Oh, the wild life we lead

Or not.
We have seen a lot of wildlife this week though. We had a small (8) flock of goldfinch in two large perennials outside our front room windows. These two plants, Herbstonne Rudbeckia and Lemon Queen Heliopsis are both well above 5' tall. They give me beauty I can see from the window with their flowers and butterfly, bee and bird viewings too. If we can find the charger for our camera, from wherever we safely put it, I'll post pictures.
We also had a Sparrow hawk land on a visitor's car right in front of the house. He was worried it would scratch the paint & chased it off. Oh well, I just wished I could have taken pictures.
We saw a teeny woodpecker on a tree kitty corner across the street from our house. He didn't seem to be doing much just hopping around & giving the occassional peck. I was hoping that he'd give some really good woodpecker sounds for Acer to listen to.
Mum has some tapes of birds that I think Acer will like, Bill can copy them to MP3's & then we can play them on itunes. I think if he can put names to the different sounds he hears outside, he'll be even more interested than he already is to spend time out there. I know some bird songs, but under a dozen probably, so I think I'll enjoy learning them too.

Thursday 9/6 I had another class, this time on conifer problems. It was interesting, there was a plant physiologist there & I learned quite a lot from him. I'd never heard a plant physiologist's view of the effect of different issues on the growth of the plant. The other speaker was a gentleman I'd heard several times before so it mostly a refresher of the information he provided.

Friday night 9/7 we met with my Mandarin class at a Chinese restaurant. We dressed Acer up in his Chinese outfit to start, but brought everyday clothes for him to eat in. The place was very loud, but Acer behaved very well. It was nice to meet the spouses of my other students and professor. I wish I could have spent more time talking with them, they all seemed very interesting.

Sunday 9/9 was Mum's Birthday, Happy 71st Mum! We'll meet you this Friday at Erma's for custard to celebrate.

Monday 9/10 We hade two representatives from the county intermediate school district out, the special needs district. Acer, of course, failed the visual/motor (hand/eye) test as expected, but did reasonably well for a blind child. They were impressed by him, his brains and his personality and said he will be fun in class. It'll be a few weeks to hear from them & know where & when to show up for class. I guess I get to go to class too, going by something they said in passing.

Wednesday, 9/12 I gave Acer the requested toidy privacy whilst he SAID he was going #2. After a suspiciously long quiet time, Acer is always talking, I went in & saw a pile of unrolled toilet paper as tall as the toilet! Now mind you he couldn't simply pull it down off the roll & pile it up directly under the roll, no he had to pull it across his body and pile it up on the other side of the toidy. He was concentrating so hard that he jumped when he heard me sternly say 'Acer' (I went for shock value, not yelling). Little guy's buns must've been numb by the time he got off the seat because I made him stay there & help me roll it back up. On the plus side, he was able to pull up his own pants afterwards, a step in the right direction!

Mum had another eye check up & we ferried her to & fro. She learned something very important there, that tears/tear ducts are to keep the eyes lubricated & clean. Her eyes were red because she wasn't putting wetting drops and her tear ducts weren't producing enough tears. So now she (and you) know. Afterwards we went to the Grand Traverse Pie company. Mum & Acer had never been and thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Acer behaved very well, though the ladies sitting next to us chuckled when I told him he couldn't get down from his chair because it was a "Rule" I used the same term when we went to lunch with Mindy and he stayed in the booth, so far it seems to be working. We'll see how long it lasts, I just don't think it fair to other people to let him run around them while they eat, even if he is the cutest kid in the world ;) (A title shared by many)

The temperature is just getting into the brisk fall stage here & I'm putting Acer into long pants & long sleeves. My problem is that his pants don't stay up. He ends up dragging them around on his hips like some trendy teenager. Overalls work, but are a pain to get off when it's time for the toidy. I need a little tiny webbing belt for a two year old, not one of those wierd braided ones that are ineffectual because they stretch too much & don't end up doing their job. Yesterday I put Acer in some ugly sweatpants we'd been given. Despite their unfortunate color, they were the best fitting, least fall dawn, easy toidy access pants. I may need to ignore the color & just dress him in them fairly regularly. Another bonus is that he can pull them up himself after visiting the toidy! Oh well, I guess he can't be a sharp dressed man all the time. Bill bought a belt the other day, but it doesn't actually fit in any pants except the ones he was wearing that day, it's too wide. Oh well, it should fit him by the time he reaches kindergarten.