From Germany with Love

This week's Words and Pictures theme: Souvenirs

And so I present to you one of the first softies I ever owned and my most recently acquired softie. Two softies, spanning 40 years a few years. One a donkey, one a bear. But they both came from Germany with love.

When I was a wee baby my father traveled to Germany once as a part of his job. I think once was enough since my mother was stuck with a toddler and an infant in a tiny Ontario town...with no car...in the winter. Yep. Money was tight so my father brought back one souvenir to be shared by my older brother and me.

I challenge you to find a finer donkey in all the world than Stonkey. He and I have had many adventures. Fortunately, my brother agreed that Stonkey could come live at my house. He is a TOTPOD object: touch on the penalty of death. i.e. my girls aren't allowed to even think of getting him off his shelf.

For many years he has been the only German in our house. Actually, I'm not sure what his immigration status is: did he become a Canadian or is he German or did he get US citizenship. I'll have to remember to ask him.

Anyway, there's a new bear in town. Ava arrived this week courtesy of the amazingly talented flufftail. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I admire her work. I really scored big when I got her on swapbot. Yes!

Ava is a darling--pleasantly plump, made from fleece, four way jointed softie with a terrific bemused expression. I thought she might be a bit of a wall flower but no, she's a get up and go kind of gal. I turned my back once and off she zipped to do a spot of construction on the Tea House of the Chicken Moon. She even fell a couple of times but she bounces. She and Stonkey seem to get on like a house on fire--lots of talk about the Rhine and castles and strudel.

And so there you have it: two German softies sandwiching decades but souvenirs of the same great land.

We Have a Winner!

I am proud to announce that T-Rex is graduating from therapy. After one year of hard work she is ready to move to monthly meetings for a couple of months and then she's done.

Did I mention hard work? Her therapist says "the amount of change in her is immeasurable." She's like a different kid.

Yes, there are still ghosts of the attachment ickies in her--a harder time transitioning, a somewhat aggressive personality, fear of new situations. But we haven't seen a rage in forever and even the hissy fits are few and far between. She's even able to get herself out of a bad mood. Did you hear that? Get herself out of a bad mood. There are adults who never mastered that.

So she'll keep her one-on-one helper at church, she still has to stay away from artificial dyes (i.e. kool-aid, hard candy) and we will still need to work on forming bonds, creating neuron pathways, but.....my baby done graduated. Wahooooooooo!

In Compliance

After a dreadful period of sheer panic, I am happy to report that we are in compliance with the Home Schooling Goat Ordinance.

In other words, we've got your goat. Or our goat. Or something like that.

Out of my mind with fear that the Home Schooling gestapo would be breaking down our door at any moment, I frantically searched the web where I found this pattern. Isn't it great?

Yesterday, in moments stolen from my cleaning schedule (bahahahahaha) I whipped it up out of an old sweat top. I finished it last night. Whew. Oh, I changed the nose and added a crocheted collar because it is impossible for me to ever simply copy a pattern.

Webster Goat is happily munching her way through old workbooks and new worksheets, ready to testify at any moment that this school has goat.

Got Goat?

We educate our girls at home--i.e. we home school. We have for a few years.

While homeschooling has gained greater popularity and acceptance, homeschooling special needs kiddos is still considered at best misguided and at worst criminal. Put away the lock and keys. My girls are thriving at home.

Case in point: Sparkle, deaf, has just finished her math book and yet another of her readers. Wahoo! She has taken first grade by storm. Here at the No Dumb Bunnies Home School Sparkle is able to get the one-on-one attention she needs. If she were in a classroom, that girl would be faking it big time. She hates to be noticed as different so she just slides right under that radar. At home, she gets busted when she's not getting the concepts. As a result, she's doing great. She is one smart cookie. All my girls are.

Just tonight I found out that our home school experience is sadly, perhaps even criminally lacking. A very reputable source informs me that we are supposed to own a goat. I had no freaking idea. Hello?! Was this in some handbook I'm supposed to own? Was it covered in Home Schooling 101? Did I miss that day? What else are we missing? Hand loom? Oxen? I hope someone tells us because the last thing we want is to be arrested for Home Schooling Without a Goat.