Brachiosaurus

The Dino Links we got Loo Bear for Christmas have been a huge hit. He's been having fun making and inventing dinosaurs. And yes, that dark green, centre water bottle in the background is Loo's and that is a Brachiosaurus on it.

Dyson Engineer in Training**

 

Ever since Shmoo Bear inherited the old Dyson he has totally immersed himself in investigating its parts. He even asked for a screwdriver so that he could pull it apart... except he soon discovered that not all screws are the same and a Phillips head won't work on Torx screws.

So while we were out today The OH bought Shmoo his very own foldout Torx screwdriver set. Within minutes of getting home Shmoo had completely taken apart the vacuum head. And, just as quickly, he reassembled it again. And took it apart again... The inner workings of a Dyson should keep him occupied for months :)

**Shmoo's fave item of clothing is a hoodie we bought for him from Simply Colours. It says 'Dyson engineer in training' on the back.

Australia Day 2012

 

Australia Day celebrations in our little town. The boys (well, mostly Loo) stuffed themselves silly on sausages. Loo must be having a growth spurt - it was "I'm hungry" all day. He was a bit disappointed that they didn't have a jumping castle this year but both he and Shmoo had fun joining in the other games (gumboot throwing, tug-of-war etc). We left when they did the egg throwing game though. I was a bit surprised that anyone would do a game that involved throwing raw eggs around when so many kids these days have allergies. We just couldn't risk Loo coming into contact with the raw egg white that inevitably ended up all over the grass and probably on a lot of the people who participated in the game (particularly as we no longer have the epipens). Poor kid. After all these years of dealing with his allergies he was quite understanding but I could see that he was awfully disappointed that he could no longer run around and play and it made him feel very different and isolated from the other kids there.

[We didn't deliberately try and make Loo and Beanie all matchy with their outfits by the way. I got Beanie dressed in the morning and Loo chose his own clothes. It just so happened that they both ended up wearing the exact same shade of pink. And the hats are the same because they're great hats with a wide brim all around plus a neck flap and we have several of them.]

Farewell, Trusty Old Vacuum

After nearly 7 years of much (ab)use, our beloved Dyson DC08T vacuum cleaner passed away peacefully last week.

3 kids + 2 cats + no vacuum = big mess. A new vacuum cleaner became our top priority. Thank goodness we were saving my tax return from last year. A decent vacuum isn't cheap and, with a Dyson obsessed 6.5 year old, we couldn't very well consider any other brand!

So Shmoo is currently in vacuum heaven. Not only did he inherit his very own Dyson to play with, but today we also got to go shopping for a brand new Dyson. We already knew which one we wanted (the DC39 Allergy) but Shmoo was very excited to have a look at the display and pick up some new catalogues. The sales assistant was also a bit of a Dyson enthusiast so  Shmoo  enjoyed asking her questions. She was quite taken with  Shmoo and his passion for Dysons and at one point laughed and said "Look at him, he's like a little professor!". The OH and I just looked at each other and smiled. It's very common for children with Asperger's Syndrome to be called 'little professors*'.

Can't wait to see how the new vacuum performs. It looks quite different to our old one. The technology has come a long way in 7 years!

Now off to investigate the James Dyson Foundation.


*The link is to an article that is, in my opinion, the best description of an Aspie child. Definitely worth a read if  you are interested in ASDs or if you have a little Aspie in your life that you would like to better understand.