Christmas 2011

When we think of Christmas Eve, we think of Grandma Carolyn's house.  We always go to my Mom's house for Christmas Eve dinner and a couple of presents.  We had Bobby sit down and open his present before the "party" began since he is not a crowd person.  Everyone was in the kitchen preparing dinner and Bobby's cousins hadn't yet arrived.  He sat right down and opened his present from Grandma...

It was a gift specifically picked out to entertain him while Grandma's house was full and he was out of his comfort zone.  He has been playing with these "Magna Tiles" at occupational therapy for the past few months.  He runs right in to the therapy room, opens up the cabinet and gets the container of magna tiles out.  His OT finally has had to put them up before Bobby gets there and brings them out when Bobby has completed his work.  So I knew that these would be a hit with Bobby, but didn't realize that they would be a hit with everyone else too!

He immediately knew what they were and opened the box...

Bobby was entertained while Grandma Carolyn, Aunt Dianna, and Aunt Mimi made dinner (prime rib, manicotti, scalloped potatoes, spinach salad, brussel sprouts)...

Bobby's cousins finally arrived and Kaden was immediately drawn to the magna tiles and started to build away...

Bobby loved the structure that Kaden built...

We tried to get Bobby and Kaden to stand together to have their picture taken.  We got Kaden in place and put Bobby beside him...

Kaden did a good job posing, but Bobby was not interested.  We soon left so that the boys could go home and get to sleep so that Santa could arrive.

I went downstairs to check that Santa didn't skip by our house, and indeed he did stop.  Zoi was the watchdog to make sure all of the gifts remained untouched until Bobby woke up on Christmas morning.

Zoi smelled her stocking as soon as we came downstairs and couldn't wait!!  Bobby saw the presents but went straight to the kitchen.  He was hungry and wanted to eat. 

Toast before presents!!  I always make a big Christmas breakfast, so toast was all he got for now.  After breakfast we gave Bobby a present and said "open" and he opened away...

Daddy couldn't wait for Bobby to open this race track.  Daddy immediately took it over to the side and started putting it together.  Bobby sat down and opened his stocking...

Full of his favorite types of things.  Then a couple of more presents to open...

 He even has the paper flying in the air!!  However, he had no interest in what was actually under the wrapping paper.  He opened a few and then was done.  Too overwhelmed with all of the new.  A little later, I opened the rest and put them back under the tree so that he could get used to all of them.

While Daddy was working on putting the race track together, Bobby stopped unwrapping gifts and sat down in the middle of the track and would not move.

I did manage to get him to open just one more, but it was his last.

But he went right back to the completed race track.  He preferred to push the cars around instead of watching them race.

This year Bobby got many different types of building sets.  These are the types of toys that he generally doesn't get bored with.  I am planning to most of them away and bring a new one out every couple of weeks.  The magna tiles are the first ones that are out to play with now.

Grandma Carolyn came over in the morning after she got off of work (midnight shift on Christmas Eve-yuck!!) and opened presents with Bobby.  She went to bed for a few hours and when she got up we had Christmas dinner.  Shrimp scampi and broccoli, chicken pasta.  Bobby sat like such a good boy during dinner, even if he did eat chicken nuggets instead of pasta.  Dinner for 4 was perfect for him.

After dinner was over and the kitchen was cleaned, Bobby and Grandma played with the magna tiles.  The day after Christmas, Uncle Chris, Aunt Tiffany, Brenalin and Kinlei came over for brunch and to exhange presents.

Brenalin taking time out from opening presents to check out Bobby's new book.

Kinlei sitting on top of her gift wishing that we would open it and put it together.

Aunt Tiffany and Brenalin are enjoying the magna tiles too!!!

Bobby joined in to play (he has a chewy tube in his mouth).

All of our presents are delivered, except for Ashley's who is coming to WV later in the week.  It is a rainy yucky day so I decided to take down the Christmas tree and put back up the trampoline for Bobby since he still has a week off before school starts.  He jumped ALL DAY.  He wasn't the least bit sad to see the tree go and was thrilled to be jumping again!!!

Bobby did much, much better than last Christmas.  Hopefully next Christmas will even be better!!! 

Let Christmas Vacation Begin!!!

Today was Bobby's last day of school until next year.  The greatest day in every kids life (except for the first day of summer vacation!!).  I opened his backpack to clean it out and put it away for the next week and a half.  Fun, there were wrapped presents in the bottom!!  I got them out and called for Bobby.  He immediately grabbed one and started opening.  I think his finally gets this present thing.  In the past, wrapped presents could set there forever and he wouldn't care.  When he opened it he was in heaven.  Yes, his teachers (aides), really know what he likes....

Baskets to line up!!!  AWESOME!!!  They even match the iPad case!

What a glorious day when Bobby gets something new to line up.  I handed him the 2nd gift and he came over, sat down and started opening...

Oh my goodness, what could it be???

Traffic sign flash cards!!!  Two of Bobby's favorite things in one.  Oh, the hours of shuffeling fun.

Look how well these two gifts go together.  Another Bobby masterpiece.

We had a guest who was planning to come over after school and I didn't say anything to Bobby about who on their way for a visit.  When someone knocked on the door, I couldn't wait to see the reaction on Bobby's face when the door opened.  Was it Santa?  No.  Even better.  His teacher, Ms. Kim.  In my mind Bobby was NOT going to be happy at all, since this is the reaction that his therapist usually enjoys.  Bobby, however, was not phased in the least.  It was like she comes over all of the time.

His classroom recieved an iPad the other day and his teacher came over to get an iPad lesson and check out the apps that Bobby enjoys.  Daddy took Bobby outside to ride on the Rhino while Ms. Kim and I worked.  When Bobby came back in, he was more than happy to show off his iPad to her.

Bobby is with Ms. Kim for the vast majority of the time that he is in school.  Since he is in the autism room all day, he doesn't go into his regular ed. 1st grade homeroom, he is Ms. Kim's sidekick, like it or not.  Bobby goes to his therapies without her and an aide takes him to lunch.  So I have dubbed Ms. Kim Bobby's school Mom since she is way more than a teacher in his life.  She is the most important non-family member in Bobby's life.  I'm so glad that Bobby has always had teachers who really seem to love him.  Praying to God that we are blessed with this throughout Bobby's school career.

Pajama Day

Today is Pajama Day at school.  For most kids this is a fun way to get ready for the holidays.  For kids with autism, this can be a stressful way to start the day.  After all, we are breaking the rules.  You DON'T wear pajamas to school, you wear them to bed!!!!  In the past, getting Bobby out of the house in his pajamas has been a little bit of a struggle, today he was great.  One thing that I did different this year, he had never worn these pajamas before.  They were an early Christmas present from Grandma Carolyn, which I kept up for this particular event.  I definitely didn't want to start the day frustrated because something that was supposed to be fun turned into a minor meltdown.  Crazy I know, that a parent has to pre-plan a way to make pajama day stress free!! 

It's crucial that your pajamas and your backpack match!!

Letting the iPad do the talking!!!

Countdown to Christmas

We are finally in the home stretch, just one week left to get everything finished for the big day.  I started making a couple of Christmas cookies this morning.  I found a cute peanut butter reindeer cookie to take with us this evening to our first Christmas dinner of the season at Uncle Chris and Aunt Tiffany's house.  Since it was so extremely easy (and cute), I thought that I would share.

I took store bought peanut butter cookie dough (the break apart kind) and cut each cookie dough round in half.  I then shaped it into a triangular shape and baked at 350 for 12 minutes (I wanted a crunchy cookie to be able to hold up to the decrations when it was picked up). 

While the cookies were baking, I got the decorations ready.  You need two chocolate covered pretzels, one red and two green mini M&M's.  When the cookies come out of the oven, move the cookies with the parchment onto the counter or cutting board.  I left one batch on the warm cookie sheet while I decorated the cookies and the chocolate pretzel melted from the heat and didn't stick to the cookie.  I found that 4 on each baking sheet was the right amount to work on at one time for me.  I full dozen at a time would not give you enough time to decorate before the cookies cooled too much.

The finished product-cute and easy reindeer. 

Bobby's hanging out under the tree making sure that there is enough room for his all of his presents from Santa.  Hope that all of your holiday preparations are not wearing you out too much!!  Merry Christmas.

Santa visits Playworks

When we pulled in the PlayWorks parking lot, Bobby was excited to go in.  We hadn't been in this building since May before his therapy was moved to PlayWorks 2.  He went in and played on the slide for a couple of minutes...

Then steadily other children started showing up to play and wait for Santa's arrival and Bobby was in no mood to be with other children today.  He tried and tried to have someone give him his shoes and leave the building.

Finally managed to keep him there long enough for Santa's arrival and to get his picture taken with Santa.

Grandma Carolyn took Bobby for a ride while I stayed and helped take some pictures.  When they came back, I got in the car and we stopped for lunch at Chick 'fil A.  Bobby was happy again and did a great job sitting and eating (if you disregard the fact that he stole a french fry off of someone's tray on the way to his seat)!  Oh what a kid!!

Don't Call CPS

Attention neighbors...if you heard Bobby yesterday afternoon, I wasn't beating him, just trying to cut his hair!!!!  Next time I think I'll call the doctor and get myself some valuim first!! 

Actually he wasn't quite that bad.  Close!  Each time it gets a tiny, tiny, tiny bit easier.  He did better with the clippers than with the scissors, go figure.  Just don't look too closely, it's not like he will let me straighten it up.  However, he does look presentable. 



Sensitive Santa 2011

Sensitive Santa events are popping up in malls across the country and I am so glad that the Morgantown Mall is participating in the event for the 2nd year.  They open the mall from 8-11 am on a Sunday morning for kids with special needs.  They keep the lights dim and keep the overhead music off for the kids who have sensitivities to these things.  Fortunately lights and noise don't really bother Bobby, but he is heaven that there are no other people there to contend with.  We got there a couple of minutes after 8 this morning, before even the people for the Sensitive Santa event started showing up.

We practiced standing and taking pictures before we left...

When we got to the mall, Bobby had to walk by Sears before he could even think about seeing Santa.  (I have no idea what his Sears fasination is, but it is always the first place that we MUST go when we enter the mall.)

Bob walked with Bobby to Sears while I filled out the form that they have prepared to make the Santa process a little easier.  This way Santa knows the childs name when they get up to him.  Santa also already knows what the child would like for Christmas so that he can try to engage them without having to ask questions.  Since we were there so early, Bobby was number 2 and we didn't have to wait. 

He went right up to Santa but wasn't interested in sitting on his lap.  Santa moved over and let Bobby sit beside him.  It took a couple of tries but Bobby finally sat for a second, long enough to get a picture.



They offered to take the picture again since Santa was pointing.  But I like the picture especially since Bobby is looking in the direction that Santa is pointing.  We said that Santa was showing Bobby where the reindeer were.  Bobby got up and ran out the entrance to walk around the fence that encloses the Santa area.  When he got around to the exit side, Santa encouraged him in to get his candy cane.

 Santa looks pleased that Bobby actually took the candy cane. 

Next I tried to get Bobby to go play in the area that PlayWorks had set up.  He wasn't too interested in playing with their things, after all he has gone there weekly for therapy and played with these items since he was 3.  So no big thrill, after all we are in an mall with barely any people.  So off to the play place we went.  I had second thoughts about letting him play there, since he is too big for the area.  But it was empty....so he got to play in the play place all by himself for over half an hour.  Bobby paradise, no other kids running around!!!

When he was "all done" playing it was time to walk the mall without all of the holiday shoppers in his way...

 One more visit to Sears...

We stopped to say hi to our friends Sonny and Joey.  More families were showing up to see Santa.  Again we had perfect timing.  We got there before the crowds and didn't have to wait!!!  So proud, he did a great job.