These are the Days to Remember, for they will not last forever

I have been humming that song for 2 days straight. Billy Joel? (A 'no shit, Sherlock, if that's the case - he sure took the bullet train to Hades for awhile. But I digress... )
We watched a movie a coupla nights ago - something we rarely have time to do anymore. Plus, the media room is kaput since the projector
d
i
e
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Ken refuses to believe it's a goner, and tries to lure me down into the basement with promises of hot
popcorn
(Oh Get your minds OUT of the gutter)
But I am much wiser than that, and insist on watching movies on our measly 32" 20-year old, busted remotes tvs. (WHY are there always three flippin' remotes involved to watch a movie these days?!)
Long story to get to the movie, which was The Big Labowski (I almost typed 'The Dude Labowski') and had some oldies but goodies songs in it. And I still laughed. Then last night we watched the Life and Death of Peter Sellers. What a Schmuck! And we love the Pink Panther movies! Will I be able to watch them anymore. Ah, probably...
Well I got off on a tangent. That's the problem with stream-of-consciousness posting. I don't save as draft and edit. I type and post. Who else does this? I also have no idea how to spell check in Blogger.
Let's see; Hallowe'en. It was Most Excellent this year. Ryan wore a costume - Lightning McQueen of Cars. Which was a step-into, hooked over his shoulders type of thing, with a hat. We only had 2 wardrobe malfunctions. It was less than 25 degrees here at 6 p.m. when Ken and the boys decided to make their foray. We had a bit of an issue finding a coat that fit under Ryan's get up. He started to ramp it up, crying and whining. I did the old "Fine! You can just stay home with me and hand out candy." which was a mean thing to suggest to a 5 year old. Ken stepped in with a remedy - he removed the guts to Ryan's 4 in 1 parka system, adding another choice to our daily coat tango, and solving the skinny-enough-yet warm problem. Meanwhile Parker is leaping foot to foot, getting overheated in his triple layers of insulation under his Clone Trooper Star Wars costume. FINALLY, they set out. And had a grand old time. Just the right amount of candy was procured.
I, unfortunately, did NOT have enough candy this year! There was a never-ending stream of bigger kids. It was almost too cold for the little ones. The best thing was alot of the parents dressed up to take the kids out, and they were more excited about their costumes than the kids were about theirs! Ken donned his knights of the indoor round table thingy he made 20 years ago. Complete with Hide Of The Naga wide belt and sword. Impressive in the fact that he could still fit into it.
So, that was Tuesday night. Wednesdays we have too much going on in the way of TaeKwonDo, therapy, playdate exchange (mornings) and game night at home. Tonight we had a party at Pump it Up, with at least 7 autistic kids out of 16 guests. It's a perfect place for autistic kids; we had them cut off the music, keep the lights on (you should have heard the screaming when they tried to do the disco thing! It was not a happy place.) We've seen alot of these little ones for 3 years now. Their accomplishments are amazing! Most are talking, communicating and getting needs met by ways other than beating on their mothers. (And yeah; it's usually the mothers doing the caretaking. A parent needs to stay home with special children. Whomever earns the most, works. Men usually make more. So the women stay home, whether they are emotionally equipped to deal with the stress, or not. But this is a whole other post.)
The opening presents part got pretty amusing. Just try to have an autistic child rip open presents, take a quick look, cast it aside and move to the next one. HA! It was hell getting each present out of JoJo's hands and moving him on to the next. And that's when the ratio of specials to typicals came into play - the typicals were on a demonic mission to Get Those Presents OPENED, and would tolerate nothing but a thorough shredding. JoJo, being one of the younger kids there, didn't have a chance. The opened present would be admired, then quickly slipped to the back of the circle where I would whisk it away. At one point, JoJo wailed "Missvicki; I want that one!" and I handed it back, to the yelps of the other children. Thinking back, it was the most enjoyable Pump It Up party I've been to, ever. 15 kids is the key. More is awful. Chaos. But, yeah, I would recommend it to other parents with SN children. 86 the music and disco option (lights off, with mirror ball and lights making crazy patterns), serve cheese pizza, cake, open presents or not and then candy bags to get the children to the car.

The chapter book reading aloud is going well. Ryan wanders off, starts to get noisy and has to be reminded that his turn is next for a picture book. Game night is a hit - we have carry out from a great place called Good Times and then play games 'til nearly bedtime. The play date tradeoffs are going well. Parker and Ryan go to 2 other children's homes on Wednesday mornings, and then those 2 boys come here on Friday mornings. 3 was an evil number, so we invited one of Ryan's buddies, Eddie, to participate in the exchange. It take more supervision as the older guys try to upperhand the younger kids. Normal stuff, nothing too mean. Plus the 2 little ones have to eat lunch before 11 so they can get on the bus at 11:20. The 2 bigger guys go at 12:45, so they have plenty of alone play time without the pesky guys.
Why am I telling you all this tripe? Because, these are the days to remember, and they will not last forever.
Soon they will be big boys, and the problems will be bigger - drugs/alcohol/driving/icky friends. I can fix almost every problem now. In the future? Not so much. So when I get pissy about my days of No Time For Me, I keep telling myself 'Ah, but these are the gravy days, my dear. Life is good. These boys of mine are beautiful, innocent and so sweet. I am their Everything, right now. Enjoy this time.'