So, what can I say? It's winter and not much is happening....
But, we did do something for fun - we built a little backyard skating rink. We bought Orhan a pair of skates 3 years ago, and he tried them out back then, but after he crashed hard on his butt in public he hasn't made an effort to get back on them since then. Now that we have our private little rink, he actually made another go at it! He did not bad too, for somebody who's basically never skated before (you really can't count that time 3 years ago, he lasted all of 2 minutes on the ice I think).
So I made a little vid of our backyard rink, and since Mehmed enjoys trying out his little tricks & stuff, I thought I'd do a comparison between him and the Turkish Olympic figure skater, Tugba Karademir (pronounced tooba). She's the daughter of Orhan's friend Tayfun, so naturally we thought of her when we watched Mehmed doing his thing...
ftp://Needless to say, I'm not holding out much hope for any future Olympic potential coming out of our house. On the other hand, I'm praying hard for Tugba to do well in Vancouver!
On a Mehmed note, he seems to be doing great at home, except for a few long-lasting morning tantrums that make us late for school. Really weird things too, like freaking out because the leg of his pants get stuck up inside the leg of the snowpants, or like when he refused to use a cup to gargle after brushing his teeth and absolutely wanted my hand. These are not the kind of things you'd expect to cause a major 20 minute meltdown are they?
But he seems to STILL have problems keeping his hands to himself at school. When I picked him up on Friday, I watched as he pretended two big snowballs were guns, and while he pretended to shoot at this little two year old standing in front of him, I thought, 'Oh Brother', but didn't call him out on it (not expecting invisible bullets to actually cause the other child any harm) - until he just randomly kicked the poor little kid right in front of my eyes. And it was all just part of whatever game he was playing in his imagination. Arg. I usually try to tell myself that there must be some grand divine reason behind these trials, and that maybe one day he'll grow up to be a really peaceful man and a good Muslim. It's kind of hard to remember when you see your really big 6 year old randomly kick a 2 year old and make him cry :(.
Anyways, we're waiting on our next appointment with the pediatrician to review an ADHD form to be completed by his teacher. For kids with true ADHD, apparently the meds are very effective, but when trying them on kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders, it can be really hit and miss. About 75% of Mehmed's "aggressive" behaviour can usually be attributed to impulsiveness, so I'm praying that it helps him, especially at school! And, any improvements on his behaviour (i.e. tantrums) at home would just be icing on the cake.
Well, that's all for now... Happy Snow days!
