Cold Playground Fun

Today was such a beautiful day, if you were looking out the window.  I decided to take Bobby to the Mylan Park Elementary School playgound to play since the sun was shining brightly.  Holy cow, was it ever cold.  I mean bitter cold!!!  The wind was blowing right through me but Bobby was totally unphased.  He was smiling, laughing and generally having an awesome time.  He could have cared less that Mommy was saying:  "lets go ride in car,"  "lets go get french fries,"  "lets go get a sucker,"  "LETS GO!!"  He continued to play while I continued to freeze. 

Birthday Cake

You probably know by now that Bobby loves birthday cakes!!  We invited Greg, Noelle and Natalie over for dinner to celebrate Noelle's birthday.  Bobby knew that it was a birthday when he walked through the kitchen and saw a cake...

After dinner and it was time to blow the candles out on the birthday cake, guess who was front and center to get in on the action!!

Bobby even participated in singing Happy Birthday to Noelle.

Noelle and Greg watching Bobby sing.

Taking a break from blowing out the candles to watch the smoke.

Mission accomplished, the candles are out!!!

 Bobby refused to wear his clothes while our company was here.  He was fussy most of the evening (which went away when our guests left-autism was rearing its ugly head tonight!!).   One thing that Bobby did really enjoy,  Greg and Noelle stopped and picked up McDonalds for the kids on their way to our house.  Bobby and Natalie got their favorite food for dinner!!

This picture cracks me up.  It reminds me of an old married couple.  He is laying on the couch eating dinner in his underwear and they are totally ignoring each other, the tv is way more interesting.  The only thing that would have made it better is if they both had their iPads in their hands.

One of Natalie's favorite toys at our house is, of all things, Zoi's red bone toy.  Zoi has never paid attention to this toy EVER, except when Natalie picked it up!!

Happy Birthday Noelle.

Cabin Fever

The weather this weekend has been extremely crazy.  We had a snow day on Friday (in all honesty, a 2 hour delay would have been sufficient), an ice storm Friday night and a cold enough day on Saturday that the ice did not melt.  The sun came out Sunday and took all of the ice away.  Monday morning brought the rain, which passed through early afternoon leaving the sun shining away and 60+ degree temps. 

I wanted to go out and take pictures of the ice on Saturday, but I decided not to tempt fate.  My luck I would have fallen and broken a bone, or even worse broken my camera.  When the sun was melting the ice on Sunday morning, I took a couple of pictures, but the pictures didn't come out as true as the real thing.

By Sunday Bobby was climbing the walls with boredom.  Since the ice melted the ground was saturated and muddy, not ideal conditions to go outside and play.  We called Grandma Carolyn, told her that we were coming to get her and going to go to lunch then take Bobby to the Middletown Mall (the old Fairmont mall) and let him run around inside.  He knew exactly where we were and he was happy to walk around the mall a couple of times.  After his walk he sat down and ate his french fries at the Mexican restaurant at the mall. 

We stayed and visited with Grandma Carolyn after lunch.  Bobby found a new "toy,"  Grandma's plant stand.  Grandma took the plants out and let him play.

Saturday evening when we were back at home, Bobby did something that Grandma Prahl considered taboo...

It is bad luck to open an umbrella inside!!

Obviously I had to take Bobby outside to play when we got home from school today.  After all the temps were in the 60s.  It was even muddier and muckier than before but poor Bobby is an outdoor boy. 

Oh no!  He found water!!!

Major wind gusts!!!  It was even too windy to blow bubbles.

He lifted the big blue bucket on top of the water and kept peeking in, not sure what he was hoping to find.  After this we had to come in, he was wet from head to toe!! 

Finally, A Real Snow Day

I knew it, I just knew it!!  Actually, I told a couple of people yesterday that the snow that was predicted was going to come and we were going to get more than expected.  I also said that there was going to be a snow day today since Bobby had only gone to school one day this week after his horrible stomach flu.  My intuition was right and school was indeed cancelled and Bobby gets a three day weekend.  You know, he needed a break after that one big day of school.  In all honesty a break is probably what he does indeed need.  He still doesn't have that much of an appetite and yesterday when he was in school, he got his coat out of his cubby a little after 1:00 and put it on-he was ready to leave.  A three day weekend to get back to 100% is a great idea for him, but for mommy, not so much!! 

I know that he feels better than he did earlier in the week because he has been driving me crazy.  He is a little stir crazy.  I think that he is as bored watching Nick Jr. as I am in hearing it in the background.  So what else is a mom to do (that lives on top of a big ol' hill), but bundle the kids up (well Zoi is bundled up by nature) and take them out in the snow.  Thought that you might like to see some pictures of the snowy fun.

Snow Day turned Sick Day

Bobby hasn't missed any school this year, so when I woke up Friday and the wind was blowing, the snow was still coming down, the windchill was 5 degrees and more snow was predicted for the day, I decided to give Bobby a snow day.  They were already scheduled for a 2 hour early dismissal and every other county had cancelled school for the day.  I pulled the covers back up and we stayed in our PJs all day long.

Bobby had a great day.  He played nicely all day.  He played with all of his Christmas toys.  He never asked to "Go outside" which kind of surprised me since it was snowing.  There was no way we were going out because it was so cold, but I was extremely glad that it wasn't even an issue. 

He even hung out under the trampoline for a while, he hasn't done this for a long time...

I think that Bobby is getting the hang of this snow day thing, he climbed in Mommy's bed and gathered the pillows around.  Time to watch Nick Jr.!!!!

One of the most aggrevating aspects of autism, especially since Bobby is functionally non-verbal, is that he can't tell me that he doesn't feel well.  I don't get the heads up that Bobby's belly hurts.  Thankfully he didn't go to school and share the sick germs that he was carrying.  A couple of hours later Bobby showed me that he had the stomach flu.  He was up all night long, maybe got an hour of sleep total.  He layed around all of the next day, trying to fall asleep, but his body just would not let him.

It's now Sunday and Bobby has finally eaten a couple of bites and had a few cups of liquid to drink.  Hoping that it is over and the rest of us don't follow his lead.

"I want popcorn"

Bobby has a handful of words that he uses constistently and appropriately.  Popcorn has been a word that he got at an early age since it is a highly desireable item.  I didn't want to give him microwave popcorn that often and I am too lazy to pop it on the stovetop.  Years ago I came across an easy, easy way to pop popcorn in the microwave.  Thought that I would share since we are having a self imposed snow day today and Bobby is hogging the TV.

You need:  popcorn and a brown paper lunch sack (these are found in the grocery store on the bottom shelf below the ziplock bags-took me a while to find them).

Cover the bottom of the bag with popcorn (I use about 1/4 cup)...

Fold the top of the bag over twice.  I try not to take up more than an inch of space so that there is plenty of room for the popcorn...

Lay the bag on its side in the microwave (I didn't take a picture since my microwave needed a little wipedown!!) and turn it on for the same amount of time that you would typical microwave popcorn.  My microwave happens to have a popcorn button that I use.

Voila!! Popcorn!!  Melt some butter and add some salt (I also didn't take pictures of this, thought that you could figure it out on your own).  Since I use a little real butter for the popcorn, our microwave popcorn has 3 ingredients:  popcorn, salt, cream.  Look at the ingredient list on the prepackaged stuff!!

It makes a large bowl full.  Not sure if you knew this, but in the snow day handbook it says that, "yes, you may have popcorn for breakfast!!"  Good news Bobby...

Who is this kid doing something educational on a snowday????

Bbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!  Can't believe that it was 50 degrees yesterday, today 9 degree wind chill.