Happy Birthday, Naomi!
You are three months old today! Let’s share a laugh and celebrate!
Productive, Yet Sleepless, Weekend
Is it just me, or does each weekend of 2006 seem to be busier than the last?
Friday was quiet enough. Dina went out to yoga with Maggie, Naomi had a catnap after dinner, leaving me free time to play with Ben. He’s really into taking giant moonwalk steps (no, not the dance move), so we marched around the living room pretending we were characters from Lunar Jim.
He thought that was really funny.
Then Naomi woke up, demanded a bottle, and spent the rest of the evening looking at her brother. She finds him endlessly fascinating. She was also much more cooperative during Ben’s storytime than she was last week, and then she fell asleep on her own.
The kids were both asleep by ten o’clock, leaving me free choice for my activities for the rest of the night. I was about to pop in a DVD when Dina and Maggie came back from yoga. Dina made cappuccinos for us all, and then settled in to have a good yak with Maggie. I breezed in and out of the kitchen.
Dina’s parents came over on Saturday with the intention of watching Ben for the evening while we went out to dinner and then to Terence and Irene’s place for Geek Night.
But before the geekery could begin, there was much cleaning to be done. Both the spare room and the dining room were full to bursting with junk. Dina’s parents took care of Naomi and Ben, and Dina and I sorted through boxes, hauled things to the basement, packed things in the closets and generally made the place presentable.
We really should have napped, but we were overwhelmed by the prospect of unfettered cleaning time.
We headed over to Pushaps for dinner, leaving Ben to enjoy some Chinese takeout with his grandparents. Naomi fell asleep as soon as we were underway, and stayed asleep throughout the meal at the crowded restaurant – where she was admired by staff and patrons alike – and at Terence’s place – where there were howls of laughter and disbelief as we watched some crazy cult and classic TV.
In no particular order, we watched: M-Squad, starring Lee Marvin (this was the straight inspiration of Leslie Nielsen’s Police Squad!; a new Harvey Birdman adventure in the Land of the Lost; the second episode of the new Captain Scarlett; Don Adams introducing the new NBC TV season, including his own show, Get Smart!; an awful Dick Tracy cartoon; a truly awful pair of Star Trek fan films, made worse by the obvious earnestness of the creators (there’s also a commentary track!); the second installment of the new King of the Royal Mounted serial; and a Johnny Quest episode.
It was all in good fun. Although I didn’t win the official Geek Night DVD of the evening’s festivities, I did buy a copy of the new Vestibules DVD, with some of their televised comedy sketches preserved for posterity.
Heck, check out their whole site. They’ve added video clips and animated sketches.
As we were leaving, I mentioned to one of our friends that Naomi (who was nearing the end of her five-hour evening nap) would probably keep us awake until two-thirty in the morning.
I shouldn’t have given her any ideas, because that’s exactly what she did. Dina passed her off to me at around one, and then fell asleep in the chair. I gave Naomi one bottle, and then I drifted in and out during a rerun of a 1992 episode of Saturday Night Live. Eventually, when I was sure that Naomi was asleep, we all went to bed.
The late night didn’t impede an early start on Sunday, though. Ben had swimming lessons, and Lou wanted to come along and watch. So, after a quick breakfast, we jumped into the car and headed over to the Y.
Ben had his best time yet at the pool. He squealed with the delight when he realized that he was allowed to kick his feet in the water. He’d also stop and wave at his grandfather in the stands during breaks between songs. At first, I couldn’t figure out what he was doing.
When we arrived home, I went to work whipping up the usual big breakfast fixings as a big brunch. Everybody tucked in and ate well. Ben almost fell asleep in his plate, so I rather quickly transferred him to his crib for a nap, and he was glad to be there.
Dina’s parents headed out before the snow was falling in earnest, and then we started the regular weekend housework.
In between loads of laundry, I took a few minutes to run down to EB Games and exchange old games for credit, and to scout the shelves for possible gift ideas. I’m happy to report that most of the games I’m interested in have dropped in price (don’t worry, the gift card is still safely tucked in my wallet, and will stay there until after my birthday).
The mall was packed, thanks to one of those “sidewalk sale” events. There weren’t many interesting things to buy, but I did find a Toy Story play set for Ben (Buzz Lightyear and a little vending machine alien) that will make a perfect gift for Ben at one time or another. I just couldn’t resist.
After dinner came bathtime for the kids, and fussy-time for Naomi as she decided that she needed to eat a lot and often. We gave her two bottles to supplement her constant nursing sessions, but it took her a while to eat her fill.
I think she’s going to gain more than two pounds by her next doctor’s appointment. In fact, I’m sure of it.
Towards the end of the evening, I noticed that Ben was running precariously low on diapers, and so headed out into the snow to pick up a package of them. By so doing, I learned two things: only one store in the neighborhood carries that particular brand and model, and that store closes at nine, and not one minute later.
The trip took me longer than I imagined, but, by the time I arrived home, Naomi had fallen asleep for the evening, and Dina looked at each other blearily and both agreed that we should do the same.
Played Out
During my Boxing Week shopping, I received a coupon from EB Games for a 25% exchange bonus for any games I wanted to trade-in for store credit. The coupon was about to expire, so I took a long hard look at my game library, picked three titles, and brought them in for a trade.
I’ve traded old games in to EB Games before, but I didn’t realized how big a business it was until I read this article in Escapist Magazine.
Anyway, out of my selection of games, I picked these three titles for a trade: Rise of the Kasai, because it’s fundamentally no different than Mark of Kri, and the original has better boss fights; Champions of Norrath, because the sequel, Return to Arms, is a fundamental improvement; and Virtua Fighter 4, the first fighting game I bought for the system, because I don’t play it anymore.
I received a decent price for the first two games, but Virtua Fighter 4 was handed back to me. It was worth zero dollars as a trade-in. This beats the low-dollar trade firgure of $4 that I received for Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty last year!
Apparently, there’s a bug in the original version of VF4 that was quickly corrected in the lower-priced re-release of the game. That’s why there’s no value to the original.
Well, I’m not going to throw it away just yet. It can continue to take up shelf space for a while.
Before I left the store, I asked the clerk if they had any games for the N-Gage game deck. Specifically, I was looking for the one game that I helped design for that platform: MLB Slam! As you can tell from the title, this is a baseball emulator that is far more coin-op than Strat-O-Matic in scope. But, I wanted to have a copy of for my library at home, since I don’t have an emulator version to play on my PC.
The clerk checked the back room, came out with a stack of ten, and asked me how many I wanted. They were $1.99 each, but with a volume discount. I decided that I only had room on my shelf for one copy.
Diverting and Amusing Links, Culled from a Variety of Sources
1. The kind of short story that makes me chuckle:
This Is the Title of This Story,
Which Is Also Found Several Times in the Story Itself
[via ***Dave]
2. Maverick wishes he could quit Iceman:
3. Remember the rom-com trailer for The Shining? This post has links to other entries in that trailer remix contest:
4. A Birthday Salute to Trogdor the Burninator – so very geeky. The license plates kill me:
[via Rockasaurus]
5. Richard Hatch, the first and best of the Survivor winners, is convicted of tax evasion and fraud on his winnings. The obnoxiousness that plays so well as television villainy caught up with him in real life:
[via Reality Blurred]
6. Sam Rockwell as Batman in a fan film. Funny stuff:
(Okay, that emptied out my bookmarks folder. Until next time!)
Guest Advantages
Dina’s parents are coming over tonight to watch Ben while Dina, Naomi and I head out to dinner and thence to Terence’s first Geek Night of 2006.
Aside from the much-needed outing, another advantage of this visit is that it forces us to clean out the spare room, which has been filled to bursting since Christmas.
Watching and Wondering
There’s nothing like the last six hours of an auction to keep you glued to the Sellers screen: eBay Seller: stephenwark: Trading Card Games, Games items on eBay.com
So many people watching the items, but so few bidders! C’mon, people!
Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom Vol. 3
Solar fights a robot! Orun, Nuro’s mechanical henchman, is capable of imitating some of Solar’s powers. Uzbek, Nuro’s former lieutenant, betrays his master out of jealousy. To escape justice, Nuro merges his mind with Orun’s metallic body to create a lethal cybernoid! Tune in next volume for the exciting conclusion!
Support
A big THANK YOU to everyone who posted or emailed messages of love and support yesterday. We can feel the positive vibes and appreciate all the good thoughts. We’re very lucky to have such a supportive network of family and friends.
We’re also benefitting from some corporate support. The slow-turning, fine-grinding wheels of the health care system have sped up and produced a bunch of evaluation appointments over the next month, in addition to the appointments we already had. The best option for all of them is that I attend along with Dina and the kids, and I’m grateful that my triumvirate of bosses at work have agreed to be flexible with my working hours under these unusual circumstances. Once the schedule settles down, then we’ll see what additional changes are required.
That’s one less practical matter to worry about!
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 Release Notes
I installed Thunderbird 1.5 last night, but the installation only “took” when I deleted my old install of Thunderbird 1.0. I had feared that deleting the old version would remove my saved emails, so I was relieved to see immediately that they were in a secure location and I didn’t have to restore from my backup file.
So, if I can abbreviate the installation process further for future Thunderbird users:
- Backup
- Download
- Delete
- Install
His Own Words
Whenever I post about Ben’s adventures, I always describe him as chattering or yammering, but this isn’t a figure of speech. He doesn’t speak in words yet. He has his own language, with perfectly inflected sentences to communicate queries, surprise, happiness, etc., but he rarely uses recognizable words. He can say boy, ball, bird, baby, bottle, and enjoys imitating onomatopeia and animal noises, but often we can only understand what he’s saying from the context.
We spoke to Ben’s pediatrician about our concerns when Ben turned two years old. He said that delays in expressive language development can happen, but they’re only considered severe by the time the child turns three. However, the waiting lists for speech therapy are at least a year long, so it’s better to get Ben on those lists right away. That way, if he picks up his speaking, then removing his name from the list is easy, and if he needs help, he’ll get it at the right time.
I wasn’t terribly worried, because I’d spoken with other parents who told me that their kids spoke late. For every precocious kid, there’s a late bloomer. That’s the balance of things.
The first step was a hearing test in late November to determine if there was a physical cause for his slow development. His hearing was fine, but the audiologists were concerned that Ben wasn’t paying much attention to them, and wouldn’t follow simple commands like “Bring this sticker to Daddy.” He’d just smile at them.
We said that he was always that way. He’s got his own interests and sometimes takes a moment to warm up to some people. They suggested that we take Ben for evaluation for autism.
That meant another waiting list, but they back-dated our entry to Ben’s second birthday. Essentially, they credited us with the time served on the audiology list. Again, the goal is getting ready to get Ben help if that’s what he needs.
A little while later, we had a phone call from the appropriate hospital clinic, and were mailed a series of questionnaires and an information packet. A global assessment with a child psychiatrist would be the first step, followed by more specific assessments if so warranted.
So, we filled out the forms and waited for the various calls and appointments. Meanwhile, Ben was playing with his sister, and adding a few words to his vocabulary. I looked forward to the autism assessment because it would discount one more cause.
We took Ben to the assessment earlier this week. We spoke with one resident while a psychiatrist played different games with Ben. Despite his not having had a nap, he was his little charming self. He took interest in some toys and games, but not others. He was very excited to share a balloon with everyone in the room. He drank his juice, coloured on a pad, built a stack of blocks, and chattered away.
At the end of the session, the psychiatrist told us that Ben had mild autism, and that we should get him help right away.
Ben’s diagnosis was undeniably a shock. All those things that we thought were just quirks in his engaging personality – the way he plays around other people; the way he explores his environments intently and likes to take things apart; the way he’ll ignore you if he’s doing something more interesting – turned out to be signs of autism. That term carries such heavy “Rain Man” connotations that it never seemed to fit Ben’s behaviour. After all, he’s a happy and friendly little guy, not somebody twitchy and fragile, so it was distressing to hear him labeled as autistic.
The psychiatrist made great and gentle effort to explain to us that autism is really a spectrum of disorders, and that Ben’s case is certainly at the mild end. His obvious desire to communicate with us (albeit only when he wants to) is an encouraging sign that he’ll respond well to therapeutic intervention and won’t necessarily require special schooling or anything like that.
The psychiatrist also explained that autism is a genetic disorder, and not the result of environmental factors or – and it crossed my mind – bad parenting. After all, the time that I spent at home with him was the time when his expressive language and socialization skills should have blossomed, and they haven’t. As soon as I heard the initial diagnosis, I wondered if I’d let Ben watch too much TV, spend too much time playing alone, failed to stimulate him sufficiently during our walks, hours at the park and pool. Maybe if I’d done something else, something differently, something correctly, then Ben would be following the developmental chart like other kids his age.
Well, that’s nonsense. All that matters is that we’re identifying the problem early, and getting him the help at time when it will do him the most good. It doesn’t matter what kind of help he needs, or why he needs it – all that matters is that he gets it.
This is, on the whole, good news.The diagnosis provides clarity allows us to develop a plan: getting in contact with the local CLSC and autism rehabilitation resources; getting on waiting lists for neighbourhood daycares and playgroups; reviewing the literature and resource websites provided by the psychiatrist; taking Ben in for more evaluations to really narrow in on the areas in speech, cognitive and social development where he needs the most help; participating in a parent-centered therapy study that will teach us ways of helping Ben on our own during our regular day-to-day activities; and loving Ben to bits, of course, but we were going to do that anyway.
Ben is still a happy and healthy little kid. Soon, he’ll be telling us how happy he is in his own words.
I think he’ll have some interesting stories to tell.