Wednesday, January 30, 2013

♫ These are days you'll remember...

 Never before and never since, 
I promise, will the whole world be warm as this. 
And as you feel it, you'll know it's true that 
you are blessed and lucky.
 It's true that you are touched by something...
(10,000 Maniacs)

These are Days is definitely one of my all time favorite 
songs and it seemed a perfect fit for this week's blog.
Scotty and I had one of those days...
A day to remember...
A day to feel blessed...
A day to feel lucky to have this odd, quirky, unique
man/child to share my days with.
 
Last week we experienced an
 unusually sunny 75° day in January.

I convinced Scotty (okay I bribed him with a hamburger)
to take a walk around the lake.
There was no one else around and he was free
to walk and explore with no boundaries.
Free to just be Scotty!

In turn I was blessedly free as well.
Free to stroll at a pace much more suited to my age
and athletic ability... a pace much different from
the all out sprint that "walking" with Scotty usually entails.

Free to hold a cup of coffee in my hands instead
of keeping a firm grip on him so he doesn't...
RUN!

Free to soak up every drop of warmth the sunshine 
had to offer and savor the peace and quiet,
instead of being on high alert  
for places he is not supposed to go,
and people and things he isn't supposed to touch.



As I strolled leisurely behind him
I couldn't help but smile at this peculiar
little guy as I watched him awkwardly
galloping down the path...
dragging poor Bonnie on her leash...
carrying his church prayer book...
and "wearing butt inspection gloves."
(Stupid quote from Home Alone 3 that we can't stop saying)

Just like those 10,000 maniacs predicted...
this was a day I'll remember.
A day to be still.
  A day of living quietly in the moment
 with my own little maniac♥


The Lord will fight for you, 
and you have only to be still.
Exodus 14:14 


Writing my blog today took less than an hour for a change because Scotty amazingly enough was completely absorbed in some major multi-tasking.  He was reverently watching Mass on TV, listening to his "church" music on his Ipad, and reading the Magnificat (a daily Catholic prayer book).  The only time he bothered me was to come hold my hand up in the air so we could pray the Our Father together...how sweet is that!  Gosh...how many people are blessed like that in their day?

Here are a few pictures of my holy little guy...
"butt inspection gloves" and all.





























This sweet little face in Scotty's hand...next to his prayer book...is Miss Emma Claire.  This was a picture that was sent to Scotty in a package of goodies chosen especially for him from her Mommy. This little lady is the grandaughter of our friends Karen and Dave.  Emma Claire's mother and father are part of the next generation of "villagers" who continue to love and care for our Scotty.  This next generation consists of the now grown children of our "villagers".

Unlike Scotty this next generation has left behind the things of childhood and moved onto jobs, marriage and babies...It is exactly as it should be.

All of their parents, our dearest friends, have taught them well...they have shown them by example in a million different ways to love Scotty and treat him with kindness and compassion and to never forget how important they all are to him no matter how old they get or how far away this life takes them.

And we are blessed.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

So as I am proofreading this one last time Scotty came flip flopping into the room laughing...it appears his odd fascination with "butt inspection gloves" has progressed to a whole new level...
Hmmmmm...


Note to self:
I just used "butt inspection gloves" three times in one post.
Clearly I need some adult time or
maybe I need to watch a movie every now and then
that is rated something other than PG!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

The Great Bastoni

 Come One...
Come All...
To the Greatest Show on Earth.

Appearing daily...The Amazing Bastoni!
He performs amazing feats that will 
both surprise and baffle the audience.

The surprising and baffling part is that this child has 
an I.Q. so low that it can't be accurately measure,
yet he has the complex thought processes that 
allow him to plan, reason and plot far beyond
his supposed "abilities."

From the time Scotty was very small he was able 
to escape any means of confinement that 
we foolishly thought would keep him in 
one place and keep him safe.

He started out small...
cribs, playpens, high chairs,
but soon he moved on to bigger challenges...
baby gates, backyard gates and double-bolted 
child-locked front doors.

The only other escapologist that comes close 
to matching his fame is the great Harry Houdini.



We exhaustively spent the first twenty or so years
 of his life searching the neighbors houses for
The Great Bastoni.

A neighbor we had never met came downstairs one day
to a darling little curly haired boy sitting
in her family room holding her dog.

My favorite story is the time he ran into
a neighbor's house that we had never met,
did a loop around their downstairs and ran right back
out the front door with Steve close on his heels.
 They looked up from their Sunday paper
 in stunned silence as Steve ran by and said,
"Morning."
They never even moved.
If he wasn't running into someone's house
or playing with their dog, he was eating food
 out of their fridge.

His favorite game was
 running down our street with 
wild abandon with us in in hot pursuit. 

He is freakishly fast for a
little guy who consistently refuses 
to participate in anything
that might resemble physical activity.

The sounds of his laughter and
our breathless yelling, "Scotty STOP," 
have certainly been the topic of many 
dinner table discussions in this neighborhood.
In the past few years his efforts have turned to
breaking IN instead of breaking OUT.

It is his daily mission to get into ALL
the locked doors and cabinets in our house.
Doors that are locked to keep him 
out for various reasons.
They keep him from curling up on the beds 
and going to sleep, or from 
making unnecessary messes,
and from eating every morsel of food in the house.

We have key locks, hasp locks, 
and door knobs that need to
 be opened with a penny 
or a pokey thing like a toothpick.
Most doors have at least two types of locks.

None of which can keep him out.

Last week, he came and got me and asked me to help him.
He dragged me to the firesafe, 
handed me a penny and wanted me to help him open it.
The safe???
Really???


Where is he getting this stuff?
I asked him to empty his pockets and this is what I found...


Honestly this made me day.
Coins, toothpicks, a key...typical.
Sonic mint, tweezers and a $20???
That cracked me up.

I guess his resume would include
escapologist, lock picker, safe cracker, 
splinter taker-outer and petty thief.

Once again this little man amazes me.

I wish more than anything that I had access to
the elaborate labyrinth that is his mind...
just a brief glimpse into what makes him tick.

So today I will be thankful for this new set of
shenanigans, because it means he is still growing, 
still learning, and always thinking.


The greater the obstacle 
the more glory
in overcoming it.
Moliere
(and The Great Bastoni)





Thursday, January 17, 2013

Happy New Year...

Happy New Day...
Happy New Hour...
Happy New Minute!


I have decided to keep it simple this year.
One resolution that for once will not fall short
of my usual unrealistic expectations.

This year my success will not be
outwardly measurable.

This year my success will be measured in the
number of deep breaths I take...
It will be measured in the moments that
I release myself from the worry that constantly plagues me...
It will be measured in the moments when I can be still...
It will be measured in the number of times
I remind myself to stop and pay attention to
This day...
This hour...
This minute.


My one resolution for 2013 is very simply this...

"Live quietly in the moment and see the 
beauty of all before you.
The future will take care of itself"
Paramahansa Yogananda


Hopefully this simple shift in my
thought processes will bring about
a metamorphosis from my usually
tightly-wound, weighted-down self
into a lighter, unencumbered,
mellower version of myself.

This resolution will be an ongoing transformation
and certainly many years of old habits will be hard to break.

If I struggle I will look
 to my son for guidance.
Unknowingly this is how he lives.
He is impervious to the things
of this world that keep
the rest of us from being
attentive to the now.


Scotty is utterly present in every moment of the day
with absolutely no worries for the future.

He lives each day, each hour and each minute to its fullest.

He throws, yells, and pounds on walls
with no thought to the consequences that will follow.
( A little extreme I know, but it fits the formula! )

He absorbs every drop of happiness that each moment offers.

He looks towards the future with excitement
and certainty that it will be filled with wonderful things.


 He just takes it as it comes...
Day by Day♥


I aspire to join my sweet boy 
in his simple and uncomplicated world each day,
and live quietly in the moments
of our very routine, very repetitive,
very monotonous and very ordinary days.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Let the day's trouble be sufficient for the day.
Matthew 6:34





Tuesday, January 8, 2013

God Bless Us Everyone


Under our tree this year were 
many brightly wrapped packages...
most of which in a years time 
we will not even remember.

But there is one gift that that Santa brought 
that we will not likely forget.
Santa brought the flu...

Fever...check
Sneezing...check
Coughing...check
Aches...check
Exhaustion...check
Headache...check

Chicken soup replaced our Christmas ham.
Dry toast replaced our Christmas cookies.
Ah-choos replaced our Christmas music.
Emergen-C packets were our Christmas candy.
And hot tea with honey and lemon 
was used to toast the holiday.
Certainly not the festive holiday season we all anticipated,
but at least we were all together
 united in our misery.

Needless to say it was IMPOSSIBLE
 to get one single "Christmas Card" worthy photo.
So in between my wracking coughs 
I made an executive decision
to skip cards this year...honestly it was a relief.

But then the calls started coming...
Relatives and friends worried and wondering if all was well.

Well alrighty then...


































♥The Baston Family Christmas in a nutshell♥



Before Christmas I found a website  
 to make a personalized DVD from Santa to Scotty. 
I wrote the dialog and a very convincing Santa talked directly
to Scotty with the help of an 
Elf named Sarah signing in the background.

Here is a link to our Santa Story 

We were sure his reaction would have 
been one of screaming, jumping up and down
and general over excitement.

Instead he was very contemplative 
and for once he was actually "speechless."
His face in the following videos is priceless.
I love the "uh-oh" look on his face.
So sweet and needless to say he 
continues to watch it daily.

Part 1

 Part 2

He still looks in the dryer for the
coveted "one more" present.
Santa will most definitely make a few
surprise visits to the dryer this year
when someone needs to be reminded to
do everything his mom and dad tell him
and to use a quiet voice and nice hands.

Thanks Santa♥


And God bless us everyone...
Because the flu is a gift that just keeps on giving!