September 22, 2011
by marfmom
7 Comments

M-isms

Thought I’d take a moment to record some cute things that the Menininho has been saying lately:

– Wandering around the kitchen: “I want five bucks! Want five bucks! Want five bucks!” “M, why do you want 5 bucks?” “I want five bucks!”
We think this is from a commercial. Any ideas which? Maybe Subway?

– Sitting on the couch: “Boat!” “Oh, is this couch a boat, M? Where are we going?” “Go Subway!” “Child, you have never eaten at Subway before. Why do you want to go there?” “Go Subway!”

– “Hey caaaat! I got surpriiiiise fo you! Run awaaaaay!” Yah…no explanation there, except those are two phrases he is using a lot lately.

– “Matt cry?” This was something M said to my brother so often when he was visiting recently that now it’s an inside joke among his friends. However, when Matt called the other day, “Matt cry?” was replaced by “Matt fart! Matt fart! Matt fart! Matt fart!”

– “Fart poo-poo funny haha!”

– ‎”Byebye Daddy, I go work.” “Where are you going to work?” “[Insert name of Mark’s company]” “What will you do there, M?” “Marfan!” Yep, he’s got his bases covered!

– Upon noticing Mark’s shirt, which had the name of his alma mater on it: “I going go there.” “Really? What are you going to study there?” “Bathrooms.”

– “Bunny go doctor! Bye-bye!”

September 21, 2011
by marfmom
20 Comments

To the Writers of Glee

Dear Writers of Glee,

I love your show, I really do. My husband Mark even likes it, and we rarely agree on TV. Mark actually did showchoir in Northern Ohio and enjoys guessing which schools all the different teams are based on. Our toddler watches Glee too, from time to time. He memorized the logo and, excuse the pun, shouts it out rather gleefully whenever he sees it.

My husband has aspergers syndrome, and our son has high-functioning autism.

Last night, your episode featured a character who said she had aspergers. Maybe you thought that because you made her say she was “self-diagnosed” that that would make your portrayal of aspergers ok, even funny. You were wrong.

It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t accurate. It was actually kind of offensive. Creating characters with autism that are incredibly one dimensionally obnoxious only serves to perpetuate stereotypes. Making her “self-diagnosed” just adds to the grief that many on the spectrum get, particularly adults: that autism is made up, over-diagnosed, and just used as an excuse for bad behavior.

The people I know with aspergers don’t act like your character. Many of them are actually quite sweet. They may struggle with social interaction, but I can’t imagine any of my friends or loved ones acting in the manner you had Sugar behave.

If you plan to make Sugar a recurring character, please add a little more depth to her. You could take a cue from Parenthood. People with autism shouldn’t be the butt of jokes.

Sincerely,
Maya, the Marfan Mom

September 17, 2011
by marfmom
5 Comments

Pinterest Challenge: Pizza Rolls

My friend, Subfertile Frugalista, is hosting The Great Pinterest Challenge. If you’re not familiar with Pinterest you should be, but basically it’s an addicting visual bookmarking social networking site. You have different boards (folders) that you pin (bookmark) cool projects, recipes, quotes, outfits, etc. to and you can share these with your friends and see what they’re pinning too. I’m using it to come up with new dinner recipes, organize birthday party ideas, and keep track of ideas I have for a future house.

Anyway, the challenge is to actually create some of the things we’ve pinned. Each pin = 1 blog post, and you can link up as many blog posts to the Subfertile Frugalista’s blog as you’d like. Winners (oh yes, their are multiple!) will be selected randomly. You have until the end of September, so come join in! Also, you can still participate even if you don’t have a blog; just head over to her site for details!

If you’d like to follow me on Pinterest, go here. And if you want an invite to Pinterest, just leave a comment with your email address and I’ll send you one!

I got this pizza roll recipe from tidymom.net. I love how quick and easy it is!

Now, generally the Menininho does not eat pizza. He has an issue with sauce being on bread, so the most he’ll do is pick the toppings and cheese off and eat those. This recipe does not use sauce though, so he actually ate a couple of pieces. Win! Plus, it’s not messy and tastes ok cold, making it an easy on-the-go snack.

I also liked how it’s simple enough that a toddler can help assemble it. I prepped the dough, spiced it with oregano (I found the pepperoni to be salty enough that I didn’t add salt to the dough like the recipe calls for), and put on the cheese. M laid out about 1/2 the pepperoni before he decided he’d rather eat some instead. 🙂

Then, we just rolled it up, cut it, and placed the pieces, and cooked them!

Don’t they look tasty?

I think next time I’m going to sub pineapple chunks for pepperoni. I may also try a veggie version (at least broccoli, since that’s one of the few veggies M will eat these days).