Bruised

I got a call from the school today. At first I thought they needed me to come and get Nathan again. It was the principal, and she said she just wanted to let me know that Nathan got hurt at school. He was rushing to get outside for recess or something, and some kid pushed the door, and it hit Nathan right in the upper arm. He has a large bruise from it. They just wanted to let me know that he was okay now, but they didn't want me to find this bruise and wonder what the hell happened. I thought it was very nice of her to call. I also warned her that after getting hurt, Nathan would be ultra sensitive. She said they were well aware of that, and that his para was "hovering" over him. That's good. He didn't need another meltdown on top of this.

The bruise is pretty big, and nasty looking. I told Nathan if something like that happens again, and he just felt like talking to me about it, that he could ask the principal to call me at work and we could talk. Poor kid probably could have used a hug at the time, but maybe next time he can call and at least get a verbal hug.

Competition Catastrophe

Today was my son's Parent/Teacher Conference. I was looking forward to it, expecting his grades to be pretty good. Plus, I was taking off work a little early to go, which is kind of fun. But I didn't expect to get a phone call an hour early, telling me to come and get my son.

He had had another meltdown. Two, actually. They said they were trying not to call me, knowing I was coming in that afternoon anyway. However, things got so bad that they couldn't hold off any longer.

I knew that morning he had seemed ultra sensitive and emotional. I just asked him if he had any library books to bring back, as I hadn't seen any the past week. He burst into tears and said that he had gotten upset at school, and they didn't let him go to the library that week. Yikes. I didn't know what brought it on, and I had hoped it was just a brief mood; one that would improve with a little breakfast and his meds. He seemed pretty happy by the time I brought him to the bus stop. But I guess the mood lingered.

Around 12:45, they were playing a bowling game in gym. He did not do as well as he wanted to, and he got very mad. They finally got him calmed down, and then he went on to therapy, where they had him compete in a spelling challenge with another boy. Not a good idea. If he's already had one bad experience that day with competition and unsportsmanlike conduct, it is best to avoid anymore competitions that day. Nathan was determined to win, but the game ended in a tie. In Nathan's mind, there was no clear winner, so there was no prize (sticker) for anyone, even though they intended to give both kids a prize. He just flipped out.

When I arrived at the school, he had calmed down considerably. He was still not himself, but he was at least not angry any longer, and not violent. I wanted to bring him home, but I had to be back at the school in less than an hour for the conference, so I brought him to Grandma's.

It was on the way to Grandma's that he admitted to me that he had hit someone. The principal. She had tried to restrain him, crossing his arms over his chest, and he lashed out. Double Yikes.

He was behaving himself pretty well by this time, and I stuck around until the last minute to see if he was completely past the meltdown or not, but he seemed fine at Grandma's. Dh showed up (I had called him on my way to the school to tell him what was going on), and we left for the conference together.

Nathan had a pretty good report card. It was not as good as the last one, but still, all E's and S+'s (like A's & B+'s). That was good news! Plus, the reports from the team of therapists showed some real progress, which was encouraging after such a disasterous afternoon.

Halloween Fun

Halloween was great! Nathan went as Darth Vader, and dh took him around trick or treating. I stayed home and passed out candy.

Boy, did I have a lot of older kids! When their voices are as deep as dh's, I have to wonder what they're doing trick or treating. And I even had some grown ups asking for candy too! LOL!

It was cold last night, and I had a hard time getting Nathan to wear a coat, but I finally found one of my navy hoodies with thermal lining that I could wrap him up in, and a pair of gloves. Since the hoodie was so dark, it looked black outside, and didn't detract from the costume, and the hood was hidden under Darth's cape. He also had layers of clothes under the costume. He still looked like a little ice cube when he got home. And dh looked exhausted. They must have walked three miles.

This is the first year that the scary part of Halloween didn't seem to bother Nathan at all! I was glad of that. He went to a couple houses where the families made a big deal out of their decorations, including one house that had people in costume in their front yard that you had to walk past in order to get to the door to trick or treat. In past years, Nathan would have frozen and refused to budge, but this year he marched right past them.

(My little baby is growing up!) :*)

I was passing out candy last night, and went through one mega bag, and started on a second one. That's a lot of kids! We had this candy bowl with a skeleton head in it, and it would talk and sing (..."I ain't got no body...") It was quite funny, and a real hit with the trick or treaters - their parent escorts, too! Some hung around for a little bit, playing with the skeleton.

I love this time of year!

Three Pairs, Three Spares

It occurs to me that I haven't really said much about my family here.

I grew up in a very large family. There were nine children, including three sets of twins. I'm part of that third set. (That explains the "twin3rd" screen name, huh?)

My mother used to tell people that she had three pairs and three spares. I always used to think that was kind of a crummy way to refer to the non-twins, but after hearing my brother once proclaim with a big grin, "I'm the oldest spare," I realized that the "spares," had a sense of humor about the whole thing. I suppose they kind of had to, growing up in this family.

My oldest brothers are twins, then there were two individual boys and a girl, then another set of twin boys, and finally my twin brother and I. Our birth was unique enough to land us a story on page three of the Chicago Sun Times, labeled "She Pleases Everyone Who Counts." The artical went on to describe how my brothers were hoping my mom would bring home another brother, and my sister was hoping for a little sister, and my mother managed to please everyone who counted. It was a great idea for a story, had it only been true.

Truth be told, nobody wanted another sister. My brothers wanted another boy, and my sister didn't want to lose her place as the only girl in the family. So nobody wanted me to be a girl. Oh well. It did make for a good headline.

None of the twins are identical, though there is a pretty strong resemblence among all of my siblings. It often becomes a guessing game at weddings and such, where people try to figure out who is twins with who. They are rarely correct.

Can you guess who's twins with who?

The Wedding

Last night was the wedding, and it was wonderful!

Initially, when I saw the invitation, I wondered what on Earth I was going to do with myself before the reception started. The wedding was expected to begin at 3, with the Assembly of Barat. Now keep in mind, I have no idea what an Assembly of Barat is, and therefore couldn't guess how long it could take. I saw that the reception didn't begin until 6, and I pictured us wandering around Woodfield Mall or something in order to kill time until the reception. Or maybe grabbing a quick bite to eat at McDonalds, to keep my guys happy. At least, that's what I figured, until I arrived at the hotel.

I was informed that the Assembly of Barat was exected to last up to three hours. Three hours! I was worried at that point. I had never brought my son to a wedding, let alone one that lasted three hours, and had no idea how he would be able to handle the long ceremony. Oh well. It was too late now to worry about it. We had to take our seats.

The ceremony took place in this structure they called a tent. However, this was really more like a half-building, half-tent. Thank goodness, because it was incredibly windy, and a standard tent would not have been able to withstand the unusally strong winds yesterday. There were times I really wondered if the tent would come down. Even the chandeliers were swaying, right above the heads of my family. The stucture proved quite sound, however.

The ceremony started with the groom being presented to, and welcomed by, the parents of the bride (my brother and sister-in-law). It was a lengthy ceremony, with some lovely traditions and hymns. The man who officiated over the festivites was kind enough to explain all of the traditions and symbols and prayers as they went along, so those of us unfamiliar with the ceremony were able to understand what was happening. I really appreciated that. It was all quite lovely.

When I realized that the ceremony was coming to a close, I was pleased to see that it hadn't lasted all that long, and my son had been an angel through the whole thing. That's about the time that they announced that the SECOND cereomony was about to start. This would be the traditional American ceremony. Oops, only half done.

But the two ceremonies together lasted about an hour and a half or so. It wasn't all that long, after all, and my son did wonderfully! He never acted up once. I was so proud of him!

We then gathered in the lobby of the hotel, where there were snacks and drinks set up. We ate and drank while the tent was being rearranged with a dance floor and dining tables for the reception. Formal pictures were taken of the bridal party, then the bride changed into her second dress, a traditional American white bridal gown, and came down for more pictures. We returned to the tent after that, and the party really kicked into gear.

Nathan did quite well, right up until the dinner began. Then he started to melt down. I got him out of there quickly, but as soon as we returned, it happened again. They weren't full blown meltdowns, but he did start to get ornery and crabby, and began to make faces at us, and talk back. I took him out twice, and dh took him out once, before I was finally able to persuade him to eat. After that, he was fine! I guess he was just hungry. (He refused to eat the snacks in the lobby- a little too exotic for him). Can't blame him for being hungry - we were all starved! He was just fine after that, and had a great time playing with his cousins.

It was so wonderful to see my family together again! It's rare for us to all be together. And it's so much fun to see everyone having a good time. We stayed later than we planned, but it was hard to leave.

Henna Hands

The Mehndi party was a blast. I loved it! The henna artists had some really cool designs. All the other women there went with very elaborate designs, but I stayed kind of conservative. I only had one hand done, and a design that stretched from above my wrist to the tip of my ring finger. My relatives went all out with the designs. It was so much fun!

A Mehndi party is traditionally an event for the women, but my neice and her fiance were combining their traditions for a very personalized event. They invited couples to the Mehndi party. It seems to be all about adorning and pampering the women. Many of the guests were in traditional Indian attire, and it was so pretty! My neice looked like a princess, and the groom-to-be looked so handsome!

There was Indian music, and dancers. The food was all Indian, (except one pasta dish), and it was very exotic and spicy and delicious.

There were far more of my relatives there than I expected! So many people I hadn't seen in ages! It was great. Even my brother came in from Alaska. My brother from Nebraska got trapped by the bad weather, which was ironic since he is a meteorologist, LOL! The sad thing, though, was that he is the father of the bride! He didn't show up while I was at the party, though I heard he finally got to the airport. He was said to be on his way, but I couldn't wait around to see him since I was riding with other relatives, and it was getting very late for our drive home.

I got such a kick out of the henna hands, though. I love this tradition! They use an applicator that resembles a scaled down version of a cake decorator. Then they pipe the henna paste onto your hand in these lovely patterns. It feels very cool (and tickled just a little bit). Then they sprinkle the paste with glitter, and sometimes set faux jewels into it. It looks so neat! But I was concerned with being able to eat and even use the bathroom with this on my hands, so I opted for a less elaborate design. Perhaps at a different event, or if I did this by myself, I might get a bit more adventurous. Anyway, the paste has to stay on your skin for a while, preferably overnight. Then you flake off the paste, and beneath it, the skin has been stained a red or reddish brown color. Mine is a brick red color.

The tradition says that the longer the bride's henna lasts, the better husband her future groom will make. The reason for that is because daily chores such as laundry and dishes and cleaning, all work to fade the design quickly. If her design lasts a long time, it is because her new husband is pampering her, and doing the chores for her. (I like that tradition!)

You can see my 'henna hand' in the picture. This is when the paste was still on. The design is also on my thumb, though you can't see it in this picture because of the way I turned my hand. I'm hoping it lasts a very long time. I really like the pattern. I've never been very interested in having a tattoo, because of the permanant nature of it, but this I would definately do again. I'll have to find out if there are any good henna artists in my hometown.

Mehndi Party

Wow, it's been a crazy week. We had a bunch of layoffs at work, in an effort to downsize. I was spared. But it was so sad to see all the people gone, and all the empty desks, whether they were let go or just transfered to a new department. Shakes up the sense of "job security" a bit. On the other hand, it was pretty cool to find myself still employed, in spite of the fact that I was so recently hired. My boss had been hired just a few months before me, and she said, "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty lucky!" Yeah, you can say that again. (Shoulda bought a lottery ticket.)

Tonight I'm heading off to my first Mehndi party. It sounds like a lot of fun. There will be a henna artist there, and I'm thinking about having my hands done. I'm going with my sister, my nephew and my nephew's girlfriend. I can't wait! It will be fun to get out and socialize, and it will be so neat to see my family again. We so rarely get together anymore. I'm going without my husband and son tonight, which is also rare. Makes it kind of feel like a "girl's night out," especially since I'm going to be with my sister. Plus, it will all be my family there, so there is the element of homecoming. And the party isn't all that far from where I grew up, so it will be like revisiting my old stomping grounds, or at the very least, my old shopping grounds (the big shopping mall I used to frequent is in the town I'm going to). I'm quite excited about tonight!

I bought my son a dressy outfit last night, that he'll need for the upcoming family events. I got a pair of navy dress slacks, a light tan shirt and a blue tie. Oh my! He looks so grown up in it! And he is SO excited to be able to dress up like his daddy. We hardly ever dress up around here, so it was a real kick. :)

I'll have to go find my camera. Maybe it's time to buy a new memory card for it. I'll want a lot of pictures of this...