Summer has Begun for the Tempe Thwaits

Last Thursday was Shule's last day of elementary school. In the fall he starts sixth grade at Kyrene Middle School (KMS). To celebrate, the fifth graders had a big party with all kinds of fun activities, including giant bubble making (which Shule really enjoyed), getting soaked by the fire department's hose, and getting to see Jon's juggling/unicycle performance. Unfortunately, I had to stay home with the girls so we don't have any pictures of Jon's performance but I heard it was fantastic and the boys were very proud to be his children (he went and did a little show for Shazer's class as well).

Later that night we continued to celebrate at the Organ Stop Pizza place in Mesa where we met up with the extended Thwaits gang: Grandma Linda and Grandpa Gill, Anne (who has since left for a summer internship at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.), Julie (visiting for a few weeks from Alaska), and Lorin & Brenda and their three kids. Sally couldn't remember the place from our last visit about a year ago and she was thrilled to see the big organ rise up from below the stage and see the lights and pipes as the lady played. Her favorite song was the happy birthday song which was played for those celebrating their birthdays. The boys enjoyed the Star Wars medley. We had a nice time visiting with Julie. Then on Saturday we were able to meet her new boyfriend, Brandon, when his plane arrived in Phoenix and we had them over for dinner (they've actually been dating for more than a year but Anne and Wolfgang were the only ones who'd met him before). We all got together again at Lorin's house for Memorial Day. Thanks to Lorin and Brenda for providing such yummy grub and the Xbox Lips game- a karaoke type competition that Jon and I enjoyed playing (actually I enjoyed it more because I won most of the rounds ;)

It's not officially summer until we go swimming. Last night when Jon came home from work (he just got a new job working for Global Media ) we all went swimming. It was the first time I'd been swimming since I was pregnant with Sophie and I haven't bought a new suit yet so I had to wear my maternity swimsuit, which I was feeling a little funny about, but quickly felt more at ease when Sally saw me and said "Momma, you're wearing your swimsoup! You look so beautiful!" I think she was just really excited that we were all going swimming but it was so sweet and made me feel much better. This morning I took the kids swimming again after Jon left for work. I like to take the kids just about everyday in the summertime but only go in the early morning or evening so we avoid the hottest sun and don't have to worry about sunscreen and/or burning. The water is still a little cold but it will get warmer in no time as we consistently hit three digit temperatures.

Sally is such a hoot! She loves to wear these goggles, even though she doesn't know how to hold her breath under water yet and isn't even trying to learn. She just thinks they're the necessary, stylish accessory to go with your "swimsoup".

I love this picture of Shule making a splash- you've got to click on the picture to appreciate how cool the water looks- sometimes our camera gives us nice surprises.

I accidentally cut Shule's head out of this pic- wasn't expecting him to get so much air-he's constantly surprising me with how big he's getting. I'm expecting him to go through another growth spurt soon. He slept in until 8:30 this morning for the first time in years after having gone to bed at his usual time of 9pm. He and Shazer eat non-stop. We were comparing Shazer's size 6 (in men's) feet with his cousin, Nicholas' smaller feet who is three years older than him. These boys are going to be huge someday.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book had a really interesting perspective- it's told in first person by a teenage boy with autism. Our oldest son has a high functioning form of autism, meaning that he can function in society better than those on the other end of the autism spectrum. There were some similarities in my son's behaviors and those of the main character but for the most part the book really made me thankful that my son is so much closer to "normal". At first you want to judge the parents for their mistakes but having a special needs child adds so much strain on a relationship/family/parent you really can't know how it is unless you've dealt with it and even then every special needs child is different, just like every "normal" child is different. I thought the author did an amazing job in creating the voice of that kind of child and was really able to get inside the autistic mind. As the story progresses I started feeling like there was no hope for this family and I dreaded the outcome but I was relieved that although it didn't have a traditional type happy ending , there were elements put in place that made you hopeful for the boy's future, as well as the parents- because their individual futures are so closely wound together with his. My husband and I worry about our oldest son's future much more so than we do for our other children and we feel keenly that we may have to be responsible for his well-being for the rest of our/his life. We just have to take one day at a time and hope and pray for the best. I definitely recommend reading this book, I was only going to give it 3 stars because it probably won't be a book that I revisit frequently and it does have a lot of foul language and stressful situations, but it really is such an amazing literary masterpiece, in my opinion, that I feel it deserves at least 4 (I only give 5 stars to my all time favorites). But I feel like you only have to read it once for it to change your understanding of autism and hopefully make you more empathetic and aware of the issues involved.


View all my reviews.

Hey, Thwait a minute! Blog Name Change

I've been thinking my blog needed a name change for a while now. When I first created the blog I didn't really have much of an idea of what I was doing with it and the name was thusly uninspired. I've been half-heartedly thinking of names for a while, playing on our surname- Thwaits. I like how you can spell it Thw8s, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) there aren't 8 people in our family so it doesn't make perfect sense to use it in a blog name. Although we may use it on a personalized license plate someday (but probably not, it would be cool but I'm too cheap to pay extra for vanity).

I have needed to explain quite often that the way to pronounce Thwaits is like "waits" with the letter T in front. Even Shule has been confused by teachers pronouncing it with a "th" sound, leading him to do the same. So I started thinking of ways that Thwaits would work in place of "waits". Here were a couple of ideas, the blog names are in bold:

This has two options, of which, I like the latter best, but it is not as recognizable as the first. "Time and tide (Th)wait for no man. A pompous and self-satisfied proverb, and was true for a billion years; but in our day of electric wires and water-ballast we turn it around: Man (Th)waits not for time nor tide." -Mark Twain

I like this poem a lot but again it isn't recognizable enough:

Go Where Glory (Th)waits thee

Go where glory waits thee,
But, while fame elates thee,
Oh! still remember me.
When the praise thou meetest,
To thine ear is sweetest,
Oh! then remember me.
Other arms may press thee,
Dearer friends caress thee,
All the joys that bless thee,
Sweeter far may be;
But when friends are nearest,
And when joys are dearest,
Oh! then remember me!

When, at eve, thou rovest
By the star thou lovest,
Oh! then remember me.
Think, when home returning,
Bright we 've seen it burning,
Oh! thus remember me.
Oft as summer closes,
When thine eye reposes
On its ling'ring roses,
Once so lov'd by thee,
Think of her who wove them,
Her who made thee love them,
Oh! then remember me!

When, around thee dying,
Autumn leaves are lying,
Oh! then remember me.
And, at night, when gazing
On the gay hearth blazing,
Oh! still remember me.
Then should music, stealing
All the soul of feeling,
To thy heart appealing,
Draw one tear from thee;
Then let memory bring thee
Strains I us'd to sing thee
Oh! then remember me!

Thomas Moore . 1780-1852

There were other more silly ideas like, Woman Who Waits on Thwaits, which is just rhyme-y and Jon thought made him sound shovenistic. Jon came up with "Hey, Thwait a minute!" which I do think is promising but I don't like how it doesn't sound good with the letter s at the end of Thwaits.

Ultimately, I decided on a variation of the popular saying/proverb that Mark Twain had his own variation of: "All good things arrive unto them that wait- and don't die in the meantime."

Any comments/suggestions will be appreciated and considered :)

Baby on the move!

Gotcha!

Lately baby Sophie has been aggressively working on her new year's resolution (of which I spoke in a previous blog) to grow up too quickly. Her favorite game is to chase Sally through the living room and down the hall while Sally runs squealing with delight. Sophie usually crawls quickly after her, laughing the whole way. Apparently her quick and efficient crawl isn't fast enough. She's only seven and a half months and she's already taking to furniture walking! She's trying to get into anything and everything she can, although, for now, Sally is still the official mess maker in this house. It's fun to see Sophie growing and so motivated to learn new tricks but it's also a little bit sad watching our last baby growing up so quickly. Slow down babe, they'll be time enough tomorrow!

She's sitting up on her own in the bathtub now and totally enjoying playing in the bubbles with her sister.