Yup, it’s here.  That magical time when we struggle with whether to buy something online or in the store.  For me, online wins about 98% of the time.

So, in no particular order, here is a list of my toy picks from the Amazon Top 100.  Enjoy.

This is pretty much everywhere this holiday season.  I don’t know how it compares to apps on your smartphone, but at least it is something that is theirs and theirs alone, which has something to be said for it.

You can NEVER go wrong with Lego.  NEVER.

I think this toy wins the title of longest name.  But kids sure do love them some Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

If you’ve got a kid in the right age range, remember what I said up there.

No matter what you think of the feminist aspects of this toy, it is selling like hotcakes.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with bringing an app to life in your own home.

My own little person cannot get enough Little People.

Very clever toy with a gazillion things to do.

The duct tape thing is SO hot right now.  It’s a little ridiculous.  But I am all for encouraging creativity.

We have this here and it is very cute indeed.

Another good outlet for all that creativity.

I have so far resisted the siren call of these little babies, but I may not be able to for much longer.

Yet another toy where it is impossible to go wrong.

The newest Imaginext set for the holidays.

OK, I kind of want these for me.

Ah, this month has been hard.

But I am grateful that I have so many lovely, brilliant, and wise readers.

I promise I will get back into the blogging business with regularity.

I am also grateful for my two awesome, beautiful children who, daily, never fail to impress me with their awesomeness.

I am grateful for a husband I love dearly and has stuck with me through things that would have had other men purchasing a one way ticket to Brazil.

I am grateful for all the people in my life who have offered help to our family when we needed them most.

I can only hope to do the same in return when they are in similar need.

Now, dearest readers, have some of that pumpkin pie for me, because I can’t have any.

We received the results of my daughter’s Day o’Testing, and the results came back as everyone pretty much not knowing  the cause of my daughter’s multiple speech and behavioral issues.

Which is SO not helpful.

I should start by stating that my daughter was not diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum.  But let us just say that she needed a home run, and only scored a triple.  She needed one more box to be checked to have a confident diagnosis, and the team of doctors didn’t feel they could do that.  So, that leaves us with a little person who has some issues, they just don’t fall into neat categories.  They felt that the ABA therapy that autistic children often receive would not address her particular needs.

Apparently they felt that she has some sensory processing problems (sensation-seeking) that are leading to some of the behavioral things, so she will be getting some occupational therapy for those.

She will continue to receive the maximum speech therapy allowed under our insurance plan, and also that is the maximum recommended for her age group.  She fell into the 7th percentile for expressive speech, which I don’t have to tell you is not all that hot.

I think as a parent, I wanted everything to fall perfectly into those boxes, so that I could point to something definitively and say, “Aha! That is the cause!” and then do everything I can to learn about that something and advocate for her regarding that something.

But that something isn’t anything at the moment, although she will be re-evaluated in six months because as I said, there are things that are not quite right, they just don’t fit into the autistic spectrum at this time.   So I’m left sort of wondering why her speech is so delayed and why she has some of the problems that she does without any medically recognized condition behind them.

Which for me, personally, is difficult.

Any advice?

I’m not sure how long the “Popper Stopper” has been around, but really?  I didn’t have a protruding belly button when I was pregnant, but if I did, I do not think I would have spent money on something for such a VERY temporary condition.   If someone didn’t like how my belly button looked, then don’t look at it!  I’m carrying a damn baby in here and y’all can just deal with it.

…here at Casa Glinda.

Let me throw a pity party for myself for a second,  OK?

I promise there will be goody bags.

After months of speech therapy that did not alleviate the bulk of her behavioral/developmental delays, yesterday we took our daughter to undergo a three hour battery of tests given by a multidisciplinary team of experts.  This was done basically to determine if she needs further, intensive behavioral therapy and if she is going to be clinically diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum.

To say that I have been getting harassed by my immediate family for doing this is somewhat of an understatement. I have been accused of “wanting” something to be wrong with her to “having her labelled for life.”

Well Christ, I would say that when your three year old maxes out at three word sentences and still has a very limited vocabulary, as well as other behavioral issues, then it is high freaking time she get some intervention.    I resisted the testing battery for a few months because I wanted to see how much she would improve after six months of speech therapy, if her behaviors were the result of a bright mind frustrated by lack of communication skills.  And in some regards, they are, but my husband and I believe there are deeper issues that need to be addressed.

You know, because we are the ones living with her, not the people who see her for a maximum of a few hours a month.

Apparently that makes me a bad mother.

So now we wait a week to meet with the team and they will deliver their findings.

To say that I am stressed is also somewhat of an understatement.

Also, that whole remodeling thing and moving to another city?

Yeah well, that went kerplooie, and to be honest it was my decision to halt everything.  But that was because for 10 entire months, I was blockaded and stalled out and literally lied to.

So I took myself off the roller coaster.

In one sense it is a relief and I don’t regret the decision, but in another sense making that decision is taking me down a specific road that other people aren’t going to like.

Too bad.

I guess the moral of this post is that I have learned that life is too short to keep people around that are full of negativity and to keep on doing what you think is right.

Here is your goody bag, full of self-righteousness and resolve.  Trust me, it’s better than a Twix any day.

My current neighborhood is a very popular one for trick-or-treaters in the area.  We are in our own little enclosed (not gated!) development where you can’t really get lost or wander off as we are surrounded by parkland on two sides and a really big slope on the others.  So lots of people bring their families here because it feels safe and the neighborhood really gets into the whole Halloween thing.

So even though last night was technically a school night, I started panicking as we had already gone through our second Costco bag o’ chocolate.  It was still fairly early and we had already had around a hundred kids or so.

In a state of panic, I searched for the stash of candy we had from last year that has yet to be eaten (and probably never will be) that I knew was in a plastic bucket in the kitchen.    I came into the living room with the bucket, and my husband immediately recognized it as the “reject” candy from last year.

“What are you doing?” he cried in astonishment as I set the bucket on top of the little table we had set by the door.

“I’m getting extra candy in case we run out!” I snapped in reply.

“That candy is a YEAR OLD, Glinda!  You can’t possibly be thinking of giving it to somebody, can you?” he responded, with a look of utter disbelief.

“My God man, it’s processed sugar!  It is perfectly good candy!” I said, with my former bluster evaporating.

“You are NOT giving that out.  If we run out of candy, we will simply TURN OUT THE LIGHTS, not give people old candy.”

For once, my husband was right.

He can mark it on the calendar.

As I said on MB, from here on the hot and dry West Coast, it was difficult to get a true understanding of the effects of Hurricane Sandy on millions of East Coast and Midwest residents. But in looking at pictures of the cleanup and hearing about those that lost their lives, I am sending all the positive vibes possible in an easterly direction.

Insert awkward segue here…

To my utter surprise and delight, my son decided to join a local youth volleyball league a few months ago, and has decided that he truly likes playing this sport.

As a mom who has been desperately seeking a sport for her son (anything, I would have taken pretty much anything! Fencing, swimming, whatever!) just so that he can get out and set some physical goals for himself, this was welcome news.  I don’t expect him to become some sort of pro player of anything, but I do think that getting the discipline involved in sports, as well as the physical and emotional outlets, is an important thing.   And dare I say that I think he might have some natural talent?

Did I mention that I played volleyball competitively for years?  Or that I also coached for years, including at the junior college level?

So when I see some well-meaning city employees who may or may not have much experience playing volleyball trying to teach my son improper form or telling them to do ridiculous things like trying to return a serve by setting, I sit on the bleachers and try to shut my damn mouth.  As I slowly clench and unclench my fists.  Kidding! Sorta!

Last weekend after my son’s game, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.  I HAD to know why they were encouraging these youngsters (8-10) to engage in something I consider sort of wrong (trust me, I am being a bit anal, but I am also thinking that they shouldn’t be introducing bad habits) I went and asked the coach.

The young man looked at my 41 year old self and gave me some sort of unsatisfactory answer, to which I responded with another question, which in turn I’m positive earned me the nickname of “Old Hag Who Thinks She Knows Everything.”

Sigh.

I apologize for my tardy appearance here on the blog.  Can I just say that it’s complicated and leave it at that?  Mostly mental, but some other things thrown in as well that left me completely uninspired and with a fairly severe case of writer’s block.  But I’m back and trying to get into the groove.

Quite a while ago, I asked you if you were a fan of horror movies, and 50% gave an emphatic no.  30% like suspense-type horror, and 15% are good with any type of horror you’ve got.

Today’s question is one that has been rattling around in my brain for a bit, and I am curious to see what the consensus is.