Monthly Archives: August 2018
Dar As a Star Student
This is Dar’s first week in third grade. His new teacher is very nice. She asked Dar to come to the classroom on the day before school started, and so I brought him. Did it help his adjustment? Who knows. He also has a new aide who seems capable and professional. This is the beginning of Dar’s fifth (!) year at his current school, Thousand Oaks. How much has he learned in the previous four years? Well, he’s learned a […]
From Hose to Hot Tub
Regular readers know that Dar loves water. But there are circumstances when he doesn’t. One of these occurs at water parks when he refuses to ride waterslides. Another occurs when we wash his hair; he screams at the decibel level of a dozen car alarms. We think perhaps it’s because he doesn’t know what we mean when we implore him “CLOSE YOUR EYES!” Or maybe he does know but he doesn’t like the traces of soap. So I was skeptical […]
Hurricane Darbor
How do you solve a problem like Maria? No idea. How do you solve a problem like Dar? I don’t really know that either, but I know that we try things that have made him smile in the past. One of these is taking him to water parks. Another one of these is avoiding previous mistakes at water parks. This last weekend, we made sure to avoid arriving at the park during the minute it opened, to avoid those queues […]
The five things Dar wants to do
This is a picture of Dar enjoying my tickles. That’s great when it happens. Not pictured: all the times he doesn’t want to be tickled. During that vast majority of his waking hours, what does Dar want? For something like eight years, we never knew what Dar wanted. I can hardly understate the difficulty and despair that goes with living this way. Ever hear the phrase “be careful what you wish for”? Right. Well, be careful wishing for knowing what […]
Amazement Parks
Hi and thanks for reading. Sorry about my unannounced hiatus last week, but we were at Southern California amusement parks, which is what this post is naturally about. I can remember thinking, maybe twenty years ago, that people jockeying for advantage in amusement parks probably fake or exaggerate the disability of a member of their party. I used to think that people would pretend that their kids have, you know, a particular aversion to lines (queues). I remember thinking: you’re […]