Amarillo by morning

or night. They left SLC airport in the morning, I think.

In October my parents took Damon with them to Amarillo to visit my sister and her family. Damon had the time of his life. Nothing like a trip with people who aren't Jake and I to see how sweet life can be. For the record, Damon DID NOT drink MD. That picture was staged by cousin Wes. He thought it would be funny to give me a heart attack.

Uncle Marcus taught Damon to play Monopoly, Lynsey bought him his own board, and now he plays constantly--if Jake and I won't play, he plays with Anne and Claire kind of. He rolls the dice for them, moves their pieces, and then hollers, "Claire! Do you want to buy Mediterranean?" Claire, playing with Anne in the next room, says, "No." Then, "Anne! Do you want to buy Oriental Avenue?" Anne calls back, "Yes!" and so on.

Halloween tweaked for Claire

This was what Claire "bought" with her Halloween candy. After she handed over the candy, she cried for about a half-hour, sobbing "I don't like candy!" Eventually she convinced herself and was happy with the farm animals. (FYI: Claire isn't supposed to have high fructose corn syrup or artificial colors. She shouldn't be having any refined sugars, but I've decided that's impossible.)

I am really anxious to re-introduce gluten and other no-nos into Claire's diet next month. If she has a bad reaction, I think I might go insane. I AM SICK OF THIS GFCFSF MISERY. "Oh," you say, "but she's the only one who has to eat that $#!%. You can eat whatever you want." Yeah, well, I'm the one who has to find the food, make it, enforce the diet, and plan for events that want ruin it. It's a pain and I hate it.

See this nastiness? Nope, it's not Dijon mustard. It's my attempt to make frosting orange with turmeric and paprika instead of food coloring so Claire could decorate her sugar cookie (which I of course had to make myself--try finding a store-bought cookie that's GFCFSF) like a pumpkin if she wanted to during her kindergarten Halloween party.

I also had to make chocolate frosting in case she wanted to make a spider cookie instead, which of course she did, because who wants a yellow pumpkin cookie that smells like a deviled egg? All her classmates were going to have the spider vs. pumpkin option, so I had to try to give Claire the option too, okay? On the plus side, the sugar cookies were very good--they didn't taste GFCFSF at all. Maybe I'll publish a GFCFSF cookbook someday. Just kidding. I'd rather die.

Halloween

wow, what a harvest

It started snowing today, so I decided it was time to give up on the diminutive yellow bell pepper and the blueberry-sized tomatoes ripening. If it weren't for the basil (not pictured because we ate it all in pasta sauce and pesto), I'd throw in the towel on gardening in pots. (In case you care to know: the house we rent is on a small lot that is 100% landscaped with no room for gardening in the ground.) BUT, I did start these plants from seed indoors, which suggests I have the potential to be a great gardener some day, right? RIGHT???

Damon

Here's Damon with his flag football team, and below that, a botched video of Damon's first piano recital. I missed the very beginning when he introduced himself and told the audience what he would be performing, and I missed the beginning of his piece (A Spooky Halloween by Elizabeth Greenleaf). He started in August, and we're just so proud of him.

Steps Forward

1. Claire doesn't cry anymore when people say 'hi' and I tell her to say 'hi' back--she actually says 'hi'! Not much eye-contact yet, and she only attaches the person's name to the hi if the person is an immediate family member or a tutor, and we're still waiting for spontaneous greetings, but we're making progress. (Kinda funny: one morning Jake said, "Good morning, Claire." Claire said, "Good morning, Jake." One of Claire's programs during her sessions is Informational Questions. One of those questions is, "What is your dad's name?" We're so glad she's generalizing that information to her greetings ;-)

2. Claire's tutor Joseph goes to school with her on MWF, and on those days, Claire plays on the playground equipment rather than pacing around it, thanks to his prompts. One day she was holding hands with Emma* and Cecily during recess and went down the slide with them! And she engaged in a conversation about Halloween with fellow classmates!

*Note: Emma was Claire's special friend that week. It really galled me when Claire's teacher told me she was going to assign a girl to be Claire's friend every week. But, Claire doesn't mind, and it seems to be helping. Plus, it is the sweetest thing ever to see little kids put their arms around Claire's shoulders and include her. I love kindergartners. They are God's angels on earth.

Nice

Anne loves to help me make things in the kitchen. (Another thing that should have been a warning flag regarding Claire: she wasn't interested in imitating what I was doing.) And for a three-year-old, she does a good job pouring in ingredients and stirring. Before you go thinking what a good mom I am, let me come clean by confessing I try to cook as often as I can when she's otherwise occupied: her help doubles the job time.

One day when we were making something I told her, "Anne, you're going to be a great chef when you grow up." She replied, "I don't want to be a chef when I grow up. I just want to be a mom." Aw. I felt so good.

Then on Wednesday Claire's tutor Jessie was here. During one of Claire's breaks, (FYI: every 50 minutes Claire gets a 10 minute break outside the session room. Just thought you might want to know.) Anne went into the session room.

"Hi, Jessie!"
"Hi, Anne!"
Anne turned to me and said, "Mom, Jessie is way much nicer than you."

Now, Jessie is a way much nice gal. There's no denying that. But I thought I had been very nice that day myself. Jessie says two words to her and she earns way-much-nicer status? Come on.