Awwwww, Come On!!!

It's official, this winter can (give me a second, I'm trying to think of something strong enough without being offensive)...suck my big toe!!  There, I've said it.  Sorry if I offended anyone!!  LOL!

Yes, the proceeding statement means that Bobby is once again sick with a cold.  Thank God that at least this time it isn't the full fledged flu.  Poor guy would be much better off if he knew how to blow his nose.  But, alas, he does not.  He instead sucks it inward making it worse.  Since he is having such a hard time breathing through his nose, he has been awake the past two nights at 2:00 am.  Whoo Hoo!!  A parent's favorite wake up time!  At least Sunday night/Monday morning he went back to sleep at 5:00 and slept until 7:00 and then went to school.  But he never fell back to sleep last night so he got to stay home.  He napped today from 12:30-4:00 and now I have my fingers crossed that he, well really all of us, are able to get some sleep tonight.

Yesterday after school Daddy took Bobby outside to play hoping to blow some of the crud out of his head.  Bobby loved it!  Of course I went out with my camera to snap some shots of my favorite subject...

Nothing says fun like playing in the dead, dirty, dry leaves!!!

 Look at that smile.....

Still smiling...

Yes, still smiling....

While Dad's Away.....Grandma Came To Stay

Happy Valentine's Day Daddy...you get a 4 day golf trip to SC!  Sorry that it snowed 2 inches in South Carolina...that almost never happens!!!

Bob left on Valentine's Day morning for a golf trip with some work peeps and since it was Grandma Carolyn's long weekend off of work, she came to stay with Bobby and me for a couple of days.  Bobby was excited when Grandma came with me to school to pick him up.  After a stop off at therapy it was time to go home and open all of Bobby's gifts.

Bobby leaves school everyday at 2:00 and the class party didn't start until 2:30, so Bobby brought his class giftbags home to open.  Yes, there is probably one in there from Mommy and Daddy too.

Bobby saw the plastic slinky in front that came home from school and had zero interest in opening any of the gifts.

We will let Grandma Carolyn open her gift so that Bobby can see how it's done.  OK Zoi, there is nothing in that bag for you.

 I had to start the opening process for Bobby, but once he saw that there was a bag of potato chips involved he immediately started helping.

 After a long day of school and therapy, Bobby had to sit down and watch his iPad while opening the rest of his gifts.

 He wasn't going to set down the plastic slinky in front of him long enough to open this box, until he finally saw what was inside and the plastic slinky was slung over his head so that he could give his attention to....

 the perfection that is a metal slinky.  Ahhh, it smells so good!!!

Ring Pops!!!  Now we're talking.  I hope that there is a blue one in here.

 Time for the Valentine cards from his classmates.

 He looked through them for a total of a second and a half.

Hope that I can stay out of the candy!!!  We actually have plans for a great Valentine's Day dinner out on the town that Bobby can go to as well.....

 A gourmet dinner at McDonald's for McTeacher's Night.  Some of the teachers and staff from Bobby's school were "working" at the Westover McDonald's from 4-7 as a school fundraiser.

 Fries, nuggets and apple slices.  Boy that makes Bobby smile...

This day really wore Bobby out.  I went upstairs to check on him because he was being so quiet.  This is what I found...

Good night Bobby.

Grandma Carolyn and I went shopping and out to eat while Bobby was in school.  I found some new spring decor for my dinning room shelf...

These colorful birds make me smile.

Earlier in the week before Daddy left we had some warmer weather with a LOT of wind which blew over our neighbors tree into the middle of our road.  Daddy had to go get it out of the way, with some help from our neighbor...

Bobby had some fun playing outside and for some reason the umbrella out of Mommy's car became the entertainment...

 Daddy was right there to show Bobby how to open it all by himself.

 Look how happy this makes him!!!

 Zoi has had enough of all of this umbrella craziness and is going keep on eye on this situation before all of this wildness gets out of control.

 She is the official umbrella guardian.

UH OH Zoi, Bobby got the umbrella again!!!  Can't keep him from having this much fun!!!

He thinks that I can't see him behind these bushes taking his coat off!!!

 Put your coat on young man!!!

He listens so well.  Time to go in for dinner.

Now look at this laziness!  He took his grilled cheese over and put it on the coffee table, pulled the table over to the couch so that he could lay down and eat.  Bobby, you are going to make a great teenager.  

I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER!!!!!!!!

First, it is important for this story to know that Bobby has been learning the word "wait" and what it means.  Every day in behavioral therapy and at school Bobby is being prompted with a wait card or with a hand held out it a stop motion and then he has to wait for a period of time (generally 30 seconds since we are just starting this process).  He does best when he has a specific place to wait, generally a chair.  Learning to wait is a huge skill for Bobby to learn because his impulse control skills are extremely, extremely, extremely limited.

And now for the rest of the story....

Finally, it is February and time for our favorite winter activity...Tiny Tykes Tumbling at the West Virginia Gymnastics training center.  Oh how Bobby and his peers are in dire need of a winter activity where they work off some of their energy.  We pulled up to the gym about 10 minutes early so we were planning to sit in the car for awhile.  Bobby had other plans, he was climbing all over the car trying to get a door open because he wanted to go jump.

Bob and I took Bobby into the gym, well really we kept up with him while he made his way into the building.  One of the Stepping Stones staffers was in the waiting room area, in front of the door that leads into the gym, with the rest of the Tiny Tykes kids making sure that everyone had their registration forms filled out.  Another staffer was inside the gym with the group of WVU students who were going to be paired up with all of the kids to be their helper for the tumbling fun.

Bobby was bouncing as he went into the building, saying "you jump, you jump."  I took him to the bathroom and got his shoes and coat off to be prepared for when it is finally time to go in and JUMP. This is the perfect time/place to work on waiting.  Our audience is a group of parents of other special needs children who are in no way going to judge Bobby's behavior.  I brought him over to a chair, verbally and gesturally prompted him to sit and wait.  All in all, Bobby sat for 3-4 minutes and waited, he got up a few times so Bob and I had to wrangle him back to his seat.  But 3-4 minutes of waiting to Bobby is like a couple of hours to the rest of us.

Bobby finally made it to the point where he just could NOT wait any longer!!  He got up out of his seat, made his way through Bob and me, then made it through the Stepping Stones staffer in front of the door, opened the door into the gym, made it through the group of WVU students (with me chasing behind him) and finally through the Stepping Stones staffer, Kim, that has known Bobby since he was 4 years old...we were all laughing and I was hearing George Michael's song FREEDOM playing in my head.  He ran, full force, past all of these people, through the lines of balance beams and finally made it to his destination...the big trampoline.  Finally, time to JUMP!!!!!!  Kim had a couple WVU students go over to the trampoline with him and Bobby was in heaven.

 Bobby and his helpers on the tumble track.  It is so dark and they are moving so fast inside the gymnastics center that I don't get very good pictures.

Bobby must have been thrown into the pits, because he doesn't willingly jump in...

Sonny got thrown in...

Lastly a couple of pics of some of Bobby's friends....

Bobby had a great evening when we got home!!  5 more Tiny Tykes tumbling classes left!!!

B O R E D

Cabin fever is in full gear in the Smith household.  Bob is still sick.  It is freezing cold outside with more snow in the forecast (please let it pass us by).  I had to pull out some Mommy tricks today.  First up, homemade play dough...

Making handprints

Roll baby roll

Mommy got to fill that twirly thing up with dough over and over and over....

Zoi is always close by.

The falling snow was very distracting.

Back to the twirly toy.

Zoi taking a little nap.

The next super fun activity....

Who knew that painters tape could be so much fun??

Mommy started the doorway and Bobby quickly took over...

Peek-a-boo

He started in the doorway and kept on going through the living room, down the hallway...

to the kitchen table, to the roller coaster, across the couch....

Now I have to figure out something new and fun for tomorrow.