3/22 - Playground and Brush Buddies

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We came back from Atlanta and enjoyed just hanging out and lounging in the backyard one night. Below is a picture of daddy and Eli in the hammock and Aiden crawling up top.

I just love this picture below of Brad and Eli. Daddy is giving Eli is a kiss and Eli is as happy as can be in his daddy's loving arms. Love it!!

I even got a chance to get in the hammock and get a little snuggle time with my boys.  It was starting to get chilly so it was easy to get them up there with me.

Of course we couldn't get through the week without someone getting sick. Eli probably had the flu. Now that Aiden has had it twice and Eli has had it at least once, we are becoming experts. Eli did get a really high fever and I tried to take him to the ER but we sat there for 2 hours and had not even been triaged yet so I left. We knew what to do but were hoping to get him some tamiflu. I got him home and and to bed and we just let him have the next few days to heal.

Eli had to take a trip to Target with me one day and I tried putting bunny ears on him but he wasn't quite in the mood for that. I still think he looks cute. :)

Eli really missed having his friends and Aiden to play with during the day while he was sick.

After having the thermometer used so much on him, Eli said he was going to see if daddy was sick. Eli really does pick up on the things we say and do. He would tell Brad that he was sick and needed to stay and bed and drink lots of water. 

On Saturday morning, Brad decided to take the boys out so I could get my mid-term grades submitted. He took them to the commissary and exchange and they had fun. Aiden decided he doesn't like the new drink cups because "they make him use too many finger muscles." Brad and I started laughing and I said Mrs. Rusty (his OT therapist) would be so excited to hear that. We love these cups because they truly do not leak at all AND there are no dumb valves to clean or anything.

Saturday afternoon we played around the house but it was so nice out that the little boys and I decided to go to the playground at the elementary school down the street from us. We walked over there and played for a little over an hour. Here is Aiden on the top of the climbing dome thing.

Eli enjoyed riding on the 4-way teeter totter.

Here they are both climbing the dinosaur rock wall. Aiden (on he right) is doing the hard side and made it all the way up. Eli (on the left) had just decided he didn't want to do it by himself and started climbing down.

Eli and I had a battle of the wills the other morning. To make a long story short, he didn't get his way. It was a really tough morning for both of us. He has to learn that there are consequences to his decisions and crying will not reward him for the things that he wants. We just pulled in to daycare when I took this picture. He has no shirt on ... or socks ... or shoes. It was pretty chilly out too. Needless to day, once he got to his classroom he calmed down and put his shirt on and socks. He then had to eat breakfast at daycare for the first time because he chose not to eat at home. He settled down and started using his words and his world became much better. I must say, it would have been so much easier to give in and just let him get what he wanted (eat breakfast in his pajamas) but thought would have taught him that when he cries, he gets what he wants. No Buena.

Aiden had therapy on Tuesday. He got to practice hitting a ball while on a scooter board, catching and throwing bean bags while on a trampoline, and climbing up a rope into the spandex swing and then having to put on his socks once he was in the swing. The person that sees Mrs. Rusty after Aiden was going to do feeding therapy so Aiden asked, "when do I do feeding therapy again?" I said we could do it anytime and asked if next week was ok. He said, "no, I like playing better than eating." Haha.

There is this bridge on our way to therapy that Aiden has always wanted to stop at and walk on (it's a pedestrian walkway) and we stopped after therapy on Tuesday. He was so excited and had a blast just walking around. I felt like one of the semi-trucks was going to whack into the bridge but Aiden was not nervous at all. 

He said he wanted to bring Eli back with us and go on the bridge again. what a sweet heart this little boy has.

After therapy we came home for rest time. After an hour of no sleeping for Aiden, I let him up and he helped me paint a paper towel roll. I'm not sure what exactly we are going to do with it but it worked out perfected to paint on the paper towel holder in the cabinet.

So I apologize if the post below is gross. I've even made the picture smaller so it's not too gross. Below is a series of pictures from Aiden's arm. You can actually see it in the picture above (it's his right forearm). We took him to the dr on Monday and they are not sure if it's a brown recluse spider bite or this weird childhood rash/skin thing. It started off as a tiny little mark like he was bitten by a mosquito or something and then started growing. I meant to take a picture of it today because even though it has grown in size (it's about a quarter-size now versus starting off about a dime-size), it is actually looking better.

Yesterday the boys got a special treat - it was Brush Buddies day at daycare. It happens once a month and costs $12-15. They did it a few months ago for Christmas but they have been doing Big Green Bus rather than painting. They both asked to paint this month so Brad and I let them. Eli was in the 2nd group of kids. This poor child isn't sure if he's a righty or lefty but primarily used his left hand to paint on this day. He holds the brush all funny but he gets the job done. He was having a blast. He did a great job of following instructions. 

Aiden went in the third group. I wasn't planning on staying at daycare this long but both boys wanted me to see them paint and take some pictures. Aiden did a very good job as well. He used the correct grip only about 50% of the time but managed to do a pretty good job of staying within the boundaries of the cross. I was asked to take Aiden's group downstairs to the nap room after they were done. I didn't realize how long it would take all of them to go potty and wash their hands. Actually, going potty was pretty fast but for some reason, they only have one stool for the kids to use in the bathroom to wash their hands to when you have multiple potties but only one stool, there is going to be a long wait to wash hands or some nasty kids with dirty hands. I'm not sure why they don't bring in another stool because I think that would significantly speed things up. Either way, they all went potty and made it down to the nap room. 

The boys had fun this week at daycare. Next week will be a short week because they only go to daycare on Monday and Tuesday and then we head to TN to go to Chattanooga. Fun times.