To the Dogs

I'm an animal person. My very first job as a teenager was cleaning out kennels at a veterinary clinic, and I loved it. As a kid, I rescued strays (well, I still do that) and created a pet cemetery in our backyard for our ridiculous amount of pets - hamsters, rats, gerbils, guinea pigs, newts, snakes, fish, and birds (the dog and cats are not buried there). And anyone who knows me knows that I'm also a cat person (and am probably bound to end up as a crazy cat lady in my old age). But despite my love of animals, I'm not a dog person, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I like that cats, for the most part, take care of themselves, and they don't mind if you take off for a week and leave them with a bowl of food and the toilet open. They purr and kill the mice in the garage (and the house). Dogs, on the other hand, are just way too high maintenance for me. They leave piles of poop all over the yard for you to step in, are always following you around or getting up in your face (I already have two children who do that, thank you very much), they bark and whine if you leave them for a few hours (I have two children who do that, too), and you have to plan ahead if you want to skip town for the weekend without them. Plus they trash hardwood floors.

So I'm a cat person. I've decided that cat people know cats are cats, and that's why we love them. Dog people (and I know and love many of you!) think dogs are people (a la dressing them up in knit sweaters and taking them to the doggie spa). I have a fondness for Cesar Millan (yes, that's the Dog Whisperer) precisely because he's a dog person who knows dogs are dogs, and he loves them for it. (Though I will admit that I loved my childhood poodle-mutt-dog, Mops, and I fell in love with a co-worker's rat terrier, Fred, at my last job. I even let him lick my face - the dog, not the coworker- and that ought to tell you something!)

All that aside, I wanted to officially say a fond farewell to our dog, Oscar. We got Oscar back in 2000, and most of you know that within a year he got hit by a car, which dislocated his back hip and paralyzed his front leg. He was a great dog. He was super smart and could do dozens of cool tricks. And despite the fact that he drove me crazy following me around and barking if we left him out in the yard, I kind of liked him. When I got pregnant with Imogen and we moved to the new house, we decided to find Oscar a home with someone who could give him more attention than we could and who didn't have small children, since the pain in his hip (which developed arthritis) often made him ornery. The last couple of years, he lived with Thomas's former paralegal, her partner, their preteen daughter, and another dog. He was happy. We found out recently that they had to make the heartbreaking decision to put Oscar down after he bit a couple of people, including a young child, when they accidentally touched his hip. He was in a lot of pain. We'll miss you, good buddy.


In unrelated dog news, our gorgeous dogwood tree is in full bloom.


Hooray for Portland in the springtime!

Hyperlexia Journal is Online!

I hope y'all will take a few minutes to check out the first issue of Hyperlexia, an online journal of poetry and prose celebrating the autism spectrum. My good friend Kerry founded the journal with her friend Phoebe, and they invited me to be the poetry editor. We received a wonderful batch of submissions for our first issue, which has just gone live in time for National Autism Awareness Month. Let me know what you think!


Though today we're back to our usual April weather of 50s, sunbreaks, and rain showers, we had 85 degree weather earlier this week. The kids and I took advantage of the unseasonal sunshine to head for McCoy Park near Elliot's school. Here are a couple of shots of the fun that was had.


This is also my own personal Happy Birthday to Everyone Week! I know more people with birthdays this week than any other week of the year (although the last 2 weeks of September are a close second!). So, happy birthday to Soren, Tanner, Milo (all today!), Erin, Christina (Saturday), Lisa, Christine, and Matt (Sunday). Maybe Connie and Russ will add to this week's birthdays - their baby is due 4/30 - but I'm betting on the full moon on 5/9. What better gift for Mother's Day than a new wee one? I plan to spend Mother's Day weekend painting our currently purple bathroom, sans kids! Stay tuned!

Honey Bunnies

I'm a busy bee these days, mostly preparing for the new job and working on the Soapstone raffle. So please forgive the lack of blogging! But today Thomas has ventured off with both kids while I catch up on all things Soapstone, household, and writing-related.

First up, Imogen turned 19 months old this week. She is talking constantly these days, especially to Elliot. She calls him "brother", repeats anything he says to her, and brings him all sorts of toys to get his opinion. She also is a delightfully willful child (we'll see how I feel about this when she's a teenager), dramatically expressing her wants and desires. Here are this month's sibling comparison photos.


Last weekend, we had a wonderful time at Fez & Christine's 6th annual Easter party. The kids haven't figured it out yet, but Thomas has been playing the Easter bunny at this party since it began. Imogen was scared to death of the giant pink rabbit, but Elliot jumped around him with joy the entire time.


The kids had a great time hunting for Easter eggs and eating delicious treats. And of course showing off their dapper Easter duds.


And here's a rare shot of yours truly!

Now, alas, it's back to work! And then out to enjoy the gorgeous sunshine that is supposed to stick around all week (nanny nanny, boo boo you Coloradans!).

National Autism Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. It's also National Autism Awareness Month. Last year, I spent the month of April posting about autism issues that affect our family as well as sharing some of my poetry about raising a child on the autism spectrum. Today I thought I'd share another one of my autism poems with you. This one is from a couple of years ago - I have to get my act together and write some poems about what things are like for us now!

Sensory Profile

i

I could pretend I know

what you’re thinking when

you’re spinning wheels, your eyes

intent on the turning, your body

remarkably still. Or spinning

yourself, never dizzying, eyes

tuned to the whirl of the room. You

are running now, back and forth,

circling, colliding your quick

little body over and over into

my body, or any soft thing.

ii

The way you are immobilized

if I remove your shoes on the lawn.

How you hold out your hands

for me to brush off the sand, every grain

too overwhelming to touch.

How this food is not warm enough,

that one is too slimy, this one

is not a perfect rectangle. You melt

before my eyes, we rock and sing,

rock and sing, rock and sing.

iii

My driver’s window opening is acceptable –

fresh air. Your back window opening

sends you panicking like a trapped bird.

Your eyes widen and tear, you try

to lean away in your car seat. You are quiet,

terrified, eye of a storm about to shift.

But then the streetlamps set your eyes

steady, focused. You center and lean

into their glow, their simple illumination

of what a moment ago we couldn’t see,

what gradually moves into our view.

iv

How you love to cross bridges.

Vibration of the steel under the car, lights

in neat, bright lines, the river beneath

a soft rushing, the bridge lifting us

to safe architecture of air. You love

the ones with perfect angles and x’s.

Those lit like a ladder of stars.

And the kind that were built improbably.

Lowered whole from the sky.

-Brittney Corrigan, copyright 2007. All rights reserved.

As many of you know, Elliot's main interest these days is still elevators. But instead of insisting that we pretend every doorway is an elevator when we move from room to room the way he did a couple of years ago, now he is very creative with his "elevator games," setting up elaborate elevator panels made from numbered blocks and complete with sound effects from his keyboard when the elevator arrives on each floor. He still goes on "elevator adventures" with Papa every weekend, as well. Here he is last weekend having a quiet moment on the Portland Aerial Tram to OHSU (the elevator at OHSU has 14 floors!).


Elliot also loves to draw pictures of elevators and people riding them, as you can see in this picture he drew this morning.


And I'll leave you today with these pictures of the kiddos enjoying the warm, sunny weather we had the last few days (we're back to rain tomorrow, alas!).


Gotta go. I've been instructed by Elliot that it's time to ride the elevator to the first floor!