B.O.B. the Blob

For those of you who do not know...one of the 'signs' of autism, is that the child does not have good 'play skills". This is one of the reasons they diagnosed my oldest and ruled out autism for my youngest. "Play skills" involve the ability of the child to 'play' (ie. imaginative play....play 'kitchen' or take an object and create a dialogue as in a story or play with little people and create a story...you get the idea).


Last night, in the bathtub, my oldest took his McDonald's toy, B.O.B. from the new Dreamworks' movie "Monsters Versus Aliens" and was playing with him. While this isn't new, I always relish in it because it is a concrete, if you will, example of how far we have come. Oldest couldn't do it when he was a toddler. He had no idea how to create a story or do imaginative play.

Oldest had B.O.B. and he was treating him like a little pet and talking to him. "B.O.B., we have to get you clean (while rubbing bubbles on him), B.O.B., we have to dry you off, B.O.B. we have to make you nice and clean". You get the idea.

You have to realize that B.O.B. is a blue blob. Literally.

Aquarium Tour

Today, was the first day of our Spring Break Aquarium Tour. We went with Papa to the Aquarium and he had a great time. The boys had a good time (they always do). I got some cute footage of Papa playing tag with the boys, too. They loved to touch the sea stars, sea anemone and urchins.

Astronauts

For some reason, I am so excited with the lift off of Kazakhstan rocket. Aboard, an astronaut, who is from my hometown. Turns out, he had spent most of his time growing up at the local science museum. Kinda neat.

Spring Program

Last Friday, Oldest and Middle boy had a Spring Program for their school. What their school does is instead of singing, they do a 'routine' (a P.E. routine). For example, Middle boy's class (along with a paired class) did a P.E. routine with scarves. This year's theme was "DISCO NIGHT". This year, Middle boy didn't lose his shoe (this happened last year, but he quickly recovered without missing a beat).

However, Oldest has trouble with this performance. During the dress rehearsal during the day, he ran out of the gym. He got in trouble with me and his special education teacher. He got in trouble for not being safe, not for not being able to perform. He has trouble because A)it's noisy in the gym, B)it's not in the gym he is used to, C)there's just too many people in there and D)he just can't focus. When he got home, he did tell me, "I wear my red shirt (his outfit for the program) and I dance with Mom". Primarily, I focused on the safety issue (the running out of the gym).

All in all, it was a good time, even with the minor 'speed bumps'. Those are just par for the course.

Snipping

Today, I got a phone call from oldest's special education teacher. She said he was having a great day, BUT, during a Reading project (where he was putting pictures in order), he used the scissors and snipped a chunk of hair. It was a non-issue and he did get a lecture "we use scissors to cut paper NOT hair". I told her that I laughed and it was not a problem. She said she was glad to hear that because on her inside, she was laughing, too. She said of all of the kids, he was the LAST one of her students she would have expected to snip his hair.

It is pretty noticeable. There is a spot at the top of his forehead that is pretty, not bare, but noticeable. He has sort of a 'bald spot"although, there is some hair there....

MNO

Last Tuesday, we had an adventurous MNO with my MOMS club. It was totally crazy. We met at the Starbuck's and were given 20 things to take a picture of (for example all of the Team Members in a dressing room) and 20 things to get (such as a pink or blue balloon).

The two teams were incredibly competitive. I have never laughed so hard. Here we were, about 13 Moms looking for cheap entertainment in the pouring rain! It was crazy.

The worst part was explaining to my six year old when asked what did I do: "I went out with my friends and had to take pictures of stuff and collect stuff". He looked at me like I was crazy.

Unfortunately, after the MNO, we went to Ruby Tuesday's and several of the moms have been worshipping the porcelin bowl this week. Not good :(

P.S.MNO stands for Mom's Night Out.

"The Lion King"

Last weekend, middle boy and I had a Mommy/middle boy overnight. We went to out to Applebee's (which is highly unusual in this house), instead of our usual Saturday night trip to Red Robin. He had cheeseburger sliders (hey, it was half price because it was happy hour) and a side order of fried shrimp. Where middle boy puts it is another question.

Then, on Sunday, I took him to see "The Lion King". He was at the perfect age. He watched in amazement as the animals came down during the opening "The Circle of Life" (of course, I started bawling because that song gets me every time...it reminds me so much of when my Grandma died....it's one of those weird associations). Throughout the whole musical, he was engrossed in the story lines (lots of 'bad guys' to keep him occupied). He loved the stage production and the music.

When we left, he said that maybe he could join us for our season ticket of musicals. Only middle boy would ask. He said he loved going to musicals. Maybe he's going to be my boy who joins me for musicals when he is older :)