WEB
Somehow this shot seemed appropriate for the last day of 2003. Henry has a faint air of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian about him, as he attempts to navigate through the elaborate string web woven (for another reason) by his brothers. Farewell to 2003 and a Happy New Year to us all!

HAIRCUT
Although Hugh is seven, today was his first visit to the Barber. His father has quite the amateur talent for haircutting. But I finally could take the thatched roof look no more, and bribed Hugh to accompany me to the local barbershop. The two barbers were really funny and nice and one even played the accordian for us. The whole trip so successful that now Peter is begging to go too. But now, perversely, I kind of miss my little haystack-head boy!

STILL LIFE
And yet more life. An old college friend Ned Batchelder just found my blog and e-mailed me enthusiastically. His own blog is great! Ned is the parent of three young children, and one of his boys has autism too. He was happy to see all the Real Life with Autism stuff, and also mentioned his particular interest in the few more specifically artmaking posts. I started thinking about it and realized that I make almost no distinction between the artmaking part of my life and any other. They all flow into and through each other. Sort of like this still life with onions, a pretzel and a baby toy (chime bird): all objects strewn about my house which sort of drifted together for a "group portrait".

WATER BOY
Nothing gives Henry such a complete sensory "hit" as does water. It is like a sensory envelope of touch, sight, sound, smell and (unfortunately) taste (he drinks all kinds: bath, sea and pool and cannot be stopped). We were visiting Paul's father this weekend and Henry became extremely distressed: new situation, lots of people and kids and strange confusing rules etc. So we looked up the local community center and went to the pool. Instant bliss.

SLAMMER
This is one of Henry's newest sensory discoveries. He sits down in front of this particular bank of drawers, yanks them all out then slams them all back in. Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!...."Henry! Stop!" The drawers have already started breaking, but at least we can hear what he is up to.

AFTERMATH
Well, I guess this says it all. Happy Holidays everyone!

CHRISTMAS EVE
This year I decided that I could not face my usual holiday baking marathon. I normally look forward to it with great enthusiasm, but this year it just seemed like an intolerable burden. So I threw away my rolling pin and told the kids "Sorry". They were surprisingly OK with the no-bake plan, and we all agreed that Santa could have an apple this year instead of the usual plate of cookies. As Hugh said, "He's pretty fat anyway!" However, several wonderful neighbors must have sensed the cookie-less state of our house and came bearing plates of home-baked confections. This is Nina, our neighbor across the street who came over with gifts of fruit, wine and cookies. We do have a star in the window...

OUR WIFTY TOOTH FAIRY
Well, at least she pays up.

SNACK CONSTELLATION
The remains of a mid-morning snack. All clues suggest that the perpetrators are three young boys, under the age of ten.

EDIBLE
Henry has certainly expanded our definition of the term "mouth feel". Who needs fat? Henry has pioneered the use of hacky sack balls for that satisfying sensation. Low-fat and high-fiber, too!