Winter Activities.....what to do

Our school district had teacher service days Monday and Tuesday so we've (the kids and I) had a 4 day weekend. Because we were busy in December, we've kind of been gun shy on making any plans in January so we've been staying low. But we did manage to do a few fun things that I thought a quick blog post with pics was worthy of.

For Field Trip Friday I took Princess ice skating for the first time. She's been asking since we watched it on TV a few months ago. We met some friends and had a blast. She repeated the same comment over and over the first time around the rink - "I didn't know it was going to be so slippery". I laughed how innocent their minds are and how easy things look.

pre-game

Our little Dorothy Hamilton (does that date me?)

The girls wanted to go a round by themselves (glued to the wall basically). This gave the moms a few laps on the rink by ourselves. Felt like I was in 7th grade again!

On Saturday we had a bit (or I had a bit) of "get me out of the house syndrome", so we decided to bundle up the kids and walk up to the library. Interesting with the wind and the wagon but we accomplished what we went for - books! Here are the kiddos as we wheeled back in the driveway - can you tell if someone is faking it? Who knew the library could be so exhausting for preschoolers.



And then today, our MOPS group had a fun indoor activity scheduled at a local Bounce House. Conveniently Jimmo was off from school. As you might remember from his birthday video, he loves bounces of any type. They're faces were priceless when we walked in. The desk attendant looked at me and said - this is why I love my job. It was basically a huge warehouse filled with about 10 bounce houses/slides/basketball hoops - you name it. Some of them were quite high. I didn't get to take many pictures since I was running after Jimmo most of the time, but here are a few. (thanks Renee) Hmmmm I'm seeing a future birthday party for our little tigger boy.

Dirty Socks

I remember it was about a year ago when I was folding laundry and I came across one of Jimmo's socks. It was cute and small, as you would imagine most 2 year old boy socks, but it was missing something. When the radiologist told us it was a boy, I began to prepare myself. Instead of doll houses and tea parties, this would mean cars and trucks. I could envision holes in the knees of the jeans and socks that would never be white and have holes in the toes.

As I was sitting there folding laundry I noticed my 2 year old boys socks were still very stark white, not worn and definitely no holes in the toes. This was a hard time for husband and I as we anxiously waited for Jimmo to walk, to take that first step that we have been waiting for so long. Well as you all remember, he did finally walk at the end of that March. The other night he climbed up on the couch with me and I looked down and teared up. I'm happy to report - that his socks are no longer stark white, but indeed we have DIRTY SOCKS - Praise the Lord!

This brings me to our next blog. As the New Year is upon us (well kind of), we wanted to embrace and gloat on our guys achievements. Over the past 2-3 weeks, we've seen some great things happening with Jimmo. Since he's just over three, generally that puts a Fragile X child at the cognitive level of an 18 month old. A good rule of thumb for Fragile X boys is that generally he'll develop at the cognitive level of 1/2 his age. Where this plateau's - we'll see what God has in store for us. But with that said, we're excited about signs of development the past few weeks and the advancements he made. Between a crazy Christmas with lots of company and the sickies, he still managed to pull ahead. So here is a short list of our accomplishments! As princess says - Woo Hoo!

• If Jimmo wants to watch Pooh, he sits on the couch and patiently waits. Eventually this patience turns into yelling, but he definitely tries first to be patient.


• He's carrying toys around with him and even figuring out how to get them to different levels of the house. Like throwing a truck down the stairs before he comes down on his bottom. This is one of our favorites - ha!


• He's sleeping SOOOOO much better! He's gradually letting go of his afternoon nap and now getting up anywhere from 6:30-7:30AM. This is huge for everyone! Half of us are convinced that this is because of the gluten diet, the other half - jury is still out.


• He's greeting Daddy at the door each night. We have a silly routine that he just loves. If you're lucky you'll get that on video some day. But he laughs hysterically and then bends his head in for a kiss.


• But speaking of kisses, we can get them on demand now, as long as he's in the mood. Now we're working on keeping the tongue in the mouth ;0)


• Since late October, his social skills have greatly improved. He now notices his surroundings so much better, studies faces and clearly notices when new people enter and leave the room.


• He has a good handful of receptive commands. Give Momma a Kiss, Go to School, Go to the car, Go outside, Take a bath, Brush your teeth, Give it to Momma, Sit down, Want some juice, want a snack.


• At school, he now takes his picture from the entrance of the room and brings it to his cubby(locker).


• This past week at school he voluntarily went to "centers" of his choice and sits and waits for Miss Terrific Teacher and her aides to come join him. They even tested what he would do if they didn't come and he got up and pulled their hand to the center.
  
• His teeth brushing routine has improved greatly. We started this in June and it took about 4 months to get it down and then another 2 months to hand over the toothbrush without crying. He loves his toothbrush. Watch the video below.


• And last but not least - the most exciting news. We have our FIRST WORD friends! Drumroll..........Juice. It sounds more like "uice" but we're officially calling it our first word. There are a few other words that are still under negotiation if we can "officially" call them words - stay tuned. The average child with Fragile X has a few words between 3 and 5, so we're thrilled to have one at 3 and plan to work hard these next few years!

Amazing stuff - we're very excited to see what's in store for us this year.

Watch our goofy teeth brushing routine below. You might want to lie on your side when you watch this one (wink wink). My camera man is underpaid.