-one with his friends. And we all know that cooperative learning and problem solving is going to continually be a part of his school life. We'll get to talk to his therapist April Keaton about that on Nov. 8th. She's moving out of Kevin Elliott Counseling and setting up her own practice at Windsor and Duncan, which means no more remembering change to pay downtown meters each week. I'll write about the OT evaluation after we have it.

Carrie Busey also had their fall book fair today. We let X-man pick out the books he wanted. In the last couple of weeks he's suddenly gone totally Star Wars crazy. He's also manual crazy. He wants to see pages and pages of characters. He wants to know the names of each of the clone troops (he's this way over Pokémon, too). I have to draw a line sometimes when reading to him or I'll go nutso. We also got a couple of chapter books.

Then we stopped in to see the school librarian, Ms. Cahill. I totally miss volunteering this semester. Stupid foot! Anyway, the school had a decorate a pumpkin like a storybook character contest. X-man and I made the fish from "Memoirs of a Goldfish." We got to vote for Best in Show, Cutest, Scariest, Most like the Book, etc. All three of us voted and I cannot wait to get back into the library. I feel totally out of sync because I don't know the "way of things" at the school. It's just odd to be there because I haven't been.

When we got home, X-man asked to watch Clone Wars and play at LegoStarWars.com. I set him up and then went upstairs while MacTroll got on his conference calls. I needed something therapeutic to do, so I sat down on the floor of X-man's room and sorted Legos and scrubbed down his Lego table with cleaner. Then he came up, noticed that all of his "town" pieces were on the table together and not in a mess and we started playing. Then we pulled out the Scribbles coloring and activity book my sister got him for his birthday and we did some activities. He read me the instructions and then I'd take one page and he'd take another. We fed some crocodiles with our art. We determined that the "heavier" of an object would be an elephant over a refrigerator. We drew striped and polka dotted brontosauruses. It was fun.

I made X-man lunch and then set him up with his next section of Handwriting without Tears. He finished his worksheet practice with only one correction from me. Afterwards we all had to head out to the library so that MacTroll and I participate in early voting at the Tolono Public Library. It was awesome. It was so nice because X-man could go pick out books while we voted and we didn't have to worry about standing in line. We were voter numbers 100 and 101. And there were at least a half dozen people coming in behind us.

Then we drove north and got MacTroll his birthday cake. I ordered him a specialty Doctor Who cake from the Cake Artist's Studio that looks like the Tardis for his 37th birthday tomorrow. X-man is adamant that we must celebrate birthdays. So a cake is a requirement. I still haven't found the black camera, so here's a photo of one that is similar. But I like celebrating MacTroll, too. :-)

Then we went to Meijer to do a quick pick up of food. I stayed in the car with X-man and read him some of the library books. Two of them were picture books based on uncomfortable social situations. He would panic in the middle of them, and we'd have to close them and talk about what made him upset. One was Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Monkey on his Back: A Tale about Telling the Truth and the other was I Gotta Draw about a boy who can't stop doodling (It's his fidgit) in school and he's earning terrible grades until his teacher adapts a bit and learns to accommodate his learning style. Then the whole class is integrating learning and art.

When we got home, MacTroll had a few more calls to make. So X-man and I headed up the stairs to his room to play more Legos. We also ended up reading "One Morning in Maine" by Robert McCloskey. There's a scene in the book where the older sister is helping the little sister brush her teeth. I asked X-man who the girls reminded him of. He smiled and said Super Ella and Super Chloe. Great minds think alike.

When MacTroll was done with the phone around 6 p.m., the boys sat down with the BIG purchase from the book fair today: A paper airplane book where you make the starships from Star Wars. Cutting and folding are fine motor skills, so it was nice to see them working together. Plus, there are five pages of each plane, so you can make whole squadrons. X-man makes up stories about what's happening with the planes. "A bad guy stole this Naboo plane so the X-wing has to run him down..." MacTroll is now playing planes with his Millennium Falcon while we prepare to watch Return of the Jedi as a Family Movie Night.

But I keep having to remind myself that tomorrow is Saturday! And after the giant cake is out of my fridge we'll have room to do a real grocery shopping trip. :-)

Last night I tried to watch the DVD of the first two episodes of Game of Thrones. It made me terribly uncomfortable and after violence against children in episode one and violence against dogs in episode two... I've decided I am not the Game of Thrones key audience. I had to fast forward through most of it (incest, arranged marriage and dwarves, oh my!). I think I'll go back to the Big Bang Theory. Much more my speed... I find great comfort in Leonard and Sheldon.