Scare at the park

Today was a sunny, cool day. I was VERY tired....we all went trick or treating last night and on the way to my aunt's house Thomas started falling asleep. He told us he wanted to go home and go to sleep (it was 645pm) ~ he still doesnt have all of his energy back from before he was sick.

We stopped home ~Thomas took a quick bath, pj's, books and he fell asleep...FAST! Jim stayed home and Jonathan and I went out to my Aunt's. While we were there somone reminded me to turn my clocks back and that we get an extra hour to sleep. I thought to myself...not me! Boy, was I right!
Jonathan and I got home around 11. He took a quick shower, pj's than right to bed. I didnt get to bed till after midnite (actually 1am). 5:15am I had quite an awakening ~ a wide eyed toddler came running into the bedroom and jumped right on me. Whew... there was no getting him back to sleep. That was it...we were UP!

We did alot of running around yesterday let alone all the trick or treating we did so today was kind of a lazy day. Mid afternoon the boys were getting bored so I took them up to the park ~ there is a nice path with exercise "stops" along the way. I wanted to stay away from the actual park area (swings/slides,etc) ~ I could telll when we drove past that it was a swamp, so I parked on the other side closer to the path. Halfway through the path Thomas took one look at the swings and wanted to go. I tried explaining to him that it was way too wet and muddy ~ he didnt care. He started running through the field (I should say swamp) and Jonathan and I started running after him. All of a sudden he stopped ~ looked back at us and started laughing. I could see one of his ears was falling off and I was calling for him to stop so I could fix it. Nope ~ he started shaking his head (in a "no" way) and there goes one CI...flying off of his head. I yelled "Thomas stop..stop shaking your head"....nope ~ he purposely shook it one last time and the 2nd CI goes flying off. I told Jonathan to stop where he was and I continued to chase after Thomas ~ he slid in a mud puddle so I was able to catch up to him. I picked him up and carried him like a football back to where Jonathan was.

Jonathan and I searched for almost a half hour walking up and down through the grass/water and SOOOOO many leaves. Two beige processors are very hard to find among all the fallen leaves. After about 10 minutes I found one, stuck it back on Thomas' ear and told him to stand in one place and not move. He knew I wasnt happy. Thankfully, Jonathan found the other processor ~ sans battery compartment. Oh well, I was SOOOOOO very thankful and relieved that we found both processors I wasnt worried about looking for the battery cage.

I can only imagine what we looked like walking back to the car. Our tennis shoes were drenched and muddy and our pants were full of mud spatters ~ Thomas was full of mud since he had taken a tumble on his run. We went through all of my wipes trying to get Thomas clean ~ so he drove home in his car seat with just his sweatershirt on, he was afraid someone would see him in his undies ~ so he took his coat off and laid it on his lap.

We have never had this happen to us before ~ we have had the occasional lost processor in the house although my sister in law did have a lost processor episode (I wrote about it here)but never both at the same time and in such an insanely hard place to find it (them) ~those leaves made perfect camoflauge. I hope that this never happens to us again~

T is for Thomas

Whew..I haven't posted in awhile. Things have been kind of hectic around here ~ too much to get into now!
Yesterday was such a beautiful day. End of October and it was almost 75 ~ a rare treat here. Of course, this morning its chilly, rainy and cloudy ~ ugh! I wish the nice weather would have stayed for Halloween ~ oh well!
Anyway...yesterday we were playing outside ~ football, tag, bubbles, chalk, etc. It was starting to get dark so we cleaned up. While we were cleaning up Thomas says " Mom, T is for Thomas". I said "Good Job, Buddy ~ You're right ~ T is for Thomas" ( I went on to say it was the first letter of his name, blah blah blah....I don't think he was listening).
Than he says "Look Mom.... a T" I looked over at the driveway and saw a perfect "T" written with chalk. I looked over Jonathan ~ " did you write that?" "No, Mom..I did it" said Thomas! Jonathan agreed...It wasn't me Mom, it must have been Thomas.
We walked right up to the "T" and I pointed at it and asked Thomas what it was "Its T for Thomas". I was so excited!!! YEAH......my little guys first letter ~ we all celebrated and clapped and I told Thomas I was so proud of him. He had the biggest smile on his face...what a great moment.
I completely forgot to run back outside and take a picture of it....we were getting ready for bed and reading stories...by the time I remembered to go back out with the camera it had started raining and the "T" was washed away! Oh well, it was still an exciting moment ~ I'll have him draw it again in his book!!

A few of my favorite pictures

At the county fair ~ the boys were able to pet a baby cow ~ she was born that morning.

This is when Thomas wanted to be a vampire for Halloween ~ he has since changed his mind...a few times!

Who knew the smallest thing could make kids SOOO happy. Both of them were ecstatic about making sand art.

Told you..he was happy!

This picture scares me. We were at the store looking for a new bike for Jonathan. Thomas wanted us to buy him this bike ~

Happy Birthday Baba!!! Myself and Thomas with Baba at her birthday party

The night before this pic was taken the boys were goofing around and Thomas got a teeny scratch below his eye. I put some neosporin on it before school with assurance that a band aid would be waiting for him upon pick up after school. I forgot to bring a small band aid from home..this was the smallest one I had in my purse. We came home, ate lunch, he didn't want to play outside ~ he wanted to watch some tv ~ a few minutes later this is how I found him! Too cute!

Baba and Thomas getting ready to bake

Birthdays, Waterparks and FUN!

basketball pool

Thomas was SOOO tired in this picture ~ it didn't stop him though

Thomas and Jonathan having fun

Good Times

Thomas telling me that he DOES NOT want to eat "yunch" he wants to go back swimming

We have been busy these past few weeks. Along with our regular routine of school and therapy we celebrated my Baba's (my Grandma) Birthday, had fun at the waterpark and had a great family party for Baba.

Jim and I had planned a trip to Kalahari last month ~ just the 4 of us. I told my brother about it and he said it sounded like fun...long story short ~ after a few phone calls there were 10 of us going. The Friday before we left Jim got called into work so he wasn't able to go but the rest of were ready to go swimming. It had been a few years since we were all able to get together and go away (even if it was for only 1night). We all had SOOOO much fun. I havent laughed that hard and that much in a long time. It was a much needed getaway for all of us.

In the past I have blogged about my hesitance with taking Thomas to waterparks ~ where he doesn't have access to his "ears" at ALL times and he can get so distracted that he can't see me signing or when he knows I'm signing he will do anything in his power to NOT look at me, my hands or my mouth. This kid is good at it!!! There were a few times when we had some screaming (Thomas ~ not me...lol) the temper came out when Thomas wanted to stay in the kids area and it was either time to go eat lunch, take a break or pretty much anytime he wanted to go there and we didn't immediately take him. We spent time in the pool playing basketball (I love that both of my brothers are tall enough to hold Thomas up so that he can get the basketball in the hoop), spent time on the lazy river, had fun in the wave pool and of course, spent more than enough time in the kiddie area (where Thomas must have went down the slides at least 200 times).

My little construction guy

Last month I was at Lowes and on my way out I noticed a sign that said "Build and Grow" ~ I was running late so when I got home I looked online and found out that Lowes has these clinics where they have children build different things ~ it looked pretty cool so I signed Jonathan up (online it recommended the clinics for 1st-5th graders).

I had prepped Thomas before we left, telling him that he was too young to make his own drum but that we could help Jonathan build his. We arrived a few minutes early so I signed Jonathan in and the associate asked if I wanted "the little guy" to make a drum ~ I said "Really? He isn't too young?" she said "Nope" and handed me another permission slip and a drum kit/apron/safety goggles and hammer.

The boys had the most fun building their drums. Let me tell you ~ it was a great language opportunity, too! We had such a great time that as soon as we got home I signed them up for the fire truck clinic (Lowes has these every 2wks).

This past Saturday was fire truck building and the room was filled to capacity. The 3 of us were squished into a corner and had very little room to build. Since we had limited workspace we laid out one set of directions...I read them and helped the boys build. The previous building experience was great ~ not many people...we had a lot of space to lay our materials out and we were able to take our time. Not so much this time ~I didn't mind though..we still had fun. Let's just say that when we got home I had to take both trucks apart and put them back together again. I put Thomas' sides on wrong , poor Jonathan followed my lead (I was reading the blue prints, just didn't read them correctly...lol). As he was tapping the nails into his 2nd side he asked me if I thought this was the correct way ~ I looked over at his and said "no, I did it wrong, you are right Jonathan". Thomas chimed in with "you are wrong, Mom? Oh no, that's OK, you tried"

If you have a Lowes around you I highly recommend checking out the Build and Grow clinics!

First few days of school

I LOVE School

I had just picked him up...we saved his Super Star sticker...he kept telling us "I'm a tupa tar"

My boys ready to leave for school

Let's go Mom

Whew..i have calmed down after the whole Tuesday morning fiasco. Its amazing what a difference 24hrs can make ~ lol! Wednesday morning it was much more relaxed and routine...very nice. Instead of getting to school too early (don't want to get yelled at...although I haven't seen that guy again) we stop at the park and talk for a little bit. Yesterday morning the high school marching band was practicing... so we sat and watched and listened to them for a few minutes.

Thomas loves school. He has already made a few friends and I love to talk to him about school. He has so much to say ~ he tells me what they did, what friends he played with, he told me that on the 1st day of school a little girl cried because she missed her Dad ~ and when she started crying it made him sad!

One of my concerns with him being in a special ed classroom came up today. I am not going to elaborate....right now...but if it continues it may become an issue. It has to do with my concern of Thomas picking up other's "habits". I'm hoping what happened today is just a one time thing.

Another thing, Thomas has been coming home tired but WILL NOT take a nap. UGH! He fell asleep yesterday while we were waiting for Jonathan to get to the bus stop..that 15minutes nap is all Thomas needed to re-energize him ~ he was up until 9pm (he's usually in bed by 7). I had to wake him up this morning and he was NOT happy. I'm trying my hardest to keep him up now (its way too late for nap now) I'm hoping he'll be in bed around 6pm today!

Ticked

I dropped Jonathan off at school at 8:10am. We were at Thomas' school by 8:15. I saw a few vans waiting...I thought even though its early I'll get in line, park and wait. I brought the video camera so I could record how excited he was.
I pulled in..a woman came up and asked if I was a parent or bus (really? I'm driving a mini van with 1 kid in it) I told her a parent and this guy starts ranting how parents should get here at 830....busses at 820...take him today but that's it.
The lady opens the van door ~ I get out to unbuckle him and she tells me to let him out her side..she takes the bag full of supplies and takes Thomas right out of the car....
I wasnt able to say Goodbye....
I wasnt able to say Have a good day....
I wasnt able to tell him "I Love You"...

Needless to say I am PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW!!! It may sound dramatic but this is a pretty big day...I have so many pictures of Jonathan's first day(s) of school ~ I have a few of Thomas in front of the house...none at school.
I go pick him up in a few hours. You bet your @$$ I'm parking and walking up to get him. Tomorrow..I'm parking and walking him in, too!
They obviously had no idea how to handle this new procedure. They did NO run through....it is going to be complete chaos at dismissal. School is supposed to start at 830...I can bet that parents were still waiting in line at 830 to drop their kids off. UGH!
I hope Thomas is having fun. I'm sitting here thinking of that woman taking him from the van and him trying to turn around to see me while she yanked him in to the building. That will NOT happen again!