Nautical Bedroom

Josiah finally has his (read my) dream kid's bedroom!  I've wanted this bed from Pottery Barn since I did Josiah's nautical bedroom when Asher was born.  I've been looking on Craigslist for years and finally one popped up last week.  It must have been destiny as it turned out to be Josiah's dentist in LAX who also has a son with Autism.  The bed was Jonah's and they took REALLY good care so the bed is in great shape.  It came with both the double mattress and the twin trundle mattress. 

Once we heard the story as to why they have to give up this great bed, we felt grateful.  When spring comes, apparently Jonah only sleeps a few hours every night and they have to sleep with him.  They had to buy a larger bed so they could be in the bed with him.  We are really lucky how easily Josiah goes to sleep and stays asleep.

Len borrowed a truck yesterday and went to pick it up.  We had the boys sleep in Asher's room last night so that we could put the boat bed in Jo's room after Len got back.  The frame is solid wood and extremely heavy.  He put it together easily and we put the room all together.  It looks SO perfect!

This morning the boys were excited to see "the surprise."  Josiah was so cute about it.  He said things like "now we have our very own boat!" and "my room is SO fun!" "we can show my room to all my friends!"  We only had Joyce here for 2 hours this evening, otherwise we played in his room most of the day.  We played pirates and  boat ride and school.  He was much more expressive about the bed than I expected him to be so that was really fun.  Asher was thrilled even though it wasn't even really for him.  He pulled the trundle out and that was his space (except for when Josiah was pretending it was his potty, but that's another story).

Eventually we'll take the bed to the cabin as it we could put both boys in one room and it would be the perfect "lake house" bed.

Spring Flowers

Every month Josiah has been going to "craft night" which is a program that the library ran throughout the winter.  They listen to stories and then do some kind of craft which corresponds (usually to the season).  Today Josiah came home with these adorable flowers.  I love how they brighten up the table, and the cats won't even nibble on them!!  This was a very clever project - they are made out of painted egg cartons, tissue paper and pipe cleaners.  He is very proud of them!

Spelling

Asher has suddenly learned all of his letters numbers and is interested in spelling.  I was getting worried that he wasn't picking them up.  When I looked at Josiah's notes he was recognizing letters by 10 months so I was trying to work with Asher more.  He still wasn't learning them very well so I thought maybe he wasn't ready.  Then as soon as I dropped it, he got interested and started learning them very quickly and is now spelling some simple words.  He is very proud of himself!!  The videos in order are him spelling Asher, Josiah, truck and stop.

Wrestling

The last couple of days Josiah and Asher have been wrestling.  Someone usually gets hurt, but while it lasts it is great.  They are about the same strength right now, although Asher is much more aggressive.  Josiah likes to play the victim, but you can tell he really enjoys the contact.

bloated cow's udder

Although everyone who sees Josiah's new ball chair thinks it looks like an obscene cow's udder, he loves it!

He even sat through an entire supper on top of it, on top of a chair.

Today we had to cancel SS and church because there is so much sleet/snow.  We were going to go up to the cabin today/tomorrow since tomorrow there is no school.  The plows haven't even been by yet so we don't know when we'll be able to get up there.  I guess it's a family day today since no PCAs have cars that could drive in this!

Sleeping buddy

Usually Asher doesn't like the cats in his room when he is trying to go to sleep  About 9 o'clock I walked past Asher's room and found Ole sound asleep next to a sleeping boy.  It was pretty sweet.

Therapeutic Listening

We've started a therapeutic listening program with Josiah (http://www.vitalsounds.com/).  At first he wouldn't tolerate the headphones because they are way too big and just fall off.  Len figured out to put a headband around his head and now he loves his "music medicine."  We have to wake him up 20 minutes earlier so we have enough time to get in a half-hour in the morning.  He gets another half-hour in the evening and really looks forward to it.  I'm so relieved as I thought it would be difficult to get him to do this program.  He's very calm while the headphones are on.  Other than that one hour of calmness, we haven't noticed any other changes.  He is still really impulsive and physical.  We can't figure out what to do with his meds either as we now have two "experiments" going on.

He is pretty darn cute with the earphones on.  He mostly swings during his sessions and looks at his favorite "lutheran prayerbooks!!"

Good Little Kitty

I caught this very sweet moment on video this morning.  Asher is so good with the kitties and they are so good with him - especially Ole.  If you listen closely at the end, you can hear Asher say "such a good little kitty."  I love that he's able to have this relationship with them.

100th Day of School

Today was Josiah's 100th day of school, and he was pretty excited about it since he is so into numbers.  Since I'm into being the world's laziest mother, I didn't remember about this momentous day until last night.  The note sent home last week asked us to send a baggie full of something edible from a list (Josiah specifically requested choc. chips) and the part that I failed to notice when I read the note originally... 100 objects collected and presented in a creative way.  Yikes!  Last night I quickly brainstormed and asked Jo if he wanted to bring 100 marbles or 100 pom-poms.  He replied pom-poms, and I debated about how to display them, and then promptly forgot about it until this morning 15 minutes before the bus arrived.

Len helpfully suggested that I string them together, which I agreed was cool, but how could I do that in 15 minutes, plus pack all of his normal school paraphernalia?  The answer... not possible.  I strung pom-poms as fast as I could, and Len dressed Josiah as fast as an easily distracted 6 year old can dress, but I still failed to get his 100 items "artfully collected," not to mention the rest of his daily bag attended to.  After some yelling and serious stress over a not so serious situation, we got Josiah on the bus WITHOUT any of his needed items.  With much assistance from my happy-to-help assistant, we finished getting his special 100 objects displayed and the rest of his bag packed.  I took an extra trip into town, which of course is really no big deal.

Hmmmm.... serve one for Kindergarten, 0 for mom.

Heat Wave

We've had a heat wave here for the last 3 days.  Yesterday I was even able to take Asher out on the driveway to ride around on his toys.  He figured out he was strong enough to ride his combine now and he was pretty thrilled.  He used the header to make marks in the snow.

Valentine's Day

Len and I went out for Valentine's Day last Friday since he would be at the cabin today.  So I tried to make today extra fun for the kids.  Sara helped me work with the boys to do their Valentines for school friends yesterday so that was ready to go.  Asher has learned to write an A so he put one on each of his cards.  Josiah did all of his classmates (24, plus teachers) and didn't even complain. He's gotten so much more interested in writing which makes these tasks so much easier.  It has been impossible in the past.

This morning I made heart shaped pancakes, which they were less than impressed with.  Daddy  makes them mini pancakes and they think those are way cooler.  They just wanted the hearts cut up anyway.

I spent many hours making cut out sugar cookies for the boys.  These are Len's favorites and the kids like them too.  I don't know if it was an extra huge recipe, but for some reason it took me forever to make and decorate these.  Asher "helped" some too so that took extra time.

Before Josiah got home on the bus I laid out their valentines - from Grammy, chocolates, cards and I gave Josiah his ball left from Christmas.  From me, the cookies and a v-reader.  Both the ball and the v-reader were excellent choices for them right now.  They are "riding" the ball to and from everywhere.  They kind of roll forward on it and then flop over it.  They think it is so hilarious, but it's really great upper body work for Josiah.

They are fighting over the v-reader, which is like a kid Kindle.  We've started the therapeutic listening with Josiah and he's not supposed to do anything with electronic sounds during the sessions.  Of course Asher wanted to do the reader during a session tonight and Josiah just couldn't stay away.  We turned of the music,  but it still had other sounds.  I hope that was okay.

When we got in from the bus the boys got to have a cookie, but then I got an email from school showing pictures of these enormous brownies they gave the kids.  I asked Josiah what he had for lunch and he said popscicles and heart candy.  I know there was more to it than that (please please please), but tonight he was SO wired.  He was screaming constantly and he was so hyper.  You could just tell in his body that he was so tense and wound.  I never thought that candy high was a real thing before, but it sure was today.

For supper I cut out quesadillas into heart shapes and served supper on red plates... no dessert!!

Cookie Extravaganza:

Valentine Gift Table:

OMG... I'm blogging!!

I haven't blogged in so long, but finally have some fun stuff to post.  I've had such trouble with winter blues this year, so I'm starting to find some projects that make me happy.

I remembered this old stool that was here in the parsonage basement when we moved in.  The back was broken off of it and they had used some miscellaneous hardware over the years to repair various joints.  It was also used at a paint chair so it had some splatters.  Since one of my favorite blogs is: http://betterafter.blogspot.com/, I was inspired to resurrect this old stool.  I already had spray paint in the basement and had to buy $1.48 worth of hardware and the fabric was a remnant under $5.  I think it turned out so cute.  It doesn't match anything in the house, but maybe someday it will match something in the cabin.

This was my first re-upholdering project and it was very satisfying.  It is so fun to save something that used to be headed for the dump.  I have all kinds of other ideas running through my head now.  I'm keeping them to myself so as not to freak out my husband unnecessarily.

Children's Museum

Josiah had a doctor's appointment last week (just his yearly and some shots he needed for Kindergarten), and afterwards we went to the children's museum. They had several new exhibits and the boys really enjoyed it.

Asher was in heaven with this new crane exhibit.

Josiah loved this new vacuum exhibit. You put scarves or balls into tubes (like at the bank drive-thru) and they fly around and eventually pop out.

And of course the boats are a favorite.

Our little Graduate

When Josiah was around 6 months old we signed him up for a reading program through the local library called "1000 books before Kindergarten." I was supposed to be writing down each book we read to him, but when he became so challenging, this program was the last thing on our mind. It was always in the back of my mind, but I rarely wrote anything down. We knew he was reading plenty of books as he reads himself, but it was still something I felt I had failed on.

We were invited to the graduation for that program so I spent a lot of time writing down all the books that we had in the house and got to 520 when I ran out of space. I decided to just go and hoped they didn't check his book.

When we were walking in I was making conversation with another mother and she was commenting on how on top of things I must be as I had our book with us. HAHAHA! So I just went along with it and said, "I brought it, but we ran out of pages." Then she said, "yeah, we had to get several book." OUCH!!!

They had a cute little program for the kids. The librarian read a couple of books and then they picked out t-shirts and mortar board caps. They played some music and had them walk down the aisle. Then they handed them little diplomas and a stack of books (to which Josiah said loudly, "I have that book at home!")

I'm determined to get Asher's book in line within the next year!!

Summer Hair

How cute is this little kid? He sweats pretty badly in this humid weather so I was thinking a buzz would feel better for him. It was a struggle to get it done as he hates the clippers. It turned out so cute!

Mommy meltdown

Moms are aloud to have a meltdown every once in a while right??

Well, this was my week.

After 2 weeks of fighting with Josiah about his acts of violence towards me (and Asher) I was done. I picked him up from VBS on Wednesday and he came at me and pushed me hard in the stomach and then started screaming. I got him home and put him in a time out and each time he'd get out he'd do something aggressive and go right back in. This went on until lunchtime when I'd about had it.

Len came back and we weren't on the same page and I couldn't stand to be in the house anymore. We had full coverage so off I went...

31 hours later (after I'd shopped, read, reflected, journaled, and soul searched) I returned home in a much more optimistic mood. I came home last night after the kids had gone down to bed. Len and I had a campfire and a long talk. We came up with some goals and tools to help me cope and I'm feeling better about things.

The boys seemed to thrive without me. They were much happier and laid back when I picked them up from the last day of VBS this morning. Asher was affectionate and happy and Josiah was social and in pretty good sensory form.

Things are looking up for the moment.

Cabin Update

Here's what the kitchen at the cabin looks like right now. Len has removed the floor down to the joists and I helped with some of the lath on the walls. This weekend he put in electrical where he'd need it on the floor and removed the large vent pipe. Next time he plans on working on the plumbing we'll need under the flooring. After that he'll have jack up the floor and put in new support beams, insulate and then put the new flooring. Then we'll have a level floor in the kitchen!! I'm sure that will feel weird as the current floor has about 4.5 inches sloped down to the west.

Ceiling:

Floor: those circular spots seen in the last picture are where he

poured concrete to support the new footings.

Syttende Mai Parade

We took the boys to the parade in town last weekend. This was the first year that Josiah was interested in retrieving the candy as well as eating it. Last year he was so focused on getting more and more candy in his mouth that he couldn't concentrate on anything else. Both boys seemed to enjoy themselves and Asher loved the tractors of course.

The horns were too loud for both kids, but they did well covering their ears. After the parade was done we walked to the park where they had some activities set up for the kids. They had a big bouncy thing with a slide that is a lot like what they have at the House of Bounce. They really wanted a turn, so I bought tickets. Then we stood in line. Not only was the line long, but it was SLOW. They couldn't only let one kid in at a time so it forever to get to the front. Meanwhile, the kids were still eating candy and were starting to get really impatient and whiny.

We finally got up to the front and Josiah was first to go through. Once he went in, we could't see him anymore. It was quiet for a while and then we heard him yelling for Emily. The ride operator waited what seemed like forever, and then finally went in after him. He was excited to go down the slide. Asher needed help as well, so maybe in hindsight the ride wasn't the best idea. By the time they were done they were so whiny and grumpy that we just went right home.

Last day of Preschool

After 3 years, Josiah is finally done with preschool. It truly feels like the end of an era and time to get serious about things now that Kindergarten is next. He started Special Ed preschool the summer he turned 3 and I remember how I felt like we had so far to go before "real" school.

Here is a picture of him on his first day of preschool that day in summer.

These are pictures with Betty (the teacher) and Lisa (his aid) the last day this year. I gave the teachers petunia pots as a thank you. We couldn't have asked for a better staff. Everyone treated Josiah was the right of amount of compassion and sternness. We were really happy with how they never made a big deal out of his differences, especially in front of the other kids. They were really great and we will always remember this great preschool experience for him.

Fire Pit

I love my husband.... Occasionally I get these whims to take on projects that I think I can do by myself. But after totally exhausting myself, I turn to my "fail-safe" who takes over and completes my projects.

Our firepit turned out totally great, but it was a huge amount of work. He hauled these extremely heavy rocks and a huge amount of gravel home to make this vision of mine come true. Our backyard looks so nice now! I also lined the gardens with smaller rocks on the south side of the house and a new garden in the backyard that isn't quite finished yet.