Tuesday Tally; and My Sweet Little Boy

Status of my novel

total words to date: 69,814

pages: 304

completed chapters: 13

Last week's goals:

• first website newsletter - written up and sent to my small mailing list 
• finish ch. 13 plus 3 more scenes - done!
• send out more poetry - didn't get to this one, though I did pick a few target markets  

Goals for this week:

• write WDC Fantasy newsletter
• write three new scenes in WIP
• send out poetry. really this time.

My son is cute - every time he watches Toy Story (1 or 2) he has to get his Mr. Potato Head to come sit by him. (Any guess what he's watching right now?) Lately B has been very into forts. He sets himself up cornered in by the nightstand and our two lovesacs, then has me drape a blanket over the top. Not the most effective, keeps caving in, but he still loves it. I'd be happy to buy him a playhouse or build-a-fort thing, but we don't have the space here. At least he uses his imagination. Last Thursday he spent a good part of the afternoon as a tiger. His shirt was black and yellow striped, and he crawled everywhere, growling.

 

And here's a non-writing related goal that I better state or I'm never getting around to it: call the autism research study TODAY, as soon as P is napping. It's been a couple months since I last called. I need to know if anything is happening with this, or if I need to get B tested elsewhere. My husband and I really don't think he has autism, but there are mild forms, and it would be good to know for sure (and the dentist, of all people, is insisting we get him tested). Gah, I'm horrible with professional conversations, phone or otherwise (not that I'm much better with personal conversations). It's been so easy to put this off... But I will do this. Today. Or tomorrow at the absolute latest. I will report back on Thursday. Feel free to poke me inquire if I don't volunteer the information.

 

Update: Well, I wrote this post about four hours ago and still can't connect to blogger to post it, so updating now. I just got off the phone with the research center. To qualify for their testing and studies, he would need a certain number of points after scoring the qualification paperwork we filled out (about a dozen pages). B only has half the points he would need to pass the cut off, and is in a normal range for kids his age (according to the the person I talked to). They will keep our paperwork in case any studies open up with lower cut offs, but I don't feel we have any need to worry. His only problem is the speech. He hears fine, understands fine, socializes, and has a normal attention span. He does get additional help from the school district by way of one on one time with an occupational therapist and a speech therapist. He has added to his vocabulary in the past few months, and every new word is exciting. We just get to continue being patient with him and encourage him to communicate.