5/28 - Trip & Camping to TN

Here is a short recap of our weekend and then I'll be bouncing all over the place to address each collage. We drove to TN on Thursday afternoon/evening and got in at 8:00pm. We all slept inside the first night. We woke up Friday morning and it was pretty darn chilly and I didn't bring warm clothes for us so we hit the thrift stores and bought some stuff. The second night, we had a camp fire and then slept in tents (even Papa). It got freezing that night. It was a record 40 degrees that night and the previous record had been around since 1979. Nice timing we had. We all did great and made it through the entire night although we were freezing. Eli slept with me in the smaller tent and Aiden slept with Brad in the larger tent. Papa sawed logs slept just a few feet away in his tent. The sun (and freezing air) woke us up by 6am on Saturday morning. On Saturday night, we were all desperate for some good sleep and we all slept inside. On Sunday night, both boys said they wanted to camp so I was in the little tent with Eli again and Brad was in the big tent with Aiden.

On Friday morning it was pretty cold but they boys wanted to explore some outside. Eli finally found a nice comfy seat in papa's swing and got warmed up with a blanket. In the afternoon, the sun comes into the backyard and Eli wasn't such a fan of that. He really wanted to sit in the swing but didn't like the sun. He sat in the tent that I put up during his naptime and then finally went over to the swing. He said it was too sunny and went back in the tent (along with his sleeping bag and blankets) and waited there until Brad and I built a contraption so the sun wouldn't hit directly on the swing. Once that happened, Eli was happy to join us outside. 

I've given each boy a collage to summarize their Memorial Weekend. Aiden helped papa plant flowers and some vegetables on the first day there. Papa told him he could come water his flowers anytime he wanted and he was sure to relay that message to me. He then took his tools and played in a pile of dirt over the new septic tank my dad has. He was super excited to use the walkie talkies. We made a rule that if someone was out on the 4-wheeler that we needed to use the walkie talkies. Aiden was so very excited to have a camp fire. He tried to patiently await to make smores and actually collected about half the sticks, if not more, that we needed for the camp fire. I was surprised that he ate a couple of smores while we were there. Smores are messy and there is no way around that. That is huge progress for him. He had lots of fun dancing at the festival that we went to in downtown on Sunday evening.

Eli had a great time as well. Sometimes it's hard to get him outside but once he's outside, he's good to go. Eli had fun using his 'map' and telling us where to go exploring on Papa's property. He always enjoys dancing and there are a couple of pictures of him dancing away at the campfire and also at the festival. He has so much personality for such a little guy.

The campfire was something both of the boys were really excited about. Aiden helped collect sticks and they eagerly brought the chairs and crates to the campfire area. I would never have guessed that the smoke a fire makes would be so exciting for these boys. They were running around and trying to run under the smoke and around the smoke and all kinds of crazy games. They were having a great time running around and dancing to the 'camp fire songs' station that I played on my phone from Pandora. Eli didn't like smores but ate a few bites of graham cracker. Aiden loved them and once he got over having to get a little sticky from the marshmallow, he was enjoying himself. Aiden and I even played a few games of Hiss while hanging out by the camp fire.

So here are just some random collages. Dale, my Dad's friend from KY, came by to say hi. He brought his remote control helicopters that he's been working on. Brad was excited to help him look at them and Aiden wanted to play with them so bad. We had to explain those were expensive big boy toys. After camping that first night in the tents, Aiden could barely breathe the next day (he is allergic to almost a dozen trees and grasses) so we gave him some benedryl. That normally doesn't phase him but I think with 2 days of no naps, a late night the night before, restless sleep from sneezing, and getting up early, he totally passed out for over an hr on the couch in the living room. We stopped at the COOLEST McDonalds on the way to my dad's farm for dinner. It was huge treehouse structure built mainly for little guys (ages 2-5). The boys run in and start playing right away. I then realize there is a sign that says "closed for cleaning from 6-9pm) and told Brad, I'm so glad it's only 5:05pm. I then notice tons of very old people sitting in the kids area and people setting up microphones. It turns out we are in the easter time zone and it's 6:05pm. Totally stinks and the kids were so disappointed. What is really frustrating is that we were only in the eastern time zone for about 15 min that day while traveling (my dad's farm is in the central time zone). To get the boys out and stretch their legs, we walked over the the goodwill that was near the McDonalds. The boys enjoyed playing with random toys and Brad got a really good pictures of Aiden rocking out with his guitar. In the bottom left picture, you can see my dad and the boys standing at the window. They were watching a turkey right outside my dad's place.

We went to a festival on Sunday night in downtown. They had live music (bluegrass) and the boys really enjoyed it. They were dancing up a storm and then playing tag for a bit. I had to include the picture below of the toothbrushes. These are the toothbrushes of just Aiden and Eli. Seriously. They weren't brushing their teeth long enough a few months ago so I bought the kind that had light-up timers on them. For some reason, the boys refuse to actually use them to brush their teeth; they just use them for the timer. The print to the right of the toothbrushes is a deer footprint that I thought was neat. That was on my dad's property. The two print under the toothbrushes are ... can you guess?  Bear prints. We went hiking through an area park on Sunday afternoon and we saw bear tracks a couple of times which made me slightly nervous. Once we came upon a spot that had some baby tracks, I was very nervous. Nothing is going to stop a momma bear from protecting her baby bear if she even thinks the baby bear is in danger. I educated the boys on what to do if they saw a bear which made me feel slightly better. Aiden has been obsessed with taking pictures and being in pictures lately. It's too funny. In the picture to the right of the bear tracks, he says, "take my picture mommy" and then poses for me. He's actually even taken a few pictures too and they have turned out pretty well.

While we were in TN, Aiden developed a rash. It got pretty bad but thankfully with lots of benedryl, it has subsided. We have no idea what caused it but thankfully it's getting much better. The bottom picture of Pouncer cracks me up. He got in to our bag while I was packing and was pleading to come with us. The final picture is an egg carton game I did for the boys. Each boy had their own egg carton and colors were painted in each spot. Their goal was to find a matching color of something outside to put in each space. Eli didn't really care but Aiden did a great job with it. It was a fun way to give them something to do and more of a purpose while exploring.

One last thing. Aiden was so cute while hiking on Sunday afternoon. Papa taught him how to follow markers in the woods by looking for tagged trees and staying with the same color. Aiden kept wanting to lead and saying he was an expert hiker.

Here are two beautiful pictures we took on our hiking excursion.

And this picture of the boys cracks me up. Aiden just thinks it is ridiculous to stop and take pictures. He doesn't not enjoy it at all. He just wanted to keep on hiking. Eli enjoyed the break but Aiden was so bored (we stopped for about 5 min) and kept saying, "come on. What is taking so long? Let's go."

I had to include these handful of pictures from Eli because he's just too cute and his personality really stands out. What a carefree and loving little boy.

Aiden doesn't like to take pictures that much because he can't be bothered with actually stopping something so I have to get my fix of pictures with Eli.

5/28 - Before our trip to TN

So I'm backed up on the blog. Here are a few random things before we left for our TN trip. Here is Aiden at therapy doing one of the things he dislikes most - using a sponge and getting partially wet. Mrs. Rusty let him do an exercise with another child and that was helpful because I think it's good for him to see a normal reaction to water and someone getting wet. He had fun doing it but it's so funny to see this other 3-4 yr old just not even give a thought about water and then watch Aiden who then balks at all things water. He is making some progress though.

We found these fun dinosaur hats at the Dollar Store the other week and the boys both got one. They like to fight with them on and see who can knock the others' dinosaur off the others head. That doesn't always go over to well.

Speaking of dinosaurs, here are the goodie bags I've been working on. So they aren't your traditional bags. I blew up balloons and then paper mached the majority of the balloon leaving just enough room to put in the goodies. I let it dry and then popped the balloon.

I then stuffed the goodies in (some eggs have slightly different contents than others) and then paper mached over the small hole.

Pouncer was trying to help me make sure they all had the things they were supposed to have inside before I finished sealing them up. After they dried, we spray painted all of them brown to look like dinosaur eggs. It was a fun project. Now, we just need people to come to Aiden's party.









Last Sunday was our church family picnic. It was at the YMCA right by our house and we had a great time. The boys got to swim (the water was COLD) and enjoy the outdoors for a while. Aiden even got to swim with his friend Jessica for a bit.

After we swam for a bit and ate some food, it was time to go indoors. We got to listen and watch the Children's Choir practice for their summer tour coming up. Jessica sings in it and Aiden really enjoyed watching her and the rest of the kids. Aiden even started clapping at one point and was having a great time. Eli doesn't quite have the focus that Aiden does but he LOVE music. He started to get quite silly from sitting and watching so long. 

Eli eventually started to get pretty goofy. Towards the end of the performance, there was a drama so only a handful of kids were up performing. Thankfully there was a girl that was sitting down in the back and Eli was making crazy faces and she started making crazy faces back at him. It kept him entertained and quiet for a while and then finally, the boy next next to her made a few faces too. Aiden decided to follow in Eli's steps and start to go a little crazy in his chair.

On Monday or Tuesday afternoon, the boys offered to help Brad wash our vehicles. They did a pretty good job and Brad was pretty patient with them in coaching them how to do it. They took turns with the hose and with the soaper brush. 

5/19 - Aiden's Preschool Graduation

Aiden had his preschool graduation on Tuesday night. That still cracks me up. There was no graduation from preschool or even elementary school when I was little. You got a pat on the back (maybe) and life went on. His school worked really hard on having the kids sing a couple songs and have hand motions. The preschool (Journey) did a great job with making it such a special event for these kids.

We got there early to make sure we got a good seat. It didn't start until 7:00pm so we pretty much let Eli run around the sanctuary from 6:20-7:00pm. He must have run about a mile if you add up all the laps he did. He played on the iPad during most of the service but that was fine because at least he was still and quite. He did a great job. 

They brought all the kids up on the stage and had them sing a few songs. I was wondering why Aiden was asking me such random questions through the week. He was making a heart with his hands and asking me where his heart was at on his body. I saw him play the air guitar a few times when we were playing music and wondered where he saw that at. He would also practice clapping and then spinning his hands around and telling me "that's how it's done." He had a blast singing the songs. Mrs. Jennifer, his teacher, sat in the front row and did all the hand signals with them in case they forgot. Aiden did not forget a thing. Not only that, he was so intensely looking at her to make sure he was on cue with the signals and the music. I've never seen him that focused before. He only did minimal nervous activities (wiping of the ears and eyes) compared to a few days at church when he performed with the children's choir. 

They took the kids out of the sanctuary and helped them all get their caps and gowns on and then they all came in. I didn't get any good pictures with my camera of Aiden walking down the isle. I'm hopefully to pull one off the video that Brad took and get a still shot though. Anyway, he walked out with his classmates and they all sat down. He was the third or fourth one to go up in his class. They called his name and said he was honored with the award of "Most Likely to be a Pilot" and put up a picture of him in his flight suit. It was too cute. Mrs. Jennifer gave him his diploma and then he walked over to his spot. He waited while everyone else got their diplomas. At the very end, the teachers told them they could throw their hats (all the hats had names in them) but Aiden was the only one that I saw out of about 22 kids that did not throw his hat. You can see in the second row of pictures, the picture to the right, only has his hat on. It was too funny. Mrs. Jennifer even tried to tell him it was okay. I asked him later why he didn't throw his hat and he said he thought he might hurt someone by doing that. Such a sweet heart. We tried to get a family picture but it was late and Aiden didn't have any nap that day. I asked Eli if he could tell Aiden "congratulations" and give him a huge. You can see the outcome of that in the picture to the right of the text in the middle. Aiden was so upset and annoyed that Eli gave him a hug.

After the ceremony was over and I quickly realized there would be no cute family pictures of our little preschool graduate, they had some cake and punch set out. We all had a small piece of cake. As you can see in the bottom row, Aiden really liked the cake. I was slightly mortified when I looked up and saw Aiden his plate but then also thought it was slightly funny. He LOVED the punch. Eli, of course, loved the cake. He actually didn't like the punch though. Eli doesn't actually care for the taste of lemonade, tea, soda, etc. It's good but it's so funny considering how much he likes different kinds of food. Eli is a water kind of kid (or juice if it's offered to him). Overall, we are very happy for Aiden.

I've been in contact with the placement specialist for the school he will be attending in Jacksonville to figure out what to do with him. Our very smart, yet quirky and pretty fearful & safe kid, will need to be put in the right environment (that's what his therapists and various teachers have told us) in order for him to thrive. I just have to have faith that God will make that all happen. It's so hard when we move all the time and have to re-start testing/evaluation processes all the time. Aiden's class was spending quite a bit of time preparing for the graduation and did not do seat work for a few days. That included a few days leading up to the event and few days afterwards. He was complaining to me that he didn't "get" to do seat work and he was sad about that and wanted to do some at home. He says, "I don't understand why we don't do seat work anymore." I try to explain to him that his class has been busy getting ready for graduation but he doesn't want to accept that as an excuse. The kid just loves to learn. He was doing some serious math this morning as I was making a treat: cinnamon rolls. He looks at the package and sees that there are 8 and then says, "hey mom, there is enough for all our family to have two. "Two and two and two and two make 8" as he points around to each of us and continues to add two fingers counting on his hands as he points at us. He then starts doing math during lunch today and says "did you know that 2 and 3 make 5?" Brad says, "yes I did. Great job. Who taught you that?" Aiden responds with, "my mouth." We were a bit confused and upon a few more questions to Aiden, he said his mouth is what tells the answer out loud but his head it what counts. What a fun kid.