C Tann-Starr's Outside Blog

Life With Wee People: The Autism/PDD-NOS Yard Survey

So I'm in The Man Cave hanging with Mr PDD-NOS chatting about the fact that Mr Autism is turning 10 in a couple of weeks. We want to throw him a small party. Ever try having a conversation with a 5 year old riding circles around you? It's a fascinating experience because Stephen, the Minion Blur will suddenly decide we need to go for a walk in the middle of it. Translated: he rides and you jog through the neighborhood (LOL).

Turns out he wants to look at other yards and see what the neighbors have done with their seating arrangements. Shorty has concerns about a party disturbing our birds. He's taking planting the yard very seriously. The picnic table we wanted to get for the drive has been discontinued by Home Depot so we're back to square one (sigh).

The neighbors on the left help feed the birds and put three spikes in our tree by the garage. One has a little bird bench to hold food and we usually sit in The Man Cave watching them eat. It's one of our fave quiet time moments.

Noah decided he wants a bird and butterfly garden so we're researching tasty plants and trees. These are going to be fun to add to the wee people landscaping list:

Stephen was adamant we had to have a lot of red and blue flowers.

My kids think Home Depot is da bomb diggety. So do I. It's going to be a blast getting Noah's birthday presents from there. The boys asked Mike for watering cans today. They're insisting they each have to have their own set of gardening tools to tackle The Naked Yard.

I can't wait to dig in the dirt with my kids. They're mad funny to work with and rarely play in the back yard so we're gonna pimp the front yard first. (silly grin).

Having all of this empty space and not using any of it is making me crave Black & Decker tools. I happen to love power tools and know how to use them. My Mom's Dad was a very cool grandfather. He was a carpenter and let my sister and I hang out and help when we were kids. Then I took sculpting on Saturdays at Cooper Union and started messing with my Dad's tools. Now I have more tools than Hubby (LOL). ;-)

Did I mention my kids love Realtors and Bob the Builder? They're visual learners and also like books with lots of pictures.

Yup. This is definitely going to be a fun birthday gift. Mr Autism and Mr PDD-NOS will be pegging the yard tomorrow to let me know where they want their stuff. Then we have to go high-jack Daddy (poor Mike - LOL). ;-)