Caulk... It's what's for dinner... (or maybe just a mid afternoon snack!)

It has been almost year since I last posted anything to this blog. I'm not apologizing for it, because I have been busy living life with a *very* active, autistic 5 year-old, a full-time job and a dear husband who is also stretched very thin.

It's been a very busy year filled with crazy adventures and life-changing journeys. Where to begin is troubling and puzzling all at the same time, so it may have have to remain a void that will slowly be filled in with time.

Today, though, was an adventure that I didn't ever need to have, but is fairly inevitable when you have an active, autistic 5 year-old that puts everything in his mouth. Including, licking the bottom of his shoes! Fortunately or unfortunately (not really sure which), his ingestion of some "toxic" caulk today didn't happen on my watch.

As is most always the case with Seamus, his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to inspect the newly caulked courtyard, at his preschool, with his mouth; ingesting a small fingertip-full of the freshly applied caulk (that staff had been told by maintenance, had cured and was safe) before anyone could stop him.

And so, my portion of the adventure began with a phone call from the school nurse.

I did not think that Seamus' afternoon snack of caulk would wind us up in the neighboring hospital ER, but instead of throwing caution to the wind, I decided to take the safe route and walk across the street to get it checked out. Especially since the Material Safety Data Sheet, provided by maintenance, listed one of the chemical compounds as toxic and instructed one to seek immediate medical attention if ingested!

So, I gathered up Seamus, called Josh and told him to meet us at the ER and headed across the street.

Thankfully, our first visit to the ER went very well. The ER Dr. checked with Poison Control to be sure that the amount ingested was not toxic. Their comment to the Dr. was, "this happens frequently with young children, because they think it looks like frosting." AWESOME! Poison Control also said that we should give him water to drink to help flush the substance out of his system (which the school had already done) and to watch him to make sure his health status didn't change. The ER Dr. checked Seamus' lungs and mouth... much to his chagrin... and gave him a clean bill of health and sent us on our merry way. Which made Seamus *very* happy!

Thankfully, the whole ER visit went smoothly and was fairly quick. The ER staff was excellent and very understanding and flexible when told about Seamus' autism. And Seamus did VERY well too!

And we even finished in time to make it to our regularly scheduled Thursday Night Pizza Party at Gaga's house! That is, after I called everyone on my list to alert them that Seamus would survive another day to test our nerves! Thank the pharmaceutical gods for Lexapro!!

A fresh look, procrastinantion style...

In good ole procrastination style, instead of casting on the sweater that I wanted to start, I decided that it was time to update the blog layout and change the header. The pea green was starting to bug me. Oh, the perile of a designer.

Every once in a while I need a change. It helps brighten the mood I suppose.

Now that that is out of the way... Cable cast on, here I come!!
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/cast-on

Hands Across the Living Room?

Big Bird, Ernie, Count von Count, Cookie Monster and a bat hold hands in friendship and unity.


Oh, yeah... and Oscar lives in here:

Here comes the sun...

It's been a while since I last posted something. I've been busy living the adventure with this guy.
Here's hoping for more posts in the future. No promises, but summer is making an appearance in these parts and the future looks bright.

Gone batty...

DSCF0003, originally uploaded by callaghanse.

Yes, it's December and I'm posting about Halloween. What's the problem??

Besides, Seamus is still playing bat cave and singing Halloween songs. The Christmas spirit hasn't struck him yet, so as far as he's concerned it's fine by him that I'm posting about Halloween the first week in December.

If he knew where I hid it, he'd still be wearing the costume too.

Spin it, Sister!

I'm really digging this making my own yarn business. I can't stop. I'm obsessed.

I think about it at work. I dream about it at night. I even daydream about it while knitting.

Though I don't knit that much anymore. Mostly when I have time to do something other than work, parent, or wife (can I use wife as a verb? It sure feels like a verb!!), I am spinning yarn. Much to the husband's chagrin. Oh, well... go stare at your fantasy football thingy some more.

It relaxes me. It makes me happy. And a relaxed, happy mama is a good thing. Right!?

Back in October, I went to the NYS Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. It is the mecca for fiber fanatics of all sorts. People make pilgrimages from all over. Including Canada!?! It is a little puzzling to me, but I'm lucky that I live so close to this treasure trove of fiber goodness.

I even saw a few knitting celebrities this year. I may have sort of stalked one of them for a short period through the stalls of vendors, but if you try to make me own up to it I won't!

I left the boys at home this year. It was out of kindness to all of us... or at least that is the excuse I used and I'm sticking to it. I got to the fairgrounds around 10:30 (hit a wall of traffic about a mile before I got there) and 4 hours later left with a bag filled with fabulous goodness.

Happy and sated, I drove home listening to my favorite NPR shows and dreaming of the delicious colors and textures waiting to be made into glorious yarns.

I procured a large amount of roving and other fiber goodies this year. I was so excited when I got home I didn't even know where to start. I was exhausted, but I did end up spinning up some of the hand dyed Alpaca and merino bat that I got from a farm about an hour from where we live.

I still have a bunch of fiber I haven't even touched yet, but I did dig out the hand painted Tussah silk and started to spin it. It looks awesome if I do say so myself. My hope to is to ply the singles so I can make a hat and mitt set out of it in time for holiday gifting. I have a specific person in mind, but I'm not going to say in case they read this and also in case I pull my usual procrastination routine and don't get it done in time.

Currently on my needles is a hat from "Designer One-Skein Wonders". I'm using yarn that I spun that is a 50/50 merino and silk blend in a dark heathery purple color. It's the first project I have knitted from yarn I've spun.

It has been a pretty awesome experience to be able to see something go from fiber to yarn to knitted object from start to finish. Well, kind of anyway. I haven't finished the hat yet, but the fabric it is knitting into is so pretty... if I do say so myself.

Back in the saddle... again!?

So, I took another hiatus. I thought I was back in July, but I must have had sunstroke... or something.

Actually, the summer was a whirlwind of excitement and mayhem. Though I can't really remember what sort of excitement or what type of mayhem. But it was definitely the Seamus variety. It flew by so fast and...

Summer quickly became fall.

Seamus started full day preschool at his new school. And as predicted he loves it and they love him. (Or at least that is what they tell us.) All kidding aside, it seems to be a really great fit and all our worrying and sleepless nights were all for naught... thankfully.

I didn't really discuss it in this forum at the time we were deciding on a school, but now looking back on the decision making process, we were really lucky that our struggle was not in trying to find a great school, but it trying to decide which great school to send Sea to.

I also may not have made it clear previously, because this past year has been a real struggle in coming to terms with the diagnosis and dealing with the ramifications of raising our child who has special needs, but Seamus is autistic. It appears to be a mild case, but none the less our child is on the spectrum. Something that, surprisingly, is not all that uncommon these days.

We don't live near a big city, if fact, some would say we live in the country. The closest city, if you want to call it that, is about a half hour away. For country dwelling folk, we are lucky to live in a county that has a lot of programs for children with special needs. And we are lucky that they have been fairly easy to find and readily available at no out of pocket cost to us. Though, if we had to, we would pay for Seamus to get what he needs, but it is nice to be able to take advantage of these programs.

The county and school district we live in have also, luckily, been very forthcoming in making these programs available to us without too much hassle. There was one bad meeting in the beginning, but since then we have had no trouble getting services for Seamus. We were even able to justify, and get, the one-on-one aide at his new school for this school year– which has been a huge help for Seamus.

But I digress, I guess the point of my ramblings is that parenting is hard and stressful and then when you add in a child that needs special services and schools, it makes it so much harder and so much more stressful. (Not surprising that statistically most couples with a special needs child divorce, but that's another conversation all together!) My point is that we have been lucky to have had very little trouble finding programs and services for Seamus.

I have to thank our pediatrician/family doctor for being so awesome and a force in our effort to get help for Seamus. When we first noticed that there was something going on and brought it up at Sea's 2 year wellness check, if our Dr. hadn't taken us seriously and just blown us off I don't know where we would be right now. But he didn't and referred us to early intervention services. The rest is a blur, but if we hadn't been steered in the right direction almost two years ago, I would be telling a much different story, I'm sure!

We have been very lucky. Lucky to have a great child and lucky to be able to give him what he needs!

So, even though I took another unplanned hiatus, I hope that it was just temporary.

I was pretty sure of myself the last time, so I'm not promising anything now!