Ahhhhhhh, there is silence in the house!!! Bobby just got on the school bus and just like that, our routine is back!!!!! What a long two week break it has been!! In case you don't know much about autism.....routine, routine, routine is super duper important!!
The one thing that has helped historically over Christmas break is that Bobby usually gets to play in the snow, something that he loves. Well, this year, not so much. 60's and rain. Lots and lots of rain. Not fun to play in. The lack of outside play also had a much unwanted side effect.......lack of sleep. Bobby NEEDS the outdoors!! I'm absolutely mean this! He NEEDS to be outside. When he doesn't get outdoor time, his sleep decreases. Over this break, his sleep decreased TREMENDOUSLY!! He woke up many, many times at 1 am and 2 am for the day!! Talk about fun for Mom and Dad!!!!
Tired or not, the holidays continued. Ashley and Chris made it to WV!!!! We all went to Grandma's house for Christmas Eve dinner part 2. It wasn't actually Christmas Eve, but it felt like it. Love big family meals. This time, spaghetti and meatballs. Yum-O!! Funny enough, zero pictures of the meal. Too excited rehashing all of the details of the engagement to get out a camera.
Christmas morning part 2 happened the next day. This time, they all came to our house for brunch and PRESENTS!!! Bobby hadn't opened all of his Santa gifts, so he quite a few gifts to open.
This was the definitely the funniest gift, which was from Chris and Ashley.......
It's funny......because it's true!!!!!! LOL!!!! Bobby still wasn't interested in opening gifts, but he did sit and open everything in one sitting with verbal prompting. He was even excited with what was under the wrapping paper, but still was just uninterested. The table that Daddy made for him is still by far his favorite gift. He has played with the new table daily.
A couple of boxes of these trestle sets from Santa have also been a huge hit!!! Santa is figuring out what Bobby likes and will actually play with!
Everyone else did a great job of opening their gifts, no verbal prompting needed!!
Now that Ashley is engaged, she got cookbooks for Christmas!! However, it's something she asked for before she knew the question was coming!
Now that Chris wants to be a member of our family, it was time........he had to get some WV Mountaineer apparel. He is now allowed within the state borders, he has a WV shirt and hat!!
A fun lunch box for Ashley. Zoi never left the fun, she's always right in the middle!!
After brunch, the games began.....
Later in the day, the kids (Daddy included) went to see STAR WARS!!!!
Finally, finally, finally the rain stopped!!! The temps dropped some, but the rain went away. As soon as it stopped, we got Bobby OUTSIDE!!!
Even though we had been up since 2, we were out walking on the rail trail. Fresh air for Bobby!! We stopped off at the grocery store on our way home to pick up something fun for dinner.
After dinner, we all moved to the living room and watched THE INTERN. Such a great movie for a multi-generational audience. What a great evening!!
What is Bobby so excited about??? He is watching the neighbor kids riding their 4 wheeler. For some reason, this made him flap and clap and squeal with laughter!! Whatever! We could sit outside and watch him be this happy watching others for hours....and we did.
Ashley and Chris went back home to North Carolina....boo!! We were so tired that New Years Eve and New Years Day came and went with very little fanfare. I did make a banana cake for Bobby so that he could blow out his holiday candles.
You MUST clap after all of the candles are out!! This is a big rule in Bobby's World!!
We got Bobby out and about as much as we could...
The playground is always a hit!
We came up with a fun activity for Bobby that we knew he would love. We took a short road trip to one of Bobby's favorite places.....South Hills Village in Pittsburgh! Riding the escalators and glass elevator as long as he wanted was our only agenda for the day.
The only other thing that we did while we were at the mall was have some lunch at the food court. Bobby said all done and then we left. It is just amazing how happy riding these things makes this boy. His own personal Disney without the lines!
Same playground, same pictures, different outfits!
After we left the playground this time, I noticed that the tennis courts were empty as we were driving by. I pulled over, got his nerf soccer ball out of the car and we went into the courts for a little soccer fun. Amazingly, he was into it!! We kicked the ball back and forth for about 15 minutes. FUN!!!
I'm happy to say, the Christmas tree is down and all of the decorations are put away in their storage containers until next November. This is the one that I always miss the most.....because it is from all of my friends and family.....
We made it!!! Christmas break is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bobby actually had to wear his winter coat this morning, this first time this season. We woke to snow on the ground and reports of accidents all over the place, even some school buses stuck in ditches. Why oh why does this weather always come at the worst times??? Thankfully, we didn't have any trouble.
HAPPY 2016!
