Same year, different place!

Hi All,

Well, we're back in the saddle again--I'm now writing to you from our home in Aberdeen, where we arrived in full force on July 14, 2009. We were sad to leave Durham and the sun, our friends, the rolypops, my summer school, the Eno river, Blacknall Presbyterian, our families (who so graciously came to help us pack and get to the airport), and my shoes, which we left in Rockwood park when I had a nappy explosion two hours before our flight took off!

It was a good year in Durham, full of great memories and experiences. Top of the list, of course, is having perfect hearing for the first time in my life, courtesy of Dr. Hulka, my ENT. Mom says she may make an entry herself sometime to complete my list, or start a blog of her own. We'll see about that...in the meantime, let me give you a rundown of our first week back in Aberdeen:

First off, we got to spend time with Andrew Cameron, our friend from Sydney, who came to see us and cooked us our first meal back in the UK (chicken stir fry). It was fun playing on the playgrounds with Mr. Andrew, and going to see a distillery--even though we didn't get in (that's where the picture is from). Then he left and mom and dad spent the weekend buying stuff. They got new phones, and talk to each other even when they don't need to, silly grown-ups! They also got a new car--it's a Citroen Xsara, but we like to call her "Zsa Zsa". I sit up higher than our old car, and I can see out the window really well. We went for a drive yesterday to celebrate, and had apple crumble at our favourite garden centre in Raemoir (well, I had apple crumble. I seem to have eaten most of it, but I was hungry!) Now mom says the washer is broken, so I guess we'll be going to get another one of those. She says she has lots of laundry to do--I wonder if I'm helping by taking off all my clothes every 5 minutes and weeing all over the floor? Hey, everyone has phases...

We've had a bit of rain, a bit of sun, some walks around the university and town, and lots of coffees. I guess we're off to a great start!

More soon--love to all,
Adam

p.s. THANK YOU to all our family who helped us so much in those last days--Oma and Opa, Papa and Oma from Texas, auntie Lou and cousins Kristin and Reid. We love you all!

Mom had a busy day

Hi folks,

I know I don't talk about mom very much, because my activities are all important in my eyes, but I'll tell you what she told me about her day today.

First, at 11am she met with a man named Steve Harper who coordinates volunteer tutors to help children of refugee families from the mountains in Central Vietnam. She didn't even know these people existed, but there are apparently about a thousand in Durham and some living nearby who need help with school work. One family has a boy about my age who also has Autism, so mom will get to talk to his mom about what that is like. She will do this on Thursdays, and seems to be excited about it. She and Caleb walked to the Duke building where they had the meeting--sounds like they got hot since it was over 90 again today!

Then at 1pm she met with a woman from Blacknall Presbyterian about being a childcare worker on Wednesday nights and Thursday mornings. She might even take Caleb and I with her on the Wednesday nights if things work out.

At 3pm she met with a lady from the ARC of North Carolina, an organisation that coordinates support services for people with special needs. Mom will be assigned a "support broker" who will create a personal needs plan for me and help mom figure out what kinds of services I might need and receive. I think she's most interested in the respite services, but she'll have to call the ARC of Durham for that. I think having a support broker is way cool! I liked the lady too, she was pretty neat and talked nice to me and Caleb.

Then mom took us to Burger King and we had a picnic in the park, since she was too tired to cook. We didn't argue, it was nicer out then and we got to play. Now it's off to bed for us all--whew!

Love, Adam

Life and Science

Hi everyone!

We had another rain storm today, this time it was pretty light but lasted all day. I liked playing outside with brother and mom in the morning...brother and I didn't have much clothes on but that didn't bother us! Nobody else was around, it was a pretty quiet morning altogether.

In the afternoon mom took Caleb and I to the Museum of Life and Science, which is only a short car drive away. Mom said it was also free because they don't charge local residents on Wednesday afternoons, so she was happy (it's pretty expensive normally). I liked it a lot, mostly because they had a big, big room with space to dance, and each time you moved it made some music. I made lots of my own music, and my brother ran around the room--mom said he was "a wild man". I think I agree!

The museum also had tons of other things like a play area for kids, a nature room with lots of local wildlife (I didn't care much for that but Caleb liked the alligators!), and a huge backyard with more animals, water play equipment, things to climb on and even a train. Mom said that we'll have to come back (next Wednesday afternoon!) to see more since I kept them moving so much. Maybe it won't be raining then and she won't be so grumpy!

I met a few nice people there, of course by patting them on the backside as I walked past...the people here are so friendly that they chat with you even if you've just hit them!! Mom liked that two of them had children with Autism, and she talked to them about what kinds of things there are here for kids like me. I don't know all of what she found out, but there appears to be something called the Arc of Durham which helps people like mom and dad get a few minutes to themselves once in a while, and also helps people with special needs in general. Guess we'll be looking into that soon...

Well, mom and dad are going to watch the Olympics, and I'm going to bed. More soon, love Adam.