UNM Commencements

Finally done! Actually I graduated in summer but I had to wait for the Fall Commencements to walk and get hooded. Since I didn't walk in the other three (BA, MA, MS) I had no idea how long the thing would be ... glad I didn't do the others. Bit hard to see but if you look all the way down the row of black robes you should see my hair and the left side of my face.Ozzie (Dr. Osbjorn Pearson) did the honors of hooding me. Again, I'm in the center by the podium ... look for my hair.

Juniper's opinion of the event. Actually it probably was easier all around with her asleep although I don't know how she did it with all the noise. I actually had to cover my ears during large parts of the ceremonies (especially the undergrad segment) ... the catcalling, whistling, & air horns were insane. My nerves were really jittery and I was quite worried about how Bruce was handling it all. He apparently did really well ... my sister took him outside for awhile and brought him over where he could see me. It was so funny. He was looking all over the place and then when he saw me clearly he had such a surprised, bemused expression. I blew him a kiss and he blew one back. I got all teary eyed. I really was extremely worried about how the noise and visual stim was affecting him.
We went to Paisano's for dinner afterward - they have gluten free pizza, pasta, and stellar GF Italian Wedding Cake. Bruce was a riot when he saw me. He jumped up and ran over and proceeded to remove my hat ... then the hood ... then the robe. He was very concerned that I look like mommy :) BTW if you've never seen a PhD hood they're pretty funny and I suspect that an unfortunate celibate priest/scholar decided to have a bit of fun several hundred years ago. The hood (when it hangs down the back) likes like the folds of the labia minora & majora and clitoral "hood!" Perhaps that the real origin of the silly thing's name. Sorry but I don't have any pictures of it hanging down the back ... you'll just have to believe me or do an internet search.

Belated Thanksgiving

Over Thanksgiving I worked on a gluten free sugar cookie recipe that wouldn't spread from here to kingdom come at 7500' elevation. The kids liked using the cookie cutters, although restraining the rolling pin man from making paper thin cookies was a challenge. I just spread the surface of the cookies with buttercream icing and then Bruce put sprinkles on them ... anything more complex would have been too chaotic.


Juney really really liked the icing.


Yummy mashed potatoes.

oh ... hi
What .... Is there a problem?

Yeah whatever ... garlic mashed potatoes are waiting.

Christmas Eve 2008 pt 1

The holiday posts will be coming in dribs, drabs, & parts as I find photos that were taken on the 4 different digital cameras that were going.

Our Bruce is really in to robots. So perhaps he'll actually play with a Mr Potato Head if it looks like a robot ... there are a couple of chocolate coins in his cheek pouches.


The round crayon thingy and Dora coloring book were actually in Juney's stocking .... However, Bruce loves Dora and the crayon thingy looks like one of Dora's "stars" so they must both be for him. So much for mom guessing what the kiddos would like.


It appears that Juney will be able to contribute to the long standing tradition of "vamping" for photos. Gilly made the little color for her which she didn't take off till in bed.

Juniper is constantly trying to swipe Bruce's rollie backpack which really causes a lot of conflict. To try and settle the dispute, her "stocking" this year was a rollie bunny backpack (since I didn't finish knitting her stocking that I started last January). She digs it and, so far, Bruce doesn't seem to want to swipe it.

Juniper started potty training herself this past week after reading the story "Once Upon the Potty "(boy version) (FYI, she can say penis :)) It was amazing watching the sparks of cognition in her eyes as she looked at me and then back at the book. So into her stocking went her first pack of big girl panties (ie no trains, cars, etc on them). She was so taken with them that she had to put all 4 pairs on at once!

Dec 16th

Leading up to Christmas I worked on coming up with a gluten free recipe for gingerbread that you could actually build with. The first batch of dough went to cookies since it was too chewy and bendable. The next four batches came out great. Below is a photo of my 2nd batch which I used to make the walls and roofs for the larger of the 3 houses. I decided it was too large for the preschoolers to decorate so I came up with a smaller template which I liked better and it was more suitable for the vagaries of GF baking as well.


Bruce did an absolutely amazing job helping me glue together the gingerbread houses with royal icing. Unfortunately it was too hectic to photograph at the time. However, afterward he decided he needed to pee, didn't want to search for his blue potty, and since it was raining outside .... stood at the door instead :)


Later that evening he sacked out with Juniper. It was a bit chilly so they each wiggled toward the other while asleep (they were actually separate by 1 adult body worth of space). Bruce isn't usually affectionate with Juney so I thought this would be nice proof for him that she doesn't have cooties :)

Time

I've been working on the concept of linear time with Bruce. Not easy. He always wants to go to gymnastics even though it is not the day for that. I asked his preschool teachers for copy of their weekly chart so we'd have the same tool at both places. He moves the star for each day of the week. The pictures represent the different things that happen on those day. Below the week chart are hanging the kids' Santa advent calendars. They paste a cottonball on for each day of the month until Christmas Eve ... old concept but I'm hoping Bruce will have an easier time understanding when Christmas is especially since everyday is his birthday :)

ChaosBoy & Entropygirl Save the Day

Chaosboy and Entropygirl save the kitchen floor ... after wrecking it. We were making popsickel cookies (aka lemon curd bars) when Juniper got into the teeny tiny can of cream tartar and dumped it on the floor. It was in a tidy little pile ... at least until big brother decided to sweep it up. After that it was spread all over the kitchen floor.
But then Chaosboy dumped the broom (promptly acquired by Entropygirl in order to complete her 2 fisted clean-up ensemble) for the swivel sweeper (I love that contraption) and then actually did manage to vacuum up all the cream of tartar, basically.