On the Spectrum #59: Use the fork, Luke!

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And yes, he eats Hot Dogs and Pizza with a fork.  Spaghetti... not so much.

And I just realized that I'll have to update Michael's wardrobe in it, if I plan to keep recycling this picture of him! LOL.

On the Spectrum #58: Physical Graffiti, disc 2

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If anyone esle has problems with the writing on the walls, I highly recommend a white-board.  There are other products out there (slate-paint, for example?) but this is a lot easier to do and a bit less dratic.  Of course... the first few times, before they really understand that you have to stay ON THE BOARD, you might get something like this...


But what the hay?  Dry-erase marker comes off a lot easier than crayon anyway! :)

And yes, this is more of Michael's actual work; from a while ago, and on paper though, not on the wall! LOL. BTW I'll need to show it in more detail some time, but the above picture is a surprisingly accurate and detailed map of our neighborhood.  I was rather a bit surprised when he me told what everything was.

On the Spectrum #57: Physical Graffiti

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Today we participated in the Southeast Michigan Autism walk for Autism Speaks.  We had a good time, but it was very cold, very windy.

We did have a little bit of a "drawing on the walls" problem a while back.  Some of the walls that were merely cleaned and not repainted still bear some witness to that. LOL

The drawing shown here is a scaled down copy of one of Michael's.  It's the Viginia Tech Hokie Bird, and I used it once before, waaaaaay back in #12.  Here what the original looks like:

This was from about a year ago, just before #12 was originally put up.

Funny thing... When I got done drawing the scene, but before lettering it, I called Micahel over over and asked him to look at it.  I pointed to him and said, "Who's this?" And he said it was, "Michael." And then to 'Dad' and he's said, "That's Daddy."  Then I pointed to the Hokie Bird and said, "And what heppened here?" And he got this HUGE grin, started laughing hysterically and said, "He was drawing on the walls!"  He really got a kick out of it, probably becasue he knows now that you're not supposed to do that! :)

A little more on 'drawing of the walls' next time too... :)

On the Spectrum #56 - Decisions, decision...

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This is really more of a social story intended for Michael, who's probably OTS's biggest fan.

Last week he broke his arm for the second time in about six months.  He fell off the monkey bars at school, came down and broke his left radius right below the elbow.

In May, he broke his right radius, also just below the elbow.  In that case we don't really know what happened.  DW was in the next room, heard a crash, and found him crying and cradling his arm.  We THINK what happened was that he was using this huge Fire Truck they have (pictured above) as a step-stool and, having wheels, it shot out from under him.  The crash was more likely the Truck crashing into the wall on the other side of the room (which is why we didn't notice it right away) than him hitting the floor, but we don't really know.  So he's in a cast...  Again.  So this one's really for him, a sort "BE CAREFUL" type of pseudo-social story.  ("Make good choices" is the particular maxim that they use at school and at speech and he does sometime say it to himself when he's working through a plan or thinking about a decision.)

Oh yeah... I mentioned that he's probably the strip's biggest fan.  He absolutely realizes that it's all (or at least mostly) about him, and he dig's that.  He actually quote's it sometimes - last night he was stading in front of the TV (so we couldn't see) laughing and saying, "I want the no I can't see!" Which isn't even how he talks anymore, but he remembers it from the comic.  (It was #40, if you're curious.)  But I mention this because by now he's seen it so many times, and seen me drawing it, that he's started doing some stories of his own!  He drew the follwing piece about a week or two ago.  It's content is a bit ironic considering what would happen to him shortly thereafter.  Here you go:

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Obviously I added the text afterwards, but it's all per his own description of what's going on. I thought it was pretty cool, that he could make up the story on his own and all. 

On last thing... Michael's wardrobe update.  You see... it's really been a while since Michael's dressed the way I've been drawing him.  The short-sleeve polo shirt buttoned all the way up was his thing up until sometime last school year.  Now ALL he wants to wear is black track pants (usually with white stripes) and two-tone-tees; You know: the kind that look like you've got a red tee on over a black long-sleeved shirt?  Anyway, I figured it was time to update him, so I'm probably going to start drawing him like this from now on.  We'll see.