Snowy Super Bowl Sunday

We got our first blizzard of the season yesterday, which meant it was a happy day for Kai.

He was up early to work on his origami. He has been reading the Origami Yoda books, the funny yet authentic series by Tom Angleberger about a group of middle school kids, and what happens when the loser of the group creates an origami finger puppet of Yoda. In addition to the stories themselves, Kai likes that the books give instructions on creating your own origami Star Wars figures.

Here he is with Origami Yoda and Darth Paper:

And here with Han Foldo and the Fortune Wookie:

I like the books as they are at a reading level that is more appropriate and challenging for him.

After doing some math homework, we went outside.

This was the scene outside our house.

The picture was taken in the morning before the blizzard had officially started.

Of course, Kai wanted to go sledding, so we went out before the storm was supposed to get worse.

Later, he did more math, some step aerobics, and a lot of Pokemon.

And then it was time for the Super Bowl.

It is the one sporting event I have a reasonably good chance of being able to watch as we make our own little party out of it.

My wife prepared our Super Bowl platter which included Buffalo Wings, nachos with ground beef and wieners, peanuts, tortilla chips, and celery.

I enjoyed the game. Kai enjoyed getting to party. His favorite part, of course, was getting to dance to Katy Perry’s halftime entertainment.

Today, he is home from school due to the weather. I have a feeling my wife will be origami-ed and Pokemon-ed out by the time I get home from work.

Pickles: The Best Reward

We are always trying to find ways to motivate our son to do well in school. And lately it has been a challenge. He has either been uninterested in any possible reward, or perhaps just unable to control his behavior in school.

But this past week, we found something that he was motivated by: pickles.

Kai’s favorite restaurant right now is Fuddruckers. Fuddruckers is a fast-casual, hamburger restaurant. It is more expensive than McDonald’s, with grilled-to-order burgers and fresh-baked buns. But what sets it apart in my son’s eyes is the fresh produce bar.

The restaurant offers a wide selection of choose-your-own fixins to top your burger. These include fresh tomatoes, onions, and lettuce, as well as more unusual toppings such as cheese sauce, honey or spicy mustard, and even pico de gallo.

But Kai doesn’t care about any of that. He just loves the pickles.

At McDonald’s, he will pick off the two pickles on the McDouble burger and eat them first before he touches the beef or the fries.

And at Fuddruckers, he can have as many pickles as he wants (or at least as many as Mom and Dad let him have). And that makes it his favorite place to go right now.

A few weeks ago, we had told him that if he had a safe week at school, we would go to Fuddruckers. Alas, he has hardly been able to stay safe for one day, let alone for a whole week, so we have not gone to Fuddruckers in a while. My wife and I even stopped telling him about the possibility of going, as we didn’t think he could accomplish the goal.

But on Friday afternoon, he came home from school, announced that he had stayed safe all week, and wondered if we could go to Fuddruckers. It was a holiday-shortened week, and his overall performance at school was just so-so, but he did stay safe. And we wanted to reward that. So, we went to Fuddruckers that evening.

Because the burgers are made to order, there is always a wait for the food. It is not as long as the wait at sit-down restaurants, but it is longer than at McDonald’s. And that wait is still difficult for Kai.

To fill the time, we try to get him to use the iPad, but he never wants to. Instead, we walk around the restaurant and see the numerous sports memorabilia. We get our drinks. And hope that our buzzer goes off quickly.

When our order is finally called, Kai is a happy kid. He can’t wait to go up to get the food with me. And then we head over to the produce bar to load up on the pickles.

It was a nice way to kick off the weekend.

The key to happiness is pickles! Now you know. :)

* * * * *

Our snow from Friday morning did not last long. Warm temperatures yesterday melted much of what had fallen. But it was around long enough on Saturday to go sledding and have a snowball fight.

With the way our winter has gone, it might be the last snow of the season. So, we really enjoyed it.

Snow!

A couple weeks ago, my son was lamenting that this was “the worst winter ever” as we have had a dearth of snow. And it hadn’t changed much since. Rain and warmer-than-usual weather has made it feel more like April than February.

But this morning we finally awoke to some snow. And Kai was gleeful.

For a change, he got dressed quickly and ate his breakfast with little prompting so that he could come outside with me to help shovel the snow.

Today’s snow was of the extra heavy variety so he didn’t try to shovel for long before he gave up.

But he was happy to stay outside while I cleared the driveway.

Beautiful snow, happy kid, good day.

Winter Arrives, Finally

Now this is more like it. It is winter, after all. And we live in the Midwest.

We have had the mildest start to winter in my life. The string of 50-degree days felt nice, but very strange.

Of course, we had to get the mild weather this winter, the year that we got snowshoes for Christmas that we have yet to try. And the year that my wife got ice skates for all of us, which we’ve used only once.

But last night it finally snowed. Not counting the mirage of a snowfall we had last month, this is our first real snow of the season.

And Kai loved it.

He and I went out and played in it as it started falling yesterday. We had a snowball fight, and what is noteworthy is that he seems to finally be able to make his own snowballs this year.

This morning he wanted to help me shovel the driveway. Well, he helped for about two minutes until he realized what a pain it is, literally. And then he just wanted to throw more snowballs. He was in great spirits!

Unfortunately, the onset of winter weather wasn’t all good.

Kai’s taxi failed to show up this morning, presumably because of the weather. By the time I drove Kai to school, all of his joy over playing in the snow had long dissipated and he was extremely upset over being late, and for the disruption from his usual schedule. It was especially unfortunate, as he had been having a great week, with no incidents since he tore off the ends of his sleeves last week.

And now, as I sit here typing, I realize how much my back is aching from all the shoveling I did.

Okay, so I change my mind about the winter weather. Can we have 50 degrees again?

Reflections of Hanukkah Weekend

The birthday parties were held at fun places.  One was at the same arcade we went to a few weeks ago, and the other was at one of those places with huge inflated slides and trampolines.  Kai had a lot of fun at both places, though he was more interested in playing with Mom or Dad than with any of the other kids.  The lack of socializing with other children is an ongoing concern for us.  Can the desire to play with kids be taught? 

As the time for our Hanukkah party drew nearer, and I was trying to keep our driveway clear of snow for our guests. Kai was more interested in throwing snowballs and making a snowman.  We did manage to build a snowman, though it was more accurately described as a snow penguin this morning by one of Kai’s schoolmates that he shares a taxi with.  Kai also wanted to make an igloo.  Not being an engineer, an Eskimo, or someone with much acumen for building things, I convinced him to settle for a decent snow fort.  Though, this morning he said he wanted to “finish” our igloo later today.  I guess I’ll have to google “building an igloo” and see what I can find.

The Hanukkah party was a success on so many levels.  It is great to share such an occasion with family, and it was nice to see those we don’t get to see too often.  My wife and I are not particularly experienced with entertaining, but my wife put a lot of thought and effort into this party and it showed.  This year, for the first time, she tried making beef brisket, which is a popular Jewish holiday entrée.  She found a recipe by a Jewish grandmother on YouTube, and it really was delicious.  She gained confidence to make it again.  

Of course, being parents of a child with autism, our definition of success of a party is usually dependent on our son’s behavior.  In this regard, the party was an unqualified hit.  Kai had been looking forward to it all week, and was very excited when guests started arriving.  Often, he gets too excited and out of control, but he held it together pretty well this time.  My wife had told him that he would not get to open his Hanukkah presents unless he played the piano nicely for everyone.  In the middle of dinner, he quietly slipped away from the table and played “My Dreidel” several times.  After dinner, he played a couple of duets with Mom, and then watched attentively as his nine-year old cousin played the cello.  When she finished, he cheered enthusiastically.

After waiting so patiently to open his presents, he ripped into them quickly once we finally gave him the okay to do so.  Before you knew it, there was wrapping paper everywhere and all the gifts were revealed.  For the rest of the evening, he and the other kids played with their new toys.

One of his gifts required more setup and we did not get to it until the next day.  But, once we did, he stopped just long enough to go sledding.  After our success with summer sledding, Kai couldn’t wait to sled down the big hill with all the snow.  I was happy to see that he was not scared and we went up and down many times.

But, then it was back to his new toy.  It served as excellent motivation for dinner as I’ve never seen him eat a meal so quickly.

Hanukkah comes only once a year.  But, the impact it has on our memories is as much as most other days combined.  For us, some special occasions are satisfying if we can just breathe a sigh of relief; this time, we have a good feeling of having experienced a truly wonderful time.