6/10 - Gathering of Eagles

Here are some pictures from the annual Gathering of Eagles which happens at the Air Command and Staff College that Brad has been attending. During the last week of school, a dozen service members (majority retired) who have made significant contributions/achievements are brought in they give their stories and meet with the students all week. Towards the end of the week, the college hosted a BBQ in the evening so that all the family members can also meet these wonderful individuals. They also bring in planes that are similar to the ones the pilots flew in wars which is pretty cool. This first picture is of the boys running out to a super huge plane (C130). We got to go up to the top of it and look out which was pretty cool. 

 Here are Aiden and Eli looking at the little side window in the cockpit.

Here is Aiden at the top of the plane waving hi to me on the ground.

And and here is Eli waving hi as well. 

Aiden really enjoyed this plane so I went back again with him and went up to the top and quickly snapped a picture.

This is the view to the hangar where the BBQ was at. That C130 was huge. 

This was a cool kind of plane that I had never seen before. It was a B-26. The boys had to get in it by climbing up through a hatch near the front and then they got to see the cockpit and then climb down through the center of plane. It was pretty neat.

                                                                   
Sgt. Wells - ball turret gunner in WWII & prisoner of war (to the right)

Below is Col Charles McGee. He was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen.

We had a neat time seeing the aircraft and hearing Brad tell us about some of the Eagles that were there and sharing parts of their stories. Absolutely amazing people.

6/6 - Birthday after-math

Actually this blog is not titled correctly. This therapy appt was actually 2 weeks ago. I had to take a picture though because Mrs. Rusty was able to pin a monkey on his back and he didn't even protest. Awesomeness!

















These swim pictures were from last Thursday or Friday. We went to the YMCA and the boys had a lot of fun. Eli loves the water but mainly just loves to walk around and jump water from one container to another. Even though he's normally a thrill-seeker, he won't go down the slides which I find interesting. I think it has a lot to do with a slight bit of water getting in his ears and he HATES that.




Aiden has actually showed quite a bit of interest in swimming. He is at least getting comfortable with us letting go of him and him swimming on his own with his floaty contraption. Obviously we eventually want not floaty thing but sensory things take a much longer time with Aiden so any step forward is one we are happy with.


I actually started making this blog about 4 days ago and never finished it. Here is Aiden putting sprinkles on cupcakes that he brought to class 1.5 weeks ago for his birthday. Eli got to decorate some too.

Here is Aiden on the morning of his birthday (last Sunday) opening his present. It's a Mega Blocks building game. It's pretty neat and both of the boys are enjoying it.

Here are the boys playing the new game. No wonder why we were 5 min late to church last week. We definitely didn't factor in "play with new toys" time. I love this game we just got because besides taking turns, you have to realize what pieces you need to build your specific object and then, once you have them all, you have to figure out how to put them together to match the picture. Lots of good skills to practice. 

Here are some pictures of Eli just enjoying himself. If you ever see a man in googles perform a crime, it could be Eli. He thinks he's a bad guy when he wears them :)

Here he is playing with Aiden's new Ironman toy. This fist launches discs and the boys are loving playing with it.

 Aiden got an over-the-door basketball hoop and here he is playing with it. For some reason, he likes throwing the ball up threw the middle of it. Crazy kid.

 Did I mention that Aiden got an umbrella for his birthday? He loves it. One the way home from daycare the other day, Aiden wanted to stop at the neighbors house and see if his friend could play. He insisted that he take an umbrella to get his friend because it was so hot out so he borrowed mine from the van. He told me he didn't want me to come with him to I just watched him go the front door.

 In keeping with his umbrella theme, here he is the next day on his way in to therapy. Again, it was sunny and he was trying to get shade. The funny thing is that on the way out, it started drizzling and he made a running bee-line for the van. I reminded him he had an umbrella and he said he didn't want his shoes to get wet.

Aiden only has a few more sessions left with Mrs. Rusty. While he still doesn't really like swinging, we are finding that he does like other things. He actually almost told us he liked having to climb over the bean bags and under the purple fabric. It's a VERY narrow space so there is pressure from all sides all he crawls up.

After therapy was done, we went and picked up Eli from daycare. Once we got to DJ's house (Aiden's friend), he wanted to get out walk home. I let him and of course, he used his umbrella. Eli decided he wanted to walk home too. That lasted for about 2 houses until they got too tired and jumped back in the van :)




Aiden has been quite obsessed with cameras lately. He's been asking to use mine which makes me slightly nervous given how much I paid for it. Aiden found an old camera in the office/guest room last week when I was cleaning and asked if he could play with it. I put some batteries in it and it works just fine. He here is to the left looking at pictures that he took on my camera.

 The boys were outside sweeping the other day. It's great exercise!!

We even got Eli into sweeping for a bit. He peetered out after just a bit but he got a little exercise in. 

Aiden got another little golf set for his birthday so he was outside playing the other day. DJ was over playing with Aiden and I decided I would make them some wickets to give the something other to do than just hit the ball around. I used pipe cleaners and golf tees and made some wickets. Fun!

It made it much more fun for the boys and have them a goal. I would name off a few different colors and he they would have to hit the ball through each. 

Little Eli REFUSES to let me show him how to do anything. It's so frustrating for me. So, this is how he putts the ball :(

Eli got on Aiden's bike the other day and loved riding it and did a great job.  He's doing such a good job using the pedals.

 Here is a picture of DJ, Aiden's friend from down the street. He's such a sweet little kid. The boys were playing MarioKart and taking a break from the heat.

Here is Aiden, Mr. Sensitive Nose, telling me he doesn't like the smell of dinner. He doesn't like the smell of anything. At his birthday party, that is one of the reasons he didn't want to do the dinosaur excavation - the smell of vinegar.

Here is little Eli at bath time just playing with his toys. So cute. He could stay in there all day long if we let him.

 Here are Aiden and DJ playing with Aiden's new Mega Bloks game.

 Here are the boys playing with Hallabaloo. DJ had lots of fun playing and my boys enjoyed playing with a friend.

Eli was playing Bugs and Button and doing a maze. He's been using his right hand for mazes lately but he's consistently been eating with his left hand.

These brothers are just too cute. Aiden is getting quite a collection of mini stuffed animals. He has his dinosaur from his birthday in his hand. He actually names all of his animals and very carefully chooses which ones to carry around.

Aiden helped me make a smoothie in our new blender the other day. We tried peanut butter, milk, banana, cocoa powder, and ice. It was quite delicious. I've been experimenting with various green smoothie recipes so it was a nice break to have a dessert type smoothie.

Here is camera-obsessed Aiden with the new digital camera he found in the office. He's been taking pictures of everything.

 And we'll end off on some umbrella pictures. It was raining the other day and the boys decided to play outside. You can see Eli out on the patio with my yellow umbrella. You can see Aiden much closer and under the porch covering with his blue umbrella. It took him a while to be convinced to go out in the patio part because he didn't want to get his feet wet.

The good news is that he did eventually go out and get his feet wet. He didn't like it very much but he did it!!!

6/2 - Aiden's 5th birthday

We had Aiden's 5th birthday party yesterday (Saturday) at the house. He chose a dinosaur theme this year. He found the cake he wanted months ago so I went to make the basic rectangle cake on Thursday evening. We'll, I used my Coke recipe (using a can of coke rather than oil, eggs, etc) but used a different brand than normal. As I'm pouring it into the pan, I'm thinking it looks to runny and then notice on the box it says mix for 4 minutes (my normal brand is only 2 minutes) so I pour it back in to the bowl and continue mixing which thickens it up. After I let it cool some and flipped it over to let it cool some more and then ice it, disaster strikes. It was so moist that it stuck on the bottom of the pan in the center but I just assumed it was because the non-stick stuff didn't work since I dumped the batter out of the pan and it must have messed up the no-stick stuff. I get another cake mix on Friday morning and re-do it. Outcome: it still sticks!! I figure I actually need to use the eggs and oil but am totally frustrated by wasting my time and money on cakes that are sticking. Brad goes to the store on Friday evening and puts in an order for a 1/2 sheet cake with just chocolate frosting. Brad picks up the cake on Saturday morning (party isn't until 3:00pm) and then he looks at the dinosaur skeleton Aiden wants and makes a draft using the end of the fork. I then start to trace it using the white icing and get scared to death I'm going to mess it up so I hand it back over to Brad. He pipes in the rest (almost all) of the dinosaur and then I add the oreo crumbs I already prepared and a handful of dinosaur eggs (jelly belly candy). It turned out quite awesome I think.

It's hard to see put I cut out little dinosaur prints and put them outside from the driveway up to the front door. I then decorated the door with an 'A' and had dinosaur window clings on the side windows. The goodie bag eggs were a nice touch for the dinosaur theme. There were lots of unexpected guests so I got really busy real fast. That said, I didn't even take that many pictures. I made the eggs with baking soda, water, and black food coloring and then hid small dinosaurs in them. I gave everyone a round tinfoil pan with two eggs inside and a new toothbrush. They were supposed to excavate the dinosaurs. I also had vinegar in syringes to help the excavation process. It was a hit. Unfortunately, Aiden didn't want to do it but I put a tinfoil pan up away from the rest so that I could sit down with him and do it later. I was so bummed when I went to clean up and saw that towards the end of the party, someone must have grabbed it. Therefore, this cool sensory project I made for Aiden, he didn't even do. I think I'll make a few more eggs and still have him do it. It takes a few days for the eggs to completely dry put I think he would have fun doing it and discovering something. The backyard grass maze was a hit. Lots of kids running around and playing tag. It was drizzling a few minutes before Aiden's party started and was steaming hot about 30 min after it started. The kids were outside running the maze, playing basketball, using the stomp rocket, and excavating eggs. It was fun. To get some reprieve from the heat, we came in for some cake. It was delicious.

Apparently Saturday was a party day. There were a handful of people there who were party hopping that day so half of them left after the cake was cut (and eaten thankfully). Aiden was very excited to open presents so we let him do that. He had lots of fun and it was sweet that the other kids were showing him how to use some of the toys he got. Mrs. Rusty (his occupational therapist) came with her 2 boys and Aiden was really excited about that. Mrs. Rusty is the closest friend I have here and Aiden just adores her and her boys, especially JB. Aiden got an electronic bank and both of her boys helped Aiden put all his coins in the bank. He's been asking for a bank since Christmas (daddy got one then) because as Aiden will tell you, he is "saving for car for when he turns 17." He just cracks me up. Ms. Jessica, our Cubbies helper, came to the party and Aiden was so excited. Although unplanned, she was a huge help. Eli just wanted to play outside in the water but Aiden was inside opening presents and playing with them and I was chatting with Rusty for a bit. Rusty and her family stayed for a bit and it was so much fun. The boys just all played together so well and Eric (her husband) and Brad were just chatting it up and Rusty and I could actually talk and have a conversation (although it was mostly about therapy stuff). Maybe I missed my calling. I love OT stuff but when I volunteered in college, it was at the VA and while I enjoyed it, it's a much different experience when you invest yourself in something that interests or effects you.

Overall, it was a great day. It went from a party of 2, to a party of 4, to a party of 6, to a party of 9 and ended up being a party of 12. It ended up that the two people from Aiden's daycare class that RSVP didn't even come. I had 2 late RSVP's (they called the night before) from his class and they came. The neighbor down the street came which I didn't know about and even brought 2 cousins to join in on the fun. One of his favorite daycare teachers came which he was excited about. For some reason, Aiden gets more focused on the grown-ups coming rather than the kids (JB was an exception). I think he just gets along better with adults and likes to talk them more. Kids his age tend to imaginative and ... he's not. :) He's very realistic so he can be imaginative if it makes sense and could be real. God knew exactly who needed to be at this party and it turned out great and was a great memory for Aiden. We are so thankful for the other kids and grown-ups in his life.

This past year has been a great developmental year for Aiden. He has become so much more independent with physical things (putting on his clothes, opening containers/bags), going potty, etc) and that has opened up a new level of freedom for him. His still loves routine but we don't have to use his picture schedule anymore (although he does use it sometimes). His ability to look ahead and plans things is quite amazing (in my opinion). He thinks things much farther out than I would think he should be able to. He is communicating so much better but still has a very hard time controlling his emotions and being able to communicate through his frustrations. He continues to strive to please people and not upset them which is sweet but I don't want him to base his life and his well-being on the response of others. I've done that it's no fun. I pray for more freedom for him than that. I love that he has a heart of gold but I pray he can balance it and learns that disappointing and/or offending people is not the end of the world.