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.

Our Pinterest Christmas

It's Bob's turn to be sick in the Smith household.  I am so ready for this winter to be OVER!!!  What to do, what to do, what to do while Bob is in bed sleeping.  Hummmm.  Running the vacuum is out...too bad, that would have been big fun!!  I really am trying hard to be quiet.  I'm already bored watching TV.  It's way to cold to go shopping and get in and out of the car.  I'll have to go out soon enough to pick up Bobby from school and take him to occupational therapy before heading home.  Finally, I started looking through pictures on my computer and decided that I would sit down and blog about our Pinterest Christmas.

It all started in autumn when my mom saw a picture of some homemade snowmen on Pinterest that she said that she wanted.  Me:  "I'll make them for you for your Christmas present!!"  A minute later into the conversation, we decided that we would make homemade presents for everyone this year for Christmas (except for Bobby).  Afterall, why are we pinning all of these things on Pinterest if we aren't going to do anything with them!!

The snowmen were the first crafts that I made.  The crazy part is that I really enjoyed making them.  Bob had to help me because I needed wood cut.  He looked at the directions and said that we had that size lumber leftover from our pool deck.  Even better, it had been left outside for the past 2 years so it already had the weathered look that we were looking for!!  He cut the boards to the specific sizes and we had enough lumber to make three snowmen without buying anything.  Score!!  Bob even went downstairs and found a gallon of paint that was perfect for the snowmen again without buying anything.  So far, so good!!

 Glad that it was warm enough outside to cut, paint and glue the wood without any trouble.

 I found paint pens at Wal-mart that made painting the faces very easy.

The directions called for the face piece to be up and down (like the two in the back), but I tried the last one with the face sideways and decided that I liked it better.  There was another piece of lumber hanging around that was much larger and I asked Bob if he could cut the wood the same way to make a larger snowman....and he was successful.  It ended up being very, very heavy so I decided to keep it since it was going to be difficult to give as a gift.  Bob figured out that there were enough scraps from the first 3 snowmen to make one more, so I ended up making 5 snowmen total.

If you are interested in the blog posting with pattern for these snowmen:
http://www.soyouthinkyourecrafty.com/2011/12/4x4-no-melt-snowman-tutorial-guest-post/

The next craft that I worked on was not from Pinterest, but a gift that Grandma Carolyn has been receiving from us for a few years.  Kaitlin said that she wanted one too the last time she was visiting so this year I made two.

A scrapbook calendar from a kit that I get every year at Michael's.

 Everything you need to make the calendar is in the kit, except for your pictures and adhesive.  I have found that adhesive squares (or glue dots) and tacky glue make this process much easier.

 There are step by step directions for each page.

Here are some of the finished pages...

Next on my crafting agenda...wreathes.  I saw a few on Pinterest that I liked that you could purchase for $150.00+.  What????!!!!  $150, $176 for wreathes!!  Here are the two that I made for around $30...

I also made some Christmas tree ornaments featuring pictures of my favorite subject...Bobby...but for some reason I can't find the pictures of them on my computer.  Humm, wonder where they went??!!

Speaking of Bobby, I made get into the action of making homemade Christmas presents!!!  My favorite gifts that we gave this holiday by far were a Pinterest craft.  I never imagined how well that Mr. Bobby would do with his craft!!  He sat down and worked like a champ after I got everything ready...

 He sat down and completed 3 perfect snowflake canvases!!!

 Without any direction, he swirled the paint around and kept putting the side of the brush down onto the canvas giving the picture texture.

 The finished product...

I know that I am biased, but this is super cute!!!!!  I'm still amazed at what a great job he did!!!  Here is the Pinterest blog where I got this cute idea...
http://tenkidsandadog.blogspot.com/2010/01/preschool-snowflake-masterpiece.html

I also had Bobby help with one part of his teacher and therapists gifts...

Honestly, I didn't really even give him directions, he figured it out for himself.

He even stuffed the tree tops!

He then put the tree top on.  What a great job big guy!!!

Finally, my last homemade Christmas gift.  It wasn't a Pinterest idea.  Instead I decided to repurpose Bobby's table and chairs that he has outgrown and made it girl friendly for my nieces...

 
Here is Bobby's chair when it was boy friendly, but that just won't do for two little girls!!

Much better for girls.  Now the finished product...

Now the horrible part of this table and chair gift...it is still in my garage.  My family needs to stay well so that I can get this delivered!!  Oh, what a sick winter this has been in Bobby's World.

I really enjoyed making all of these gifts, but next time I need to start much earlier, so that it doesn't end up being a big 'ol chore the closer it gets to Christmas.  After all, there is baking, wrapping, programs...........all going on at the same time!!  Now, I need to find a spring craft to do.  Wonder if my family will be as involved??

TV Time

What do you do for an uber-cranky boy with an upper respiratory infection....well, make him his very own "tv area" in the living room...

Bob and I had about enough of watching Blue's Clues and Elmo's World and Bobby didn't want to hang out upstairs by himself, so Bob brought down our old tv and dvd player and I grabbed Bobby's new beanbag and all of the bed pillows and a tv room was made!!

Looks like he likes it!!

Poor Zoi is like a jealous sibling...."this boy gets everything!!"  The doctor said no school for Bobby tomorrow.  Hopefully we will get back to normal by Tuesday.  Fingers crossed!!!!!