Catching up

The last couple of days have been busy. Thursday, I worked very hard on AJ's socks. I wanted to have them finished by the end of the day. At one, I met my friend Sandy for lunch at our favorite coffee shop. We spent the usual two hours there. We were joined at two by my son's friend, John, who had seen my car in the parking lot.

He and Sandy had a nice long talk about autistic kids - his middle child and her oldest grandchild. It was interesting to compare the two kids. Although they're three years apart, there are still a lot of similarities in their behavior.

Thursday was also Jazz night at one of the local bars. My neighbor is a member of the orchestra so I joined his wife and a couple of her friends. We all left after the first set, primarily because everyone else had come directly from work, and I didn't want to walk out to the parking  lot alone later. 

Friday was a school day. Since the last time I was at AJ's school, things had been rearranged. The drive-thru was no longer in operation. It's now a coffee shop. Just after Thanksgiving a parent had donated a wooden puppet theater set-up. The boys immediately decided it was a drive- up window in a fast food place. So everyday, the kids would play "Drive up" and dispense play food for play money. Now the theater is in a different corner with puppets and the former block area is now a coffee shop with a coffee maker, cups and empty coffee bags  and a couple of empty tea boxes.

I  helped at the art center, but really all the kids needed was for me to hold stuff while they used entire rolls of tape to attach various bits and pieces to paper towel tubes to make airplanes. I made paper airplanes for some of the other boys. We went outside for recess and I watched the kids until the buses came. AJ and I went for lunch at the mall.

When we came back to my house, she wanted to watch a movie first and then go to the Dream Park. The Dream Park is a really cool castle-like play area will all manner of swinging and climbing places. It's very popular during the warmer weather. AJ and I are usually the only ones there early Friday afternoons.

The Dream Park

The day had cooled down considerably from when we were first out at 11. The sky had clouded over and the sun was no longer warming us. But we were there from about 2:30 until a little after 3. Some kids had built an igloo-type structure in the puppet theater at the park.The pile was a huge mound, tunneled all the way through with steps on the side in the puppet theater and a slide on the outside. AJ had fun crawling in and out and sliding down.

When we came home, I made her some hot chocolate and popcorn and let her watch "Sleeping Beauty." She wanted to see Oma so I called and asked if she could go over. I dropped her off  and went back. When AJ's mom called, I told her that I had dropped her off at Oma's and I didn't know if AJ was sleeping there or here. Last I heard, AJ was back at home.