3/2 - Big Construction Truck Day

On Feb. 16, we took the boys to the McWane Science Center for Big Construction Truck Day. Aiden tried to stop us by vomiting for a good portion of the night before but we got up and he said he felt fine. Unfortunately, I was also up all night with him and slept with him in the guest room. I was exhausted to Brad drove to Birmingham. Lots of the streets were blocked off so Brad dropped us off and then searched for parking. It was cold out ... and windy. We didn't necessarily plan for that so we were cold. We waited in line for a long time to see the really big, giant crane. Aiden did a great job waiting. Thankfully, I packed the iPad so Eli was watching something on that. Brad parked the van, walked to us, found us, and then even went back to the van for Aiden's jacket and he still didn't miss a thing. Right after he got back with Aiden's jacket though it was our turn. We went up the steps and Aiden hopped right in the seat. 

He thought it was pretty cool. He even got to press/push all the levers and stuff.

Eli just said he was cold and didn't want to sit in the drivers seat. Well, I totally acted like a mom who just spent 40 min waiting in line so I told Eli I was at least getting a picture of him by the crane. As you can see below, I did just that! Yep. He was totally having a blast. 

The boys actually got excited after seeing the huge crane because compared to the line we waited in for that, everything else had teeny lines! We went to another 3-4 machines and then Eli clearly made it known that he was done and freezing.

I did get one cute picture of Eli by one of the diggers. I tried to get him to sit in the scoop part but he didn't want anything to do with that.

Aiden was having a blast so we let him stay out there with daddy while I took Eli inside. I had on just a light long-sleeve jacket so I was pretty freezing as well.

Eli just wanted to be wheeled inside and watch Cars on the iPad. For a kid as tough and strong as he is, he sure does not like the cold. He didn't like it in Iowa (even when dressed appropriately) and he still doesn't like it. I did managed to drop the iPad and crack the screen on the very bottom. I just ordered all the parts to replace it and will be doing it myself in the next day or two. I'll let you know how that goes.

We went inside and they both wanted to go right to the kids play area and run around. We let them do that and they both played at the sand table for a while. Aiden was actually there a long time which is awesome. A few months ago he would have asked why they have a table with sand on it and a bunch of cups and then asked why people would voluntarily put their hands in it to play. We are making progress!!! The picture below is Aiden coming down the slide. Eli changed his mind about the slide and found his way back down the steps. It's nice that they are getting comfortable with this play structure because it wore me out the first couple times bringing them here and trying to keep track of them and making sure one of them was not "lost" somewhere and crying. 

We went upstairs to the new exhibit. I did not think the boys would care much for this one. It's called Grossology and if they were a couple years older, I think they would enjoy it. There were still some fun things for them to do but we were in and out of the exhibit in an hour and with the Dora/Diego and Clifford exhibits they could stay there for a few hours.  Below is Brad holding Eli playing a game where we were racing ants.

Below is Aiden trying to see the screen and race against Eli/daddy. It was a neat interaction game.

After some lunch in our belles, we decided to go to a different floor and found they had moved the Clifford exhibit. I thought it was gone but it was actually the last day. Bonus for us!!!
Brad and I tagged team and kept watch over one of the boys since they went their separate ways. Here is Eli playing music.

Eli then found his way over to the dog bone conveyer belt and had fun moving the wheel and dropping off bones in the dog dish. He even got to play on the clifford tail slide without getting run over like the last time we were at the science center.

Eventually he found his way to the mail. Aiden was obsessed with the mail and pretty much stayed there. He was actually delivering mail to the appropriate houses and mailbox throughout area. Eli just likes picking up mail and then putting it in a box.

It was about time for us to leave. I was beyond exhausted. It has been weeks since I have not taken a nap in the morning. I did take a little snooze on the ride in but I was also awake all night with Aiden so I was barely staying awake. We told the boys we could go outside and look at the construction trucks for a little bit longer. It was still cold. In fact, it was actually colder at 2:30pm than it was at 10:30am. The only good thing was that the majority of the people were gone (the exhibit of trucks ended at 4pm). There was a ladder fire truck there which wasn't there in the morning so Aiden really wanted to go in it.  He even got to pick the hose up (which is really heavy) and act like he was squirting water. As you can see, Eli wasn't all that impressed. He stood up there to let me take his picture but he got off right away.

Aiden was so proud of himself for lifting the hose and then said he wanted Papa to see his picture. We let Aiden wonder around and look at a few more trucks but Eli was just worn out.

He refused to walk anywhere and was just in a generally rotten mood. In his defense, he did great though because he LOVES his naps and he obviously didn't get one this day. I took Eli back inside and we waited (and watched the iPad) until Aiden and daddy were done looking at machines.

We got back to the van, I passed out afternoon snack and put on the requested DVD. About 10 minutes into our trip, I look back and see Eli completely passed out. He was so tired. Overall, they had lots of fun at the Science Museum for Big Construction Trucks day.

Below is a picture that I took at Cubbies. Aiden really enjoys Cubbies. It's been challenging being the director and with my health situation, I usually don't have the energy I would like to put towards it but I have great help. Aiden is riding on the back of Jessica, one of the helpers in the class. She is pretty young but does such a great job with the kids and helping us. Aiden loves her!!!

I was so exhausted this week and I could barely stay awake for Aiden's therapy session. In fact, Mrs. Rusty gave me a free pass this day. She is so awesome. She actually let me in dark room across the hall from her office, gave me a few jackets, turned on the heat, and let me sleep for 40 minutes!! It was most awesome and needed. She knows how much I like to document Aiden's progress and what he does so she even took a picture for me (see below). They were wearing masks and feeling their way around an obstacle course that Aiden built.

I try and let Aiden miss/skip nap time 2 days a week at daycare. He really .... hates it. He is allowed to play with his wipe off books, his pet stretchy lizard, or a fidget toy but in his mind - he isn't allowed to play with any of it. He is such a rule follower which I can appreciate it but it pains me to see him so miserable. He is bored out of his mind for 2 hr and 15 min, laying on a cot with his shoes on, not allowed to really even move around or turn over. The teachers tell them to "be still, no playing, no talking, etc." and he really embraces that even though he has permission to look at his book or hold his fidget toy. He is so scared of getting in trouble and also not getting a ticket (a reward system used in his class for good behavior) because he is not sleeping that he will endure a 2+hr time period of lights out, non movement. Amazing. While it sounds quite horrible to me, I will say that he does nap a few days a week so he is not laying there everyday like this but it still breaks my heart. So, I picked Aiden up around 12:30pm one day and then gave him a few options of things to do. He chose the library so we went there and picked out books. He played with this Melissa and Doug puzzle and then we talked for a long time about a poster in the library that has all the Presidents on it.

We picked out some fun books, read a few books, and then headed back to daycare at 2:00pm so I could get some work done in the afternoon. I'm staying up with my CSM classes so far but learned a hard lesson with an assignment that had too many parts to grade. OK. The next post will be about tents!!

10/10 - Daycare picnic & Awana

On Saturday, the boys daycare had a family picnic. It was from 12-2 which makes no since to me seeing how they nap at daycare everyday from 12-2. Anyway, we went for part of it and got there right at 12. The boys were excited to see the jump houses. We let them jump for a bit and then persuaded them to have some lunch.

They ended up eating a few bites and then going and playing and then coming back for more lunch. Below you can see Aiden throwing a ball at a couple of plastic cans and he knocked some down. He was having a blast.

Eli follows Aiden to most places so he wanted to try the game too. He was too funny. He didn't have enough skill yet to actually hit the cans from the far away so we had to eventually move him closer to the table.

He thought it was awesome when he actually hit some and they fell.

After success at the cans, Eli headed back to eat some of his hotdog. Of course Aiden wanted nothing to do with a hotdog so he had his yogurt.

Aiden is loving bounce houses now and usually asks to go in it right away. Eli is still learning to like the bounce house so he hesitates a little more. They both finally got in there and enjoy bouncing and wrestling. Eli is in the blue shirt with sleeves on the left and Aiden is towards the back with a white shirt that has a helicopter on it.

You can see in this next bounce house picture that Aiden was taking down Eli. I should include another picture showing Eli taking down Aiden but I'm saving space. These two go at it in the bounce house and have fun. I was so scared they were going to hurt someone else though so I eventually had to slow them down.

There was another inflatable there that had a ladder-type thing on it and they had to climb up it and then slide down. Here come Eli and Aiden down the slide. Eli loves to slide laying down and it's rare that he actually sits up to go down an inflatable slide. 

I was able to get a picture of Aiden with his teacher, Ms. Jennifer. She has an awesome southern accent that cracks me up. She does really well with Aiden and he likes her and is learning a lot.

The boys even got to go fishing. This game cracked me up. They put a fishing pole over the curtain and then someone puts a treat on the end of the line and then pulls at it (like a tug from catching a fish). Both boys enjoyed it and thankfully the teacher attaching the prizes gave the boys the same thing so there was no fighting later at home.

The other game they had there was a throwing the bean bag in the hole board. Here is Aiden throwing his bean bags. Eli did it too but he had to scoot a little close to get them in the holes.

Even though it's October, it was quite warm and sunny out on Saturday. This picture below is a special group of ladies!!! They are my Journey Girls (Journey is the name of the daycare/church) that I train a few times a week. From left to right is Susan (she's an unleashed monster), April (the director), Me, Erica (Eli's former teacher), and Shenika (Eli's new teacher). It all started with Erica and it's been so fun to train these ladies and see health-related improvements in them. Erica and Shenika think they are going to stop after the holidays but they don't realize I won't allow that :)  They are all doing such a great job.

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been updating Aiden's Therapy Book to include his occupational therapy exercises. While I was taking pictures of his stuff the other day, he insisted on being in the picture. He cracks me up. He likes tools and such so when Rusty showed us this exercise, I knew I would have to get some stuff so we could do it at home. He has to take the little nuts and gather them in his hand, one by one. Then he has to put a little nut inside a big nut one at a time (using only his left hand). This makes him have to manipulate all the muscles in his hand to move the nuts around so they won't fall and is great therapy. After I bought the gigantic nuts (we literally bought the biggest size they had), I told Rusty we had gotten some nuts for us to do therapy at home. She asked if I got the bolts too. I said, "no, we didn't use bolts the other day." She then informed me that putting the nut on the bolt is good therapy as well. I went back to the store and took my big nut with me but to make a long story short, we ended up just getting a package of nuts & bolts so he can do that too.

We check on the boys every night before we head to bed and I had to take a picture of Aiden. He was so cute because he was curled up on his pillow and had his head on his blanket. Totally opposite of how he should be. 

Here are a few pictures from Cubbies that I took on Sunday night. This is such a neat group of kids and I've enjoyed teaching them so far. The woman in the white sweater is Kristy, one of the leaders. Aiden is sitting at the table (it looks like she is pointing to Aiden) playing with play-doh.

I took this during 'Coming In Time' after we handed out all the vests. I want to get a group picture and think I'll try that this week. I imagine it will be difficult to get a group picture of this class but I'm going to try. 

Here is Aiden and two other Cubbies (DaMond & Eric) showing Cubbie Bear and Luv E Lamb the bugles they made. Another one of the leaders built that stage this year for our puppet shows and it's been great. Another friend had a good idea when I saw that she puts plastic table clothes over the toys and things that they kids are not supposed to play with. That works awesome for this class especially since there are a handful of kids that have an extremely hard time staying in their seat and not playing with things.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the year offers for Cubbies. I'll post more about Aiden's therapy and some medical stuff I've been dealing with in the next day or so.

6/16 - A short visit to Nana's

Aiden started eating therapy a couple weeks ago and it's been going okay. He's feeding dinosaurs (and touching foods he won't normally touch) and realizing that touching foods and playing with them doesn't mean he has to eat them. Brad and I were questioning if it was working at all and then we found out he at 3 servings and beanie weenie at daycare the other day!  He's never eaten that for us before.

We had a quick trip to St. Pete for a funeral last weekend. I took a couple of pictures when we were out on our walk with Bronco which is what I'm showing you. God blessed us on this morning walk and we got to see crabs, string rays, fish, dolphins, and a egret. It was pretty cool.

The boys were staring at an egret eating a bird.

Here is a cute picture we took at the end of our walk. Aiden didn't real feel like smiling and looking at the camera.

The boys enjoyed playing with random things like this box that was protection for something else that was shipped. Go figure.

Here is Aiden flipping through Nana's bible; he loves her bible.

We came home on Saturday night and went to church on Sunday so we could say bye to Ms. Stephanie.

That night was Awana awards. Aiden was not so happy because things did not happen like they usually do. He had to sit in the main auditorium but not with us which created problems in his world. He is sitting by his friends Maddie and Lily but still isn't happy.

They called his name for completing his book for the year but still wasn't happy. I even walked him back to his classroom and sat by him for a few minutes before they handed out the awards they won. He still wasn't happy.

He wouldn't even walk up to the teacher, Mrs. Vicki, to get his award so she had to bring it to him. When she did that he covered his face with his hands. Poor guy. His friend Thomas even tried to come over and help make him happy but that didn't work either.

The whole class was singing and dancing .... except Aiden. He just stood up and pouted. Needless to say, he didn't have a great night.

Eli wasn't a huge fan of the schedule change but he still did alright. All the kids got to sit up on the stage for a bit and Eli liked that. It was very hard for him to wait his turn to get onto the stage though.

On Monday, I took the boys to the mall in the morning for a playmate. They had fun and completely wore themselves out by wrestling with each other. They were pretty gentle so I didn't mind.  Talk about a good workout. They were both sweating pretty hard.

I decided a few days ago that I would have a garage sale this saturday. Not ideal planning but next week is out because I have a sunday school function on saturday morning and we won't be here the next saturday because we'll be moved to Alabama. I read hanging stuff up helps at a garage sale so I am going to hang up all the clothes I have with these pipes laying across a ladder. We'll see if it works.

After talking with Stephanie who recently did a garage sale, I'm trying to find something to do with the boys (somewhere to send them) so that they won't be around when I'm selling their toys and I can have an extra pair of hands and eyes to help me out (that winner would be Brad if I can find someone else to watch them).