Getting Older Can Suck It, but Sisters are Special

My sister, who is a measly two years younger than I am, thinks it's funny to send sarcastic birthday cards to me every year. I have heard her talk about how she will spend hours in the greeting card department in pursuit of the "perfect" card, laughing and carrying on as she reads each one.

Since today is my birthday, I've decided to share a few of them with you. I hope you find each card as amusing as she did. Enjoy.

My Brother, My Friend

Chase Trimmed His Beard and I Didn't Think He Looked Gay Enough, So I Made Him Wear a Cowboy Outfit

(Not really. Those were Chase's words, but they made me laugh.)

We had family photo's taken May 1st. Here's a recap for those of you who are not regular readers of my blog...

The last time our family had pictures professionally taken was about twenty-five years ago. We were a family of four then; Cody was around five years old and Chase was a baby. Don and I have two more children, Casey (twenty-one) and Katelyn (nineteen), who have never been part of a professional family picture. You may be thinking "How horrible! What kind of mother doesn't want pictures taken of her family?" Well...look at the following snapshot of my kids and I think you'll understand.

Anyway...an hour before our appointment, Chase and Casey decided to complain (a lot) about the clothing Katelyn and I chose for them to wear.

Before dressing, Chase made himself (and everyone else)
laugh by putting on one of Cody's "wife beaters".

AND...about twenty minutes before we were suppose to leave the house, Cody fell asleep in the recliner!

Once we were on location, however, things went fairly well. Despite dealing with my boy's negative attitudes, gusty winds, Cody's hatred of the great outdoors, and cold temperatures, I have high hopes that our family photographs will be great. And, even if they aren't, I will cherish them forever, because I will NOT go through this again!...at least until one of them gets married :)

Siblings as Saviours

The title speaks for itself. Please check out the following post at Autism Blogs Directory:

Autism Blogs Directory: Guest Post by Sharon: Siblings as Saviours.: "Siblings as Saviours. Being the sibling of an ASD child is a tough gig I reckon. There's the meltdowns to deal with. The odd mannerisms. The ..."

Excerpts from the Mouth of Cody

Every time Chase takes Cody for a ride in his truck, the following conversation takes place...
Chase- What CD do you want to listen to Fatty?
Cody- Eminem.
Chase- I don't have Eminem anymore.
Cody- Korn.


Don was singing as he helped Cody out of the bathtub. This is how Cody reacted...
Cody- Stop singing.
Don- You don't like my singing?
Cody- Nope.
Don- Don't you think I'm a good singer?
Cody- Not really.


When anybody yawns, Cody will say, "Can'tcha wait 'till nine tonight?"


When people sneeze, Cody asks, "Did you get dust up your nose, or just allergies?"


Cody was reminiscing about playing 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'...
Cody-  "Get this. Paper covers rock and scissors cut paper."
Me- Oh ya? What does rock do? Crush scissors or something?
Cody- No, no, no. Rock crushes water.
(Water?)


Somebody on television said, "Jennifer lost her baby."
Cody asked, " How did Jennifer's baby get lost?"


Cody- Katelyn, do you think you can plant olives in the spring time?
Katelyn (half ingnoring Cody and oblivious to the fact that an Olive Garden television commercial just came on)- Probably.
Cody- No. This is serious! Who plants olives?

Ah-la-la-la. I Can't Hear You.

Those of you that have been following my blog for awhile know that Chase, my son who is three years younger than Cody, is a tease. The two boys have a one-of-a-kind relationship. When Chase comes to our house, he almost always talks to Cody first. Then the teasing begins. Chase knows exactly what to say to get Cody worked up. For some reason Chase finds this amusing. (I, however, find it rather nerve-racking.)

Today was no exception. Chase came to our house right after lunch and walked over to where Cody was sitting. He started to talk to him, but Cody, anticipating Chase's inevitable teasing, reacted differently this time. The conversation (or lack thereof) went like this...

Chase- How was

Cody- Ah-la-la-la. I can't hear you.

Chase- Cody, I said how was

Cody- Ah-la-la-la. I can't hear you.

Chase- Why are you

Cody- Ah-la-la-la. I can't hear you.

Chase- What are

Cody- Ah-la-la-la. I can't hear you.

It appears that Cody has found a new way to deal with Chase's teasing.

"We've Got Eleven Games Coming Up."

Cody loves spending time at his grandma's house. He really likes playing with her Atari. (Remember my blog post 'Toys From Christmases Past'?) Anyway, Cody likes to chant, in order, the games that he will play on the Atari when he gets to grandma's house. Apparently he started doing this in the year 2001. It took us about seven years to figure out that he was adding a new game each year. Now that I look back, it seems like we were a bunch of dimwits for not catching on sooner, especially after seeing it in writing...

2001- Yars Revenge
2002- Yars Revenge and Kangaroo
2003- Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, and Pac Man
2004- Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, Pac Man, and Pit Fall
2005- Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, Pac Man, Pit Fall, and Grand Prix
2006- Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, Pac Man, Pit Fall, Grand Prix, and Donkey Kong
2007- Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, Pac Man, Pit Fall, Grand Prix, Donkey Kong, and Centipede
2008- Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, Pac Man, Pit Fall, Grand Prix, Donkey Kong, Centipede, and Asteroids
2009- Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, Pac Man, Pit Fall, Grand Prix, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Asteroids, and Stampede
2010- Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, Pac Man, Pit Fall, Grand Prix, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Asteroids, Stampede, and Q-Bert

Now Cody's talking about 2011 and has added a new game. He says, "We've got eleven games coming up!" then he continues with...

"Yars Revenge, Kangaroo, Pac Man, Pit Fall, Grand Prix, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Asteroids, Stampede, Q-Bert, and Circus Atari."

La La La La Life Goes On

I was skimming throught the channels on Sirius Radio this morning, trying to find something Cody might enjoy listening to, when I came across the old Beatles song 'Ob-la-di Ob-la-da'. My thoughts automatically went back to the early '90's and the television program 'Life Goes On'. Anybody remember it? I loved it.

The Traumatized Tree

Chase holding his cousin, Kayden
Nov. 2010

This is Chase, my second son. He is three years younger than Cody (my son with disabilities), but took on the older brother role early in life. Chase was my easiest child (with the exception of having colic during his first three months). He was obedient, happy, kind and anxious to please. Chase was four years old when I was pregnant with Casey, son number three. I had morning sickness around the clock and Chase would entertain himself by playing Legos, putting together puzzles, coloring, and watching Sesame Street or Pee Wee's Playhouse (I know. I know.) Yep. He was pretty much my angel child.....except for one incident that occurred when he was around six years old.

The month was December, and Don and I had taken the boys to one of many Christmas Tree Farms in Oregon. That year we picked out a Noble Fir and even paid extra money to have it flocked. Sometime, after we decorated the tree but before Christmas, I was persuaded to have a Tupperware Party at my house. I remember afterward, as we were cleaning up, my husband walked into the room, stood right in front of the beautiful, decorated Christmas tree and preceded to make conversation with me and the Tupperware lady. Out of nowhere, Chase walked up to his dad as if he wanted to ask him something, and pushed him! Don was caught completely off guard. He lost his balance and fell backward into the tree. Ornaments and flocked snow went flying everywhere. We were flabbergasted to say the least! (Don was also mad as hell.)

To this day, Chase cannot give us an answer as to why he pushed his dad into the tree. Our angel child was temporarily possessed :) I do wish we would've had it on film. In those days, I could have sent it to America's Funniest Home Videos. I'm sure Bob Sagget would have loved narrating that moment in time.

Eavesdropping

One of Cody's talents is listening to other people's conversations. If he's not getting into trouble for eavesdropping, he is getting the rest of the family in trouble by repeating everything we say.

For instance, this morning I was asking Don if he realized that Bo (Katelyn's boyfriend) had come to the house after we'd gone to bed. I was just making conversation; we'd gone to bed early and it wasn't a big deal. 

Several minutes later Cody said, "I don't think that's a good idea."

Confused because so much time had lapsed, I asked, "What's not a good idea Cody?"
  
He replied, "Bo coming over in the middle of the night."

I hope for Katelyn's sake that Cody doesn't repeat this conversation. It could be completely taken out of context. However, I do think it's special that Cody is acting concerned about his little sister. :)

The Joys of Public Parking

Cody enjoys going places the majority of us wouldn't think twice about. One of them being parking garages. He prefers to call them parkades. Because we spent a lot of time there, he likes to reminisce about the parking garage at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

The growing town where we now live built its first big parking structure a few years ago. Chase and Casey (my other sons) take Cody there periodically. The three of them drive to the top level, park, ride the elevator and then leave. It bugs Cody a bit that there's not an attendant at this garage to take tickets or money. Something about rolling down the car window and interacting with a ticket taker excites him.

Parkades not only make me think of Cody, but of my favorite episode of Seinfeld "The Parking Garage". If you haven't seen this, or even if you have, you might want to click on this link, watch the clip and read the synopsis. It's pretty amusing.

http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/seinfeld/episode_guide/?sl=episode&ep=306

Siblings of People with Disablilities

When I think about how I raised my children, one of which has special needs, juggle and struggle are two words that come to mind. Often Cody's siblings have had to "take the back seat". I believe that this has made them better, stronger individuals. It has been heartwarming to watch how they've interacted with their brother.

Chase has always been good at being very verbal for Cody's sake. As a child, he would even make up songs or chants to the Nintendo music so Cody (blind) could enjoy the game with him.

Communication is Casey's strong point. He can understand what Cody is trying to say and get him to do things that other people cannot.

As Katelyn has gotten older and started dating, she has been fun to watch. If her dates do not acknowledge Cody, she will certainly give them a piece of her mind.

All in all, our family has done pretty well considering what we have been given. I don't think that Cody could have asked for better siblings. I hope that all of my children look back at their upbringing and have happy memories. I know I certainly do!