Buddy Boy and Home Depot

I love, LOVE the free kids workshops that Home Depot and Lowe's do!  Both of the kids enjoy them, but Buddy Boy in particular looks forward to it.  To see the sense of pride and accomplishment in his face after making something is something I'll never tire of:






(I personally prefer the Home Depot ones, simply because you don't have to sign up nearly 4 weeks in advance to reserve a spot...but that's just me!)

Autism and more

June 30th,  me and Eve had our 11th anniversary.   To celebrate we went as a family to Trafalga, and for lunch at KFC.   Whenever we go anywhere we try to take precaution about what to do if Buddy Boy has a meltdown.  It was 30 min away from home.  A lot of times one of us takes Buddy Boy in the car until he calms down, but it was a very hot day, and couldn't sit in the car.  We packed food and juice and an extra diaper, and headed out early to avoid the crowd.  By the time we arrived it was already hot, and crowded.  Buddy Boy started with a good attitude and was okay waiting for a little in line without causing a scene.  He was so excited to go on the rides and while on the rides was having the time of his life.  After one hour it was more crowded, and very hot and Buddy Boy wanted to still have fun but with no one there to interrupt, or make him have to wait in line.  After the first hour he started to have meltdowns, so we went to lunch.  Whenever we take him out to eat we try to go somewhere that is not very crowded,  unfortunately this time KFC was crowded, and a kid sat down at a table next to ours and this caused another meltdown.   We decided to go back for some more torture, and meltdowns persisted.   One time I turned my eye on him for only a second and he ran up to a toddler and shoved him down to the ground.  It was embarrassing explaining it to the tot's mother. We were all exhausted and came home and took a nap.   Buddy boy is a generally happy boy.  While he is home he finds things to entertain him, and very seldom has a meltdown while we are home.  Whenever there is the time to go somewhere, library, gas station, grocery store, park, or any place in general with people, I think, "should I take Buddy Boy, he will probably be miserable, and there is a 50% chance he will cause some sort of a scene."  But then the thought comes to my mind that he needs to experience the world and so most of the time I take him.  Sometimes he does great, and others not so great.  When taking him places he gets very excited to go and wants to explore the world.  The only problem is it has to be under guide lines, and conditions.  At the store he used to want to run up and down and touch everything, and play with everything.  He has since learned he cannot do that.  As Buddy Boy continues to grow, hopefully he will learn some more social rules of how society works, and hopefully I will continue to take him with me to "experience the world."   ~Clay

This one he is at a park and there was some animals to pet.

Wii Redbox Rental

Yesterday I decided to take advantage of Redbox's summer $0.50 discount on Wednesdays and get a wii game.  Munchkin really wanted to get Michael Jackson:  The Experience.  As you can see, the kids had a good time with it.  So did I, although I made absolutely sure that NO videos were made of me butchering the poor dance moves.



PS. In the meantime, I've posted a ton of new family videos on Youtube if you want to check them out. Here are a few links:

http://youtu.be/IOilKUzfDlg

http://youtu.be/qsi5PX9djvk

http://youtu.be/aCAJUKw9no4

http://youtu.be/oLumlWWAU3g

http://youtu.be/Tw_nhsjwePk

Family Gets Together

Nate and Mae moved back, and Reggie came to visit so we wasted no time and laid sod in Janice's backyard.  The kids had a blast playing with each other, and catching up on missed time.  It took three full days of hard work.  Everyone pitched in including the kids (even though they got paid for their effort).  A tractor was rented to clear out the weeds, Eve and Mae were the experts running it.   Nate had a tiller that had its work cut out for it.   There were about 8 stumps that were all removed except for the biggest one, it will have to wait.   Even though it was a lot of work it was great seeing the family back together.

Before we started. 

  The finished product.

Family Fun Fair

We had the chance to go to the Family Fun Fair in Salt Lake, put together by Westminster College students for children with autism and their families.  It was one of the only sunny days we had in May, so the timing was perfect.  Clay was asked to do an interview for the local channel 2 news, and we all got a kick out of watching him talk and seeing ourselves on tv. 

The kids had SO much fun!

Can you tell how much Buddy Boy hates looking in the direction of the sun? 

These guys had all sorts of great stuff.  The kids made superhero masks, made huge bubbles, did sensory-integration activities like shaving cream and a dark glow room, and decorated t-shirts.  Buddy Boy saw a bunch of classmates and that made him pretty darn happy.  Afterwards, Clay was exhausted.  He hasn't been out in the sun for 9 months after all, and it's probably what drained him completely! :-)

More Trampoline Pics

Oh my gosh, my kids love the trampoline.  It was seriously one of the best investments we've ever made.  The only problem is that they don't like bouncing without Clay or I, and frankly, we're not as "bouncy" as we used to be. 

Thankfully there are many neighborhood kids who are extremely happy to jump with them.

Silly kids.

And then, of course, we love the spring flowers.  Why did we think we could take artistic and I don't know, NICE pictures of the family with our PHONE cameras?? Lazy little leeches that we are.  We couldn't possibly walk into the house to get the REAL camera.

Ah well, it's the thought that counts, right?  Sadly, in this case, probably not.