Misha's first movie

Ira kicked me out of the house with the kids a couple of weekends ago. Told me to get lost for a few hours so she could study for her citizenship test.

We decided to go see "Wall*E" at the dollar theater. None of us had seen it before, though we had heard it was a keeper.

I was somewhat apprehensive though, cause "kids" included Misha this time. We have never taken him to a theater before and in general, he never watches more that a couple minutes of any movie at a time with the exception of Signing Time, for which he will sit glued to the screen for however many we put on in a row. Occasionally, he will flop down on the blankets with the other kids when they are watching something, but never for very long.

Admission for the 5 of us was $6.25. The refreshments were around $20. I figured that we don't go often, why not splurge. And I figured that it was the only way I was going to get Misha to sit there for the 97 minutes + trailers. So, I got a popcorn and drink for Misha and myself, and a popcorn and drink for the other kids to share. Steadily, for over an hour, I kept a constant stream of salted, buttered, exploded popcorn kernels and high-fructose corn syrupy, artificially flavored beverage moving over his lips, down his throat, and into his belly.

When that ran out somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of the way into the movie, the church training kicked in. So between the full belly, the sugar high, the dark theater, the loud speakers, the huge bright screen, and the knowledge that he was not getting off my lap for any reason we made it through the rest of the film exceptionally well. He even laughed at some stuff in the film, but not sure for what reason. His sense of humor exists but the oddest things set him off. For instance, the telephone/power lines on the side of the street send him into hysterical bouts laughter when we drive down the road as does any picture of Disney Princesses.

What I want to try next is buying the flick on DVD and seeing if he will watch it. Then he could watch something other than Signing Time, which the other kids have memorized.

Good Talking!

It was Misha's birthday the other day. He is 3 years old. It's been a long path but it's been a worthwhile one. He has made such wonderful progress that something new can happen at least once a week. It will be interesting to see what he does once he starts school next week (he has had a bit of a sniffle and with fall break, we decided to start next Tuesday). I expect great things to happen.

I took the day off. We spent the day doing Misha oriented things. We went to the park after breakfast. Went to lunch (we originally wanted to go to Carl's Junior to get fries cause Misha loves em, but they were closed for remodeling and went to the Chinese Buffet instead.) After his nap, we went swimming and ended the day with take-n-bake pizza and cake. He got Happy Birthday sung to him too many times to count...mostly cause he signed "again" every time we sang it. All in all I consider it a successful day.



Misha has been saying quite a few words with some prompting for quite a while. He makes sounds for animals and cars. He says "Baba" when we drive to Gramma's house. He probably has a list of a couple dozen words which he uses with or without prompting. Recently "more" has been moved to the unprompted word list. We noticed this the other day after a few weeks of working with him to say alongside the sign. While in the park, I asked him if he was done swinging and whereas usually he would either sign "done" or do nothing, he answered "more" several times. At dinner, he pointed at the juice and said, "More." He also has said "again"...or as he pronounces it, "agn". He has named himself "Me-me". When he sees himself in the mirror or in a clip, that is what he says.

With recent posts on Whitney's (and others') blogs as well as observing Misha, I am reminded how constantly and pleasantly surprised I am at how much I underestimate our 1p36ers intellectually and otherwise. Despite disabilities, they have a great capacity to learn and love. I am looking forward to the next 3 years.

Misha's first IEP

We had a meeting a couple days ago at Misha's preschool. He will be starting 4 days a week the day after his birthday next Monday...assuming that Ira can get things settled in her head and with the district. She wants him to goto the morning class instead of the afternoon class cause that would completely mess with Misha's nap schedule. He still takes 1-3 hour naps in the afternoons.

So, she got Misha's pediatrician to write a note which she then had to take to the district office. When she got to the district, she fell in a giant nest of bureaucracy which, being native Russian, she should be used to by now. Eventually, they told her that she had two choices. She could have the afternoon schedule with a bus to pick Misha up or she could have the morning schedule without the bus. For some reason, she got all worked up over it. I think she thinks that she is doing them a favor putting Misha in the class instead of the other way 'round. Sigh. Sometimes I just don't understand.

Anyway, we met Misha's teacher and the therapists that will be working with him sans the speech therapist who was sick that day. Every time we meet with anyone about Misha, they offer us the same stupid booklet and we have to sign saying they offered it to us. Then we sign more things, and more things, and more things. I think I am just going to get a stamp of my signature...it will be easier that way. The dumb thing was that all they told us...in triplicate, was that they wouldn't really set an IEP for Misha now but would wait 30 days in order to observe him first. I am not sure what Ira would have wanted but for me a phone call would have sufficed to tell me that. A meeting once the observation is complete..sure. I hate bureaucracy.

Misha's teacher is a quiet spoken lady of middle years who got into the special ed program because her son is autistic. A score of years ago, when he was born there wasn't anything close to the amount of resources available for parents. Kudos for her though. I think school will be fun for Misha and beneficial.

Wife tag!!!

Where did you meet? In Ira's branch in Moscow. I hadn't planned on going to church so I was in black jeans, boots, a black tee, and had long (for me) scraggly hair (not my fault, the humidity and natural curliness did it). And I was in the company of a bunch of Americans in skirts. Maybe I looked especially "bad boy".

2. How long did you date before you got married? Including the letter trail on the mission...3 yrs, 9 months.

3. How long have you been married? Going on 10 years this Dec 31...holy cow.

4. What does she do that surprises you? She will find me neato clothes at TJ Max or Ross and bring them home.

5.What is your favorite feature of hers? Her nose, except when its runny. Her hands cause they are beautiful artist's hands.

6. What is your favorite quality of hers? Her dedication to the kids. She is a good mom.

7. Does she have a nickname for you? Joshun. Don't ask. It's a Russian thing.

8. What is her favorite color? It changes.

9. What is her favorite food? Sauteed mushrooms. Pizza Factory zucchini noodles.

11. What is her favorite sport? Ping Pong.

12. When and where was your first kiss? Sasha's apt (I lived there). It was almost on a walk in the snow near the Moscow River, but I chickened out.

13. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Go to plays. She comes from a "rich culture" so she enjoys the theater, concerts, etc.

14. Do you have any children? 2 girls, 3 boys.

15. Does she have a hidden talent? If she does, she hides it even from me.

16. How old is she? She is going to be 30 in 2 days.

17. Who said "I love you" first? It was 10 years ago...I don't remember. She probably would though.

18. What do you admire most about her? She has much more tenacity than I do. She is dead set on enjoying life...or making life more enjoyable.

19.Do you think she will read this? Eventually, yes. And I don't think I put anything in here that will get me in trouble...Right, dearest?...honey?...sweetie-pie???

I made Misha cry

Misha doesn't cry very often. Usually he is a very happy child. He gets annoyed, angry, fussy, frustrated, whimpers, yells, screams, etc. In fact, he only cries for a few reasons.

Obviously he cries when he gets hurt. And it's not a slightly hurt thing...that is when he whimpers. This is like he fell-6-feet-through-a-poorly-
designed-jungle-gym-onto-
packed-sand hurt. Then he cried for a while. He doesn't cry for sympathy. There has to be a reason.

He has cried a little a couple of times when Ira and I have left him to go out on a date, or a while ago at the nursery at church before he got used to it. Typical separation anxiety. No big deal.

Occasionally, he will cry when I tell him "No". He will look at me with his big blues and then start to wail. And it takes several minutes to comfort him. Not sure why he gets so upset when I tell him "No". In fact, it took him months until he would sign "no" and only recently he started shaking his finger "No. No. No." for scolding purposes.

Last night, I made him cry. Misha loves music like he loves water. He has favorite children's songs, favorite songs when I play the guitar, favorite dancing songs, etc. At church he will sign "music" when he hears something he likes. A some point in time, we acquired a little keyboard...I think Baba Liza sent it from Russia, or brought it over on one of her visits. Misha loved that thing and enjoyed pushing the buttons to get music out of it. He learned how to turn it on. Ira hid it one day and so it has been absent from his consciousness for a few months. Somehow, it turned up yesterday. Misha sat there for an hour and pushed the demo button over and over and over again listening to the various demo melodies. Baba said he was hugging it when it played a song he liked. So, after an hour, I came upstairs from practicing with Kiril and decided he had sat there long enough. I told him that it was time and turned it off.

Misha started crying like I had told him his puppy died. Inconsolable crying with bubbles, runny nose, and drool. His poor little heart just about broke. Finally, I gave it back and he calmed down and continued on with his demo medley. About 1/2 an hour later, it was dinner time, so we were successful in prying it away from him again with bribes of food. I felt bad when he was grieving over his loss of music, but my intentions in taking it away was that he had sat there just doing that for quite a long time. Now I am not so sure that is a bad thing. The two sides are 1) that he is focusing on one thing for a considerable amount of time. That good for many reasons. But 2) He was focusing on pushing a button. If it was drawing or reading or something more active, I would be ecstatic. But sitting there pushing a button over and over for music...dunno. I fear that it is somewhat like his other amusement of wheel spinning. Kind of an autistic sort of behavior. Not sure what to think. Anyone with a comment is welcome to comment. If I am going to have to make him cry, I figure I should be justified in doing it. Cause Misha just doesn't cry without a reason.

Misha's eval

The past two Mondays, Misha had an evaluation with the local school district to see if he qualified for Early Head Start and, if so, for which services. We were shocked, surprised, and utter gobsmacked when they told us he qualified. And if you believe that, I got some prime beachfront property in Siberia I wanna sell ya.

We knew he would qualify and for anything/everything they have to offer. The eval center was located in the basement of Kids on the Move (local early intervention) so Misha was upset, I think, that we went there instead of class. In fact, while we were waiting in the foyer, he kept signing bye-bye and trying to escape. On both occasions, he acted out somewhat in the beginning by trying to get down, doing his frustration yell, and dropping stuff on the floor. He did settle down and go through the evals. I would tell him that it was time to "work" like he does at kids on the move. And he had them trained very well to keep him supplied with goldfish and cereal for "working". He scored from 1-8 percentile in the various categories (gross and fine motor skills, cognative, speech, etc.).

I thought that maybe I would feel sad or disappointed or something about that, but I haven't. I came to terms with the whole "special needs" thing a long time ago. Misha is a fun and wonderful kid and I have seen great progress in him, especially of late. Kinda like the IQ tests you can take, these scores are not indicative of what he really can do. His vocabulary is increasing greatly. He is gaining confidence in climbing on things. He runs quicker and more stable. His jumping is actually looking somewhat like a jump instead of a squat. He is able to reason things out better, like how to escape from the backyard while his sibs are supposed to be watching him.

Still, I came away from the evals with things to work on. Jumping is one, some fine motor skills like picking up a coin and putting it into a slot. Bigger-smaller concepts, colors, accurate pointing. The list goes on.

I also came away with the understanding that Misha needs more English. So I decided to start talking to him in English instead of Russian. Some things he understands when I say them to him, but others he looks at me like I am speaking gibberish. I am excited for him to start school in a month. He will get a big kick out of the school bus, and I hope likes the class. It will be a big growth experience for him.

Asya has turned out to be a great help with Misha too. She is old enough to be able to watch him, unless she is distracted, which isn't that hard. She can take him on walks, play with him in the park, read him stories, and turn on Signing Time. She even changes an occasional diaper and last night got him ready for bed (including brushing his teeth) while I was doing piano with Kiril.

The pic above is a retro Misha. A few months ago, before we got the bunk beds, Misha would crawl into bed with Kiril every night and occasionally scoot Kiril or himself right off. Ira likes this one cause Kiril is hanging off the side of the bed.

Math with children

I have grumped before about doing math with the kids. Most of the problem was mine. Although I think any parent who has helped their kids with math can understand the frustration of explaining the same thing over and over every day that math is done. But I have make a concerted effort to calm myself down and not get over-excited about it. Patience has been long in coming, but I am doing MUCH better.

Sometimes though, math is funny. Yesterday, Kiril was doing some homework. It was a story problem with several parts, so I helped him with the first bit...actually doing the problem. Then his page had a second section asking him to explain how he got the answer. This is what he wrote:

At first I was thinking.
Next I asked my dad.
Then I subtracted. (there was no subtracting)
Finally I did it!

Needless to say, I had a good laugh before making him rewrite it.