Frederick Living the Good Life

Here Frederick is enjoying a relaxing evening stroll through ForMar. Frederick's life is pretty good these days. His speech therapist is doing wonders--he proudly (and loudly) said word phrases such as "big purple shoes" two lessons ago and polysyllabic words such as "pelican" and "octopus" this past week. Music therapy continues to go well, too. This past week Frederick and Mr. Mike took turns singing the words to a fish song (lots of gulping involved) and then jammed for about 20 minutes on bongos. And about a month ago we finally found a great OT to work with him. (We had to fire his previous OT and when I say "we" I mean "Simon." All Frederick did during the sessions was sob uncontrollably while she sighed and said, "He doesn't like me." I just don't think that was $75 an hour well spent.) During the most recent OT session Frederick worked on his fine motor skills, which are already pretty good, by playing with Tinker Toys. The plan is to work up to large muscle skills while biking and climbing and then (gasp!) riding horses! (Which, in the OT world, is called "hippotherapy." I was really excited by the thought of Frederick riding hippos but apparently that isn't going to happen.) As for school, well, let's just say that Frederick has decided that the fourth school we have enrolled him in, just like the other three, wasn't a good "fit." A year ago he was going to school 5 days a week, by April it was down to 2 days a week, in July he was going 1 day a week...now we don't even bother packing his backpack and Frederick is LOVING IT!! His days are his own, he is content and progressing at an astonishing rate. The only problem is that having him at home every day may just kill us.

Simon's Trip to Oxford

First set of visitors view my palatial abode in Mansfield College. They deem it "very cozy."
Father enjoying a poppadom. No, really.
Margaret still refraining from judgement of the poppadoms.
Rob, in his natural habitat. The pub. Outside, preferably, so he can make one of his disgusting rollups, England now being "smoke free" inside.
Frank, in the Kings Arms, which he says is the "Philosophers' Pub". Sure enough, I saw him in it again later, and he's a Philosopher, so there you are.
Anabel in her BEAUTIFULLY remodeled (apart from that busted drawer) kitchen, in ritzy (although she swears it isn't - that's why ex-fashion models are among the fellow parents at the local playgroup) Pimlico. Happy, because all three kids are in bed.

The gimlet-eyed readers might have noted the lack of conference-photos in this spread. Well, it was a top-secret conference, see? So cameras weren't allowed. Doesn't mean I wasn't an ACTIVE participant.

Day 1: San Diego Zoo

Round-trip flights from Detroit to San Diego were too inexpensive to pass up, so Thomas and I headed there for three days to enjoy the last days of summer. The agenda was simple: animals during the day, swimming in the late afternoons and tv into the night. We decided to spend the first animal day at the San Diego zoo.

When we first arrived at the zoo (just seconds after it opened), we were bursting with energy and excitement. The zoo is stunning. In these top pictures, you can just about make out the three levels--ground or water level, up about 20 feet and then at the tree tops--you can walk on to give you views of the animals. Thomas brought along his birthday present telescope so that he could see everything up close and personal. The hippos put on a good show which, apparently is rare as he is rather reclusive. The panda wisely takes a nap as the day heats up.

The day gets hotter and hotter and...

I don't know how hot it got by mid-afternoon. Here Thomas and I are refreshing ourselves with giant drinks. [Look how empty the place is--this was at noon! It was weird.] Thomas insisted that we both try the Footsie Wootsies. For only a quarter, the machine jiggled our feet for a minute or so to discourage numbness. It actually worked for about ten minutes--which was just about when we would reach the next Footsie Wootsie. The last picture is of Thomas before an albino python. Just as we were stumbling toward the zoo exit, I asked Thomas if there was any animal that we didn't photograph but that he wished we had. He said that there was, this python. Fortunately the reptile house was about ten feet from where we were standing so I could just manage to get over there to get this last picture.

Back at the hotel

If you look closely at the top picture you can see Thomas running at top speed into the pool. After walking a thousand miles around the zoo in 95 degree weather, we needed to cool down. Then, of course, we needed to warm up a bit so here is Thomas enjoying the hot tub. We switched back and forth for several hours and then flopped on the beds and watched several hours and Sponge Bob Square Pants. (Thomas now says his favorite part of the whole trip was watching tv with me in the hotel in the evenings.)

Sea World, No Longer Educational

Day 2: Let's just say that Sea World is not what it was when I went almost thirty years ago. Gone are the aquariums and marine biologists explaining everything there is to know about creatures of the deep. Instead we have endless reminders to "support our heroes" [soldiers] and that ALL OF THIS was brought to you by Anhauser-Busch...Most of the propaganda was lost on Thomas and he claims he enjoyed the dolphin and killer whale acrobatics.