A Look Back At Kai's First Semester of High School, and New Year's Mochi

This time of year is a great time to reflect back while also looking ahead.

2018 was a significant year for Kai as he graduated from middle school and began high school. After eight and a half years at a therapeutic school, his return to a regular school for high school has been mostly successful. He seems to be doing well in his classes - it looks like he will earn A's in English, reading, science, and history plus a B in algebra for his first semester. Though his classes are considered to be "fundamentals" and seem to be very basic. We worry that these classes won't offer him the opportunity to attend college, but that will be a discussion we need to have with his school.

Besides grades, though, our biggest concern going in was whether or not Kai would be able to handle the environment of a much larger school. In that regard, his transition has been relatively successful. His classes are all within a self-contained special ed program so he is getting a lot of support. While Kai is making gains in many areas, he still struggles when his environment becomes ambiguous and unpredictable. He especially struggles with socialization, preferring to exercise control over things and not wanting to have direct collaboration with peers. We were hoping that attending a regular school would expose him to more socialization opportunities but he has little desire to socialize with others, and while we encouraged him to join extracurricular clubs to expand his high school experiences, the few he tried haven't gone particularly well.

The best 'extra' experiences have been those we enjoyed together with him, such as at a couple of his school's football games.

Kai's cousins are part of the marching band and Kai enjoyed seeing them in the halftime performances.

Most kids go to the games with their friends, not their parents. Not sure if that is something that Kai will want to do in the coming few years.

I have a feeling that in terms of socialization, progress will be slower than we had hoped. But as Kai goes into his second semester of high school, let's see if can be more comfortable in ambiguous situations.

* * * * * *
A Japanese tradition is to make mochi for New Year's. As Santa brought us a mochi maker this Christmas, we made our mochi for the first time.

My wife used the mochi machine to cook the sweet rice and then knead and pound it. (In the old days, pounding the rice was a manual process and part of the ritual of making mochi.) My wife took the mochi out of the machine.

She then showed me and Kai how to shape the mochi into individual pieces.

And then it was our turn to try.

With our own machine, we can make mochi whenever we want to and don't have to make too much at one time.

We had some for lunch today and will have more tomorrow with our ozoni, the Japanese soup containing mochi rice cakes that is part of the Japanese New Year tradition.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year (Belatedly)! and Dogs

Better late than never?

We had nine dogs at our peak during the recent holidays. A lot of people ask if Kai likes the dogs. Well, he gets a little jealous that they take up a lot of Mom's time, and there are some he likes more than others, but he does like some of them, and several of them really like him.

The above dog is Mancha, a three-legged dog who was rescued by her owners from a shelter in Mexico.

And above is another of Kai's (and our) favorites, Bruno, a really playful, high-energy cutie. Though here at the end of full day of playing, he's found a comfortable resting spot.

Kai also helped out walking the dogs, taking the smaller ones while my wife handled the bigger ones (and I helped when I was not at work). Here Kai is with Hubert.

Happy New Year

Best wishes for a happy and healthy year in 2015!

Happy New Year!

A few weeks ago, we all watched the live version of The Sound of Music. Kai enjoyed it and said he wanted to watch the original movie version as well. So, for New Year’s Eve, we had a special movie night: ribs, shrimp, and the Julie Andrews version of The Sound of Music.

Then we donned our party hats, had my wife's delicious sponge cake for dessert, and prepared to watch the ball drop on Times Square.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

10:30 is usually a late night for me and my wife so we were not excited about staying up until midnight to ring in the new year.

Two years ago, we convinced Kai that he only needed to stay up to watch the ball drop on Times Square, which is one hour ahead of us. But last year he insisted that we stay up until midnight Chicago time, and this year was the same.

So, we had a lot of time to do things. First, we watched Toy Story 2, and the dogs and my wife had a hard time staying awake.

But Kai was wide awake the entire time. After the movie, he decorated our New Year’s cake.

And as the New Year approached, even the dogs perked up.

As the ball dropped on Times Square, we popped open our bottle of sparkling grape juice.

We had our cake and ate it, too, when we rang in the new year on Chicago time as well.

A new year is a time for optimism and resolve. Kai will turn 9 this year. We know he will change and grow in many ways. We look forward to see how it all unfolds.

Happy new year to all of you!

Dad’s New Year Resolution

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? Have you broken them yet?

One of the most common resolutions is to exercise more and lose weight. And I am among those who have made that resolution. Except that I did not make it for myself.

I made it for my son…

Read the full article in the Patch. Click here.

New Year’s Tradition

In Japan, New Year’s is the most important holiday, one that is celebrated for days, with many special foods and rituals. Growing up in Japan, my wife enjoyed all of that of course.

But even though I was born and raised in the U.S., I got a taste of the festivities as my aunt and mother prepared a lot of the traditional Oshogatsu dishes every New Year’s.

Now we are grown up, and my wife and I don’t prepare all of the Oshagatsu dishes. But my wife does make ozoni, which is a Japanese soup containing mochi rice cake.

And this year, Kai helped with the preparation.

And then it was time to eat. The mochi doesn’t have much flavor of its own. It is very sticky and chewy. So, I wasn’t sure Kai would like it.

But, he ate all of it and asked for more.

In the big scheme of things, this is not exactly a major milestone. But sometimes it is the little things – like seeing our son enjoying a family tradition – that bring the nicest feelings of contentment.

This post is part of the ‘LITTLE things are a BIG deal’ meme hosted by Autism Wonderland. Click here and check out the other great posts.

Our New Year’s Eve

We had one last family outing to wrap up 2011. We drove to a nearby community to enjoy their Winter Wonderland, a drive-through holiday lights spectacular.

I had shown Kai a YouTube video of it and he said that he wanted to go.

When we got there, there was a line of cars. Every car was proceeding very slowly as everyone was undoubtedly were taking in all the sights and snapping a lot of pictures.

We saw every cartoon character you can think of.

And the lights were impressive.

In addition to the lights and displays, signs advised us to tune in to a local radio station that played Christmas music. So, we tuned our car radio to 107.1.

But the sounds we heard were not Jingle Bells. No, what we heard was:

I WANT TO GO HOME!

HOW MUCH LONGER IS THIS?

GO FASTER!

WE’RE GOING ZERO MILES PER HOUR!

THIS ISN’T A WINTER WONDERLAND; IT’S A STUPID WONDERLAND!!!!!

It took us nearly an hour to drive through the area, though it seemed to last a lot longer.

But the one good thing about it was that the time we spent at the Stupid Wonderland did help to pass the time. By the time we got home, had our Video Night (The Hunchback of Notre Dame II), and turned on the television to watch the ball drop on Times Square, time seemed to pass quickly and we were able to stay up until midnight without too much trouble.

Kai was excited as we made our Happy New Year 2012 sign.

And when it was time to count down, he was boisterously happy.

I can’t wait to see what this new year brings.

Hope you are having a happy start to 2012!

Happy *Yawn* New Year

The stereotype of kids with autism is that they don’t want to interact with other people. But, that is not always true, and it is certainly not the case with our son. Kai does not like to play by himself. And since he doesn’t have any siblings, that means that he wants Mom and/or Dad to be with him all the time. So, after giving him near constant attention over much of winter break the past two weeks, my wife and I are more than ready for him to be back at school today.

Our New Year’s Eve was spent watching Kai’s favorite videos and playing one of the new games he got for Christmas. For Kai, getting to do all of those things was good enough, but staying up late to do them made it even better.

Kai often does not sleep well anyway, and the fact that he was so excited made it clear that he easily could have stayed up until midnight. But my wife and I were pooped. So, we told him that when the ball dropped on Times Square in New York, it would count as the new year even though it would only be 11PM where we live.

By the time Dick Clark came on our TV screen for the final countdown, Kai was revved up even more. For a kid who loves numbers, keeping track of time is a preferred activity. And so, counting down toward a whole new year is as exciting as it gets.

My wife and I still remember when we thought it would be a miracle if Kai ever spoke at all. And so, this night, as Kai held his toy microphone, we had huge smiles as he loudly counted down the final seconds of 2010 and proclaimed, “Happy New Year!”

We popped a bottle of sparkling apple-grape soda and toasted the new year. Then, it was off to bed. I don’t know about Kai, but I’m pretty sure that my wife and I were both sound asleep before it officially became 2011 in our area.

Some people believe that the way you start the new year sets the tone for how things will go that year. If that is true, we will be in a constant state of exhaustion in 2011. But then again, that was the case throughout 2010, so what else is new?

Reflections on the Past Year

While New Year’s just doesn’t match up to Christmas in terms of kids’ anticipation, our son is still looking forward to it. We are all staying in on New Year’s Eve and Kai is planning to stay up past midnight to ring in the new year. My wife and I told him that we’re not sure that we can stay up that late ourselves, and he said not to worry, that he will wake us up if we fall asleep.

Last New Year’s Eve, he also said that he wanted to stay up late, but around 10 o’clock, he told us that he was ready for bed. I have a feeling that this time he will last at least a little longer.

Things change in one year, and Kai’s ability to stay up later on New Year’s Eve is but one measure of the change. As we reflect on 2010, we can see that a lot did indeed happen in the past year.

Our son started the year in kindergarten at our neighborhood school, but had to transfer when things did not work out well. At his new therapeutic school, he received more attention and had opportunities that matched his needs. He had some difficult times along with the good, but overall he made progress and reached Level 2.

We had a lot of fun moments. There was our crabby vacation and visits with grandparents. We played sports and played games. We celebrated Mom’s birthday. Of course, holidays are always a big occasion and we enjoyed everything from Passover to Hanukkah, Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas.

It is hard to imagine what 2011 will bring. But, knowing Kai, it will be full of surprises. I can’t wait to find out how it all turns out.

Happy new year, everyone!