I must take a break from the portraits of Mike, my older brother (All Feelings are OK, Abstract Portrait, Young Mike, In Transition, Final Transition, Final Portrait). Mike is autistic, low functioning and has never spoken. We grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, when autism was relatively unknown. Mike is now in a geriatric group […]
Once again, my granddaughter Sidra and I set aside some time to chat about what is happening in her life. We started this just before her brother Will was born (Being a New Sibling, 6 Months Later: Being a New Sibling, Sib Interview – One Year Followup). The Interview: J: It’s been a while since […]
I took my granddaughter Sidra to the bookstore. She loves going there. The only trouble is, there are too many choices. She has read most of the Warrior Cat books, but that was not why we were there. She considered these mini-minecraft things (I don’t know what they are except they come in these small cubic […]
William is my grandson. Today was his actual second birthday. We celebrated yesterday with a trip to Disneyland, but festivities actually began last month. The kids came up to San Jose with William and Sidra, my granddaughter, from Burbank in the middle of March. It was the only time they could all get away from work at […]
Joy, my wife, and I are visiting our kids and grandkids. William will be turning two years of age this week; Sidra is ten. I started interviewing her just before her baby brother was born. She was so excited then. For the past couple of years we’ve chatted about sibling hood and other events in […]
Yesterday I asked my ten-year-old granddaughter, Sidra, to paint a picture of what she thought Science Camp would be like. She did a bang-up job, rendering a representation of Cabin 4, where she’ll be staying, a tree and a sign that said ‘Science Camp’. She added two beakers, an homage to the ‘science’ in Science […]
Today was a travel day. It was about seven hours of driving. Nice though. We took ‘the 101’ up the coast from Los Angeles. It sure beats ‘the 5’, which is an inland route. Lots of farmland, but not the same as the view of the ocean. Sidra, our 10 year old granddaughter, didn’t want […]
As I mentioned yesterday, I write my posts the day before and schedule them for the following day. It is Halloween as I write this. We are in Burbank visiting the grandkids. William still remembers me. There is a spark of recognition as I sing, What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor, the sea chanty […]
Original and modified mission I really don’t want my blog to turn into a diary of my daily life. I must keep reminding myself of my original mission, which was to address all aspects of autism and mental health; my personal experience with autism as a sibling of a low functioning, autistic individual; family relationships, and related […]
Joy and Beth prepared for Will’s birthday gathering for what seemed like weeks. They commissioned a special birthday cake for the guests and one for Will himself. I didn’t know there was a special name for a kid’s cake. They call it a ‘smash’ cake. Is this just a California thing? One look at the picture […]
