School Days

Today is the first day of school for lots of kids. My nephew, Ian, is probably coming home from his first day of Kindergarten as I write this, and I can't wait to hear how the day went! I know he's going to do great!

A couple of weeks ago, we started home schooling Caleb. It's sort of a trial year. He's too young to start Kindergarten in public school, but he's ready to learn, so we decided to try it. Home schooling appeals to us for many reasons for both our kids, but we will just see how this year goes! If we get bogged down and don't enjoy it, well then, off to Kinder he'll go next year. But, if he loves it and learns--and if I love it!--then we just might keep it up. We shall see, and I make no promises either way.

We have met a great group of home schoolers in the area. They meet weekly for group classes, and sporadically for field trips and other events. The ages range from Kinder to Senior year, and there are around 50 kids who participate.

The group classes do not start until September, but I decided to start Caleb's home classes early, since I would like to take off a few weeks when the baby is born.

The Saturday before we started school, a local restaurant had a Back to School Bash, complete with a bounce house, a fire truck for Caleb to explore (and honk the horn!), and face painting! He and I spent the day picking out a few final school supplies and going to the library for books. And don't forget a Sonic run during happy hour! All in all, it was a great day to celebrate starting school. I didn't get pics until we got home, but here he is with his dragon and his new dinosaur backpack.

I had fun getting everything organized for school. It's all neatly stacked inside a cabinet by our dining room table (aka: school room). Every day it's a simple task to take out what we need, and then put it back at the end of class time!

On Sunday night, I laid out everything we would need for Monday. Now that we've done this for two weeks, I have figured out just what to pull out when I need it, instead of getting it all out at first.

Yes, I realize the calendar says September...now. It occurred to me in the middle of the night that Sunday night, and I fixed it before school the next day.

Jon and I also strung up a few streamers to the fan, blew up a couple of balloons, and wrapped Caleb's chair. It looks pretty unimpressive to me, but Caleb was ecstatic the next morning. I hope he's always so easy to please!

Caleb wanted to wear his crown to mark the occasion. (And you'll notice the corrected calendar.)

We are starting our third week of class today, and so far it has gone very well. On day 2, Caleb asked, "Do we really have to have school today??" I was a little surprised by that, but I suppose for a kid who hasn't had any daily requirements of him, doing something two days in a row (and longer), might seem a little tedious. But he's doing a good job, and has learned about the sun and the moon, counting, cutting, pasting, and handwriting.

Today, when I told Caleb we would be making a mobile today, he said, "But I don't want to make a mobile!" Without explaining what it was, I simply said, "You will love it. It's right up your alley."

After doing the work we do every day (marking the calendar, adding to our 100 Chart, and tracking our progress on making raisins), he said, "Is it time to go to my alley, yet?"

And sure enough, he loved making a mobile, and even added a few ideas of his own.

So far, I love the flexibility we have. I love that he is able to do most of his work before breakfast, then complete some worksheets while he is at Hope Landing with James. I love that. I love the hands-on and outdoor activities that are incorporated into the lessons. I don't love the negative attitude that Caleb sometimes has about it, even though once he gets started, he really enjoys it. Then again, I've mentioned before that "attitude" has been a problem with him lately, so it's not confined to school.

Anyway, our big FIRST of starting Kindergarten has come and gone without any more fanfare than a couple blown-up balloons taped to a chair. Because we're not fully decided, and Caleb could be doing Kindergarten in public school next year, and because I wasn't leaving Caleb at the door with a dozen other little boys and girls, it just hasn't been that different. But it's still a mile marker! And I am excited about it, and about watching Caleb learn and grow this year!

Boy Builders

I love watching the boys build. Here is one of Caleb's many buildings:

Does anyone notice anything about it? As in...it's perfectly symmetrical?!

He does this with EVERY building he makes these days. Every color and block shape exactly mirrored. Have your kids gone through a symmetrical phase? Since he's our first, we really don't have anything but him to go by (which is why we think he's pretty awesome).

I've thought this boy had good sense of design...and symmetry is very good design. Maybe he'll be an architect. Or maybe he'll be an ice cream truck driver, which is his current idea. That and a pirate king.

James has finally gotten past the "knock it down" stage...at least long enough to build it first! If he's not building up, he's placing blocks in a long line like a train. I've recently found cars lined up, dinosaurs in a row, a magnet queue on the fridge...evidently both my boys love order!

The face of concentration

It's always a good time to say, "Cheese!"

Working hard

Surveying his work...

CRASH! The best part is still knocking it down!

Valentine's Day

This year was our first time ever to be a part of a Valentine's Day party. We have recently been a part of a playgroup, and it has been so much fun. That playgroup got together for a Valentine's pizza party, and almost everyone was able to attend...which added up to 20 kids or more! It was a bit chaotic, but the boys had a great time. I think the best part was the anticipation of it.

We were only supposed to wrap the Valentine's box, and then decorate it at the party, but Caleb was very anxious to use the stickers we bought for decorating.

Caleb's car is #1, the biggest and fastest!

Switching gears...to sock monkeys!

Taking his time to find just the right sticker.

 We also attempted a homemade Valentine, which I confess it did not even occur to me that boxed Valentines even existed until we'd gotten all the supplies for this fun craft. I also gotta tell you, I loved it! Sometimes (a lot of times) I convince myself that my life just has too much in it to take time for creativity, and I forget that creativity often makes me a better, happier person! I was quite happy cutting and pasting on Tuesday night.

Following the template from the Family Fun magazine.

Yep, it was a mess!

The clothes pins are holding everything in place while it all dries.

All done and stacked into a box, ready to distribute. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see it so neatly packed in! Seriously.

"You're fan-tastic! Love, Caleb & James"

Tada! It opens up to a heart fan! The kids thought it was so fun at the party!

My two boys, at Hope Landing on the morning of the party.

At the pizza place for lunch. Someone's excited about all the goings-on!

James is ready for food!

"Take a picture of the bubbles, Mommy!"

James checking out the pizza.

Caleb dives in

And so does James! This is huge for James to try pizza!

He only ate about four bites, but I was so proud of him!

Caleb passes out his fan to one of his favorite friends, Lilah.

Dropping it in Lucas's box.

We came home with quite a box of goodies!

To top it off, Caleb enjoyed cupcakes and passing out the last of his Valentine's at Awana on Wednesday night. I don't think he even realized we'd been celebrating a day early, but he didn't care. I didn't either. It was a lot of fun.

James Walks the Dog

James is working with a new therapist at Hope Landing. Her name is Lucy. She wears a bandana to work every day, sleeps in the corner when she's not with a client, and she loves dog treats. She's a beautiful Lab mix, owned by another of James's therapists, Suzanne.

At their first official meeting, James was fairly nonplussed by Lucy. He had seen her at a campout before (and thoroughly broke her in by screaming his excitement in her face), and apparently books were more interesting on this particular day. Later, however, he got a chance to walk her down the hallway. Gena (his OT) held one hand, and he held Lucy's leash in the other. Usually, his one-handed walking is fairly wobbly, but I loved watching him walk with such confidence!

He's taking more independent steps each day. Last week, we recorded 9 steps in a row in Physical Therapy with Sam, and he repeated it several times! This week, we've been laid up with sickness, and James has been particularly pitiful about walking, but even then, he's been more daring about taking his own steps. It's fun to see!

Oh, see, you say? (Oh say, can you see?) Here's a little video of James walking the dog!

Milestones

I had just turned off the water in the shower and wrapped my hair in a towel this morning when I heard, "Lydia, come see this!"

I have a general rule to never leave a warm bathroom while I'm still wet, so I started drying off. A more insistent, "Come quick, you're going to miss it!" had me wrapping the towel around me and slipping down the hallway on wet feet.

James had a milestone yesterday--taking five steps while only holding on with one hand--so I wondered what he was doing this morning! As I slid into the living room, I saw James clumsily, yet happily, swinging a light saber toward his Daddy, who was gently tapping his own light saber on James's.

"Look! We're sword fighting!"

As I stood there cold and wet in my towel, I had to laugh at a dad's definition of important events in a son's life.


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Speaking of milestones, James and I are about to attempt a biggie: potty training.

Before you tell me how crazy I am, I kinda know. But do you also remember I took on potty training with Caleb at 18 months? It wasn't really the route I'd recommend, and we had a LOT of frustrations, but it worked out in the end, and evidently I'm a glutton for punishment.

Kids with Down syndrome don't typically potty train at 2...or 3...or maybe even 4 years of age. Low muscle tone effects every part of their bodies, including bladders...and the ability to control them!

But...let me just give you the reasoning.

• It's been a general rule with James that it will take him longer to learn things, so let's start early. I'm applying that rule to potty training.
• James has been very successful going peepee in the potty, seemingly on purpose.
• His nighttime diapers, while not dry, are definitely less wet than they used to be.
• His daytime diapers, he can keep dry for long periods of time, and then whoosh! it all comes at once. 
• He can already sign "potty." When I ask if he needs to go potty, he either gives me the sign as an affirmative, or he shakes his head.

These are all very good signs for potty training, and I don't want to miss an opportunity and end up inadvertently training him to ignore the signs and just go potty whenever, which is basically what I'm doing when I continue to let him wear a diaper.

SO...up went the rugs, off came the diapers, and out came the training undies (thanks, mom!). And yes, the frog potty is back out. When Jon saw it, he sighed, "I wasn't ready to see that again." I kind of agree, but parenting--it turns out--is not about what we parents want. Not sure the kids believe that, yet....or us, for that matter.

As I re-read my daily posts about Caleb's first week of potty training (check out the May 2010 posts), I was very encouraged. Some of the hurdles I'm anticipating with James were also hurdles with Caleb, and I'd forgotten that. But there are a few more these days, and we'll see how they go.

Possible Hurdles:

• James doesn't tell me when he needs to go potty, just answers "yes" or "no" when I ask.
• He doesn't seem concerned when his diaper is wet, though he doesn't like a poopy diaper
• He doesn't seem concerned when he finds himself in a puddle of pee, and just scoots out of it and moves on.
• James can't walk -- Others have mentioned this problem, but it's really not a big deal, because I carried Caleb to the potty and pulled off his shorts for him for a long time, and I can do the same for James.
• Our lives are busier. Now I have two kids and a daily out-of-the-house schedule. We can't just pause life like we had done with Caleb, and it's harder for me to give 100% attention to The One Not Potty Trained.

Wish us luck!

James is a Climber

James has learned how to climb.

For several heart-attack-inducing, goose-egg-producing weeks, he has not known how to climb back down, and simply teetered over the edge head-first. Yikes.

Thankfully, we've seen him successfully climb up and down on Caleb's small chair, the "daddy chair" rocker, and Caleb's toddler bed. Talk about the school of hard knocks!

James's current favorite thing to climb is Caleb's small chair. He has even figured out how to stand up in it.

I'm losing years off of my life here, people!

The video below is what I watched him do four or five times yesterday. Believe me that I made this video for posterity's sake, and then promptly (and sternly) got James off the table. That boy is pure second child. Where a stern "no" will stop Caleb in his tracks (most days), James will endure even worse discipline, then head right back to what he was doing.

No children were harmed in the making of this film...only a small heart attack on the mama's part.

Caleb swims!

Despite not swimming much this year, Caleb has overcome his fear in the water! The first time out, he clung to me like his life depended on it (despite the fact that he had more floatation devices on him than most boats). The second time, Grandma was very patient with him, and helped him get more used to the water. By the third time out, he was pushing me away, tell me that he could do it by himself! I'm so proud of him! Of course, he's still wrapped in floaties, but overcoming his fear was a huge step.

Piano Man

James got to participate in his first talent show tonight! Here's the video of my little man rockin' it out! He ended up dancing a lot more when he sat with me in the audience, but I think he did pretty well for his first performance!

The women with James are Allyn (left), his speech therapist, and Tricia (right), his physical therapist.

Caleb's First Movie

Caleb is a very imaginative child. It took quite awhile for us to be able to watch movies with a plot. Often he would scream at the intense parts, and we'd have to pause and explain. So we've waited awhile to see a movie on the big screen. I wanted him to see Brave, but don't think he could have handled the bear fights. But, in the summers, our theater offers a different movie every week for free to anyone who wants to come. I figured that would be our best bet, so if things got out of hand, we could leave, no money lost.

However, all the movies are geared toward older kids, so finding one appropriate for Caleb was hard. Finally, they showed Mr. Popper's Penguins this week. Not only is that a fairly mild PG, it's also a movie he'd seen before, so I knew we'd be okay. We even pre-watched it at home a week ago, just to make sure there were no surprises, like a huge penguin honking in the camera. (Okay, writing this, I sound like a paranoid parent....)

On the Big Day, I asked Caleb if he wanted to go to the movies, to which he gave me a pretty solid "no." For some reason, he was convinced he wouldn't like it. I asked him if he wanted popcorn, and he said "no." I asked if he wanted Dr Pepper (something he's only ever had a sip of), and his eyes lit up.

"I like Dr Pepper!"

Well okay, then! We'll get Dr Pepper! Then he asked if they had Diet Coke, because he liked that. (Thanks, Mom, for putting that idea in his head!)

He was still a little unsure about it on the way. Jon was unsure about the Dr Pepper. I mean, seriously, we still water down his juice and lemonade! (To be fair, that's the way Jon drinks it, too, so it's kind of normal around here, but Dr Pepper would be quite a departure.)

Not a great picture of me, but I couldn't resist that cute face!

Big boy headed inside!

Immediately on arrival, Caleb disappeared into the arcade. There weren't many people there at that moment, so I just kept an eye on the doorway as I stood in line for our popcorn and drinks. More kids arrived, and things were starting to get hectic. Caleb had not come back, despite my calling his name, so I had to go find him--sitting in the driver's seat of some arcade game. That boy has NOT learned how to stick close, yet--a product of being a minister's kid in a small church, I suppose.

Once at the counter to order our snack, I pointed out the Icee, and that's what we decided upon, a Strawberry/Coke Icee and a large popcorn. We headed to the theater, where I learned my lesson to get there early! I found a couple of open seats on the second row, and the movie started!

Caleb was in awe, I think. He gazed at the huge screen, deftly grabbing bits of popcorn without looking. Very often he would say, "Drink, please," and I would hand him the Icee, which he sucked down so quickly that I had to start taking a sip before every time I handed it to him, just to make sure I got some!

At one point, Caleb looked at me and squealed, "I love the movies!"

He giggled when all the other kids giggled, he gasped and "ew"ed. He stayed in his seat until near the end, when he asked to stand. He never got fidgety, and never wandered. When the story ended happily, he clapped with delight.

Then he turned and said, "It's time to play games!"

So we headed to arcade, and I changed a dollar for quarters...and then quickly after, another dollar for quarters.

We drove the game I'd found him on before the movie. Turns out 50 cents gets you about 50 seconds of play time, and then you have to pay more in. Perhaps good driving could earn you more time, but my husband can tell you that I am no good driver when it comes to arcade games! I'm pretty sure Caleb and I took out an airplane.

Then we moved on to The Claw games. Lost our money on the first one (big surprise), but the second was full of balls, and all the kids ahead of us were having good luck scoring them. Sadly, the top layer "easy pickin's" of balls was already gone by the time we got there, but Caleb did a good job trying.

At this point, we were out of quarters again, and I realized he had just as much fun without putting in the quarters, so we zigged and swerved on the "snowmobile" game until it was time to go. As I looked around, I found out that most of the kids were doing the same thing!

As we headed out the door, we found a large tattoo that someone had spent 50 cents on. I picked it up and asked a nearby adult if any in her passel of kids happened to lose a tattoo. She paused to look at a kid taking a fistful of tattoos out of his pocket, then looked back at us and said, "It's fine. He can keep it."

It's a diamond that says, "Lucky" on it.

Well, that tattoo was the highlight of the movies. He ran out to show his Daddy (who had taken James to therapy during our adventure, and was now coming to pick us up), and told him all about the movie and the Icee and the popcorn.

I was so grateful that I could see this "first." I enjoyed every minute of it.

When it was time for nighttime prayers, I asked Caleb if he wanted to thank God for the movies. His eyes brightened as he thought of what he wanted to thank God for.

"Dear Lord, Dear Lord, (repetition is key in his prayers lately) thank you for a great day. And I have the coolest tattoo ever. It is a diamond. Amen."

Turtle Adventures

On the way to James's therapy today, we pulled over to carry a turtle to the other side of the road. I decided to let Caleb see it before I dropped him into the grass, and then I asked, "Hey, wanna take him to Hope Landing with us?"

What 3-yr-old boy would say no??

Caleb wanted to name him...well, Caleb...but we settled on Caleb the Turtle, or C.T. for short.

C.T. was pretty traumatized by the time we got there, and C.B. (Caleb the Boy) was carrying him up-side-down, putting him in the playtent inside Hope Landing, stomping all around him...poor turtle.

We eventually got him outside, where it took awhile to get him to come out of his shell (ha ha). While we waited, we found a feisty little caterpillar who refused to be picked up. So, we decided to bring the turtle to him. We didn't know if turtles ate caterpillars, but we soon found out!



Definitely eat caterpillars!

We went inside to pick James up (who did not have nearly the fun we had!), and by the time we got back, C.T. was gone. I'm sure we'll be looking for him every time we go!

Caleb's First Real Camping Trip

Jon took some of the youth guys camping for two nights one weekend. Caleb got to go along--his first real camping trip!

Jon tells me that right after this picture, Caleb went end-over-end the rest of the way down the hill. He thought for a moment that it was the end of the adventure, and he'd be taking Caleb to the ER, but Caleb walked away from it, just fine!

I was a little nervous because it was *real* camping trip, with no bathrooms nearby or anything. But, the campsite was less than 30 minutes away, and I could come rescue Caleb if things went south.

Serious fisherman

Little Missouri River

The day before the trip, the bottom fell out of the sky and flooded the campsite. Campsite #2 was 3 hours away. Thankfully, it had a bathroom, but I let it be known that 3 hours was not too far for me to drive to come save my firstborn if needed.

Caught one!

Caleb had a blast. He caught "five trout fish!" in his words, with his little Spiderman fishing pole. He had his froggy boots on the entire time, and splashed in puddles and ate s'mores and enjoyed himself. It did rain, and the tent he and Jon were using was flooded out the first night, so they had to evacuate to another tent. And Caleb had bumps and bruises all over him when he got home, but it was worth it.

This photo makes my heart melt.

We're now scouting out a larger tent that will hold all four of us!