Play with me Daddy

There are always toys that end up on Santa's list or we buy for birthday presents because you know that they will love them.  After a couple of days of the mess that these beloved toys make, they somehow make it to the top shelf of a closet to save Mom's sanity.  Bobby found his million piece marble maze that was shoved in the back of the hall closet in a grocery store tote.  He played with the tubes for a while, but then decided that he wanted it put together.  Something amazing happened, he didn't bring it to Mommy, he brought it to Daddy to put together!!  Yeah Me!!

Bobby is helping...

Daddy, it isn't tall enough...

Perfection!!  Thanks Dad!!

Let's Make Cake/Happy Birthday Daddy

Bobby came into the kitchen to help me make a cake for Daddy's birthday.  First, you empty the box mix into the mixing bowl...

Then you put your hands into the mix, because that's the way I roll...

Next, add the water...

Then add the oil.  I'll spare you the pictures of his hands in the bowl after each process!!

Last, but not least, add 3 eggs...

Mix all of the ingredients with a spoon...

and runaway before Mommy turns the mixer on!!!!

While the cakes were cooling, I heard a big boom in the fridge.  Somehow a can of Coke froze in the fridge and exploded.  I had to empty the fridge and clean it out, so my tolerance level was much, much, much lower.  Therefore, I went ahead and iced the cake by myself.

All cakes to Bobby are birthday cakes and he loves to blow out birthday candles.  Actually, all candles should be blown out according to Bobby, which is not fun during a power outage!!   We usually sing Happy Birthday and light the candles multipe times so that Bobby can blow them out again.

In-home therapy fun

We finally started an in-home therapy program with Bobby this week.  He's not that excited, but I am!!

Yes, this is Bobby whining during one of his therapy breaks.

Bobby met Kathleen last summer when she was a student at WVU.  She has since graduated and only has to take her test to get her BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analysist).  Bobby knew exactly who she was when she walked through the door and what that meant!!! 

As soon as she walked in, they sat down and got to work so that Bobby would know when she is here, they are going to work.  Bobby fussed and whined the majority of the time that they worked together, but he never got up from his seat!!  A major victory. 

Kathleen is working on ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) with Bobby.  She is also teaching me how to work with him and writing programs for me to work on when she is not here.  I have been sitting at this table with Bobby working for the past year and I don't have any idea how to move on to the next step, and that is why Kathleen is here!!  Since Bobby had all of the medicine changes this year, which lead to some major behavioral issues, we took a few steps back starting in spring and focused on just getting Bobby to sit.  I felt successful when I watched Bobby and Kathleen work and he stayed seated. 

You may have noticed the poker chips and cards on the top of the table.  Bobby's work and break cards are velcroed at the top.  During a work card, he has to sit and work, during a break card, he gets a 2 minute break.  When the timer goes off and break is over, Bobby generally comes back to his seat just by hearing the timer.  During each work session, he has 10 poker chips and each time that he correctly completes a task that is asked of him, he gets to take a chip off and after all 10 chips are removed, he gets his 2 minute break.  The work/break cards show him visually how many more times he has to come back to the table and work, while the poker chips visually show him how much work that he has to do during each work session.  Sounds complicated I know, but it really isn't and Bobby loves to pull the cards and chips off of the velcro and for some reason he (and many other kids with autism) need this visual indicator of the work expected of them. 

Kathleen will be coming 2 times a week to work with Bobby and I will be working on the programs every other day.  Since Bobby is also receiving ABA at school this year, I am hoping that he starts improving educationally!!

Happy Bobby-work is over for the day!!  Time for Elmo!!

Halloween Through The Years

It has been raining nonstop for 2 days, Bob is back at the academy for a couple of days, Bobby is watching Elmo, so I have been playing on the computer.  I started looking through pictures and thought that I would share Bobby's Halloween costumes.  The first couple were before I got a digital camera and I decided that it was just easier to take a pic of the pic rather than go upstairs and scan the pics, so sorry about the quality of a couple of the pics.

Our baby bee...

A 1 1/2 year old monkey....

A 2 1/2 year old bug...

He then became more manly, a firefighter!!

He loved his Red Power Ranger costume and actually put the mask on...

Last year he was an astronaut.  It was so cold on Trick or Treat night that he had to wear a jacket overtop.

 I also came across this last pic that I just love and wanted to share...

Aloha...one more time

Uncle Tom flew back to Virginia from Hawaii to help Tiffani pack up the rest of their things and help her move to the island.  She hasn't made the move yet because she had to work for a few more weeks after Tommy left. 

They have the limit of one palet to stack their remaining boxes, wrap it up in shrink wrap/stretchy plastic wrap, and UPS will come pick it up and put it on a barge that will make its way to them in about a month.   A transport co. is also coming to pick up their car and transport it to the island-again about a month.  Oh, the stress of packing up all of their belongings that they haven't sold in the past month and praying that it actually makes it to them a world away.

They only have a couple of days to get all of this finished, but there were still a few things that they did not want to get rid of and they just couldn't take with them.  So, they drove in for a day to store the last couple of things at our house.  Even with all of Tommy's jetlag, we still found time for some fun.

I think that Tommy wants one of these!!!

Grandma Carolyn, Aunt Mimi, and JR also came over and we had a Mexican dinner feast.

Tommy took Mimi for a ride on the Rhino...

Then it was time for the WVU/Marshall game...

Good thing that Tom and Tiffani were planning to leave before the game was over!!

Tiffani brought her "Wave" for Bobby since it was his favorite play thing when we visited them. 

Since we probably won't all be together for another year, we had to take some pictures!!

Tom and Tiffani left before the rain started (and the game was delayed).  Pray that all of their travels go well.  They altered their plans a little so that they wouldn't be flying on 9-11.  Tiffani is making a pit stop in Colorado to visit her family before she lands in Hawaii., but Tom is going back to Hawaii to get to work.  Aloha!!  

Summer's Back

Since school has started and the nights are cool we haven't been in the pool for a couple of weeks.  I washed all of the beach towels and put them away for next summer.  But...

Boy it's hot outside!!!  I had to go get the beach towels out, grab Bobby's swim trunks and let him go.

He got out and said "pretzel," so we came in for snack time!!

After School Fun

We had heavy rains off and on all morning and early afternoon, but the sun eventually came out.  Everything got hot and dried out somewhat.  So, like it or not, I didn't have any reason not to take Bobby outside to play.

He got out our "Bo Peep" poles that I use to hold bird feeders.  He carried them to where he wanted them and had me stick them in the ground.  He spent a long time making sure that they were in the perfect location and walked back and forth between them making sure that their angles were just perfect.

He finally moved on to playing in the dirt. If you would have told me before he was born that I would let my child sit in the dirt and pour dirt over his head while I took pictures, I would have you....no way, no how.  Then again I said that my child would never have a trampoline-way too dangerous.  Now, we have one indoors and one out!!  Never say never.

We brushed off the dirt and he went to check out the fall decorations that I put out while he was in school.

He went out and played in the dirt some more before it was time to come in and get a bath.

Luckily for us, this all comes off with just a little soap and water!!

All clean!!