Birthday Boy

My son Ben is ten years old now. It seems like only yesterday that he was a little "alien" in an ultrasound photo. Now he has been a prisoner in his own mind for a whole decade.

He is getting too big for us to handle on our own. We are facing some very big decisions for his future and ours. If I had one wish, one dream to be fulfilled as I blew out candles on a cake...it would be this: That a key could be found to unlock that mental barrier. Better yet, that I could use a battering ram to vanquish useless synapses. I wish that I knew how to do...anything, anything at all to help him. It seems like a losing battle, but one that can't be lost for his sake, for our sakes.

I have hope and hopelessness. I have anger and sadness, regret and resolve. I have mixed emotions, to say the least.

Tomorrow is a new day, not a birthday, but a regular day. One more 24 hour time period to survive. That is what we are doing now, surviving, with style.




http://www.flickr.com/photos/sleepishly/2656467632/

Cyber Distaste

I saw a T.V. segment about a woman's blog that brings in $40k a week. She has huge sponsors like McDonald's, WalMart and Target. Curiosity piqued, I checked out her blog. The first few I read were ordinary and docile with a photo of her baby girl and a couple of lines. I read one about breastfeeding vs. formula that made me laugh out loud and sent it to my sister.

After that email, I read a few more and found vulgar comments and foul language that made me regretful that I had sent my innocent little sister to pollute her mind in cyber distaste. So here is my point...why the language lady? Don't people know how much the "f" word cheapens them? Yeah, so you are just speaking your mind, not caring what other people think, blah, blah, blah. I think that it takes a keen intellect to be able to express yourself in descriptions, analogies, humor, and colorful storytelling. On the other hand, I think that anyone with two brain cells to rub together can spew out cuss words and vulgarities. They teach potty mouth early on in every public school education, but that doesn't make it a good thing to learn.

I remember when Bill Cosby was in the news criticizing his African-American counterparts who spoke "Ebonics." He said that it took them back hundreds of years to when his people weren't well educated. In essence, it devalued all of the progress that they have made toward equality. That is a tragedy. How we speak, carry ourselves and present our ideas to others, adds or detracts from our perceived intelligence. If the President started a speech with "Yo, homey! How's it hangin'?" his authority would definitely be questioned. (Not that we shouldn't question him A LOT anyway!).

So McDonald's, what are you doing putting your endorsement on a blog that encourages the degradation of intelligence and promotion of foul lanquage and vulgar comments? Wally World, are you discounting your standards as well as your products? Why don't you be a no-vice leader as well as a low price leader? And Target, I think that you really missed the mark on this one! Think again people, in Nice vs. Vice, vote for good, the way that you always should. Now play nice!

I think that Wendy's and Kmart will be getting my business for a while.

"Veggies" Rot Your Brain

I know that every pyramid put out by the government tells us to eat plenty of vegetables to help us be healthy, but when can a good thing become too much of a good thing? When veggies get their own video series that your autistic son watches over and over adnauseam (that means it makes me sick!). My four year old yells "Not Veggie Tales! I want Thomas!!!" Or, heaven forbid, how about just leaving the T.V. on PBS? While I am wishing out loud, dreaming the impossible dream and planning how to spend my lottery winnings, how about some grown up television? Once upon a time, I remember watching shows with plots and dialogue, complex relationships and characters with arms and legs. Now I watch singing and dancing limbless legumes and articulate asparagus' (Asparagui or asparagusses?, see what I mean? My brain is gone). Is there any escape?

We try letting the other children watch their shows on a different T.V. or on the computer, but Ben is master of all. If it is in his realm, he dictates what is being viewed. How, you ask? Simply by stalking close by, waiting for a moment of weakness or a breach in security, then making his move. It is the same technique that he uses for stealing other people's food. I can't stand guard all of the time. I guard the T.V. for Wheel of Fortune occasionally, but it is exhausting to keep up that level of security for all viewing.

This persistance is why we are on our seventh DVD/VCR player, because he won't leave them alone. We also just spent a nice chunk of money repairing our portable DVD player and the small, yet sturdy, T.V./DVD combo that has been dragged down the stairs twice by its cord. It has such a strong will to live, that we just had to fix it. Plus, it was half the cost of replacing it. We just monitor how many movies that he has access to because apparently three at a time is just too many. We keep one player downstairs locked in a cabinet and the portable in the locked kitchen cupboard that I call the "forbidden cupboard." The combo one is upstairs in our always locked bedroom, so occasionally he can be upstairs with Dad and the rest of us can access the electronics.

I know that he will grow out of this stage like he did the Teletubbies, Blue's Clues and Disney CARS obsessions, but I'm ready to move on now! Those Veggies are rotting my brain!



http://www.flickr.com/photos/stickerart/3623387716/ Picture source