Big Change Nr 1# Last Day of School for Ezra

Today was Ezra's last day of school. His class had a goodbye party for him. I handed out little gifts to all the kids as is Dutch tradition. They in turn had made a gift for Ezra, a picture assembled with all their hand prints and names on it. Ezra loved it. I hung it up in his room, which made him very happy. One of his "isms" is names. (An "ism" is what the Autism Treatment Center calls a self-stimulating activity, that is calming and organizing to the autist.) He learns names after one mention, and will remember and recite them over and over.
I know that in the long run, the Son-Rise program is what he needs. He doesn't communicate properly yet (can't answer questions, doesn't respond when spoken to 80% of time, speaks only 2-3 word sentences, has difficulty articulating words, etc.) He wants so much to be part of the group, and despite even the language barrier and communication difficulties, the kids in his class here have taken to him like his former class mates in the States. Ezra has such a sweet, enthusiastic personality that makes him easy to love. Nonetheless, I do admit to having second thoughts about having him home full time. I couldn't help but worry when his friends waved goodbye to him, how much he would miss the taxi ride, and going to school, being part of a group. Of course, we've thought this over, and for Ezra to be able to make lasting friendships, and actually relate, communicate and play he will need special intervention. There is no way around it. Still, I must admit that I am worried for myself as well. Is that selfish? I don't know. Last year when I had him home full time from May to October I almost went crazy (of course we were also living in temporary housing for 9 weeks of that, moved across the Atlantic, and had to find housing while not understanding anyone around us, so that made it worse). And this last week, I had both boys in school in the morning, and had two hours to myself. I started singing and practicing again, and it is amazing how much happier I was. Sure we will have volunteers help us, but essentially there will never be a time where I am home alone. And when I am home the kids usually want me.

THE PERFECT SPINACH WRAP

Every once in a while ingredients out of my tiny, crowded fridge produce something so delicious I have to share it.

Here it is. I will presumptuously call it, THE PERFECT SPINACH WRAP!

Take a spinach wrap, spread some home made slightly spicy roasted red pepper hummus on it, layer it with a leaf of butter lettuce, finely grated carrots, and corn. Add a dash of home made special tomato french dressing (which is red and slightly sweet), and then put on some spicy chicken shwarma meat. The combination of sweet, spicy, soft and crunchy was just delectable.

I wish I would have taken some pictures, but it actually didn't roll up well because I used small spinach wraps, so it wouldn't have looked as amazing as it tasted.

London Borough Market at Southwark

London January 2010

I'm hopelessly behind on my blog. I went to London to participate in the Son-Rise start-up program, which is a program that is highly effective in recovering individuals from autism, and teaches parents how to run their own program. More about that in a separate post. London was awesome; busy, loud, overwhelming sensory overload in every square inch, shops, shops, and more shops, delicious foods, amazing restaurants, musicals, shows, plays, packed with history, museums and stuff to do...exactly the kind of place that makes you feel like you lead a hopelessly provincial life and has you wishing you were without kids and had all the time in the world to just feast on all the entertainment. And after the week was over I was just as happy to return to my kids and my provincial town out in the midst of green fields and forests. I do wish we lived closer to a city like London though so I could have the best of both worlds.
I got to stay with my dear friend Kerryn. She lives only a 20 min tube ride away from London Bridge in a nice neighborhood, north of the main downtown. Although her neighborhood had rows and rows of houses, I did in fact spot a fox when I was walking to catch the 4 am bus to Stansted. A fox in urban London!
Kerryn and I have been friends for about 8 years now, without ever having spent more than 4 hours in each other's presence. It was so fun after all this time to actually spend time together. Kerryn kindly agreed to go see WICKED with me although she had seen it three times, a musical that I had been wanting to see for five years, but never got tickets to in all the times I was in Manhattan. It was fantastic. At first I thought it didn't really compare to my favorites like Miss Saigon and Les Mis, because the music is less catchy and diverse, more "homogenous" for lack of better description, having only two lead roles, but it is the kind of show where while watching you think, this is fun but honestly what's the big deal. And then you come out of the theatre and the more you think about it the more awesome it becomes. So now I'm just as in love with WICKED as everyone else seems to be, and have "Changed for Good" in my head for two weeks now.
Whenever I go to a musical, I have to ask myself why I chose opera over musical. It is so much more fun to watch and listen to. I don't think that is really opera's fault though. When a musical is produced everything is set and doesn't change. The wishes of those producing it are respected and whether you see it in London or NYC or on a tour, it is pretty much the same from costume to set. An opera production with a great set, well staged and acted out is really entertaining too, not to mention impressive because the singers sing without amplification. Most opera composers wrote similarly explicit directions for their productions which today are largely ignored, perhaps on account of them being dead, and so you will find that instead of being an Ethiopian Princess enslaved to an jealous royalty in Egypt, Aida is now suddenly a cleaning lady with a russian accent in Brooklyn. Instead of Pyramids on set, sky scrapers, as represented by the chair on stage left. While you're at it might as well imagine the costumes too. And then, if you can find opera singers who can act, which there are plenty by the way, you first have to find the director who allows them to, without asking them to produce the sounds the audience paid to hear them sing, while standing on their head and juggling a vacuum cleaner and mop in their underwear. OK, so I might have exaggerated this, but I bet that if I opened up the discussion here to my friends on the ridiculous things they had to do on stage, you would see it's not far from the truth.

Anyway, back to London. The best thing was eating out every meal. There were 171 participants in the course, and I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I relished eating in a restaurant all by myself instead of mingling. I love silence, and being able to finish my meal without having to get up 20 times to get the kids a different plate/salt/drink/cup/glas whatever was awesome and then to explore the boroughs market after. I felt free as a bird. I never understood why my mom liked to eat out alone, thinking it lonely and sad. Now that I have my own kids I understand that eating out alone is a celebration of liberty and silence, and I loved it.

Look for more updates on Son-Rise program soon.