ON THE BALL
Henry in the middle of three sensory stims at once: bouncing on the soccer ball and stuffing tissues into his mouth while shirtless (I think he likes the feeling of air on his skin). There's never a dull moment with Autism!

CUP
of cheerios. We've discovered Henry will eat a normal breakfast food, cheerios and milk, if he is allowed to pour them back and forth from the bowl to a cup. Also, he always leaves about 1/3 uneaten, but we can get him to finish it by hand-feeding him. He opens wide like the most obedient 106 lb baby in the world!

LANTERN WITH SNOW HAT
The watering cans smirking
from under their own.

DAISY
My original "baby", and lone female ally in this house of males.

OH HAIL
Last night we heard the characteristic soft hiss of fine hail, and ran outside to slide around a little on the petit pois sized ice balls. Then they got a little bigger-"Ow!".

READER
Peter is doing his "reading log" homework, thirty minutes of reading per night. But I'd bet money he is the only kid in his (american) class reading the (scottish) comic strip "Oor Wullie".

ARRAY
I love to paint doughnuts, which is odd, because I am not a big doughnut addict or anything. It's the way they look, the promise of sweetness and comfort. A friend of mine, Angela Heithecker, looked at this painting and instantly identified which doughnuts were from Dunkin' Doughnuts and which were Krispy Kremes (and correctly)! Now that is a real doughnut fan for you.

FLYING
in the Kitchen. Paul somehow figured out that Henry just loves this odd exercise: propped up by two chairs with Paul flapping his arms for him. Preferably with the Afro-Latino CD playing in the background. Lots of fun for one and all!

PINK
Henry came home with this in his backpack the other day. His teacher had written his name on it, and I suppose it was a craft project they worked on in class. Somehow though, I can't imagine that it was really Henry who so carefully cut out the teddy bear shape, spaced the tissue paper pieces with such regularity, and managed to affix the googly eyes in approximate eye position. Still, there is something so mutely appealing about the slightly indirect gaze (and no mouth. How ironic.).

STUDIOMATE
It was a long day, but so far not as dire as I had predicted. A wonderful interlude occurred when Hugh, 7, asked me "Can we go up to your studio and you show me how to paint on those white boards like you do?"