Waterfall/Playdate

Bobby has been saying "swimming" almost as soon as we get in the car lately.  Meaning...take me to Krepps Pool now so that I can play in the water play area.  His favorite part of the play area is where a heavy stream of water pours down on his head.  The last time we were there he stood there and let the water pour over his head for almost an hour.  Bob only had to work a half day today so he stopped at Lowe's on the way home, picked up a few supplies and got to work on a waterfall for Bobby in his very own pool.  Yeah Daddy!!!

 Of all days to be outside working on a project...it was almost 100 degrees with super high humidity.  It didn't seem to take his too long, but what do I know, I was inside!!

 The waterfall was an amazing success!!!  Bobby loves it!!

Due to the extremely hot temps and the fact that we have a pool, we had to host a playdate today.  When you have a playdate with 4 children with autism and 2 siblings, you just never know how it is going to go.  I guess it has to be 100 degrees for everyone to get in the pool and have a good time without any issues.  We had a full hour of 6 kids (and 4 adults) in the pool that was issue free.  A huge success in the autism world!  Bobby was the first to get out (I think it was just too many people for him), he went inside and played with Daddy.  It wasn't long after that others started filtering out too.  Probably a good thing, even with sunscreen there were some red arms.

Pics of the cast of characters from our playgroup:

 Sonny

 Isabella

 Joey

 Andrew

And last but not least, Natalie, the newest lover of swimming!!

And a good time was had by all (especially after they all came in and had a snack!!)

Playing Catch-Up

It is so hard for me to blog over the summer.  Bobby likes to be "outside" as much as humanly possible and prefers to swim in the evening...generally not getting out of the pool until 9:00 pm.

So I thought that I would try to play catch-up in this posting.  

Bobby's Bat Cave made an appearance.  He carried it downstairs from his room and played with it Bobby style.

It didn't take him long before he started adding his Bobby touches to the Bat Cave...

He even started decorating himself with the road pieces...

So, so silly!!

Hi Zoi...

Krepps Pool in Morgantown is opening early for some selected dates over the summer so that people with special needs can have to pool all to themselves.  Bobby is LOVING, LOVING, LOVING this!!!!

 He was so extremely worn out when we got home...

We took Bobby to the Anderson Family Reunion this past weekend.  Didn't go that well, Bobby wanted in the creek very badly, or he sat on top of the twirly slide so that he could look over at the swimming pool.  We didn't stay long so I only got a couple of pictures.

 I made the Pinterest Kit Kat cake for the reunion.

 Bobby and his cousin Brant looking at the ducks.

 Bobby won't share his McDonald's french fries with Grandma Carolyn.

 Perched atop of the twirly slide.

Daddy keeping Bobby for going into the creek.

Sonny and Joey came over for a playdate and the electricity went off just before they got here.  We had some cupcakes for Sonny's 8th birthday but had a difficult time getting the boys to stand for a picture.  Bobby took over blowing out the candles, which didn't seem to bother Sonny one bit.  

Can't believe that Bobby and Sonny are 8 years old!!  The electricity came back on 5 minutes after the boys left from their playdate.  Oh well.

Last but not least, Bobby came downstairs this morning dressed and ready for school.  Too bad it wasn't pajama bottoms/hoodie day at school, because he would have been dressed perfectly.  However, he would have burn up so I changed his clothes.  

Bobby can't wait one more second.  I have to get off of this computer now..."SWIMMING, SWIMMING, SWIMMING!!!!"

ESY 2012

E S Y, my favorite three letters of the summer!!!  If you have never heard of ESY, you're lucky, if you know what it means, you either have a child with special needs or you  are a teacher.  ESY (Extended school year) is summer school for special needs children so that the skills that they learned during the school year don't regress over the summer.  Each school district across the US runs ESY their own way.  In Mon. Co. ESY runs Mon-Thur from 9am-noon for 6 weeks.  Some of the kids go 2 days, some 3, and some (Bobby included) qualify to go all 4 days a week, depending on the amount of time that they are in special ed vs. regular ed during the regular school year.

Over the past 2 weeks that Bobby has been out of school, he has developed a new sleep schedule (on his own) that he has never had before.  He isn't falling asleep until around midnight and sleeping until 9 am.  Sleeping until 9 has been awesome for me, but staying awake until midnight has been torture for Bob, who has to get up very early for work.  But when he isn't getting out of the swimming pool until 9 pm, it is hard to be in bed by 9:30.

Yesterday morning Bobby had a big shock to his system when I woke him up at 7am for school.  He finally got out of bed at 7:30 and laid on the couch until I made him get up and dressed to be out of the door at 8:25.  He was excited when he saw the school bus and had a good first day of summer school.

Poor Bobby, his day even got worse when I took him to a new building yesterday afternoon.  He happily walked in with me until his ABA therapist walked out into the hallway.  He looked like, "what is she doing here?????!!!!!!!"  This was his first appointment in her new office.  She moved from Cheat Lake to Westover, which is great for us, much closer, but not what Bobby was expecting when we went into this new location.

When we got home, Bobby went downstairs to the media room and watched back to back Elmo videos on the big screen and laid stretched out of the couch.  I had to keep checking on him to make sure that he wasn't napping.  He did stay awake.  He didn't eat much dinner and kept saying "nighty night" starting about 6:00.

This was Bobby on the couch last night at 8:00 pm.  I finally let him go to bed at 8:30 and he was asleep by 9:00.  He woke up on his own at 7:00 am in a good mood and was happy to get ready for school.

Deep in thought about the upcoming school day.

Super ready to go ride the "SCHOOL BUS"!!!!!

I can't even believe it, but guess what Bobby...tomorrow is a school holiday, WV Day, so no school on the 3rd day of school!!

Shopping Fun?!?!

I had two choices:  1)  Starve to death.  2)  Take Bobby to the grocery store with me.  Which to do, which to do.  Obviously we are far from starving to death, but one of our major goals to work on over the summer with Bobby is shopping.  He has been doing fairly well with me lately at Giant Eagle, but we never get more than 10 items because generally all of the check out lanes have lines and we head over to the self checkout because at least one lane is always free.  In case you don't know, waiting is Bobby's least favorite friend.

Yesterday, we got in the car and drove to the University Town Center Giant Eagle to get a full load of groceries.  Our first obstacle was in front of the store where Bobby wanted the big, blue shopping cart with 2 steering wheels in the front.  "NO WAY Bobby.  That cart is way too hard to steer and push."  He started to try and climb up in.  "Come on Bobby you are not getting in that thing because I will never be able to get you out!!!!"

The hardest, most extremely difficult part of shopping with Bobby is that I have to hold his hand at ALL times.  He is dying to dart off from me and get to the double doors and into the stockroom areas.  It is a lot of fun to try and put produce into the plastic bags with one hand (and try opening them with one hand!!) all  while trying to keep Bobby from picking up things, licking things, pulling all of the bags off in one long strip.  This definitely makes me wash produce VERY well.  Have any other kids been through licking things???!!! FYI-I buy the things that Bobby licks, just can't myself leave it for someone else.

He is just starting to realize that if he wants something, all that he has to do is put it into the back of the cart and it comes home with us.  But there are one or two coveted things that he has to keep in his hand because he needs to make sure that said item is coming with us.  So, picture us---me pushing a cart with one hand, holding Bobby's hand with my other hand and Bobby is carrying a bag of Cheetos in the other hand.

We managed pretty well with only one store causality (sorry Giant Eagle about the box of opened spaghetti noodles shoved onto the bottom shelf.  Oops!!

NOOOO!!  We are going to have to wait in line.  There is no way I am self checking out a whole cart full of groceries one handed.  There is one line with someone who is semi close to being finished.  I can actually start unloading onto the belt.  Of course, of course, of course...she can't figure out how to work the little box where you slide your debit/credit card and the clerk has to come around and fix it.  "How much did that ring up for?  I thought the sign said it was $_.__ ." (Thoughts going through my head:  NOOOOOOOOOOO.  Please don't go do a price check!!!!!!!!!  Keep Bobby busy!!  "Help Mommy put these on here.  Bobby, 'what is this?'")  Finally the woman leaves and the boy bags our groceries and thankfully he is a quick checker.

Bobby has learned one of the great lessons in life---there is candy in the check out lanes.  Even though he doesn't like sweets, he has one candy of choice-ring pops.  The checker hands Bobby his ring pop and the world is in perfect harmony.

We get to the car with no issues.  Bobby get right into this seat, fastens his seat belt and I hand him his Ring Pop.  I put the groceries into the trunk and we are headed home.  Yeah, we did it.  A full load of groceries, just Bobby and me!!!!!  Thank you in advance to all of you who are about ready to comment that you would be more than happy to come and watch Bobby while I go grocery shopping.  This is something that he has to learn how to do and isn't going to learn unless we get out and practice.

Blue Ring Pop tongue!!

We came home and baked pepperoni rolls, which are one of Bobby's newly preferred foods.  However, he will only eat homemade ones, of course!!  Now that I have spent 2 hours today trying to download pictures to this blog posting, I am gonna go bang my head against a wall and be glad that at least 2 downloaded.

OUTSIDE!!!!

Outside is one of the words that Bobby uses correctly 100% of the time because it is such a highly desirable request.  In the past 2 days, we have spent 20+ hours outside (come on Bobby, don't you want to go inside and watch some tv!!).  The pros: the temps have been in the high 60s, low 70s (perfect for sitting outside, however, bad for swimming); Bobby has been sleeping like an angel, sleeping until at least 8 am!!  Love this part!!!  Cons:  my allergies are killing me!

Bob took a couple of days off of work and decided to put some mulch around the tree by Bobby's playground, which has ended up being a big project with a three tiered paver circle around the tree which will be filled with dirt, much and plants.  So much for a little job that should take a couple of hours.

First, off to get the mulch.  Bobby was very happy to "help" Daddy with the mulching.

Bobby decided that he would use the back of the trailer as a sliding board...

Bobby opened all of the car doors and Zoi jumped right into the backseat (Finally, I'm going for a ride and they are NOT going to put my in the back behind a barrier!!).

Freedom!!!

"KILL THE RABBIT!!  KILL THE RABBIT!!!"

Thankfully, she didn't get anything.  Zoi has been doing great being off of the leash, until yesterday when  she ran off into the woods and was gone for about 45 minutes.  She came back wet and yucky and then rolled around in Bobby's dirt pile to cool herself off.  Aaahh, great times.  She got an outdoor shower followed later in the day by a hair clipping.

So happy to be outside!!  "Come on Daddy, open this for me..."

"Thanks Daddy.  High Five!!"

"Come on Daddy, 'putch' me."

It finally happened yesterday...the chain on the glider broke while Bobby was riding.  Thankfully, he was just sitting, not riding high like in the picture.  The chain is covered by a plastic sleeve, which filled with water over time and the thin chain just rusted through.  I was shocked how thin the chain actually is.  Daddy has to go back to Lowe's (I'm pretty sure that we are keeping the one closest to our house in business) and get some new chain.  Bobby wasn't hurt, didn't even cry.  He was mad since he wanted to swing, but got over it easily.

To the far right of our house (if you are driving up our hill facing our house) we have a fire pit area where Bobby likes to play.  He has a couple of dirt piles that he has made where he spends a lot of time.  Bobby kept saying "putch" to us and I finally figured out what he wanted.  When Bobby was a couple of years old Bob put a tire swing into a tree by the fire pit.  Bob took it down 2-3 years ago because Bobby had zero interest in the swing.  Apparently, we need to keep everything always because there is just no telling when Bobby will decide when he wants something!!  Sorry Bobby the swing is gone.

The swing used to hang right where Bobby is standing.

Anyone who really knows Bobby knows that no day outside is going to be spent without riding the Rhino.  I jumped aboard and got out on the trail above our house so that I could get some pictures of the boys riding.

Sorry Ladies, he's ALL mine!!!!!!