And the Oscar goes to. . . .

I am in my post Oscar fog right now. I stayed up until 1:00 am last night cleaning up after my low key party. This is my 3rd year having a few of the ladies from my neighborhood over to watch the Oscars. We have a neighborhood thing going on where the guys play poker once a month and the ladies try to get out once a month. That doesn't really happen, but we try. As my turn to plan I started having these 7 women over to watch the Oscars with me. I always watched it on my own, and it's a lot more fun to share it with others. Plus I threw in a prize for guessing the most awards correctly. It makes those "best sound mixing" awards a lot more interesting when you throw in a little friendly competition.

Besides getting ready for this, I had my cousin's family here all weekend then went to the MSU basketball game on Sunday afternoon. I'm tired and I feel that scratchiness in my throat that may be an indication of my first illness of this long cold winter. I have a busy week and am thinking I won't be at full strength. I know, enough whining I'm a lucky girl to have all of this on my plate!

In my rush getting home from the basketball game I had an hour and a half to get the rest of my gathering together. Of late Daniel has been hanging around me a lot in the kitchen. He loves to watch me washing dishes and cleaning up. I have been asking him to do a few things here and there because I felt that maybe he wanted to help, but wasn't asking. It can be confusing with Daniel because his verbal nature makes you think he can just ask for something or tell you his needs and sometimes he just doesn't know how to do that. You have to read him.

Yesterday, while I was in preparation, Daniel was again at my heels. A bottle of Windex was sitting on the counter, so I asked him to clean the table. He sprayed it down and wiped it all clean. It looked pretty good. Then the vacuum was sitting in the family room right off of the kitchen. I thought, what the heck, I asked him to vacuum the f.r. He did. I went in and showed him a few areas to go over again, and he did, without getting mad at me. (Note: he can get upset when you try to show him something because he feels the need to do everything perfectly. So pointing things out like this usually means he didn't do it perfect) Meanwhile I was getting the food and drinks ready. We watch the show in the basement because we have a big screen TV and a wonderfully huge, comfortable sectional in a nicely finished basement. But that makes for a lot of trips up and down the stairs. I kept putting things on the island and Daniel would pick things up and say, "where do I put it"? I'd tell him and HE'D DO IT. It was amazing. AND extremely helpful. I don't think I would have finished on time had he not done that. He ran up and down the stairs a LOT putting things in place for me.

For a while now we have been giving him small jobs and using a job chart. He LOVES the job chart. We started simple. Brushing his teeth twice a day is on there, along with making his bed every day. This is NOT something he did regularly before the chart, but now he does. We also have things he is working on in speech. Like "Do something nice for someone". I realize that isn't a traditional "job", but with Daniel he will be much more likely to do something if you write it down. Maybe everyone of us should write down every day to, "do something nice for someone", it might be a lot nicer world?! I think after all of the wonderful things he did yesterday I'm going to have to add on to that chart. We go over it at the end of the day and check off all of the things he accomplished. It is a wonderful POSITIVE (there's that word again) way to end the day.

When all was said and done, things were ready when the guests arrived. I didn't get that red carpet out that I bought last year, because I ran out of time. But for all intensive purposes, the things that should have been done, were done. Daniel was really proud of himself for being so helpful, I was thrilled to have him with me and to be able to give him lots of positive reinforcement with compliments of his good work. Plus Daniel is learning things he needs to do if that day ever comes when he is able to go out on his own. Cleaning up, vacuuming, and really, socializing too. I think the Oscar should really go to . . . Daniel ok and maybe my husband who needed to work, but let me go to the basketball game then have my party.