The most important update is of course Nolan’s preschool. He has worked his way up to attending school five days per week, 2 hours per day, and we decided to wait until fall to move him up to 2.75 hours per day, which is a full schedule. Nolan loves going to this school so much better than his previous one that he always eats breakfast cheerfully and goes right over to the laundry room to get his shoes and jacket, and go out to the car; he also holds my hand and walks down the sidewalk to the blue door, walking right into his classroom as soon as the door opens, and he doesn’t even fuss when I leave anymore! He gets speech therapy 3 times a week at school and OT once, plus lots of one-on-one attention from his wonderful special ed teacher and aides. Last week when I came to get him, he was painting at an easel without needing any assistance one day, and another day he was sitting at a table with the other kids in his class like it was the most ordinary thing in the world. My previous post showed some of the activities he participated in for last Monday’s field day. So as you can imagine, we are thrilled with his progress, and very sorry to see not only the end of the school year coming up at the end of May, but also his teacher’s retirement.

Although school is coming to a close, we were fortunate that Nolan’s placement in the intensive needs classroom gave him an increased qualification for summer school, or Extended School Year (ESY), so he will be back in a classroom setting after just a week off, and attending 4 days per week for 2 hours a day. The program is at a preschool in Lakewood, about 25 minutes away, and will mean new teachers, classmates, and a new classroom, but we think it is important for him to have as much intervention as possible.

Speaking of interventions, we have made progress on that front as well. We were incredibly fortunate in that Nolan qualified for Colorado Medicaid, which will go a long way toward our therapy bills. Three weeks ago, we were able to get Nolan started with occupational therapy once a week, with a possibility of increasing to twice a week and maybe even an additional group therapy session. He is on the waiting list for speech therapy at the same Children’s Hospital satellite branch, but we aren’t sure when his name will come up for that. In the meantime, we have also contacted the Rocky Mountain Autism Center, which focuses on speech and communication largely using the SCERTS model, and will be having an initial meeting there next week to try and get that crucial speech piece in place.

Nolan has already been benefitting from the speech therapy he receives at preschool. He has started saying “bye” and waving spontaneously and appropriately again, and he learned how to say “eat,” which I know they were working on at school. In addition, he has been making a lot of partial sounds for words, like “tah” for toast or “ump” for jump, and showing me very emphatically what he wants by taking both my hands and dragging me around the house. He asks to go out of the house all of the time now by bringing me his shoes and trying to put them on himself (and he even puts them away without prompting when we get home!)

We have had some struggles with Nolan’s sleep pattern in recent weeks, however. It seems that every single day he either wants to stay up until midnight (or later) or else goes to bed on time and wakes up in the wee hours of the morning (it was 3:30am two days ago). I think he is averaging 14 hours awake per day, which is a lot for a 3-year old! Part of the problem is that he knows how to climb out of his bed, and he has spent several nights sleeping on the floor next to the door, even though we have a little tent set up on the floor with an air mattress and blankies. He does know how to climb back into bed though; yesterday I went to check on him when the house got too quiet, and found him in his room, jumping on the bed.

Finally, with his therapy largely being covered by Medicaid, we have begun looking into some alternative interventions for Nolan. We have an appointment scheduled with a naturopath in Boulder who competed the Defeat Autism Now training program, and we are looking forward to tailoring a dietary program for Nolan’s needs. In the meantime, we have started giving him a daily supplement of emulsified fermented cod liver oil (the mint-flavored variety from Green Pasture), and purchased cow shares at Windsor Dairy to have weekly access to fresh raw milk, pastured eggs and grassfed beef. My dad and I have also been working hard in our plots in the backyard and local community garden so that we will have homegrown vegetables this year; the weather has not really been cooperating in May, what with the hail and unseasonably cool temperatures, but so far most of our little sprouts are hanging in there.

As you can imagine, all of these ventures (and the many educational and therapeutic toys we have been accumulating at home) add up in the checkbook. My parents have generously taken on much of the financial burden, but I have started my own little business at home to help offset expenses. Called Scribbles by Sparks, I create whimsical monoprint cards and bookmarks from Nolan’s own scribbles at the easel, each one unique as a fingerprint. Custom orders are available through my website, Facebook, or email at scribblesbysparks@gmail.com, and I also offer cards for sale on Etsy and a few brick-and-mortar locations around Denver. Thanks so much to everyone who has invested in Nolan’s future by purchasing Scribbles by Sparks products—in just the last week, I sold enough cards to cover two months of raw milk! If the business takes off as we hope, I would like to start donating a percentage of the proceeds to a pertinent charity, such as Autism Speaks or the Autism Society of Colorado.

The Jay and the Peacock

Our little guy is now nearly 19 months old, and he’s making all kinds of strides, physically and developmentally. He’s still a string bean—55th percentile for height and head circumference, 3rd percentile for weight—and so active I’m thinking we’re never going to get him fattened up now. We finally got him used to his stiff tennis shoes (he used to stand stock still and cry when we put them on, and then walked very slowly like Frankenstein, clinging to everything). While the weather held up, we went for loads of trips to the park and just walks outside; Nolan can walk around on the sidewalk for a good 90 minutes without letting up (or making much forward progress for that matter—I’d love to know what that kid is thinking sometimes when he’s wandering around).

Here he wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to finish getting his jammies on. It’s hard to tell from a still photo, but he was running through the house at top speed, holding a shoe, and squealing with delight at his escape.

Another top-speed photo, this time fully dressed. Note that the 18-mo pants, which I had to belt onto him over his cloth diapers, are still making their way down.

A rare still moment, courtesy of a new toy. Nolan seems to be very mechanically inclined, and loves figuring out how things work and come apart. This latch board was right up his alley, but he loves anything with moving parts or pieces that come apart and fit together. He actually figured out how to take a pen apart a few weeks ago, the ball-point sort that screws together in the middle.

I keep missing the money shot with the dog. Nolan loves his Freyja-dog so much: he’s always chasing her around, throwing toys for her to fetch, trying to feed her kibble, and cuddling with her. She is about as patient, gentle and aware of his presence as she could be, so much so that he can reach into her mouth and pull out her favorite toy with absolutely no resistance on her part. She does sometimes try to escape to another room when he smothers her with too much attention, however.

One of the biggest developments of the past month or two has been kisses. Nolan started giving us big bear-hugs first, and now he gives kisses constantly: Mom and Dad, Freyja, the knees of visitors, the phone, and most of his toys, all accompanied with a very clear “mmmwaaa” smacking sound. He’s also suddenly become very attached to his stuffed animals, and insists on having one or more to cuddle first thing in the morning—his monkey gets a kiss before I do. We’re still waiting for Nolan to really start talking, but he clearly demonstrates comprehension all the time. Here I asked him to give his monkey a kiss for the camera and he was happy to oblige.

One last note: I finally knitted something since the baby was born! (Blame it on our broken iMac.) Nolan had grown out of most of his socks, so I knitted him a new pair of cute little orange ones with a bit of a swashbuckler cuff, based on a pattern from Cat Bordhi’s book.

June 19, 1999

Progress is definitely being made, but I’ve still got at least a month to go…

Also of potential interest, our registry information (work in progress that it is) can be found here.

I was one of the lucky 2,000 who made it into the 2007 Rockin’ Sock Club from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. We received our first yarn pack at the beginning of March, and the club got off to a good start.

The yarn, STR Medium Weight in the custom colorway Monsoon, was absolutely gorgeous. I had been wanting to make some socks in a green colorway, and the greens, browns, and grays in this yarn were perfectly suited to the end of an Oregon winter. I liked the pattern a lot also, a reversible cable cuff with ribbed insteps and short-row garter toes and heels, knit toe-up.

The problem, though, was the fit. I started off knitting this pair of socks on #0s, thinking I’d make the pair for myself. However, it quickly became clear that they were coming out too large for my tiny feet, and the suggested to go down a needle size on the foot was complicated by the fact that I don’t want to have to use 8″ long #00 DPNs. Why in the world don’t they make shorter laceweight (00, 000, etc.) DPNs? At any rate, I decided to just go with the flow and gift these beautiful Monsoon socks to someone who’ll fit into them.

My second problem came when I started knitting the cabled cuffs of the socks. After 3 false starts for various reasons, I finally made it through the top of the cuff on my fourth attempt, and tried the sock on. I could get it on, but it felt awfully snug, and I hated the way the large cables made my ankles all lumpy and bumpy. I can’t even imagine how they’d feel if I wanted to wear them with boots that come up over the ankle. So I ripped out attempt #4 to the heel and did the socks with a half-sized cable instead. I still like how they look, though they sacrificed some reversibility, and the ankle is much less lumpy and tight, knit on #1 needles. I also added some ribbing for balance before casting off.

Our second kit was the gorgeous, and brand-new, Socks that Rock Silkie in the Walking on the Wild Tide colorway. The yarn is fantastically soft, and I was excited to make the pattern, a pair of lace knee-highs, to wear with skirts in the spring. Pretty soon, though, reports began coming in about sagging socks, and I got discouraged. I really want to do this yarn justice both pattern-wise and texture-wise, and I really was enamored of the lace knee-high idea, so I’ve been kicking around some ideas and not really making any decisions about what to do.

The June kit was less in my color palette, but that’s partly why I joined the club, right? STR lightweight in the Firebird colorway, lots of reds, oranges, yellows and pinks. The club pattern didn’t really do it for me either, but I’ve recently started a pair of socks using this yarn and the Fawkes pattern at Socktopia. Several other people in the club did so also, and I liked the results; plus, the colorway and pattern seem meant to go together.

It was the August kit, though, received just over a week ago, that really got me wanting to knit again. I’ve laid off almost entirely over the summer, in part because of the puppy, but when I saw this month’s kit, I pulled out the needles right away. The yarn is STR lightweight in a colorway called Flower Power, and the pattern, Summer of Love Lace, is an anklet with a cute little lace cuff.

I got the yarn on a Friday and had the first sock finished by Sunday evening, the second sock by mid-weed. Of course, it’s way too warm out here for me to cover my feet in wool. Even cotton socks are a bit much at the moment. But they’ll be darn cute a bit later in the fall and next spring.

I made the small size and didn’t need to make any adjustments at all for a perfect fit. My kind of pattern! In fact, I was so pleased with the outcome that I will definitely consider knitting this pattern again (and again).

Two more kits to go!

This is just a heads-up for those of you who are interested in cooking or food in general. I’ve been collecting recipes that we particularly like for some time, mostly for my own benefit and future reference. Recently, though, I’ve starting adding photos and narrative to the recipes, and posting more frequently, and lo and behold, I seem to be writing a food blog.

So come check out The Persnickety Palate from time to time to see what we’ve been eating and why (also when, how, and whence). We’ve also added a link to it from here, in the Links box at the right. A taste for you: Last night we had wild sockeye salmon, broiled and served with a roasted red pepper sauce and sauteed snow peas, and homemade cheesecake ice cream for dessert.

The photo doesn’t do them justice: They were perfect fresh from the skillet (crisp outside and succulently moist inside), tasted just as good at room temperature, and held up admirably in the form of reheated leftovers, warmed in a 350F oven for 15-20 minutes. I served them with a mound of sauteed spinach and the Greek roasted potatoes here (which also reheated nicely in the oven).

Since my recipe was an adaptation of several different meatball recipes, I’ve written it out for you. We’ll definitely be making them again soon.

The reason I chose the yarn for the first pair of socks will be immediately apparent to anyone with Ohio ties: it’s Claudia sock yarn in the Buckeye colorway. This was my first experience with Claudia yarns, and I must say it was a pleasant one. The yarn was very soft and beautifully dyed. The skeins are a little on the skimpy side, however, so I took the precaution of knitting this pair of RPM socks toe-up. Other specs, mostly for my own benefit: I used the Easy Toe from Sensational Knitted Socks, starting with 12 sts, short-row heels; knit on #0 needles over 63 sts for the foot; worked the spirals in opposite directions for a matched pair.

The second pair of socks was knit because Heather is a big Harry Potter fan; of course she needed to have a pair of Gryffindor socks! I decided to do a stripe more along the lines of the scarves from later movies for this pair, and carried the yarn inside to avoid weaving in a bazillion ends. I used more of my lovely Lang Jawoll yarn for this, and I couldn’t be happier with the colors. Since I knew I had plenty of yarn, I knit these top down. And some specs: #0 needles, 64 sts cast on, modified long-tail CO from Nancy Bush; 2” of 2/2 ribbing for the cuff in red; traveling jogless jog; stripe pattern: 5 rounds yellow, 3 red, 5 yellow, 11 red; short-row heels and standard toes in red.

Enjoy them, Heather, and stay warm!

When our guests left, I got started on Jeremy’s birthday cake: German chocolate, naturally! I got the cake in the oven and discovered that there was less coconut than expected in the cupboard, so I made a quick dash over to Safeway for that, and ended up lugging home a bunch of inordinately heavy stuff: short ribs, sunchokes, potatoes, rice, and so on. Thank goodness we had enough flour and sugar. Good exercise, though, I suppose. Jeremy got in some painting while I was gone… hopefully he’ll post updated photos of what he’s working on before too long.

Anyway, while the frosting finished up (this recipe involved making dulce de leche in the oven, a lengthy process), Jeremy helped me with dinner, which was masaman curry. Jeremy loves curry, but I don’t care for it, so I would probably not have considered making it if it weren’t for Curry Simple. Their Thai tea syrup was recommended on one of the food blogs I read, and when I saw their packets of masaman curry sauce, I knew Jeremy would appreciate it for a special occasion like his birthday. Everything arrived really quickly after I ordered it, and dinner was as easy as sauteeing chicken and then vegetables while I boiled some new potatoes, and mixing everything together with the sauce packet. We served it over jasmine rice with Thai iced tea to drink, and the surprising bit was that I actually thought it was pretty good, not too spicy. I ate a small plateful, Jeremy had two huge helpings, and we still had plenty of leftovers, so I think it was an all-around success. Good thing too, because I ordered some pad thai sauce at the same time. So we’ll probably continue ordering sauces from Curry Simple from time to time.

Once Jeremy had time to digest his dinner, we tried out the cake, and it came out really well also. It was actually the inside-out German chocolate cake from Epicurious, but I don’t have any way of storing layer cakes, so I converted it to a sheet cake and left off the ganache layer because it seemed plenty sweet and rich as it was. It was very tasty, and perhaps even better the second day, after a stint in the fridge.

As I mentioned previously, these socks are knit from Socks that Rock Lightweight, in the Downpour colorway, perfect for a wet Oregon winter. They came out nicely, and this is definitely a pattern I’ll use again, not least because they needed no adjustment to fit my tiny feet. As for the yarn, I love the colors and the way they striped without too much flashing; the wool is warm and squishy without being too itchy.

Next I whipped out a very quick little pair of anklets from a leftover skein of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Vera. I tried out several different pattens with this yarn and ended up doing a simple checkerboard/basketweave pattern. I think the came out really cute, and will make good spring socks.

While making the anklets, I also started (and finished) a pair of Chain Link Socks. This pattern was from the SixSox Knitalong, and I used my leftover Trekking #67 and some white Lang Jawoll, and didn’t come close to using up either one. A visually interesting pattern, but verrrry simple to knit, and I was shocked to note that the stripes in the Trekking came *this* close to matching up, without any intentions on my part.

Finally, I finished my first pair of Trekking knee socks, to be worn with skirts and/or boots. I used a traveling clock pattern from Folk Knitting in Estonia for some visual interest on the sides, and did them plain otherwise. They were knit toe-up so that I could make the most effective use of the yarn, and I ended up with a tiny bit leftover, so I think I did pretty well.

Over the weekend, I started a new pair of socks for Jeremy, still pending his approval. No pics yet. They are Spey Valley Socks in Trekking XXL #90, which is coming out much more green and gray than brown, oddly. I like how they look, though, and because Jeremy said the last pair, also made from Trekking, felt bumpy under his feet, I’m doing these with a reverse stockinette sole.