November 2023

November gave us a lot to look forward to with the holiday season, Alex's birthday, and Thanksgiving. Here are some photos and videos from the month, and below are a few details.

Jury Duty

Rob: I got the call to report for jury duty, which I have never had to show up for before. It was for a grand jury, which has a different process than a trial. I joined about 100 people at the courthouse, among whom 23 jurors would be selected. They discussed some reasons why people might want to be excused, including the fact that the trial would last until January and require people to report to the court a few days a week, sometimes for an hour and sometimes all day, but you get paid $40/day regardless. As people filtered out, I wondered whether I should dismiss myself, knowing that would mean I would probably be called again for a different date, or if I should  just get it over with. Since I have the flexibility of working from home, and I don't anticipate being too overloaded with work through the holidays, and I am not traveling, I decided to take my chances and stay. After people excused themselves, about 40 of us remained. We proceeded to the courtroom where a judge explained the responsibilities, expectations, etc. A clerk drew 23 names at random for the final selection, and mine was not one of them. So I was free to go, and since this counts as jury service, I won't be eligible for jury duty for another 6 years. So I count that as a win, especially since I was having terrible allergies that day and didn't want to stay there any longer. I couldn't help thinking about this reality sitcom I watched recently on Amazon (called Jury Duty), where one guy thinks he has been called to serve on a jury that is being filmed for a documentary, but in reality it is a hoax and everyone around him is an actor doing increasingly ridiculous things. But serving on a jury probably wouldn't be that funny or interesting.

Alex's Birthday No. 7 

This year, Alex's birthday was on Thanksgiving, but we celebrated the night before by opening gifts, with some family joining us on Zoom. They also celebrated for him at school with cupcakes, and singing, etc. Alex doesn't really understand birthdays, or time as a concept for that matter, but he likes singing the birthday song, blowing out candles, and new toys of course. He got lots of gifts, including toys and clothing from family, and a new scooter that is a bit nicer and bigger than his old one. One oddball gift was this little box with a mirror inside that is sold at this Asian gift store at the mall. We got him that because every time we go to the mall he is obsessed with running into that gift store to find that box, open and close it, and then he runs out. He returns several times to the store to do that.  Fortunately the owners don't seem to notice or care, and it makes him happy, so we indulge him. But anyway, we thought that maybe if we just buy the box he'll leave that poor store alone, but probably not.

Now at the age of 7, we can report that Alex is 45.5" tall and weights about 43 pounds, and has grown 3-4 inches in the last year. I pulled out the records my mom kept in my book of remembrance, and  at the same age I was a couple inches shorter and a couple pounds lighter (not sure about Becky). But anyway, Alex is still small for his age (probably in the lower 10 percentile, according to CDC growth charts). Alex continues to have a very sweet, lovable, and happy disposition by default. Despite his struggles with verbal communication, he is very vocal and loves to express himself in his own ways, especially while playing with toy vehicles in his room where he loves to imagine. Although he isn't great at using all the words he knows, he has become better at understanding and following some basic instructions for things that are routine. He still loves to be picked up, hugged, spun around, tickled, and pushed in a swing, and these things are almost guaranteed to get a smile or laugh out of him. Expectations and routines are often the key to his happiness, and he is usually excited to go to the places we go to regularly, including his special needs school, OT/PT at the elementary school, church, playgrounds, libraries, grocery stores, Walmart, Target, the mall and of course, the arcades. And then he is equally excited when we come home, and he returns to his room to play. Bedtime is usually a favorite routine. After going potty and brushing teeth, he is usually full of giggles when we turn out the lights and put on a cartoon for him to watch in his car bed. He usually settles down and falls asleep right on cue and is a good sleeper.

Thanksgiving

Rob: On Thanksgiving, we had some plans to keep us busy. We thought it might be fun to invite people from church to come play pickleball at the church in the morning. A few families came, some of whom haven't played much before so we taught them the basics. Also, all 5 of the missionaries in the area came, and they were pretty good. Hopefully we can continue doing that during the winter and get some regulars to show up. After pickleball, we headed to IHOP for our Thanksgiving meal. I invited anyone else from church who wanted to come. One family that was there for pickleball joined us for IHOP, and they invited a homeless person in along with them. So we ended up having a big meal there in IHOP with about 10 of us. Becky and I got the turkey dinner, Alex had pancakes, and everyone was pretty happy. Later in the afternoon, we joined some friends for the dessert portion of their meal. I baked my sweet potato pie to add to a collection of like 5 other pies and birthday cake (because it was someone's birthday there too).

Outings

Some days this month were tolerable outside and we visited some of the usual parks in the area for walks, hikes, and scooter rides. The day after Thanksgiving, Alex got to go to Chuck E. Cheese where he played games to his heart's content. As part of our annual holiday tradition, we visit Watt Christmas Wonderland, which is a mile or two of nothing but Christmas lights and decor and lawn decorations on someone's farm -- it's on another level and I can't even imagine how much work it takes to set up (or maybe they never take it down).

What Else Is New

Rob: I wrote a story about moss that Scenic Hudson published in their newsletter at the beginning of the month. This topic was my choice, and I was excited they let me write it because I've been learning a bit about the different kinds of moss I find when we are outside exploring. For the story, I found a guy in the area to talk to who has overseen the moss collection at the NY Botanical Garden for like 40 years (now retired). You can read it here. I've published five stories with Scenic Hudson this year, and I've enjoyed working with them because they are local, the editor is nice and easy to work with, they pay well (by freelance standards), and I always enjoy learning about the topics regardless of whether they are assigned or chosen by me. So although the extra cash is nice, I mostly do it for enjoyment and to sharpen writing skills.

Alex: One of Alex's favorite things lately are the craft projects he works on during his occupational therapy sessions at the elementary school. He always has his construction paper project in hand when we pick him up, and he won't let go of it until we put it on the fridge when we get home because that's the routine now.

Becky:  Yeah, like most people, we really like this time of year.  It affords us some time to catch up with friends as we did on Thanksgiving.  Other things I enjoyed this month were The Great British Baking Show and the book, "96 Miles", which I read for my book club.  I've also enjoyed working with Alex on reading- mostly site words, but he does a little bit of decoding.  We're just on consonant-vowel-consonant words right now.  The reading games we got for his birthday are making reading practice more fun (e.g., he matches a word on a key to the lock with the picture that matches).