Jessica and the future

Jessica, in an out of character episode asked if she could help me make dinner tonight. I was making my famous breakfast-for-dinner french toast. She was in charge of stirring the egg/milk combo. Which I have to say she did very well. Do I perhaps have a James Beard award winner on my hands? Who knows???

Anyhoo...Jessica is stirring the eggs, and casually says to me: "Do we have diabetes?" And at this point I am wondering if she saw too many Wilfred Brimley commercials, or if she has been talking to her 14 year old sister who is convinced she will get diabetes.
I answered, "No we don't. But you never know what the future holds."

She looks up at me, smiles and says "Flying cars."

Apparently in Jessica's version of the future, we are a family of diabetics who drive flying cars.

Jessica's Mom and The Mystery of the Missing Chocolate Syrup

Ok just a little rant from me, Jessica's Mom.

Jessica gets into EVERYTHING. Lotions, soaps, chips, bananas, yogurts, money, paperwork, you name it she finds a way to get into it and make a mess. Today I went to Walgreens for maybe a 20 minute trip. I came home to find 2 half empty milk jugs sitting on the kitchen floor. I walked cautiously into the pantry (where our sink is), and realize that the bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup that we bought last night is empty. It is apparent that someone wanted to make some chocolate milk. The tricky thing is that there was no sign of the chocolate. No cups or bowls halfway full of chocolatey goodness.

I walked into the livingroom and find my 5 year old son playing Wii, my husband asleep on the couch (he works overnights), and Jessica in the corner of the couch on my laptop.
I call her name, and she freezes. This immediately tells me she did something wrong and she knows it. I call her name again, and she looks away from me and freezes again. I ask her where the chocolate is. I then tell her that I know she can hear me, and that it would make me happy if she looked at me. This ilicits a head turn, and the "Talk to the hand" wave. UGH....I know this is going to be a rough one.

I ask her again where the chocolate is, and I finally get some response. This is what she says to me after each time I ask her where the chocolate is:


"In Daddy's tummy"
"Mad Kitty licked it all"
"In the mailbox"

At this point I am praying she didn't squeeze it all into the mailbox.

The mystery of the chocolate syrup has not been solved. I am wary that it just "disappeared". I feel like someone waiting for their friends to pull a practical joke on them. What will I find when I slip my foot in my shoe, or will my sugar bowl be filled with syrupy love?
Ah, the joys of Jessica!

Jessica and her grandfather

This is a quickie....

I was on the phone with my father this morning, when Jessica came by and asked to speak with him. She got on the phone, and started speaking in her Mad Kitty voice.
She was saying things that didn't make sense (well to anyone but Jessica that is).
Suddenly Jack, the 5 year old voice of reason screams "Can you speak like a person??!!"

From the mouths of babes. If only it was that easy :-)

Jessica and February Vacation

We have ALMOST survived another school vacation. I say almost because technically there are still 3 days left. It actually hasn't been as bad as past vacations though. We were lucky enough to go to Cape Cod for a few days. We stayed at a hotel that had plenty of activities for the kids, so they were more than adequately occupied. I think Jessica did every activity the hotel offered up. When we checked in, they gave us a calendar of all the happenings. Jessica lived by that calendar. She looked at it almost hourly to decide what the next thing to do would be. She made stuffed animals, decorated cookies, and swam in the wave pool, among other things. I think her favorite part was a kids dance party they had the last night we were there. If you follow this blog, you know Jessica likes to dance. So a dance party is sooooooo Jessica. It became obvious during the dance party that Jessica was in her own little world. She shook, boogied, twirled, and egyptian danced her way around the whole dance floor. Never really dancing with anyone, or even making eye contact. It was funny and sad all in one. I watched her make her way around and wished she would stop and have fun with another child. But I guess she was happy dancing and flitting around....so I can't really complain. Please enjoy the following videos. One is of Jessica unable to contain her musicality while waiting in line for a balloon animal, and another is of Jessica being Jessica!



PS....Jessica's brother Jack is the boy in the jeans and Lego Star Wars shirt behind her with the sweet moves.

Jessica and Whitey Bulger...yes, I said Whitey Bulger

As a Mom to a daughter with autism, I have grown accustomed to Jessica not asking for things. She figures out what she needs and tries to get it for herself.
This has been true since she was a toddler. She never asked for milk, or something to eat. She always just went to the refrigerator and did her best to get what she wanted.

We live in Massachusetts, and there is a predicted snow storm for tomorrow. When Jessica came home from school today she had left her snow pants and boots at school. I sent my husband to the school to retrieve the items because I knew she would need them in the morning.

He opened her locker and found 2 magnets, both of which had been on our fridge. Neither of us had noticed they were missing. One magnet was a school picture of herself from last year. The second magnet is where is gets dicey. It was a magnet with the mugshots of Whitey and Billy Bulger. My daughter had a magnet with MUGSHOTS in her locker! WHAT????

My husband was smart enough to take a picture. I swear to you, I laughed until I cried. This is just SO Jessica. She wanted magnets for her locker, and instead of asking me for some she just took what she could find. That kid is a piece of work!

Jessica and pony tails/pig tails

Every morning is a fight with Jessica deciding what to do with her hair. Last year, and all last summer she happily wore a headband, or let me pull her hair back in a pony tail. It was fabulous for a number of reasons. It stays out of her face, she looks super cute, and hair that has skipped a couple night of shampoos still looks good in a pony tail.

In August Jessica found a pair of scissors, and cut her hair. It was as tragic as it could have been, but it definitely cut our hairdo options by 90%. The pic on the right is actually right after I had Snip It's fix the cut she gave herself.

So now it's 6 months later, and her hair is long enough to pull back. But since this has not been a practiced behavior/routine for so long, Jessica freaks out. Every morning I give her a choice of "piggy, or pony"? She always screams "CLIPPY!!!"

To Jessica, clippy means take any clip and randomly affix it to the back of her head. It hold no hair back, and it doesn't look all that good.

Sooooo....this brings me to today. We had Jessica's brother Jack's 5th birthday party at a local place called Jump On In. We HAD to leave the house at 1pm so we could be there for 1:15. I timed everything out perfectly, until I got to Jessica's hair. Against her wishes, I pulled it back into a lovely pony tail. 2 minutes later Jessica is screaming and crying. She wants a CLIPPY!!!

We had a back and forth argument, with her continuing to cry, and me telling her if she didn't stop crying she couldn't go to the party. 10 minutes later, I look at her and the pony tail has been replaced by a clippy in the back of her head. I looked at her, and was about to say something when that smart little girl says, "Mom, see....I'm not crying!"

I guess I have to pick my battles. I just want her to look cute!

Jessica and The Black Eyed Peas

Jessica likes to shake her booty. Wait, scratch that....she LOVES to shake her booty. She especially likes to shake it to the Black Eyed Peas. Here is the latest video I took of her, and it is one of my favorites. Pay close attention to the beginning where she puts on her invisible cat ears, whiskers, and cat curly tail. Because you know, she thinks she is a cat.