randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

The mailman brought me 3 new books today from paperbackswap.  Hidden Prey by John Sanford, The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King and a collection of horror short stories.

I need to work on my grocery list.  Hopefully we’ll be able to go grocery shopping tonight.  I missed some sales I wanted to hit last weekend.  There was an assortment of stuff that was on sale, plus if you bought more than 1 you got $ off on the next purchase.  Things that I normally buy, like cereal and stuff that Gage likes to eat.   It’s not the end of the world of course, but it would have been nice to save the money.

Gage has been napping a lot lately.  Coupled with his insatiable appetite of late I’m thinking growth spurt.

Speaking of Gage… he got ahold of Ziggy last night while he was in bed.  I walked into the room and I could hear Ziggy purring his brains out.  It was so cool.  Ziggy usually doesn’t purr audibly when Gage has him.

my bed is covered in cat hair.  not regular shedding hair, gage was cuddling with poe hair.  gage is a little rough and moves him around the bed a lot, so poe sheds a little extra.  you’d think that by now he’d have figured out not to sleep next to me.  since gage comes in first thing in the morning, sees poe and cuddles with him.  every morning.  it’s very sweet, and i watch — most of the time gage just lays next to him and puts his arm around him.  sometimes he moves him around.  that’s when poe uber-sheds.

ok, so gage has been running around without a pullup a lot the past week or so.  some interesting stuff on the potty training front has occurred.  first, out of all the nights that i’ve allowed him to sleep without a pullup on he’s only wet the bed once (out of at least 7 nights).  instead of finding puddles on the carpet the next morning, i’ve found a pee-stream in the bathtub.  not quite the right place, but the right room at least.

i’ve gone into the bathroom and found him sitting on the potty all of his own accord, and after the first time he put on a pair of his underwear afterward.  an interesting sign, yes?

this morning, i woke up to what sounded like a trickle of water in the bathtub… upon investigation, i found gage on the potty… peeing.  all by himself.  not too bad at all.  needless to say i praised the hell out of him, and he looked so proud of himself.  he even flushed when he was done, before he noticed that i was standing there.

he has also figured out how to put the lids on his sippy cups by himself, and tends to want to drink from the cup a few times before putting the lid on.  doorknobs are no longer a mystery, which means that now i have to keep the front and back doors locked at all times, and he drinks out of a soda bottle — he stole my lemonade a few days ago and drank the whole thing.  he’s tried sips of pepsis and sierra mists that i’ve had, but doesn’t seem to dig the carbonation.  too much sensory input, i suppose.

tiger is turning into a bit of a hunter… he’s killed 2 birds so far.  one was in the house, and i almost had it to release it outside when he pounced.  he was chided for that one.  outside… well, yesterday a bird was hopping around the front yard, tiger was lounging on the porch and suddenly he bolted, pounced and got it as it was taking off.  so my dog needs reminders that he’s not a cat, and my cats need reminders that they’re not dogs.  great.  LOL

the unpacking process is at a standstill.  gage is intent on being outside as much as possible, and he enjoys it so much i can’t deny him that.  so i sit outside with him and play with him when he lets me.  mostly my participation involves tossing stones that he collects into a pitcher full of water.  it makes him giggle.  i do try to get some unpacking done at night, but i’m so exhausted by nine i don’t really get much done.

the cats are settling in nicely. they’ve yet to discover the closet and it’s hiding possibilities. as such, they are frequently caught and carried about by gage. they pretend to hate it, but if i sneak up and put my hand on their throat i can feel them purring their brains out. they’re the only cats i’ve ever known who could purr absolutely silently when it suits their needs. weirdos both of them. not a lot of freak outs, tho there was a storm yesterday, complete with thunder and lightening and that seemed to poof their tails a little bit. no full poof moments as yet, tho.

when gage went to bed, he took poe with him.  he didn’t want to stop cuddling with his kitty.  poe went along like a good sport and now he’s curled up under gage’s arm.  when he’s sound asleep i’ll go in and let him out.

anyhoo… since poe went in there, ziggy has been making funny “yowls” at me and going to gage’s bedroom door.  tiger keeps going to the door, sniffing and whining at me.

they want me to rescue poe, apparently.

gage is cat obsessed.  on one hand it’s very sweet.  he wants to hold and pet and cuddle with the cats.  unfortunately, they don’t think it’s sweet and keep getting away from him and hiding.  which makes him cry and throw a bit of a temper tantrum.  i reached the point where i couldn’t take it anymore last night and started catching the cats and bringing them to him to calm him down.  they weren’t pleased.  i’m not sure why the sudden interest in the cats.

so gage cheerfully went off to school this morning, as he does every morning when it’s time for school.  apparently, he loves it.  we were sitting there at the bus stop and he saw the bus coming so he got up and got ready to get on the bus.  and then he took his lunch from me, which he’s never done.  and carried it onto the bus himself, which he’s never done.  makes a mommy proud to see him acting so much like a big boy.  usually i have to give his lunch to the bus driver or the para on the bus.

talked to one of the people on his IEP team yesterday, she said they’ve been working with him on the “i want ______” thing.  they even added an “i want” picture to his picture exchange.  so now he has to bring both “i want” and whatever it is he wants to them.  and they point and say “i want _______” for him to repeat.  so him saying it during spring break makes sense.  his para is going to start a notebook to send home every week with notes on what they’re working on and how gage is doing from now on.

i also found out that the elementary school has enough students going into kindergarden next yearthat are autistic, that they’re hiring a new teacher and setting up a special class just for them.  which i think will be a good thing, as long as they continue some interaction with “normal” peers.  once she’s hired and everything, we get to go to the school with gage and meet her and ask any questions and see the classroom and stuff. which will be good.

there’s also a summer program we’re going to try and get him into.  it’s basically summer school for a couple of hours a few days a week.  which is nice.  it’ll keep him in the “school” routine a little bit, it’ll give me a little ‘time off’ during the week and hopefully it’ll make him familiar with the different school so the transition from pre-k to k won’t be so difficult.

the other “little ones” are doing ok.  tiger is afraid of the wind… which is funny as hell considering his breed.  ziggy is being a little furry bitch, he’s attacking tiger at every opportunity–even if tiger is asleep.  it’s irritating yet funny.  to see a little orange blur of a cat bolt across the room and pounce on the sleeping dog… then there’s poe.  who will actually lay with tiger when no one’s looking.  i think he’s cold and he likes tiger’s warmth.  but he obviously isn’t afraid of tiger.  which is nice.  you’d think that after 2 1/2 years they’d all get along or something.  but the cats are old and set in their ways and tiger SO wants to play with them.