The last time I posted was a bit over a year ago.  Ho boy!  Things have changed.  Needless to say, I am separated.  I have temp custody of the kids.  And we are waiting for things to simmer down.  I expect them to at some point in time, but they are still tedious for the moment.  I guess this is just the next big change in the great adventure.

The kids are taking things in stride.  They have been living with this whole thing for as long as I have and so the transition part of it has less of a sting than would normally be present.  That, and they are super awesome kids.  Can't overstate that.

To Cub or Not To Cub

Before Misha turned 8, I had been mulling over the idea of whether or not to start him in Cubs.  I had taken him to some pack meetings (I am currently cubmaster), and regularly took him with me to the scout office to pick up awards (he has a morbid fascination with the elevator in the scout office).  He seemed to enjoy it, even asking if he could go to the scout office and pack meeting.

I knew going into it that Misha wasn't going to get a lot of what they do.  I did want to see if he would enjoy the experience.  I am not worried about Misha's behavior; he is generally quite pleasant.  He does tend to wander as he is quite curious, so when they asked if he would be in scouts, I said that could work if he could be assigned a helper to keep him on task.  After a bit, they called two older scouts to alternate as his helper (to pick him up, take him to, assist him at, and bring him home from den meetings).  That lasted a couple weeks in November.  One of the helpers got busy with a team, the other just doesn't show up.  I would have used K. to help, but they decided to call him as a den chief with the other den, so that option is gone.

I sent him to scouts with K. last week but their groups didn't combine and Misha was there sans helper.  I got an email today from his den leader saying that, in short, Misha is great, but he needs supervision that we can't provide.  Now I am frustrated and disappointed.  I wanted this to work; to give Misha a chance at participating in "normal" activities.  I am not going to tax the primary with this problem as it is obvious that flakey teens aren't going to be there for him and the leaders are too busy themselves (I can empathize with that).

I could go with him, but this is when I get to make dinner between dropping people off and picking them up (when its not pack mtg night).  If Misha hated scouts, this would be a non-issue, but he seems to enjoy it. Replacing this activity with another won't work because, again, on this particular day I drop people off then make dinner, then pick them up.   In short, I don't want to "burden" other people with my special needs kid.  But even more so, I don't want to let him down.

Misha can ride a bike!...and other tidbits

Misha has had a small bike with training wheels for a while.  He has enjoyed pedaling around on it.  He frequently goes around the block.  We have taken the walking trails in the canyon.  We even biked a mile or so to a park he wanted to play at.  It's slow going but he likes it.

A couple of weeks ago, Irks decided that he had balance enough and that he should try it without training wheels.  After a few tries, he took off.  Who knew?!?!  Now he asks all the time to go ride a bike.  He continues to amaze and confound our expectations.

Misha love General Conference.  Not for the talks, of course.  The Friday before it started, I told him that it would be conference the next day.  He got a big grin and excitedly said, "Tabrrkel Choir", which of course means Tabernacle Choir.  He joneses for the hymns.  Expecially when they sing his favorites.  Currently his favorite hymn is "More Holiness Give Me".  The repetition of the drawn out, "Moooore" gets him laughing every time.  He even has included new bits centered around his current fixations.  For instance, "More stop lights in Provo.  More Baska (our cat) and Shadow (our dog)...".

My aunt and cousin were in town for a few hours on Saturday so we had a picnic lunch at the park.  It happened to be the same park next to the school that Misha attends.  At the same time, there was a large student group roasting hotdogs and stuff sharing the same pavilion.  Misha, in true form, made a drive by snatching and got a hotdog and a glass of rootbeer before anyone was the wiser.  He does this at home, too.  If we leave something out/exposed that he likes, he will innocently waltz up to it humming or singing, snatch a handful, stuff it in his mouth, and scamper off.  Chips, raisins, and bread are common, but we also get little mouse bites in cheese blocks, or finger gouges in butter.  Gonna have to work on that.

Misha has a morbid fascination with some things...like elevators, escalators, and the hair clippers.  Recently K. was in the kitchen when he heard a loud buzzing and Misha running out of the room.  Misha commonly will go into our bathroom and pull the clippers out and toss the bits all over the place.  He evidently pulled them out this time, took them to the kitchen where we do haircuts, plugged it in and turned it on.  The sound was enough to scare him half ot death.  

My favorite Christmas present

My favorite Christmas present came early this year.  It was a long time coming and actually required quite a bit of effort.  But it paid off and is beautiful.  Now you may be wondering what wonderful gift I am talking about.  Here it is:  Misha is pooping in the toilet!

There have been times this past year when I wondered if he was ever going to learn.  I honestly didn't relish the idea of having to change diapers on a teenager.  But he finally did it.  They had been working with him at school and we had been working on him at home (with less frequency, admittedly).  I had been trying to tempt him by promising Angry Bird time on the tablet, but he still hadn't pooped.  He didn't want to for some reason, which is common for kids like him.

Irks decided it was time to really go for it, so she started by just sitting with him in the bathroom as long as it took for him to go.  I think the first few times it took over 45 minutes a piece.  We would then shower him with praise, high-5s and, of course, Angry Birds.  After a while of having to sit with him, he started going in by himself with prompting and going.  Now, he is at the stage where he will announce he has to poop and go in by himself, or just go without prompting then announce he is done.

I am so glad.  It is night and day.  Misha is no longer smelly half the time.  We don't go through the same amount of clothing per day.  His stomach, which used to be a little pot-belly, has flattened out some with the reduction of his colon.  He even seem to be putting on some weight.  Awesome.

Yesterday we went sledding at the local jr high (has some great small hills).  After a few times going with Irks or myself, Misha told us he wanted to go "Ya sam" (by myself).  He went down laughing all the way and we would slide down after and walk the sled up with him.  We then let him go down and didn't go after him.  After a minute of sitting there, he climbed out and tugged the sled up the hill and went down again.  For Misha that is a big step.  Awesome again!

And I didn't get the flu that ran through my family.  Good Christmas all around.

Quarterly Update?

I guess it's time for an update. I guess.

Except there isn't much to report.

The kids are all well. They are all doing well in school. Asya likes K.G. Maeser and the other two like N.W.A.. Even Misha from time to time reports, "I like Mrs. Smith." Misha is doing well in his class and is the delight of his teachers. Mrs. Smith reported that he gets the giggles about a word or phrase or sound in class a lot like he does at home.

I redid Misha and Kiril's room which is now Misha and Nikolai's room. The only problem is getting those two to stay in bed when you put them down.

Irks is enjoying school. She is a star student despite all her worries about math...of course I don't see her much. If she isn't at school she is studying...or at art night...or at art night again...or studying.

Me...I just work. That's all I really do. Although I did go on the Klondike with Kiril and only got slightly popsicleized.

It's been a lot of fun watching Misha these past few months and his social abilities develop. He is expressing his wants really well. He is really good at expressing his dislikes as well. He has even picked up "I don't love you" from Boba. Baba Liza brought over from her last trip a computer animated cartoon series from Russia which is much better quality than they have had in the past. Misha loves it and asks to watch it almost every day. And he sits there and laughs hysterically at it every time. He also lets you know when he is "very, very tired." I think that phrase comes from Mom.

He transitioned to the district autism program. They changed his initial diagnosis from developmentally delayed to autism spectrum so he would qualify for the services (according to the district psychiatrist, he tests within the spectrum). This is good because the autism programs tend to have a really well-structured program that helps a lot with Misha's attention span. His canned response on what he did in school today is expanding too. He will mention some things he did instead of the traditional "I played." or "Fun" responses.

With Boba transitioning into Primary from Nursery, we figured it was time to move Misha out too. It will be interesting to see how he does this year. I know he can handle it as he goes to school full day, but will he enjoy it...or will he benefit from it. We'll see.

Haven't had much to say, that's why.

Yah, I know. I haven't blogged much. Been busy. Summer time...you know. Ira was taking ESL classes this summer, so I played Mr. Mom whilst she conjugated verbs and played around with past perfective participles or whatever they are. We've been camping a couple of times, been to Ira's friend's cabin a couple of times, but not much else.

When I started my job in March, I knew that it was going to be tough to meet my financial goals...or even keep at the level we were are when we were laid off mainly cause I had taken a 5-6% hit. We managed to bank most of my severance and also the consulting I did. But it wasn't enough. My goals are simple really: Pay the bills, pay the mortgage, pay tithing, put money away, take the wife to dinner. Not big goals. It wasn't long til I came to the understanding that something was going to have to change. So I started interviewing again. If someone wanted to torture me, all they would have to do is make me do interviews. We hates them, we does.

So about 6 weeks ago, I interviewed at a well known place in the valley. My immediate feedback from the interview was really positive. I was quite hopeful of getting an offer...and I waited. Waited. Waited. Finally my source there told me that the senior management had decided to go with the "other guy". I was disappointed but that's life. I know I do not interview well.

So time passed...so did some more interviews. A couple of weeks ago Friday, my source chatted me and told me I should be expecting some good news. And good news it was. I got an offer which was beyond my expectations and I decided to go with it. What I found was that my old work didn't want to let me go. But I kept with my decision after some internal wrestling. So off I go.