Oh, These Boots Can Walk!!

I thought I'd share a bit about my latest pair of shoes. Until this recent shoe purchase, I had one pair of shoes I would wear. Not for lack of trying of course. My Mama and Dad tried very hard to get me to wear a variety of shoes, but one pair, a single blue, tan, and orange tennis shoe from Target was the only thing I'd allow on my feet for any length of time. Comes with the territory, or so they say. But then came along my puddle-stomping firetruck boots.

It was a blustery, chilly Spring day in the Monterrey area-- Sorry, another reference to the trip I've yet to chronicle, but at least you'll have lots of background to go along with the pictures when I post them. That's gotta count for somethin', right? So, back to my musing, it was a blustery, chilly Spring day in the Monterrey area and after an exciting run along the beach in Sand City, Mama and Dad took me into a quaint shoe store along Cannery Row looking for something they could put on my feet to keep them toes of mine dry while I ran through the salty freshness that I had shown such fondness for. And what they found are now my ocean-tromping firetruck boots.


Man, these are the boots every kid dreams of having to put on and run wild through the wet wilderness. But me, oh, I get them out and on my feet whenever I can. I don't think you could find a place where I couldn't wear these awesome mudkickers. Dad had a different name for them that wasn't all that appropriate for my blogging community. He said it was just the less formal name giving to the type of boots that can get the dirty jobs done sometimes feet have to do. I think he just wants my boots.

Anyways, I'll check in again later. Hunter out.

The Sevenspotted Ladybug

So, of all the bugs in the whole world I could take an interest in, this is the one. I think ladybugs are the coolest bugs in the world. They're friendly, fast, curious, and they can fly like nobody's business! Anybody know where I can get one of these things as a pet?

I guess, first, I should tell you why I love ladybugs so much. Let's start with a little history.

New Jersey, some time in the 1970's, the sevenspotted lady bug is "accidentally" introduced into the environment and quickly becomes a fantastic biological control for aphids. Since then, they have spread naturally across the country, in some places becoming a more efficient predator than the local bugs.

For a small bug, they're relatively big at 7 to 8 mm from head to tail. The body is oval, dome shaped, and there is a white spot on either side of the head. They're spot pattern usually consists of black dots on the orange or red forewings in a 1-4-2 arrangement. The larvae are dark and alligator-like with 3 pair of legs.

These eager hunters seek out aphid infested crops like potatoes, alfalfa, sweet corn, wheat, and pecans. The females can lay more than 1,000 eggs over a three month period and some species even hibernate. It's really quite interesting.

I've had lots of interesting encounters, even had one crawling around in my hand the other day at school until some blue-eyed, ponytailed little girl in boots decided stepping on it would be more fun. But, the coolest experience I've had with a ladybug was on our recent trip to Carmel (I know, I still haven't written about it, but I will, soon, I promise). Even got a picture of it.


So, they we were, just sitting in the Dennis the Menace Park when this ladybug landed on Mama. It was the coolest thing in the world! Dad tried to get a picture of me blowing on it, but he wasn't quite fast enough.

Well, I think that's enough about ladybugs. Now I'm totally going to try and get some more pictures to share. Chao for now, amigos mios.

Hunter

Where is Hunter?

On our recent trip to Carmel (which I have yet to chronicle for you, sorry. I'll do that next.), my Dad made up a song that he woul sing while I would hide. It went kinda something like this:

Where is Hunter?
Where is Hunter?
I don't know.
I don't know.
He's hiding round the corner.
Hiding round the corner.
(And this is where I would suddenly come out of hiding)
I see you.
I see you.

I've been practicing a lot with questions like Where, What, and Who. It's pretty cool the amont of information you can gather if you know how to ask for it. I can now ask: Where is Mama? What's that? Who is it? and a few other variations of those. You wouldn't believe how much talking I'm doing right now. I even impress myself on occassion when I bust out with some crazy long word like Octagon as we're driving down the road and I see a stop sign.

Anyway, just wanted to get a quick note in before I get strapped down for my afternoon feeding. Oh, and I added a new link to bloggers of interest. Leeann Whiffen just wrote a book about her son and his recovery from Autism. Mama has read it and Dad's reading it now.

Check ya later, my peeps. Hunter out.

Saying Bye Bye to Mama is Hard.

I don't know if it's hard for every kid, but I have never been especially good at saying Bye Bye to my Mama. Truth of the matter, though, is she's a busy woman. I'm very proud of her. She never says quit (unless she's runnin a fever of 103, but that doesn't happen very often). And she always seems to be there when I need her most.

So, why is it so hard to say Bye Bye to Mama? Well, it's because I love her so much. And at the moment, the only way I can really show her how much is to make it difficult for her to leave by showing her how much I want her to stay. It works sometimes, but sometimes she has to go, no matter what I do. And when those times come, I'm grateful for the telephone.

Just the other day, I talked with Mama on the phone while she drove to work (it was the only way Dada could get me to stop crying). She sang songs to me for nearly twenty minutes. Isn't that awesome!

I thought so. Love ya, Mama.

Your Hunter.

Kiss me I'm Irish!

So, it seems school is a place where we celebrate everything (although I think that's okay with my Dad. He's always lookin' for an excuse to do something thoughtful for Mama and me.). This month it was St. Patty's Day.

I like green. It's one of my favorite colors. It's in all my favorite books, all my favorite movies, it's in most of my clothes, and it's the color of my favorite train. That's about all I know about St. Patty's Day though. There's a lot of green involved.

And food, apparently. When Mama got to school to pick me up, I was the only kid sitting at a table with a plate full of green colored food that hadn't been touched. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying their green food, but there was something unnatural about it and I just couldn't bring myself to partake of the greeness.

Just for the record. Holiday's with school related parties:

Valentine's Day - check
St. Patrick's Day - check

What's next? I'm not sure. Guess I'll just have to wait and see, although I've noticed a lot of pastel colors in some of my favorite stores (Target, Toys R Us, Barnes and Noble) and a lot of very unedible looking eggs...

Hunter Out. Oh, just in case I don't get back to my fan mail within the next few days, it's because we're off to the Ranch again in Carmel. Fun. Fun!

Check ya later, Hunter bye bye.

My First Valentine's Party

Don't really know quite how I feel about Valentine's Day yet, as a school activity anyway. The tables were laden with cupcakes, thick with frosting, and pizza. And, of course, there was candy. It was all fun and games, but not really my slice of pie, or cupcake, if you know what I mean.

It was fun getting stuff and giving stuff away. I gave out Valentines with stickers or tattoos, one of the two. I wasn't really down with the candy thing. There's so much more to this world than food, people, seriously. What's the preoccupation with putting stuff in your mouth to eat it? Have a tube put in and eat like the rest of us geniuses.

Now, with that said, I have a picture of my Valentine's Day haul. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. Although, I don't know what I'll do with all the candy. I bet Mama and Dada will help out.



Got stuff from my teachers, Miss Marie, Miss Madonna, and Miss Carmen, and from my tablemates, Jeramy, J.J., and Ava, as well as all the other kids in our room.

And of course, we had a Valentine's celebration at home. I especially liked the stuffed weiner dog we got for Mama that sings "Hot Stuff" when you press its paw. There was other stuff, too, like Sees Chocolates, a movie, and a letter from Dada to Mama that I wasn't allowed to read. Mama was totally blown away. Dada is good at that. Gonna have to keep some good notes on how he does it so I can capitalize later with the ladies. Don't know if I'll ever find one as good as my Mama, though.

Gotta, run. Choa for now, my peeps.

Hunter out.

My School

Just thought I'd give you a look at my new school. I started going five days a week on December 29, 2008. It's not much to look at and probably won't get any better since Governor Terminator just cut 3% from the budget for the agencies responsible for helping Kids with Disabilities and is requiring those same agencies to cut an additional $100 million dollars by September or he'll take another 7.1% from the budget, which could mean the school I go to will no longer have the money it needs to help kids like me.


So, anyways, here's my school. It's called The Lynn Center (I don't know why, but I'm sure there's a reason).


It's a pretty neat place, old and it smells funny sometimes, but the teachers and assistants are nice. My classroom is all the way in the back, so you can't really see it in the picture. At lunch time I sit at my table and read books while the other kids eat lunch. Still not a big eater, not really even a smaller, occassional eater either. Eater either? Ha! That sounds kinda funny. Eater either. Eater Either. Eather Either. That is funny!

And, since I'm on the topic of school, here's some of the things they've had me do. It's all relatively simple stuff, but they won't teach me math yet (even though I can add and subtract just fine) and I'm kinda on my own with the reading thing, although my teacher has been helping me there since my Dad told her I'd started kinda experimenting with it on my own. I like books. Really like books.

So, top three projects so far:




They're really big into the glitter thing, glitter and glue. Glue kinda freaks me out. Well, really it's anything sticky and wet that I have to touch with my hands. But I'm adjusting well. Gonna have to cause sticky is like 95% of the stuff we do at school.

Anyway, gotta run for now my peeps. Be excellent to each other and we'll party again soon.

Hunter