Funkins and Fiona

I went to the craft store the other night to get foam board that I promised to supply for a church project.  The way some people are with junk food--that's me in a craft store.  Especially this time of year with the daylight hours waning which means the kids loud and active after supper energy can not be outside as much. We are managing about 20 minutes of outside time in the evenings but tonight that was even stretching it.  Enter the funkins.

They are those fake pumpkins that you can paint, carve or do all manner of things with and to. A couple years ago they were new on the scene and crazy pricey.  Yesterday they were $4.99  $4.99 is doable for me. I got each kid an identical orange one and K a slightly different shaped white one.  My thought was we would mess around with them tongiht while we wait for Fiona to call.

Except that Fiona had a confrontation with a new teacher today and ran off campus.  She went to a local store and refused to return to the Great School in the City. The protocol is to then call the police who took her to the hospital.  Jane called to explain and said she is hoping they will not admit her as it is counter productive in every sense. But at the time we spoke she was still at the hospital so I will hopefully find out more tomorrow. Typically Fiona's behaviors are usually more volative from October through January.  She tries hard and when she is calm she makes lots of plans on how to handle things when she is NOT calm, but that is far easier said than done.  I have long suspected FASD should be (and for all I know is) part of her dx.  Her behaviors and responses to stimulus seem so similar to what I read on other blogs written by families who deal with this.

So the funkins became what we did to make up for the fact we were not talking with Fiona.  They were fun for the kids and the part I liked the best was that Chet got into it too.  He has motor skill issues that make him less likely to enjoy and gravitate toward arts and crafts. He has a few select things he likes to create--note cards decorated with stickers and peace symbols for instance.  But his skill set is limited and his interest restricted probably more by autistic perserverations than abilities.  But for some reason, the pumpkin painting really spoke to him.  All 4 kids sat and stood around the island for a good 30 minutes--longer for the 2 older but the 2 littles were tapped out by then.  K did her pumpkin too and it is very cool.  A black witch on one side and a black cat on the other.   Once they get sprayed with fixatives I will try and remember to post pics.