Last night the one-year-old spoke his first complete sentence!
We've been a little concerned about his speech. Because both of his older brothers have autism, he is part of a long-term tracking study of children with multiple siblings with autism. At his most recent evaluation, they said that his receptive language was extremely good (85th percentile), but his expressive language was quite poor (10th percentile). They recommended speech therapy.
He's been doing speech therapy for a month or two now. He works with the same speech therapist that worked with the eight-year-old. One of the things the speech therapist recommended was prompting him to repeat words and sounds frequently.
I've been making him tell me that he wants to get down from his high-chair after meals. Normally, he makes the sign for "all done." He's been using this sign for at least six months now (he is twenty months old).
Last night after dinner, he handed me his plate. He tried to stand up, but the tray of the high-chair was too snug for him to stand. I said to him "what do you say?" I was expecting him to sign. To my surprise, he looked at me and said "I'm all done."
I was so excited that after I got him out of his chair, I called my ex-wife to tell her about it.
So now his speech is something that I'm not as worried about.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Weekend Experience
I had all three boys this weekend. It was the first time that the 18-month-old stayed over Saturday night. His mom kept him Friday night. Friday evening the eight-year-old was getting restless. So I took him out and dropped some mail off at the post office. Then we went over to the pet store to look around a little bit. He was totally in love with the aquatic plants. He paid some attention to the fish that was way more interested in the tanks that only had plants. I was kind of perplexed by that at first. Finally, I decided that it was because of the flowing water between the tanks. I think that was what was so interesting to him.
The eight-year-old has had lots of problems with constipation lately. He seems to be over that now. He pooped his pants so many times that we had to go out and buy more underwear Saturday evening.
Sunday morning the eight-year-old woke up at 4 AM. He never went back to sleep. His noise woke the 18-month-old up about 6 AM. The day started a great deal earlier than I would've preferred. The 18-month-old was crabby a lot of the day.
The most distressing thing that happened all weekend was the eight-year-old climbing over the back fence. He's been dragging a chair around the yard for about a week so that he can reach branches to pull leaves off (pulling leaves off plants is his favorite activity right now). I've been worried that he would realize he could get out this way and now he has. I'm going to have to be much more vigilant when he is outside. I've been looking at various GPS locator systems. I may have to invest in one now.
It's fun to watch the 18-month-old expand his vocabulary. This weekend I heard him say "oh no" for the first time. He also said "uh-oh" and "uh-huh". I see him infrequently enough that those things stand out.
The eight-year-old has had lots of problems with constipation lately. He seems to be over that now. He pooped his pants so many times that we had to go out and buy more underwear Saturday evening.
Sunday morning the eight-year-old woke up at 4 AM. He never went back to sleep. His noise woke the 18-month-old up about 6 AM. The day started a great deal earlier than I would've preferred. The 18-month-old was crabby a lot of the day.
The most distressing thing that happened all weekend was the eight-year-old climbing over the back fence. He's been dragging a chair around the yard for about a week so that he can reach branches to pull leaves off (pulling leaves off plants is his favorite activity right now). I've been worried that he would realize he could get out this way and now he has. I'm going to have to be much more vigilant when he is outside. I've been looking at various GPS locator systems. I may have to invest in one now.
It's fun to watch the 18-month-old expand his vocabulary. This weekend I heard him say "oh no" for the first time. He also said "uh-oh" and "uh-huh". I see him infrequently enough that those things stand out.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Many Changes
I haven't posted on my blog for a long time. One of the reasons is that I'm in the middle of getting divorced. When the ex-to-be said she wanted to separate it caught me by surprise, although on reflection it isn't so much of a surprise. I won't go into the details, that's not what I want to focus on.
I moved out about six weeks ago. I have all three boys every other weekend, the 11-year-old by himself on Monday nights, and on Wednesday nights I alternate between the eight-year-old and the 18-month-old. The adjustment has been tough for all of us. For me, this is my first time ever living alone. I've always at least had a roommate. The house is very quiet when it's just me. Sometimes that's nice, sometimes it's not, but it always feels weird. I assume that eventually I'll get used to it.
I had the eight-year-old this evening. He was really upset for a while when he got here, but once I got some food into him he calmed down. We outside and ate dinner. he was sitting in the rocking chair again. He does a better job of staying at the table and eating when he sits in the rocking chair. I may have to move it into the house come winter.
He engaged with me really well after dinner. He was dragging a chair around the yard, smiling and giggling. I took several pictures of him, but I didn't manage to catch the smile. We played "I'm going to get you" for a long time. We ran back and forth across the yard. He was looking back over his shoulder at me. I haven't managed to get that level of engagement for quite a while. I don't think it would happen if the 18-month-old had been here with us. It's hard to focus on the eight-year-old when the 18-month-old is around.
I moved out about six weeks ago. I have all three boys every other weekend, the 11-year-old by himself on Monday nights, and on Wednesday nights I alternate between the eight-year-old and the 18-month-old. The adjustment has been tough for all of us. For me, this is my first time ever living alone. I've always at least had a roommate. The house is very quiet when it's just me. Sometimes that's nice, sometimes it's not, but it always feels weird. I assume that eventually I'll get used to it.
I had the eight-year-old this evening. He was really upset for a while when he got here, but once I got some food into him he calmed down. We outside and ate dinner. he was sitting in the rocking chair again. He does a better job of staying at the table and eating when he sits in the rocking chair. I may have to move it into the house come winter.
He engaged with me really well after dinner. He was dragging a chair around the yard, smiling and giggling. I took several pictures of him, but I didn't manage to catch the smile. We played "I'm going to get you" for a long time. We ran back and forth across the yard. He was looking back over his shoulder at me. I haven't managed to get that level of engagement for quite a while. I don't think it would happen if the 18-month-old had been here with us. It's hard to focus on the eight-year-old when the 18-month-old is around.
Monday, September 15, 2008
A challenge
I was reading a post on the blog Slow Leadership today in which the author challenged people to take 1 principal from 1 self-help book that really resonates with them, make a concerted effort to put it into action every day for 6 months, and journal around it daily.
I've decided to take Habit 3, Put First Things First, from Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Wish me luck.
I've decided to take Habit 3, Put First Things First, from Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Wish me luck.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Book review: Implementing Lean Software Development
I just finished reading Mary and Tom Poppendieck's book Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash. There is a lot to the book. I think it will take me multiple readings to get my head around all of their ideas. I read the book over the course of about a month. I wish that I had been able to read the whole thing in one big chunk, but that wasn't feasible.
The book begins with a chapter on the history of Lean production and its origins at Toyota. I was familiar with the broad outlines of Lean production, but there was a lot of interesting detail I didn't know.
The second chapter describes the adaptation of Lean to software development and lays out the seven principals of Lean development.
The last two chapters are entitled Partners, and Journey. Partners has some really interesting ideas on how to structure incentives so that everyone--individuals, teams, contractors, even partner companies, are all aligned to create synergies and increase value for all parties involved.
The Journey offers ideas on how to begin using Lean methods in your environment. It builds on the "Try This" sections that end each chapter.
There are a lot of really interesting ideas in this book. I've been thinking a lot about how I want to apply them.
One thing that I've realized is that I'm not as clear as I need to be on how my team provides value. And that really matters, because that should be driving decisions about what we do. My team builds automated testing tools that are used internally at a company that makes "Application Delivery Networking" hardware. We also operate the test systems. We used to write automated tests, but now that is mostly done by another group. So what is our primary contribution of value? Is it the capabilities that we deliver to the team that writes the tests? Is it the results that come out of the test systems that we operate? When I have to make trade-offs between those two tasks, which one should be more important?
Another point that Lean has driven home for me is that my team has too much work in progress. We have lots of ideas that we'd like to implement. We also get lots of requests from people. If we meet our goals for the current Sprint (which is far from certain at this point), we will complete about 150 story points worth of work for this release. I already have 145 story points queued up for the next release--and that's with only half of the backlog items estimated. My "high priority" list of work to do after the stuff in the queue is equally large, with equally incomplete estimates.
One of the ideas that I liked and am going to be thinking about is using automation to remove low-skilled, repetitive tasks, especially if they are mistake-prone. There was a list of examples of automation:
When we did our last release, we had trouble getting a build out and getting everyone notified. At the review of our last sprint, people had trouble demoing some of the work because not all the boxes were set up the same way. We need some automation here.
Moving forward, I'm going to start devoting some time out of our weekly team meeting to discussing the Lean principals and figuring out how we can apply them.
That should generate plenty of new blog entries!
The book begins with a chapter on the history of Lean production and its origins at Toyota. I was familiar with the broad outlines of Lean production, but there was a lot of interesting detail I didn't know.
The second chapter describes the adaptation of Lean to software development and lays out the seven principals of Lean development.
- Eliminate Waste
- Build Quality In
- Create Knowledge
- Defer Commitment
- Deliver Fast
- Respect People
- Optimize the Whole
The last two chapters are entitled Partners, and Journey. Partners has some really interesting ideas on how to structure incentives so that everyone--individuals, teams, contractors, even partner companies, are all aligned to create synergies and increase value for all parties involved.
The Journey offers ideas on how to begin using Lean methods in your environment. It builds on the "Try This" sections that end each chapter.
There are a lot of really interesting ideas in this book. I've been thinking a lot about how I want to apply them.
One thing that I've realized is that I'm not as clear as I need to be on how my team provides value. And that really matters, because that should be driving decisions about what we do. My team builds automated testing tools that are used internally at a company that makes "Application Delivery Networking" hardware. We also operate the test systems. We used to write automated tests, but now that is mostly done by another group. So what is our primary contribution of value? Is it the capabilities that we deliver to the team that writes the tests? Is it the results that come out of the test systems that we operate? When I have to make trade-offs between those two tasks, which one should be more important?
Another point that Lean has driven home for me is that my team has too much work in progress. We have lots of ideas that we'd like to implement. We also get lots of requests from people. If we meet our goals for the current Sprint (which is far from certain at this point), we will complete about 150 story points worth of work for this release. I already have 145 story points queued up for the next release--and that's with only half of the backlog items estimated. My "high priority" list of work to do after the stuff in the queue is equally large, with equally incomplete estimates.
One of the ideas that I liked and am going to be thinking about is using automation to remove low-skilled, repetitive tasks, especially if they are mistake-prone. There was a list of examples of automation:
- One Click Build
- Scheduled Builds
- Build Result Notification
- One-Step Release
- Bullet-Proof Installation
- Build Acceptance Test
- Automated Unit Tests
- Scheduled Regression Test Runs
When we did our last release, we had trouble getting a build out and getting everyone notified. At the review of our last sprint, people had trouble demoing some of the work because not all the boxes were set up the same way. We need some automation here.
Moving forward, I'm going to start devoting some time out of our weekly team meeting to discussing the Lean principals and figuring out how we can apply them.
That should generate plenty of new blog entries!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Creativity
Another book that I read recently is Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class
. His thesis is that human creativity is the ultimate economic resource, and people who make their living primarily through exercising their creativity are becoming the dominant class in America and other economically advanced countries. He offers lots of data, charts, and statistics. He profiles various parts of the country, ranking them by creativity, tolerance, and technology.
One of the things that Florida sites as important in building a first-class creative city is creating a vibrant street-life, filled with cafes, clubs, galleries, etc. Seattle, my home for nearly twenty years now, ranks #3 on his "Creativity" index. Recently the mayor of Seattle proposed regulatory changes to make it easier to get a license for a sidewalk cafe. Apparently Seattle does understand some of the things that really matter for building a first class creative economy.
The other piece of the book that particularly caught my eye was when he talked about the differences between companies that truly understand how to get the best from creative workers and old-style companies. Old style companies, he says, put the senior management in big corner offices away from everyone else and put low-ranking workers at or near the central parts of the office. New-style companies put open spaces in the central part of the office, with managers near the open spaces.
This reminded me of some of the companies that I've worked at over the years. As a software engineer I've worked at some companies that were extremely successful, that clearly showed they were able to get the best out of their workers. Those companies (F5 Networks, Microsoft) followed that model of open spaces for people to congregate near the center of the building, and keeping even senior pretty management in offices that were just like everyone else's.
By contrast, one company that I worked at recently had their engineers crammed into tiny spaces while the executives had very large offices that were set off in the corner, away from everyone else. I remember looking at the offices of the CEO and the COO and being offended at the size of their offices, especially when they were cramming 6 programming managers into a conference room because there wasn't any cubical space left.
. His thesis is that human creativity is the ultimate economic resource, and people who make their living primarily through exercising their creativity are becoming the dominant class in America and other economically advanced countries. He offers lots of data, charts, and statistics. He profiles various parts of the country, ranking them by creativity, tolerance, and technology.One of the things that Florida sites as important in building a first-class creative city is creating a vibrant street-life, filled with cafes, clubs, galleries, etc. Seattle, my home for nearly twenty years now, ranks #3 on his "Creativity" index. Recently the mayor of Seattle proposed regulatory changes to make it easier to get a license for a sidewalk cafe. Apparently Seattle does understand some of the things that really matter for building a first class creative economy.
The other piece of the book that particularly caught my eye was when he talked about the differences between companies that truly understand how to get the best from creative workers and old-style companies. Old style companies, he says, put the senior management in big corner offices away from everyone else and put low-ranking workers at or near the central parts of the office. New-style companies put open spaces in the central part of the office, with managers near the open spaces.
This reminded me of some of the companies that I've worked at over the years. As a software engineer I've worked at some companies that were extremely successful, that clearly showed they were able to get the best out of their workers. Those companies (F5 Networks, Microsoft) followed that model of open spaces for people to congregate near the center of the building, and keeping even senior pretty management in offices that were just like everyone else's.
By contrast, one company that I worked at recently had their engineers crammed into tiny spaces while the executives had very large offices that were set off in the corner, away from everyone else. I remember looking at the offices of the CEO and the COO and being offended at the size of their offices, especially when they were cramming 6 programming managers into a conference room because there wasn't any cubical space left.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Crazy
I just finished reading the book Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness
, by Pete Earley. It chronicles emergence of mental illness (bi-polar) in Earley's son and his travails trying to get treatment and stay out of the justice system. Interwoven with his son's story are the stories of four mentally ill people whom Earley connects with through the Miami/Dade County Jail system, which gave him wide-ranging access.
The book was disturbing on many levels, but it got to me on a personal level as I thought about my kids. The recurring motif throughout the book is that it's extremely difficult to get appropriate treatment, especially for those who need it the most. Civil-rights laws have given mentally ill patients an unquestioned right to refuse treatment, regardless of their level of competence. At the same time, the state hospitals that used to be available to provide treatment (even if it wasn't good treatment), have largely been shut down. The community mental-health centers that were supposed to replace them largely failed to appear.
The ten-year-old has shown some signs of both mood and thought disorders. This spring we had to make changes to his medications because he was hearing voices telling him to hurt people. The prospect of him being both autistic and mentally ill, and me not being able to ensure that he takes his medication, is terrifying.
The seven-year-old is almost certainly going to have to live in some sort of assisted-living setting. For him to live independently will require a rate of improvement that verges on miraculous. And we know an awful lot of children like him in his age cohort. There isn't going to be anywhere to put them all once we parents are no longer able to care for them. In order to pay for his long-term care, we'll need to leave him a multi-million dollar inheritance. Right now that seems unlikely.
I hope our country wakes up from it's Republican-induced slumber and remembers that as a society we have obligations to all of our citizens, not just the rich ones. Otherwise I don't know what will happen to our children.
, by Pete Earley. It chronicles emergence of mental illness (bi-polar) in Earley's son and his travails trying to get treatment and stay out of the justice system. Interwoven with his son's story are the stories of four mentally ill people whom Earley connects with through the Miami/Dade County Jail system, which gave him wide-ranging access.The book was disturbing on many levels, but it got to me on a personal level as I thought about my kids. The recurring motif throughout the book is that it's extremely difficult to get appropriate treatment, especially for those who need it the most. Civil-rights laws have given mentally ill patients an unquestioned right to refuse treatment, regardless of their level of competence. At the same time, the state hospitals that used to be available to provide treatment (even if it wasn't good treatment), have largely been shut down. The community mental-health centers that were supposed to replace them largely failed to appear.
The ten-year-old has shown some signs of both mood and thought disorders. This spring we had to make changes to his medications because he was hearing voices telling him to hurt people. The prospect of him being both autistic and mentally ill, and me not being able to ensure that he takes his medication, is terrifying.
The seven-year-old is almost certainly going to have to live in some sort of assisted-living setting. For him to live independently will require a rate of improvement that verges on miraculous. And we know an awful lot of children like him in his age cohort. There isn't going to be anywhere to put them all once we parents are no longer able to care for them. In order to pay for his long-term care, we'll need to leave him a multi-million dollar inheritance. Right now that seems unlikely.
I hope our country wakes up from it's Republican-induced slumber and remembers that as a society we have obligations to all of our citizens, not just the rich ones. Otherwise I don't know what will happen to our children.
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