Yesterday was Pajama day at Keaton’s preschool. He was pretty excited about it. He has been anxious all week to get to school and wear his “Ja-Jamas”. He wore his car pajamas because he says they are his favorite (and they are new, so they aren’t stained and gross). He also insisted on wearing the train slippers he got for Christmas. He looked so darn cute waiting to leave for school, I had to take pictures.
For two and a half years Gavin has had to trace his name when he goes to school. Every day for the two and a half years his teachers have had to fight him on it. They’ve heard every excuse in the book on why he won’t write him name…er…trace his name. Really by Gavin’s age he should have the fine motor skills down to write. But a lot of kids with Autism have poor fine motor skills. Gavin is just the norm.
Recently it has gotten even harder to get him to trace or attempt to write his name. He becomes angry and is often rude when he is asked to do it. I decided to take matters into my own hands. We’ve always pushed him to try to write. But never as hard as I have pushed him this week. At first he was a little jerk about it. He ended up having to go to bed early twice in a row because he flat out refused to write. I started out small too, just trying to get him to practice letters in his name. I made him practice twice a day and his reward was having computer time, and his punishment was sitting on his bed. On the third day he finally realized it paid to just do the 15 minutes of handwritting. On the forth day he actually started enjoying it. And the rest is history.
He struggle a little with curve on the C and G, and he writes his C’s backwards, and S’s are a huge struggle. But other than that he can pretty much write every letter in the alphabet legibly.I am so proud of him. He writes like he has been doing it for years. I am just so relieved that he is finally doing it. Its one more thing we can check on the list to him becoming a normal every day kid. Now he just needs to learn to pedal a bike and I think he will officially be kick ass.
Gavin and Keaton have been attending a creative dance class since August. Neither of them learned very many dance moves because neither one of them is very coordinated, hell they’ve got us for parents. Gavin did however learn not to talk out of turn. By the last class he barely even mentioned Visual Basic and what a damn fine product it is. Keaton may not be the best mover in the class but he sure is the best listener. He would often times tell other kids, including Gavin, to shush. They both had a great time learning different movements and to follow directions though.
They had there final performance on Saturday and they both did so well! Despite Gavin never being able to stop thinking about computers even for a second (during dress rehearsal he stood on the stage with a blank stare most likely thinking about programing). And poor Keaton with a horrible bum rash thanks to a bad case of diarrhea (poor kid was limping around at his dress rehearsal). Here’s a little video to prove it!
So I am a little late posting this. Between the dentist, parent teacher conference, the boys crazy week of dance, dance, dance, and tummy issues for some of us, its been hectic.
Gavin and Keaton got this fun tent set last Christmas from their G&G Bosko. It used to be a permanant fixture in Keaton’s room until he decided to pee in it. After a lot of clorox wipes I decided to retire it to the closet. Well the other day I the boys were trying to make a tent out of a blanket and it wasn’t going well. I remembered the tent that was tucked away and I thought it might be time to pull it out (seeing that Keaton is now potty trained). The boys were thrilled and spent the next hour on a “webkinz ‘venture” to go camping in Colorado (or Alfredo as its known by Gavin). I just heart their imaginations.
(click photo to view larger)
In my opinion, Childhood is captured more beautifully in Black and white.
My friend Shanda decided she wanted to do a 52 photo project. Just capturing memories of her kids for 52 weeks. I of course have to copy her cause that is a great idea. I thought it might be a good way to bring back Foto Friday’s too.
Without further ado I give you week one:
If you haven’t heard, Webkinz are all the craze over here at the Grotegut’s. Over the passed year my kids have managed to collect about 30 webkinz between the two of them. Every night before bed I can hear them upstairs roll playing with all their webkinz. Usually its that they’ve opened a store, movie theater, restaurant, or dance studio that you can only get into if you’ve got the “W” on your paw. They take their none webkinz stuffed animals and jail them if they try to sneak in. Apparently we’re raising kids who are racist against stuffed toys.
Gavin and his beloved Chloe.
Keaton and Flowey, his first and favorite webkinz.
My Keaton has this hair. Its my favorite kind of hair. Its blond, and soft, and long, and shaggy in all the right places. I have literally swooned over how perfect his hair is. The only problem with it is that is grows faster than John’s back hair. It gets long, and then it won’t lay flat, and he constantly looks like Einstein. This is the tail end of the “Keaty B. perfect hair schedule”. The schedule works like this:
Rinse and Repeat
This time I took initiative. I broke the cycle. I sat him down and decided I would just “trim” it a bit. Thirty-Seven minutes later I realize that I have only heard the word “blend” but I have no idea how to make it a reality. I finally give up because Keaton is screaming about how itchy his back is. I convince myself it doesn’t look that bad.
Oy, it is that bad. Oh but that face, that perfect little face. It makes up for it. In a few weeks it will be perfect again. For now I will just put him in hats.
A couple of days ago my friend Shanda was keeping me company while I searched through the filth that is my childrens room to find Gavin’s lost glasses. She clipped this little tie onto Gavin’s favorite stuffed Kitty named Chloe. She told Gavin to come over and look how funny Chloe looked. He took one look at him and said “Why do you look like Barack Obama, Chloe?”!
Apparently the only person my son has seen in a tie is the President. That says a lot about our lifestyle.
Mr. Chloe Obama
Winter in Utah is relentless. I enjoy it up until December 26th. After that, you will hear me do nothing but bitch and moan until spring. My kids are worse. They don’t even enjoy Christmas snow. Any time they get snow on their shoes or feel even the tiniest bite of the cold, they cry like babies. They don’t like to play in the snow like normal kids, either. When I was their age I loved to get bundled up and go out and play. Not the Bosko/Grotegut offspring. No way! At least they are willing to walk in it this year. Last year I had to carry them everywhere.
I need to move somewhere tropical.
Don’t let his smile fool you. He was whining the entire time.
Why are you taking my picture and not taking me some place warm?
Keaton spent most of this afternoon wearing an old pair of Gavin’s glasses. I had to physically force them off his face when he wouldn’t listen to reason. When I did finally manage to pry them off of him, I noticed he was cross eyed for a full 30 seconds afterwords. Keaton was not happy at all with my ever cruel decision to hide his “glassies”. There was a lot of crying and carrying on, and a couple of “I CAN’T seeeeee, I need my GLASSIES” thrown in for effect.
Years from now he will be explaining to Maury Povich just how horrible his mom was for not allowing him to destroy his eye site with prescription eyeglasses.
In a weak moment while in the furthest depths of potty training Hell. I may have inadvertently promised Gavin that he could make a movie every day if he would just stop pooping his pants. Well, it took sixteen LONG months, but he’s been potty trained for an entire month now. Today I had to make good on my promise and let him make a video. He and Keaton opened a McKinz (McDonald’s for webkinz) and used the front window as a drive up window. I would post the video but he decided to go through and delete them all. I have no idea why, other than he could.
Now time to track down the flip and hide it, and maybe he will forget my promise?
