If we were all alike

The world according to JJ ...

There would be a lot more pink in the world.  Schools, houses, stores and hospitals would be pink.  Of course,  they would all be made of paper and glitter.  One rainstorm and we'd be wiped out.  The military would be petitioned to stop what they are doing and focus on creating things like tooth fairies and unicorns.  It would be manditory to watch at least one episode of Full House before bed each night.  Although, we would all be making excuses to eachother as to why we are not tired yet.  All meals would consist of egg sandwiches and cucumbers.  Casseroles and stews would be outlawed.

Childbirth would be fast and painless, but would consequently result in the birth of a cabbage patch doll.  We would all be well aware of our "birthday party" status with everyone.  "I'm not inviting you to my birthday party!"  No more wondering if the invitation is in the mail.

We would never know who was in leadership because everyone would want to be the Princess.  We would probably end up with one princess from every Disney movie made.  World problems would be solved by using our kind words and doing a craft together.  Friendship bracelets would be a code of honour.

We would greet eachother with a hug and a drawing of our family.  Kisses would be manditory for a seperation longer than 3 hours.  Gum would be instituted in the classroom and everyone would be superstar of the week.  Spark nights would become statutory holidays and an outfit would be considered matching not on the basis of colour and style, but if each piece was pretty.  Everything would be spelled, "I, love, you, dear, dad and mom" and nothing would get cleaned because it's just too hard.

Days would be rated on a "little great" to "really great" standard.  Our healthcare system would be overflowed by invisible wounds that cause us to limp around until we get the appropriate amount of attention.  Anything could be considered a valuable treasure as long as it was given to them or someone else was playing with it at the time.  Jails would be filled with people crying and telling eachother they "thinks they were bad" and a pinky promise to be good would warrant an early parole.

All maps would lead to treasure and there would be a lot more giggling.

Yes ... the world would be an interesting place if we were all the same.

We doded it!

Dining out with ASD.

We have learned very quickly that eating out at restaurants with Tee can be somewhat of a nightmere.  Not knowing if she'll start screaming for no reason or if she'll want to pace up and down the isles.  We pretty much gave it up for awhile.

Last summer we decided to exercise our "autism parent muscles".  We wanted to try eating out.  We put on our thinking caps (mine is pink with darling little flowers on it).   We decided to try the early early bird dinner at Applebees with the hopes that the patio would be empty.  We let her wander around the empty patio until the food arrived and by this time she was settled enough to sit and enjoy a nice dinner.  Daddy paid and we slipped out the patio gate ... no harm ... very little foul.

Call me a wimp, but I don't want to sit on the patio in the snow.  Going out to a restaurant is not usually an option for us right now .... until ....


We got a nice giftcard for Applebees and found out kids eat free on Wednesday's.  Hmmm.  Pretty good deal.  What should we do?


For those of you who watch parenthood, although you may not like the character of Christina, I really relate to her.  Well, I can relate as a parent of ASD and all the planning and worrying she does.  I'm not quite as cryie or dramatic as her.  (My family may disagree on the dramatic comment).  It's hard to just enjoy stuff and go with the flow.  There is so much planning and foresight that goes into everything.   That's the strategy we took.  We decided to take Tee and JJ out for lunch.  Ohhhhhhhhh.  We are wild.  Guess what??  It went fantastic!  We asked for a seat off to the side and had Tee sit snuggled between JJ and Daddy.  We had our order ready for as soon as we saw the waitress.  We asked for the bill and take home containers right away so we'd be able to slip out if needed.  Tee sat like a lady as we presented her with a portable tickle trunk full of various shrine potential toys.  She sat snuggled with her Daddy and we handed her a lollipop for dessert as we transitioned out of the restaurant.  She was very calm ... only time she yelled out was when she started singing really loudly.  Although we thought it was cute it probably wasn't the type of dinner music the other guests were expecting.  Things couldn't have gone more smoothly! I still had butterflies in my tummy the whole time and barely remember eating.  It's hard not to watch every move to make sure she's not going to start screaming, but she did it.  

I'm so proud of my little dining out lady. 

Gung hay fat choy

Happy New Year guys!  Gung hay fat choy!  Sun nien fai lok! Xin nian yu kuai!  Okay, so I totally stole those from the internet.  I can't speak Chinese ... well, I can count from 1-10 and JJ taught me "gung hay fat choy" last year from school, but I'm pretty limited to that.  Anyways, although it's not until next week we thought we better celebrate it on the weekend.  Why are we celebrating it when we clearly aren't Chinese?  JJ and her friend D are very interested in China and other places so we thought we might as well make it a party.

The paper lanterns were easy to make, but getting that string to stay up was another story.  It did fall down before it's time.

Tada! We are Chinese!

We are not Chinese, but he's hot

In their outfits .. they were quite the pair

All our special treats

I.B.trying the chopsticks

Our version of fireworks ... Tee was happy

Water Bead Babies

An unruly bunch we are. 

When you conjure up an image of the Dickeys  you probably don't think "cool" right away.  We are well aware of our slight dorkyness, but hey, you've got to get creative if you want to have fun.

Friday night family fun ....  Waterbeads.  You can buy them already made or in a small package.  The small package has to be hydrated for 4-6 hrs, but you get 4xs as much and it costs like half the price.  After hydrating them for the day, we turned out all the lights and closed the blinds.  We put little flashlights we had all around the outside and it was sooooo soothing and entertaining.

So, this is what it looks like ....

Kids loved it!

Okay .. we all loved it.

After a rough week with Tee it was just what the Dr. ordered.  Best $4.99 I've spent in a long time ....

Creation Station: Through the years

If you're like me, it's hard to picture your little ones all grown up and wearing a graduation cap and gown .... especially when it seems like you just took that picture we all have entitled, "first day of school".  Hard to believe, but one day they will grow up ... okay, I'm not ready to deal with that yet, but I wanted to share an idea with you that we started.

We purchased a book for each of our girls.  Not sure if you've read this, but it's a cute book about growing up and being who God wants you to be.  I'm sure you could do it with any book.

The plan is to have their teachers write encouraging words in it every year and then present it to them as a graduation gift ... not sure which graduation ... we'll see.  It's already fun to read what JJ's JK teacher wrote and I look forward to seeing them each year for both girls.  I think I'll get Tee's "teacher" to sign it this year since she is kind of in "school".  Thought I'd pass this along to my friends who are in their first year or heading into it.  Can you believe I got a call today to set up Tee's registration appointment?  She's still a baby!