Our Snowy Valentine

When you live in autism land, your days tend to be like Groundhog Day.  Kids with autism generally like predictability, so we tend to do the same activities over and over.  Our days honestly tend to look just like the one before.  We are always beyond excited when we find a new activity that is acceptable to add to the rotation.

The sameness of this winter has been almost mind numbing, the rest of the region is finding out what it is like to live in autism land.  It's the same story...2+ inches of snow predicted, which tends to be 4+ inches of snow.  We haven't seen the grass that are our yards for weeks.  The kids have been averaging going to school 2 days a week with those days having a great chance of being 2 hour delays.  Here's the view from my kitchen this morning.....

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and the kids didn't have school.  I kept reading on facebook how upset many kids were because they were going to miss their Valentine's parties.  Yes, this is how bored we all are....kids are upset because they aren't going to school!  Bobby, yeah, he could care less about a party, but he is stir crazy like the rest of us.  How many days can you spend inside your house???!!!!

The good thing about yesterday....the temps were in the lower 30's, meaning the snow was clearing off of the roads that were treated.  Bobby's caseworker called yesterday morning to see if she could come and do his home visit earlier in the day since he was off of school.  Well, she couldn't make our hill and I had to go pick her up down the road from a gas station parking lot.  When I got to the main road, it was clear and I didn't have any trouble on our hill, Daddy bought me the best snow tires he could find!!  After I took her back to her car and came back home, we decided to get out of the house.

Grandma Carolyn has been staying with us for a few days because she has been stuck in her house through all of this snow by herself.  She was bored so Bobby and I went and picked her up before the snowstorm before the one we had last night.  Funny, I don't even remember when that was...the days are alllllll runnnnning together!!!!

Grandma, Bobby and I got out of the house yesterday!!  Whoo Hoo!!  We stopped at Barnes and Noble so that Grandma could run in a buy a new puzzle.  As soon as I pulled into the parking space, Bobby took off his seat belt....HE WAS GOING IN!!!!!!  I took Bobby while Grandma did her shopping, he had a mission in his head as soon as we walked through the doors.  He walked at a very fast pace until he made it to his desired location...the music and movie section.  He walked straight to the back right corner wall, stopped and said "ELMO."  He couldn't reach them because they were on the top shelf, so I pulled a few different titles off of the shelf and he picked the one that he wanted, which funny enough, he doesn't already own.  We went to the front of the store and found Grandma checking out.  She was so excited that he picked out something that she wanted to buy it for him for a Valentine gift.  He carried his new movie out to the car and held it in his hand.

I also needed to run into Sam's Club.  When I pulled into the parking space there, he said "I'll be right back."  This means, you run in and get what you need Mommy, Grandma and I will be right here waiting for you when you get back.  He just does not want to go into that store.  He knows what he likes!!  I found a couple of Sam's Club specials to be our Valentine's dinner.

 Cupcakes so that Bobby could blow out some holiday candles!!  Fisherman's Seafood feast....

Zoi cracked us up....she waited patiently right beside Daddy just praying that she would get some scraps....

 She looks so pitiful....like, I've been such a good girl Daddy...ppppllllleeeaaaassssseeeeee!!!

Yes, she got a couple of bites and I took the broth and put it on her dog food....she gobbled it all up!

More pictures of us playing in the snow (yes, I know if you follow Bobby's World on facebook that you have already seen these....sorry, I got nothing else going on!!!)........

 Good snowball snow.

 Mommy and Bobby doing a little sledding.

 Resting on a snow pile.

 Building a snowman with Grandma.

 Watching me to see if I am watching him, so that he can.....

 knock the snowman's head off.

 Catching snowballs that Daddy is throwing.

Yes, Bobby got to blow out some holiday candles on the Valentine's cupcakes.  Our snowy Valentine's Day!!!

The Relentless Winter

It's been quite a while since I've blogged.  Why, you may ask.  The reason....this long snowy winter is keeping up locked up inside our house with nothing really blog worthy going on.  I have already posted all of the following pictures on the Bobby's World facebook page, but I like to have them all in one place so that this summer when it is so hot, I can look back at all of these snowy pictures and be thankful for the heat.  This morning is our 8th day off of school this January, with only one of these being a scheduled day off.  Guess what??!!  To make things even more fun, more snow today, 2-4 more inches on Saturday and then a chance of a big snow maker on Monday.  The cherry on the top of this snow sundae...the bitter cold temps.  Ahhh, the fun of this relentless winter is never ending.

Yesterday Daddy took Bobby outside to play.  Funny when the temp tops off at 15 degrees and you think, why yes it is definitely warm enough to get out of the house for a little while.  At least the sun was shining yesterday and it made being outside much more bearable.

 This light fluffy snow is great sledding snow.  Bobby figured out on his own that he could go just fine without a sled.  He went down the big hill that is our front yard numerous times and had a blast.

 He would stop on his way back up the hill and sit down and play in the snow.

 Daddy went to help him get back up the hill.  Bobby finally had to get on all fours and crawl in some places, just too slick.

Of course, Zoi had to be outside too.  She had lots of fun playing in the snow with Daddy.

 A rite of passage in a kids life...eating snow, notice that it is indeed white snow!!

 He's just so happy outside.

 Daddy got in on the sled-less sled riding action.  Please Lord, don't let him hurt himself!!

 Zoi is keeping her eye on Bobby.  Don't go too far buddy.

The boys have spent a good bit of time in the past few days in the Rhino trying to keep our hill as clear as they can.  This is heaven to Bobby, riding in the Rhino with Daddy!!

 However, when the Rhino riding is complete, Bobby isn't coming right inside, he is going to play outside...no matter how cold and how much snow is falling.

 Helping to clear the sidewalk.

 Yes, I'll say it again....he is so happy when he is outside.

 Zoi is as much of a snow bunny as Bobby.

Not all of our time on snow days is spent outside.  Mommy has to keep finding new ways to keep Bobby occupied.  One day we had a tent over the kitchen table.

 Zoi wanted to play in the tent too, but Bobby declared it a tent for one.

A boy and his dog just laying around on the floor....

Earlier in the month I brought the mattress from Bobby's bed into the living room and put it in the middle of our sectional couch.  He spent hours camped out on the bed watching his favorite videos.

I have tons more pictures of Bobby playing in the snow from the past few weeks and from the way it looks, I'll have tons more in the upcoming days, so sorry if I post way too many, but I have nothing else to do!!!!  Hope that all of my local friends are surviving the snow days without too much chaos. Come on Spring, we miss you.