Tomorrow, I hope to finally have my re-eval at physical therapy. But I have to admit, while I was out with Lily this morning, there were times when I could picture myself running rather than walking. Tonight I walked over to the neighbors to pick up some wrapping paper that I'd ordered from one of the kids who goes to Barkstall. I felt like running down the two houses. It felt like a night to run. Two years ago, I totally would have been out there in it wearing my reflective sash, zooming around Prairie Fields and getting a good look at all the Christmas lights that only a neighborhood within 1/4 mile of a Wal-mart could produce.
I miss coming back somehow covered in sweat but not at all warm.
I hate the extra fat around my middle and in my thighs. I'm scared to get on the scale. I know that I'm about to give up dairy in the new year due to my lactose intolerance. I know that I'm pretty much (outside of eating eggs and honey) about to go vegan.
"Nearly vegan" is what it is called in the book "Becoming Vegan."
I'm not entirely happy about it. But my body is also obviously, not happy about anything dairy that goes into my body. So, I don't have much of a choice.
I got on a recumbent bike and was able to peddle it for an hour the other day. I couldn't do that last spring. It hurt too much. Now there is no pain. So that's something. I think it'll be a long time before I'm able to get dressed up and put on nice shoes.
X-man had a breakthrough this week, which is nice. We're still back and forth between going in for an evaluation here and waiting until we get to Silicon Valley (i.e. Land of everyone is likely to be on the spectrum). We got a letter from Unit 4 the other day about some test he took as a precursor to being invited to test for the Unit 4 gifted program. His results were very good. He wanted me to explain to him the concept of the bell curve. He was worried he was supposed to be in the middle and that he was dumb and missed it. When I explained that he was on the advanced size of the bell curve he got excited. And I have to admit that I got excited seeing him excited. But it gave him a dose of self-confidence, especially after a day where he'd gotten bullied on the playground. The kids have a nickname for him -- "Absent." X-man explained that he said it's because they think he's stupid in the head. And clearly, according to the test results, he's not.
At Mathman, X-man was working on graphing all the possible addition problems he could make to equal six. When he got through them, he asked if he could use 7 + -1. Mr. Cohen said, "Yes!" So they started working together with negative numbers.
In reading, he's advanced from a level 6 reader to level 12-13. That's good progress. His teacher says they want him to be about a level 16 to be at grade level for second grade. So we're working on it. My worry is that he doesn't perform as well in the school environment as he does at home.
Today, after school, we dropped our neighbor off at home to his grandmother and then we went to the Cookies at the Clearinghouse library. It's where I've gotten most of my materials regarding the Autism Spectrum, Gifted with learning disabilities, emotional intensities, etc. My friend LL is the librarian there. X-man had four cookies, won a door prize (who doesn't love a coffee mug with a beach ball and angry bird bandaids?) and got to see his friend Awesome there. X-man knows where the picture books are, so he brought a couple over for me to read. Then we went to and enjoyed the pottery painting place in town. We ran into neighbors. X-man painted a snoopy on his dog house. I painted an ice cream bowl and spoon for X-man to use at home.
When we got home, he ran down the street to meet his friends' new pet -- a mouse. He said it has three names. One in Russian and then two in English that the kids can't agree on. (Three kids, one mouse.)
Tomorrow is Friday. We're taking X-man's teachers their gifts tomorrow afternoon. Then we're going to a Candy Cane Hunt via Flashlight at the Prairie Farm. MacTroll doesn't get home until late, but he did find his headlamp before he left for X-man to use.
Oh, and I got foam gingerbread houses instead of the ones made of candy and food. It was enjoyable to do together, but much less messy and no bad candy!
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