So Natha had a bad dream about Thriller last night...

...so I went up to his room and tried to give him some tools to think of to make the dream less scary - like thinking of a map when you're having a dream about being lost or thinking of his favorite dog, Luci, when a monster is chasing him. He got distracted from thinking about the dream, went to the bathroom, and went back to sleep. This morning after breakfast he informed me that if zombies were to attack the house that he'd take care of it - he's lead them into the office where the computer is, then turn on the Thriller video. The zombies would then hear the music, get distracted, and start dancing. That would solve the zombie problem. I commended him for his quick thinking and problem solving skills. 'Cause if we get attacked by zombies, the odds are that something seemingly silly like that would actually solve the problem.

I took the first math test I've had in almost 8 years on friday - I'm used to 3-hour-long essay tests about the intricacies of molecular biology, not 50 minute math tests where you answer 4 problems in less than a paragraph. Fortunately the instructor thought ahead and put a 20 point bonus question at the end, of which I'm sure I got at least part of it correct. I screwed up one of the 25 point problems completely, though - I approached it wrong in the first place, then was overconfident that I'd solved it enough to not go back and re-think it. Ah, I'll just have to learn from it. Doesn't do any good to beat my brain silly over it - that would just paralyze me to the point where I'd shut down.

One of my classes is on weekends - 3 weekends a semester, to be exact. I thought I had class this weekend and then I realized I didn't - which was nice, because I didn't feel like studying yet and since this is the last weekend of class there's a test *and* the final exam on saturday. So, I can spend next week working on my independent studies, grading, and studying for this psychology class. As if that's not enough.

Ed went to work out today - the first time in a while. I try to get him to work out but the easiest way to get him to do that is to play racquetball with him. The problem is that I despise racquetball and all it stands for. He subsequently doesn't want to play with me if I'm not interested in it, and the problem is that I'm not ever going to be the slightest bit interested in being in a little room, moving quickly and smacking the crap out of a little ball with a racquet. He's got a better chance of me playing basketball with him, honestly. He's partially going to start working out for health reasons, but also because he's gained weight since we've been together and isn't happy about that. He asked me the other day why I didn't seem to be very concerned about it - I told him that I loved him for who he was and not what he looked like, and that my two reasons for being concerned are 1)because of health reasons and 2)because it bothers him. I'm actually kind of conflicted about it because I've taken good enough care of him and cooked enough good meals to fatten him up, which is flattering to me. I derive a lot of happiness from making sure people are taken care of, and gaining weight is one of those signs. :)

I've got to go check on the kid and start working on ecology and grading for labs - I'm getting emails from people asking how they're doing and I need something more concrete to tell them than just 'you're fine!'

So today's the designated day for me to do nothing...

...since we *actually* got snow last night and this morning and our driveway is a huge hill that doesn't bode well to travel during a wintery mix. I'm personally 100% ok with driving in snow, it's just that our driveway is quite an incline and *starting* the travel in our case is the prohibitive factor. Ed went this morning and moved the cars down to the street sliding all the way so we can go somewhere - we just decided not to this morning.

I was quite excited to have the house to myself last night - Ed, Natha, and Uncle Bob went to ArenaCross last night and then went out to an asian restaurant where they have fish neck. I stayed home, made a prosciutto sandwich and parked on the couch to watch a movie. Since we have DVR (where we can record shows and watch them whenever - the digital cable's TiVo) I accumulate movies that I'd like to watch but don't have the time to watch right then. Most of them are regarding topics Ed and Natha would whine about if subjected to - so I have to wait until they're gone or at least don't want to play video games for a while before I can start them. Last night it was between Chicago (which I'd already seen but wanted to see again) and Secretary. The latter won, and I sat there under a blanket with the fire on and watched the whole thing. Since it was on the Oxygen channel, I think that several key parts were missing so I'll have to get the unedited version sometime. Still, you get the point and it's a well-made movie. Not something you can watch with the kids underfoot - just the movie to watch when everyone's out of the house. I should have opened a bottle of riesling and made it a girl's night (as compared to a girls' night.) I was in bed and had just fallen asleep when they got home. Then from them waking me up I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and went downstairs and ate some peanut butter cups before we both went to bed.

Natha just came in and was asking to look up Thriller since we were watching Vh1 and there was something on there about it. So we consulted Google and found this which may start a bit slow but it's worth watching the whole thing to see the little lego people dance at the end. :)

It's time to go eat dinner for Erin's birthday, which was yesterday - I think we're going to a Mediterranean restaurant. So Later....

So I also forgot to mention...

...something that has to do with the previous post before the hiatus - Natha doesn't sing to himself when he's on the soma (as we call it). As the medicine wears off, he starts singing and spinning around in circles... :)

The funny thing was that the school psychologist (who didn't spend but maybe 30 minutes on his case and obviously didn't spend much time with him) was concerned that he was talking to himself. I promply told them that he was actually singing, if they listen closely. She also said she was concerned that he scored high in the atypicality portion. To that I replied that seeing as though I was always atypical I saw it as a positive aspect of his personality.

Here's another odd note about him - he's a collector. He picks up random things off the floor or things otherwise discarded and keeps them. He then usually sticks them in his pockets and I find them in the dryer. I've found keys attached to strings, beads, rocks, and paper clips. It's so much of a problem that I've had to threaten him with taking money away from him if I find anything else in the dryer. In one load alone I found 7 rocks, 2 paper clips, 3 buttons and a quarter. And that's a week's worth of clothes. He even asks me where his 'collections' are sometimes. Yep, my son's a collector.

If you want to hear a (what I consider to be cool) podcasts, check these out. And they're free! :)

So EEK! I didn't realize it had been this long...

...since I posted here. I have a livejournal that gets updated every once-in-a-while, but still more than this. I suppose I should post here more often considering my honey forks over $$ for this particular domain name. :)

Speaking of which, the honey has arrived.

We've moved into the house, put almost everything away, I started my last semester of school before I graduate, and I'm quite busy with that. 15 hours will do that to you (regular class load for a graduate student is 9 hours.)

Correction, that was a neighbor going to their house. I went and got all excited for No good Reason.

Natha had the full testing/evaluation to see what's going on in his little head and the conclusion by the medication-conservative psychologist is that - get this - he just needs medication. No counseling, no parenting classes, just a few behavior modifications at home and school and a little pill with breakfast in the morning. Ed and I both enjoy better living through chemistry, so why wouldn't we allow him to?

And man, with the medicine, he's like the super-perfect kid. He's still himself, just shinier, calmer, and not as "why the hell did you do that?" He also seems to like himself more - he realizes he has control over himself. He's been able to pay attention long enough to do things like read a book - before he would want to do it, but get distracted and/or frustrated after 2 words. Now he can sound out the words and remembers his sight words better. He's just as well behaved if not more than the other kids in the class, too. They're no longer saying his name all the time because he did something he shouldn't have.

We'd adjusted to how he was as he grew up and accepted it - I never wore high-heeled shoes, only flats, when I was around him so that I could chase after him at a moment's notice. That's cool for a 2 year old, but I had to do that up until he was over 5. People said that he was just a boy and he's grow out of it - and not to do anything. They made me quite mad because they didn't see him not wanting to be doing the things wrong - he wanted to sit still and behave and he couldn't. He started thinking that his teacher giving him a sticker for behaving was a completely stochastic process.

Enough about that - I've got to go cook the midget some grub. Hopefully I'll find some more time later to vent my mind about all things *ME*. :)