Who would win in a fight: pirates or ninjas?
Depends. If it was on land then the ninjas would win because the pirates would be all unsteady from their time at sea. On the boat, probably the pirates. Now Pirate Ninjas would be a force to be reckoned with.
What shoes did you last wear and what would you do if a guy offered you 100 dollars for them?
Little red flats I got from Rivers. I love red shoes. Had I been offered 100 bucks I would probably tell the guy he could save himself about 70 bucks and go get a new pair.
What was your favorite year?
I let you know when I have a good one.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A cop, surprised?
If you could ask George W. Bush one question what would it be?
Say the word Terrorism for me.
Cats or Dogs?
Dogs are slightly better than cats. Trays full of poop inside the house verse a hole dug in the yard? Come on.
If you could look like anybody, who would it be?
Somebody better looking than the person who greets me in the mirror every morning. That bitch looks tired.
If you could only read one magazine for the rest of your life, which would it be?
I really don’t know. There are very few, except for maybe New Scientist, that aren’t a complete tissue of lies.
Babies make you buy crap.
I have spent my day putting stuff into storage in an effort to make our house look suitably presentable to potential buyers. But then I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t be dazzled by the minefield of toys that having so many children creates? It is often spectacular.
But I have worked out something today. Babies make you buy crap. Expensive crap. Crap you will probably never even use. I know this not just because I have had seven babies and now know that there is really a limit to what some of these marvelous baby contraptions can do, but as I a pack up my house to put it on the market I am encountering mountains of stuff we either bought or got given and discovered that some things were crap or got no use at all because they were pointless.
Here’s a few examples of useless crap we acquired that is now off to charity.
- A safety co-sleeping bed, it’s a little tiny baby bed that you put in the middle of your own bed and you and husband are supposed to sleep on either side of it. How you are going to fit two people in the bed once you have baby in the middle is beyond me. Husband will have to move out. Or better yet I will.
- A dozens of baby mittens – what do people think babies are going to be doing to need this many mittens. And I have not bought any of them. The little buggers only suck them and you have to take them off because they are cold and wet.
- A dummy sterilizer – yeah because I have the time and space to do this separately.
- Chopsticks for children – they have a hard enough time getting the food into their mouths using their hands, how well do you think toddler chopsticks are going to go? Somebody will lose an eye.
- Toddler sized oven mitts – I kid you not. I am assuming the idea was for me to do the motherly thing and let the kids cook with me, but I question the sanity of a mother who would allow her toddler to touch a hot oven, even with mitts on.
- Several hundred teddy bears. Nuff said.
- A thingy that super cools a baby bottle really quickly, you should see this contraption. In the time it would take to set it up I could have walked to the freezer, got out an ice cube, popped it in the bottle and fed the baby.
I could list so much more I really could, but I shall stop and just be thankful that a wipes warmer isn’t among that list eh? Now there is a pointless piece of baby equipment if I ever saw one! You see what babies do to peoples brains and wallets?! They make us make stupid shopping decisions.
It has felt good to shake off a lot of ‘stuff’ today, packing things up carting them away. I even managed to giveaway husbands old car today, awesome. I still can’t believe how much we have accumulated over such a short period of time. It is Henry’s (future dark overlord) birthday is next week and now that I’ve gone through all the toys I have no clue what to get the kid, as I don’t want to get more stuff. And it’s not like a three-year old will appreciate clothes.
So to that end, who has birthday present ideas for a little man that has everything?
Over Friendly Facebook Friends
Have you got one?
I seem to have collected a few friends that are just too friendly. So friendly in fact I feel embarrassed for them. So friendly that my other friends have started sending me messages asking about the overly friendly friends, worried they may be a stalker.
It seems these over friendly friends are always online, because the moment I post anything they are right there with a comment and a friendly thumbs up. “Friendly Friend Likes This”.
They are LOL’ing way too hard at anything I have to say. Apparently my update a few days ago about my iPad being AWOL was a scream - “ROTFLMAO, you are awesome” - was the response. I don’t know about you, but I felt that was somewhat over the top response to my grizzling. And if they are not LOL’ing their asses off they are telling me I am a supermum. Okay settle down there people, I don’t think so.
These friendly friends are starting to spook me out of doing an update, because I have this fear that they are laying in wait, hoping someone will pop up online. And then they try to be wittier (if that’s even a word) than you and anyone else that cares to comment, or they even start chatting back to your friends that they don’t even know. Next thing you know they will be following mutual friends and it will all start over again. Maybe I should encourage them all to be friends so I can share the love so to speak ;)
…end rant.
Remember making these in school?
How much of your life is impacted by caring for your Autistic child(ren)?
- Pretty much most of my day revolves around their needs. How about you?
The Grace App for Autism Communication on the iPod Touch.
For around a month now I have been using the Grace App on an iPod Touch with him and his three-year old sister Georgie.
What the app is (in my own words): Simply an electronic picture communication board or a sentence constructor. You’ll find lot’s more information about the App on the Grace App Blog – http://graceappforautismoniphone.blogspot.com/ You use the Grace App in the same way you would picture communication folders or boards, the child looks at the set of pictures and constructs a ‘sentence’ by tapping each picture they need and it appears on the sentence strip at the bottom of the screen.
And so far we’re loving it! Here’s why…
- My kids were able to use it first go.
- Very easy to use.
- Extra pictures can be easily added. This means you can expand the choices without having to print, laminate and velcro new pictures.
- You can use your own pictures for familiarity.
- I don’t have to cart a folder with me everywhere now, just the iPod touch in the back pocket. (Had considered an iPad, but a Touch is far more practical for size and use in our situation).
- Teachers & Caregivers I have shown so far, have been very enthusiastic about using the Grace App, because it is so simple. One of my sons aide’s is using it at school with my son already. Awesome.
- It is encouraging fine motor skill practice for my son.
I am really happy with the App, and to tell the truth a bit surprised that it went so well. Right now the App is priced at $45 Au, which is about middle of the range for these kind of Apps – the decent Apps can be quite pricey. I had intended to try the Go Talk or the Tap to Talk systems, but the overall cost of setting those up came to a couple of hundred dollars more than setting the Grace App up on a Touch, and that includes the price of the iPod. This is the only App set up for Communication pictures – to be used the way kids are have learnt to use them at their schools and support units, that I have found. Some come close and are very similar, but this looks the same because you can make it use the same pictures. This is the reason I think my kids took it so easily. This App does not ‘talk’ like other App’s, I have tried the talking voice Apps but my kids tended to play with them tapping pictures at random just to hear the voice speak. The only negative I can spot with the Grace App, and this is just for our use mind. Is the pictures need to be slightly larger for choice making, and I really would love there to be a sound (like a little click) that indicates that a picture has been chosen – my son seems to need to have an indicator he has pressed on the picture. And I’d love to be able to sort my added on pictures into the categories that already exist and remove some pictures that I may not need, but I hear this is coming in the next App update – looking forward to that, and we are already saving for a second Touch unit so both kids can have their own. I strongly encourage parents of non-verbal children who use communication pictures to check out the Grace App on iTunes. PS: I haven’t been paid for this blog post nor asked to do it by the App creators - see now you know I’m serious 
