Memories of Thailand part II

In Thailand there was plenty of time to do things we have planned for long but not really had found the time for. One thing was to helping A learn to swim. That really went well. He has used armpads before but it only took him a couple of days of pool fun to discover snorkeling googels and fins.

Now he can swim at least 15 meters but he has to have the snorkel, he hasn´t found the "floating techinque" yet. But it is a remarkable change, until now, he has been a bit careful around water and has been almost terrified whenever he´s got water over his head.
But after four weeks in paradise A now jumps from the edge of the pool. Great!

As for V he too had a great breakthrough. He is still using diapers. But we really worked with him in the bathroom and one day we heard a big "Jiaaaaaaaaa".
And there it came! Number one!

A small step for mankind but a giant leap for our family!

Memories of Thailand Part I

One of the big peaks of the trip to Thailand was the Elephant Riding! On this picture you can´t really tell how big they are, but boy o`boy, they are truly huge!

Me and A went together on one of them and my wife and V sat together on another.

It was shaky and bumpy but fun. And afterwords we got to feed them with pineapple. V was thrilled and excited, giving things to that long trunk!

The sign for elephant was used a lot after that.

And so was the signs for monkey and banana after this incident. I had a bag and a banana, as we were walking past a couple of monkeys. Stupid idea.

I thought the banana would be protected since it was in plastic and not at the very top of the bag.
I was dead wrong.

The monkey made a quick jump, and hanging from the bag, it stuck a very long arm into it, grabbing the banana - in no time! And then back to the trees. Unfolding the plastic like a boss!

V was upset. It was his banana. But it was also a very exciting event so he understood that I could have done nothing to stop the little fellow. We agreed it was the monkeys fault.

We signed "The monkey stole V´s banana!" a lot after that. And we still do. A great memory!

Postcards from Thailand

We are back in Sweden again, and what a trip it has been! I´m trying to collect all the memories and moments we had in Thailand and hopefully I´ll prestent it to you here in some days.

Happy New Year - RS John Lassetire

My last car 2013:

R S John Lassetire.

It is a variant of John Lassetire the Team Chief

According to Pixar Wiki "John Lassetire is an all-American pick up truck. The truck he is most likely modeled after an early 1990s Chevrolet S-10 Pickup Truck."

There´s also a special edition where the car is wearing a "Hawaiian Shirt"painted on the back. That was given to all the people working on Cars 2.

But this one is also a Special Edition, it is from the same K-Mart Special that Muggsy Liftsome was in.

I love this one. Especially in this wiev, you see the similarity with the real John Lasseter - well. If you try real hard?

Anyway - have a really happy new year and let´s hope for som great cars 2014!

Unboxing Muggsy Liftsome

 As I wrote a couple of days ago, I joined in on an ebay acution. And I won:

I do not usually care for the Deluxe-series. They are simply too big for my garage. But this one, I just got to have it! I do think that the Lemons are the most interesting cars from Cars 2. They are cars that havn´t been known for beauty, speed or perfection. Quite the contrary. They are misfits. Experiments. Cheap, and breaks a lot. The have a bad history. Check out more about The Lemons here.

And I have been waiting for more of them. And this one, Muggsy Liftsome, is the first in a very long time:

Muggsy was released as a K-Mart Special in the US and there are still quite a few available on eBay.

As you can see he has the similarities of a pitty. The forklift and the hat. But he is way bigger:

So this is what my Lemon collection looks like right now (and you can see how troublesome it is to collect large DELUXE cars...) 

The beauty of language

Writing here on the blog gives me an opportunity that is really amazing. Before the internet this mass communication, this international mass broadcasting was impossible.
It is quite a revolution we take part in, the information highway people spoke of back in 1995 is really here and it is really vast.
For me porsonally, this gives me direct acess to the thoughts and feelings of another dad, living in the US with lots of similarities to my life. He also collects cars, hides them in a garage and he also has two sons, one of them with a disability.
I am very happy that this blog helped him find me and sharing things with him on email is an important way for me to deal with things around my son V. And my son A, as well.

So when I started to write in English, it was the right decision. This blog has always had more traffic from the US than from Sweden (Yes, even when I wrote in Swedish!) and since V has such a rare disease my hopes to get to know someone with something that looks a tiny bit similar to what he has, well the hope is bigger in the US, right?

My English isn´t very good, not all the time, I know that. And it makes me write a bit more selldom due to the larger effort it takes to first think, then translate, and then write.

But nevertheless this blog was a success for me when people emailed me from different parts of the world and told me something about their own children. Or their own car collections...

And I have always liked to read and write. I read my first word when I was 3 (according to my mom) and I read Roninson Crouse, the second edition, when I was about 8. Old difficult language. But what a freedom it was to be able to absorb all the stories out there!

And now. The irony. A son with so little language of his own. V knows a few words but almost all of them is a syllable in repeat: MA-MA. PA-PA. DI-DI, BA-BA (The last two is the names of two Babblare - toys made to help kids develop their speach)

But just the other day V took a giant leap. Well, to us it was.

We always read to V and A before they go to sleep. Lately he like to hear about "Mamma Mu och Kråkan" - that is somthing like "Mummy Moo and the Crow" a very funny series of books about the jolly Mummy Moo and the grumpy Crow. And then I tried with V.
- Say Mam-ma muuuu!
- Ma-mmma-mma
- Ma-Ma Muuu!
- Ma-Ma....Ma!

And then...
- Ma... Ma... Moooo!

Clearly two different words! Together. In a sentence!

The very first sentence!

***

I really really think you should listen to this episode of RadioLab ath WNYC - it is about words:

http://www.radiolab.org/story/91725-words/

November Blues for V

Last week I was filing a report. It was - as so many times before - a report about V and his disabilities. We are applying for some extra help. Assistance, you know.

V is quite a handfull. Sometimes it feels like I´m hurrying home from work just to start my next work. Get the kids from Daycare and School. Start cooking. Help V with his iPad (he loves watching Youtube-movies about trains, elevators and Teletubbies but Youtube laggs and buffers a lot and he simply hates that) finish cooking dinner. Feeding my kids, play som games with V, read some books, make the kids ready for bed and then read books before they go to sleep.

Some evenings my wife gets home early, and some evenings I work late. And I know, you are many out there, doing the same insane rituals. But believe me when I say that with a kid with a brain disability - it is a whole different ball game.

So we want help. Someone who can take V for some hours on a sunday. To go play outside, to the park, or just a ride with the bus (he really loves that).
It would be nice for me and my wife, we could relax, breath, recover a bit. But it would also benefit A a lot. We could care for him more, play with him without being interrupted every third minute by a scream or so. If you read my ramblings about the insane ritual above, you notice that I haven´t even mentioned A. That´s because he pretty much take care of himself. He is forced to do that.

So when I was filling in the application form the other night, making sure to put everything that V needs extra help with on paper, it all struck me as very sad.
"V has no friends of his own"
"V needs help and being looked after all the time"
"V har motoric difficulities"
"Although being 4,5 years old, V does not speak more words than dad and mom".

I cried.

Sometimes everything just hit you. And overwhelmes you. And you feel very very small. And that someone has treated you in a extremely unfair way.

But then I dried my tears. Tried to think about about all the good stuff V brought in our life.

And filled in the rest of the God damned application.