Cheatsheet for the new bailout bill

You know. In case you got confused.

Break your bottled water habit

Oh, how I loathe plastic water bottles. I really really do. They are a sign of the incredible waste of our culture. And the laziness. And the stupidity. I have very strong opinions on water bottles. Can you tell? If you love the earth at all, stop using water bottles of the non-reusable kind. There are exceptions, of course. These exceptions should add up to maybe 5 bottles of water a year. (“I was in the desert, unprepared, and I couldn’t find my car. But, lo! There was a water bottle stand. I bought one.”)

Here's a good resource with more information: http://www.newdream.org/water/

From that site:

Top Five Reasons to Give Up Bottled Water

1. Disposable plastic water bottles are not meant for multiple uses.
2. Bottled water is full of oil.
3. Bottled water is expensive!
4. Your tap water is fine to drink.
5. At least 40 percent of bottled water is tap water anyway.

Top Five Ways to Break the Bottled Water Habit

1. Check your water utility’s “Consumer Confidence Report.”
2. Have multiple reusable bottles available to suit all your life’s needs.
3. Encourage your local city officials to create a policy to limit municipal spending (i.e., your hard-earned tax dollars) on bottled water to emergency needs only.
4. Talk to your office manager about the water situation at your workplace.
5. Spread the word to friends and family about the environmental and financial problems with bottled water.

There's much more info on each of those points on the site.

Wild Child I and Wild Child II

photo: Whizzer

Thanks to Corporate America, we were at Six Flags Great America today. And boy am I exhausted. The kids did:

Kiddie Rides
Porky’s Buzzy Beez
Spacely’s Sproket Rockets (small roller coaster)
Big Red Cars
Big Red Planes
Dorothy’s Rosy Tea Cups
Bouncin’ With Wags
Looney Trotter (train)

Family Rides
Big Easy Balloons
Ricochet
Fiddler’s Fling
Rue Le Dodge (bumper cars, in the dark with a black light)
Roaring Rapids (water rafting ride)
The Jester’s Wild Ride
Sky Trek Tower (rotating tower for views of the landscape and park)
Whizzer (the tamest of the large roller coasters)
Columbia Carousel (merry-go-round, twice)
East River Crawler (twice)

photo: East River Crawler

And we shot foam balls around in one of the kid areas. And we steered around little toy boats and tiny monster trucks.

For the record, the official Six Flags site is pathetic and weak. For actual photos and info, see http://www.sfgamworld.com/, self-billed as “the largest unofficial site devoted to Six Flags Great America.”

Wow. I think I’ll go to bed now.

Mainstreaming the apraxic child

Scene: at the door of the preschool classroom

Bluestem: Oh, Mrs. R., if she does this (demonstrates Nea’s personalized version of the help sign), it means “help.” And if she says, “potty” that means “potty,” unless it means “party.” You have to watch for that.

Mrs. R: Oh, thank you! And what does it mean when she puts her tongue in the corner of her mouth, like this? (demonstrates)

Bluestem: It means she wants to talk about Lightning McQueen.

Is your child speech delayed?

If you suspect that your child is speech delayed:

1. Ask your pediatrician or ENT doctor for a regular hearing test. They aren’t particularly accurate, but if your child passes it, then good. If he/she doesn’t pass it …
2. Do a Brainstem Audio Evoked Response (BAER) test. Nea was only 18 months old when she did it, so she had to be sedated for it. It checks whether the brain is receiving the signals from the auditory nerve, so if your child passes it, hearing is definitely normal.
3. If your child has normal hearing, contact your state’s Early Intervention program for a full evaluation. (for Illinois: for California)
4. Remember that there are many reasons for a speech delay. Chances for a formal diagnosis are slight. Most of the children in Nea’s Early Childhood class have no diagnosis other than “developmental delay.” Alternately, they may have a more global issue (Down’s syndrome, autism, etc.) which includes a speech delay as one component.
5. If your child goes through extensive speech therapy and, over time, apraxia is the most obvious diagnosis, a neurologist will suggest an MRI to check for brain deformity. Assuming none is found, apraxia will then be the official diagnosis. For further information on brain deformity and language production, please read Schulyer’s Monster.

More apraxia-specific info at my previous entry.

Apraxia progress

Yesterday Boo told me she had 6 papers in her backpack, and Nea piped up, “Ohn pay-pa!” (One paper in her backpack)

And today she told me what she wanted for lunch: “hah doe” (hot dog)

And this has nothing to do with her speech, but she just helped me dig up the rest of our potatoes in the garden and it was great fun. Us yelling at the ground, “Babies! Where are you? We want to EAT YOU!” Tonight we’re having my very tasty meatloaf (secret ingredient: vegetables) with crash hot potatoes. Don’t those sound amazing?

OK, we’re off to Easter Seals – taking the bike today!

It *was* really quiet here

I knew it would happen sooner or later.