Merry Christmas 2015----Part Two!!

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!

Christmas 2015----part 1

"You're going to have to take me to get stitches."

Yes, my heart sank before I turned around and saw Daddy with his hand wrapped in a towel.  The towel was one that I kept downstairs in our basement to dry Zoi off when she came in out of the rain. The towel was blood soaked.  He had been in the basement working on prepping our concrete floor for new flooring and was grinding some dried glue off of the floor.

It's amazing how fast thoughts can spin around in your head.  It was 8 pm, the Tuesday before Christmas,  I had just gotten out of the shower and was standing in my pj's in the kitchen with wet hair.  I had just given Bobby night time cold medicine because he was so congested from a cold, that he had been having difficulty sleeping the past few nights.

First thought, OH MY GOD DADDY IS HURT.  I know this because, getting him to the doctor is a major feat, and for him to ask to go.......oh no!!!!

Second thought, there is no way I can take Bobby into the hospital to wait on Daddy.  Third thought, I don't have time to take Bobby somewhere or wait for someone to come and help with him.  Forth thought, run upstairs and get dressed!!!  Oh, get Bobby dressed too.

Less than 5 minutes later we were on the way to the doctor.  Drove to urgent care first.....the staff was getting into their cars, they closed at 8....we were 20 minutes too late!!  So we were off to the hospital.  Had no other option than to let Daddy out at the emergency room door and go park the car with Bobby and wait in the car.

30 minutes later he texted me. He had been to xray and his cut was cleaned.  I was happy!!  This was going to be much quicker than I had thought!!  Plus, he was texting me....it must have been his left hand he hurt, I couldn't recall.

Even though Bobby had never been to the back part of this building, he knew exactly where he was. All of his doctors used to be located in the front of the building and he wanted to go in and "push the button!!  ELL-EEE-VA-TORE!!"   Uh, no Bobby, it is 9 pm and you are not going to go run around the hospital and ride the elevators.

"Pee pee potty!!!"  Fine, with all of this stress, Mommy has to go too.  Obviously I hadn't been to the emergency room in years, because now there is an armed police officer and metal detectors to go through to get in.  Darn, I'd hoped to not talk with anyone with my half wet hair.  Had to explain Bobby's Project Lifesaver bracelet, which by the way, did NOT set the detector off, shocking!!

Back to the car to listen to Laurie Berkner's Christmas for the millionth time!!

 All in all everything went well.  However, it took much longer than any of us would have liked.  I didn't want to leave and wait at home (we live 10 minutes away), because I knew in my head that as soon as I left, he would be finished, Bobby would be asleep, I'd have to wake him and all hell would break loose!!  So we stayed.  Daddy walked out of the emergency room at 11:30.....3 long hours for all of us!!  He texted me pics of his finger, but I'll spare you those!!  I'll also spare you the details about the actual visit too....I for one have a very weak stomach.

 Last year we were at the hospital around this time getting Bobby's cast removed, this year getting stitches in Daddy's finger, next year.....I'm wrapping myself in bubble wrap now!!

It has been unseasonably warm this Christmas.  We haven't had our winter coats on yet!! Bobby was bored on Christmas Eve day so I took him to the playground and let him wear his shorts.  I made the mistake of wearing a sweatshirt and was burning up.

We went home and got ready to go to Grandma's for our Christmas Eve tradition.  Super fun thing happened.....Santa came on a firetruck to say hi to all of the kids in her town.

 Aunt Mimi walked Bobby out to Santa so I could get some pics!!

 Candy cane gift was perfect!!

 Grandma Carolyn in her cute Christmas apron.

 After our annual prime rib dinner, we opened a few gifts.  However, my niece and her fiance are coming in on the 27th from North Carolina.  Gee, it seems like we just saw them!!  So, most of our gifts are still setting under the tree waiting for Christmas Part 2!!!

 Grandma is helping Kaden search for the Christmas pickle hidden in the tree!!

 Bobby loved the sleigh bells. Yeah, those are staying at Grandmas!!

 After gifts it was time to go home and get ready for Santa's arrival!!

Every year, Zoi does a great job of protecting the gifts after Santa's arrival to make sure that all is OK for Bobby on Christmas morning!!

A month or so ago, I woke up with an idea for a gift for Bobby.  I explained my idea to Daddy and he implemented!!  He built Bobby a platform to put in his bedroom to build his roads and bridges and line up all of his favorite toys.  Daddy built it all with scrap wood that he already had!!  

BOBBY LOVED/LOVES IT!!!!

 He didn't want to leave his room and open the rest of his gifts.  I went and gathered a few gifts that he would like for his new platform. He opened them and immediately put them to use!!

He finally came down and opened a couple more of his Santa gifts, but didn't have much interested in opening any more.  So they are under the tree with the rest of our gifts waiting for Ashley and Chris to be here!!  Zoi, on the other hand, had NO problem opening her gift!!

TREATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gathering up things right now to head back to Grandma's house for Part 2 of Christmas 2015!!  It's kind of nice that it's not all over in one day!! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!